Returning to his room, Wu Guang searched for the book that the elder mentioned. Although he didn't require the information inside, he should give it a read, at least to show his respect for this old expert.

The book was quickly found. It wasn't thick, at first glance having no more than a hundred pages. Taking it from the room, he crossed the lounge and entered the first cultivation room.

The cultivation room lit up when he entered, and he felt that it was full of flowing qi. The room was just five feet long and wide, empty if not for the mat that occupied its center. Sitting cross-legged on the mat, he took a glance at the runes that covered the room and using his memories quickly concluded "Apart from the light qi runes that are spread around all the tower, this room has at least two sets of qi gathering runes. No wonder I didn't sense almost any qi fluctuation in the air around or inside the tower".

First, he opened the scroll that the Elder gave him, after looking through it he was surprised again "The Elder gave me a set that could be considered decent for a middle-tier plane sect. It can be used with no changes until the pinnacle of the first realm. I wonder from where did he get it? The things I have learned from the original memories all point that the Three Hills Sect should be of the weakest sects on this plane, sharing the worst island in terms of qi saturation with other powers, and except the headmaster, there should be no Sage level cultivators in it".

Discarding the scroll, he opened the book that the Elder recommended him to read before practicing. The first section had a decent overview of the first major realm and the first two minor realms of the second one. Only a slight hint to the existence of further realms was written as the afterword. This wasn't surprising, after all, a minor plane that has been connected to the Astral Road for less than a thousand years could not sustain further cultivation. And even if someone of higher cultivation appeared, the heavenly Dao and sparse qi would limit this cultivator to the highest possible one, in this case, the Combat Spirit realm, called Warrior Lord in this plane.

From his original knowledge, Wu Guang mentally completed the chart. Universally there were four major realms, called the Yellow, Earth, Sky, and Divine realms.

He also knew of a fifth realm, but it was a special realm known only to the scholars of the High and Supreme Planes. It was entered after one surpassed the pinnacle of the Divine realm that one could sense the opportunity of entering it. This realm had no minor planes or peak, could be cultivated forever, and no living experts of it were known even to the Divine realm cultivators he had met. It was called the Astral Realm.

Each of the major realms was divided into four minor realms, which consisted of the Body, Spirit, Soul, and Integration ones. Different planes named them differently based on their knowledge or culture, but the universal name for the next attainable one appeared in the mind of any cultivator reaching it thanks to the laws of the Astral Road.

All these minor planes consisted of nine levels each, and grouped in threes they were called either beginner, intermediate, and advanced or early, middle, and late levels. Being at the pinnacle of a minor realm was to reach the peak of the 9th level of the body, spirit, or soul realms. While the pinnacle of a major realm was a cultivator of the peak 9th level Integration realm.

There was no information on heavenly lost levels in the book, so Wu Guang mentally filled the missing information as well. A lost level was something as a level following the pinnacle, but at the same time outside the realm. They were not necessary to advance from realm to realm, and most of the experts didn't even know about them. Lost levels were outside the natural knowledge that a cultivator gained from the Astral Road, and so had their own rules. To break through a heavenly lost level required not only the effort but also the knowledge of how to.

One could ask why one would even bother with them? The explanation would be just one word, benefits. Every cultivated lost realm fortified your current realm and strengthened the foundations of your cultivation. It also eliminated any bottlenecks for advancing to the next minor or major realm, so when someone broke through, they would ascend to the next realm far more easily.

In his life as Bai Qi, he reached the Sky or Immortal Realm pinnacle and was killed while integrating with the Dao laws, a process that should have made him enter the Divine Realm.

He knew the reason for the sudden betrayal by the forest rulers, they did not want him to enter the Divine realm, after all, the first Divine cultivator of a plane would take ownership over the plane, and rule it until his death. Although he wanted revenge, he would consider it only after he had enough strength to have it, so he quashed and locked up this thought that emerged from the deeper part of his memories and continued skimming through the book.

The second part explained the differences between the four minor planes, while also indicating how to use the breathing and qi circulation techniques.

The third and last section of the book was a mix of basic cultivator knowledge, an explanation of the various non-martial paths, life extensions attained by every minor realm, and the most basic description of the Astral Road that connected the various planes and dispersed qi to every one of them. Reaching the end of the book, he set it aside and concentrated on recalling the techniques that he had chosen while lying on the ambush site.

As a breathing technique, he decided to use one of the techniques he found during a Chaos world exploration.

Chaos worlds were planes that for some reason disconnected themselves from the Astral Road. Losing the channel that brought them qi, the realms started to absorb qi from the void by themselves. Most of the theories said that after being bathed in qi, no plane could survive without it, so the Dao Laws reacted and the emptiness was filled. But as the qi absorbed from the void wasn't pure, or directly was mixed with chaos qi, everything that was dependant on qi, including the plane itself mutated. These mutations could be minor and easily missable, or they could provoke so great changes that no words could describe them.

After these memories flashed in his mind, he closed his eyes, double-checking the different changes he had to make considering his zero cultivation and the low amount of qi in a minor plane. Then activated the 'Chaotic Gathering' technique.

Visible strands of qi started separating from the walls and slowly started entering his body through the pores, skin, and even the hair. A low-level breathing technique would make the user inhale the qi contained in the air normally, but most of the higher levels made either the pores or the skin absorb it. 'Chaotic Gathering' was even more special, it had no system, and made the body absorb Qi using every possible means thus affecting both speed and amount. As a bonus, the qi directly entered all the body equally, so it was easier to circulate in later stages.

After some minutes his body started glowing and Wu Guang opened his eyes, shaking his head he muttered "It would have taken me at least an hour to saturate a mortal body with closed meridians if I used the technique I had used as Bai Qi. Not to say with the one that the Elder gave me, I would be breathing for a day or so to reach a similar state".

Filling the body with qi was the first step of the cultivation path, and a full saturation was the same as entering the first level of the Body stage. The qi would slowly disperse, but not without somewhat changing the body by partially awakening the meridians to allow future qi circulation.

After this, Wu Guang stood up and left the cultivation room. This was the first time that his body was full of qi, he would need to wait some hours for it to naturally disperse before repeating the process.

Considering the time, and the fact that he did not sleep or rest from the ambush that happened more than a day ago, he directly went to bed after entering his room.

***

When the sun appeared on the horizon, Wu Guang who was laying on the bed suddenly opened his eyes. The qi in his body was more than half expelled and the remaining one made him feel a bit heavy. He got up, quickly washing and dressing up, he thought of something and after some moments left the room. Seeing that the common room was empty with neither Elder Chen nor Old Rui appearing yet, he moved to one of the empty spots between the tables and started slowly making some kind of movements. A native from the Blue Planet would point that he was practicing a form of tai chi, but for people of the Seven Islands Realm, accustomed to fighting techniques, his slow quasi-martial arts would be a mystery.

After finishing a 24 movements routine, he exhaled and made and quickly scanned his own body. Noticing that the qi was almost expelled and his body felt far better "What a surprise to find out that some of my pastimes on Earth would be useful now. When I open the meridians, I should be able to try and combine them with qi, after all, this body has no fighting training" Making a mental note of the latter, he turned around to see Elder Chen and Old Rui looking at him with strange expressions.

Noticing that he saw them, Old Rui was the first to talk

"Young Guang, what was that? Did you turn into a martial artist overnight?"

"Good morning, Elder Chen, Old Rui" Greeted them Wu Guang, then made his expression turn a bit solemn and invented an explanation "This is a form of exercise that I learned from one of the guests in my parent's house. He said its good for the body and should be of use for people who intend to enter or just started the path of cultivation"

"Good, good, I liked the tempo, it may be good for my health as well, why didn't you teach me before when I was telling you of my aching extremities?" Old Rui ignored the greeting as he shamelessly requested

"I will try to write you what I remember"

"You two, go to the first floor to have breakfast and return here to start our investigation" After returning the greeting, Elder Chen said and started walking towards the door leading to the stairs.