The black cauldron trembled, radiating waves of precious light. Bai Yixin and Little Shi Hao had been sealed inside for over an hour. Every so often, the lid was jolted open and golden liquid splashed into the air, its rich fragrance intoxicating.
Bai Yixin sat cross-legged at the bottom of the cauldron, solemn and motionless. His flesh and blood glowed as he sank into a wondrous state, the Wind and Rain Summoning Art rapidly circulating on its own.
On one side, he refined the essence and radiance enveloping him, tempering Runes into his flesh and blood until they melted into rosy light and became Divine Radiance. Each drop of blood transformed into a Rune, each one an eternal divine furnace that shone with boundless light and nourished his body.
On the other, surging divine radiance and essence were converted into spiritual power. Bai Yixin's Qi Refining cultivation steadily rose, like water filling a vessel. Faintly, an eight-story tower appeared, gradually solidifying as it "grew" a ninth floor, like a tower of immortals.
Divine radiance streamed in and out of Bai Yixin's body. An otherworldly aura quietly enveloped him, as if a True Immortal had descended into the mortal realm, standing apart from the world, untouched by outside interference. His mortal body slowly began to shed its earthly form.
The golden liquid remained at a rolling boil without drying up. Bai Yixin bobbed up and down within it, his whole body flushed red, as if blood might drip from him at any moment. Golden liquid continuously entered his body through his pores, then carried out impurities, washing him again and again.
It was a terrifying process, savage in its intensity. If Bai Yixin hadn't consciously trained himself to endure pain and steeled his resolve, he might not have lasted. He could have been tortured to death!
The golden liquid wasn't simply washing him. It surged into his body and battered him wildly, as if breaking bones and shredding flesh. Snapping tendons were a frequent occurrence, and his internal organs seemed to be torn apart and healed over and over.
Bai Yixin gritted his teeth and stayed perfectly still, allowing the golden liquid to wash his body from the outside in. His entire body glowed. Though he was in excruciating pain, he felt more and more invigorated. The immortal tower behind him gradually grew clearer, and faintly, the shadow of a tenth floor appeared.
Little One was making quite a commotion, too. Divine radiance billowed from his body, and countless specks of light emerged, one after another. Each drop of blood became divine, swallowing and exhaling radiance. Within each one, it seemed, a god sat cross-legged. Countless gods appeared to be chanting, reciting scriptures, and shining, illuminating the azure sky.
"What a mysterious phenomenon!" The villagers stared, stunned, though their anxiety had eased somewhat.
"Patriarch, about how long will this take?" Shi Feijiao asked.
"It's hard to say. The cleansing can take anywhere from one day to three months." Shi Yunfeng frowned.
"What?" The villagers stared in disbelief. No wonder the old patriarch had told them to chop Black Flood Dragon Wood and prepare so much firewood.
But what the villagers hadn't expected was that Bai Yixin and Little One would be like Taotie. They needed only a single day. The sun hadn't even fully set, yet the liquid in the black cauldron was about to dry up, and its divine essence was nearly all absorbed.
"Grandpa Patriarch, the liquid's about to dry up!" Bai Yixin and Little One shouted in unison.
"Success!" Shi Yunfeng exclaimed with delight, then had the others lift the lid. Bai Yixin and Little Shi Hao's bodies were translucent, radiance gushing from their pores.
Seeing that the cleansing had gone unexpectedly smoothly, Shi Yunfeng didn't hesitate. "Prepare the Blazing Fire Bull Demon's crimson horn and the Demon Ape's arm. Drain their blood!"
Shi Linhu drew out the Primordial Remnant blood contained in the horn, crimson as rosy light, then drained the black liquid from the ape's arm and poured it into the cauldron.
"Moo!"
In an instant, the Wild Bull's bellow shook everyone's scalp tight, nearly making them collapse to the ground.
"Roar..."
Then came a demonic howl. A Demon Ape suddenly appeared in the cauldron, enraged alongside the crimson Blazing Fire Bull, and slammed into the vessel.
After that, the golden supreme treasure—the heart—also gave rise to a Suanni, radiating ten thousand beams of Golden Light as it charged the cauldron alongside them.
"Put the lid on!" the old patriarch ordered.
The three kinds of true blood mixed together and reacted violently. The crimson Blazing Fire Bull Demon, the golden Suanni, and the black Demon Ape were all Primordial Remnants. They struggled and collided fiercely, trying to smash the cauldron apart.
But the black cauldron was no ordinary object.
The black cauldron shuddered, and the sun, moon, mountains, rivers, birds, beasts, fish, and insects engraved upon it grew startlingly vivid, as if they were about to come alive. A mysterious aura spread from it. The Runes on the cauldron's walls lit up one after another, as if they were burning themselves.
Roars from all manner of ferocious birds and savage beasts rang out. They were faint, but no illusion.
At that moment, the cauldron's walls gradually turned translucent, beginning to refine the golden liquid within. The ancient people engraved on the walls grew ever more lifelike. Sacrificial Chants rang out, followed by the ceaseless sound of scriptures being recited.
The Suanni, Demon Ape, and Blazing Fire Bull Demon trembled and roared, their furious cries making people's eardrums ache. They had been no more than illusory divine entities, yet now their cries truly echoed through the village, filling everyone with dread. They were making one last desperate stand, charging the cauldron together as if they might really break through its walls.
But they were dreaming. The lingering consciousness in their blood essence could stir up no great waves. It was soon broken apart, and the black cauldron refined it into streaks of three-colored divine light, which sank into the three-colored liquid inside.
The people and the cauldron shone brilliantly, emitting all kinds of Runes and Daoist sounds. Clouds and rosy mists billowed, dazzling light streamed everywhere, and the whole place blazed with splendor.
The process continued for a full day and night. At last, everything settled down. The lid was jolted open, and Little One leapt more than twenty meters into the air, soaring toward the heavens.
Bai Yixin followed right behind him, drifting into the sky. He overtook Little One as he came back down and stood among the clouds beside a Green-Scaled Eagle flying past.
"So this is what flying feels like!" Bai Yixin laughed with abandon. He shook his body, and the charred old skin covering him broke apart and blew away in the wind, revealing a small, fair and crystalline body that shimmered with precious light.
Only great cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage could fly through the sky and burrow into the earth by their own power. But after the cleansing, Bai Yixin—who had undergone dual cultivation—could already rely on the power within him to remain airborne for quite a while.
The villagers were all dumbfounded. Little One had just struck open the heavy cauldron lid and leapt into the sky with it, soaring more than twenty meters high. That alone had left them gaping, but they hadn't expected someone even more outrageous to fly straight up into the heavens!
When Bai Yixin landed, men, women, old and young swarmed around him until he was completely hemmed in. They pinched and prodded him, teasing him all the while.
That would have been bad enough, but one of the men even tried to flick his little brother. How could Bai Yixin put up with that?
He promptly shoved the man to the ground, stripped off his clothes, and put them on himself.
"Little Bai, come try lifting the cauldron, too. Let's see how strong your body is," the old patriarch Shi Yunfeng said with a hearty laugh.
"Gladly!" Bai Yixin said, as if pardoned from execution. He quickly escaped the group of laughing, burly men who had been groping him all over, and ran to one side.
These villagers treated him like one of their own children, so Bai Yixin couldn't bring himself to hit them too hard. Thankfully, the old patriarch had come to his rescue. Otherwise, who knew how much longer they would have kept messing with him?
It was like having relatives come over for the holidays and corner you to ask about your studies, your job, and whether you'd found a girlfriend. You couldn't put on a cold face, so all you could do was stand there awkwardly.
Before you continue