A Thought Through Eternity - Chapter 104
Dejected, Bai Xiaochun felt wronged as he returned to his cave where he made a pained groan and sighed regretfully.
“If a person is too outstanding, it isn’t a good thing. For example, me. The sect was so worried that they exempted me from missions for ten years, and they would even give me contribution points every month.” Bai Xiaochun was fretting; he believed that he was really too excellent and didn’t know how to carry on…
“It’s fine, since they won’t let me complete missions, I’ll just go refine some medicine. I originally only wanted to complete missions for the Contribution Points anyway.” Bai Xiaochun thought. He had the sort of feeling where he was prepared to sacrifice himself to contribute to the sect as he walked into the Medicine Refining Room.
“I have to master refining all the Grade 3 spirit medicines!” Walking into the Medicine Refining Room, Bai Xiaochun’s expression became solemn.
Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, half a year flew by.
During this period of half a year, besides the time he was using for cultivation, Bai Xiaochun would always be in the Medicine Refining Room refining pills, and each time he ran out of materials, he would use Contribution Points to exchange for them. His entire self gradually fell under a spell, and although he wasn’t able to master all Grade 3 spirit medicines, he didn’t give up.
The sect was slowly reverting back to normal as Bai Xiaochun stopped taking missions. Many people were relieved, especially Sect Head Zheng Yuandong who finally felt at ease, convinced that he had made the right choice by exempting Bai Xiaochun from ten years worth of missions.
It wasn’t only him, all the South Bank’s Elders and Ancestors, including Li Qinghou, also felt relaxed. It was to the point that during the regular meeting of the South Bank’s Three Mountains, Bai Xiaochun was the center of the Foundation Establishment cultivators’ discussion.
“This kid Bai Xiaochun has recently been refining medicine, and the sect is also returning to normal.”
“Refining medicine is good, let him do it. It’s the safest thing he can do, and it won’t affect other people.” Everyone had a smile on their face. They were very grateful of the tranquility during the past half a year.
But this feeling didn’t last long. After a few days, a loud sound shook the heavens as it reverberated from Bai Xiaochun’s cave in the Scented Cloud Mountain. Rumbles spread in all directions, causing countless inner sect disciples the be awakened from shock, and even the outer sect disciples were scared out of their minds.
“What is going on?!”
“Heavens! Could there be someone attacking our Spirit River Sect?!”
While everyone was in an uproar, Bai Xiaochun ran out from the immortal cave’s Medicine Refining Room, coughing. His face was pitch-black and was filled with snot and tears flowing down. He jumped straight in the hot spring and washed himself before climbing out with furrowed brows.
“It blew up?!” He was puzzled. The pill furnace in his cave was a standard one used by the inner sect disciples. Although it was a standard one, it was the exact same as the one used in the Medicine Refining Pavilion. Based on that, even if the spirit medicine was a failure, the pill furnace shouldn’t have exploded.
But just now, the pill furnace actually exploded, and even the formation array flickered.
Bai Xiaochun remained puzzled even after thinking it over. Sighing, he started cultivating with the Dragon-Elephant Ocean Forming Scripture. Following today’s cultivation, his cultivation base was on the verge of breaking through.
Bai Xiaochun wasn’t anxious, after he finished cultivating with the Dragon-Elephant Ocean Forming Scripture, he swallowed a spirit medicine that could increase his Yuan Qi and focused on the Unending Longevity Technique. The silver glow on his body grew brighter, and even a faint thread of golden light began to appear.
This procedure lasted until noon, when Bai Xiaochun took in a deep breath and stopped the technique. He stood inside the immortal cave, both of his eyes closed. Raising his hands, he chanted the mnemonics of the Water Nation Technique. After half an incense stick’s worth of time, his eyes suddenly opened as he let out a deafening howl.
An astonishing pressure suddenly surged out from his body, as if the air around him somehow changed, and a faint mist appeared. But this only lasted for a single breath’s worth of time before abruptly dissipating.
Bai Xiaochun was exhausted as he wiped off his sweat. He practiced the Water Nation Technique almost everyday, but up until now, he could only cause a small amount of pressure.
“I must continue working hard!” Bai Xiaochun only rested for a moment. After he finished cultivating for the day, he thought back to how his pill furnace had exploded. During this half a year, he had continuously refined Grade 3 spirit medicines. Although there were some successes, most of them were still failures.
This made him feel helpless. After pondering for a long time, he had a vague idea as to why the pill furnace had exploded.
“Could it be that the medicine’s power was unstable, and after increasing it, it blew up?” Bai Xiaochun pondered as he immediately ran out, used his Contribution Points to exchange for another pill furnace, and returned to continue his medicine refinement.
Those on Scented Cloud Mountain gradually discovered that the explosion from before came from Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave. Odd expressions surfaced on their faces; although they didn’t know what caused this sound, they couldn’t accept it calmly.
It was just that…only a few days later, Bai Xiaochun was in the Medicine Refining Room inside his immortal cave, investing all of his concentration into controlling the spirit medicine inside the pill furnace. However, the difficulty of concocting Grade 3 spirit medicine was just too much. When other people refined pills, they would rely on their experience and luck. And if they could succeed three out of ten times, they would be considered proficient. But Bai Xiaochun was aiming for the pinnacle; he would not stop until the moment he had solved all the problems. Because of the fact that he studied every single detail, he would often experiment many times, and as a consequence, a conflict with his medicine refinement would usually occur.
As of this moment, Bai Xiaochun abruptly widened his eyes. He felt that the spirit medicine inside the pill furnace was out of his control, and moreover, cracks started appearing on the pill furnace. Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath as wings spread from his back before he quickly left the Medicine Refining Room.
As soon as he left the room, an explosion rose to the heavens, even louder than the one before.
Countless people on the Scented Cloud Mountain rose into an uproar; it took quite a while before they calmed down. Three days later, Bai Xiaochun, who was in the Medicine Refining Room, once again, quickly escaped, screaming. After that, a third explosion shook the skies, shocking everyone once again.
Seven days later, Bai Xiaochun was, again, fearfully refining pills when he suddenly sucked in a deep breath and immediately retreated from the room. Behind him, the fourth earsplitting explosion resounded as the whole Medicine Refining Room collapsed.
The entire Scented Cloud Mountain was startled, and the eyes of all disciples turned red. After looking into it, they discovered that Bai Xiaochun was refining pills, but they couldn’t even begin to fathom what sort of pills would cause such loud explosions.
“I inquired in the Spirit Medicine Hall, in the past few days, Bai Xiaochun has exchange for about seven-eight pill furnaces!”
“That sound is the sound of a pill furnace exploding. Just what is that Bai Xiaochun refining, damn it! Is he not afraid of getting killed in the explosion!?” Despite everyone’s anger, the loud explosions… did not end, but instead continued.
Within a single month, a total of seven more loud explosions resounded from Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave, each explosion louder than the last. During the last one, the entire Scented Cloud Mountain actually shook and Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave was nearly blown apart.
Whenever the frightened Bai Xiaochun escaped from the Medicine Refining Room, the Scented Cloud Mountain’s inner sect disciples and outer sect disciples would be driven mad. Throughout the entire month, they couldn’t submerge themselves in cultivation without getting abruptly awakened from their meditation. which caused distractions to appear in their madly palpitating hearts. They had been tormented to the point where their eyes were bloodshot, and they could no longer control their anger.
Even the sound-isolating formation array seemed to have no effect against those sounds, making all the disciples furious. Even the Elders were apprehensive as they couldn’t fathom how Bai Xiaochun could create these explosions.
“This is the sound of a pill furnace exploding, just how is Bai Xiaochun refining medicine? And what… what medicine is he refining?!”
This explosions didn’t stop at all. During the second month, the noise only became louder and louder, totalling over ten times, on an average of one explosion every two days. This went on until the Scented Cloud Mountain disciples could no longer tolerate it. Enraged, they gathered outside Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave to voice their discontent.
Bai Xiaochun felt wronged and quickly came out to explain. When he looked outside his immortal cave, the sight of more than a thousand disciples greeted him, causing his face to be drained of colour. In the end, he patted his chest and tried forcefully calm the annoyed disciples down, and guaranteed that it wouldn’t happen again, quelling the crowd’s anger.
After sending off the crowd with great difficulty, Bai Xiaochun sullenly returned back to his immortal cave. Seeing more than half of the Medicine Refining Room had already collapsed, he let out a sigh. He went inside, took out a new pill furnace and stared at it with dull eyes.
A few days later, he suddenly slapped his thigh as his eyes brightened up.
“That’s it! It must’ve been because the furnace wasn’t heated enough!” He speculated excitedly and prepared for another attempt… Three days later, late at night, everyone on the Scented Cloud Mountain could hear… yet another earth-shaking explosion.
An inner sect disciple was so startled that he almost fell down. He rushed outside, his hair dishevelled as he let out an earsplitting scream.
“Bai Xiaochun! Even if you are a Heaven’s Chosen, I still want to beat you up!”
He wasn’t the only one. Quickly, in the middle of the night, almost every single inner sect disciple stormed out. Even Zhou Xinqi’s weary figure revealed itself, going straight towards Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave. Bai Xiaochun smiled apologetically and reassured them many times, making them feel helpless. Bai Xiaochun’s attitude was too good, causing them to be unsure what to do. If his attitude had been bad, at worst, they could’ve beaten him up a bit. But now… they could only clench their teeth and endure.
Bai Xiaochun returned to his cave, listless. He wanted to cry but had no tears. Sticking to his goal was turning out quite difficult.
“I, Bai Xiaochun, will absolutely not give up!” Clenching his teeth, Bai Xiaochun took out another pill furnace and inspected it closely. This time, he pondered for half a month, figuring out all the problems, and even going as far as scrutinizing each and every detail over and over again.
“Earth fire! It must’ve been because I’ve been using Earth fire!” Bai Xiaochun suddenly raised his head, his eyes bloodshot as he began refining once again… Five days later, in the early morning, a loud explosion shocked Li Qinghou. It was so loud that it could be heard all the way from Scented Cloud Mountain to the Purple Cauldron Mountain and the Green Peak Mountain
The inner sect disciples near Bai Xiaochun’s cave were dumbfounded by that loud sound. Especially Zhou Xinqi who was about to go insane. Elder Zhou’s birds cried out as quite a few feathers fell off of their bodies due to fright. The Spirit Tailed Chickens trembled, and even foam filled their mouths while the inner sect disciples’ vision blurred.
At this moment, in Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave, all of the formation arrays activated as Earth fire broke out, stirring up even the big formation array of the Scented Cloud Mountain. Bai Xiaochun struggled to climb up, his whole body pitch-black. Nevertheless, excitement filled his eyes, as he finally discovered the reason.
“It wasn’t the Earth fire which had caused it, but the allelopathy of the spirit medicine itself! This could lead to endless changes, causing something like this to happen! Grade 3 medicine pills… require one to be mindful of the pill’s allelopathy!
(ED note: In case you have forgotten: Allelopathy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allelopathy) is the chemical inhibition of a plant (or other organism) by another, when exposed to substances acting as germination or growth inhibitors.)
Not long after, both the Elders and the disciples of the Scented Cloud Mountain came out as one, killing intent flickering in their eyes as they made their way towards Bai Xiaochun’s immortal cave, carrying stones in their hands. Under nearly ten thousand furious glares, Bai XIaochun nervously climbed up, patting his chest.
“I promise…” Before he could even continue, many had already thrown their stones at him. In the end, they were still in the same sect, they couldn’t just fight him to the death. Throwing stones at him on the other hand…
“Promise your head!” Countless rocks were viciously thrown at him.