Shocked, he looked back to see himself sitting cross-legged in meditation in the glowing sphere. Because his soul was no longer in his body, the mask on his face stopped working, and slowly fell down onto his chest.
Bai Xiaochun was taken aback by this unexpected turn of events, and yet there was nothing he could do to change the situation. In the next moment, his soul slammed into the stone stele.
More rumbling sounds filled his mind, like the sound of thousands of ghosts screaming simultaneously, trying to shred his soul to pieces.
Thankfully, it didn’t last for long, only a few breaths worth of time. Then the sounds faded away, his blurred vision turned clear, and he found himself in a private chamber of some sort.
The walls were pitch black, and seemed oppressively sinister. The chamber was completely empty except for three stone daises, each one roughly waist-high. Atop the center dais was a withered yellow leaf that seemed completely ordinary in nature, and in fact, that was exactly what it was. It was a leaf so ordinary that it couldn’t have been more mundane.
Floating above the left-hand stone dais was a slowly-burning tongue of red flame. The flame wasn’t very hot, only a bit more than ordinary flame from the mortal world. However, Bai Xiaochun could instantly tell that it was no ordinary flame; it was the one-colored flame that was commonly seen in the cultivation world.
On the right-hand dais were some random materials such as rocks, vegetation, and metals, as well as some other things that Bai Xiaochun didn’t recognize.
However, there was something familiar about them, and after a moment, he realized that they reminded him of some of the things he had seen Big Fatty Zhang use when performing spirit enhancements.
Other than the three stone daises, there was nothing else in the room. Clearly, this room was designed to be a spirit enhancement workshop, and the current task was to perform a onefold spirit enhancement.
Bai Xiaochun looked around, and took a moment to study the one-colored flame. Then he thought back to how the mask had fallen off his face outside, and started to get nervous. Finally, he gritted his teeth and said, “I'm probably fine. The glowing spheres are really tough, otherwise, the people who showed up first would have ended up getting killed. First things first, I need to see if I can summon my turtle-wok....” After all, he didn’t have his bag of holding in this place, nor any of his other belongings. Therefore, he took a deep breath and then waved his finger like he usually did to summon the turtle-wok.
Instantly, a black light shot out, resolving into the shape of the turtle-wok!
Bai Xiaochun was taken aback, but quickly began to laugh proudly.
“It came in with me! Hahaha! I can’t believe it actually came in with me!!” Eyes shining brightly, he thought about what it would be like to take 1st place and get his hands on that deva soul.
“With my turtle-wok, who can possibly compete with me?!
“Hmmphhh! When Bai Xiaochun wants to take 1st place, who dares to stand in his way!” Confidently swishing his sleeve, he stuck his chin up proudly. However, he knew that time was of the essence, so he quickly suppressed his excitement and walked up to take the one-colored flame. Then, he excitedly threw it into the turtle-wok.
In response, the turtle-wok trembled and soaked up the flame, and the designs on its surface began to shine brightly.
More confident than ever, Bai Xiaochun chuckled and then carefully picked up the withered leaf. After looking it over and confirming it was just an ordinary item, he muttered, “What a waste to enhance a leaf like this.” However, he felt fairly certain that, no matter what items he enhanced here, he would not be able to take them with him, so in the end, it didn’t really matter how the fuel was used. Therefore, he tossed the leaf into the turtle-wok.
Instantly, the turtle-wok’s designs flared with light that coalesced onto the leaf. A moment later, the blinding light faded away, and a single silver design could be seen on the surface of the leaf!
Bai Xiaochun quickly picked it up and looked at it. Other than the silver design, he couldn’t find anything else about it that was unusual.
“What a waste,” he thought, shaking his head. Looking over at the left-hand dais, he saw that another tongue of flame had appeared, this one with two colors. Of course, it was none other than two-colored flame.
“I guess it doesn’t matter. This is just a trial by fire, and none of this stuff belongs to me anyway. No skin off my back.” With that, he casually took the two-colored flame and started another spirit enhancement.
Before long, the leaf had two silver designs on it. Then a third, a fourth, and so-on, until there were a total of eight. By this point, Bai Xiaochun was really bemoaning the whole situation.
“An eightfold spirit enhancement....” he murmured, looking at the leaf in his palm. It was still withered, but was clearly more durable and tough than before. It was even glowing a bit, and was obviously much more than an ordinary leaf. It was now some sort of treasure.
At this point he had another idea, considering that it had become a valuable treasure. If he could brand it to himself, then perhaps it would recognize him as its master, and then allow him to take it away with him when he left....
Hoping for the best, he performed an incantation gesture and pointed out, sending his personal mark into the leaf, which glowed in response. It was a success!
Pleased, Bai Xiaochun took the nine-colored flame and began to perform another spirit enhancement....
Nine, ten....
Before long, there were a shocking ten silver designs on the surface of the leaf. Although it still looked withered, its fundamental nature had changed, and it now glowed with a bright light. Anyone who looked at it would take it to be jade or some other precious stone!
“Tenfold enhancement....” Bai Xiaochun murmured. Looking over at the stone dais, he watched as an eleven-colored flame took form, entrancing and eye-catching.
Most accurately speaking, the eleven-colored flame wasn’t actually made up of eleven colors. However, Bai Xiaochun could tell just by looking at it that it was eleven-colored flame!
It was impossible to describe exactly how he knew it. Further, there was something about how the fire was constantly changing that tugged at his soul with shocking power.
Thinking back to the golden design on the fire soul arrow, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes glittered, and he thought, “In the past, I speculated about what miraculous transformations would occur with an elevenfold spirit enhancement....”
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Chapter
554: Profoundly Mysterious!
When Bai Xiaochun’s soul entered the trial by fire dimension inside of the stone stele, none of the other people participating in the trials could see.
However, Zhou Yixing still hadn’t selected which trial by fire to enter. At one point, he got a strange feeling, and looked over to find that one of the glowing spheres off in the distance was growing brighter.
At that point, his jaw dropped as he realized that he was looking at Bai Xiaochun sitting there, his mask having fallen off of his face.
Bai Xiaochun’s glowing sphere was much brighter than it was before, and from the look of it, appeared to already be among the 500 brightest spheres.
“So, it turns out he really is Bai Xiaochun! How could he be going so fast!? What trial by fire did he pick?!” Unconvinced that Bai Xiaochun could possibly be advancing so quickly, he took a deep breath and tore his gaze away, determined to focus solely on his own trial by fire.
Meanwhile, back in the private spirit enhancement workshop, the turtle-wok was absorbing the eleven-colored flame, and Bai Xiaochun was looking on in anticipation as the leaf began to shine brightly.