Chapter 178: So Little Mask, You Want To Play Hide-And-Seek With Lord Bai?
Bai Xiaochun found it completely bizarre, and simply couldn’t imagine what type of place he was in.
After a while, he decided to stop thinking about the mists and what lay beyond. Taking a deep breath, he slowly calmed down.
“I guess it doesn’t matter. One thing’s for sure: my speed of enlightenment here is incredible. I can really benefit a lot.” Shaking his head, he completely stilled the shock within him.
“No wonder they allocate time in here by the day. Even allocating it by the hour would make sense. Every day here counts as an opportunity for major gains by any cultivator.” All of a sudden, he felt overtaken by a sense of urgency. He had spent three days on the Violet Qi Heavenspan Incantation, which meant he had five days left.
“I can’t waste any time!” He quickly pulled a jade slip out of his bag of holding and poured some spiritual power into it. Soon, a mnemonic appeared in his mind.
“Undying Heavenly King!” he said, eyes shining with excitement. That jade slip had been given to him years ago by the man known as the gravekeeper. It was the second volume of the Undying Codex! The Undying Heavenly King!
In the first volume of the Undying Codex, one cultivated the power of the skin, which was called the Undying Skin. The second volume focused on fleshly body power, and was called the Undying Heavenly King!
Similar to the Undying Skin, the Undying Heavenly King was divided into four levels. However, they were not divided into iron, bronze, silver, and gold. Instead, they were four fleshly body types. The first level was the ten mammoths Berserk Ghost Body. The second was the ten ghosts Heavenly Demon Body. The third level was the ten demons Asura Body. The final level was the Undying Heavenly King Body!
Each of those four fleshly body types was more powerful than the one before it, with the most powerful being the Undying Heavenly King Body. It was actually thousands of times more powerful than the first level, the Berserk Ghost Body!
Bai Xiaochun had actually known about this some time ago, but because he had never mastered the Undying Skin, he had been unable to proceed with the higher levels of cultivation. Now that he was examining it again, the Undying Heavenly King was completely shocking.
“The so-called mammoths referenced in the ten mammoths Berserk Ghost Body were not ordinary creatures. They were gargantuan mammoths from primeval times, who emanated incredible pressure all around them. Even their fleshly body strength alone was comparable to an early Foundation Establishment cultivator!
“The mammoth power from the Dragon Mammoth Sea-Forming Scripture is similar. After reaching Foundation Establishment, my fleshly body power is actually similar to one of those gigantic mammoths.
“As for the berserk ghost, the Undying Heavenly King information says that in the legends, there was a terrifying entity that could rip mammoths to shreds. It was actually a ghost-like beast with a terrifying fleshly body!” Considering the current level of his cultivation base, he found the information about the Undying Heavenly King even more shocking than before.
“Basically, if I cultivate the first level of the Undying Heavenly King, then in the end, my fleshly body power will be ten times what it is now, which will be the power of a single ghost of the second level. The power of ten such berserk ghosts will put me at the level of the heavenly demon.
“According to the information, heavenly demons were also legendary creatures with terrifying fleshly body power, who hunted and consumed berserk ghosts!
“Asuras have ten times the power of heavenly demons, and according to the legends, would easily crush heavenly demons. I guess that means that the Undying Heavenly King has ten times the power of an asura?”
Bai Xiaochun’s eyes were shining brightly. He was already deeply familiar with the benefits of his Undying Skin, and as such, was even more excited about the Undying Heavenly King. He could already imagine what it would be like one day to combine the power of the Undying Heavenly King with the Undying Gold Skin. Although he wouldn’t literally be undying, he would definitely be very difficult to kill!
“This volume of the Undying Heavenly King can lead to explosive fleshly body growth! If I cultivate it successfully, it would be hard to find a Foundation Establishment cultivator under heaven who could kill me!” With that, he quickly closed his eyes and began to work on the first level of the Undying Heavenly King.
It was not an easy task, and the difficulty lay in the vast amount of vital energy that was required. The requirements of the first volume of the Undying Codex were like nothing compared to this. After cultivating it for a bit, Bai Xiaochun was already looking withered, and he quickly stopped.
“What a terrifying waste of vital energy. If you’re not careful, you’ll turn yourself into human jerky….” When he thought of what he would look like as a slab of human jerky, he couldn’t help but shiver in fear. However, he wasn’t willing to give up. That was especially true because of the divine ability he would have access to if he successfully cultivated the first level.
“The Mountain Shaking Bash….” he thought, taking a deep breath. He immediately decided that after leaving the arcane pocket realm, he would concoct pills and even stock up on precious materials that could replenish vital energy. Regardless of how difficult it was, he had to cultivate the Undying Heavenly King.
After some brief calculations, he realized he had three days left. Without any further hesitation, he took the Protomagnetic Wings off of his back and examined them closely. In the very middle of the wings was a pearl, which he’d acquired from the north bank in trade for the pill formula for the Aphrodisiac Pill. It was known as the Protomagnetic Pearl.
According to the peak lord from Irispetal Peak, if it was his destiny, he might able able to gain enlightenment of a divine ability that had to do with gravitational repulsion.
Although he had looked into the matter before, he had never made much headway. With three days left in this place, he decided that maybe it was a good time to take another look.
Time flew by, and before he knew it, there were only about eight hours of time left in the arcane pocket realm. However, he didn’t give up. Even though he hadn’t gained complete enlightenment of the powers of gravity and repulsion, he did have a much deeper understanding of the magnetic powers of the pearl.
Now he was able to unleash a strange power that contained both pulling and pushing forces, which, when combined, caused the air to distort into the form of a pearl.
The pearl seemed illusory, but affected the air around it, causing it to twist and distort. When Bai Xiaochun poured spiritual power into it, the power vanished like a rock thrown into the deep sea. However, as soon as he ceased the flow, the power which he had poured into the crystal rumbled back out. Shocked, he realized that the pearl apparently maintained balance in the form of a cycle, making it a vessel of sorts.
Even still, he was unable to unleash the powers of gravity and repulsion. If he managed to succeed in the future, he would finally be able to make contact with true protomagnetic power.
“What a pity. If I could only spend some more time in here, I would definitely be able to unravel the mystery.” Sighing, he put the wings back, and then used the remaining eight hours working on his Waterswamp Kingdom.
When the eight hours were up, the air around him began to ripple, and before he could do anything further, everything around him collapsed. Rumbling sounds echoed out as a vortex formed, which sucked Bai Xiaochun inside.
After vanishing, he reappeared back on Mount Daoseed, outside the entrance of the arcane pocket realm. He immediately felt disoriented. Inside the arcane pocket realm, his mind had been unprecedentedly clear. His thoughts seemed to roam free without restraint. But now he was back to normal, and it felt almost like he had been submerged in water. He felt very muddleheaded.
The prime elder opened his eyes and looked at him, and was immediately shaken. Bai Xiaochun seemed completely different than he had eight days ago. All aspects of his energy seemed far stronger than before.
The old man nodded in admiration, then said, “People usually have a hard time adjusting after their first time in the arcane pocket realm. Go meditate for a few days and you’ll be fine.”
With that, he closed his eyes.
It took Bai Xiaochun a moment to even recover to the point where he could move. Ashen-faced, he clasped hands and bowed to the prime elder, then left.
After returning to his immortal’s cave, he sat down next to the lake, working at readjusting himself, and simultaneously recalling his experiences in the pocket realm. Finally, he sighed.
“If only I could have sought enlightenment in there for a few more days. Cultivating in there is pure joy. Just what kind of place is it? It’s so weird.” He shook his head. It was actually possible to pay merit points to enter the arcane pocket realm, but with Bai Xiaochun’s current savings, he could only afford a few hours.
Considering how uncomfortable he felt, it was impossible to clear his mind enough to practice cultivation. After some thought, he unstrapped his bag of holding.
It was filled with all sorts of miscellaneous items, including many things that he’d acquired in the Fallen Sword World. Up to this point, he hadn’t taken the time to organize them all. Upon opening it up, he saw countless objects, including spirit stones and even some magical items.
After organizing everything, he found he had a dozen or so bottles and cases, some of which contained medicinal pills, and some of which held items he wasn’t familiar with. The other sects all had different areas of specialty, so it made sense that his understanding of the items gained from them would be limited.
“Is this a spirit medicine from the Pill Stream Sect? The Pill Stream Sect’s pill concocting methods seem really interesting….
“This is from the Profound Stream Sect, right? It looks like a fingernail!
“What’s this thing? It’s so sticky….” Shaking his head, he moved on to a blood-colored jade box. As soon as he opened the box, a burst of fiery power exploded out.
At first, he wasn’t very impressed, but then he looked a bit closer, and his eyes went wide. Panting, he looked even closer at the small tongue of fire inside the jade box.
That fire was no ordinary fire, but rather, was coming out of an object located at the bottom of the box, a type of immortal grass with four different colors on its leaves. Because of the four colors on its leaves, the fire coming off of the plant itself had four different colors, making it look very strange.
Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath, and his heart began to pound. After some closer examination, he confirmed his original assumption. “Four-leaved immortal grass! A rare item that creates four-colored flame!!”
“This is a variation that only appears once in 100,000 stalks of three-leaved immortal grass. Four-leaved immortal grass can create four-colored flame….” Bai Xiaochun’s eyes began to shine. How could he ever have imagined that his bag of holding would contain an item like this?
To the disciples of the other three sects, it might just be an object useful for concocting medicine or practicing cultivation. But to Bai Xiaochun, it was like a precious treasure.
He hadn’t used his turtle-wok for quite awhile, not because he didn’t want to, but because fuel for four-colored flames was very rare in the sect, and he hadn’t been able to acquire any.
Even as he looked at the four-leaved immortal grass, he suddenly remembered something that he had acquired from one of the disciples from the Blood Stream Sect. Back in the Fallen Sword World, so many disciples had besieged him because of the heavenstring energy that he couldn’t remember them all clearly. However, there was one disciple who had made somewhat of an impression; after being killed, he had seemingly transformed into a mask and then tried to flee.
“Yeah, I remember him!” Bai Xiaochun thought, eyes flashing. He clearly remembered grabbing the mask and trying to crush it, but being unable to do so. In his hurry, he’d simply sealed it and tossed it into his bag of holding. 1
However, after searching for quite some time, he was shocked to realize that the mask was nowhere to be found.
“Impossible!” Ignoring the discomfort he felt from having just returned from the pocket realm, he drew upon the power of his cultivation base to once again search, this time even more thoroughly.
“There’s no way I’m misremembering this. I definitely threw it into my bag of holding. That mask must be some sort of magical treasure that’s actually trying to hide from me!” His eyes began to shine with intrigue.
Sticking his chin up, he said, “How dare you try to play hide-and-seek with Lord Bai, you little mask. Lord Bai can reduce you to ash with the snap of a finger!”
1. The incident with the mask happened in chapter 163