He picked up the pearl and examined it closely; its surface hadn't changed, still pure white.
He placed the pearl on the windowpane again, under the shining sunlight.
Two breaths later, Yun Sheng's finger approached again, and he felt the warmth once more.
So, he stayed by the window, playing with this pearl until the sunlight completely disappeared.
However, he didn't go outside to continue; it wouldn't be good if someone saw him and had ill intentions.
He picked up the pearl again to check it; its surface temperature had returned to normal, and no other patterns had appeared.
Yun Sheng felt that this pearl must have changed, he just didn't know how.
He thought, since this pearl could emit high temperatures when exposed to sunlight, could it also react to moonlight and undergo other changes?
So he didn't sleep; he wasn't sleepy anyway.
He directly moved a stool over, sat on it, and waited for the moon to rise high in the sky, casting its light.
He carefully placed the pearl under the moonlight filtering through the windowpane.
Just a few breaths after placing it, his finger approached.
He was similarly startled and quickly pulled it back.
This time it wasn't high temperature, but very low temperature.
However, it seemed this low temperature only existed on the pearl's surface.
Except for the small area of the tabletop where the pearl rested, which felt cold, all other places were at normal temperature.
When the pearl was no longer exposed to moonlight, its surface temperature returned to normal.
That night, he continuously moved the pearl, observing its reactions.
However, by dawn, the moonlight had disappeared.
The pure white pearl's appearance hadn't changed at all, its color was also the same.
The next day, Yun Sheng also moved the pearl indoors, exposing it to sunlight.
In the evening, he performed the same operation, exposing it to moonlight.
But he was young and couldn't last for long.
Thus, this situation only lasted for two days and two nights before failing, because Yun Sheng fell asleep directly on the table.
Fortunately, he had put the pearl into his pocket before sleeping.
After that, he changed his experimental method, planning to find a secret spot on the mountain where the pearl could continuously receive sunlight during the day and moonlight for a long time at night.
He suspected that his frequent moving of the pearl was preventing it from reacting.
In the following days, Yun Sheng would go to the Golden Hall on the mountaintop for lessons on the first day of the month, and after returning, he would wander around Yunlan Mountain and the valley, trying to find a very secluded, undiscovered, and well-lit place.
And indeed, he found such a spot.
It was on Yunlan Mountain, about a hundred zhang from the halfway-up dormitory, a concave pit formed by a protruding rock.
The pit was very small, three chi wide, and when he found it, it was filled with water.
Yun Sheng dug a small ditch nearby to drain the water.
While draining the water, he checked the surroundings; apart from a small path from the stone steps on the right, there was no other path.
Moreover, this small path was basically covered by weeds; if Yun Sheng hadn't been small and looking for a hidden place, he might not have discovered this spot.
After confirming that it was very secluded, he sat by the pit and observed the sunlight.
From morning to evening, it could be illuminated continuously.
Afterward, he stayed there for another night, and the moonlight could also illuminate it all night.
At this point, Yun Sheng decided to use this place as his experimental site.
Before dawn, he quietly snuck back to the dormitory to catch up on sleep first.
In the evening, he brought an old piece of clothing to the pit.
By now, the water in the pit had been completely drained, and after being exposed to sunlight, it was very dry.
Yun Sheng leveled the pit, making it higher inside and lower outside, so that even if it rained, rainwater wouldn't accumulate.
Then he found a small stone with a small indentation on it, just big enough to hold the pearl.
He spread his old clothes at the very bottom, then sat cross-legged and began to Cultivate by reciting the Golden Jade Art, while the white pearl rested on a small stone half a chi in front of him.
He let it receive the moonlight.
He silently recited the first layer of the Cultivation Technique over and over in his heart, and some Spiritual Qi from the surroundings slowly gathered towards him, drilling into Yun Sheng's body through his glabella.
His Cultivation also slowly increased.
Yun Sheng let the pearl receive sunlight for one full day, and then moonlight for one full night.
The next day, at first light, he quietly returned to the dormitory to catch up on sleep.
Before each period of illumination ended, he would feel the temperature of the pearl with his hand.
If the high or low temperature disappeared, he considered the experiment over.
When this experimental method had been carried out for half a month, no matter whether Yun Sheng placed the pearl under sunlight or moonlight, the pearl's surface temperature remained normal.
Returning to the dormitory, he carefully examined the pearl.
Its color still seemed the same, pure white.
But after looking for a long time, he still noticed a very tiny golden-yellow dot on its surface; apart from this dot, the rest hadn't changed.
He tried to pick at this dot with his fingernail, but it seemed to have grown from inside the pearl, showing no reaction.
Moreover, the pearl's surface was very smooth and hard; his fingernail scratched it many times without leaving even a mark.
He shook the pearl and then held it to his ear to listen, but there was still no sound.
He dared not smash it with a stone or put it in a fire; if he broke it, it would be a loss greater than the gain.
Unable to do anything with the pearl, he could only first calculate the time the pearl had been exposed to sunlight and moonlight.
He added up the approximate illumination times for each day and night.
Finally, he concluded that the pearl seemed to have received a cumulative exposure of forty-nine hours of sunlight and forty-nine hours of moonlight, respectively.
As for more precise data, he would have to meticulously record the time during future experiments.
After waiting a few more days, Yun Sheng again secretly snuck into the pit with the pearl to conduct experiments.
However, whether under sunlight or moonlight, the pearl showed no reaction, and the golden-yellow dot on the pearl was still there, not gone.
Unable to do anything, Yun Sheng had no choice but to put the pearl into a cloth bag, hang it around his neck, and check it again when his Cultivation was higher.
After that, he threw himself into intense study and Cultivation.
Half a year after he entered the mountain, Yun Hua was also sent to Yunlan Mountain, but his dormitory was almost on the other side of the mountainside.
Except for concentrated lessons, the two almost never met.
One year after Yun Sheng entered Yunlan Mountain, his Cultivation finally entered the second layer of Qi Refining.
In the Golden Hall at the peak, lessons were conducted simultaneously in three stages.
Qi Refining layers one to three were in one room, four to six in another, and seven to ten in a third.
Within two months of entering the Golden Hall, Yun Sheng had memorized the Cultivation Techniques for the first three layers of Qi Refining, then he delved into the Scripture Pavilion, beginning to examine some basic Cultivation knowledge within.
There was very little knowledge, some about the division of Realms, which was similar to what Yun Ming had taught.
However, Yun Sheng found some parts about Artifact Refining interesting.
The Artifact Refining treasures in the Immortal Realm are divided into Spiritual Artifacts, Magical Artifacts, Magic Treasures, and above them, Spirit Treasures.
Spiritual Artifacts are actually modified secular world precious knives and swords, with grooves made in the hilt or handle to install Spirit Stones for power.
These Spiritual Artifacts are widely used by low-level Disciples, as one or two Spirit Stones can provide the treatment of a Magical Artifact.
Although Spiritual Artifacts are inferior to Magical Artifacts in all aspects, they can still allow low-level Cultivators to experience the thrill of controlling knives and swords in mid-air.
When the Spiritual Qi of the embedded Spirit Stones is exhausted, the Spiritual Artifact will lose energy and fall to the ground.
Magical Artifacts, on the other hand, are made from commonly used Artifact Refining Materials in the Immortal Realm, a step above Spiritual Artifacts.
As long as the Cultivator has Spiritual Qi to support it, they can continuously control the Magical Artifact.
