“Sacred temple?” Ryu asked with curiosity.

“An outsider punk has no right to know.” Mil-Kai said angrily.

En-Wei paid no attention to him and calmly explained. “Our ancestors were extremely powerful. Shaman warriors who were sent out to war against the Dark Continent had earth-shattering powers. However they were mortally wounded so the two of them decided to build a temple and place their treasures inside. The temple is special because it has the power to nullify all Qi around it. In order to get the treasures, you need to pass a trial. The trial is special in that it isn’t testing your Qi. I’m guessing the bandits are sacrificing the villagers as guinea pigs.

“What? Where are they?” Ryu said in surprised. He was outraged, this was similar to what Alexis made him do.

“Don’t even think about it, the leader of the bandits is at peak Heaven Domain.” Mil-Kai said plainly.

“My rude husband is right. We have the ability to communicate with beasts and from what they tell us, there’s at least three Heaven Domain experts amongst them. So please don’t try anything foolish. You are welcomed to stay with us though.” En-Wei said nicely.

Ryu was escorted to a guest room after asking a few more question. Qi nullification was able to cancel out all Qi within and around the temple. They didn’t know much about the trial themselves except that no one in existence had passed it before. If you failed, you don’t return. Ryu’s mind was filled with many thoughts.

“Heaven Domain… Qi nullification…” Ryu said to himself as he paced around. As badly as he wanted help out, he knew that he wasn’t powerful enough.

Suddenly his door opened and Mia-Shu came in.  He had a book and a scroll in his hands.

“Mister, this manual teaches how to communicate to beasts. It’s for members who didn’t inherit the natural ability. This one is the map of the mountain range, the temple is circled here. The lightning thing you are looking for… is here.” Mia-Shu said as he pointed on the scroll. “The birds told me about it.”

“Why are you showing me this?” Ryu asked.

“I know you can help us punish the bad guys. Grandpa said we are descendants of shamans but we don’t really have their skills.” Mia-Shu said earnestly. As a kid he naturally couldn’t appreciate the precaution the tribe is taking by hiding completely.

Seeing Mia-Shu’s teary eyes Ryu could only agree to help. He finally got Mia-Shu out of his room so he could contemplate about the situation. The lightning fruit is on top of the biggest mountain while the temple is right at the foot of the mountain inside a cave. If a thousand bandits is camped around the area, it’ll be impossible to get the fruit first.

The Infinity Tome flipped opened a new page and started drawing. It seemed to suggest something to Ryu.

“What if I just level up my primary reservoir first?” Ryu guessed out loud. The reason why his cultivation is slower now is because he is leveling both reservoirs at the same time. The tome nodded in mid-air as Ryu got its hint.

The tome shot out a bunch of medicines specially designed for Grandmaster Domain experts and herbs Ryu picked from the Forbidden Forest. The medicines were all taken from Kwong’s treasured vault. Kwong himself planned to use these medicines once he reached peak Grandmaster Domain. There was twenty pills including the quartz pill the Wudang disciple gave him that year. Ryu was planning to concoct spiritual pills with these herbs but decided to use them now.

Ryu refined and absorbed these medicines and herbs as he studied the beast communication method. Once you start on a spiritual pill, it’ll release all its Qi within a day. Most people can’t absorb and refine fast enough so only part of the medicine is actually used. For Ryu this wasn’t a problem, not only is he utilizing a hundred percent of the medicine, he’s also going through one in half a day.

“Amazing, so beasts can talk in the Emperor Domain and take on human forms in Sovereign Domain. I wonder what level the Fairy Lady is.” Ryu talked to himself as he went over the manual Mia-Shu gave him. It contained a lot of information about beasts in general.

A week passed in a blink of an eye and Ryu finally reached peak Grandmaster Domain, level 49, on his first reservoir. He saved the Wudang Sect pill for this occasion to break through to the next domain but first he had to create another specialization. He had thought about this for a while and after an hour he succeeded. He quickly devoured the last pill and focused on breaking through.

Elder Mil-Kai who was patrolling around the gorge at night suddenly felt a huge fluctuation of Qi and quickly ran to the source. With a kick he broke down Ryu’s door and was greeted with an explosive amount of air which made him fall backwards. It was coming from Ryu and it kept on getting stronger, it’s as if Ryu’s generating a tornado. Mil-Kai had to use a great deal of strength to get back up and contain the gusts of wind. After a minute the manmade storm finally stopped.

Ryu walked out and quickly apologized to Mil-Kai.

“I’ve finally made a breakthrough and I think it’s about time I left. Please tell Mia-Shu not to look for me but let him know I’ll keep my promise.” Ryu said politely and bowed. With a light hop he flew towards the entrance. This was different from propelling himself with Qi wings or air and fire elements. He was flying purely with his Qi, his Qi had finally reached the point of being potent enough to lift him perpetually.

“Did… did he just break into Heaven Domain?” Mil-Kai gasped. Indeed Ryu did. He went from level 42 to 50 in one week! It was all due to spiritual medicines and his innate Qi abilities that allowed him to absorb and refine a hundred percent what the medicine had to offer. If Ryu split the Qi up to level up his second reservoir at the same time, he would’ve have climbed two levels at most.

Ryu ran straight towards the temple. On the way he encountered a Steel Eagle, it was three times taller than he was and all its feathers were made of steel!

Following the manual Mia-Shu gave him, Ryu focused his aura towards the beast. The process is not actually talking verbally but communicating with your Qi. General gestures and words can be formed with your aura to get your intentions across. This was how beasts communicate with other species before they reach Emperor Domain to get the ability to talk.

“Hi there, I’m just crossing by. Could you let me through?” Ryu motioned with his aura. The manual that Mia-Shu gave him was a thick book. That’s because it’s like a dictionary for beast language. Thankfully the Infinity Tome absorbed all its information down for him or it would take decades to memorize completely. Surprisingly the eagle gave Ryu a look and flew away.

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“Heaven Domain is truly amazing. The quality of Qi is much more powerful than before!” Ryu said as he experimented with his new found powers as he ran. He lifted a huge stone up by raw Qi, not by utilizing the earth Qi elements. After having tested his powers he finally put on his enchanted cloak and continued towards the temple.

With a map of the mountain range, Ryu took the shortest path possible to get there. After arriving there half a day later Ryu scouted from a safe distance. Mount Seya was the name of the mountain that the temple is in. There’s many tents and wooden lodges set up circularly a hundred meters away from a cave entrance.

“Is that the circumference of the Qi nullification?” Ryu wondered to himself. He quickly scouted around more.

“The rumors are true, there’s close to a thousand guys here.” Ryu said after circling around. The majority of them were camped at the base of Mount Seya so Ryu decided to head to the top first. The mountain was extremely tall, Ryu couldn’t see the top since it’s covered by clouds.

As he was slowly hiking up carefully, he heard a branch snap a meter away from him. He noticed a young male in a white robe walking towards the same direction as him. The reason why neither parties detected each other because they withheld their aura very well. If the person you are scouting out with your aura also had their aura out, they would know they are being watched. If Ryu were looking at the right direction he would’ve seen the other person’s Qi though.

Instantly the opposing male thrust out his sword at a breathtaking speed. It was day time so Ryu had no shade, his figure is just a hazy blur so obviously he was discovered in such close range. Ryu had no time to properly counter. All he managed to do was barely swing his spear sideways to block.

Clang! A sharp pain vibrated through Ryu’s arm as he lost his grip on his spear. Ryu quickly spat out a ball of fire, it was the fastest move he could think of as he retreated. The other person sliced it right in half and charged after Ryu. Ryu managed to summon the Gold Keeper’s arm as a shield, put away his cloak and draw his own sword out.

Slash, the artificial arm made of Qi was dispersed by the youth as well. The Gold Keeper was powered by his second reservoir which was at the Grandmaster Domain. Against an expert in Heaven Domain that concentrated his Qi densely into his sword, the Gold Keeper got chopped up like butter.

This time Ryu managed to counter the incoming blade. However with a few blows Ryu felt his arm tingling. The opponent’s sword carried the majority of his Qi which made it that much more tyrannical, if he wasn’t using a high grade sword from Wudang then he would have lost an arm ages ago. This person’s sword art was also very demonic and overwhelming. The only sword arts Ryu really learned was the Tai Chi sword and some knight sword techniques but it wasn’t effective against this person who was launching quick stabs towards him. Every now and then he would put his sword back in his sheath and launch a super quick strike that Ryu could barely see. The armor Ryu wore was getting a few dents in them as well.

The youth seems to be targeting Ryu’s vital points. Often he would point his sword towards Ryu’s wrist, neck, eyes, groin and even fingers. This forced Ryu’s to retreat but using the principles of the stick technique, Ryu had his moments of tripping up his opponents too. In a few occasions Ryu managed to make the youth lose balance as Ryu disrupted his center of gravity with Tai Chi and random bursts of power. Still Ryu was losing ground, knowing he was losing in close range battle Ryu flew upwards but his opponent followed closely.

Is he in Heaven Domain too?  Ryu thought in surprise. After taking a good look Ryu found out his opponent was a young male in his twenties by his estimate. His hair was long and tied up, he had a slightly lean build compared to Ryu and his face was a bit feminine but his eyes showed that of a seasoned warrior.

Clash! Their swords met again in mid-air and a huge shockwave was created. Ryu shot multiple Qi blades at him when he could but they all missed or were deflected. The opponent’s sword was extremely sharp, the Gold Keeper actually kept getting sliced apart so Ryu decided to use that Qi to reinforce his own armor in fear of getting cut in half.

Boom! One humongous sword descended from the sky and the white robed youth took it head on in surprise. It’s one of Ryu’s mini-trump cards. He had used this against Fang-Da in the past.

The white robed youth was getting pushed down to the earth when suddenly with a war cry he sliced through the huge Qi sword in one swing.

“What?” Ryu yelled out in surprise. That large Qi sword he made was extremely destructive and took a lot of his Qi. He looked downwards and saw the white robed youth coughing up blood. Suddenly it dawned upon Ryu that this person might not be a bandit and that the reason why he thinks Ryu is an enemy is because he was wearing the hiding cloak.

Ryu descended with his hands up and said, “I’m not your enemy, I’m not a bandit!”

The youth had a look of disbelief until he noticed Ryu’s sword had the Wudang symbol engraved right below the blade, it was previously covered up by a layer of Qi. He spoke up, “You… you are from Wudang Sect?”

Ryu was going to respond when suddenly dozens of people appeared beside them. Two of them were floating in mid-air! The epic battle obviously drew the attention of the bandits camped at the base of the mountain. During this life or death struggle, neither combatants had the luxury to keep a low profile.

“Damn! Heaven Domain experts!” The youth said before coughing up more blood. It’s obvious that he had sustained internal injuries. Although he was focused on his fight, he still kept his attention on his surroundings. These bandits really are skillful in sneaking around he thought.

“Hohoho looks like we got a good haul today boys.” One of the floating experts said. His name is Rie-Tan.

“A rank 6 spear, let’s see what else they have on them.” The other floating expert said. His name was Joa-Wong and he was holding Ryu’s spear that was knocked from his hands earlier. A sinister look can be seen from his eyes.