After swinging the ice blade a few times, he was sure he could move it at will, but his aim was off. He clearly intended to strike the reef in front, but hit a tree instead, and when he aimed for the tree, he missed entirely. With a thought, he focused his spiritual fire onto his fingertip and swung his sword finger. To his surprise, with a boom, a fireball erupted and blasted the reef.
"Wow! What in the world is happening?" Ye Ju stammered in shock. He ran to the reef and found ice mixed with the shattered rocks. Was this the power of two combined elements? Water and fire, incompatible, yet their interaction yielded such immense power! He decided to call it an Ice Fireball! He practiced a few more times until he could swing it at will, stopping only when exhausted. After gulping down some spiritual spring water, he quickly meditated to recover his spiritual energy!
It was after eating that fruit that he gained ice-attributed spiritual energy. He looked at the leftover fruit shell. What a treasure, an ice-attributed spiritual fruit? He wondered if it could grow if placed near the spiritual spring. The growth power of the spiritual spring was astonishing!
Glancing at the sundial, he noticed it was almost noon. The shadows cast by the staff were very short, gradually overlapping with the staff itself. No sooner said than done, he planted the unknown spiritual fruit seed near the spiritual spring.
He also filled a basket with spiritual spring water. It was still inconvenient. He thought of how purple bamboo could be used to make cups, but he lacked the tools to saw it. He wondered if he could use his ice blade to cut it. Fearing he might damage the purple bamboo without enough practice, he decided to try cutting from the tail end first. He concentrated the ice spiritual energy onto his fingertip, visualized the ice blade, and with a flick of his spiritual will, the leaves and branches at the tail of the purple bamboo were severed at the root. The cut was smooth and thorn-free. Yes!
Ye Ju couldn't help but give a thumbs-up! Now he could make the bamboo items he desired. After practicing a few times and confirming his accuracy, he began to craft.
Near the bamboo joints, he used his ice blade to cut out several bamboo cups. The fatter sections at the base of the purple bamboo were made into several large bamboo pots. He tested them with fire; this purple bamboo was fire-resistant and not afraid of burning. His previous idea of using fire to cut them and then polish them had failed; they remained completely intact. He used a section from the tail, about 10 centimeters in diameter, to make a water flask. The bamboo flask retained both bamboo joints. At the other end, he used ice spiritual energy to condense a sharp cone, piercing a small hole, and after polishing it, he found a suitable bamboo twig to serve as a stopper. The water flask was complete.
It was hard, truly hard. If not for the ice blade, this fire-resistant purple bamboo would have been impossible to cut. Everything has its counter, and the counter to purple bamboo was the ice blade formed from ice spiritual energy!
With everything finished, he went back to the spiritual spring to clean them. The purple bamboo was thicker at the root and tapered as it grew upwards, the thickest part being about 30 centimeters in diameter. They looked like q-version bamboo. Therefore, the bamboo pots were made like Russian nesting dolls, creating four of them. He made four bamboo bowls by taking two sections of purple bamboo of similar thickness from the middle. The more he looked at them, the more he liked them. They were a deep, purplish-black, clearly not ordinary items. The remaining materials from making the bowls were used to craft ten pairs of chopsticks!
Before he even approached the spiritual spring, he saw the little animal bathing in the small pool again from a distance. The little creature was very alert and darted away with a whoosh.
"Hey, don't go!" Ye Ju blurted out. Realizing what he'd done, he couldn't help but slap his forehead. He was stunned! Could this animal understand him?
After some thought, he ran back to find the leftover fruit from before. This fruit was sour and sweet, not particularly to his liking, so he had saved some. He put it into a smaller bamboo bowl and placed it next to the pool, while he washed himself by the spiritual spring, observing with his peripheral vision. He had discovered this when picking wild fruits before; the fruit had the most bite marks from the small animal, suggesting it was most favored by the creature. He had thought it was the most delicious and picked the most, even climbing trees to get some. However, after eating them, his teeth had ached, and Ye Ju now actively avoided them!
Slowly, he saw a small white animal approaching in his peripheral vision, tentatively extending its paw. Sensing Ye Ju was not paying attention, it snatched the fruit and began to gnaw on it.
Ye Ju kept watching with his peripheral vision, his mind racing with questions. What kind of animal was this? Was it a fox? It resembled a civet cat, but he had never heard of white civet cats. Like a fox, its ears were not pointed, but round. In his memory, fox ears were pointed and erect. Last night, it was likely the one that brought him the fruit, and now he was returning the favor as he was eating its food.
Unbeknownst to Ye Ju, the animal had become attached after eating just one fruit. After washing, he returned to his small hut, leaving the little animal behind. Now that he had pots, he needed to get some salt and find some seasonings. He immediately decided to find some seafood and boil salt. He went to his usual spot to look for seafood, finding a few shrimp. He didn't see any crabs, but he did find a large octopus. Ye Ju was a bit hesitant to eat this creature, so he left it untouched. Rummaging through the rock crevices, he found! A sea-blue fish, dazed and stuck in a rock crevice. It was a big one, probably five or six pounds! This would be his dinner.
He scooped a basin of seawater and fashioned a simple filtration device using a section of purple bamboo with a joint. He used ice spiritual energy to condense a fine sharp point at the bottom bamboo joint, piercing several small holes. First, he filled it with charcoal, which had anti-inflammatory and antibacterial properties, forming the bottom layer. Then, he added fine sand, and the top layer was covered with coarse pebbles. He poured the seawater through this filter and boiled it in the bamboo pot over a strong fire. As the water evaporated, fine white crystals were left at the bottom, which was the salt! He carefully scraped it down and placed it in a small bamboo cup. Finally, he had flavor.
After preparing the fish, he discovered a blue bead, about the size of his thumb, in the fish's belly. Ye Ju found it strange. Did this fish, like a pearl oyster, also contain a pearl? He didn't care and decided to cook it in the spiritual spring water; if it was poisonous, it would become non-toxic. He could only stew it. He added spiritual spring water and squeezed some juice from the sweet and sour fruit, using it as a substitute for lemon. He added salt for seasoning, and soon a fragrant aroma filled the air! It was cooked until the soup turned milky white, the fragrance spreading for miles! He ladled the soup into his bamboo bowl and finally got to eat. He was tired of eating stone-grilled seafood for the past few days. As a person from China, how could he have no pursuit of food? Holding his bamboo bowl and drinking the soup, using chopsticks to pick up the fish meat, he enjoyed his dinner while gazing at the beautiful sunset over the sea. Life was indeed blissful!
"Mew..." Sometime later, the little white creature was squatting by the woodpile outside his house, its eyes fixed on his bowl, with suspicious drool trickling from its mouth.
"Want to eat?"
"Mew..." The little creature nodded. Its cry clearly conveyed a sense of pleading!
"Where's the bamboo bowl I put your fruit in earlier?" Ye Ju asked. This little creature was so spiritual, he wasn't afraid it wouldn't understand.
As soon as he finished speaking, the little creature ran off! In a moment, it returned, carrying the bowl in its mouth!
He ladled some soup for it and picked out a piece of fish head and meat. Placing it in front of the creature, he watched it delicately lap up the soup with its tongue. It looked like a lady. Ye Ju shook his head, dispelling his own fantasy!
"After drinking my soup, you belong to me now. I don't know what breed you are, so I'll call you Xiao Bai for now," Ye Ju said cheerfully.
Xiao Bai whimpered, as if in agreement. In its heart, it was actually thinking, *I have a name!* Unfortunately, Ye Ju couldn't hear Xiao Bai's thoughts. From then on, the name Xiao Bai followed it for thousands of years.
After eating, it still wanted more, even eating the bones! Its wet eyes looked at Ye Ju. He ladled some more into its bowl. Finally, the human and the beast lay contentedly on the beach.
The sunset glow in the sky was still its final flourish. Ye Ju wanted to take a bath in the spiritual spring. He casually picked up the spare clothes he had changed into during the day, as it was cooler at night, so he had been drying them during the day. The burning stick was a must-carry; even with his current spiritual power for self-protection, it couldn't match the sense of security the burning stick provided! The little creature, now named Xiao Bai, also followed behind, walking with cat-like steps, its posture lazy! So, what breed was this creature? Or did all animals walk like this?
When they reached the pool, Xiao Bai also spontaneously entered the smaller pool. Ye Ju raised an eyebrow. This creature was indeed spiritual, knowing this pool was for its bath. But aren't animals afraid of water? Why did this little creature love bathing so much? Could it be a water-attribute spiritual beast? It had met him several times in the pools of this spiritual spring.