"We are just a few miles away from another village," said Yueyan, looking at the map, pointing with her slender finger where the next village was located.
Qin Meng wiped the blood off of his spear with the grass on the ground and settled his back against a tree. His body was covered in sweat and blood, dirt and stench, and his face in irritation. "Why can't I improve my strength? Damn it!" He had tried to do everything that his teacher had told him to do, but to no avail. He felt furious as well as helpless, but he could do nothing about it, that irritated him the most.
"We will rest for around two hours here," continued Yueyan. "Qian Jie and Yao Ying, you two go to—"
Qin Meng closed his eyes and activated the Nameless Breathing Technique, all the noise vanished as soon as he appeared inside the Boundless Space. He, however, didn't look at the cauldron; instead his eyes were staring somewhere else. Not too far away in the distance a complicated pattern—that looked almost impossible to understand—was wriggling alone in the space similarly to the cauldron. It was large, mysterious and circular.
The lines inside it twisted as the intestine does inside the stomach, changing places continuously. That is why it was almost impossible to understand. It had no fixed shape.
It was the Motif that Qin Meng had formed after reaching the Gathering Stage.
After reaching the Gathering Stage the Motif appeared inside the Boundless Space, only then did Qin Meng realized that this space was his consciousness. Because when a man reaches the Gathering Stage the Motif manifest itself inside his consciousness.
Qin Meng took a deep breath and summoned his Martial Spirit. The cry of a bird reverberated in the Boundless Space, and then the Martial Spirit which was rotating around the cauldron rushed in his direction. It was no longer a ball of fire, but had completely changed and transformed. If it was an egg previously, then now it had become a fledging that wanted to fly and see the boundless sky.
The Martial Spirit opened its small white beak and tried spit the golden fire towards the sky, though only sparks appeared instead of gushing flame. The blue eyes looked as beautiful as the blue stripe at its golden neck. The crown hadn't completely formed at the top of its head, but it had started to take form—the outline of different colours could be seen inside the crown, blue, green, red, and white.
The four colours were indicating the rank of the Martial Spirit. Its golden wings hadn't completely shaped yet, but they looked completely stunning as did the undeveloped tail behind its back.
The claws of the bird were still in the process of developing, but one could tell that they would turn into terrifying weapons one day. One day when Qin Meng evolve it into higher levels.
This was his Martial Spirit after evolving into rank four.
The bird stopped in front of the Motif, flapping its small golden wings, producing excited cries now and then. Qin Meng used his Willpower to move the Motif toward the bird. However, when the Motif appeared in front of the bird, there was no response. It was just standing there as it always does.
He could not understand why it was happening. It was supposed to eat the Motif slowly, and become strong. Though the Martial Spirit's rank won't change, through this Qin Meng would become more strongly connected to it. And that would increase his strength. That's what people call Swallowing Stage.
"Eat it, damn bird!" he cursed, but there was no response. "What should I do? Is there a problem with the method I am using? Do I need to refine it inside the cauldron or somethi—"
Qin Meng stopped amidst his sentence abruptly, and his eyes went wide. He turned towards the cauldron, muttering, "What if there was no problem in the method, but in the process instead?"
The more he thought about it the more excited as well as frustrated he became. Excited because he might have found the way of advancing to another stage, and frustrated because all this time the method was in front of him, and he never even tried it.
He sent the Martial Spirit towards cauldron and it once more started to orbit around it along with four other dark spots. Qin Meng turned towards the Motif and took a deep breath. This was the last method he could think of, if it didn't work he had no idea how he could reach the Swallowing Stage. His heart raced faster with anxiety as well as with excitement.
"Let's try it," he gritted his teeth and said. He used his Willpower and let the Motif move towards the cauldron. "Teacher said we can't let our Martial Spirit swallow the Motif in a single time, otherwise we could turn stupid… but now I have no choice but to do this. I hope I am right."
Qin Meng clenched his fist and threw the Motif inside the cauldron. For some time, nothing happened, but then the cauldron started to shake, and then it began to shine brightly, and sound of ding ding ding reverberated in the entire Boundless Space. Qin Meng felt he was about to become deaf. His head felt as if it was about to burst apart. And then a terrifying suction force appeared and he felt as if someone was tearing his soul apart. He felt the pain in the corners of his body that he never felt was even possible.
Then the cauldron started to split into small particles and those particles rushed towards him, towards his forehead to be exact. As the particles touched his forehead, the pain intensified and he screamed in sheer agony, shaking and fumbling and cursing. His body twitched and eyes rolled back in his head and saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth. His screams soon turned into unintelligible gurgles.
And then the darkness engulfed his senses slowly...