The Qi towers were a set of 4 rectangular towers built in a square. They had 5 floors each, and except the first floor which was dedicated to basic cultivation rooms and was free to use, the other three floors had increasing qi concentration and respectively increasing prices. There were no limits or restrictions on renting a room, but the price for the best ones was steep, and from Xiao Feng's explanation even high-level Inner disciples recurred to them only during critical moments.

Wu Guang walked towards the nearest tower and after asking about the prices and availability, took one of the free rooms on the 5th floor, which was a room with ten times the normal concentration of qi. He calculated that he would need about 10 hours, so he paid 120 contribution points for 12 hours.

The insides of the tower were identical to the towers that he visited at the entrance of the sect, the same white stone and runes illuminating the plain passages and stairways. Each of the floors he passed was built as a corridor going around the wall, with each corner being occupied by stairs, while rows and rows of doors leading to the rooms occupied the central part.

It actually took him almost a quarter of an hour to reach the room he paid for, as when ascending to the second floor and onwards, one would actually understand that it wasn't 4 separate towers, but a single enormous one, modeled to look like four.

As time started to run as soon he entered the room, Wu Guang did not spend any time idly and started meditating right away. His first step was to break through the 8th level, which was actually an extremely simple matter, as one would only need to form a coat around the body using qi. Then after waiting for a bit, absorb the qi back. Normally it should be repeated, but for Wu Guang, doing it once was enough.

Memorizing and getting accustomed to this served to let the cultivator recall this protection quickly, being especially useful for hazardous locations when poison, acid, or other dangers were present in the surroundings. As the reason for this being easy was that in reality, one would only need to recall the shallow qi coating that could be controlled starting from the 3rd level and just mimic it with a bigger amount of qi.

Wu Guang finished this process and entered the 9th Body level without any accidents in under half an hour. As he knew and had even read in 'The Path', the 9th level was basically a repeat of the circulation from the 4th level. Cultivators would absorb enormous amounts of qi and use it up by circulating while infusing it into every pathway and meridian. This process would take between two and four weeks to culminate and make one reach the peak of the level, letting one attempt to form a dantian.

But Wu Guang did not intend to do so. He wanted to use the wood essence that was already attuned to his circulation system, basically infusing it with enough qi to make it dissolve and release the strong natural energy that it contained to all the pathways and meridians at the same time.

This was the way with the best result and less time, but as essences were extremely rare even on higher planes it was rarely used. Also from the enormous amount of them in existence, only the wood essence could be used by cultivators without a dantian without risking to explode or if lucky, cripple oneself by destroying the circulation system. Wu Guang only had the opportunity thanks to Elder Chen, who decided to use this rare resource to save his life.

Infusing something that he could not control with qi was not easy even for Wu Guang, although differently from any other cultivator in a similar situation he had the advantage of being able to locate the essence. Thanks to this, he managed to infuse it enough to explode after almost 4 hours of something that could only be described as shooting a moving target with qi. When the gaseous ball that was the physical form assumed by the essence after it was separated from its liquid part exploded and released several thick strands of mixed essence and qi, Wu Guang started to circulate these strands. For now, he only needed to observe them growing thinner as they were absorbed and assimilated into his pathways and meridians naturally.

It took him almost six hours to complete this and even the qi provided by the room was barely enough to sustain such use, but thankfully the process ended before Wu Guang had to stop to recuperate, as stopping would allow some part of it to disperse and so affect the final amount absorbed.

As he had a pair of hours left, Wu Guang decided to use them to saturate the circulation system, this was the contrary of the free flow that was needed for the creation of a dantian, but he was not planning to do so, at least yet. Wu Guang's planned to break through the Heaven Secret levels on each realm, and a fully saturated circulation system was what he needed to enter the one for the Body realm.

He left the room right as the time ran out and without stopping anywhere returned to Xiao Feng's residence. He would need to remain in a state of saturation for a few hours before attempting to enter the 10 or secret level, so tonight in place of sleep he would need to remain meditating so the qi does not thins out, returning to the normal amount.

His condition was barely visible as after starting to circulate qi, saturating one's body did not generate a glow, but still, Yuan Taotu noticed something and broke his usual silence to ask. Wu Guang decided to not hide anything, after all, he felt that they will work together more and actually even could be said to like the former. As Yuan Taotu was also near the peak of the 9th level Wu Guang fully explained about the Heaven Secret level, although he still obscured the source by saying that he found this from the Wisdom Palace Master. Resorting to lies was not the best, but at least doing it like this would not generate any questions. Especially as it could not be found out without talking to Elder Chen.

Yuan Taotu interest was piqued by the fact that a secret level existed, and after hearing the benefits the eyelids that he never lifted slightly quivered, from Wu Guangs understanding this meant extreme surprise. Wu Guang also added that he was about to enter it and Yuan Taotu after a brief moment of thought said that if the former does not explode, he will also try to achieve this secret level. For some, this phrase could be considered offensive, but actually, it was Yuan Taotu's manner of joking, so Wu Guang answered similarly by wishing him a good explosion in his place.

Done with the dinner, talking and joking they both retired to their rooms.

During the sleepless night, Wu Guang simply concentrated on maintaining the saturation by absorbing qi when needed and a pair of hours before sunrise he felt that he could attempt to break into, so he did. The attempt was successful and an hour later a sweaty and tired Wu Guang found out that now his circulation had not 12, but the complete 20 meridians. Here he carefully remembered all the information he had on this level to use as a guide, this was because in his life as Bai Qi when he learned about all the Heaven secret levels, he was already at the Sky Realm, so he never had the opportunity to attempt any of the lower ones.

The first Heaven secret or also called the 10th level of the Body realm was reached by opening the 8th secondary meridians. These meridians were actually known to all cultivators, but they were considered something that opened naturally when entering the Earth realm. A non-cultivator may not understand, but having 8 more meridians during all the Yellow realm meant that not only more qi could be circulated at the same time, but also both the initial size of one's dantian as well as the speed for developing it. 8 additional meridians meant that a full circulation would be slower, but it was far more than compensated by the fact that one would be able to infuse almost the double of qi into any technique while using only a tenth or so more of time.

The location of some secondary meridians was also extremely useful for Yellow realm cultivators, per example a pair of them were located near the talons, giving a very noticeable boost to the activation and operation speed of any movement technique. So if enough qi was provided and the same technique was used, a cultivator that just entered the Spirit realm after unlocking them would be able to reach speeds similar to Soul or even Sage experts. Obviously, the latter could not be maintained for much, after all the dantian was bigger and the usage lower for advanced experts, but if used in short boosts, like during a fight - it would give an extreme speed advantage against similar level opponents.

Wu Guang also recalled the correct way to reach the peak, which basically was to repeat the process of the 4th level in cleaning the new pathways and then repeat the process from the 9th level to strengthen them and the secondary meridians until they reached a similar level to the main ones. Thankfully both processes would be easier and require less effort than the initial ones as he could use the main meridians and their pathways as a basis and source of strength.

During breakfast, Yuan Taotu carefully examined Wu Guang and nodded after seeing that the latter did not show any signs of deviation or problems. Wu Guang almost wanted to ask the former how did he manage to see without opening his eyes, but refrained from doing so, deciding that it will be revealed at the correct time. So in place of the prepared question, he said with a tangible irony

"Everything is good, yes, thank you for your so well-spoken concern"

"Hmm" Was the only thing he heard in answer from Yuan Taotu, so he changed the theme

"I think I will do the process of cleaning and strengthening a bit slower to let everything settle down, after all, I want Xiao Feng present when breaking to Spirit realm"

"Agreed"

After this conversation, Wu Guang decided to act on his words and spent most of the day doing housework. As for the time that was left, he used it to train a bit with the bow, a process that he enjoined greatly and rewarded him with reaching the peak of common training.

He did not activate his strengthened senses like when he trained with the throwing daggers. This was because he intended to compare the results later. And this meant following the normal route of training techniques first with the bow.