Chapter 8: Miraculous Copper Bell
At this point in time, the size of Little Fatty’s dimension has expanded to 600 feet. There is a large quantity increase in the various materials, especially the mountain of black iron, which showed an increase to around 20 or 30 feet in height. In addition, there was still a pile of waste by the side. They consisted of flying swords and magical tools. It was just that the grade wasn’t considered high, mostly ordinary goods. This was inevitable as high grade goods are sparse in nature. Furthermore, Song Zhong was mainly focused on finding the copper fragments, so he did not spend much time searching for goods. He could only use these rubbish to make up the numbers, which beats letting the black soil stay idle.
Song Zhong was already accustomed to his surroundings. When he entered, he went straight to the centre, where there was a copper bell of 2 feet in height. This was pieced together by the copper fragments, and now there was only a little fragment missing. He had a premonition that when the copper bell was completely pieced together, something surprising will happen, that was why he refrained from piecing it together in the Sky Ravine, instead coming back to rest. Only after he felt prepared did he carry out this last step.
With an uneasy heart, Little Fatty inserted the copper fragment in his hands lightly on the copper bell. When the copper fragment fit perfectly in the hole, the whole copper bell immediately jerked. It then abruptly burst into a resplendent brilliance.
Little Fatty was forced afar by a soft and flexible force, and then fell on the floor in a sitting posture.
Once Little Fatty, who was in a frightened state regained his vision, he was stunned speechless by the sight in front of him.
He could see that the broken copper bell had a complete change in look. First was the size, which increased to over 30 feet high, and 10 feet wide. Next was the engravings on the bell. The uppermost layer had the sun, moon and stars. Below that were the clouds, amidst it was a Heavenly Temple, barely distinctable yet magnificent. There were also countless Celestial Troops as well as Fairies flying through the sky.
Going down the layer was the Divine Dragon, Black Turtle, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird and a multitude of other divine beasts, flying freely in the sky, and seemingly phantasmagoric. Another layer down were the beautiful mountains and rivers, where there resides all sort of winged and land-dwelling creatures, flowers, birds, worms and fishes, it was filled with countless beautiful sceneries.
At the lowest layer was the Asura Blood Field, river of hell, and a huge spectrum of demons were wailing and causing mischief. Anyone who laids eyes on it would feel fear.
By glancing through, they looked like engravings on the bell. But in reality, they were all alive, appearing intermittently based on the contrast of the given light and shade.
The massive bell gave out a majestic atmosphere. Although it was only 30 feet high, but anyone who stood before the bell, they would unknowingly have a feeling of insignificance, as though the bell represented the heavens and earth.
Such a beautiful, solemn and atmospheric treasure. Don’t mention seeing, Little Fatty had not even heard of it before, causing him to stand there stock still. Only after half a day did he come to his senses, and immediately shouted excitedly, “Wow! I’m rich! This, this is definitely not an ordinary magical artifact. No no, what magical artifact, this is definitely a soul artifact! I’m definitely right!”
Thinking about this, Little Fatty got excited beyond words, and jumped, climbing up to the top of the bell as he shouted, “Mine, you are mine. I’m going to make you recognise me as your owner. Yes yes, recognition of owner, blood, let me give it to you~”
As he said this, Little Fatty who was already speaking incoherently slid his wrist and dripped a few drops of blood onto the big bell. What happened next left him in misery. His blood was completely unable to be absorbed on the bell. It was as though a formless energy had rejected the blood, as though it thought his blood was dirty.
As Little Fatty saw this, he angrily said, “Hey hey, can you not be so heartless? It took me a lot of effort just to restore you, and now you do not want to recognise me as your owner? You cannot fall out with me like that!”
“Buzz~”, The big copper bell rumbled slightly. Song Zhong, who was at the top of the bell, felt his mind turn fuzzy, and was sent flying.
Just as Little Fatty thought he would fall, the big copper bell suddenly shot out a ray of golden light directly in between Song Zhong’s eyebrows, following which, Song Zhong began to float in the air.
Little Fatty then felt an overwhelming presence channelling countless amounts of information into his head. At the same time, a wave of majestic and boundless energy flowed into his body along with the golden ray of light. This form of energy was really strong, even when the XianTian Qi in Song Zhong’s body met with it, it would be melted away as though it was a flake of snow falling into the river, without a single ripple being formed.
Song Zhong thought that he was going to be finished. But, he did not expect that not only did the energy not harm him, it even followed a special route, within the channels of his body. Every cycle it made, it would grow even stronger, and also greatly strengthened Song Zhong’s channels.
No matter how foolish Song Zhong was, he could also tell that this was a powerful cultivating method. Shocked beyond belief, he could not be bothered with other things. As he was receiving the information from the golden light, he was simultaneously also memorising this cultivation method.
Very quickly, Little Fatty understood that the information which the golden ray was transmitting to him was the incantation to this cultivation method. The incantation began with “鸿蒙初始，混沌初开，无分阴阳，不见五行，盘古开天，清气上升乃为阳，浊气下降是为阴，阴阳交替，乃出五行。故曰，五行之祖，混沌也！《混沌诀》由此而生！五行俱全，且属性平衡者，可修习之！” *(T/N: I will explain this below at the end of the chapter, it looks better when kept in its original chinese form)
From the introduction, this cultivation method called the 《Primal Chaos Formula》, seems to be of great origin. It is fundamentally different from the popular cultivation methods of the 5 elements. It actually needs someone with all 5 elements in order to cultivate it. Furthermore, the effects would be best manifested in someone with an average affinity. In order words, Song Zhong, who others perceived as thrash, became the best candidate for such a cultivation method.
Understanding this, Song Zhong had a feeling of ecstasy in his heart. One have to know that with his talent, it would be tough for him to even find a suitable cultivation method. He can only pick out a cultivation method from a single element, and he would never be able to compare to those with better talent. Now, serendipitously obtaining such a suitable cultivation method, how would he not be happy?
After an unknown period of time, Little Fatty came to his senses. After getting up, he was then shocked by his body’s condition.
In the past, his XianTian Qi was considered messy. Although it contained the Qi of all 5 elements, it was all haphazardly mixed together. This resulted in him being unable to display the strength of Qi which he had. But now, Song Zhong found out that strangely, there was no longer any evidence of the spiritual qi of each of the 5 elements in him. All the spiritual qi in his body was transformed into a special misty grey-like Qi.
However in the past, although the XianTian Qi was messy, the amount was still impressive. Now, although the Qi which circulates around in his body is very comfortable, the Qi which had been transformed into the grey Qi is much lower in quantity. The spiritual Qi was so thinly spread that it was negligible, which made Song Zhong feel depressed. But, he did not feel his ability regressed in any way, especially his body. His body had an unexplainable sense of comfort, and he felt as though he was filled with energy.
Feeling this, Little Fatty could not care about how much spiritual Qi he had. He raised his head, looked towards the big bell, and couldn’t help but say with regret, “What a pity, you only gave me a cultivation method, but you still do not recognise me as your owner!”
While speaking, Little Fatty tried to extend his spiritual sense towards the big bell, wanting to investigate its secrets. But, he found out that his spiritual sense managed to penetrate the big bell very easily. He could also sense countless of strange inscriptions within the bell. These inscriptions seemed to be full of a mysterious energy. Just by looking for it a while, Song Zhong felt dizzy and confused, he could not take it any longer and quickly exited.
He couldn’t help but exclaim, “Strange, what was those inscriptions? Also, I’m not its owner, but why can my spiritual sense penetrate in so easily? Isn’t it said that only the owner of the magical artifact can allow his divine sense to penetrate through it, and control it through spiritual sense? If anyone’s spiritual sense can also enter into this spiritual artifact, then who would this spiritual artifact listen to? Eh? You mean to say, I am already its owner?”
An anxious and doubtful Song Zhong tried using his spiritual sense to command the big copper bell to float towards himself. In the end, the big copper bell really began floating slowly towards him!
Little Fatty was completely stunned ‘This, this, what is the meaning of this? I did not refine it at all, how can I control it? In all my life, didn’t I only refine one Natal Artifact?’
Thinking about this, Little Fatty’s eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help but delightedly saying, “Ah, that’s it, this copper bell was discovered by my Natal Artifact. It seems like there is a close relationship between them. If not that black pearl would not have forced me to search for this bell. Don’t tell me that they are actually a set, no, that they are actually a single magical artifact which was split into 2 segments?”
Other than this conjecture, Little Fatty could not think of any other reason why he could use this big copper bell. These sort of high grade magical artifacts, even for an expert to refine it would take great effort. Thus, unless he had refined it beforehand, it would definitely not allow him to use it so easily.
Little Fatty naturally had doubts about this conjecture of his. But, it did not stop him from being elated for obtaining this high grade magical artifact. He excitedly commanded the big copper bell to fly a few rounds, then tried changing its size. After a short while, Song Zhong familiarised himself with the speciality of this bell.
First, the size of the bell can be changed freely. When it was small, it could be placed in the palm. When it was big, it is a few hundred feet tall, almost breaking the roof of this dimension. This is most certainly not it’s limit, it was just that Song Zhong was unable to support the amount of qi consumed to allow to it to grow further.
However, commanding the bell consumes a lot of spiritual Qi. After just playing for a while, Little Fatty was completely exhausted. This left him with no choice but to meditate and adjust his breath.
The spiritual qi density within the dimension was now colossally dense, but the spiritual qi in this place cannot increase infinitely. A few days ago, when the spiritual Qi reached the point of saturation, it brought another surprise to Song Zhong. The excess spiritual Qi could automatically condense and form pieces of spiritual stones. Although it was the lowest grade of spiritual stone, with only about 10 in quantity, but Song Zhong was elated.
With this, Little Fatty could have an almost unlimited supply of spiritual stones. As long as it contained spiritual Qi, even the lowest grade trash could be used since it would also give out large amounts of spiritual Qi after being disassembled. The excess can always be condensed to form spiritual stones. It was just that the disassembly ability of the black soil is limited, because the area of black soil is not large, so it could not disassemble too many items at once. The amount of spiritual stones which Song Zhong would receive daily would hence be limited.
No matter what, this was an unexpected windfall. With this source of income, at least Song Zhong would not have to worry any more about the 20 low grade spiritual stone for tax to go to Firmament City.
*In the great beginning, beginning of primal chaos, there was no differentiation between Yin and Yang, the five elements were non-existent, as Pan Gu(The chinese myths believe that he created the world) created the heavens, the clear Qi which rose was Yang, impure Qi which sunk was Yin, as Yin-Yang alternate, the 5 elements were born. In order words, the progenitor of the 5 elements, is the primal chaos. 《Primal Chaos Formula》 is born from this! Those who posses all 5 elements, and have an average affinity with all, are able to cultivate this!