"Elder Mo, isn't there something wrong with this badge?" Wu Guang decided to ask after finding out that the badge had a balance of 100 thousand contribution points. Here one should remember that the most expensive technique in the Martial Library was below one thousand. As for Martial Skills? They had no price and each disciple entering the Soul realm would be granted the chance to learn one or two, depending on his affiliation and talent.
"Well, the rules say that even personal disciples have to pay for what they use, so that amount should be enough for you"
"Then thank you, Elder Mo" Wu Guang did not say that the rules also said that nobody could grant contribution points freely, choosing to ignore it altogether.
"Well, now that we have gone over the good news, it's time for me to inform you of the bad ones" Elder Mo grew serious as he spoke.
"The Eagle Kingdom invasion is confirmed?" Wu Guang wasn't dumb, and he had long guessed that only something related to that would make Elder Mo use the term bad news.
"Indeed, it will take place and the first target is our Half Island"
"I see, do we know the timing?"
"Three months from now their first ships should start landing troops"
"Can nothing be done to impede them?"
"No, their fleet is just too powerful. We will have to depend on ourselves and create a defensive line on our territory"
"Only ourselves?" Wu Guang was surprised, after all, the 'Three Hills Sect' was not the only power that had cultivators on the island.
"Yes. The Qiu family head is ill, and the person that is in charge right now does not even believe that the Eagle Kingdom will invade. Granted, they will resist when attacked, but without preparations? They will last a few days at max. As for the 'Leaf Shadows Sect', they will only cooperate when in dire straits. Obviously, by that time, they will not be a real force" Elder Mo said it calmly, almost like it was something the Council had expected.
"That!"
"Idiotic? Yes, but someone has been spreading rumors that all this is a ruse from our Sect to grab all the power on the island. And I have to say that their lies are working very fine as most cultivators that are not related to us have been always hostile to us either because of envy or past grudges"
"Hmmm... And what about the cities?"
"Well, the Coastal Hill City will cooperate if the situation calls for it, but you have already felt how is their actual leadership doing, so we can't expect much. As for the Flowing Leaves City? They are definitively involved with the Black Eagles already, not only do the past incidents show it, but I have also confirmed that some of the rumors come directly from the City's Palace. The other cities are too weak to be taken into account, but we will rally them to join our defense. In any case, this all is not something that you should involve yourself deeply. Your main task remains as before, to reach the Soul realm as soon as possible. When the Headmaster and Core Elders are back, our fighting force will increase. We also have a few trump cards, so don't worry too much"
"Understood" Wu Guang nodded.
"Now go, I will call you if something urgent comes up"
"With Elder Mo's permission then" Wu Guang quickly saluted and left the Art's Hall.
Outside the hall, he found Zhen Mang, who was waiting for him on Elder Mo's instructions.
"So you now are my disciple?" Zhen Mang smirked
"This disciple greets Master Zhen!" Wu Guang played along and bowed.
"Drop it. Let's go, let me take you to my place"
Officially Zhen Mang was not part of the Sect's council, but he was still informed of everything and in fact, was someone who had found a big part of all their leads. So during their way, Wu Guang mainly confirmed with Zhen Mang the behavior of everyone else on the island. Mostly he was interested in the clans. Would they join the defense efforts?
"Most probably the main clans would, but their main forces are under the control of the Assembly. And if someone is a peace-loving bastard that believes that any opponent can be dissuaded, it's no one else than the current Assembly master. Granted, the Wolf clan is the most powerful clan and their words count for much, but all the minor clans are fearful of being subjugated and so will try to ignore everything which comes from the Major clans like the Wolf or Boar ones"
On this note, they reached the place that Zhen Mang called home. It was a decently sized palace-like house, which was part of the complex that the enforcers occupied. It was located a short distance behind the Main Palace and could be said that no one except the enforcers could step inside.
Outsiders and servants were prohibited by the Sect, but obviously, someone of Zhen Mang's status had people looking after his house. These were the so-called followers, the lowest tiered enforcers. After quickly introducing Wu Guang as his disciple, Zhen Mang ordered them to accommodate him in one of the rooms and look after him.
The time was late and Wu Guang had spent the last three days without resting, so after arriving at his assigned room, he dismissed the low-tier enforcers and asked them to come to fetch him tomorrow.
Although he was tired he did not lay to sleep right away. He first washed with the prepared barrel of water and then examined the room. It wasn't very luxurious, but it was still something decent. There was a bed, table, closet, several comfy chairs, a pair of bookshelves, and a separate bathroom. After examining everything, he sat down on a mat laid out for meditation.
He did not intend to meditate, but more to organize his mind and decide on his steps for the following three months.
His main objective was obviously to reach the Soul realm as fast as possible. This meant that he would need to breakthrough five times. The 7th, 8th and 9th levels of the Spirit realm were the same and mainly required understanding of one's dantian and enough qi.
Their purpose was to create a new space similar to the spirit part of the dantian, but which would serve to store qi-related objects. Later, as the name 'World in Dantian' implied, this place would grow to store anything, and when a sufficient level of cultivation was reached even turn into a small world. But this was something far ahead, so Wu Guang mainly concentrated on the information about these three levels. Luckily he had the Fiery Stones and the Sect had a Fire related training zone, so given enough time and effort, he would break through. He could even do so consecutively as he had already prepared his body with the water essence he got in Coastal Hill City.
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His main worries laid in how to stabilize his cultivation after reaching the 9th level of the Spirit realm and the attempt to break heaven's hidden 10th level. The latter method was a bit extreme and would require a lot of resources. Wu Guang could give up on it, but that would be an enormous loss. After all, even a single heaven's hidden level already granted him a very impressive advantage when fighting on the Spirit realm. Granted, his ability to fight people several levels over him had much to do with his experience and now consciousness, but still, he battled Lan Yanzhi without relying on either of them and won.
He was also worried about what would happen when he fused with his original Bai Qi's soul. Most of the Soul realm was based on training one's soul to improve the aura, qi control, overall power. And this process was done by strengthening the Soul via training and experiences. So his worries stemmed from any of the two things that could happen as he fused with his Saint-level soul.
The first one could be that the Soul would be simply too powerful and make him continuously break through the Soul Realm. Such an amount of breakthroughs would be extremely dangerous and could lead him to death or insanity.
As for the second thing, it was equally bad. If the Soul was considered normally awakened, how could he Strengthen a Saint-level soul with the resources from this low-tier plane where Saints did not exist? Even if the plane limits suppressed it to the initial levels of the Warrior Realm, Wu Guang still had no way to improve his soul on this plane.
In any case, he had no option but to do his best and prepare whatever he could to avoid both of these things happening.
Leaving aside the main objective, he had also four things to accomplish before the war started.
First, he needed to experiment with formations and at least try to find how to make them work. If he found a way to activate formations, he would be able to do something to impact the war.
Second, on the same line as the previous, he needed to start practicing runes. Granted, runes were not something that could change the course of the war, but if he did carry Bai Qi's skills relating to the area, he could create arrays. Arrays were different from formations and required qi holding treasures and materials, but they had no cultivation requirement, while the best ones he knew could even pose a threat to peak Heaven Realm cultivators. This plane's resources were of low quality, but even so, he still had a pair of arrays in mind that could defend against Warrior realm cultivators. But arrays were a personal skill, and so if he did not manage to do it by himself, he would not be able to teach them either.
Third, improving his overall skills and battle strength. This meant finding time to practice potions, train a few techniques, spar and battle other cultivators, and most importantly obtain whatever treasures he could. Speaking of the latter, Wu Guang knew where the treasure stash from the 'Hundred Tragedy' victims. So he also had to try and find the location. After all, there should be some treasures between the possessions of a hundred geniuses.
Fourth and last, Wu Guang had promised to help Elder Chen with some kind of task when he reached the advanced levels of the Spirit realm. Granted, with the situation as it was he could easily ask the Elder to free him from his oath. But the Elder had mentioned that the Wood essence came from the place he wanted to send Wu Guang to, and that essence could be useful to solve the 10th level resource problem.
In short, he had a lot of things to do and simply too little time. The answer was to optimize what time he had and drop everything minor until the last moment. And so, Wu Guang formulated the best possible plan.
Tomorrow he would solve all the matters that were due shortly and proceed to experiment with formations, arrays, and potions.
He would spend a week on these experiments. If he reached success with any of them, they would give him a big advantage later.
Especially the arrays and potions as they would be useful for his cultivation.
In any case, if he reached some kind of success or not, starting from the 8th day Wu Guang would start cultivation in earnest. For that, he would use all the Fiery Stones and enter the Earth-Fire forbidden zone. Speaking of the latter, Elder Mo had revealed to him the effects and locations of both forbidden zones, but only the Earth-Fire zone served Wu Guang's purposes.
Although it was a two-element zone and Wu Guang had only fire element resources, he still had techniques of both elements and so should be able to spend and absorb the natural energies in there without affecting his balance.
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Of the minor matters that required Wu Guang's attention was Lan Yanzhi's accommodation. She would be arriving shortly alongside the caravan and would not be allowed to enter the Sect. So as he woke up, he moved to the Sect's entrance to intercept her there.
He planned to make her stay in the Blue Tree City, so they would go there right as she arrived. There he could ask for Li Xia's help to locate a property and by using Xiao Feng's name get it quickly bought via the City's Lord Manor.
With Lan Yanzhi living in Blue Tree City, she would be both near and unrestricted in her movements. And he already had a task in mind for her, searching for clues about the purple-colored trees.