"This Wu Guang is the personal disciple of Head Enforcer Zhen Mang. I wonder if I am allowed to speak to Elder Du?"

The reaction to Wu Guang's words was very varied. For Elder Du, he instantly paled and even shrunk down.

If Wu Guang was telling the truth, and he doubted that someone would be stupid enough to attempt to lie about such a thing, then Elder Du had just offended one of the most powerful people in the sect.

As for the disciples around them, who heard Wu Guang's words, the reaction could be said to be elated. Both the Discipline Palace and the Enforcers were people that enforced the Sect's rules and will. But the former were either hated, feared, or at least treated with coldness. After all, they mainly specialized in dealing with rule-breakers from the Sect.

As for the Enforcers, they were treated differently. Considering that they responded only to the headmaster, traveled through all the island and even overseas, and were mainly dedicated to enforcing the Sect's will to people outside it, it was understandable. At least one of two disciples had wished to join the Enforces on some part of his life. Still, it was something very hard to do, and Wu Guang knew why.

The reason was simple, as the Enforcers were directly commanded by the Headmaster and had to deal with external enemies, they also knew a lot of secrets and sensitive information. Being like this, how could they recruit random people into their rows? They did not, they only recruited people that broke up ties with the outer world and joined the core of the sect. They were comprised solely of Core disciples and Elders.

Zhen Mang was the current Head Enforcer, a position that was occupied before by Elder Mo. The latter being now the acting headmaster in his position of Head Core Elder. So even though Zhen Mang officially did not have any presence in the sect and was not a part of the council, he was still someone with real power and considered a High Elder. It should be noted that when Wu Guang called Zhen Mang as a possible master of his, Elder Mo did not refute, even though the latter had said that only council members could grant him unlimited access.

Noticing Elder Du's reaction Wu Guang understood that the former had simply not believed that Wu Guang's status was so high. To play on this, Wu Guang pointed to his badge, which although did not say his position, still carried his name and was designed as the Enforcer's pointed badge. With the material being also a clear indication of his real standing, Elder Du had no other choice than to believe.

Wu Guang was quickly invited to enter, and behind closed doors, with even the pair of outer disciples that worked to maintain the residence in hopes of getting closer to the elder being sent off, he started speaking his mind.

The contents were something that no one except the two people inside would know, but in short, Wu Guang mentioned the same thing that he had said to Du Yang. Adding only that Li Xia was someone now under his care, and so, his master was informed of it as well. Before leaving the sweating Elder Du, Wu Guang added that he would go into seclusion for a few weeks and that he hoped that both the Elder and his elder sister would be intelligent enough to not make trouble for someone under his protection.

There was no need to add anything else, after all even the dumbest person would understand Wu Guang's unspoken words. Which were - you touch Li Xia, you provoke me and my master.

When Wu Guang returned to Zhen Mang's residence, he passed the contents of his talks to the latter. He did not ask for help, but still, this was enough for Zhen Mang to understand the meaning. After all, how could he fail to protect someone who his disciple had pledged to protect? Even though Zhen Mang knew that most of Wu Guang's words were lies as he was informed of them, he still knew that Wu Guang had decided to protect Li Xia. And in fact, he supported it.

The night was peaceful, and Wu Guang spent it sleeping, something that he did not plan to do for the following weeks.

On the next morning, Wu Guang made a visit to the Herbs and Medicine Halls' store. He intended to buy a few medium-quality qi restoring pills, as well as some other pills that he would need. For the former, Wu Guang bought all the stock present, 48 pills. As for the latter, he bought two 15 pill bottles of each 'Vitality Pill' and 'Nutrition Pill'. Their effects as the name implied were to replenish one's energy for the first and provide enough nutrients for the second.

Normally cultivators did not depend on such pills as their overall effect was lesser, and eating a meal or resting for a pair of hours would be more beneficial. Still, Wu Guang would not have the luxury to do so while training.

Before moving towards the 'Earthfire' forbidden training zone, Wu Guang asked his guides a favor. They were no one else than the Fang brothers he had met in 'Boundary Hill City'. It was simple, just pass a message and a sack to Li Xia. The message was to inform that he would be unavailable for 28 days and that she should start the store, while the sack contained all of his remaining, over two thousand, gold coins.

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The 'Earthfire', 'Earth-Fire', or the 'Forbidden Earth Flaming Zone' was located in the back of the sect. When referring to the back, it meant that it was behind the main sect's palace. The entire zone was actually considered forbidden, as the palaces and halls had their own territories and buildings in them. And so, obviously, no one without clear permission to enter one of them could proceed into it.

Wu Guang was now affiliated with the Enforcers, but even so, he could not freely travel there. This was the main reason why he was assigned guides. After all, if Zhen Mang wanted to make sure he wasn't lost, a simple explanation would suffice.

The zone itself consisted of a small square with a gate built on the ground. This square was fully enclosed by a wall, and every 15 feet a guard from the Discipline Palace was posted. The only opening was guarded even more stringently, with 10 Elders of the Disciple Palace standing guard. Still, after noticing that the people leading Wu Guang were the Fang brothers, which could be said to be close aides to Zhen Mang, the three of them were allowed to enter without questions.

The floor-built gate was opened after knocking on it, and Wu Guang was surprised to find that the internal guards were not from the Discipline Palace. They were Enforcers! This could mean only one thing, that the person controlling the entry to the forbidden zone was no one other than the Headmaster.

Behind the gate, only a small underground room was located. It had nothing except a few chairs for the guards and two sets of stairs. The first one was the one that Wu Guang had just used to descend from ground level, as, for the second, it led further underground. The stairs leading to the real 'Earthfire' zone were narrow, and only a single person could pass at a time. Even so, it went so deep that even Wu Guang's Warrior Realm cultivator sight did not catch a glimpse of the destination.

Descending took almost three hours. Considering that they were using their real speed and not the normal mortal one enforced inside the sect grounds, they actually descended more than a hundred miles!

After descending, the proper forbidden zone could be seen. Or at least the part of it that was considered safe and was used as a gathering point for new arrivals and disciples who were leaving the zone.

Elder Mo had explained a bit about the zone itself, so Wu Guang knew that from the cave they had reached there were four corridors. Three of them led to smaller caves with runes engraved to gather the Earth's energy and transform it into qi. These caves were the ones usually used by the disciples who were allowed to enter.

As for the fourth corridor, it led further underground. It had a few small alcoves carved in the walls for people who intended to train in both Earth and Fire elemental qi. Still, Wu Guang's real destination was even further down the corridor. What he intended to use was the core cave. This cave was located 140 miles under the ground level and had a pool of boiling magma inside. This magma was nothing else than the primordial magma of the plane, and normally no one could be allowed to train near it. After all, it was simply too dangerous. The pool tended to overflow every full moon as if it was the rising tide of the sea. This overflow was used by the runes located higher to get a part of the liberated energy and supply Fire element qi to the alcoves. As for why it was dangerous, it was because the primordial magma was simply impossible to defend against by someone below the Sage realm.

This primordial magma zone was Wu Guang's true destination. He had not revealed it to anyone, but he knew that cultivation did not matter, which mattered was the ability to use mind power. So if he talked about this, he would reveal both knowledge he wasn't supposed to have, and the fact that he had mind power. In any case, his guides would not follow him and were only there to lead him until the corridor. Everyone including them thought that Wu Guang would use one of the alcoves, and so to not affect his choice and future training, as choosing an alcove to train was a personal matter, he would proceed down alone.

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Wu Guang reached his real destination, the core cave of the forbidden zone after an hour. Thankfully there was no one present in this part of the zone, as almost no one in the sect trained in fire techniques. Normally one would think that it was strange as the Flaming techniques and other Fire element ones were present in the Martial Library, but it was actually logical. Half-Island had a lot of Earth elemental resources and most of the Sect's unique techniques were of the same element.

So obviously most of the cultivators that entered the Sect as disciples, intended to learn them and not the fire element techniques that came from spoils, trades, and interactions with the Fiery and Flaming Sun island powers and cultivators.

Although Wu Guang's descent was successful and there were no witnesses around, it could not be said that it was safe. With each step after the 10th mile of the corridor, the heat increased. Even with Wu Guang's cultivation and improved defense thanks to him using a water essence to strengthen his skin, he still suffered quite a bit. In fact, around the 30th mile, Wu Guang's skin started blistering.

A few steps later, even his consciousness did not help him to fully suppress the pain. Later, he began feeling his skin burning and it was indeed burning, to the point of the exposed parts turning black. When he arrived at the small, not more than 20 feet to each side cave, with half of it occupied by a lake of magma, Wu Guang looked like a burnt corpse. Granted, between his consciousness and the experiences he had in his life as Bai Qi, Wu Guang did not really lose himself to the pain. Still, the pain was there, and his skin was severely burned.

Each of his steps now resounded with pain in his mind, and each of them provoked the burned skin to crack, adding to the pain. In any case, Wu Guang had not used any of the numerous ways that he could to alleviate the pain. After all, a cultivator's real strength was willpower. Someone without enough willpower could never progress, as each of the levels, minor realms, and even major breakthroughs meant pain.

In fact, after reaching the Sky realm, every minor realm breakthrough provoked a tribulation. The latter differed between cultivators, but for Bai Qi, it was that his qi froze up. One would think that this wasn't a big matter when compared to the lighting tribulations that some people suffered, but it was not so by far. The qi freezing was actually one of the scariest tribulations, and if the cultivator did not resolve it successfully, it would mean fully losing the ability to use qi. So, when compared to instant death from a lightning strike, what cultivator would choose a tribulation that would leave him fully crippled? Plus, most of the tribulations came from outside and so there were means to counter or at least diminish their danger, while the qi freezing came from inside and so could be resolved only by the person who was facing it.