In the mountains, the cycle of years went unmarked; the cold passed, and no one knew how many years had gone by.
In the blink of an eye, a year had passed since Chen Shuangbai came up the mountain.
During that year,
he cultivated diligently and painstakingly, worshipping the moon as he trained. At last, he had observed and cultivated through a complete cycle of the twelve phases representing the waxing and waning of the moon.
He began in the first month and finished in the twelfth.
That night,
the bright moon hung high, and moisture filled the air.
As usual, Chen Shuangbai sat on the large bluestone, its surface worn somewhat shiny, and silently circulated the Moon-Worshipping Clear Illumination Method in the five-hearts-facing-heaven position.
Faintly, twelve hazy phases of the moon seemed to appear in his sea of consciousness.
But they appeared for only an instant before vanishing without a trace.
And in that very instant,
the clear, profound Law Power within Chen Shuangbai surged like a river bursting its banks. A crisp sound rang out, and he involuntarily opened his mouth and expelled a breath of turbid Qi.
The turbid Qi was a murky yellow throughout. When it fell on a nearby shrub, the whole bush turned a murky yellow, showing that it had formed from impurities within his body.
After expelling that breath of turbid Qi, Chen Shuangbai made a smooth breakthrough in his cultivation.
"Moonlight condensed into dew, the intent of water just beginning to stir. The Third Layer of Qi Refinement."
He slowly opened his eyes. Fine shards of moonlight seemed to mingle into a jade radiance in his black eyes, rippling and sparkling, a striking sight.
A year had passed.
Chen Shuangbai had turned seventeen.
The seventeen-year-old's features were still somewhat youthful, but his face was clear and handsome. His black hair was bound behind his head with a jade hairpin. He wore a plain gauze Daoist robe in the color of pine and frost over a black, cross-collared inner garment, with a simple belt fastened at the waist by a buckle of Xiangfei bamboo.
As he walked, his shoulders and back stood straight like fresh bamboo breaking through the soil, while the line of his neck was relaxed like a sleeping crane. The joints of his fingers were distinct as bamboo nodes, with the resilience of a green jade hairpin shaft.
Chen Shuangbai straightened, and a sound like roasting beans rose from within him. After a series of crackles and pops, he felt comfortable all over.
"After a few more years of cultivation, I reckon I'll be able to officially become a cultivator at the Middle Qi Refining Stage."
Chen Shuangbai nodded slightly. Feeling the abundant Law Power within him and his body, stronger than ever before, he could not help feeling a little pleased.
But precisely because of that, he reminded himself all the more that beyond every person stood another, and beyond every heaven lay another heaven. He could not grow too proud or complacent.
After breaking through to the Third Layer of Qi Refinement, Chen Shuangbai's Law Power had improved once more.
He followed another mountain path to the edge of a clear pool.
Sunken Jade Valley, where the Jade Spring Sect was located, was a region of interlacing mountains and river valleys in the southeast of Jing Kingdom. It was a rare, fine place, rich in moisture and jade deposits.
The clear pool lay in a secluded cave halfway up the mountain, which Chen Shuangbai had discovered by chance.
Seeing how deep and secluded the place was, with few people to disturb it, he found green vines and lush foliage upon entering. Inside the cave was a clear pool, its water so pure that the bottom could be seen and so sweet that nothing could compare. He claimed the place for himself as a place to enter seclusion and contemplate mysteries in his usual days.
Several lotus flowers could be seen in the clear pool, swaying gracefully.
Chen Shuangbai came to the water's edge and circulated the Moon-Worshipping Clear Illumination Method in his mind. Law Power began coursing through the meridians and acupoints of his limbs and bones, and a current of cold but pure Law Power began to move. He pointed a bent finger at the pool, and two streams of water rose from it into the air, circling his body.
The Jade Spring Sect specialized in water arts, with wood and earth as secondary disciplines.
The sect's Cultivation Methods, Law Techniques, Law Treasures, and the like mostly fell within those three paths.
Alongside his cultivation, Chen Shuangbai had practiced his two chosen Law Techniques every day during this time, and had now gained some subtle mastery over them.
Cold Spring Guidance was a Qi Refining Law Technique that condensed water into forms.
Chen Shuangbai mainly condensed it into water chains, water needles, water screens, and ice cones, attacking enemies by whipping or binding them, or gathering water into a screen to protect himself.
Spirit-Appraising Pupil was a spiritual eye technique that could observe the flow of Spiritual Qi or unusual Qi, or look inward at one's own body.
Both were introductory Qi Refining Law Techniques, relatively common among the Jade Spring Sect's Qi Refining Law Techniques.
But after several months of honing them and digging into their depths, Chen Shuangbai had now uncovered quite a few wondrous uses for them.
Cold Spring Guidance, for example.
Originally, when Law Power was circulated to activate the technique as a water whip, its only uses were whipping and binding. But Chen Shuangbai had explored it with his mental strength, which surpassed that of ordinary Qi Refining cultivators, and now it had a certain nimbleness, like a snake slithering, and a leap like a tiger pouncing.
Not only that, but the Luminous True Qi cultivated through the Moon-Worshipping Clear Illumination Method also possessed the nature of frost.
The cold spring chains formed when Cold Spring Guidance was activated thus became cold jade chains, clinking and rustling as they moved. Their extremely low temperature also greatly increased their hardness, and anyone in contact with them for long would surely suffer frostbite.
A casual lash was already forty to fifty percent more powerful than the original Cold Spring Guidance.
As for the spiritual eye technique Spirit-Appraising Pupil,
Book Spirit had been quite surprised when Chen Shuangbai chose it.
For cultivators at the Early Qi Refining Stage, a spiritual eye technique could practically be called a chicken rib.
Lowly Qi Refining cultivators were plain and unadorned. The most orthodox approach was to practice an offensive Law Technique and a defensive Law Technique, then cultivate steadily, considering more only after their cultivation had gradually risen.
But Chen Shuangbai was different.
He had actually chosen Spirit-Appraising Pupil for two purposes.
First, his cultivation required him to discern Qi.
This Law Technique could distinguish unusual Qi from Spiritual Qi.
Unusual Qi meant something was amiss. Discovering an anomaly a step ahead meant he could prepare a response a step ahead, improving his chances of survival.
Second, he had his golden finger in mind.
Since basking in moonlight can charge the Dao Fruit, that means there's something it needs in moonlight... So why not use moonlight as a reference and find more similar spiritual materials? I might be able to find a more efficient way to charge it.
As with Cold Spring Guidance, Chen Shuangbai had explored and developed Spirit-Appraising Pupil.
Using the moonlight he drew down, he obtained a little clear dew beneath the moon and regularly washed and refined his eyes with it.
Over time, the original [Qi Discernment] became the present [Qi-Discerning Synesthesia].
Not only could he distinguish unusual Qi from Spiritual Qi, he could also make out, to a slight degree, the paths along which power flowed within things and perceive their weak points. In short, if used in battle, he could observe the flow of an opponent's Law Power or Qi and Blood a step ahead, predict their next move, and think of a response or strike first.
The development of these two Law Techniques represented an attempt by Chen Shuangbai.
He had already used these two Law Techniques to practice against several kinds of low-level Demon Beasts in the Rime Forest, beyond the sect's territory.
His progress from being flustered and at a loss to having the bamboo fully formed in his mind showed how rapidly Chen Shuangbai's strength had grown.
And that was not all.
Afterward, Chen Shuangbai exchanged merit for another Law Technique at the scripture hall, one called [Obscuring Mist Method].
A breath became mist, and the mist became a screen of smoke, bewildering souls and confounding minds. It was an illusion technique.