Time passed by in the blink of an eye as Xing Yi trained.
The notes in his journal grew each day. The ground around the cauldron had eventually turned into a distinct black circle and the frequent explosions that boomed into the valley had caused the natural wildlife to be wary of the area.
And surprisingly, completely unrelated to his training, Xing Yi discovered how long his hair had really gotten. Looking at his reflection in the clear, calm water of the river, he noted his long black hair. It reached his shoulders and was unnaturally healthy, with no split ends and as smooth as silk in his palms.
Back in the village, some of the women would bathe their hair in rice water to take care of their hair. From his perspective, Xing Yi saw no difference between their hair and those of the other women in the village. But it was only because of how much the women gossiped about beauty and one other occasion that he noticed this about his hair.
On this one occasion, one of the daughters of their reigning lord had visited the village and her hair was so healthy that all the women of the village were praising her for it and wouldn’t stop pestering her how she got it to look so shiny and healthy. Apparently, what she used to make her hair like that had been really expensive so the women of the village could only be content with their current methods.
Other than that, his hair had never been long. Every few months his mother would cut his hair really short and it was only after being apart from his family for so long that it had been able to grow so long. He hadn’t really paid it attention and would slick his hair back after washing it. After about half an hour, it would naturally form a middle part.
Judging his appearance, he felt that he looked a bit like a girl. Not a very pretty one though. He still had tanned skin, not the perfect white skin that was coveted by so many women. IN the end, all that mattered to him at this point in time was cultivation.
He didn’t like being blatant or over-showy, but he reckoned that if he further progressed in his cultivation and strength that he could beat any mortal man in a fight with his eyes closed. Surely that would attract some pretty ladies? Didn’t they like strong men? At least that’s what his older brothers had told him.
Ah well.
Ruffling his hair and taking one last look at himself, he picked up the four buckets he had filled up-with two in each hand- and made his trek up the mountain.
And once again, his routine commenced. It was not long after that an explosion sounded out, scaring all the nearby wildlife and Xing Yi walked out with a massive smile on his face.
“Yes! I finally got it,” Xing Yi celebrated.
He had finally grasped it.
It took a little bit. A second at most.
The explosion didn’t just happen instantaneously.
Both earthly and heavenly pill refining were like yin and yang. Heavenly pill refining was gentle, flowing, slow, mysterious, and elusive. However, earthly pill refining was aggressive, direct, fast, and solid.
He could not be gently weaving his qi throughout the energies to combine them. No, he had to continually smash them together again and again in a tight chain reaction. To do this, he had to have reached the Penetration Realm, the first of several stages of mastery in the Earthly Refining Art.
It basically meant he could interact with the energies inside the cauldron without them immediately blowing up in his face. The term for the energies of the boiled ingredients of the spiritual herbs was the Plane of Convergence. There were other fancy terms for it but the most common and agreed upon one was the Plane of Convergence.
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To reach this realm, he had to learn to weave his qi in such a way that it would penetrate into the energies and not merely press into it. Frightened by the harsh, dominating nature of his inner qi, the Plane of Convergence would explode. It was a process that had taken him over a thousand attempts over the course of two and a half-some months.
One-thousand and seventeen to be exact.
When this number resounded in Xing Yi’s mind, he couldn’t help but be proud of what he had done. It had taken him a while but now having acquired the Penetration Realm, he could now start to begin the actual pill refinement process. But one thing was certain, the sound of his cauldron exploding would forever be ingrained inside his mind.
Xing Yi couldn’t wait until he started refining pills, which he knew was not too far away at this point. Then, he could consume some of what he made and progress his cultivation. With the regular consumption of pills, it would only take a few short months instead of years to reach the next layer.
Not only that, he would also sell some of the pills he had created to the Paragon Emporium and then in turn buy more ingredients for more pills than he did last time. This would create a positive feedback loop leading to more pills, more spirit stones, and his cultivation to continue to progress faster and faster.
Pill refiners were the only cultivators whose cultivation never stalled. They would only be stopped at crucial bottlenecks that required them to experience the world or attain enlightenment. And unless he encountered one, Xing Yi’s cultivation would continue to progress at a fast pace, rivalling that of a genius.
So, as Xing Yi renewed his efforts to embark on a new part of his journey, taking pen to paper to journal, it was completely unbeknownst to him that two cloaked figures were hiding away in the nearby forest.
Covered in an illusory rainbow light, the two cloaked figures spied on Xing Yi with their spiritual sense. They stood their in silence for some time until one of them seemed to be finished with holding up something close to their mouth.
“Ok, she’s ready!” A female voice cheered as they lifted up a butterfly into the air.
The other cloaked figure sighed and had a male voice as they replied, “Finally, now can we go?”
“Of course, but let’s make sure the butterfly works before we go. Ok?” The other perosn replied.
The male-voice cloaked figure nodded in response.
Flapping its small wings through the air, it travelled through the air, through a slit in the roof, through the hallway, and onto the book XIng Yi was currently writing. He was halfway down a page when he noticed the butterfly. It had purple wings, small black limbs and mesmerising green eyes.
He only looked at it for a brief moment before raising an eyebrow and shooing it away. At least that is what he tried to do. Instead, he stood up and stiffly walked out of his room and out the door.
What am I doing!
Xing Yi screamed inside his mind as he watched his limbs move.
And out of the bottom of his vision, he saw the butterfly comfortably sitting upon his shoulder. Xing Yi’s mind was in chaos as he desperately tried to reach out to his body and take back control but it was as if all his bodily sensations had suddenly been robbed of him. He couldn’t feel a single thing!
Watching this unfold from a distance, the two cloaked figures were satisfied with the results.
However, the male-voiced cloaked figure voiced his concerns, “That kid couldn’t even retaliate. What was he supposed to do again?”
The other person replied and when he heard what it was, his fear fo the other person only grew. And as the pair of cloaked figures left, Xing Yi’s body began to pick up the pace and began to jog. The strangeness of this situation and lack of control over his body left him completely terrified and wondering what was going to happen to him.
Hours passed as his animated body, under the control of the butterfly on his shoulder, traversed the mountain range. And eventually, he found himself running up a familiar mountain. Trekking up the soiled mountain path, his cloth-bound feet carrying him up with each step, he reached the top after a twenty-minute hike.
When he was there, he saw a large stone-paved arena with crowds of cutlviators floating through the air, some sitting upon tall wooden beams,a few lounging upon white clouds, and in nine black thrones all around were the mighty core formation elders.