IT WAS THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND THE MOON HUNG HIGH ON THE SKY, ITS LIGHT SPILLING DOWN ONTO THE ENTIRETY OF THE EVERGREEN FOREST OUTER SECTOR, CREATING A PEACEFUL AND SERENE ATMOSPHERE, WITH NO FEY BEASTS OR PLANTS EVEN MAKING A SOUND.

Sitting cross legged on the rocky ground of a man made cave that was very well hidden, Di Feng quietly meditated while a white and crystal clear but uneven bean sized ball was held on his right hand.

A few days had passed since the fight and Di Feng finally recovered. Right now, he prepared to absorb the beast core of the black bear and break thorough to the second layer of qi condensation!

Di Feng, aside from healing himself with some pills, herbs and by meditating, had carefully analyzed every detail of his fight with the black bear before coming to a conclusion.

He, had completely failed at using his advantage in intelligence as well as even his own power well enough. Di Feng had noticed that the bear was very stupid and he himself followed in on it's footsteps, not thinking over his actions properly enough. It was a relief that he survived and the bear did not, but Di Feng still wanted to have this in mind the next time.

Furthermore, he also realized how his use of darkness was still very unrefined, which was understandable with how low his cultivation base was as well as how his own understanding into it was not perfect.

He clearly remembered the words of the shadowy man on the first seal's virtual world. He mentioned the true meaning of darkness and how he had not grasped it yet. This could not be rushed however so he now decided to break thorough and try again then, to ponder over these words.

Having finished thinking it over, Di Feng took a deep breath and thightened his grip on the beast core. His azure eyes flashed as he remembered some information.

According to the jade slips he had read, all members of the fey race be either beasts, plants, or other species amongst them, they all have one when they are born. The differences these have, had to do with their size, purity and special qualities, which is something like an unique affinity towards an element. In turn, these are what they strengthen to become more powerful and also their most valuable thing apart from their bodies themselves. In addition, the fey cores normally reside near the heart, the brain or their dantian, though, this has more to do with their respective innate qualities.

Dragons for example had a very strong vitality and body which could even be further strengthened with the presence of an elemental attribute that normally is fire or wood, thus their beast core would normally be in their heart or dantians. The sirens who possesses weak bodies but strong souls and energy attributes on the other hand are the complete opposite of dragons in turn would have their fey core on their brain...

After reviewing this information, Di Feng's was abruptly stuck with the thought of 'Why don't I have a fey core?' but he quickly laughed it off. He was part human as well after all.

Once again focusing his mind, he spread his soul's perception over to the beast core to inspect it. Upon doing this, he realized that the black bear possesed some sort of pure lineage as its beast core contained rich demonic energy as well as the attribute of ice!

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"It seems that my decision in killing it was not completely wrong after all..." He muttered to himself.

On top of that, thanks to his strong soul force, Di Feng felt a very well hidden ferociousness within the icy demonic energy.

"That's probably the remnant soul of the black bear... But I'm confident of my own soul force and willpower to withstand it!" Di Feng determinedly moved the icy demonic energy within the beast core with his soul force towards his body thorough his right palm.

As he did this, a viscious aura filled with killing intent rushed out along with the demonic energy, directly entering his body and shooting towards his brain! Di Feng was prepared however as his own soul force moved to intercept it like a wave.

Shockingly, as his soul force moved towards the remnant soul of the bear, he could feel that as it saw his own soul force rush at it, it showed undescribable fear and tried to escape!

Di Feng however didn't flinch as he caged the remnant soul with his soul force. Only now did he realize how strong his soul was. The remnant soul, seeing how it was trapped, ferociously keep on trying to break the cage but no matter what did it do, the cage didn't do more than tremble a bit.

He was extremely at ease at manipulating his soul force. After proving a bit more how he could movilize it, he created a spear with his soul force and obliterated the remnant soul of the bear.

Di Feng felt happy after realizing that his soul was probably his most powerful weapon but before delving deeper into this he proceeded to continue moving the icy demonic energy of the beast core into his body, refining half of it into true qi while the other half of it became nourishment for his blood and body. After all, he didn't have any method of moving his soul force to attack outside his body so improving his cultivation base remained his main priority.

As Di Feng absorbed and refined the icy demonic energy, the few impurities that were within were forcefully cleansed using his true qi. The greatest danger of absorbing a beast or any kind of fey core was in the remnant soul after all, the impurities were secondary in comparision.

But during this process, he realized that the ice attribute of the beast core somehow resonated with his bloodline in an unexplainable way before it strangely separated from the demonic energy and rushed straight towards the nine seals located around his dantian.

While for other people the dantian could only be perceived and have no form, for Di Feng, his dantian possesed the shape of an illusory big black door that quietly floated inside his lower abdomen. Around the door, nine circles filled with runic complex patterns floated while forming a line, with one behind the other. Each of these seals were of a different color, with the first one which was on the lowest end of the line being black and then, in an ascending order they were; white, gray, crimson, golden, purple, silver, yellow and azure.

He then noticed that the icy part of the demonic energy was in reality being absorbed by the gray, third seal before dissapearing without a trace.

As he observated this process, he could feel something within the third seal, something that very weakly called out to him. Sadly, he could not enter the virtual world of the third seal without clearing that of the second.

Suddenly however, the air around himself turned cold as the temperature decreased inmensely. A cold air then invaded his body before rushing towards the third seal. He then noticed it much more clearly this time, how there was something within that absorbed the cold energy!

Di Feng even thought that the icy attribute of the demonic energy was a catalyst that awakened that thing, thus giving rise to thse circumstances.

But, though it seemed to be completely devoured, somehow, faint traces of cold energy also started rushing at and being absorbed by his body and bloodline, causing Di Feng to feel cold all over.

In this cold that was almost unbearable, Di Feng became aware of how his very soul appeared to become closer with the cold within and outside his body. He noticed that this feeling was very similar to how he felt towards darkness, its power and its laws whenever he used or meditated over them!

Soon, an hour went by and the whole process finally showed signs of coming to an end.

Over time, his body accustomed to the cold and he didn't feel pain anymore. On the contrary, he felt comfortable as the cold energy circulated within his body, giving nourishment to it.

Di Feng also noticed that now, if he wished it, he could control to some extent the temperature around him and generate a kind of cold energy that could be used by him exactly like his already trademark dark energy, although weaker.

With a thoughtful look on his face, Di Feng stood up.

'It seems, that my situation is not as simple as I thought it to be... There's something more to the seals and another reason for them to have been made. As for how I just now came to comprehend a bit the power of ice and temperature, it also surely has to do with my bloodline, just like darkness!'