UGB Chapter 31 Trial of the Law
Chapter 31 Trial of the Law
Over the next few days, Chen Bai lived a fairly regular life, getting up at dawn every day to circulate his energy and restore his spiritual energy.
The spiritual energy that had been drained from his dantian began to slowly recover that very day, and by the third day, it had recovered about 70%.
Lingya Xiaoliu curled up in the corner of his dantian, the blue flames on his body growing brighter day by day.
By the fifth day, it was able to jump around and twirl around its own tail feathers in its dantian again.
Each time he circulated his spiritual energy, Xiao Liu would come over and squat beside it, as if warming himself by a fire. With each cycle, the spiritual energy would solidify a little, and the flames on Xiao Liu's body would also grow brighter.
"You sure know how to freeload," Chen Bai said with a laugh.
"Huh?"
Xiao Liu tilted his head cutely, completely unaware of any embarrassment.
Besides cultivating, Chen Bai also spent two hours in the morning drawing talismans.
With Wei Bo gone, the sales of the Qi-gathering talismans were temporarily cut off, so he turned to drawing some Jiama talismans instead. These talismans could be used for traveling and had already proven their value in actual combat, so it wouldn't hurt to have a few more on hand.
A rough calculation shows that in five days, they have accumulated about twenty miscellaneous talismans and about ten energy-gathering talismans.
On the sixth day, when the sun was high in the sky, Wei Bo returned, looking travel-worn.
When Wei Bo pushed open the courtyard gate, Chen Bai was meditating under the crooked jujube tree in the yard.
Hearing a noise outside the door, he opened his eyes and looked.
Wei Bo's round face was noticeably thinner than before he left, with dark circles under his eyes and mud splattered on the hem of his Taoist robe. He looked as if he had been traveling for days without sleep.
"Are you settled in?" Chen Bai gestured for him to sit down on the stone bench.
"Brother Bai, don't you trust me to handle things?"
Wei Bo plopped down, patted his chest and assured him, then took out a coarse cloth money bag from his pocket and placed it on the stone table, "Here, this is the remaining spirit stones."
Before leaving, the mother and daughter insisted that I bring back the remaining forty coins, saying that I had already helped them a lot.
Ten spirit stones are enough for them to live on.
Chen Bai pushed the money pouch back: "Keep it. It's inconvenient for you to get things done if you don't have any money on you."
"Alright..."
Wei Bo hesitated for a moment, but didn't refuse. He put the money bag back into his pocket, then took a small cloth bag from his waist and placed it on the stone table.
"Oh, by the way, Brother Bai, I brought back what you asked for on the way."
Chen Bai opened the cloth bag.
Inside were several palm-sized wooden boxes, each with a yellow talisman bearing red characters pasted on it.
He untied a talisman and carefully opened the first wooden box.
Inside was a tiny, pale white flame, only as thick as a hair, burning quietly in the box.
Although the flame was small, it emitted a faint warmth. Upon closer inspection, one could see a thin, silvery thread, as fine as silk, slowly moving at the base of the flame.
"This wisp of [White Geng True Fire] was bought from the Hundred Refinements Hall at the west end of the market. Just this one wisp cost a full three spirit stones—"
Wei Bo said, somewhat reluctantly.
Then, pointing to the wooden box, he added, "The shopkeeper said this fire is too weak; it can't be used as a kindling, to burn magical artifacts, or to refine pills. At most, it can be used to light a tinderbox."
Chen Bai remained noncommittal and opened the second wooden box.
Inside, there was also a thin flame, as thin as a hair, pale gold in color, with tiny golden sparks flying out as the flame flickered.
The third wooden box contained a wisp of eerie blue flame. As soon as it was opened, a chilling aura emanated from it, and Chen Bai's fingertips felt slightly numb when they touched it.
"The pale gold one is the Shattered Gold Flowing Fire, and the dark blue one is the Profound Yin Cold Flame. Both are legitimate spiritual flames. The former belongs to the [Bing Fire] category, and the latter belongs to the [Ding Fire] category, but the quantity is too small. There is only a trace of each kind, and they are not cheap. They cost a total of six spirit stones."
As Wei Bo spoke, he pointed to the bottom of the bag.
I also bought the Demon Soul.
It's too difficult to find the souls of demons in the early stages of the embryonic breathing stage. I searched all over the market and only managed to buy two that were close to the embryonic breathing stage.
One was an Iron Wire Serpent Demon, and the other was a Crimson Feathered Black Bird, but both were long-dead, flawed versions; the seals, however, hadn't broken.
Chen Bai opened the wooden box containing the two demon souls.
The soul of the Iron Wire Serpent Demon was a dark gray phantom, vaguely resembling a serpent, but it lay limply curled up at the bottom of the box, motionless.
The Red-feathered Sparrow's soul was slightly better, appearing as a pale red ball of light, with the outline of its wings vaguely visible, but it was equally lifeless and devoid of any spirit.
"Is that all?"
"That's all."
Wei Bo shrugged. "There are very few demonic beast souls in the Nascent Soul stage. When rogue cultivators hunt them, they keep them for their own use and don't easily sell them."
"These two dishes were only obtained after I pleaded and begged at the Hidden Truth Pavilion, and they were cheap, only twelve spirit stones."
After Wei Bo left, Chen Bai picked up the two wooden boxes containing the wisp of [Bai Geng True Fire] and the snake demon's soul, and turned to go into the main room.
He sat down at the table, closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment before beginning his second attempt at the ritual.
He was already very familiar with the procedures this time.
First, communicate with the [White Geng True Fire] through spiritual light. This wisp of spiritual fire is much more docile than the [Six Si Spiritual Fire], and it accepts it obediently as soon as the spiritual light touches it.
He then followed the method of the "Crimson Flame Spirit-Guiding Technique" to stretch and shape the spirit fire, transforming it into the outline of a fire snake about an inch long.
Then comes the most crucial step—injecting the soul of the Iron Wire Serpent Demon into the Fire Serpent and fusing them together using a magic technique.
After an incense stick had burned, Chen Bai opened his eyes, and a pale white fire snake about an inch long was floating in his palm.
The fire serpent slithered slowly above his palm, its movements stiff and rigid, like a puppet being held by strings.
He tried to transfer a wisp of spiritual energy to it. The fire snake swallowed the energy, grew slightly larger, and its flames shone brightly for a moment before returning to normal.
Chen Bai frowned.
He placed the fire snake on the table, gave it no further commands, and let it swim on its own.
The fire snake swam about three feet across the table before crashing into the inkstone, bouncing, turning around and continuing its journey, before finally crashing into the pen holder.
It took five or six attempts to finally get around the obstacle.
"Fool."
He was somewhat speechless.
He spent another hour repeating the same process on the remaining soul of the Crimson-feathered Black Bird.
【Shattered Gold and Flowing Fire】When paired with the Crimson Feathered Black Bird, a pale golden firebird is created, which is slightly more agile than the fire serpent, but only slightly.
When it flies, it can turn, but the timing of the turn is always a beat too late. It doesn't turn when it should, and it suddenly turns when it shouldn't.
Two beast spirits lined up and squatted on the table.
Chen Bai looked at them, then glanced inward at the lively little six in his dantian; the difference was obvious.
Xiao Liu gets hungry, sleepy, and clingy. He can judge the angle of attack on his own, and even when he is circulating his spiritual energy, he will come over to rub against it.
And what about these two beast spirits?
Made from scraps, without instructions, one would bump into the inkstone five or six times even when trying to walk around it.