Qin Meng was confused as he looked at the orbiting black holes (now he had given them another name—Blank Martial Spirit) around a majestic cauldron. He did not know how to proceed from here. He tried to communicate with the cauldron and Blank Martial Spirits by thinking inside his head and then by speaking out loud, but to no avail.
Then he spotted something on his right hand and his eyes lit up. He still wore the storage ring, surprised and ecstatic look emerged on his disappointed face.
He used his Soul Power and reached inside the ring and located everything within it. He was thrilled. Also, he felt no burning pain in his head like before, nor did he hear any screeching of birds. He grabbed one of the herbs, from the ring, with his soul hand and brought it out.
Qin Meng stared towards the Blank Martial Spirits and an idea manifested inside his head. He hesitated at first, but in the end he gritted his teeth and threw the herb at one of the Blank Martial Spirit.
It swallowed the herb and froze for a brief moment before spinning like a wheel, without changing its position. Qin Meng's eyes shone, eagerness and anticipation flickering within them, and he took out another herb. It also vanished, and the Blank Martial Spirit's swirling momentum accelerated.
He continued to pour out all the things inside his ring: herbs, minerals, gems, or anything else that he could find within it. In the end, there was only one thing left: Blood-pool.
He glanced at the gyrating Blank Martial Spirit and then took a deep breath. He used his soul and started to draw the blood out of the pool. The strange thing was that the blood was completely silent, unlike before. No bubbles, no screeching of birds, and definitely no burning pain in his head. It was as if it was afraid of something. Almost like a child who did something wrong and his parents found out about it.
He easily brought the entire blood-pool out of the ring, and it floated in front of him.
Qin Meng calmed his thudding and thumping heart in his chest and pushed the blood-pool towards the gyrating dark abyss that devoured everything that neared it. The blood-pool was also just about to be swallowed when it started to struggle and shrieks of birds reverberated.
Qin Meng was stunned at first, and then started to panic, considering the failure that was about to follow through.
However, before the blood struggled free from the Blank Martial Spirit, a ding chimed, and everything halted. Qin Meng stared the scene in front of him with a shocked expression and darted at the majestic cauldron at the center, because the sound had come from IT. But soon everything turned to normal, and the Blank Martial Spirit devoured the blood pool without much struggle.
It wasn't the end though.
The Blank Martial Spirit stopped gyrating and dashed inside the cauldron. Qin Meng could only stare blankly. But then he realized that something was amiss; he started to feel dizzy. He glanced at his hand and found the wound that had already healed, was bleeding again, and the blood was floating towards the cauldron.
And the blood was not the only thing that he was losing, his Soul Power also vanished at breakneck speed. He felt heavier and heavier, blurriness and darkness manifest in his vision, and then he collapsed. The last thing he recalled was the thunderous roar of an unknown creature, and the light mixed with red and orange and gold.
***
Qin Meng's skull throbbed with pain and discomfort; he felt as if he was stuck inside a room filled with darkness and cold. He flared his eyes open and examined his surrounding: it wasn't dark and cold anymore. He never felt so good after glancing at his room as much as he was feeling at this very moment.
He struggled to sit and frowned due to the pulsing ache inside his skull. He recalled about the cauldron and the Blank Martial Spirit. He closed his eyes and activated the breathing technique with the palpitating heart.
What he saw inside the boundless space made him leap on the spot. The scene in front of him made his body tremble, not in fear, not in shock, but in sheer joy. Only four Blank Martial Spirits remained orbiting around the cauldron, and the fifth one was no longer blank. It had turned into a… a fireball?
The fireball floated around the cauldron, similar to the Blank Martial Spirits, but nothing was common in them. One was shining like a sun, the others were dark and deep as an abyss.
The fireball burned with yellow, orange, and red. It had golden wings that it fluttered, looking extremely adorable, and completely opposite to what Qin Meng had imagined his first Martial Spirit would look like.
The blood-pool acted quite domineering and stubborn, after all.
He stopped his breathing technique and appeared inside his room. He fell on his bed, face brimming with joy and happiness. He cared little about the appearance of the Martial Spirit. What mattered was that he had gotten it in the end. He could, even, evolve it, so he didn't feel remorse about anything. He had the power to turn a chicken into a Phoenix.
After that, he discovered that he had skipped the first Motif Stage and entered the second stage, and his Soul Power seemed to have improved.
The Nameless Breathing Technique could not only improve his cultivation, but also his soul power!