Chapter 4: Gathering Moonlight, Profound Yin and Heavy Water

  As the crescent moon rose to mid-air, Wang Guang didn't dare to delay any further and hastily took out the jade bottle to infuse it with his magic power for a simple refinement.

  Fortunately, the owner of the jade bottle only made it as a temporary storage tool, so the seal inside was not complicated at all. After infusing his magic into the jade bottle, it took only three to five breaths for the seal to fill up with magic, and then some information flowed along with the magic into his mind. And this information was exactly how the creator described the method of collecting moonlight.

  "It seems that having a magical artifact makes it much faster to complete tasks compared to ordinary Qi cultivators." Wang Guang carefully examined the jade bottle in his hand, feeling very satisfied. If an ordinary Qi cultivator were to receive such a task, not to mention whether they could complete it, just collecting and storing the Moonlight would be no easy feat. Now that he had the artifact, collecting it wouldn't waste any time at all.

  The magic poured into the jade bottle, and the jade bottle emitted a layer of cyan light, then slowly floated in the air and rotated.

  As the jade bottle rotated, a mass of green light emerged from it. The green light coiled and entwined in mid-air before splitting into countless threads. These threads formed a magical array at the mouth of the bottle, and as the array revolved, a yellow beam of light as thick as an arm condensed from the sky.

  The yellow light was absorbed into the formation, and as it rotated, it quickly condensed into a golden color and fell into the jade bottle below.

  Every hour, Wang Guang would infuse a stream of spiritual energy into the bottle. The rest of the time was spent sitting cross-legged in meditation to recover from his expenditure. Until dawn broke, he stopped infusing spiritual energy into the jade bottle and gathering moonlight.

  "I don't even know what this thing is used for, and yet someone actually bought it." After shaking the jade bottle, Wang Guang found that there was only a thin layer of moonlight at the bottom of the bottle. He began to think: "Unfortunately, when I read the Taoist scriptures before, most of my energy was focused on cultivating the Taoist methods, and I didn't pay attention to these strange things. It seems that I need to find some time to go to the scripture library to read the Taoist scriptures."

  After carefully storing the jade bottle in his room, Wang Guang continued to meditate and cultivate his energy, striving to push his cultivation method to the third level as soon as possible. Then he could go on to cultivate various Taoist skills and magical treasures, at which point he would truly be considered to have merged with the sect.

  In the blink of an eye, seven days passed. Every night, he mechanically injected his magic into the jade bottle and collected the moonlight. In just seven short days, he had collected nearly half a bottle of moonlight. When the seven-day deadline arrived, although he wanted to continue collecting, the task's time limit forbade him from doing so. Helpless, he could only take the bottle to submit his task.

  "Fifteen ordinary crystal stones." It was still the female receptionist who had assigned him the task. After taking a special wooden stick and inserting it into the jade bottle to observe for a while, she gave out such a reward. "Do you want to continue accepting this task? Moreover, the props for collecting Purple Qi and Tai Bai Jing Qi are already in surplus, do you accept?"

  Looking at the thumb-sized, long and rhombic crystal in his hand, Wang Guang shook his head and refused very bluntly. "Not for now, let's talk about it some other day."

  The female receptionist didn't retain him either, but smiled and nodded to show she understood, then destroyed the information he had filled out according to the sect's rules.

  After leaving here, Wang Guang did not return to his residence to transport the law and cultivate it secretly. On the contrary, he continued to head towards the top of the mountain and came directly to the Scripture Pavilion.

  He stayed here for seven or eight days and finally found what he wanted to know on the third floor.

  "What a loss! I've really suffered a great loss." Looking at the records on the Taoist scriptures in his hand, he couldn't help but curse: "It seems that the ancient proverb is correct, knowledge is everything! Without knowledge, even with the deepest magical powers, one is still a fool. What a loss, I've really suffered a great loss." After flipping through over a hundred Taoist scriptures, he finally knew the use of some special things.

  He grumbled all the way, but when he passed by the task distribution area, he still went in and accepted another task. This task would not cause him any form of loss. "Refine the Xuan Yin heavy water, one drop for three crystal stones."

  "Boundless Heaven Venerable, this senior brother, I don't know how many crystal stones are needed to collect the moon's essence in this bottle?" After accepting the task, Wang Guang did not turn around and leave. Instead, he wandered around the pavilion and soon found what he was looking for on a table.

  "Moonlight Vase, this smallest one is ten crystal stones, this slightly larger one is fifteen, and the largest one is thirty." The cultivator didn't even glance at Wang Guang, directly stretching out his hand to point at several bottles of varying sizes in front of him.

  "Then let's go for a medium one." Wang Guang thought for a moment, then pointed to the jade bottle that was about seven or eight inches high, and took out the only fifteen crystal stones from his pocket to trade with the cultivator.

  The cultivator nodded, took the crystal stone and gestured to Wang Guang to pick up the jade bottle: "If you collect a full bottle of moonlight like this, I'll pay you 300 crystal stones. Of course, the bottle is still yours. What do you think of this price?"

  "This brother, for the time being, I don't want to sell this thing, I'm afraid it will disappoint you." Wang Guang shook his head, picked up the bottle and turned around to leave. The cultivator didn't say anything else, continued to sit cross-legged in the chair with his eyes closed, seemingly thinking about something. The goods in front of him were scattered all over the place, without fear of being stolen or robbed.

  Although he no longer had any crystal stones on him, this did not hinder Wang Guang from walking around the attic and viewing the various items available for exchange. Some stall owners displayed all sorts of books, while others showcased various medicinal herbs; however, most were displaying magical artifacts and tools. After a round of browsing, he indeed gained a lot of new knowledge. If it weren't for the fact that he had no crystal stones on him, he probably would have gone on a buying spree!

  After circling around, many objects moved him, but his purse was shy, so he had to give up. After leaving the task building, seeing that it was still early, he didn't want to sit and practice his breath or read scriptures, so he directly followed the mountain road according to the task prompt and headed towards the foot of the mountain.

  The inner mountain is full of spiritual energy, and the roads on both sides are lined with various ancient trees and shrubs. There are also spiritual beasts jumping and walking in between, these spiritual beasts see the practitioners but do not hide, some even curiously follow them for a distance.

  But before long, Wang Guang arrived at the location of this task. A pool of water over a hundred feet in diameter appeared in front of him, and the water in this pool was very strange. From a distance, it looked transparent and clear, but when he walked closer, he found that it was pitch black, and even with his magical powers, he could only see through half a foot deep. There were no plants or animals around the pool for dozens of feet, just rocks of various sizes scattered around.

  More than a dozen inner disciples, either standing or sitting cross-legged, surrounded the pool of water. Each person had a fine net floating in front of them, containing a ball of pool water. A large amount of spiritual energy was constantly being injected into the fine net, causing it to shrink, apparently refining the Xuan Yin heavy water.

  After looking around, Wang Guang found a secluded spot and took out the tools to prepare for collecting the task items.

  This prop is a fine net about 7 or 8 zhangs in diameter, called the Xuan Yin Net. Its function is to purify the Xuan Yin Heavy Water.

  After transporting a week of Taoist magic to adjust his state, King Guang suddenly opened his mouth and sprayed out a stream of green air. This green air was injected into the fine net in his hand, and a green light appeared. The fine net burst open and fell into the pool.

  "Rise!" After waiting for three to five breaths, Wang Guang took a deep breath and swung his dust-brushing sleeve again, sending another stream of green energy into the lake's mysterious net. This time, as he released his magic power, it felt like pulling thousands of pounds of heavy stones, causing his body's magic power to rapidly drain away, losing about one-third of its total amount in an instant.

  The lake water churned, huge bubbles rolled up from inside, emitting a series of faint explosive sounds. The fellow practitioners around him didn't mind either, still busy with their own affairs.

  The lake water churned, and a ball of water about one foot in diameter was torn out of the lake by the mysterious net. According to the law, Wang Guang stretched out his hand and beckoned, and the mysterious net wrapped around the lake water floated gently to a place three feet in front of him.

  "It seems that this pool of water has some strange properties, as if it's pulling a weight of thousands of pounds, but once you leave the surface, it becomes light as a feather, without consuming any spiritual energy. I'll take some time to go to the Scripture Pavilion and read up on some books, so I can figure out what this thing is." Rubbing his chin, Wang Guang's eyes gleamed with calculation as he stared at the dark water in the pool. However, for now, his spiritual energy was weak, so even if he had ideas, he would have to wait until his powers grew stronger before he could act on them. For now, refining this Xuan Yin Heavy Water was the most practical thing to do.

  Looking at the pool of water floating in front of him, Wang Guang didn't hesitate either. According to the refining secret method he obtained when refining the Xuan Yin net, he mobilized the law force inside his body and walked through several meridian acupoints in a certain order before opening his mouth and spitting out that law force.

  Perhaps it was the circulation of the law in the meridians that caused a change, and this time the law that came out was not green air, but a black light.

  The dark light merged into the mysterious yin net that wrapped around the pool water, and all of a sudden, the mysterious yin net contracted and wriggled. In just one breath, it had shrunk to about one-tenth its original size. Then another wave of magical power burst out, causing the mysterious yin net to contract again, this time shrinking by about another tenth.

  Every time a black light shoots out, Wang Guang feels that the internal force in his body decreases a bit. After continuously shooting dozens of black lights, the internal force in his body is actually depleted, and the pool water covered by the mysterious dark net still has an area of one square foot.

  "With such a low level of magical power, it seems like I won't be able to do anything." Wang Guang furrowed his brow, "However, this is also good. After exhausting the magical power within my body and then cultivating again, on one hand, I can temper my meridians, and on the other hand, I can purify the magical power within my body to a certain extent. It won't delay too much time either."

  Thinking of this, he didn't worry that the mysterious yin net would fall to the ground, and directly sat cross-legged to start recovering his internal energy.

  The sequence of meridians for restoring spiritual power is different from the sequence of increasing spiritual power. If you follow the sequence of increasing spiritual power, the restoration of consumed spiritual power will be very slow. If you follow the sequence of restoring spiritual power, the increase in spiritual power will be dozens of times less.

  Half a time later, King Guang suddenly opened his eyes with a loud "Refine!" A black light that was twice as thick as before merged into the Xuan Yin net. The Xuan Yin net quickly contracted and shrunk to half its original size. However, after he continuously sprayed out the internal force from his body again, the Xuan Yin heavy water still failed to condense successfully. The more it went on, the more troublesome it became to refine.

  After repeated meditation and recovery two or three times, the single drop of Xuan Yin heavy water was finally refined. The Xuan Yin net was retracted, revealing a pearl-sized drop of water rotating in the center. This drop of water was pitch black all over, and when it rotated, it seemed to absorb all the surrounding light. Endless cold air emanated from above, and even three to five feet away, Wang Guang felt a chill. "It seems that this thing is either used for tempering magic treasures or for refining medicinal materials."

  For this drop of Profound Yin Heavy Water, he spent a total of more than three hours. Not to mention the three Crystal Stones that were about to be obtained, but the several recoveries of his magical powers in a short period of time made him feel that his magical powers were a bit purer than before. "Boundless Heavenly Venerable! One drop per day is enough." After checking the time, he found that night had fallen, and Wang Guang used the Profound Yin Net to contain the drop of Profound Yin Heavy Water inside before returning to his own room.

  Following the habit of the past few days, after the crescent moon appears in the sky, he injects spiritual energy into the jade bottle, and then collects the moon's aura. Every hour, he injects spiritual energy into it once, and spends the rest of the time meditating to cultivate his breath, either recovering or increasing his spiritual energy.

  In a flash, three or five hours passed, and the crescent moon disappeared. The sun, however, emerged from the horizon.