Hardship and Cultivation

The bizarre sight before him filled Pang Jian with boundless imaginings. He stood utterly motionless, his body stunned as if he were a statue.

A giant python had been pierced through the head by a Phoenix Bone, its head pinned against the rocky floor of the pool. Its body still writhed desperately, like a centipede that refused to die even after being crushed.

No one knew how long it had struggled in vain. It simply could not escape the Phoenix Bone's restraint, and parts of its body had already been stripped of flesh.

A mysterious creature like this, faced with the assassination of a single Heavenly Phoenix bone, was so utterly helpless and desperate.

"Was this the source of Father's decision to designate Blackwater Pool as a forbidden zone?"

He gazed at the enormous python for a long time, his mind repeatedly shaken. It felt as though the door to an entirely new world had slowly swung open before him.

It was only now that he realized the Cenji Mountains, where he had hunted for years, might not be as simple as he had imagined.

He even began to suspect that every place his father had designated a forbidden zone concealed terrifying creatures like this giant python.

"Father, did he know these creatures existed and deliberately keep it secret, or... did even he not know?"

Doubts kept surging through Pang Jian's mind.

A moment later, he continued examining the strange sights at the bottom of the pool.

Scattered around the rocky ground he could see, with the scaled giant python at its center, were countless bones.

Some were clearly the bones of beasts from the Cenji Mountains, while others unmistakably belonged to people like him.

He had no idea how many beasts and people had been swallowed by the python lurking in Blackwater Pool, only for it to spit out their bones afterward.

Thinking back on the past, he couldn't help shuddering inwardly.

During the years his father had been gone, if he had ignored his father's warning and rashly entered Blackwater Pool, would he have become another pile of bones at the bottom?

As he wondered, he spotted still more bones scattered across the pool floor.

He slowly backed away, putting distance between himself, the Phoenix Bone, and the giant python.

Then he noticed that one-third of the huge, thick, long snake, from its tail to its head, had turned into stark white bone.

The section of its body connected to its head was still wrapped in flesh and scales, but as he watched closely, the flesh covering the bones seemed to be slowly vanishing toward its head.

It was as if a strange force was emanating from the python's head, secretly and continuously devouring its flesh.

As a result, the flesh of the enormous python was gradually disappearing from its tail toward its head.

"The Phoenix Bone!"

Looking again at the Phoenix Bone piercing the python's head and pinning it helplessly to the pool floor, Pang Jian suddenly understood.

It was this Phoenix Bone that had fallen from the Upper Realm. After piercing the python in an instant, it had continued to devour its flesh bit by bit.

The strong preyed on the weak, and nature selected the fittest. This was an eternal truth of heaven and earth.

The giant python in Blackwater Pool had devoured the beasts and hunters in the mountains. Now it had met the same fate, suppressed here by a fragment of Heavenly Phoenix bone as it was slowly drained of its flesh.

Suddenly, Pang Jian couldn't help thinking of the strange happenings surrounding the other Phoenix Bone.

Amid the earth's rumbling, cracks had split open around that Phoenix Bone, and countless Bloodthirsty Vines had burst forth, attacking and devouring the first and second groups of people from the Blood Moon and the Shangguan Family.

Afterward, a cluster of liquid Amber Glimmer had formed inside the Phoenix Bone, beginning to drift through its crystalline interior.

Could it be...

Pang Jian gradually came to understand. He suspected that the second Phoenix Bone had pinned this giant python down and was devouring its flesh and vital energy in order to condense a new cluster of Amber Glimmer!

"Boom!"

As he pondered, the giant python struck the ground again, sending another aftershock of an earthquake through the area around Blackwater Pool.

But compared with the earth-shaking tremors before, this time the shaking was far weaker.

The giant python's blow against the ground with its bones also seemed much feebler now.

"It's still alive."

Pang Jian's brows twitched, but then he realized that even though he was no longer in the meditative state of the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art, the skin on his arms and chest still absorbed air from the water.

It seemed to have become an instinctive habit.

He immediately felt much more at ease. With this ability, he could stay at the bottom of the pool for a long time and wouldn't have to worry about the Dark Ghost people for the time being.

"I'll go take a look at it up close."

Curiosity stirring, Pang Jian immediately began moving around the pool floor. Before long, he spotted the Dragon-Patterned Spear he had thrown earlier.

He hurried over and snatched it up, using its weight to plant his feet firmly on the ground.

Gripping the Dragon-Patterned Spear gave him a surge of courage, and he quickly moved to the giant python's head.

The python's head was even larger than the stone hut where he lived. Its scales were olive green, layered together like folds.

The giant python's mouth hung slightly open. Behind its sharp fangs, he could see the deadly Phoenix Bone embedded in its throat.

Thin black lines, like strands of ink, flowed from its mouth and stretched straight up toward the surface.

The instant he saw them, Pang Jian understood the strange nature of Blackwater Pool. The dense, ink-black color of the water came from the black secretion in the python's mouth.

Then Pang Jian noticed that the still-living giant python's eyes were tightly shut, as though it were enduring immense pain.

The python was alive but tormented, and seemed not to have noticed his arrival at all. It let him look around and observe it from every angle.

After watching for a long while, Pang Jian realized that once the Phoenix Bone had devoured the python's body, it would eventually consume its head as well. That would be the end of its life.

Perhaps a new cluster of Amber Glimmer would suddenly appear inside the Phoenix Bone then.

Guessing what would happen next, Pang Jian decided to explore the entire pool floor. He headed toward a more distant area.

Before long, two clusters of deep red light suddenly entered his field of vision!

Drawn to the red glow, he tightened his grip on the Dragon-Patterned Spear and approached. Could there be another living creature at the bottom of the pool besides the giant python?

If another living creature could survive in such an environment, it would surely be as ferocious as the giant python!

He worried silently. The Dark Ghosts were watching from the surface, and if another terrifying creature appeared from the bottom of the pool, he would truly have nowhere to run.

As he drew closer to the red glow, he noticed that the farther he moved from the python and the Phoenix Bone, the dimmer and gloomier the light became.

At last!

He saw the two clusters of red light and realized they were shining from a pair of deep crimson eyes.

At the bottom of the pool, a gaunt figure, thin as a corpse, stared unblinkingly at the Phoenix Bone, its eyes radiating a blood-red glow, as if it were waiting expectantly for something.

A lifelike Phoenix Bird Tattoo marked the figure's chest. Every feather was blood-red, as though the bird were about to spread its wings and take flight.

The phoenix was only a tattoo, yet it gave off a vivid, lifelike impression.

Pang Jian stared at the strange figure for a long while, but it seemed unaware of his existence. The figure and the Phoenix Bird Tattoo on its chest were both fixed on the Phoenix Bone embedded in the giant python's head.

It was as if Pang Jian simply didn't exist at the bottom of the pool.

Having slipped underwater early, Pang Jian didn't know that the strange figure before him was Ouyang Duanhai, nor that Ouyang Duanhai had jumped into Blackwater Pool after him.

To suddenly encounter a Humanoid Monster like Ouyang Duanhai at the bottom of a pool where no living creature should be, made Pang Jian's scalp prickle.

If they hadn't been underwater, he would probably have broken into a cold sweat. He gripped the Dragon-Patterned Spear in both hands and endured the wait for a while.

In the end, he confirmed that the Humanoid Monster before him simply didn't care about him. It was only staring at the Phoenix Bone.

Deep in the monster's crimson eyes, Pang Jian could see none of the emotions a human should possess. He even wondered whether the creature was human at all.

"Is it waiting for the mysterious glimmer that will condense inside the Phoenix Bone?"

After observing for a long while, Pang Jian began to suspect as much.

He guessed that the motionless Humanoid Monster staring at the Phoenix Bone was waiting for it to devour the python completely, and for the cluster of Amber Glimmer to appear.

Until then, as long as he didn't provoke it, it seemed he wouldn't attract its attention.

After a tense standoff, Pang Jian cautiously crept back to where the Phoenix Bone and giant python were, gripping the Dragon-Patterned Spear.

After hesitating for a moment, he deliberately chose a spot where the Humanoid Monster couldn't see him.

Above him were cultivators from the Dark Ghost; below him was a Humanoid Monster of unknown strength; and the Phoenix Bone was devouring the former master of Blackwater Pool. With nowhere to go, Pang Jian could only wait passively.

"Forget it. I'll keep cultivating."

Unable to think of a way out, Pang Jian decided to stop wasting his effort. He carried the Dragon-Patterned Spear toward the middle of the Phoenix Bone.

He returned to the place where he had been standing.

The Phoenix Bone he leaned against with his back blocked the Humanoid Monster's line of sight. It couldn't see him through the bone.

He pressed the Dragon-Patterned Spear against the python's body, where skin and scales still remained, then gripped the spear with both hands to steady himself and resumed his cultivation.

"Whoosh! Whoosh, whoosh!"

A steady stream of acidic, poisonous energy was drawn down from the black water above, gathering in his blue-black Spirit Pot.

Within his Spirit Sea, the cotton-like impurities he could sense were quickly dissolved by the venom secreted from the giant python's mouth.

Who knew how long had passed before something startled Pang Jian. He looked down and saw that the Dragon-Patterned Spear he had braced against the python's hide had suddenly sunk lower.

That section of the python's body had been eaten away by the Phoenix Bone.

After pondering for a moment, Pang Jian descended to the python's head and braced the Dragon-Patterned Spear against it. He continued cultivating, still pressed against the Phoenix Bone.

Once he entered the state again, he felt as though all the impurities in the Spirit Sea in his dantian had been washed away!

He focused and slowly contemplated the sensation. He felt like a blind man wandering freely through an empty room, until his senses touched something like a "membrane" and he realized he had reached the edge of his Spirit Sea.

At that moment, he had completely cleared away the obstacles in his Spirit Sea and truly became a cultivator of the Qi Refining Realm.

"The Qi Refining Realm has nine stages. You must guide the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into your Spirit Sea and temper it again and again."

"For the first stage, you must fill your Spirit Sea with spiritual energy, then refine and cleanse it until it becomes spiritual power. For the second stage, you must draw in spiritual energy again, then refine it once the sea is full, transforming energy into power."

Silently reciting the key points of the nine minor stages of the Qi Refining Realm, he began his first attempt to draw spiritual energy into his body.

With a single thought, he sensed that besides the spiritual energy in the water, most of what he drew in was the acidic, poisonous energy within Blackwater Pool!

He was startled, afraid that now the cotton-like impurities in his Spirit Sea had dissolved, the acidic, poisonous energy would erode his Spirit Sea, causing it to collapse and making it impossible for him to cultivate ever again.

Yet after the spiritual energy and acidic, poisonous energy at the bottom of the pool entered his Spirit Sea, he felt no discomfort.

The complex energies in the pool water were filling his Spirit Sea, bringing it through the "filling" process of the first stage.

Seeing that his Spirit Sea was unharmed, he decided to ignore the dangers within and without for now. He would stay at the bottom of the pool and cultivate with the strange properties of the water, using the blue-black "Spirit Pot" he had visualized.

He also took the cracked gray-white rock from the Bamboo Basket he had carried on his back, along with several Spirit Stones Ning Yao had given him.

Without worrying whether they would conflict, he held one in each hand and leaned against the Phoenix Bone Wall to focus on cultivating.

There were powerful Dark Ghosts above, a Humanoid Monster below, a giant python that wasn't quite dead, and the mysterious Phoenix Bone.

All Pang Jian could do was fight with everything he had to grow stronger. He was even willing to take certain risks to do so.

He hoped he could gain enough strength to protect himself.