Essence of the Sun

Biodata

Power Progression

• These stages record Lin He's body tempering through the essence, rather than changes in the material's own rank.

Discovery and Early Use

Lin He and Su Qiuran learned about the essence after activating the Jade Gourd with their blood. The information transmitted into their minds distinguished two functions: solar essence accelerated growth, while lunar essence improved living things, including plant varieties, animal bloodlines, and Spirit Roots 4.

Their first practical success came after gathering Green Spike Grass proved barely profitable. Su Qiuran proposed collecting seeds instead of whole plants, allowing them to cultivate the herb at home. Lin He later noticed that diluted essence had healed scratches on his arm, prompting his first secret body-tempering experiment 7 8.

Appearance and Properties

• Golden and viscous: A droplet dispensed for their first planting moves like thick honey and is described as ten times smaller than a sesame seed 7.
• Visible within the gourd: Stored essence produces a faint golden halo; a later accumulated drop resembles molten lava through the gourd's translucent walls 7 47.
• Heat-emitting: Dilution slightly warms well water, while a pure drop used for the third tempering noticeably raises the woodshed's temperature 7 43.
• Readily absorbed by compatible targets: Pure essence enters Lin He's flesh on contact and seeps directly into Goudan's eggshell 8 14.

Uses and Effects

Accelerated Plant Growth

The Jade Gourd's transmitted information describes growth acceleration as the essence's defining function, applicable to ordinary crops as well as rare immortal herbs 4.

• Green Spike Grass: One tiny drop diluted in a basin of water produces a lush patch over three inches tall within ten breaths. Its leaves are thicker and fresher than those of the wild grass they gathered 7.
• Green Jade Spirit Rice: Repeated watering advances restored seeds through sprouting, stalk growth, ear formation, and grain filling 32.
• Agricultural income: Their cultivated Green Spike Grass sells to Spring Restoration Hall at eight copper coins per jin, above the five-copper gathering price quoted earlier 6 12.
• Cultivation support: Spirit rice grown using the essence supplies the Spiritual Qi for Su Qiuran's breakthrough to Qi Refinement First Layer and later attainment of perfection within that layer 32 38.

Healing

• Human injuries: Diluted essence splashed onto Lin He's forearm heals scratches sustained while gathering grass 8.
• Animal injuries: Feeding diluted essence to an injured Fanged Rabbit heals it, demonstrating that its restorative effect is not limited to Lin He 17.
• During tempering: Its vitality repeatedly repairs Lin He's muscles as the pure essence tears and reconstructs them 8.

Body Tempering

• External application: Lin He's first two treatments enter through his skin 8 23.
• Ingestion: He swallows the drop used for his third treatment 43.
• Concealed strength: After three temperings, cultivators still perceive him as a mortal without spiritual Qi fluctuations despite his powerful Qi and blood 48.

Egg Hatching

• Applied directly to the mysterious red egg, the essence is absorbed into its shell. The egg trembles, its black markings glow red, and it cracks open to reveal Goudan, a duck-headed, dog-bodied creature 14.

Handling and Limitations

Dilution and Growing Conditions

• Ordinary herbs: Lin He dilutes the essence before watering Green Spike Grass because he fears its undiluted potency could overwhelm the plants; this is a precaution, not a demonstrated failure 7.
• Spirit plants: Spirit rice requires repeated watering rather than the single rapid treatment sufficient for ordinary grass 32.
• Spiritual Qi supply: Their rice-growing method also requires soil enriched with powdered Spirit Stones. Growth acceleration is not treated as a substitute for the crop's Spiritual Qi requirements 32 33.
• Separate lunar function: The shriveled spirit rice seeds are restored with Essence of the Moon before solar essence accelerates their growth 32.

Compatibility

• Su Qiuran: A tiny amount produces no reaction when tested on her palm. She consequently reserves the surplus for Lin He's tempering 10.
• Unexplained selectivity: Lin He responds to solar essence but not lunar essence; Su Qiuran shows the opposite response. Both essences work on the rabbit, leaving the couple's differing compatibility unexplained 16 17.
• Unconfirmed protection: Lin He wonders whether solar tempering protects him from the Mass Grave's influence, but also considers his transmigrator soul as a possible explanation 25.

Body-Tempering Risks

• Severe pain: Pure essence causes violent heat and painful bodily reconstruction, even in minute quantities 8 23 43.
• Dose concerns: After his first treatment, Lin He believes using two or three wisps instead of one could have killed him 9.
• Recovery interval: He estimates that his flesh needs at least seven or eight days to recover, adapt, and stabilize before another treatment 10.
• Premature reuse: Su Qiuran stops him from attempting a fourth tempering before he has recovered from the third 47.