After scouting the building they had decided to stay in the main room, after all, they would need to take turns sleeping and should be near the only entrance and exit from the building. Plus the fact that the windows had no covers and the shutters were rotten to the point of falling apart also implied for them to stay in the only room without windows at all.
Each of them carried some supplies for camping so before doing anything else, they unloaded them and occupied both corners near the entrance, judging that it should be the most secure zone. A small stove that would serve them for cooking was set up on the platform while for illumination they carried a luminous stone each which the awake member would simply need to recharge so they work all over the night.
With the camp set up, they decided that Yuan Taotu will go scout around the rocky area surrounding the ruins while Wu Guang would remain and scout the ruins themselves. After finishing, both would reunite at sunset. Then secure the entrance to the main building before preparing for spending their first night here.
Even after scouting the remains of the dozen or so buildings that were originally a part of the courtyard Wu Guang found no beasts, although he did find some traces of them as old tracks and a few gnawed up bones.
Judging from the fact that there were signs of the beasts moving or living in this area at most a few weeks ago, so probably they either migrated because of a more dangerous beast or were fully routed. But as there were no signs of big fights between beasts and the scrolls stated that this area was full of snake-like beasts, Wu Guang considered that most probably a predator had appeared and the snakes migrated.
With the scouting done and this conclusion reached, Wu Guang returned to the building. Yuan Taotu also appeared shortly and mentioned that he found several fresh sets of tracks, but they were from some clawed bipedal beast. Wu Guang quickly ran through the scrolls in his mind but did not find any mention of such a beast. To make sure, he double-checked that indeed it was so by taking out and reading the scrolls again. Deciding not to guess, the pair will remain alert and try to carefully find the owner of that claw prints if possible.
Preparing for the night was not hard as they had already set up the camp, well if the stove and their sleeping mats could be called such. So in reality the only preparations they had to do is to close the main door and set an alarm system that consisted of a series of threads connected to a bell that would ring if the former were touched.
The alarm system was not meant for the main doorway, after all, it would remain closed during the night but meant for the two side doorways where the doors had crumbled away. Even if they had scouted the corridors and the 2nd floor, they could not be sure that there was no hidden entrance or a beast would not enter through the window - even if they had not noticed any beast traces inside the building itself.
Normally carnivorous beasts were nocturnal so all these preparations were sound. Even if the beasts had not seen humans before, they would be still be treated with hostility, especially if there was a beast considering itself the owner of this territory.
After eating a surprisingly decent stew made from a pair of the snakes that had attacked them on the road and a few vegetables from their supplies, Wu Guang assumed the position of the guard while Yuan Taotu laid down to sleep.
They had decided to break the night in two even parts as to have both sleep a few hours which considering the qi naturally coursing in their bodies was even a bit more than they needed to feel fully rested. Wu Guang sat down near the main door with his back turned towards Yuan Taotu. In this position and with both the luminous stones activated he had an almost clear view of most of the room.
He remained alert but still let his mind wander a bit and formulating a plan of his future cultivation. Right now he felt that he would finish the first layer of the dantian in under two days so his thoughts were mainly about how to reach the 3rd level of the Spirit realm. "Should I use one of the drops of wood essence? It would indeed give me enough energy to quickly form the other eight layers that are needed to break through but is it really needed? During the expansion, I would require far more time as the amount of qi needed to expand the dantian even for the width of a hair is extremely high...
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No, I better leave all the drops for that, after all, the most urgent thing for me is to reach the 4th level of the Spirit realm and be able to start training the senses. Training them will really improve my combat capability" After reaching this conclusion, Wu Guang formed a plan.
He would break to the 2nd level as soon as he could and use most of the time except the one for hunting to gather qi and form the required layers. It should be finished before his return to the sect. Then after the tournament, he would assimilate one or two of the wood essence drops. This would let him quickly enter the 4th Spirit level, and make it easier to complete whatever mission Elder Mo had in mind.
***
Wu Guang's watch finished with no incidents and when Yuan Taotu took over he retired to rest. But he did not lay to sleep as he did not feel it to be needed at the moment, preferring to meditate while gathering and circulating qi at his maximum capacity to quicken the formation of the first layer. He had decided to do it naturally, and so he needed to actively use qi to let it happen.
Yuan Taotu watch also finished with no incidents and after a quick breakfast, the pair left the building, intending to dedicate the first half of the day to scout and hopefully hunt something. As before they decided to separate, but not before agreeing on gathering at midday. Or if required, use one of the signal stones that came along with the supplies.
Wu Guang took the east side while Yuan Taotu took the west one. In truth, there should be not much difference, but a clear separation was needed for them to not interfere with each other. The ruins were located on one of the small hills that along their bigger brethren formed the Boundary Hills and so after quickly descending from one, they would almost directly start ascending the next one.
The hills were covered in grass and even had shrubs and some small trees while a lot of small rivers and creeks could be found almost on any of them but almost no beast or animal would be found on them, at least openly. This was simply because of the enormous amount of flying beasts that used the hills as hunting areas and one such beast was currently diving towards Wu Guang who was standing at the mainly flat top of a mile or so hill that he reached after passing through a pair of smaller hills that separated this one from the Ruins.
Wu Guang noticed the flying beast even before ascending and so decided to try and fight it directly by provoking it to approach. The beast in question resembled an eagle and had a helmet-like bone that covered its head and bone spikes protruding from the wings. This and the fact that it was at least five times the size of a normal eagle identified it as a fully evolved 'Armed Eagle'.
Armed eagles were considered a common beast and indeed evolved from normal eagles exposed to qi. Still, if they survived and consumed enough qi infused flesh would become a spirit beast, a roc. Rocs were dangerous spirit beasts and had an enormous variety but the one that would appear as an 'Armed Eagle' ascended was called 'Armored Roc'. This breed was considered to be one of the hardest to hunt as the bone armor that covered their bodies had a defensive capability comparable to spirit beasts a full level over theirs. Also, a part of the danger came from the fact that all Rocs were beasts that could actually grow in strength with time so it was not uncommon for expeditions or missions sent to exterminate them, especially if they approached habitable lands.
Thankfully the one that Wu Guang encountered had not yet evolved and was a simple non-spirit 'Armed Eagle'. Except for the speed that flying beasts had, it had no other advantages.
Wu Guang calmly stood while the beast started its dive. He could have shot it down, but this would give him close to no experience. It would most probably also make him lose any possible spoils as the beast could escape or fall somewhere far. Still, he could not fly and so he formulated a simple strategy.
The strategy could be explained in a single phrase - Crash it against a wall. Acting on it, Wu Guang stood calmly while preparing to activate 'Rock Shield'. He did not activate it until the last moment, giving the beast no chance to evade collision.