Because Xu Su's foot was injured, Zhan Yue personally delivered the food to Xu Su's house and accompanied him for dinner.
Xu Su watched Zhan Yue stumble around in his house in a clumsy manner, moving around the chairs and setting the table. Only after a long while did he finally finish, and it was time to eat. Xu Su was rather amused by this, but also quite touched by this gesture.
After the table was set, both of them joked around as they ate, shoving food in their mouths while asking about their individual cultivation progress.
The moment Xu Su brought up the Way of the Armored Rhino, Zhan Yue sighed dejectedly.
Currently, Zhan Yue had only managed to cultivate the martial skill to its first layer but was already half tortured to death by the immense pain. He had to soak himself in foul-smelling herbal baths every night as well as suffer beatings from Physician Wu designed to toughen his body and strengthen his bones.
This method of boorish cultivation had caused Zhan Yue many sleepless nights. Because his entire body was swollen from the beatings, the moment his skin touched his bed, he would grit his teeth in pain.
To him, cultivating the Way of the Armored Rhino was nothing but a nightmare.
With regards to Xu Su's cultivation of the nameless oracular chant, Zhan Yue could not help but feel envy in his heart.
He felt that Xu Su only needed to spend his time peacefully in meditation like a monk. Hearing Zhan Yue's emotions, Xu Su had nothing to say in his defense. He was also aware that his cultivation was much easier when compared to Zhan Yue's arduous labor.
Xu Su could somewhat understand Zhan Yue's fear towards the Way of the Armored Rhino. As he progressed through the nine layers of the Way of the Armored Rhino, he would have to bear unimaginable pain.
Despite the difficulty, Zhan Yue persisted, refusing to give up. Xu Su could not help but admire and respect Zhan Yue for his unyielding personality.
If Xu Su were in Zhan Yue's shoes, he would never have chosen to practice such a domineering skill. Even if the skill could turn him into a world-shaking expert overnight, he would still reject it.
The two of them had almost finished dinner as they were talking excitedly about martial arts. Once the meal was over, Zhan Yue cleared the bowls and bid him farewell. Before leaving, he still reminded Xu Su to take care of his injured foot and to go to sleep early.
Standing at the door, Xu Su watched as Zhan Yue left and quickly returned back to his house, closing all the windows except for a slight opening in the skylight to allow some air to flow through before taking out the mysterious bottle from his leather pouch.
Xu Su was only a ten-year-old child with a short attention span, and after studying the bottle for a short period of time, he quickly got bored. With his foot injury, Xu Su also felt somewhat tired out by today's turn of events. Unknowingly, he fell asleep on his bed with his hand holding onto the bottle.
Time passed by, and just when Xu Su was sleeping soundly, he suddenly felt an icy cool feeling flowing from his hand.
Xu Su involuntarily shivered, and he forcefully opened his heavy eyelids, gazing at his hand in a daze.
"Oh!" He immediately sat up with his mouth open from shock, to such an extent that saliva dripped down from his gaping mouth. He no longer felt sleepy; instead, his attention was fixed on the strange sight in front of him.
Rays of white light could be seen beaming through the gap from the skylight. The beams concentrated around the bottle Xu Su held in his hand, forming many rice-sized white dots of light on its surface, and enveloping the bottle in a layer of rays of white light.
The rays of light looked extremely gentle, not menacing at all, and that icy cool feeling originated precisely from the rays of light!
Xu Su swallowed a big gulp of saliva and finally turned his eyes away from the bottle. As if it burned his hand, he quickly threw the bottle to one side before scrambling to the other side of the room.
After a moment of vigilance, he realized that nothing was wrong and slowly inched towards the mysterious bottle.
The mysterious bottle enveloped by the white light, and other than looking beautiful, it seemed to possess an aura that was not of this world.
Xu Su hesitated for a while before using his finger to poke the bottle a few times. Seeing there was no reaction, he cautiously picked up the bottle again. Putting the bottle on the table, he laid on the nearby bed and closely examined this never-before-seen phenomenon.
Xu Su focused his full attention on the mysterious bottle for about an hour and a half without even blinking before he finally realized some of the secrets that the mysterious bottle was hiding.
The mysterious bottle was incessantly absorbing the rice-sized beads of white light surrounding it. No, not simply absorbing; it was as if the beads of white light had a will of their own and were fighting with each other in order to be the first to enter the bottle.
Xu Su viewed this extremely bizarre event and used his fingertip to touch a bead of white light.
It felt icy cold! Other than this, there was nothing special about it.
Xu Su inclined his head and looked upward. The rays of white light were still beaming through the gap in the skylight as if they had no intention of stopping.
Xu Su surveyed the interior of his room to make sure the doors and windows were all closed before inclining his head to look at the skylight once more. Suddenly, a thought struck him, and he lightly pushed open the door, popping his head out to peek at his surroundings.
Luckily, it was the middle of the night; other than insects, there was no one else around.
Xu Su returned back to his room, grabbing the bottle and putting it back inside the pouch before hurrying outside again, running to a remote location before stopping.
Surveying all four directions and ensuring there was no one nearby, Xu Su cautiously removed the bottle from his pouch and placed it gently on the ground.
While the mysterious bottle had been sealed in his pouch, the white rays of light had disappeared.
However, Xu Su wasn't worried by this.
As he expected, after waiting a while, rays of white light began congregating around the bottle from all four directions. This time around, the rays were much denser than the rays produced in his house. They tightly enveloped the mysterious bottle in a shroud of white light, forming a ball of light the size of a washbasin.