At early rabbit hour, Ji An woke from a hazy dream and heard faint rustling from the bamboo basket.
He yawned, and the sound inside the basket immediately stopped.
He rose and walked over to the basket. Seeing the Spirit Seeking Rat lying stiffly inside, bound into a rice dumpling by strips of cloth, he poked it with a finger out of sheer mischief.
This Spirit Seeking Rat was clearly a juvenile. Adults could grow as large as cats.
Only its eyes were exposed; its mouth and limbs were all tightly wrapped in cloth.
It was not very strong to begin with, and with three tight layers of cloth binding it, it could not exert any force at all. Escape was utterly impossible.
Ji An ignored it and went outside to wash his face. The cold water stimulated his facial nerves, and he quickly became fully awake.
The sky was like a great bowl turned upside down. Only a faint trace of color remained of the moon, and the starlight was exceedingly dim.
The distant mountains resembled a colossal beast crouching in the shadows, indistinct and impossible to make out clearly.
Returning to the bamboo building, he sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, swallowed a Shengyuan Pill, and circulated the Clear Origin Scripture to begin the day's cultivation.
The spiritual power within the pill was drawn in by his immortal veins, flowing through them like a babbling stream before finally transforming into pure dharma power and entering his dantian.
The Stone Turtle pounced forward, and half his dharma power immediately vanished.
Once the pill's medicinal power had been completely refined, Ji An opened his eyes, his gaze gentle and bright.
He nodded with a satisfied smile. Whenever pills or a Spirit Absorption Array helped him, the feeling of his cultivation