Lang Xie stopped when he heard Hai Rong speak up. Raising an eyebrow, he turned to stare at her.

"There is still potential for this child to get stronger. But we need to teach him the right way of absorbing qi." She turned to me with a gentle smile. "Fei Wu, your method of absorbing qi…where did you learn that from?"

"My primary sect."

I didn"t elaborate. Hai Rong got the hint, and didn"t pursue further. Like every elder in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, they didn"t care about your background or which primary sect you were from or any secrets you held provided you didn"t intend to harm the sect.

"I see. You need to slow down and absorb bit by bit, not so much in one go. If you do, you"ll gradually grow stronger. You cannot rush it or you"ll end up harming yourself. Your body won"t be able to take it, like earlier."

"Yes, ma"am." I nodded obediently.

"You need to be patient. Only the martial artist who patiently cultivates, trains and don"t look for shortcuts will grow stronger. Without developing a solid foundation first, if you rush, you"ll hurt yourself. It"s like building a house. If your foundation is weak, then no matter how many high-quality materials you pile on top, it will collapse under a single breeze. However, if your foundation is strong, then your house will survive even the worst hurricanes."

I highly doubted that, having seen what a tornado could do to even the most solidly built of houses, but obviously I wasn"t going to contradict Hai Rong and embarra.s.s her in front of all the other adults.

"Give him a few hours of absorbing the natural qi," Hai Rong told Lang Xie. "Leave him to me. I"ll monitor this child to ensure he doesn"t do anything reckless. Once we"re done, I"ll let you know and you can begin the next phase of your training."

"I"ll be counting on you then." Lang Xie nodded. He then turned to Sect Leader Zi and Sect Lady Da Ji. "You heard Rong. I"m sure Fei Wu is in good hands."

Sect Leader Zi nodded. "We"ll leave him in your care then."

"Don"t overdo it," Sect Lady Da Ji reminded the Blood Blades pair. "This child might be tough, but he tends to…work too hard."

"Yes, Sect Lady. Don"t worry, I"ll watch over him to make sure nothing bad happens." Hai Rong was smiling, but for some reason I felt a chill run down my spine.

What is this lady scheming?!

Trying to suppress a shudder, I maintained a poker face and refused to display any panic. Hai Rong glanced at me, her smile growing wider, as if she knew about my anxiety and was amused at my pathetic attempts to conceal them.

"Well then…shall we get started?" she asked as she gestured for me to follow her to what seemed to be an even denser spiritual fog in Will"O Wisp Forest.

*

I raised my head groggily, noting the colorful aurora that spread across the skies. The violent and yellow northen lights curled and writhed across the night sky, giving the heavens an ethereal tinge. All around me, white snow spread for as far as the eye could see, and I suppressed a shiver as a frosty wind blew past, biting deeply into my body.

When did I…?

I had no memory of getting into a snow-filled place. The last thing I remembered was meditating in the Will"O Wisp Forest that was the training grounds of the Blood Blades, listening to Hai Rong"s directions and forcing myself to take things slowly. I couldn"t be greedy, not if I wanted to avoid another near-death episode where my qi vessels were almost ruptured.

At some point of time, I had probably pa.s.sed out while trying to a.s.similate that much pure qi into my system, my body and mind shutting down to better cope with the invasive arcane energies that were melding with my own.

But that didn"t explain how I was teleported to a snowy area hundreds of kilometers away.

"Lady Hai?" I called out tentatively, but got no answer. Frowning, I rose to my feet and looked around, but saw no sign of any of the Blood Blades who had accompanied me during training in the forest behind Flame Volcano.

Clearly, I was alone in what seemed like a deserted, snowy landscape that extended for miles and miles.

"How did I get here?"

That was the important question. During my four years in this new timeline, I had seen quite some strange things, but none as mysterious as teleportation.

This place reminds me of something…

Something stirred in my memories, and after thinking deeply for a few moments I suddenly realized that it bore an uncanny resemblance to the Spirit World I was in when communing with the snow-motif Spirit Engraved Pillar a few weeks ago.

"Ah…this must be my meditative landscape, something that my mind conjured up."

I hit my palm with my fist as I suddenly understood it. While cultivating, my subconscious must have taken over and consumed my mind, and I was brought here. My physical body might still be sitting in the Will"O Wisp Forest, but my mind had been spiritually transplanted into a Spirit World despite me no longer sitting under the Spirit Engraved Pillars in the plaza on the other side of the Flame Volcano. It might not even be the same Spirit World as the one I visited before.

Regardless, it was as cold as h.e.l.l.

"Brr…!"

Wrapping my hands around me, I trudged through the snow, hoping to find some clues to break out of this mental landscape or Spiritual World. Usually when you find yourself dropped into such a world, the intention was to get out of it, not to hang around for too long.

Otherwise I might die spiritually. I pictured my physical body lying on the ground, drooling and staring blankly into the sky with a spastic expression while the surrounding Blood Blades looked on in horror. Yuck. That was not a pleasant image to envision.

"How do I get out of here?!"

Trying to suppress my panic, I looked around for more clues. There was nothing around me but snow for miles around. There wasn"t any trees, no hills or cliffs, nothing. Just flat land covered in snow. The only thing that wasn"t snow was the stars shining brightly above me, twinkling as their light pa.s.sed through the imaginary atmosphere.

And the aurora. The d.a.m.ned aurora.

Oh, and the snow. Countless snowflakes were drifting down on me, the wind howling as it engulfed me in a blizzard, and I could almost see each individual crystalline snowflake dancing toward me. I reached out and caught a fluff of them, watching the snow stain my hand white. It felt cold to the touch, my fingers almost freezing over and trembling from the frosty contact.

"Hu…"

Glancing up and dropping my hand to the side as the snow slid off my fingers, melting slightly from my body heat, I studied the stars. I recognized the starscape, with the constellation of Orion and his three-star belt distinctively taking their place in the sky.

But that didn"t really provide me much of a clue, other than that this Spirit World was built off the knowledge I possessed of the material world.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and reached out with my Heaven and Earth senses. The snow was emanating small amounts of qi, as well as the stars and the celestial bodies hanging in the sky above me. But beyond all of them, I could sense greater qi from the aurora, drowning out the miniscule auras of qi with a ferocious glow.

It was almost like the sun, overshadowing every other star during the day with its immense glow and unrivaled proximity.

But what does the aurora mean?

That had to be some meaning to the aurora, a reason why it was hanging so distinctively above me and emanating such a glow.

No, in the first place, why was I here? Why snow? Why the stars? They reminded me of the time I spent learning Heavenly Snow Terminus Body and Celestial Seven Stars Swordsmanship, to comprehend them so that I could inscribe the stuff I learned into martial arts manuals. After reaching that level of understanding, I had sought to put the knowledge in practice, to ensure my body was capable of executing those techniques in the material world as well.

Needless to say, I had yet to succeed, but I was sure I would eventually triumph if I kept trying. I might be slower and require more time than geniuses and prodigies, but I believed in hard work. As long as I refused to give up, as long as I continue to diligently practice, I might even be able to surpa.s.s those so-called geniuses and prodigies one day.

For now, though, I had to work with what I had, taking one step at a time and comprehending the phenomenon before me.

Pushing my gla.s.ses up as I briefly opened my eyes to take another look at the aurora, a thought occurred to me.

"The Celestial Seven Stars Swordsmanship is meant to be a sword technique." Reaching for my spatial device, I pulled out the sword I used for training. Or I intended to do so, but I found nothing inside my Snow Aegis except my Azure Lotus Sword. In other words, this Spirit World wanted me to practice this with my Azure Lotus Sword. Fine by me. "If I want to understand this phenomenon, I will have to do it with a sword."

Drawing my Azure Lotus Sword, I adopted the first stance, or at least I hoped it was the first stance in what I understood so far regarding the Celestial Seven Stars Swordsmanship. There were seven techniques, seven different strikes, for the basic stage. I prepared to execute all seven of them in one go.

The snow flew and was blasted off my my strikes, fluttering helplessly as I swung my sword and blew them across the snow-white plains. It wasn"t perfect – I wasn"t a Mary Sue like Li Fu Chen who could achieve trance stage by practicing for a few days or whatever – but it was at least a competent display of what I had learned so far.

For a moment, nothing happened.

"!!"

I winced as the blizzard seemed to intensify, the cold deepening and biting further into my skin. I was still dressed in my usual training attire that I wore in the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect, but I suspected the cold had nothing to do with my lack of winter gear.

This was a Spirit World, after all. No amount of clothing or protection would guard me against the extreme temperatures. If anything, my Snow Aegis would have protected me from the cold, but if it didn"t, then there was a good reason.

This wasn"t a threat or attack. It was a Spirit World shaped by my own mind, meant to strengthen me rather than hinder me. Therefore my Snow Aegis saw no reason to shield me from the howling winds and subzero temperatures.

Nothing happened.

Well, that was to be expected. What was I expecting? That I would get out of this Spirit World after I executed the seven basic strokes? If it was that easy, then whatever this was wouldn"t have bothered dragging me into this Spirit World in the first place. I doubted I was supposed to start mastering the intermediate steps right away. Everyone knew that you couldn"t just master the intermediate stage right away, not until you polished the basic stage.

Obviously I was far from flawlessly executing the basic techniques and mastering them, but I could practice and polish them without needing to go into a Spirit World. No, this was something else. I was missing something, something that would deepen my understanding…

"…"

Glancing around, I swiped my sword, cutting the snowflakes. Pointing my sword at the aurora, I unleashed a Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike, an immense blast of qi hurtling out of my blade and slicing the flickering aurora. For a moment, the celestial bodies lit up, as if illuminated by the sudden appearance of a sun, and then…

The aurora wasn"t the least bit affected, just flickering lightly and dancing in the night sky as before, as if I hadn"t attacked it.

"Hmm…if that"s not the solution, then…"

I was about to try something else when I noticed that there was something amiss with the aurora. It was growing ever stronger, as if it had just consumed my Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike and turning it into nourishment.

Pushing my gla.s.ses up my nose – which was deactivated as with every time I entered one of these d.a.m.ned Spirit Worlds – I suddenly realized something. Yeah, the aurora definitely absorbed the qi from my attack and was growing off it.

If that was the case, then what if I absorbed the aurora?

As if responding to my thoughts, the blizzard intensified and I felt myself being pelted violently by hail and snow. The snowstorm was growing stronger and I found myself shrouded by a damp coat of snow. If I didn"t focus and draw my qi around me, I would have been entombed by the ice and froze to death.

"Hu…"

Exhaling, I watched as my breath immediately misted in front of my face, clouding the lenses of my gla.s.ses for a second. This pain…this agony…I was reminded of my time absorbing qi from the Will"O Wisp in the Blood Blades" training area behind Flame Volcano.

Right. While I was stuck in this Spirit World, my physical body was out there in the real world, absorbing the nourishing pure natural qi produced by the medicinal plants and spiritual herbs in the Will"O Wisp Forest.

"This sucks," I muttered before raising my sword. Closing my eyes, I began drawing on the qi from the aurora. Even without opening my eyes, I could sense the flow of the qi, the bloodthirsty energy from the aurora spiraling down to be drawn into my blade. The familiar sensation of being burned alive hit me, only this time it was more like be frozen alive, but either extreme sensations brought about nothing but excruciating agony.

"Ugh!"

Gritting my teeth, I endured the blazing qi that coursed through my veins like molten lava, dropping to my knees on the snow. Despite the agony racking my body, I kept my sword raised, continuing to absorb more of the qi from the aurora.

"I knew it…" I muttered through clenched fist. "This aurora…it"s not just any aurora, but the spiritual manifestation of the natural, purified qi in the Will"O Wisp Forest!"

Normally, one could not just absorb natural qi from the surroundings and meld it with one"s qi. The qi found within human bodies was too different from the natural qi in the environment, and fusing them would be like trying to weld iron to plastic. You could probably pull it off, but it was end up a fragile contraption that would fall apart any time. Not exactly conducive for a martial artist to have such weakly melded together qi inside his body.

However, this natural qi was different from the surrounding qi. This purified natural qi had been specially processed and produced by selected spiritual herbs and medicinal plants. This natural qi produced by the plants had blended in with the environment and turned into a different type of natural qi that could be easily absorbed by humans and a.s.similated into their innate qi. I guess calling it natural qi would be inaccurate, but technically there was no other way of calling it. It was still natural qi, just one produced by specific spiritual herbs and medicinal plants. Then again, nature itself was an ambiguous term. Even in my past timeline, some natural plants had innate medicinal properties and could help humans with diseases and wounds. Most natural plants, however, did not, and some were even toxic. It was something like that here.

If this qi wasn"t produced by these specific medicinal herbs and spiritual plants, then we would never have been able to absorb and a.s.similate it. At most we could absorn the natural qi, and then unleash it in a volatile reaction to produce highly destructive power. Just like what I had been doing all this while, especially with Seismic Step.

"Ugh…AAAAAAH!"

I howled in agony as my veins began to bulge and protrude out of my skin. Or was it my qi vessels? Whichever they were, I could feel myself dropping to the ground and it took me every ounce of self-control and discipline not to topple over in the snow and roll about. h.e.l.l, even that was a bad idea. The snow was actually freezing my knees, penetrating the fabric of my clothes (though I had no idea how I was wearing clothes in the Spirit World, but as long as I got to preserve my dignity, I wasn"t going to question it) and I dreaded to think what sort of pain I would experience if my whole body was to drop and roll about in the snow.

My eyes flew open and I gaped at the aurora that was swirling into my sword in a vortex. Gripping the hilt of my Azure Lotus Sword, I sucked in a deep breath and swung it, unleashing most of the aurora qi in a Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike.

But the qi wouldn"t leave the blade.

"Ugh…!"

Not this s.h.i.t again…I thought I had learned from my previous mistake and cautiously sucked the qi a bit at a time. I was really regulating the pace at which I was sucking the natural qi and ensuring I wasn"t being too greedy or impatient.

But the aurora had taken control over my body and was gleefully rushing into my body of its own accord. Worse, it was refusing to leave my body even though I was prematurely trying to discharge it. I was taking no risk this time, getting ready to unleash it as best as I could, but the d.a.m.ned qi clung to my qi vessels and body like a shroud, refusing to let go. Latching onto my innate qi, it began to devour the former, but my innate qi refused to go down without a fight, and both types of qi clashed against each other within me in a deadly conflict.

I"m going to die at this rate…

Then it occurred to me that maybe I was going about this the wrong way. If the solution was just to absorb natural qi from the Will"O Wisp, then there was little point in throwing me into this Spirit World. I could just have done it the normal way.

No, there must be another condition somewhere…

This is the Spirit World for both the snow-motif Spirit Engraved Pillar and the star-motif Spirit Engraved Pillar. Then…

Deciding to gamble everything on this move, I swung my sword again. This time, I didn"t just use Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike. I combined it with Celestial Seven Stars Swordsmanship.

Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike – First Celestial Star Stance!

The aurora vanished in a beautiful conflagration that swept across the snowy plains and vaporized all the snow in a second, turning frost into steam instantly. Panting as I gripped my sword, I glanced about me, my vision blinded by the scalding steam that billowed about me in a nefarious fog. Drawing my qi to protect myself, I swung my sword again.

Heavenly Draconic Meteor Strike – Second Celestial Star Stance.

In that single movement, I disintegrated the threatening steam that was scorching my flesh and rendered the landscape clear again. Blinking, I glanced around, momentarily blinded as golden and red light lanced into my eyes. My gla.s.ses, being deactivated in this Spirit World, didn"t automatically darken to protect my eyes…

And just like that, the next time I opened my eyes, I found myself standing in the Will"O Wisp Forest again. The fog around me had gotten a lot less dense, probably because I had absorbed a ma.s.sive amount of spiritual qi from it.

Furthermore, I realized that the brightness wasn"t caused by the qi or anything. Unlike the Spirit World, it was still daytime. Probably early afternoon, given how high the sun was still up. It was hovering at its zenith.

That was why I was blinded. Having been used to the night sky in the Spirit World, my eyes required some time to adjust to this new brightness. Funnily enough, that was the Spirit World, so why my eyes had physically adjusted to the darkness in there was beyond me. Not that I was going to spend too much time thinking about arcane stuff like that.

I briefly wondered how many days had pa.s.sed. Glancing at my cellphone, I was relieved to see that not many. Actually, it had only been about half a week since I first began cultivating and absorbing the Will"O Wisp qi from this spot.

Breathing heavily, I staggered forward, but was surprised to see that my movements were fine. I thought my limbs would have fallen asleep from a lack of use in four days, but I felt as if I had been moving a lot. Actually…since when was I standing? I thought I had been sitting all this time, but I was currently on my feet.

What had my physical body been doing while my mind was trapped in the Spirit World?

"Well done."

Hai Rong clapped her hands as she approached. She glanced at the blazing miasma around me, which had lost a little of its l.u.s.ter, and smiled despite the faint glow. I wasn"t sure why she was so delighted, but had a bad feeling about this.

"This is one of the purest and densest spiritual qi Will"O Wisp in our Blood Blades training ground, and you absorbed it without a problem in just four days. Not only that, it seems that you"ve attained some understanding of your martial arts?"

I suddenly realized that I was gripping my Azure Lotus Sword tightly. I had no idea when I drew it in the physical world, having only unsheathed it in the Spirit World. Were the two worlds linked, or was my physical body doing the exact same thing as my Spiritual body when I was meditating and cultivating?

"I guess it"s finally safe for the boy to begin the next stage of training?"

Lang Xie suddenly appeared, emerging from the shadows of the Will"O Wisp Forest, his expression as strict as ever.

"Of course." Hai Rong nodded and turned to the vice-commander. "He"s all yours now." A smile crept over her face. "Give him the hardest challenge you can find."

"After he has rested and recovered. He"ll need a bit more time to a.s.similate all that qi and practice his new techniques."

Evidently Lang Xie was aware of my breakthrough in merging the Heavenly Draconic Meteor Swordsmanship with the Celestial Seven Stars Swordsmanship. He nodded at me in approval, and then gestured for me to follow him.

I gulped and obeyed.

This time, we were moving out of the miasmcovered areas and into the deeper part of the Will"O Wisp Forest. I recognized the place as where the other Blood Blades trained against the demonic creatures and magical beasts that were bred here in the forest behind the Flame Volcano, to provide practical combat experience.

It was also the area where I first saw Lang Xie cut down a Horned Dragon with one stroke. I briefly wondered what happened to the injured Blood Blades laying unconscious (or dead) around him back then.

"We"ll start small, as a warmup, to give you a taste of what is to come. This isn"t a very high-ranked magical beast, but it"s still dangerous if you let down your guard."

Stepping to the side, Lang Xie beckoned for me to enter the forest deeper. I understood his intentions. He didn"t want to scare the magical beast away and wanted me to face it on my own.

That was fine.

"Am I allowed to use weapons?" I asked Lang Xie. He snorted.

"Of course. We are Blood Blades. We specialize in using weapons. What"s the point of being protectors and martial artists in a Spirit Armament forging sect if we don"t learn how to use our weapons in combat?"

He had a point. I nodded and kept my Azure Lotus Sword drawn. Stepping into the forest, I immediately detected the presence of a mid-ranked magical beast. It was slinking around in the shadows, watching me with a predatory gaze.

Smiling, I glanced in its direction. I recognized this bloodthirsty and shadowy aura. I had faced against a magical beast like this before.

"h.e.l.lo, Shadow Leopard."

Realizing that it wasn"t able to conceal its presence, the Shadow Leopard lunged out from the trees it was concealing its silhouette in, its claws outstretched. I watched it fly toward me, almost as if in slow motion.

Four years. It had been almost four years since I had fought a Shadow Leopard. Obviously this was a different Shadow Leopard – I had outsmarted the previous one and tricked it into fighting a Diamondback Crocodile, and then finished it off with underhanded tactics when it was grievously wounded.

To be honest, a Shadow Leopard was still a dangerous creature. Even though I was undoubtedly stronger now, the ferocious magical beast could kill me if I let my guard down. There was no such thing as martial artists becoming immune to attacks from "lower-level" opponents just because they attained a certain level. All weapons could kill you, regardless of how high your cultivation level was. Yeah, you could probably muster a better defense and be more durable, but reality was never quite accurately captured by numbers and levels. You didn"t simply "lose HP" if you get attacked, and the damage couldn"t be quantified as "losing this much HP" or "losing this little HP." Nor could an attack be quantified as causing x amount of damage.

If it hit you in a vital spot like say, your throat, or heart, or even head, even a single bullet or blade could kill you. It would put me in good stead to not underestimate my opponent regardless of his/its "level" or "rank." Those were arbitrary numbers a.s.signed to give an estimation of the threat level or strength, not to lure you into false illusion that you would definitely win against a lower-leveled enemy in every single encounter.

With that in mind, I showed the Shadow Leopard no mercy. Slashing with my Azure Lotus Sword, I decapitated the Shadow Leopard in a single strike.

The immense body streaked past me, and then toppled over, blood spurting from its headless neck like a geyser. The Shadow Leopard"s head landed a few meters away, rolling several times before finally coming to a stop. The Shadow Leopard"s feral eyes stared blankly at the afternoon sky, still not realizing that it was supposed to be dead.

"Excellent."

Lang Xie was watching from afar, and despite keeping that cold, nonchalant expression on his weathered face, his tone sounded impressed. He approached me and nodded approvingly.

"To be able to dispatch a rank 5 Shadow Leopard in just one hit…you"ve surpa.s.sed my expectations yet again." a hint of a smile curled across his grizzled lips. "Looks like Rong is right. I should give you the hardest challenge I can find."

"Please spare me…" I muttered weakly under my breath. Lang Xie merely c.o.c.ked his head.

"Nope. This is for the sake of the Nine-Tailed Fox Sect. we need you to become as strong as possible…especially when they attack."

"…they?" I repeated incredulously. There was something about the way he said it that told me the "they" he mentioned wasn"t simply the enemy I currently had in mind. "Who"s they? Divine Shadow Sect?"

"Yes, but not just them."

"Huh?" I watched Lang Xie with a frown. "Who else would want to attack us?"

Lang Xie closed his eyes briefly, but didn"t reply. After a few moments, he sighed and opened them to stare at me intently. I couldn"t help but feel a chill run down my spine.

"You"ll see," he simply said.