After the hedgehog died, the chakra inside its body rapidly dissipated. No matter what Bai Sui tried, he couldn't preserve it.
About five minutes later, all the chakra inside the hedgehog had vanished.
Not wanting to waste it, Bai Sui gave it a taste. He confirmed that the ninja beast had nothing else special about it—or at least this one didn't contain any extra energy.
The peaceful days passed quickly. Bai Sui cultivated diligently day and night, devoting more and more time to meditation.
After about three years, the pill bead in Bai Sui's lower dantian had finally become perfectly round and full.
By now, Bai Sui had passed through four stages: harmonizing yin and yang, gathering and dispersing water and fire, uniting the Dragon and Tiger, and refining the pill and burning the medicine. His whole body had undergone distinct changes.
These manifested as strong digestion, the elimination of disease, a clear mind and keen eyesight, greater strength and less fatigue, a radiant complexion, supple skin, warmth in the dantian, light and healthy limbs, a refreshed spirit, the disappearance of chronic and lingering ailments, sweet saliva in the mouth, a mind free of distractions, stillness of desire, a body free of illness, a divine light appearing faintly within, eyes that sometimes flashed like lightning, a restored dantian, and the nurturing of an immortal embryo. His inner realm no longer leaked outward, and his outer realm could no longer intrude, allowing him to prolong his life and remain in the world.
These were the changes to his physical body. His control over energy had also improved by leaps and bounds. The natural qi in his dantian was now as easy to command as his own arms.
Bai Sui could now truly demonstrate extraordinary abilities: kindling fire from thin air, bringing rain from a clear sky, spurring all things to grow, and condensing metal into armor.
He could even use qi to walk across water and ride the wind.
The treasured sword in his hand could also be wielded through qi from a hundred paces away.
If all he cared about was lethality, a steel needle or a sword pellet would be more powerful than a treasured sword. But Bai Sui did not use it to fight his enemies. He used the Vessel to cultivate himself.
"False words make for a Vessel that, though forged with a true blade, will tilt. True words make for a Vessel that, though blunt, will stand upright."
A sword was upright and unyielding, symbolizing integrity. It was flexible yet never bent, symbolizing knowing when to advance and when to retreat. When nothing was amiss, it kept its edge sheathed, symbolizing humility. When trouble arose, it left its scabbard to put an end to evil, symbolizing chivalry.
That was why Bai Sui kept a sword at his side: he took its meaning as a reminder to himself.
When the pill bead in his dantian became complete, the entire room filled with a luminous glow. The villagers no longer visited often, so no one noticed. Had anyone seen it and cried out in alarm, the disturbance could have left Bai Sui with a Dao wound.
Fortunately, there had been no danger this time. Still, it had taught Bai Sui a lesson. He had no prior experience with anything like this, and his previous life had given him no knowledge of it either. Thinking back, he broke out in a cold sweat.
Another three months passed. Bai Sui's dantian had stabilized, and qi flowed unobstructed throughout his body.
Bai Sui then began to advance toward Earth Immortal, preparing to progress toward the Golden Core.
Every day, he circulated True Qi through the Great Circulation within his body, cultivating diligently without pause. It flowed constantly, day and night, every hour of the day. To prevent anything from going wrong, Bai Sui did not deliberately control the natural qi during this period, nor did he control the qi between heaven and earth.
At last, under the impact of the powerful True Qi within his body, he shifted the pill bead in his lower dantian without damaging it.
It took a full three hundred days to move the pill bead from the lower dantian all the way up into the Niwan Palace.
The instant the pill bead entered the Niwan Palace, Bai Sui's entire body began to emit a red glow and a strange fragrance.
Drawing on his experience from the last time he became a Human Immortal, Bai Sui had made preparations in advance. He found a peak atop a cliff and planted his treasured sword in the ground behind him to protect himself, ensuring that neither people nor animals would disturb him.
As the pill bead moved through the Niwan Palace, the closer it came to the palace's central position, the brighter the light around him grew. From afar, the entire mountaintop was bathed in red.
If anyone had seen it, they would surely have thought a forest fire had broken out.
The red glow and strange fragrance emanating from Bai Sui attracted many wild beasts from the mountains. But his treasured sword was now shining with a cold, white light.
The beasts illuminated by that light sensed an immense threat. One by one, they adopted defensive or aggressive stances.
Yet none of them actually attacked, and none could resist the allure of the strange fragrance enough to leave. For a time, the beasts were all frozen in place.
The strange spectacle Bai Sui had caused did not last long. After about half an hour, it gradually faded.
As the fragrance dissipated, the gathered beasts slowly retreated. Even the wild beasts that would normally fight and prey on one another as soon as they met maintained an eerie peace beneath the threat of the sword's white light.
None of this was what Bai Sui needed to worry about now. His foremost task was to stabilize the pill bead inside the Niwan Palace.
As True Qi flowed through his body and Bai Sui's Primordial Spirit directed it, their combined efforts finally stabilized the pill bead completely within the Niwan Palace.
At this moment, Bai Sui had begun his journey from Human Immortal toward Earth Immortal. He had taken the first step toward condensing the Golden Core: "Flying Golden Crystal."
Bai Sui was still very young, not yet thirty, so he couldn't appreciate the wonder of returning to youth.
As Bai Sui saw it, the reason he could cultivate so quickly was not that he was especially talented. One reason was the benefit he had gained from specializing in the cultivation of nature for more than ten years in his previous life.
This had not only saved Bai Sui more than ten years in this life, but also allowed him to pass the stage of the Conscious Spirit stepping down at the best age. It gave him a vantage point from which he could directly use his Primordial Spirit to control the flow of energy within his body.
Another reason was the special nature of this world. It could practically be called a sacred land for cultivation. All kinds of energy could even be sensed directly. Setting aside some of the struggle between "belief" and "disbelief," this also spared Bai Sui the trouble of relying on food to nourish himself. He had gone straight to the stage of feeding on qi.
All these factors had brought Bai Sui to where he was now.
Of course, embarking on the path of Earth Immortal cultivation brought benefits beyond returning to youth. There was also spontaneous recovery, the ability to see without light, freedom from leakage, and more.
Bai Sui's cultivation did not strictly follow the Lingbao Bifa. Instead, he cultivated nature first and life-force second. At the "Flying Golden Crystal" stage, he did not fill his soul and spirit to the full, condense the Three Flowers of essence, qi, and spirit, and reverse the flow from the lower dantian back to the upper dantian.
Instead, he achieved this directly through his Primordial Spirit, using it to control the True Qi in his body. Rather than having all three flowers gathered, he had one high and two low. As a result, the vast majority of the benefits went to his Primordial Spirit.
Bai Sui's Primordial Spirit became even stronger, and the radiance it manifested grew brighter and more expansive, to the point that it could even leave his body.
This meant that even without projecting his Primordial Spirit outside his body, Bai Sui could still use its power to a certain extent. Perhaps this could be called spiritual sense.
Under the usual progression, spiritual sense would not emerge until the next stage, when he formed the Jade Liquid Returning Elixir. Bai Sui had effectively reached that stage a full step early, which would likely make his future cultivation go even more smoothly.