Chen Deming thought of himself as a man who had seen and experienced most of the things that Half Island could offer. He did not doubt that there were hundreds, thousands of things he did not in the plane, but... Half Island? During the 20 years he spent as the Master of the Wisdom Palace, and almost 30 years as an Inner Elder, he thought that he had explored, experienced, and found every accessible secret of the island. Obviously the Demonic Plateau and half of the Great Mountains were a mystery to him, but that was just because there was no known way to access, and most importantly survive in both locations.

But it seemed he had been wrong, very wrong. Which his meeting with a strange, green-scaled humanoid figure wrapped into cloth had confirmed him just a few hours ago.

He would have liked to attempt to communicate with the unknown being, or if it turned aggressive then control it so it didn't attack the people of the Clans, but...

*Swoosh*

Just the sound of the wind being parted and Chen Deming found himself being unable to even wince under the pressure passed to him by the simple act of laying a claw on his shoulder.

Then the beast's claw slid down, gripped harder, and before long the beast began flying. All while carrying the Wisdom Palace Master, one of the if not strongest, but most renowned cultivators on the island like a sack of vegetables.

They flew towards the east and crossed at least a dozen mountain ranges before the beast landed on a narrow platform, just about half a mile above the ground, and unceremoniously dropped the elder.

"You wait here, if you try to escape or make anything stupid, I may not control myself and go against Wu Guang's orders" The fact that the beast spoke was already surprising, but Elder Chen's mind only registered two words - Wu Guang.

"He's here? Lead me to him, please!" He immediately asked the beast, but received no answer, as the cloth-draped figure entered the dark maw of a cave, leaving the elderly cultivator alone on the platform.

***

"How is he?" Kass Shaa'r asked Chun Hua after sealing the entrance to the cave with his aura.

"Well, he has not said anything since you left, but" Chun Hua stopped and pointed to a puddle of dark, grimy blood by the sitting figure of Wu Guang.

"I see" Kass Shaa'r was not a human, and even more as a Saint Beast he still had a Spirit Core and not a dantian, still, he understood that Wu Guang was trying to clear his body and confirm the condition of all his remaining circulation before trying to call upon qi.

"Why did you return?"

"I caught one of the men that were trying to search for him"

"Oh" Chun Hua spread her aura, and with no interference from Kass Shaa'r, scanned the platform outside the cave. A few moments later

"I know him. His name is Chen Deming and he once attempted to release me. Being unsuccessful, a lot of years later he sent me Wu Guang"

"Oh, should I then bring him inside?"

"No, let's wait for Wu Guang's being awake. Even if he said that he trusts both of the men looking for him, I say it's better to hide his condition for now"

"Mmm, I will go back and look for the other one. Do you want me to prevent him from using qi?"

"Like you did with the other three? Oh no, I think this one here" Chun Hua pointed at Wu Guang "will definitively not like if you half-shatter the dantian of one of his 'friends' or 'allies'. Or whatever he considers them to be"

"But he is stronger than you" Kass Shaa'r was perfectly aware that Chun Hua wasn't human originally, and albeit he did not know what powers or strength she commanded before, having fused with a 2nd level Soul realm cultivator meant that she was one. And even with her recent breakthrough, she was only a 3rd level one.

"Don't worry, I am sure the man will not try to attack me. And even if he tried to, I will be able to deal with him"

Hearing the certainty in her voice, Kass Shaa'r decided to not bicker. He knew that however strange this companion of Wu Guang was, she would not deliberately bring harm to the latter, much like Kass Shaa'r himself.

"I will leave a small amount of aura on the entrance for safety in any case"

"Do as you like" Chun Hua shrugged, and then as Kass Shaa'r walked towards the exit

"Scaly, before you return to the wildlands, mind hunting a pair of beasts? We had been using qi to sustain Wu Guang until now, but if he does not recover right now, he will need to eat as any mortal"

"Got it"

***

When the strange beast exited the cave, Chen Deming tried to ask him again about Wu Guang, but as before, he was simply ignored.

The beast, if it was indeed one flew from the platform and Chen Deming decided to try and investigate a little. Only to find his aura and senses immediately dissipated by an extremely strong aura that covered the cave's entrance.

"Warrior Lord?!" Flying or walking on air supposedly was something only possible in the Earth realm, but Chen Deming refused to believe that the beast had such a level. The strongest spirit beast was only equivalent to an 8th level Sage, and so when he had not sensed the strength behind his kidnapper, he assumed that it was one of the latter. Attributing the ability to walk on air to some trait, but now, the aura that cut him from the cave revealed its actual strength. And it was even stronger than Lady Xian's, one that he accidentally sensed a few weeks ago!

***

*Blergh*

Wu Guang bent over and vomited stale blood mixed with impurities and parts of what had been his destroyed inner organs. Chun Hua and Kass Shaa'r had done a great work patching him up, but neither of them had enough knowledge to clear his body from the remains without damaging him further. The same applied to his damaged arm, which they simply could not heal without destroying its remaining circulation.

Thankfully they had kept him alive by sustaining him with their qi, preventing any of this almost rotten mix to interact with the healed body, and his arm frozen in the same state. And so, however disgusting it may be, Wu Guang only had to expel all of it and he would be left with an almost healthy, excluding his right arm, body.

"Haa, that's the last batch" Wu Guang exhaled and opened his eyes. Objectively he felt better, but it was just a small window of relief before he turned to the real damage, namely his cultivation.

"Huh?" Chun Hua immediately approached.

"Hello there" Wu Guang weakly smiled in response to the unusual worried expression he saw.

"How is it?"

"Well, most of the body is healed thanks to you, and the fact that you refrained from trying to fix my circulation is very good. Still, I did overexert myself too much, my right arm aside, even the rest of the meridians and pathways are either cracked or directly torn"

"So it's bad?"

"Well, it's better than what I initially expected. I am fully spent and it does not restore, but my dantian wasn't damaged, so..."

"So if you manage to get some qi, you should be able to start repairing the worst?"

"Exactly"

"But how will you do it? From what I understand now, thanks to my body, absorbing external qi without having a complete circulation system will probably kill you"

"That's where external methods come into play"

"What methods?"

"Take off the rings from my middle and unnamed fingers" Wu Guang motioned towards his right hand. He actually had three storage rings on it, but the one on his small finger was a trophy, only containing the body of the Black Eagle Sage he had killed.

It was a hard task indeed, one that Wu Guang could not do himself. His entire arm was swollen at least thrice of the normal, and without using special means, it would be truly impossible to pull off any of the rings.

*Swoosh* *Swoosh*

A problem that Chun Hua did not have, simply using her qi to compress the finger and allow the rings to float right into her opened hand.

"I am thankful that I cut the nerves and don't feel pain, or that would hurt badly" Wu Guang allowed himself to wryly smile while watching how his fingers began swelling even more, and blood seeped from below the fingernails.

"Sorry, did not see any other way. Now what?"

"Give me the one from the middle one, I need to unlock it" As she placed the ring into Wu Guang's left hand, the latter concentrated and sent a small wisp of his consciousness to dispel the safety rune.

"Accessing the rings requires qi, so I will leave it to you. There should be some potions and pill bottles in each of them, please take them all out. And any herbs as well" Even with a perfect memory, Wu Guang did not fully remember what he had left, especially after sharing a good amount before the battle and then using some during it.

"Hmm" It was Chun Hua's first time using a storage ring, and probably it was a first for the body as well, but thankfully it was something easy. Q would activate the runes and then the user would get a mental image of everything inside. From there, a simple thought the selected item would materialize outside.

***

With nothing else to do, and having no intention to escape, something that probably would be impossible in any case, Chen Deming silently meditated since the last time he saw his kidnapper, who had appeared to deliver a pair of Spirit beasts into the cave.

This second outing was far longer, and he began wondering where did the beast go. Could it have possibly returned to the Wildlands? If that was so, then what was its objective? Bring more people connected to Wu Guang? And speaking of the latter, why did he not appear yet?

Such thoughts constantly appeared and were dismissed by Chen Deming, after all, he would find everything out eventually. While stressing himself over something that he could not affect in the slightest went against the essence of the 'Wisdom' path he followed.

Not that he wasn't curious, or worried about Wu Guang, no, he simply knew that until the beast, or hopefully Wu Guang decided to speak with him, he would remain in the dark.

*Tap* *Thump*

This time Chen Deming decided to return the treatment he was getting from the beast, and did not open his eyes or react in any way to the sound of the beast landing and dropping something.

While his failed attempt of trying to learn something from the cave had taught him to keep his senses and aura completely retracted, and not try and scan the beast in front of him.

*Thump*

"Fucking go to hell!" A voice slightly familiar to Chen Deming suddenly sounded after something else fell on the ground, and this made the elder open his eyes. Only to find a woman, one that he definitively knew angrily glaring at the beast. And she probably would have already attacked, if not for the fact that the beast aura pressed her into the rock, practically squishing her.

"Calm yourself or I will apply more force" The beast said in an emotionless tone.

"Fucking go to hell!" the woman repeated before her face paled and she was pressed against the stone even harder.

"He's too strong, don't fight" Another familiar voice sounded, and Elder Chen slightly turned his head to see a disciple of the sect, one of Wu Guang's teammates lying some dozens of feet to the right.

"I don't care how fucking strong he is, we need to get back and continue our search!" The woman angrily shot at the calm, dark-skinned youngster.

At this moment Elder Chen wanted to intervene, at least to prevent her from angering the beast and leading to something irreparable, but...

"Scaly, he says to let them in" A woman's voice suddenly sounded from inside the cave, and Elder Chen immediately turned towards the entrance, only to see a tall, bronze-skinned woman dressed in a short robe. The design of which greatly alarmed the elder, after all, who if not the Eagle Kingdom would engrave a golden eagle on their clothes? And in this case, why would someone from the Kingdom be here? And who was the one who said to bring them in? Wu Guang?

"I did not find the Sage realm, but these two were trying to use some kind of tracking treasure and so I captured them. Should I bring them in?"

Hearing the question and quickly throwing a glance over the two new additions, the woman disappeared into the cave. Only to return a few moments later

"Yes"

"You make any sudden movement and I may act before asking" Kass Shaa'r warned his three captives before surrounding them with his aura, bringing them unto their feet, and making them advance into the dark maw of the cave...