The Mysterious Cauldron

After trying the Iron Fist Against A Tiger numerous times, Xin, satisfied, looked at the sky and saw it had darkened considerably.

He walked outside the hut, grabbed a torch, and surveyed the garden of herbs. He had to make sure everything was safe here before he could safely return.

After a few minutes, pretty much, there's nothing extraordinary, bizarre, or weird happening in the garden so he locked the gates and swiftly returned to the hut.

Sitting cross-legged in the bed, he put the pills on the pillow. There's a total of fifteen Qi Pills Senior Sister Bin Jinyi gives me. This should be enough to last me for a few days. If lucky, I should be able to soon enter the next level, refine my flesh, and achieved Qi Refinement Third Realm.

The Qi Refinement Realm was divided into nine stages. Mainly every three stages had a single objective temper, alter, and refine. The first three stages were to temper, alter, and refine the flesh. Whereas the next three stages were for the muscle and the last three stages to the bones.

Xin An had achieved the fifth stage of Qi Refinement two years ago. But for some reason, after that accident, he had unable to absorb Qi from meditation which he suffered from the misfortune as his cultivation dropped two stages. If he wanted to advance, he had to rely upon Qi Pills.

For the past two years, he was constantly trying to get his hands on this kind of pill, but a certain someone would always bully him and take his pills from him, rendering him from able to absorbed one. Today happened to be a stroke of luck since that bully was out to do a mission from the Administrative Hall.

Xin An clenched his fists and regulated his breathing. When he thought of that bullied name, his entire body would tremble in fear. 'It seems like this is a lingering sentiment of the previous owner of this body. If I can achieve greatness, don't worry, I'll make him pay.'

After a moment, Xin An grabbed one of the Qi Pills and swallowed it. The sensation that he wanted to achieve didn't happen and instead, a vortex of flashing object absorbed the energy from the pill as it disappeared.

Xin was shocked. He hurriedly grabbed another pill and focused his spiritual sense as he swallowed it whole. Then looker carefully at the dantian area as a flash of what it seems a cauldron absorbed the energy from within it.

What...What is this? Is this some Heavenly Divine Object of the protagonist or his cheat-like ability? Holy shit is this for real?! Xin couldn't believe what he was seeing. He reminisced the past where he first read xianxia novels, that day felt like he won a lottery and spent his entire time reading. This situation was exactly the same!

'Hey? What are you? Tell me about your effects. Benefits any? Hey!' Xin An tried to communicate with it but the cauldron had ignored his existence. It had disappeared completely on his dantian as soon as it engulfed the essence of the pill.

Xin An didn't believe the cauldron would ignore him all the time, so he grabbed all the pill and stuffed them into his mouth, and swallowed it one by one. The pills entered his body, as the cauldron flashed and appeared again, engulfing the entire essence.

Bluurpppph..... Surprisingly, after absorbing all the pills, Xin could hear it burping in satisfaction. Then, a sudden burst of pure and abundant energy leaked out from its lid. Those energies were instantly absorbed into Xin's body as it refined his entire flesh.

What? But how? Is this... Golden Essence from the legend? Xin was shocked. After fusing the memory of the previous body, he could naturally learn of basic knowledge this body knows. For instance, this Golden Essence was one of them.

This Golden Essence was a legend since the Ancient Past. Once a person could absorb the Golden Essence of Greater Dao, he would be a destined great figure in his era. Never did he imagined this lousy broken-like cauldron could convert pills into Golden Essence! Shit, this is unexpected!

It was said that Golden Essence was a hundred times purer than Nature's Qi and was more refine and cultivation wise.

With the cauldron, maybe... I can become someone greater! Xin almost stumbled down on his bed from laughing too hard. He could felt that if he had just more pills, he could completely refine his flesh and achieved Fourth Stage Qi Refinement.

As he stood, rotated on circled, and immersed in thought, Xin couldn't think of a better solution to get Qi Pills. It was really hard to get Qi Pills unless you're a disciple.

Wait...Does this Cauldron also work on herbs? Xin suddenly had the thought to take one herb from the garden and test it out. He was, after all, the caretaker so there shouldn't anyone probably would notice him if he stole an insignificant herb. 'Xin An, no, stealing is bad. What are you thinking? Wake up you fool!'

He could attempt to kneel in front of Bin Jinyi to give him more pills, but he dismissed that thought. From Bin Jinyi's attitude of throwing the cloth in front of him and letting him pick it up earlier, it's most likely she wouldn't give him some pills again. 'I guess, I might steal then. No choice. Xin An, just this one. Just this one.'

Walking out of the hut, Xin carefully scanned the surrounding. If there's someone near the garden he would immediately dismiss the thought of stealing. Fortunately, he arrived without getting caught, opened the gate, and act naturally as if he was just checking the herbs.

Glancing that, glancing there, glancing right, and finally lowered his body inches to the ground and whistled as he pulled out a herb. Calmly putting it through his martial robe, he locked the gate of the garden and returned to his hut. He couldn't steal two otherwise THAT old man would notice amiss.

'Pheww...My heartbeat is raising so shit. Even though I'm a wanted criminal with five million bounties in my head, this shit still nearly had my heart jump out.' Xin wiped his sweat off and pulled out the herb he had stolen. 'What? I accidentally grabbed two? Wait...Two herbs on one body... I grabbed a twin herb?'

Xin wasn't paying attention to what he was grabbing or what shit it was. He didn't want to get caught so he didn't bring any form of light that would attract unwanted guests. But stealing a twenty-year-old Twin Herb was hella luck!

Herbal medicines were unlike pills. They could only be absorbed by infusing Chi on it and refine it slowly. I should stay awake and cultivate all day then.

After deciding, Xin sat cross-legged and refined the Twin Herb. However, he split it into two, to test if the cauldron would absorb it. But then, utilizing the cauldron, a swoosh sound abruptly resonated from his stomach, as a vortex-like mouth appeared and swallowed the Twin Herb from his hand. It made Xin An jumped out in fright as though he felt that some snake had bitten him.

Then suddenly warm energy scattered across his body, refining his flesh to its fullest capacity. Xin An was lost in time when a could sensation entered the muscle... He entered the Fourth Qi Refinement Path!