Chapter 163: A Drop of Black Water
Hum~
Just as Song Hai was pondering in silence, the aftermath of his series of actions began to ripple across the valley. Following a sound akin to a swarm of buzzing bees, the surrounding space distorted, as if heaven and earth were trembling.
"Hmm?" Song Hai furrowed his brow, withdrew his consciousness, and narrowed his eyes to survey his surroundings. Deep within his body, his magic power quietly surged, instantly preparing him to deal with any eventuality.
Yet, despite all his thorough preparations, the outcome he had anticipated did not occur!
After the spatial distortion and the buzzing sound faded away, a strand of consciousness suddenly manifested, swept across the valley, came to rest upon Song Hai for a brief moment, and then vanished abruptly.
With the disappearance of this consciousness, everything in the surroundings seemed to reverse in time, restoring itself to its original state. The overturned clods of earth retreated grain by grain at an astonishing speed. In no time at all, the jagged, cratered ground that Song Hai had torn up smoothed itself out completely, as if nothing had ever happened at all!
Before Song Hai could recover from his astonishment, a stream of information flooded into his mind along with the restoration of the landscape.
As the knowledge poured in, Song Hai froze in place, absorbing the data and turning it over in his mind!
The information carried no danger, nor did it harbor any harmful side effects. It was merely a pure record of facts, and not a particularly voluminous one at that. To comprehend and digest it, roughly three minutes would suffice!
Yet, staring blankly at this influx of knowledge, Song Hai remained rooted to the spot for a long, long time, completely motionless!
How much time had passed, he could not tell. When Song Hai finally snapped out of it as if waking from a dream, recalling the grim reality revealed by the information in his mind, an inexplicable wave of desolation welled up in his heart. He let out a deep, heavy sigh. "Is this all that's left? Just a single bone?"
"Is there truly only one?"
Suddenly, he understood what that inexplicable aura had been—the one that had emerged alongside the stench of blood the very moment he shattered the earth!
"I truly don't know what to say!"
Standing in place for a long while, Song Hai slowly exhaled a breath, turned around, and began to walk away. "Unbelievable!"
"Sigh!"
"So be it... So be it... Since I have already stepped inside, I might as well see it through to the end!"
……
Within the Cultivation Pagoda, Zhou Yi sat cross-legged in a pitch-black space where one could not even see one's own fingers.
This was the Northern Black Water Earthly Fiend Space. He had already successfully condensed both kinds of heaven and earth spirits required to practice the *Northern Black Water Dharma Tome*!
Not only that, but he had also traversed nearly all the stages of cultivation. The separation of Yin and Yang, the evolution of heaven and earth, and the return to undifferentiated chaos had all been completed!
Now, only the final step remained: using the chaos to condense the heaven and earth seed. Once that was done, his mastery of the *Northern Black Water Dharma Tome* would officially be considered as having entered the threshold!
Accomplishing all of this had consumed remarkably little time so far. This was not to say that Zhou Yi's innate talent had reached such a monstrous level; the greatest contributor to this feat was his golden finger!
Energy points! Add points!
When he first began attempting to condense the spirit of heaven—the Northern Black Water True Qi—Zhou Yi had been pleasantly surprised to discover that, because he was enveloped entirely within the Northern Black Water True Qi, he was constantly enduring the relentless baptism of this marshal-grade heavenly spirit at every single moment!
Normally, such an impact would act as a severe impediment to anyone, causing endless headaches. One of the greatest challenges in condensing a spirit of heaven and earth was maintaining control over one's own actions amidst the severe interference of this baptism!
It was exceedingly difficult for anyone, and Zhou Yi was no exception!
Fortunately, however, due to this very baptism, Zhou Yi was thrilled to discover that the energy points within his body were correspondingly increasing. Although the rate could not be called blazing fast, it certainly could not be considered slow either!
Upon realizing this, a thought immediately struck him: since he possessed a sufficient supply of energy, why should he labor painstakingly to condense the spirits of heaven and earth by himself? With so many branch spirits of heaven and earth to be refined one by one, just thinking about the sheer amount of time required gave him a headache!
As long as he had enough energy, he could infinitely simplify this process through the point-addition function and compress the completion time indefinitely.
To think is to act. Having figured this out, Zhou Yi carefully tested the rate of energy accumulation and calculated the energy consumption required to enhance the *Northern Black Water Dharma Tome*, and his heart suddenly settled with certainty.
"It is more than enough!"
Given his current rate of energy accumulation and the energy required to cultivate the *Northern Black Water Dharma Tome*, there was zero discrepancy; the two grew in a mutually reinforcing cycle!
Prior to cultivation, he had also considered directly using energy points to accelerate the mastery of the *Northern Black Water Dharma Tome*, but factoring in his remaining energy reserves and the estimated cost of cultivation, he had temporarily shelved the idea.
Originally, he had resigned himself to his fate, planning to practice painstakingly step by step, never expecting such a delightful surprise to manifest after he actually began!
Truly, having searched for it thousands of times in the crowd, suddenly the lanterns grew dim and there appeared a village amid willow flowers and bright blooms!
……
Reaching this final step, Zhou Yi first calmed his emotions and halted his actions for the very first time. Although energy point augmentation could accelerate cultivation, it could not be achieved overnight. Throughout the process, following each point addition, he needed to inspect his cultivation progress and check for any anomalies or deviations. Only after confirming that everything was entirely problem-free would he dare to continue adding points!
Therefore, even though his cultivation journey was smooth, he had never truly dared to let down his guard!
Now that all the preliminary work was complete, leaving only this final push—once the heaven and earth were condensed into a seed, he would have preliminarily completed the cultivation of the *Northern Black Water Dharma Tome*!
"Hoo!"
Exhaling a breath of stale air sharply, Zhou Yi's spirit blazed with clarity. He closed his eyes and cast his consciousness deep into a chaotic, misty space within his body.
This patch of chaos resided within his dantian, enshrouded by his own magic power like an energy belt, continuously feeding into it!
As the magic power poured in, the chaos slowly expanded, pulsing rhythmically like a cloud or a beating heart!
When Zhou Yi directed his gaze toward it, the chaotic cloud had ceased absorbing his magic power, having reached its absolute limit of saturation. It swelled and pulsed violently, as if on the verge of bursting apart at any second!
Gazing at this mass of chaos, Zhou Yi remained utterly calm. All preliminary work was finished; what he needed to do now was use his consciousness to dot and ignite the chaos, employing external force to shatter the primordial state and blow open the chaos that was already on the brink of explosion!
Bang!
With that single intent, his consciousness transformed into a tiny speck and gently landed within the chaotic cloud.
In an instant, the tranquility of the chaos was shattered. It exploded with a thunderous roar, and countless nameless substances erupted from the chaos, shooting outward in all directions!
Curiously, these substances seemed to exist in an entirely different dimension. Although they were vast in number, erupting instantaneously and seemingly blanketing everything in the vicinity, under the observation of his consciousness, no other objects were obstructed by them. It was as if this was merely a thought—a thought whose sole manifestation was the act of eruption!
It was nothing more than a thought!
Before Zhou Yi could ponder further, the moment the chaos shattered and spewed forth its countless substances, it began to contract violently. It was as if time was running backward; everything retreated to its origin point—that very same cloud of chaos—without stopping for even a fraction of a second!
In the end, all the ejected substances collapsed inward. In a split second, an immense expanse shrank down to a tiny speck—a singularity!
Within Zhou Yi's consciousness, after this tiny speck formed, it gave a sudden pulse, flashed the sensation of birth, and vanished entirely from its spot. Following that, a single drop of pitch-black water materialized within his dantian space!