A Thought Through Eternity

Chapter 16 - Attention To Detail

With this goal in mind, Bai Xiaochun lay in the courtyard, his body aching and worn out. However, he faintly felt that his skin had hardened substantially.

This made him look forward to becoming a Medicine Master even more.

Having lain in the courtyard for half an hour, the aching in his body receded. Bai Xiaochun sat up and crossed his legs. His eyes flashed as he took out the pills and incense he received upon becoming an outer sect disciple from his storage pouch.

After inspecting them carefully, Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath and glanced at his surroundings, before turning around and returning to the cabin. There, he took out the turtle-shell pot.

“Although these pills can be taken now, after the spirit refinement, they should be enough to let me make a breakthrough from the third level of Qi Condensation to the fourth. It’s a pity that the two-coloured firewood is so expensive. The Burning Stoves Kitchen has some, but I’m not a handyman over there anymore, so that would be inconvenient.” Bai Xiaochun now had a great interest in medicines, so after giving it a thought, he took out a piece of one-coloured firewood without hesitation.

“Just refining it once is still good!” He lit up the firewood which burned with a one-coloured flame. Moments later, a single pattern brightly lit up on the turtle-shell pot.

Bai Xiaochun opened the medicinal bottle cap and took out the three medicine pills that were the size of dragon eyes. He refined each pill separately.

Silver lights shone one after another and soon, three pills with silver patterns appeared in Bai Xiaochun’s palm. He had also refined the stick of cyan incense, then looked at the three spirit medicines that had each been refined once, placed in front of him. Bai Xiaochun kneeled down, and after he placed the cyan incense stick in front of him, he picked up the three pills and threw them into his mouth.

Bai Xiaochun then imitated the fourth picture in the Purple Qi Cauldron Manipulation Technique manual and cultivated accordingly. Soon, the Qi in his body began circulating. This time, he managed to last noticeably longer. His cultivation base started to increase.

Within the time it took for an incense stick to burn, the river of Qi inside him began to rapidly flow through his entire body as he began to attack the bottleneck of the fourth level of Qi Condensation.

“Just a hundred more breaths and I will enter the fourth level of Qi condensation!” Bai Xiaochun gritted his teeth as he imitated the actions shown in the fourth picture, which caused his body to curl into a ball. Cracking sounds could be heard coming from his entire person as beads of sweat fell to the floor, non-stop.

As he started to run out of Qi, he squinted his eyes. Suddenly, Bai Xiaochun opened his mouth and spat a mouthful of Qi at the cyan incense stick.

As soon as his Qi hit it, the cyan incense lit up and produced wisps of cyan smoke which resembled snakes. Upon appearing, they creeped straight for Bai Xiaochun, entering his body through his seven apertures and pores, transforming into thick Qi that bolstered the river of Qi inside him.

With a boom, a small blast wave erupted from Bai Xiaochun’s body and spread throughout the cabin before sweeping through the courtyard like a gust of wind. Bai Xiaochun’s eyes glinted with joy as he laughed.

“The fourth level of Qi Condensation!”

He immediately felt the Qi inside him thicken with vigor. As he walked around, his body felt lighter than ever. Looking down, he saw large amounts of black filth sticking to his body, and he immediately knew that these were the impurities forced out of his body.

Moving his body, he exited his cabin so fast it looked as if he was flying, and did some cleaning in the courtyard. Bai Xiaochun felt refreshed. Making a gesture with his right hand, a wooden sword immediately flew out from his storage pouch like a prismatic rainbow.

After manipulating the wooden sword and making it fly about in the courtyard, Bai Xiaochun felt even more pleased with himself. Although it was not a sword fit for use at the fourth level of Qi Condensation, but under his control, it possessed a certain killing intent.

“Spirit refinement would be so much better if I had three-coloured flames, but medicine pills are just as amazing.” Bai Xiaochun’s interest in spirit medicine had only increased. Whether it was medicinal pills or incense sticks, all were indispensable for cultivation.

“I have to become a great Medicine Master, refine a Longevity pill, and use spirit refinement on it ten… no, a hundred times!” Bai Xiaochun’s desire to become a Medicine Master intensified from the bottom of his heart. Thinking up to this point, he pat his bag and took out a jade tablet.

The jade tablet was given to him by Hou Yunfei when they had gone to the Thousand Herbs Pavilion earlier. It contained the introductions and images of ten thousand types of herbs. This jade tablet was unique, could only be found in Scented Cloud Mountain, and it was required that all Spirit Children memorised it.

However, mastering a mere ten thousand types of herbs still wasn’t enough. Bai Xiaochun thought about what Hou Yunfei said - only after memorising it could he exchange this jade tablet for the next one.

He enthusiastically circulated the Qi in his body. Many different herbs were flashing through his mind. He only got more and more entranced by it, as if he had opened another door in life. It even described the herbs needed to make the life-prolonging pill.

After roughly looking through everything, Bai Xiaochun felt that memorising all the different herbs was not a difficult task. After all, he was someone who was aspiring to become the great Medicine Master that would make a longevity pill.

So, his overzealous personality exploded out once more. He wanted to more than just memorise the herbs - he wanted to scrutinize each and every single one of them to the absolute extreme before moving on to the next.

Bai Xiaochun madly trained for half a year when he had been threatened by Xu Baocai, and now, before such a grand dream, the same potential burst out from within him.

All the images of plants and herbs were all scrutinized in minute detail, to the point where a realistic figure of the herb would form the moment Bai Xiaochun closed his eyes.

However, he thought that it was not enough, and lamented not having the actual plants... Bai Xiaochun wanted to dissect the herbs to examine them more thoroughly. Unfortunately, he could only closely examine what he had. Be it texture or other minor details, he would completely study them.

Still unsatisfied, Bai Xiaochun did not spare even the roots, nor fruits. He studied the herbs as if they were enlarged an infinite amount of times, excavating them bit by bit.

Even after all of that, his heart still could not be put at ease. In the end, Bai Xiaochun had even studied the villus and pores of each herb with that same dogged scrutiny.

Time passed quickly and soon, it had been a month since he started his daily training in the fourth level of the Purple Qi Cauldron Manipulation Technique. His cultivation base had also become a bit more relaxed. At the same time, he didn’t stop practicing the Unending Longevity Technique. Every day, Bai Xiaochun endured unspeakable pain, while sprinting back and forth in his courtyard, and memorising the herbs. Currently, he was able to mix the herbs he had studied in his mind. He had already reached the point where he could only explore beyond what was recorded in the jade tablet.

(TLC note: raws say running. Most likely his jumping is completed and the manual told him to run)

In addition to this, whenever he was running, he would always stop at the upper right corner of the courtyard. Over there, was a spirit field. In that field, Bai Xiaochun had planted the seeds of ten herbs.

(ED note: spirit field is the same as ling field from world of cultivation)

The type of herb was known as Spirit Winter Bamboo, and planting it was the task he chose half a month ago at the outer sect disciple mission-monument. He had a hard time finding a mission that was not dangerous.

Bai Xiaochun did not dare to take Li Qinghou’s words lightly. Every half a year outer sect disciples were required to complete at least one mission. Bai Xiaochun would never forget this law.

The mission he chose awarded a substantial amount of contribution points, which would increase along with the products’ quality. It was simple, but it was also a mission that consumed a great amount of time, requiring no less than three months for a passing grade.

The Spirit Winter Bamboo’s growth could also be hastened using one’s Qi too. However, Bai Xiaochun, didn’t have time to tend to its growth, so he chose to leave it alone in the spirit field.

“It grows so slowly.” Bai Xiaochun looked at the spirit field with a frown. From the description given in the jade tablet, Bai Xiaochun knew that this herb was extremely dependant on Qi. Without a spirit field rich in Qi, the best way to nurture the herb was to supply it with his own Qi.

“It should be because the Qi in my courtyard’s spirit field is too thin, that these Spirit Winter Bamboos grow extremely slowly.” Bai Xiaochun squatted down and scooped up a handful of soil from the spirit field as he muttered to himself.

“What can I do to make the spirit field’s Qi richer……?” Bai Xiaochun thought about it for a while, before his expression suddenly changed. He made a gesture with his right hand, causing the turtle-shell pot to appear.

Looking at the pot, then the spirit field, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes shined.

“This pot can refine anything, so……. It should be able to refine the soil too, right?” thinking about this, Bai Xiaochun immediately became curious. After taking the Spirit Winter Bamboo seeds out from the soil, he immediately dug out a large amount of soil and threw it into the turtle-shell pot. He then took out a piece of one-coloured firewood and lit it.

Soon, silver light flashed as the soil inside the pot showed the same silver patterns as the previous refinements. Although the light from the refinement was dimmer, the Qi was visibly richer.

Bai Xiaochun was instantly filled with delight. Not finding it bothersome at all, he refined more soil and repeated the process for about half an hour. When he had almost used up the one-coloured firewood, the entire spirit field had already been refined once.

(ED note: Hour in this story is written as 时辰 which is actually 2 hours since the author is using the ancient chinese time measurement, where one day is 12 hours)

It was just that, the refined soil was only at the exterior. As for the deeper layers of soil, Bai Xiaochun did not refine them since he did not have enough firewood. This caused the spirit soil to be foundationless and thus unable to maintain that level of richness. As time passed, the field would slowly return to normal.

Even though this was the case, the difference between the Qi the spirit field had now and before, was as far apart as heaven and earth. The energy was so rich that the field gave off a stimulating fragrance.

Bai Xiaochun hurriedly planted the Spirit Winter Bamboo seeds and stood to the side, his eyes never leaving the field. Soon, he saw sprouts popping up at a speed visible to the naked eye. The shoots grew like crazy.

With that speed, the sprouts grew into 3 chi tall plants within the blink of an eye. If any disciples specializing in herbs saw this, they would have their breath taken away. After all even if a cultivator used his Qi, it will still be difficult for the Spirit Winter Bamboo to grow so quickly. (ED note: 3 chi is approximately 1m)

Besides…... in the entire cultivation world, there was no one wasteful enough to refine all that soil just to speed up the growth of ten Spirit Winter Bamboo seeds…

Even if it was an accomplished refining master, they definitely wouldn’t do something so wasteful.

Seeing that the seeds grew well, Bai Xiaochun was finally satisfied, so he turned around and left them alone. Then, he continued sprinting while studying the herbs recorded on the jade tablet in the courtyard.

As the sun set and the sky darkened, the Spirit Winter Bamboo in Bai Xiaochun’s spirit field, had already shot up to 3 chi high… And it seemed like they were far from reaching their limit. Who knew how big they would have grown by the end of the third month…

On this same night, Bai Xiaochun put down the jade tablet he had been holding. The ten thousand herbs in there were already completely memorized, down to the smallest detail, with that zealousness of his. He had even noticed some contradictions recorded in the tablet.

“The first thing I’m going to do tomorrow morning is to exchange this for the second jade tablet. I wonder how the Ten Thousand Herbs Pavilion tests the people who want to exchange their tablets. Am I be supposed to recite it by memoryl?

Bai Xiaochun lifted his chin, threw out his sleeves, and just when he was about to boast, he had second thoughts. Giving a dry cough, he picked up the jade tablet and continued studying, in fear of the test questions he might have to face tomorrow.