Nothing could be seen as dark blue light shined out from the box, myriad colors swirling profoundly within it. Unable to pierce through the light, Qian Feng circulated Force and Earth Qi to his eyes in order to see into whatever peerless treasure was emitting this mysterious light through just existing.
Just barely, Qian Feng was able to see through it and lay his eyesight on a large pearl deep blue and with black, unfathomable symbols inlaid on it. Just seeing the symbols almost sent him spiraling into a mental abyss, their detail and profundity immersing him into comprehension of the mysterious laws of the universe.
Breaking himself out of the trance, Qian Feng picked up the Ancient Cosmos Pearl and mentally prepared himself, before conjuring a needle of Force Qi and pricking his skin in order to drip blood onto the pearl, binding it to himself.
Immediately, the light subsided and Qian Feng felt a new, strange connection to the object he held in his hand, almost as if a mental tether was tied to it. Through this connection, Qian Feng instinctively knew that he could will his consciousness to enter the Ancient Cosmos Pearl, exploring its effects.
Upon doing so(of course he would, this was undoubtedly an incomparably valuable item) Qian Feng came across what looked like a room in a palace, with three doors on each of the walls in front of him and on his left and right. On top of each doorway, there was a sign with words inscribed on them.
The door on his left apparently lead to the Cultivation Area, which Qian Feng assumed had conditions suitable for cultivating.
On his right, Qian Feng could enter the Battlefield. Qian Feng wasn't absolutely sure as to what this was, but if he had to guess, it was likely similar to what he experienced in the final trial in that it provided him with enemies to fight in an illusionary space.
What really stumped him, however, was the third room in front of him - Cosmos Advancement.
Qian Feng didn't want to take the risk, naturally, at that time, especially since he hadn't explored the other two rooms - which he was relatively sure wouldn't hurt him.
He first entered the Cultivation Area, experiencing a short moment of abyssal, pitch-black darkness, before emerging in a completely new area with... unrivalled beauty.
He stood on verdant green grass which spread out all around, each blade full of life force. To his right there was a clear, pure spring, brilliant light shining on its surface. This was fed into by a stream with black rocks jutting out of its surface. In this stream, crimson, golden, verdant, azure, white, and black koi fish with mystical markings on their scales swam about.
Qian Feng also took note of the roaring sound of the waterfall providing the stream with water. It extended upwards far beyond what Qian Feng could see, beyond the perfect clouds and beyond the cerulean skies.
Despite the immense force every drop of water must have been carrying, the stream absorbed each one without so much as a ripple - not even a splash.
Of course, the waterfall covered a mountain, which presumably held the source of all of the connected bodies of water. But, when Qian Feng looked at its massive form, his notion of climbing it to see what was at the top was immediately discouraged by its intimidating height and scale. Perhaps, when he had a higher cultivation.
On the shore of the lake, white sand sparkled, seemingly infused with a purity and cleanliness that could only be rivaled by extremely special individuals.
Despite all the wonderful sights in this area, what excited Qian Feng the most was the waterfall - he planned on using it to temper his body and mind. The painful force would undoubtedly put great strain on his skin and muscles, and would require both power and a strong will to resist.
Qian Feng then looked ahead.
The moment he did so, however, his spirit trembled as an ancient force seemed to become aware of him, putting an immense burden onto his soul and causing him to, rationally, instantly look away and pray he hadn't upset the beast, or whatever it was.
What he did see, however, in the time that he was able to do so, was a path submerged in darknes, leading to a location far away, too far to see. Drooping willow trees, sickly and pale, had hung over the path, covering it even further and granting the sight a well-deserved visage of death.
This contrasted greatly with the vibrant aura of everything else in the Cultivation Area, making Qian Feng furtively wonder about what lay beyond that path, and what it was whose mere awareness could put such pressure upon his soul - and from who-knows-how-far away? All Qian Feng knew was that whatever it was, he was simply not ready for it, and wouldn't be for a long, long while.
Eager for a distraction, Qian Feng looked for any other landmarks, carefully, as if his life depended on it(maybe it did), avoiding the area near the dark path.
The first thing that caught his attention was, opposite the waterfall and what it fed into, a clearing of grass and dirt, with the floor instead made of white jade.
Inlaid upon this jade floor were numerous symbols and interconnecting lines, as well as other things Qian Feng couldn't even begin to describe. When he focused on one symbol, its profundity and depth awed him, as he couldn't even begin to comprehend its meaning or purpose within a lifetime given his cultivation and knowledge.
However, when he looked upon this inlay - which suspiciously seemed like a formation, something Qian Feng was familiar with from the Eastern Fantasy novels of his past life - its use became apparent.
Testing out his theory, which he was quite sure of, the young warrior walked over and inserted his Force Qi into nine different equally-spaced-out points, waiting a second before immediately noticing the effects.
As he thought, the 'formation' caused the area it covered to immediately become enriched, by a huge amount - the quantity of Qi in this area was 7 or 8 times that of the surroundings. And even better, from what Qian Feng gathered, that was variable, and could go up depending on how much Qi was infused into it.
If the previous location was perfect for body tempering, then this was literally tailor-made for cultivation, and Qian Feng wouldn't outgrow either for a long, long time.
After sufficiently thanking his lucky stars he had encountered such a treasure, Qian Feng looked around some more to find only one more place.
A large pagoda, constructed of a white jade and a strange type of gold that seemed far harder than the type Qian Feng was familiar with, drew his attention almost immediately, to the point where Qian Feng couldn't help but wonder how he hadn't noticed that first.
Another, smaller formation was inscribed on the jade floors of this pagoda - one that Qian Feng had to puzzle out for a lot longer in order to comprehend its uses and activation method.
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Once Qian Feng completed the process, however, he understood why the formation was so much more complicated.
If what he figured out was right, the formation was actually made to understand and comprehend different affinities of Qi. There was a central slot for Qi of any affinity to be injected into, which would activate the formation for Qi of that affinity.
Upon being activated, the formation would send the user's consciousness into a separate space, one where comprehension of the nature and uses of Qi was far easier. The only flaw was that maintaining a connection to this space was extremely difficult, so the formation needed Qi to power it. This could be supplied by good-old-fashioned Qi from one's personal reserves, or - as Qian Feng theorized - spirit stones.
According to the Iron Fox, spirit stones were simply the condensation of Qi, regardless of its purity, and were essentially a battery for Qi, except for the fact that they couldn't be recharged.
At Qian Feng's cultivation level, even the lowest-quality spirit stone contained more Qi than he had in total, but because they were so convenient, they were naturally also expensive. So expensive, in fact, that Qian Feng's clan(who despite having to constantly hide, had indeed amassed quite a fortune through secret ownership of business, connections, and the like) could at most afford a few hundred of the lowest-quality ones.
Simply said, they were quite far out of Qian Feng's reach, at least until he became a Martial King. After that, the Iron Fox had said that the young warrior would be able to apply for the position of a mercenary, and earn money while gaining battle experience. Of course, he would have to leave the region, since it was so remote that a mere Martial King, who wasn't that far up the ladder, could be the head of a mid-sized clan.
Putting that aside, Qian Feng did some calculations, and found that his current reserves of any individual affinity of Qi would last him for around four minutes(he couldn't change affinities midway to power the formation for longer, since which affinity the formation helped you comprehend was based on the affinity of the Qi put into it. In other words, if he was comprehending Force Qi but suddenly switched to Earth Qi to power the formation, he would begin comprehending Earth Qi instead).
Qian Feng wasn't anxious to use the formation on the pagoda. Instead, he wanted to explore the other room, the Battlefield, and just confirm his suspicions.
Stepping outside of the Cultivation Area, Qian Feng took a moment to deal with the change in surroundings - the Cultivation Area was far more serene and peaceful than the palace room, the difference was palpable and the feeling of coming out of the Cultivation Area and into the room was like crashing from a high.
Having recollected himself, Qian Feng walked over to the Battlefield, braced himself for the possibility of having to go straight into battle, and entered.
Qian Feng's prediction was indeed correct as a crimson-colored bull, which Qian Feng couldn't recognize but didn't really care, came charging at the warrior the moment he entered. As a result, the now familiar feeling of an underway fight hit Qian Feng and revealed what he had gained from the final trial, like a dusty sword being shaken and polished to reveal the shining silver surface of a peerless treasure.
A suffocating aura emerged from Qian Feng, sharp and domineering, crushing down on the bull and stopping it in its tracks. This sort of enemy was too weak for Qian Feng - not even worthy of a warm-up.
The Grade 4 beast trembled before the unsheathed blade that was Qian Feng.
He didn't even need to use Qi - a simple thrust of his index and middle finger, forming the sword finger, and his aura that laid outside the ordinary levels of power shot out, not causing a physical effect but instead shattering the primitive mind of the boar. Indeed, through the aura Qian Feng had gained by walking the line between life and death, and often crossing it, as well as practicing many peerless martial skills, Qian Feng could kill something even stronger than the Cruel Shadow Dragon which he had struggled against but a few months ago(in the outside world's time at least. For Qian Feng, it had been significantly longer) without even touching it.
The boar collapsed to the ground, its soul shattered and consciousness rendered into pieces.
Not to lie, he had missed this.
And so, what was originally intended as a checkup and confirmation became a visit, and that became a session.
It took a few minutes and more than ten kills before Qian Feng finally met a beast who could make him struggle.
A Rank 6 Ghostly Ember Lion swiped at Qian Feng, the powerful strike being blocked by an invisible wall of his Titan's Fortress regardless of its power. The wall was destroyed in the process, but still, Qian Feng had many more walls at his disposal.
Wielding a guan dao made of highly-compressed Force Qi, not a single particle leaking out of the weapon, Qian Feng danced. He sidestepped to dodge any blows he'd be hard=pressed to block(or would just consume a larger amount of Qi to block) and always responded with a blistering counterattack, silently coming up with a plan as he fought effortlessly, setting up Triggers in seemingly sporadic places. That is, until the first one was activated.
Earth Qi covered him as he used two martial skills in conjunction in order to defend against the indiscriminate force of the explosion caused by his first Trigger. The first skill created an obsidian armor, and was a mid-Earth rank skill called Obsidian Embrace. The obsidian armor created was extremely high-quality, and barely restricted his movements(no matter how good heavy armor was, it would always restrict movements. All that could be done by an armorsmith was to try to lessen that effect, not that Qian Feng was an armorsmith or had any experience armorsmithing). It was true that it would only be truly useful in certain situations, as most of the time, Qian Feng planned on having actual armor that would provide defense just as well, if not better, than Obsidian Embrace, and also not cost any Qi to maintain. It was still useful in many situations, for example, if he was captured and stripped of his equipment, all that Qian Feng would have to rely on was himself and his martial skills. The second martial skill was one that he was more familiar with(he picked it up rather early on in the bloody battlefield, since it was a supplementary martial skills and would be very useful regardless of what armor he wore), Tortoise Bulwark.
With the double-layered defense, Qian Feng guarded against his own attack, as well as the several others that came erupted soon after the lion stepped in that first Trigger. Somewhat surprisingly, Qian Feng had predicted the current events perfectly, and those 'sporadic' placements were instead carefully planned and carried out.
Qian Feng's opponent stumbled back, badly wounded from the barrage of Triggers, too stunned to respond to one of the three attack skills Qian Feng knew, Empyrean Slice, chopping off its head.
With that, the beyond formidable warrior stepped outside and returned to the Cultivation Area, ready to try out the comprehension formation in the pagoda.
He sat in a cross-legged stance on the white jade floor, calming himself and wiping his mind clear of all traces of violence still remaining from the series of battles, replacing the violence with serenity.
After ten minutes, Qian Feng was satisfied with his preparations and his state of mind and funneled his Force Qi into the absorption spot. Suddenly, his consciousness was in a pitch-black space and incredibly dense and pure Force Qi swirled around him.
The boy didn't notice because of the incomparably smooth transition, but his state of mind had become much clearer and his comprehension abilities had skyrocketed, which, combined with the Force Qi present everywhere, provided Qian Feng with the perfect opportunity for comprehension.
Going unnoticed by Qian Feng, who was already in a meditative state, the Force Qi began to rearrange itself into guan daos and a sharp aura started being emitted.
Four minutes went by far too quickly, and as Qian Feng grasped complex mysteries, he was ejected from the Dao space, the weight complete exhaustion hitting him all at once. Despite the complete emptiness of Qi inside Qian Feng's Force spirit realm, he was content, completely satisfied because he knew his control and usage of Force Qi had improved tremendously. Where he once need ten units of Force Qi to accomplish a feat, the cultivator now only needed seven. This may not sound like a huge improvement, but when the units got into the ten thousands, this difference was life-changing. And it was only one session! This wasn't even to mention the difference in comprehension of his Force martial skills! Not only was his current proficiency higher, but because he had a better understanding of the underlying Force Qi, anything he tried to comprehend in the future would reveal itself to him far faster.
Preparing himself for the exhaustion, Qian Feng activated the formation for his two other affinities.
Ten minutes later, when he had recovered enough strength to walk, Qian Feng exited the Cultivation Area and looked towards the Cosmos Advancement area, deciding to hold off on it because of the deep sense of danger he felt whenever he looked at it. Instead, Qian Feng decided it was time to leave the mansion and make his way back to the Iron Fox's tutelage on top of the mountain.