Bai Xiaochun tested the level of protection and immediately burst into laughter. Then his gaze burned fiercely as he looked at his wooden sword — the wooden sword he had owned since he first started, which had accompanied him until now and undergone two spirit refinements.
"Judging by the protection level of this jade pendant, after I refine this wooden sword for the third time, its power will definitely be extraordinary!" Bai Xiaochun smiled slightly and began the spirit refinement on the wooden sword.
As silver light shimmered, when the glow inside the tortoise-patterned cauldron faded away, the wooden sword appearing before Bai Xiaochun had a glaring third silver vein. After a long while, it slowly dimmed. At the same time, the sword's appearance had changed somewhat — it was about an inch longer than before, and the wood grain veins were nearly entirely purple.
There was even a strange fragrance emanating from it. However, the scent was peculiar: at first, it smelled sweet and pleasant, but it quickly made people feel dizzy and disoriented.
Bai Xiaochun's body trembled, his eyes clearing as he looked at the wooden sword in surprise. Slowly picking it up, he immediately noticed the weight — it was several times heavier than before, feeling like a heavy rock in his hand.
His eyes flashed as he placed the wooden sword in front of him and carefully examined it, a thoughtful expression slowly appearing.
"This wooden sword's material should be the not-so-rare Chenyun Wood. This kind of Chenyun Wood only needs to be refined for forty-nine days to become a suitable forging material, and it can be produced in large quantities," Bai Xiaochun murmured, his gaze scanning the sword's grain.
"With the purple veins, there's only one explanation — after multiple spirit refinements, this sword is showing signs of mutation," Bai Xiaochun closed his eyes, immediately recalling all the information about Chenyun Wood he had learned in his knowledge of plants.
After a long time, when he opened his eyes, there was anticipation in them. With a hand gesture, he pointed at the wooden sword. Instantly, the sword flashed black, and within it, a faint purple glow flickered. In a blink, it shot out, piercing through the wooden house, flying out of the yard over ten yards away, and directly stabbing into a huge rock.
Silently, the wooden sword pierced through the rock, circling inside it once, then emerging again, and quickly returned to Bai Xiaochun's hand.
Bai Xiaochun felt invigorated and carefully toyed with the wooden sword again. After reapplying the third silver vein to conceal it, he pushed open the wooden house door, took a deep breath, and was about to stride out proudly. But thinking about the upcoming small competition at Xiangyun Mountain in over two months, he felt it was still not stable enough.
"Not enough. Those opponents will definitely be fierce. I have to prepare more," Bai Xiaochun gritted his teeth and recalled the two stages introduced in the Purple Qi Cauldron Technique.
"Handling heavy things with ease, and handling light things as if heavy."
These two states are methods of enlightenment that appear during the cultivation of the Purple Qi Cauldron Technique. If one reaches the pinnacle, they can evolve a divine ability called Purple Qi Cauldron Transformation.
Currently, in the southern bank of Lingxi Sect, Purple Qi Cauldron is a basic cultivation technique that almost everyone practices. But not many can reach the stage of handling heavy things with ease; the second stage of handling light things as if heavy is even rarer. As for the highest level that evolves the Purple Qi Cauldron divine ability, that is even more uncommon.
Even those who truly comprehend the Purple Qi Cauldron divine ability are mostly disciples of the Zi Ding Peak.
"Handling heavy things with ease... only upon reaching this level of controlling objects can my grip improve significantly," Bai Xiaochun thought, lowering his head to look at the wooden sword in his hand.
During his battle with Xu Baocai back then, the supervisors and kitchen staff mistakenly thought he had understood handling heavy things with ease. Thinking back now, a faint flash of insight passed through Bai Xiaochun's mind.
"The reason I was thought to have comprehended handling heavy things with ease was because of how skillfully I controlled the wooden sword, but most of that was due to the considerable power of the sword itself after spirit refinement.
In truth, my skill in manipulating the wooden sword is not proficient and far from mastering handling heavy things with ease..." Bai Xiaochun frowned, sitting cross-legged in the yard, staring down at the wooden sword. His eyes slowly lost focus, veins of blood appearing.
After a moment, his right hand suddenly raised, and the wooden sword flew out, slashing fiercely forward. The wind roared, stirring up dust on the ground. Bai Xiaochun's brow furrowed more deeply. His right hand made a gesture again, this time pointing not at the wooden sword, but at the large rock outside the yard that the sword had just pierced.
At his finger's command, the large rock trembled violently, slowly rising about a foot. Bai Xiaochun's internal spirit energy became unstable, and with a boom, the rock fell back down.
But Bai Xiaochun was not discouraged. His eyes grew even brighter, and with persistence, he circulated his spirit energy and pointed once more.
Once, twice, three times...
Time passed, and half a month flew by. During this time, Bai Xiaochun had been attempting almost every moment to control that huge rock. The rock was more than three people tall and weighed no less than seven or eight hundred jin (about 350-400 kg). Even with Bai Xiaochun's Qi Condensation stage at level five peak, fully controlling it was no easy task.
This was only possible because his cultivation was refined; other Qi Condensation level fives could at most lift the rock a few inches.
By now, after a month of relentless effort, Bai Xiaochun discovered his biggest difficulty in controlling the rock was not lack of spirit energy but instability in control. Often, even when his spirit energy remained, it would suddenly cut off by itself.
"Spirit energy must become a thread, flowing steadily, never breaking — this is the key to controlling objects," Bai Xiaochun's eyes gleamed with light, bloodshot and hoarse as he murmured.
It was like ordinary people making noodles. Pull too fast, and the noodles snap; too slow, and they can't stretch long enough. You must find the right measure of strength to make them smooth and effortless.
Similarly, for cultivators to control objects at an extraordinary level, they must maintain that exact measure steadily. Naturally, this increased the difficulty.
"I get it now. Handling heavy things with ease isn't literally about making heavy things feel light. That's just the appearance. The real meaning lies in controlling spirit energy!"
"My total spirit energy at Qi Condensation level five is the 'heavy' part, and turning it into a thin but unbroken thread is the 'light' part. If I can achieve that, it's handling heavy things with ease. The outward manifestation is the smoothness and speed after mastery!" Bai Xiaochun's expression brightened. After figuring this out, he raised his right hand and waved it. Instantly, the huge rock in the distance trembled and was lifted suddenly.
It felt as if an invisible giant hand grabbed the rock. After lifting it into the air with a whoosh, the rock came rushing toward Bai Xiaochun but paused halfway and slammed down in the yard, raising a cloud of dust.
Bai Xiaochun didn't lose heart and continued trying. Another half month passed. He found that no matter what, he still couldn't keep his spirit energy thread unbroken continuously.
Sometimes, even if he really did it, the rock's great weight made the spirit energy thread unstable and break.
Controlling the wooden sword, however, was a different story. Because the sword was much lighter than the rock, Bai Xiaochun clearly felt much easier when controlling it. After a month of practice, his speed had also increased.
In fact, this was already handling heavy things with ease, but Bai Xiaochun was not satisfied. His eyes turned red, and with a fierce bite of his teeth, a ruthless determination grew.
"I don't believe it!" Bai Xiaochun pointed with his right hand. The huge rock flew up above his head.
Sweat dripped from Bai Xiaochun's forehead. Heart pounding with fear, he tried his best to maintain the invisible spirit energy thread. If it broke, the rock would fall. Although it wouldn't kill him, it would cause intense pain.
This time, he lasted much longer. After half an hour, with a roar, Bai Xiaochun screamed in pain as the rock slammed down. After some shaking, it was pushed aside, and Bai Xiaochun crawled out.
Thanks to his indestructible skin protection, he wasn't injured, but the pain made him grimace.
His fighting spirit only grew stronger. After continuously trying for another month, the rock that used to fall multiple times daily now only fell once a day. Eventually, Bai Xiaochun could even sometimes avoid failure for an entire day.
The rock was also gradually lifted higher, reaching over ten zhang (about 30 meters) at its highest. If it fell from that height, even Bai Xiaochun would turn pale from the pain.
Only through this could he keep his mind highly concentrated.
Gradually, he achieved stable handling heavy things with ease — his internal spirit energy maintained continuously without interruption. Yet, he was still not satisfied. He stopped sitting cross-legged and meditating, instead moving around while keeping the spirit energy thread unbroken.
The difficulty increased, and the yard echoed with roars again and again.
Days passed. When only three days remained until the small competition at Xiangyun Mountain that Li Qinghou mentioned, Bai Xiaochun's yard had the heavy rock floating in mid-air. His figure moved swiftly inside, truly achieving the state of continuous motion while the rock remained perfectly still.
After moving for a long time, Bai Xiaochun stopped in front of the wooden house, looked up and laughed loudly. Raising his right hand, he waved, and the rock in mid-air flew out of the yard, landing steadily in its original place.
Bai Xiaochun made a hand gesture; the wooden sword flew out again, still slashing simply forward. But its speed was so fast it blurred — its power had increased severalfold compared to before.
His face beamed with joy as he rapidly performed hand seals.
At the peak speed, combined with the wooden sword's power, it immediately reached an astonishing level. For a moment, countless wooden sword images appeared in the yard, sword qi flying everywhere.
Finally, with a flick of his sleeve, all the sword images vanished, leaving only one that flew straight to Bai Xiaochun and disappeared into his storage pouch.
"This time, I should be able to make it into the top five, right?" Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath. Although he still didn't feel fully confident, with the time drawing near, he could only calm his mind, sit cross-legged, and keep himself in the best condition.