Second Body Tempering Realm

Lin Shisan had no idea how much time had passed, but he still did not feel tired.

With a thunderous crash, the black maple bamboo toppled to the ground.

The earth shook violently with it, and the impact smashed a deep trench into the ground.

"I... I actually chopped it down?"

Looking at the fallen black maple bamboo, Lin Shisan was utterly astonished.

It felt as unreal as dreaming of watching an immortal maiden bathe.

He had been so absorbed in swinging his axe that his mind had gone completely blank.

Like a wooden puppet, he had been driven entirely by instinct.

He did not even know how many times he had swung.

Without his realizing it, the entire stalk of black maple bamboo had fallen.

And with it, the stifled anguish lodged in his chest over Niu Shan's death finally found release.

"Looks like this black maple bamboo isn't as hard as everyone says."

Felling it was only the first step.

He still had to cut it into smaller pieces of precisely the required dimensions, without the slightest deviation.

Taking a ruler and a bamboo pen from his Locator Ring, he marked the exact points and lines where the black maple bamboo needed to be divided.

After a brief rest, Lin Shisan began chopping and cutting with his axe.

Before he knew it, the sky had darkened.

Lin Shisan cut the black maple bamboo to the prescribed dimensions, then measured it twice more under the bright moonlight.

Only after confirming that the sizes were correct did he put the wooden blocks into his Locator Ring.

After a full day of labor, his stomach had long since begun growling with hunger.

He took thin porridge and steamed buns from his storage ring and wolfed them down with pickled vegetables.

As he swallowed the last mouthful, Lin Shisan suddenly remembered the fruit inside the black cauldron.

He hurriedly took the Little Black Cauldron out of his Locator Ring.

He examined it carefully in the moonlight.

"Even this apple has become smooth and glossy?"

Yesterday, after eating a peach taken from this black cauldron, his cultivation had risen considerably.

If I eat all these apples, will my cultivation...

At that thought, excitement surged through him.

To test his idea, Lin Shisan picked up an apple and took great mouthfuls.

When he finished eating, heat suddenly flared in his belly, and his dantian immediately reacted.

"Could it really be true...?"

Flustered, Lin Shisan hurriedly sat cross-legged and began circulating his qi to cultivate.

After circulating his qi through one greater celestial circuit, his tightly shut eyes suddenly opened and shone with eager excitement.

"I... am I about to break through?"

Lin Shisan distinctly felt the bottleneck of first body tempering loosen.

He even saw spiritual energy spilling out from time to time.

If this was not his imagination, then it truly was a sign of an imminent breakthrough.

Without time to think further, Lin Shisan closed his eyes again and immersed himself in cultivation.

For a cultivator, few opportunities were rarer than a loosening bottleneck.

He had to seize this fleeting chance and break through in one sustained push.

Heaven only knew when it would loosen again.

About four hours later, with a sharp crack as his shackles shattered, Lin Shisan officially advanced to the second body tempering realm.

"I finally broke through! Second body tempering realm-I did it! Hehehe..."

Lin Shisan could hardly contain his excitement.

He almost danced with joy.

Usually quiet and reserved, he now wore a smile he simply could not suppress.

He had worked for ten whole years for this moment.

No one knew how many hardships he had endured over those ten years, or how many scornful looks and buckets of cold water had been thrown on his hopes.

Once his excitement passed, Lin Shisan quickly calmed down.

Although he had broken through to second body tempering, he still could not change his circumstances.

To escape his status as a Servant Disciple and take another step toward the Great Dao, he needed to reach at least the fourth body tempering realm.

Setting aside the awakening of his Dao Seed, the fourth body tempering realm was the minimum cultivation threshold for admission to the outer sect.

Only by breaking through to the fourth realm, or even higher, would he have a chance to enter the outer sect and escape a fate where his life was worth less than grass.

So he had to become stronger, and do so as quickly as possible.

Ten years of stagnation had been shattered in a single day. This could not have been achieved through effort alone.

It had to be bound to the Little Black Cauldron by a thousand tangled threads.

"This Little Black Cauldron really is an immortal artifact."

"Not only can it improve the quality of rotten fruit, it can actually turn it into spirit fruit."

Lin Shisan had never eaten spirit fruit, nor had he ever seen any.

But something that let him shatter his shackles, break through his bottleneck, and advance a minor realm within two days-

What else could it be but the legendary spirit fruit that increased cultivation?

Since the Little Black Cauldron could improve the quality of rotten fruit, could it do the same for other things?

Could it improve Discarded Pills?

And what grade could it raise them to?

A bold idea formed in Lin Shisan's mind.

At that thought, his heart once again began pounding despite himself.

The pavilion nearest the water caught the moonlight first. As a menial worker in the Pill Room, he naturally had easier access to Discarded Pills.

He had seen two broken halves just yesterday.

If he really could turn trash into treasure, his future would hold promise.

Even a salted fish turning its fortunes around, or a fish leaping through the Dragon Gate, would no longer be impossible.

A gentle breeze stirred the swaying tree shadows beneath the bright moonlight, making them drift slowly across his face.

It was already certain that he would not sleep tonight.

With the long night stretching ahead and no desire to sleep, Lin Shisan decided to start with what he had on hand.

Looking inside his Locator Ring, he found nothing but thin porridge, steamed buns, and pickled vegetables.

Since putting apples and peaches into the Little Black Cauldron could draw out spiritual power-

Perhaps the thin porridge and steamed buns he had brought from the dining hall could do the same.

"Why not try the porridge and buns?"

He put the porridge and steamed buns inside.

Under the bright moonlight, Lin Shisan focused his gaze and examined it closely.

He wanted to see just what was strange and unusual about this Little Black Cauldron.

And how exactly the Little Black Cauldron turned ordinary things into spiritual objects.

He did not want the immortal artifact he had pinned his hopes on to turn out to be a demonic artifact instead.

The village schoolteacher had often told stories like that.

Demons were the most cunning of all. First, they gave you a little sweetness to whet your appetite.

Once you were utterly ensnared, they revealed their true forms and bound you with a contract.

That included your life, your path to immortality, your soul, and more, turning you into a walking corpse-a demonic puppet.

Time trickled away.

An hour...

Two hours...

Three hours...

Lin Shisan stared until his eyes were bloodshot.

With

a firm rub of his watering eyes, he stubbornly continued staring.

In the middle of the night.

A wisp of seven-colored radiance suddenly rose from the Little Black Cauldron, then vanished without a trace in an instant.

Lin Shisan was greatly startled by the sight.

He hurriedly lowered his head and looked inside the Little Black Cauldron.

"The porridge and buns haven't changed at all!"

Lin Shisan studied them for a long time, but in the end could find nothing different.

"Perhaps my cultivation is too low to see the changes. Maybe tasting them will tell me!"

He tasted a small mouthful and savored it. Only then did Lin Shisan breathe a sigh of relief.

Although the taste was unchanged, at least it suggested that the Little Black Cauldron was not a demonic artifact.

"Good. It should be an immortal artifact."

From this observation, Lin Shisan could confirm three things.

First, the Little Black Cauldron really was not a demonic artifact. Its light had seven colors, rather than being black.

Second, besides peaches and apples, the Little Black Cauldron could also improve the quality of ordinary foods such as thin porridge and steamed buns.

Third, the Little Black Cauldron needed a certain amount of time to improve an item's quality-at least four hours.

As for that wisp of seven-colored radiance that had suddenly appeared, he had too few clues to make any sense of it yet.

"I just wonder whether this Little Black Cauldron can help me awaken my Dao Seed."

Lin Shisan's imagination took flight again.

Without awakening his Dao Seed, even if he barely managed to advance to the fourth body tempering realm, he might still fail to become an outer sect disciple.

"Dark-skinned brat, hand it over."

Just as Lin Shisan was about to try awakening his Dao Seed, an unfamiliar voice suddenly reached his ears.

It carried a chilling murderous intent.