"How long do I have?" My thoughts rushed by at a mile a minute. Mental calculations on how long it should take me to reach the peak of the 1st Realm. Even if I—

"Less than a hundred years. You will need to reach the peak of Foundation Establishment before you can deal with the strongest puppets on this battlefield."

The spirit's words were like a smack in the face. I had been expecting it to die next week or something insane. I wasn't sure how much effort it would take to reach whatever the 'Peak of Foundation Establishment" was but it didn't seem too hard. I should reach level 50 within the year so if I assumed it took twice that long for each one? I grinned and nodded. "Deal"

The spirit continued to stare at me and then its eyes flashed. I felt my soul heat up as if I was being cooked but not enough to hurt. The sensation lasted less than five minutes. "Interesting, you would have been a potential talent for our sects. You lack a proper home. You should join something."

Before I could respond, whatever kept me suspended ended and I dropped like a sack of potatoes. Thankfully I wasn't that far off the ground so it wasn't exactly dangerous. "Um, do you mind if I give you a name? It's hard to refer to you as 'Spirit' in my mind?"

"You may refer to me however you wish. Would you be able to tell me the current year?" The spirit asked.

I shrugged and stared at it for a moment before a name came to me. "I could call you 'Binary'" I decided not to explain my choice to the spirit just in case it turned out not to like it. I also didn't want to be obliterated or something. "Do you mind telling me what your cultivation realm was?"

"We were Peak Exarchs when we did battle. I am not quite as strong as that now. That would be the fourth realm under the Celestial Will."

I slowly nodded. "You've said that twice now. What is the 'Celestial Will'?"

"The Celestial Will is what we call the 'System' It is believed that a cultivator reached the peak and turned their consciousness into a second heaven. Or rather a will."

I nodded and part of me felt like I should be writing all this down. As if I had just been handed one of the universe's secrets. Unfortunately, I had nothing. "So the System is a person?"

"Not quite, or it might have been at one point. These events happened long before either of my lives. The story might not be true at all."

"What is the peak of cultivation?" My hunger for more knowledge rapidly eclipsed my fear of the dangerous spirit.

"How should I know? There were people stronger than me or us at our best. For all we knew, we were inconsequential in the grand scheme of things."

"Are those people out there alive or dead? The puppets?"

"Neither they are broken wills. The remnants of real people who are effectively possessing bodies made out of ambient energy."

"Wait if their bodies are made of energy why don't I get anything for killing them?"

"You mean from their deaths? It is the Celestial Will that manages the flow of energy. Since those things aren't alive it doesn't consider them as opponents. Or perhaps they all died so long ago and thus it does not count."

"Are there any valuable treasures here?" My greed overcoming the better part of my reason. Another attribute fruit would be pretty damn nice.

The spirit stopped talking and stared off into space. I wasn't sure if it was thinking or if it was buffering like an old video. Regardless I decided to let the silence linger. "There are several things that would be valuable to a person at your level but you will have to claim them yourself."

I shrugged at that. "Are there better or worse tao? I have the taos of adamance and lucidity now. Are they good? Should I focus on them both of them or should I add more?"

"That is your path. I can not nor would I tell you what path you should be walking but I can tell you that all tao converge at the top. The grand Tao. Some tao are more rare than others. The mental ones are amongst the rarer."

"So can you offer me any guidance? The tutorial workers didn't have much to say about what I should do next."

"Interesting, your primary goal should be your maximum level. I or we would recommend that after you see what your class provides you take the time to shore up your foundations. Many youths rush to evolve and end up hurting themselves. You shouldn't take the next step until you are ready. Many things can help you before you evolve. This realm could be key for you."

"To help me train?" I asked as the thought of doing battle with the literal army passed through my mind. In truth, it wasn't as terrifying as I thought. There was no way I could beat more than one or two right now but that wouldn't be the case forever.

"Yes, but also the environment could nurture treasures if you can secure a portion of it. You would need to get stronger for that of course."

"Will they stay dead? After I beat them I mean or would I need to keep coming back to deal with them?"

Binary closed their eyes. "They are not truly immortal and thus will stay down. They won't be able to reform unless something similar to their initial creation happens here. I do not believe you will or can do that."

I nodded. Once I got rid of the enemies I would be able to turn this place into a primal jungle. If I threw strong enough monsters in here I should be able to create a grinding zone. Of course, my people wouldn't be able to do it. Not for a while but they should be fine with the zones we were already making.

"Can I come back here and ask you some more questions?" I asked hoping that I could turn this entire situation into an even greater positive.

"Perhaps. You would have to make it back here. I do not believe it will be as easy as this attempt."

"Can you tell me if it would be a good idea to split my focus? Right now I am a combat cultivator but I was thinking about Alchemy or Arrays or anything else. Is that normal?"

Binary nodded without looking at me. "Very few reach the top only able to do one thing. There will be years, decades, even centuries where your combat skills make little progress. It is during those years that you will need a second or even a tertiary skill set."

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Which should I do? Alchemy seems super useful and important. Especially for healing items but Arrays sound amazing."

"I would recommend you give both an attempt. You may find that you have more talent for one or the other. You might even discover that one is not as glamorous as you think."

I nodded my understanding and made a mental note to take a serious look at the academy. I would be a fool to not use it while I had it. "What about weapons? I use mental attacks so I am more of a spell caster. Should I buy a strong weapon?"

"That is a choice only you can make. You are still at the beginning of your journey. You will add and remove things as you go forward. I assume that you have no connection to other factions?" Binary continued when I nodded. "I would suggest you find a proper teacher. Someone that can take the time to press you into a diamond."

I considered that idea for a few moments and had to admit I didn't hate it. The point was moot for now though. I asked the spirit a few more questions before I decided to broach the real issue. "How do I leave this place?"

Binary opened their eyes and waved their feminine hand. In the next moment, a hole in space made out of fire appeared. It looked like Binary had ripped a whole in reality made out of flame. On the other side, I could see the stone walls of a cave that looked like the pathway that I used to get here. "You will need to open a proper entrance next time. I will have to stabilize the planar membrane unless you want to risk the warriors escaping."

"Is that possible? Should I be worried about an army rampaging through my lands?" It suddenly felt like I had the Sword of Damocles above my head.

"Unlikely, the puppets are motivated to continue our battle. As far as I know, none of them have sentience or sapience."

I stepped up to the portal and reached a hand through it just to be safe. Part of me expected to get burned by the raging flames but nothing happened. It was even slightly warmer in the tunnel than this cave. I glanced at the two corpses and the pair of weapons sticking out of them but before I could ask.

"You can not have them. They are both too strong for you and I can tell you do not do battle with either weapon type."

I considered arguing the point but decided against it. I already had plenty of weapons no need to be greedy. Especially not greedy for someone else. I stepped through the portal and groaned. The air no the spiritual energy in here was so much worse. It felt like someone had put a wet rag on my face and I was breathing through it. The portal closed behind me and I let out a sigh of relief. I ran my hand back through the space but found nothing. Which meant there was little chance of me accidentally falling back in. Or anyone else for that matter. Before I could decide what to do a prompt appeared in front of me. A prompt that made me rub my hands together in anticipation.

**Reach the Center of the Demiplane Reward: Based on Performance**

**Primal Battlefield: Reach the Core of the Primal Battlefield: Reward: Strength, Constitution, Perception +5%

**

The title wasn't all that impressive. On top of that, it was a limited title which meant it took up one of my slots. It sucked but the spot was empty so it was better to have something there instead of nothing. Before I could decide what to do next a second reward appeared. It was a circular token that was about the size of a half dollar, on one hand, it held the symbol of the System, and on the other a city. I sent a small bit of spiritual energy into when two things happened. First, it only accepted a minuscule amount of my energy before it just stopped. Second, a small amount of information filled my mind. It was just enough to tell me that I couldn't use the token yet. It was some sort of time-related opportunity only the date was in a format I didn't understand. I placed it in the bag and made a mental note to ask the others about it.

"So now what do I do?" I chuckled at the insanity of my life. I activated **Ethereal Convocation** and mentally connected to both Christopher and Aaliyah**.**

"Amari? Where in the world have you been?" Christopher's mental voice somehow sounded exhausted.

"I was dealing with an issue. I will tell you about it when I get back."

"You picked a fine time to disappear. We have a problem." Aaliyah responded.

I sighed and started to run down the tunnel. As ideas and worries ran through my mind. Had someone realized I was gone this whole time? It was only what? Two or three days. "Is anyone hurt? Were we attacked?" They would have had to wait and watch. It would be one hell of a gamble.

"No, none of our people are hurt. It's the government. Several of their cultivators were murdered and it was..."

I had to resist the urge to hit myself in the head when her words tapered off. _"It was what?"_

"It was gruesome, to say the least. They placed a bounty for capture but that so far hasn't gone too well. Just can you get back to the city as soon as possible?"

"I will be there in less than twenty."

I considered activating Apportation to speed up the progress but I had no idea if I would need the spell so I decided against it. Instead, I pushed spiritual energy into my limbs and practically rocketed out of the cave system. Once I was out and could move freely the run to the city took less than ten minutes. _"Gather everyone in the boardroom. I am on my way up now."_ The city was more or less in the same state as when I left. People were removing the useful items in the surrounding buildings so I decided to leave them to it.

When I entered the boardroom I found my council seated and in Saanite's case floating. They all looked in different stages of sleeplessness. From Christopher who looked like the grumpy father of a newborn to Aaliyah who looked like she wanted to kill me. "Sup? The city isn't on fire so I am assuming that we aren't in an existential danger."

"Well our leader disappeared for two days which left us a bit short-handed for a hoard of low-level beasts but we dealt with it. More of our people are approaching the level 10 mark." Aaliyah began. "That isn't the most pressing concern though."

"The biggest issue is that a new Jack the Ripper is terrorizing people," Christopher added and then passed me an information stone.

I nearly puked when I saw what was inside. It was an information packet on five different murders that happened just after the auction ended. Each of the bodies was positioned with their hearts in their mouths while nailed to either a wall or the ceiling. Each one was posed with a message. "The System demands conflict. The System rewards the willing." I placed the stone on the table and took my seat.

"Can we confirm that these happened? Not that I don't believe the bodies but makeup and fake blood can go a long way." It didn't make much sense and I knew that but I hoped that no one had gone this far off the deep end so soon.

"It's real. The first murder was covered up and I guess that the UWG wanted to deal with it themselves. So they didn't appear weak." Keshaun added. "The 2nd and 3rd were impossible to hide. They were left hanging off the side of a building until one fell."

I grimaced as the man turned slightly paler and looked like he was going to be sick. I looked at the crystal again and nodded. "So they are asking for my help?"

"Not exactly. They placed a bounty for the person's capture but that hasn't gone well. The System has given people superpowers but not knowledge. Very few of the people at the top were investigators and very few investigators are strong enough to question people."

"So you want me to be their muscle? I can do that but I am not sure how helpful it would be. I can't just threaten everyone well not if we want to have friends. Not to mention I don't want to be the police officer of the new world."

"The problem is that other people have started turtling up. No one has heard from Amahle and Romulus since the auction ended. Masquerade is doing their best to deal with the situation but they can't be everywhere." Aaliyah replied.

"So they want me to work with them on some buddy cop enforce shit? Or is it my level?"

"Your rapid increases have led to some unfortunate rumors," Christopher added.

I chuckled. "As if I would need to kill a bunch of people for that. Speaking of it though. I found a Demiplane but we will need to open a new entrance the enemies inside are strong. I can't walk freely in there so I don't want our people trying to go in. There is also a spirit at its core that calls itself an "Exarch" or the fourth—"

"There is a genuine Exarch on this planet? The energy density shouldn't be anywhere near enough." Desbera added while making a sign that reminded me of the cross. She touched both shoulders then her stomach, ears, and then forehead.

I was about to ask about it before I pushed it to the back of my mind to deal with later. "Yes, the energy in the 'Primal Battlefield' is much better than here. That being said it won't stay forever. It will agree to become the planar spirit if I can dominate the entire realm within a century."

"How do you even hope to do that? Your growth has been rather quick but some factions could raise their Young Masters to level 20 with a single pill or elixir. They could reach level 50 within a day or so. Even for them level 150 is a tough mark in less than 100 years."