UGB Chapter 23 Little Crow
Chapter 23 Little Crow
The first step is to implant a "Spirit Control" talisman into the Black Crow's essence.
This step was not difficult. Chen Bai separated a wisp of spiritual light and condensed it into a talisman. When the talisman entered its body, the Black Crow Spirit only twisted its body slightly in resistance before accepting it.
Chen Bai breathed a sigh of relief.
He simultaneously controlled the spiritual flames, condensing them into the shape of a firebird. He had already mastered this step.
Under his mental control, the Six-Sided Spiritual Fire slowly stretched, sprouting wings, emerging a bird's head, and spreading its tail feathers. In a short while, a palm-sized azure fire crow appeared in his dantian.
The third step is to integrate the remnant soul of the Black Crow into the Fire Crow. This is the most crucial step.
Chen Bai carefully guided the remnant soul closer to the fire crow. The remnant soul initially resisted, cawing and squawking, seemingly afraid of the ball of blue flame.
But under his gentle reassurance, she eventually moved closer.
The moment the remnant soul touched the Six-Si Spiritual Fire, a sudden change occurred.
The fire crow transformed from the Six Si Spirit Fire trembled violently, and the blue flames suddenly surged, completely engulfing the remnant soul.
"Quack! Quack!"
The Black Crow Spirit emitted a wave of terrified thoughts, struggling desperately to escape, but the Six-Sided Spirit Fire, like a living rope, tightly bound it, gradually enveloping it.
"What's going on?" Chen Bai's expression changed, and cold sweat beaded on his forehead.
He had not anticipated this situation.
He had originally planned to methodically refine the Black Crow's essence bit by bit with the Six-Syllable Spirit Fire. But unexpectedly, the spirit fire seemed to have gained sentience, suddenly erupting and becoming uncontrollable.
This situation was never mentioned in the Zhu Yan Spirit Summoning Technique. At this moment, he was completely feeling his way across the river, and could only control it by feeling.
"Keep calm..."
He gritted his teeth and divided his will into two streams. One stream suppressed the surging spiritual fire, preventing it from going out of control and burning his dantian; the other stream gently enveloped the remnant soul, soothing its fear and guiding it to merge with the fire crow.
Time slips away, bit by bit.
Chen Bai's face was pale. He gritted his teeth and began to cast the incantation hand seal.
After an unknown amount of time, the flames in his dantian gradually subsided.
The azure flames gradually subsided, and the black crow spirit, which had been entangled and enveloped by the Six Si Spirit Fire, gradually became clearer.
However, unlike before, this black crow spirit was no longer in its original form. Instead, it had shrunk several times, its feathers were a deep blue-green, its wings were folded, and its crow eyes were tightly closed.
Chen Bai tentatively probed into the space with a wisp of thought.
The next moment, he froze.
This raven... came to life.
It was not a beast spirit puppet created by the Zhu Yan Spirit-Guiding Technique, but truly possessed simple intelligence.
"After the two merged together, the resulting crow spirit was entirely composed of [Six Fires of the Six Snakes], and it also seemed to have inherited the intelligence of the black crow's spirit."
Chen Bai was somewhat curious and sensed the talisman he had previously placed inside its body.
He could sense the fire crow's consciousness—unconscious and chaotic, like a newborn baby, but it was indeed alive.
"Ah—"
The fire crow seemed to sense his thoughts as well, opening its tender yellow pupils, tilting its head, and emitting a faint but affectionate wave of thought.
The idea was vague, but Chen Bai still managed to understand its meaning.
It's calling... it's hungry.
Chen Bai was stunned for a moment, then tried to separate a wisp of spiritual energy from his dantian and transfer it to the spirit crow.
The crow cawed merrily and swallowed the wisp of spiritual energy in one gulp.
"Ah!"
The blue flame flickered slightly, and its body seemed to solidify a little. Then it tilted its head and continued to emit the thought of "hunger".
Still hungry?
Chen Bai passed another wisp of energy over. The crow swallowed it again and continued to cry out for food.
After repeating this process seven or eight times, the spirit crow finally felt "full." Satisfied, it circled once in its dantian, then landed in a corner of the dantian, curled up into a ball of blue fire, and fell into a deep sleep.
Chen Bai withdrew from his internal vision, opened his eyes, and let out a long breath.
"Interesting," he muttered to himself. "This spirit crow actually uses the dantian as its nest and spiritual energy as its food."
He thought about it and then decided that it might not be a bad thing. The fire crow lived in his dantian and fed on spiritual energy, which meant there was another outlet for consuming spiritual energy. In the short term, it would slow down his cultivation progress; but in the long run, it meant that this spirit crow possessed considerable potential.
"and……"
With a thought, the sleeping spirit crow in Chen Bai's dantian immediately awoke and affectionately nuzzled against his thoughts.
"come out."
The spirit raven transformed into a streak of azure flame and flew out from his dantian, hovering above his palm. It remained palm-sized, its entire body composed of pale azure flames, with the outline of a raven vaguely discernible.
It tilted its head and looked at Chen Bai, its tiny, bean-sized flames revealing a hint of lively spirit.
"Xiao Liu, go."
Chen Bai pointed to the stone wall three steps away.
"Ah—"
The crow happily agreed, as if it understood Chen Bai's words.
The fire crow did not fly past stiffly like the ordinary firebird before it.
It first circled halfway above the palm of the hand, seemingly observing its target, then suddenly flapped its wings, transforming into a streak of blue light that crashed into the stone wall.
With a "poof," a fist-sized crater was burned into the stone wall, its edges charred and riddled with cracks.
Its power is more than ten times stronger than the previous ordinary firebird.
Moreover, Chen Bai noticed a detail—the angle at which the fire crows struck the stone wall was not vertical, but rather at a slight oblique angle.
This angle perfectly concentrates the impact of the flames onto a single point. This wasn't an order he gave; it was Fire Raven's own judgment.
"Well done!" Chen Bai couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
The crow flew back into his palm, proudly raised its head, and emitted a wave of mental energy indicating "hunger".
Chen Bai laughed and scolded, "You're hungry again after just eating? Are you a bottomless pit?" Even so, he still sent a wisp of spiritual energy over.
The crow swallowed it contentedly, then transformed back into a ball of blue flame, retreated back into its dantian, curled up in a corner, and fell into a deep sleep.
In the days that followed, Chen Bai added a new element to his daily practice—feeding crows.
He discovered that this spirit raven didn't have a big appetite. It was content with being fed three or four strands of spiritual energy each day, and spent the rest of its time curled up in a corner of its dantian and sleeping. Occasionally, it would wake up and wander around its dantian, as if surveying its territory.
When Chen Bai was cultivating the circulation of spiritual energy, the fire crow would curiously come over and watch the wisp of spiritual energy flow along the Ren and Du meridians. Sometimes it would even swim behind the spiritual energy for a while, like a little dog following its master.
Chen Bai tried to communicate with it.
The crow's intelligence is still very weak; it can only understand the simplest thoughts—hunger, sleepiness, cold, warmth, flight, and rest.
It can understand more complex commands, such as "go to the left" or "attack in that direction," but it needs to be repeated several times to remember them.
However, it has one advantage: it has a very good memory.
Once it learns a command, it will react faster the next time it is given.
"This is far superior to the original beast spirit of the Crimson Flame Spirit Summoning Technique," Chen Bai thought to himself, making a comparison.
He named the fire crow "Little Six".
The character “六” is taken from the “六” in the “六巳” (six-year-old fire) radical, and “小” (small) is because it is indeed still very small.
Fire Crow seemed quite pleased with the name. Every time Chen Bai called it "Little Six," it would chirp happily and circle twice in his dantian.
Chen Bai sat cross-legged on the jade platform, concluding his daily cycle of Qi circulation.
Within his dantian, the ball of spiritual energy shrank even further, but its texture became even more solid and concentrated.
With each cycle of energy circulation, Chen Bai's three treasures—essence, energy, and spirit—further permeate the spiritual energy, causing his elixir seedling to sprout naturally. He estimated that at the current rate, he would reach that critical point in about half a month.
"It's been three months," he said with a sigh, calculating on his fingers.
Three months ago, when he first entered the cave, he was just a mortal cultivator who hadn't even reached the point of having a full dantian.
Three months later, his dantian was full of qi, his circulation of qi was gradually improving, he had mastered two spells, and he had even unexpectedly created a spirit flame fire crow.
"It's time to leave the customs area."
Chen Bai stood up and stretched his limbs. The Qi-gathering talismans he had given to Wei Bo before his seclusion should have been sold out long ago. He wondered if the fat man had conveyed a message to Fairy Yueyi on his behalf.
He also had the savings of over three hundred spirit stones—he planned to go to the market after leaving the seclusion to see if he could find some usable fragments of magical artifacts, and then have the small cauldron collect them a few more times, perhaps extracting some good stuff.
"Sixth grade."
With a thought, the fire crow sleeping in his dantian groggily opened its eyes.
"Let's go, I'll take you out to see the world."
Lingya Xiaoliu tilted his head, seemingly not quite understanding what "seeing the world" meant.
But it could sense the joy in its owner's mind, so it chirped happily, circled around in its dantian, curled up again, and continued to sleep.
Chen Bai smiled and pressed the mechanism to open the stone door.
With a dull rumble, the stone door, which had remained closed for three months, slowly rose. Sunlight streamed in through the cracks, making him squint slightly.
The sunlight was warm, the wind was lively, and the distant sounds of bustling people from the market could be faintly heard.