It only took a moment after the flare was lit for the Vice-commander, Jing Xiandong, to arrive.

After hearing Wu Guang's report, which consisted of what happened but with a different ending. In his words, after he dueled Fan Wuhan, a living Xie Fan appeared from underground.

She looked strangely agitated, and before Wu Guang could understand what was going on, he felt a very strong qi fluctuation and retreated from the cave. Afterward, an explosion occurred and he decided to call for the Vice-Commander. He finalized his report with the words

"I am not an expert, but judging from what I can guess, the bandits had some kind of trump card prepared for their attackers. But by some reason, they failed to control it. As I have no means to detect if there is something else hidden, but there are no alive presences in there to be sensed... I considered that someone stronger, and better suited, for the task should be called to check that cave"

"Understood, you did well. Now rest, I will take a look" Jing Xiandong had no reason to doubt Wu Guang's words, and most of them were easily confirmed by a quick scan of the area.

After Wu Guang moved aside, Jing Xiandong issued a few orders for the soldiers to gather up, bring any prisoners, and wait for him here. As for himself, he entered the more-or-less cleared-up tunnel.

________________________________________________________________________

A few hours later, the entire group was commanded to return. Albeit Jing Xiandong had not shared what he found or noticed, Wu Guang perfectly knew it anyway. After all, who if not him was the reason for the explosion?

His explanation about a trump card hidden inside was more or less the truth, but in place of the golem that Xia Fan controlled, he simply set up a few explosive spells and activated them. He also only recurred to trap spells, which could not be tracked to the caster after being activated. As for the bodies that would be found inside, there was no lie at all. The three Fan brothers died, with his help, in the explosion, and Xia Fan's body, which he took out from the spot it was hidden in, was practically destroyed as he made sure to place it at the epicenter.

Thus, whatever expert came to investigate, his words would be confirmed.

Granted, a few questions about how some bandits obtained the help of a Sage or an item infused with such powerful traps may arise, but it would not have anything to do with Wu Guang, would it? Especially as he had no such connections or, openly, such abilities.

The explosion also disturbed the surrounding qi, greatly decreasing the information that could be gleaned from it about his battle, so everything was, almost perfectly, covered up.

________________________________________________________________________

After the group returned to the fortress a quick revision of merits, injuries, losses, and prisioners followed.

3 soldiers had died and 13 were injured. In comparison, from the bandits, 42 including the leaders were killed and 16 had been captured.

Wu Guang had the most confirmed merits, with him killing or injuring six bandits outside and surviving the explosion that killed the Fan brothers and Xia Fan. But he was not part of the military, so he was simply congratulated and the Vice-Commander mentioned that Wu Guang would get a reward. While the ones granted the honor of standing in front of the group were two peak Spirit realm soldiers that managed to kill or capture 4 bandits each.

After this was done and everyone was dismissed, Wu Guang was told to go see Xue Ru in her office. Lead by his assistant, Wu Guang found her standing behind an enormous desk filled with stacks of reports and other documents.

"Miss Xue, may I come in?" After their last interaction, Wu Guang decided to treat her with distant courtesy.

"Please do, as I was the one that asked you to come"

"..."

"I heard that you greatly distinguished yourself in the operation. But your objective was different, wasn't it?"

"Yes, to fight someone in open combat to familiarize with my strength. It's done, and I can now continue with my real task"

"Yes, I have already received a notification that someone will come to pick you tomorrow"

"Thank you for informing me. I take that is all?"

"I did promise a reward for the confirmed kill of the bandit leaders, as well another for having the most kills or captures. Even though your participation was slightly unofficial, my promises have to be fulfilled. Still, I do not know what do you want or need"

"So... It's an open request?" Wu Guang half-smiled.

"For anything reasonable" Shaking her head as to prevent him from asking for too much, Xue Ru quickly added.

"I see, then I would like to receive a few training manuals for weapons, and if it is considered something reasonable a martial skill" Wu Guang had clear objectives and so decided to ask what he definitively lacked. The former was far easier to get, but he supposed that the Imperial army would have a few rare things lying around. As for the latter, he did not even care what type of skill it would be. It was logical that he would not be granted anything rare, but that did not matter. He only needed to gather and master at least six skills for his cultivation to continue improving.

"I can not promise you anything rare, but I will allow you to browse the martial library we have in the fortress. You can not take anything outside, but you will not be disturbed while inside. Does that sounds alright?"

"Yes, thank you"

________________________________________________________________________

After the talk with Xue Ru and armed with her written permission to enter the martial library, Wu Guang asked Zhao Lim to lead him there.

Being something heavily protected and meant to be hidden from outsiders, the room that served this purpose was located in the cellars of the central keep building. It also had four Soul realm guards, which thankfully let Wu Guang thought as soon as he showed them his permission.

The room was pretty small, being not more than six feet wide and about twenty long. Still, both walls had enormous bookcases built-in, and they all were filled up.

With the guards' auras following every single of his movements Wu Guang had no opportunity to memorize everything, but he managed to briefly skim about thirty different weapon manuals before picking a pair. He then imitated reading and memorizing them for an hour or so, even though he had already memorized the contents while skimming them previously. Still, he had to act so no one would suspect his real speed.

Most of the manuals he checked out were pretty basic, but there were two of note.

The first one was meant for any one-handed weapons and was loosely based on 'Sandstorm'. Its name was also similar, being 'Stormy Sands'. But the thing that caught Wu Guang's interest was that it included a way to control one's aura while using a weapon, allowing to add suppression to one's attacks.

The second manual that immediately caught Wu Guang's attention was the last, 3rd, volume of the glaive's 'Cleaving the Mountain'. Seeing this one here, Wu Guang wasn't even surprised. After all, with the Sect being a subsidiary of the Empire, how could Zhen Gan not know from where his techniques came?

"No wonder he said I would have the opportunity to find more of it by myself" Wu Guang muttered after finishing skimming through it.

When the hour he used to simulate the movements of all the manuals he had read in his mind, he got up, placed the manuals in their place, and walked towards the rearmost bookcase.

Inside, the martial skills allocated for the soldiers that broke into the Soul realm were placed. Each of the scrolls or books was bound with a rune-chain, making it possible to take only one at a time. And not farther than a pair of feet from the bookcase.

In the end, Wu Guang selected one called 'Imperial Edge'.

It was a common, but finely done technique that allowed to use one's aura control over qi to cover the edge of any bladed weapon. Not only this cover would add strength and the ability to cut through armor, but it could be also released, or fired, like a projectile.

Its training method was easy enough as well, requiring not much more than a good control of one's qi and weapon.

Being allowed to read, or obtain, a single martial skill, Wu Guang acted like he took his time doing so. Afterward, he placed it back and calling for his escort returned to his room. It was already nighttime, and so he decided to take a bath, eat something, and spend the night in a meditative rest while analyzing the fights he had been in recently.

________________________________________________________________________

The next morning, Zhao Lim knocked on his door right at sunrise and asked him to go and meet his escort.

Wu Guang already had sensed a familiar cultivator, and so was not surprised when he was led into Xue Ru's room and found Xian Zhenya sitting in there.

"We met again!" She jovially greeted

"Mmm, we do" Wu Guang nodded in response

"Are you okay now? The last time I saw you, you were sleeping so peacefully that it made me want to accompany you. Now I have nightmares about that possibility!"

"Thank you for moving me to safety... As for the nightmares, well, at least there's me inside them, so it's not so bad" Having understood her sense of humor during their previous interactions, Wu Guang joked back.

"Good! You seem to be in good form. The commander is not present, so we can leave as soon as you are ready"

"Where?"

"Hmm, we will be moving towards the capital. As for the key location, that's regretfully something secret. Even amongst the honor-bound, only I and three more do know about the place as we stand guard there sometimes..."

"I see, there is nothing to do in such a case then. I take we will be using the same carriage as the last time?"

"You catch on quickly"

"Mmm, I'm ready to leave right now"

"Let's do it then"

________________________________________________________________________

In truth, Xue Ru was in the fortress. Not only that, but she was sitting in a room concealed by formations that served as the communications office. And because of the glyph that she had received a few moments ago, she simply could not leave the room to say her farewells to Wu Guang.

"My uncle will meet him in person? He will be allowed to enter the Imperial Family lands? The key-binding will take place in the sacred cave? What the hell is even going on?!" She exclaimed.

Regretfully for the ones that thought that this room was indetectable, they were greatly mistaken. Well, or at least they had not taken into account that a being like Chun Hua existed.

Feeling bored as she had nothing to do after resting, she floated around Wu Guang for the last hours. In the end, deciding to not stay with him during his interaction with Xian Zhenya, she began exploring the surrounding rooms and found Xue Ru's location.

Being curious, she had entered this room and heard all of the latter's words.

And so, when Wu Guang boarded the closed, sealed, carriage, he already knew about the place where they were going. "Sacred cave, huh? Then that means I will be entering the Forbidden Grounds of the Empire"