A caravan escort mission would normally take a good amount of time, so Xiao Feng would be leaving the Sect for a pair of weeks. And as Yuan Taotu decided to spend the following days in the Qi towers, Wu Guang ended as the sole full-time inhabitant of the residence.

As his current cultivation needed time and solitude, he was only grateful for the fact, although he was a bit surprised to find that Yuan Taotu cultivation was at the beginning of the 9th level, a fact that was found only after asking about the reason of his interest in the Qi towers. But hearing about his cultivation, the question was solved by itself, after all, for the 9th level the only way to advance was to infuse enormous amounts of qi while circulating it, expanding and strengthening the system until it was ready to create a dantian. This information also solved Wu Guang's unspoken question about why Yuan Taotu was allowed to enter even after he missed the first days of the test, after all, such cultivation was a guarantee of his advance into the Spirit realm during a few weeks or at maximum a pair of months.

Wu Guang who always thought as a scholar on such matters knew that any non-cultivator would ask why the speed of advancing was so important for the Sect or even in the cultivation world as full. The answer was easy, albeit most of the people did not think of it - age. A cultivator from a minor plane but without talent if he had the resources could actually reach the Spirit realm at any age but most probably would stop there. This was because anyone who did not break into the Spirit realm before turning 20 years old, would most probably never reach the Earth or even the minor Sage realm during his life as every following level in the realms would require more and more time. This time was further expanded by age, so if not reached quickly one could never advance more than a pair of minor realms. Also, the higher the plane, the higher requirements in cultivation were needed to be reached at a young age.

For example, in his original plane, the minimum required by the martial school he attended was to reach at least the mid-earth realm before turning 25. He as Bai Qi was lauded as a rare genius, as he had reached the peak of the Earth Realm on the day he turned 24, but even so, he needed over a hundred years to reach the peak of the Sky realm. Not mentioning that it took him several hundred to understand the Dao before trying to enter the following Divine realm. This being not only because of the Knowledge Dao he followed but also because the cultivation he had followed during the time peaked at the Sky Realm, making any following advancement extremely hard.

Now returning to his current situation, Wu Guang knew that he would not have any problems except the resources and plane limits. As he had already threaded the path, reaching his previous level far quicker was logical. And exactly because of this, his plan was to reach the peak of the Soul realm during the year that he allowed himself to stay in the Sect and then work to leave the plane. Although if everything went well and he could advance further, then he would do so. After all, the stronger he was, the lesser problems would arise for him to enter the Black Empire lands.

For now, he had to concentrate on the 8th level of the first minor realm and so he did. Actually while thinking in this manner, as if he was explaining to someone he did not stay still, but boiled pot after pot of water while adding the basic herbs he would need to use today.

He filled the wooden bath present at the residence with these pots and after disrobing and taking a bamboo breathing stick that would allow him to remain underwater, quickly entered the still steaming bath. For today the only herbs used were a mix of basic skin-strengthening herbs, so as there was no element or need to circulate qi, Wu Guang only had to remain soaked with this concoction and the effect would be applied naturally.

The effect of these basic herbs was mainly a preparatory one, but technically it would still make him advance a bit in the level, although not generating any significant change.

Normally it would take several repeated baths to reach the intended effect for each of the herbal mixes, but as Wu Guang did not have any issue with time or would not need to go anywhere as opposed to the outer disciples that had to complete missions to pay for they stay, he directly stayed for almost all the day in it. When he sensed that the effect was reached, which was indicated when the tingling sensation he had during all the bath stopped, he calmly exited and after stretching himself proceeded to dress up.

It was already about late afternoon, so Wu Guang only spent a bit of time preparing a simple dinner for Yuan Taotu and himself before deciding that he needed to move his body and so went outside after grabbing the newly bought glaive.

It did not take him any effort or time to enter the weapon observation state that has been so useful to him until now, so the following pair of hours were basically him using the glaive in different manners while being oblivious to the surrounding world. Thankfully the residences were partially hidden from each other by the plants in the garden, and also the fact that most of the residents were outside on missions or training allowed him to train without anyone interrupting. When he finished, the night had already taken possession and after he returned inside, he found that Yuan Taotu had not only arrived without him noticing, but also eaten and retired to his room.

Deciding to not disturb him, Wu Guang quickly ate, washed out the sweat, and went to sleep.

***

For the next three days, the routine was fairly the same, with the only changes being that each day Wu Guang used different herbs and trained with other weapons as exercise.

Starting from the fourth day two noticeable changes took place which was that Wu Guang used the first of the elemental herbs, which in the set he planned for himself was the fire element 'Dragonfern'. Not only the bath was more tedious to prepare as the herb would need to be boiled for several hours but he would also need to actively circulate qi while soaking in the resulting concoction, which led to the first change - he stopped training with weapons and used all his free time for meditation as to recover qi. The second change was related to Yuan Taotu, who had reached some personal mark and in place of going to the towers would now spend time training with his staff and meditating in the residence and for some reason decided to take over the cooking.

If anyone asked Wu Guang to describe Yuan Taotu cooking, he would receive in response a brief mix of the words spicy, seasoned, delicious. And indeed, the latter cooking was extremely different from what Wu Guang had eaten, at least in this plane. All the dishes were seasoned to an extreme, but still, they were delicious. They could be even compared to the food from the manor or even Chef Ji, which occupied a special place in Wu Guangs memories, after all, it was the first food he tasted after arriving at this plane.

As Yuan Taotu was always silent, Wu Guang did not really try to question his dishes but surprisingly the former became a lot more talkative and not only named them but also mentioned that these were dishes from his people. To the natural question of who were these people, Yuan Taotu did not really answer but simply named them 'Sea Hawks' before recovering his silent manner. Wu Guang did not have much knowledge about the plane except for the books he read at the Xiao manor, but still, he managed to recall that 'Sea Hawks' was a name used for a small group of people that lived in a small floating country formed by rune-ships and dedicated themselves to piracy, trade, and exploration.

Sensing that he would not obtain any answers, Wu Guang did not ask more, but his interest was piqued, after all, this meant his silent teammate was someone who could be extremely useful in leaving the island and maybe even when traveling towards the Black Island.

With these changes taken into account, the routine days continued until the 9th day, which was the day of Wu Guangs last bath, and the day he reached the peak of the 8th level. Wu Guang could now break to the next level with a simple effort but decided against doing it right away. His thought was that it will be better to make his breakthrough using the Qi Towers. Both to advance and to have easy access to the enormous amount of qi needed to activate the wood essence. For now, it was traveling his pathways, but now the time to use it came. Doing so will allow him to reach the peak almost instantly.

This evening, Wu Guang carefully examined the changes that occurred and even tested some of them. "Thanks to the set I planned, by skin was tempered by the five elements equally and I got the benefits of each" thinking like this, he tried to cut himself with one of the hunting knifes he still kept nearby. As the blade scraped against his palm, it did not leave any wound or mark, confirming that his skin was strengthened.

Wu Guang then proceeded to touch the flame of the candle he had lit before. He found out that even if he could feel the heat, the skin resisted it without any marks except a bit of reddening.

Both tests were made without qi, and so he continued. Repeating the same, he infused a wisp of qi that made the knife bounce from his skin. While for the fire, the effect was practically the same, albeit he felt far less heat. "Seems that I succeeded in both the elements and the passive effect even surpasses the 10 times from the high tier that the Shop promoted". Something like this would make most feel like they were invincible. But in Wu Guang's case, he knew that this only was an illusion, which would be quickly broken if enough the flame was hotter or someone applied qi to or behind the weapon.

Basically, a battle between initial Spirit realm cultivators always came down to this. The one correctly applied enough qi to break the defense of the opponent would win. There was also the part of doing so without emptying one's dantian, but that was simple to monitor. Failing to do so would directly make one lose, as a Spirit Realm cultivator with no qi would be no different from a mortal.

Afterward, Wu Guang used his breathing technique to quickly recover the used qi and went to sleep.