The bonfire blazed fiercely.
It was not beneath the old banyan tree, of course, but beside the slope.
The mountain monkeys feared fire, worried that the smoke and flames would damage their eyes, so they scattered, some squatting on the grass, some sitting on rocks, and some climbing trees, all craning their heads to watch.
Seated around the fire were Chen Jin and Yuan Bai.
Chen Jin took the lead, while Yuan Bai assisted, mostly by imitating and learning.
The ape keenly noticed that the immortal master wore a pair of straw sandals with hemp loops, and they fit him quite well.
It immediately reached a conclusion: wearing shoes gave one more status than going barefoot.
So it began wondering where it might find a pair of shoes to wear.
But after looking down at its own large feet, it feared that finding suitable shoes would not be easy.
Chen Jin edged cautiously toward the fire and soon felt the scorching heat of the flames, as though the red hair on his body was about to be singed.
With it came an instinctive fear from deep within his soul, and he subconsciously wanted to retreat.
But he forced himself to endure, suppressing his fear of facing the flames and repeatedly telling himself:
Hold on. Don't be afraid...
At the same time, he practiced the Eight Scenes Contemplation and Visualization Method, taking the fire as his object of contemplation.
As he watched, his thoughts gathered, and he gradually entered a meditative state.
Beside him, Yuan Bai looked at the fire, then at the immortal master resting with his eyes closed, unable to understand.
It had thought they were lighting a fire to roast things to eat, such as tubers and pinecones. They tasted better roasted.
It had not expected that this was not the intention at all.
Right, the immortal master feeds on the moon and has no need for ordinary food.
Yuan Bai felt deeply disappointed.
Ever since it began consuming moonlight essence Qi, its Qi and Blood had grown robust, and its daily food intake had doubled, so it frequently had to lead the monkeys into the surrounding wilderness to forage.
Yet now, moss, grass roots, pine nuts, wild fruit, and the like were becoming less and less filling. It had therefore set its sights on eggs in birds' nests and was even preparing to catch fish at the ferry crossing.
It clearly understood the changes taking place within itself, and so it felt increasingly lonely.
If the fire isn't for roasting food, is it for warding off the cold?
Winter had already arrived, and at night the north wind blew bitterly, its chill like a knife.
But Yuan Bai had thick skin and a luxuriant coat, and did not fear the cold.
As for the immortal master, how did he look remotely afraid of the cold?
Unable to understand, Yuan Bai stopped thinking about it and quietly left, returning to its own "palace" to help the female monkeys ward off the cold.
The other mountain monkeys huddled together in groups of three or five, embracing for warmth to get through the long, cold night.
When the bonfire burned out and became a heap of ashes, the eastern horizon turned fish-belly white, with an enormous fireball forming within it, ready to leap forth.
Chen Jin sensed it immediately and abruptly rose.
This time, he did not hurry back to hide in the shrine, but stood on the slope, facing east.
The formerly dark, somber sky first whitened, then filled with swirling rosy light as countless wisps of the rising sun's purple Qi began to drift out.
In Chen Jin's current state, he naturally did not dare gather solar essence Qi, not even that of the rising sun.
Drawing it in recklessly would undoubtedly be inviting fire to burn himself, scorching even his soul's intrinsic nature.
What he was doing now was tempering his will, attempting to face the sun. Once he finally adapted, he could travel by day and would no longer be trapped in a tiny shrine.
Otherwise, if the people of the Yan Household Great Stronghold attacked one day, he would have no way to leave even if he wanted to flee.
As the morning sun rose and its light fell upon him, Chen Jin immediately felt a scorching sensation, as though he stood amid a raging fire.
This sensation was far more intense than warming himself by the fire.
How could mortal fire compare to true fire?
Chen Jin drew a breath and endured the tremendous discomfort, still standing firmly in place, unmoved.
Yuan Bai was getting the monkeys up, preparing to head farther into the wilderness to forage, because the nearby areas had already been picked clean.
With winter's arrival, food was growing scarcer and scarcer. When the bitter cold of deep winter came and ice and snow covered the land, it would be harder still.
Yuan Bai wondered whether, if they truly had nothing to eat then, they should go borrow some from the great stronghold.
Passing below the slope, it had intended to greet the immortal master, but seeing Chen Jin apparently cultivating and not to be disturbed, it hurriedly signaled the monkeys to be quiet and tiptoed away.
As the sun climbed higher and its light intensified, Chen Jin felt as though the fire had already spread onto his body. He became unbearably uncomfortable, his soul suffering waves of stabbing pain, until he could barely breathe.
He immediately stepped beneath the old banyan tree.
The gentle, cool breeze soon dispelled that scorching pain, bringing relief.
Returning to sit in the shrine, he reviewed what he had learned: he now dared to face the sunrise, which was already a great step forward compared with before.
At the same time, this was enough to prove that his strength had made considerable progress.
A weak zombie exposed to the sun like that would probably have burst into flames and burned to ashes.
This attempt greatly increased his confidence.
He must not forget that he also had a bamboo-leaf hat. Wearing it would shield him from the sun and allow him to travel.
Walking in sunlight was only Chen Jin's initial aspiration. What he wanted even more was to draw in solar essence Qi.
Only then, through the union of moonlight essence Qi and solar essence Qi, would he achieve true harmony between yin and yang and completeness of his intrinsic nature.
Taking in moonlight essence Qi alone would only lead to "flourishing yin and declining yang."
Zombies had no limit to their lifespans, and the years stretched long, yet Chen Jin always felt an urgency to seize every moment and improve his strength as quickly as possible.
With the Yan Household's people having found Banyan Tree Slope, this place was no longer safe, and that sense of urgency immediately became a sense of crisis.
In the days that followed, his cultivation schedule was packed full: visualization and gathering Qi, embryonic breathing and refining Qi, honing his swordsmanship, facing the sun, talking to himself...
The apertures of his eyes and ears had both been opened, and the muteness in his throat had mostly been resolved, allowing him to speak.
Perhaps because he had not spoken for so long, his words came out stiff and halting, his voice low and hoarse. But these were all normal phenomena. As long as he kept practicing, everything would improve.
His speech training consisted of talking to himself.
After all, he could find no second person to converse with. Chattering endlessly at Yuan Bai would be rather foolish; he might as well speak into a hollow tree.
Speaking of Yuan Bai, Chen Jin had actually found a method in the Dragon-Tiger Inner Treasury Mysterious Scripture that could help it refine its Heng Bone, but it required Solar True Fire.
Put plainly, it involved using true fire to burn away the Heng Bone directly, after which Yuan Bai would be able to speak.
If Yuan Bai could practice this method itself, it would be even more straightforward.
The problem was that Yuan Bai could not understand it at all at present, much less learn it.
And Chen Jin was not a genuine immortal master.
A genuine immortal master's Law Power reached into the mysteries and could impart knowledge directly into another's mind. That was a true divine ability of enlightenment.
Chen Jin could not do that, so he could only have Yuan Bai wait a while longer.
He only hoped the Yan Household's people would not come knocking so soon.
At dusk that day, the north wind howled and dense, dark clouds filled the sky. There would be no moon that night, and it might snow.
The Yan Household's people did not come. A weasel did.
That weasel ancestor had come in person.