After leaving their temporary resting place, the group of inner disciples immediately headed further into the hidden space closely followed by the lone core disciple acting as their chaperon, aiming directly for the supposed center of the enclosed world.

Their trip turned out mostly uneventful for the first half an hour, leading the young cultivators into lowering their guards slightly.

“You know.” Zhen Yin was the first to break the silence as she passed one of her hands through her short red mane, an expression of boredom having gradually taken over her features. “I was kind of expecting this expedition thing to be a bit more hair raising. But nothing really noteworthy has happened since we got here.”

Huang Lei must’ve found her reaction amusing as a moment later she let out a breathy laugh. “You might regret your words later on sister Yin, these might as well be the last moments of calm we will get during this mission after all.” She shook her head with a smile on her lips, her eyes focusing on nothing as if she was lost in an old memory. “How does that saying go again? This is the calm before the tempest?”

The spunky redhead shrugged her shoulders uncaringly. “Something like that.”

Meanwhile, the older woman’s words had made Yu Xiang grow curious. “You sound like you have some experience on the matter senior sister. Have you gone on similar expeditions many times before?”

The fan wielding beauty smiled again, this one looking a bit more wooden. “You could say that. I’ve only ever gone on one other expedition of this kind, from before I’d even joined the Golden Peak sect.” A dark look crossed through her clear blue eyes. “It’s always a good idea to expect the worst when dealing with matters of cultivators.”

The atmosphere immediately grew awkward due to the suddenly sullen young woman, though the usually excessively polite Feng Liu cracked an uncharacteristic joke to try and break the dark mood.

“Well, let us all pray to the merciful heavens that the only thing that will bring us despair on this journey is brother Xiang’s incessant snoring.” He said with a placid smile.

The young reincarnator started spluttering in indignation at the unexpected jab, while Su Rong couldn’t help but snort in amusement.

“Now you’ve jinxed it, Feng.” He said with a small smirk sitting under his wide nose.

Everyone else couldn’t help but laugh at the byplay between the three young men, making Yu Xiang grumble under his breath at the naked betrayal of one of his minions.

As if the heavens had indeed been listening in on their conversation, it didn't take the relatively large group long before they started meeting some real opposition, they’d had just a couple more minutes to themselves, spent in relative calm while they ran through the unending grassy plains. Then Yu Xiang’s hated foes made their presence known.

Just like the day before, a group of enormous spiders was prowling through the tall grass, this one composed of six identical spiders. Twice as many as those from the day before.

But unlike the last time, these spiritual beasts were the ones to notice the presence of intruders before the cultivators sensed them.

Well, Chun Dai had probably sensed them with his own aura far before they had been anywhere close to them, but he seemed to be unwilling to share information that they didn't strictly need to stay alive or that wasn't relevant to his self imposed role as their teacher for the mission. Some bullcrap about ‘learning from your mistakes’ or whatever.

A chorus of screeches from the depths of hell startled the group of young cultivators out of their reverie, making most of them almost stumble on nothing due to sheer surprise.

The dark figures of the multi legged spiritual beasts flew through the air in a leap that would have been suicidal if Yu and the other disciples hadn’t lowered their guards, but as it was the group of spiders closed the distance between them and their human targets completely unimpeded, while Chun Dai stood by the side with his arms crossed and icy eyes narrowed in mild disappointment.

Huang Lei was the first to recover from her stupor, her greater experience, and higher cultivation stage compared to her juniors giving her a leg up in this situation, immediately taking a fighting stance as two of the six spiders aimed for her in an effort to take out what they sensed as the greater obstacle.

The blue eyed woman narrowed her eyes as she saw the screeching insects speeding towards, sniffing in derision at the beasts’ effort. Her noble bearing shone even greater as she took a single step forward towards her attackers, the thought of dodging far from her mind.

She raised her ornate fan in front of her face, flicked it open with an elegant flourish, and then got to work.

The wind danced around her form as she waved her unusual weapon in front of her, her spiritual energy joining the breeze in an elegant dance that was as mesmerizing as it was deadly.

With another flick of her wrist, the dancing wind ignited in a torrent of brilliant flames which rushed towards the incoming insects.

One of her two attackers was swallowed by the rushing fire, incinerated so fast that it couldn’t even try and retaliate, while the other one managed to twist its body enough to only lose a couple of its legs while still maintaining its course.

Its front legs extended towards the noble lady, its sharp points wet with deadly poison just like Su Rong had learned from his inspection of the monster corpses, but Huang Lei’s eyes never lost any of their disdain, for her fiery sweep had merely been part of her attack.

The winds hadn’t stopped dancing around her body after that first attack and with a flex of her will, she brought them to bear once again, sending a net of razor wind forward.

The doomed spider was only able to let out a hateful screech before it was torn apart by Huang Lei’s technique, its mangled remains not even able to stain her robes.

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Meanwhile, the other four spiders had targeted what they believed were the weaker members of the group of cultivators, aiming to take them all out of the fight in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately for them, their machinations were swiftly thwarted.

Lin Fen managed to launch a silvery fireball at his attacker, which staggered it for a single second but still long enough for Yu to impale it with extreme prejudice on a lightning spear.

Zhen Ai fished a talisman out of her robes, activating it immediately and enveloping her body in a shining barrier. The flying spider impacted against the shell of energy ineffectually, dazing itself for a moment before her cousin delivered a bone breaking punch on its body, which left its carapace deceptively intact but that pulped its insides into a fine paste.

The last two spiders attacked Feng Liu, which bisected it with a blade of wind, and Su Mei, who didn’t even need to move a muscle as her brother burnt it to a crisp with a whip of pale fire.

Only then did Chun Dai step forward, immediately grabbing the inner disciples’ attention. “Keep your attention on your surroundings.” He said, a hint of reproach shining through his steely tone. “Do better next time.”

The young cultivators didn’t dare to raise a fuss about the swordsman’s inaction, more than aware that if they’d been in any true danger he would’ve stepped up to give his help. Instead, they took his words to heart and endeavored not to repeat this mistake.

Their journey continued after the rude interruption, bringing them ever closer to whatever lay at the core of this world, their path only interrupted by the occasional skirmish with groups of giant spiders, their numbers steadily rising as they neared their destination.

Something else that changed with the distance to the hidden space’s core was the terrain.

While before the scenery was that of an endless plain peppered with stone fangs rising from beneath the earth with the occasional clump of trees, now the plains had been swallowed by thick forests interrupted only by the occasional small clearing and steep monoliths the size of small mountains, pointing to the sky as if in contempt of the heavens themselves, ready to rip at its divine flesh.

This far more treacherous territory, alongside the larger and larger war bands of giant spiders crawling all over the forest, ended up slowing down their movements considerably, as they now found engaging the roaming spiritual arachnids in combat more trouble than it was worth, electing instead to be as stealthy as possible.

A positive part of their new environment was that they’d finally found other spiritual beasts that weren’t spiders. Human sized armored moles dug through the forest’s soil, tigers whose fur was tinted in natural browns and greens jumped through the foliage of giant trees, and some other species called the trees their home.

One thing was the same no matter the type of spiritual beast though. They all ran away the moment they noticed their presence, no doubt wary of causing enough of a disturbance to attract the spiders, which seemed to be the undisputed apex predators of this entire place.

Roughly four days after they left their first camp site, the group of inner disciples decided to make another one, having finally grown tired after days spent fighting and keeping their senses constantly alert.

Immediately they decided against making a hideout in the forest as the bands of spiders would surely find it in short order. Instead, they ended up climbing one of the massive rock formations and carving part of its peak into a secure cavern from which they could overlook most of the surrounding forest.

They even carved out a fire pit outside the entrance, which Yu used to cook a tasty, if simple, meal out of some of their combined rations. Not even Su Rong was able to bad mouth his food! Although that fact seemed to be enough to make him grumble wordlessly.

After everyone had retreated into their rooms, Yu Xiang headed outside to ask Chun Dai something.

Their almost frantic pace had left the young reincarnator with little time to cultivate, which meant his expected breakthrough was coming a bit later than he’d expected, but now he sensed that he was on the cusp of advancement and that one last session would be enough to tide him over.

But first, he had to make sure the patrolling insects far below couldn’t sense him during his breakthrough. He’d hate to bring a horde of the things upon his head during his meditation, not to mention all the progress he’d made with Su Rong that he would lose with such a stunt.

“I will keep you hidden during your advancement.” Said the aloof swordman at Yu’s inquiry.

Relieved, the green eyed cultivator sighed heavily before he seated himself in front of the dying fire, making himself comfortable for what was coming next.

“Xiang.” The crimson clad cultivator said, immediately catching Yu’s attention with the rare use of his surname by the older man. “Do not simply let your refinement run its course, use your Intent.” His words, while short and to the point, were still invaluable to the young reincarnator, who bowed his upper body down in gratitude.

With nothing else to worry about, Yu Xiang popped a cultivation pill in his mouth and enter a meditative trance.

His spiritual channels were so full they looked to be on the verge of bursting but still, Yu kept on adding more, draining only a bit of the energy contained in the pill he’d consumed before he finally reached the tipping point.

His metaphysical veins stretched and pulsed painfully, the pressures sending waves of hurt through his entire spirit, but Yu Xiang kept his focus and gathered his will to push on the obstructions he’d sensed and cataloged over numerous such cultivating sessions.

They didn’t last long.

In what had seemed like minutes, but might have been hours outside of his hyper focused mind, the walls stopping the natural flow of his internal energy finally broke down, having been continuously battered by both his overflowing spiritual energy and his iron will.

Fresh and soothing spiritual energy started flowing through previously sealed off pathways, the arid veins now being nourished by his chi.

And as this happened, Yu Xiang could feel his conscious mind retreating into the deepest center of his mind while his unconscious kept his flow of energy stable.

Pure blackness enveloped his every sense, only interrupted by a glowing rendition of his body which he could dissect and change with nothing but a simple thought.

The slight changes he’d made to his body last time had reverted slightly from what he could see, so he quickly went to correct those imperfections, alongside a few more he’d noticed since his first refinement. Quickly being a relative term here, as every change was to be considered thoroughly and applied with the utmost caution if he didn’t want to mess something up in his body on accident.

Once he was satisfied with his work, Yu Xiang stepped back and locked the image of his refined body so it wouldn't revert back, then he focused on the last step he needed to take before he started in earnest with his next body refinement.

Yu Xiang looked on at the infinite nothing expanding all around him, his senses sharpening even as the lack of physical existence made them feel muted.

He knew this place. Not because of his first round of refinement, but because he saw it every time he trained with his Intent. This dark, empty corner of his mind looked exactly the same as the darkness that always surrounded the steely flame of his will.

So what was stopping him from just summoning it?

Nothing, apparently, as the crackling flame of his Intent appeared in front of him with a flex of his willpower.

Yu Xiang smiled to himself in contentment, but before he could truly celebrate he had one more thing he had to do.

Chun Dai hadn’t really told him how to do this, but the young reincarnator assumed that he would’ve warned him if there was a wrong answer here, as it could end up negatively impacting his entire future as a cultivator.

Bereft of instructions, Yu Xiang decided instead to follow his gut and his heart, and with a spiritual shiver of trepidation, he finally let the image of his body he’d crafted truly solidify, signaling the start of his body’s true refinement.

Then he threw the gray flame waiting at his front at his ethereal image, which immediately caught on fire.