As soon as Wu Guang won the chess match, which was in the end not a real challenge, the last rune plate was deactivated.
Seemingly the win itself served as the key and so the unsealing was complete. Or at least so appeared until Wu Guang noticed that nothing was happening. All the rune plates in the room were deactivated, but the jar still stood without changes.
"Do you sense anything?" He decided to ask the Spiritual being. Being the one sealed, it should be the first one to sense any change.
"I sense that the unsealing is almost finished but something is missing"
"Do you know what?"
"No"
"Hmm" Wu Guang went into deep thought. There were several reasons for the unsealing to fail, one of which would be that the challenges were completed by different people. But in such a case, would not there be some kind of indication as to don't do that? Wu Guang again examined the room, only to find absolutely nothing except the jar and the nine rune plates. Granted, there were a lot of runes embedded in the plates, walls, and even the jar itself... but neither of them was the so-called 'missing' part.
"I sense a change taking place in the container"
As soon he hear it, Wu Guang approached the jar. There was a change indeed, and it was related to finishing the process. A message had begun to appear on the jar.
In short, it explained that there were two ways for the Spiritual being sealed inside to be released. The first one would be to bound it to the one doing the ritual while the second one was to let it free itself naturally.
"I see..."
"What?" Albeit the spiritual being had full control over the puppet and could use qi to practically see its surroundings, somehow it could not read the message.
This new information went along with Wu Guang's thoughts of the one that created the seal creating these challenges and everything had a plan in mind. Most likely to let a successful challenger obtain the being as a helper.
"There are two ways to finish the process. The first one would allow you to break free right away, but you would be bound to the one who activates the jar. As for the second, you would be free and go your way, but only after the qi sustaining the sealing runes dissipates"
"And how much time this second way would take?"
"Judging from the lack of qi gathering runes the entire seal was fed by the rune-plates. So without them, I would calculate between 8 and 10 years for them to weaken to an extent where the jar will be not able to contain you"
"Use the first method"
"Are you sure? You will lose your freedom by becoming a bound being"
"Freedom? I gained my sentience while being inside this jar, so freedom does not mean anything else than getting outside"
"You will have to follow my orders and also accompany me through many dangers. I also plan to leave this plane, and you would not be able to remain behind"
"Plane? You mean this world?"
"Yes"
"Do it! If being bound meaning getting out right now and having to follow you around, it is fine"
Wu Guang could understand the current line of thought of the spiritual being. It had been born in captivity and only gained slight freedom after meeting Elder Chen around sixty years ago. Now that it could, at last, obtain a real body and leave this cave, it did not want to wait anymore. Even if it meant following Wu Guang's orders. Another factor that played in here was the natural sentiment that any living creature would have for its liberator.
"I will do it then. Reaching the sufficient level, I should be able to sever the connection and let you go your way"
The bounding process was easy, with Wu Guang only needing to drip a drop of blood on the jar. The seal itself would make the rest.
*Plip*
With a sound akin to a raindrop, a drop of blood from Wu Guang's finger landed on the jar.
Afterward the enormous, almost human-sized, crystal jar began shaking. Lines of runes began shining brightly, and Wu Guang could only marvel at the mastery of the person who created the entire seal. Albeit the runes were simple, with the most complex ones being five-strokes, the entire set that had appeared could be compared to a work of a real Rune Saint. Not only it would bound the spiritual being to the owner of the blood, but it would also connect them on an ethereal level, letting any one of the parties know where the other was and even send messages to each other.
*Snap*
The jar cracked in two after a while, but the runes still remained shining brightly.
*Paa* *Shatter*
As the two sides of the jar fell to the ground, the crystal used for their creation shattered.
Still, the runes continued shining. Albeit they were now suspended in the air as if they were drawn on space itself.
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"I am..." The Spiritual Being began to say something but stopped right away. The reason being that an enormous suction force appeared from the floating runes surrounding it. This force did not attract any corporeal object, but instantly sucked almost all of the qi present in the air. Wu Guang's qi also grew restless inside him, but he managed to calm it down. Who knew if the process would stop before sucking him dry, something that would lead to severe repercussions.
As the suction force stopped, the amount of qi gathered around the runes was enormous. If Wu Guang had to quantify it by using his dantian as a measure, it would easily be about ten times more than his maximum. This enormous amount of qi was packed so closely that it was actually visible, and after a brief moment, it started rotating.
"A qi whirlpool! Seems that the seal also will supplement you with the qi needed to create a body. I will leave first sp as to not interfere" Wu Guang explained while retreating from the cave. He wasn't sure that he could affect negatively the process, but any cultivator near a qi whirlpool would naturally either absorb some of it or lose some to it.
__________________________________________________________________________________
When Wu Guang ascended to the surface, the entire sand mound that covered the entrance to the sealing room caved in, leaving no trace of any entrance. Knowing that the process could take from a few hours to a few days to complete, and being assured after seeing the runes of the bound that he will share with the being, Wu Guang decided to not stand on the spot.
He had promised Elder Chen to don't move from the cabin except for this matter, but at that time he did not know that he was so near one of his objectives. This one is the stash of the 'Black and White Evil'. From Lan Yanzhi's investigation, he knew that there was a grove of the purple, 'Lighting Attraction', trees near the 'Salted Lake'. This spot was supposed to be a few miles from the northern shore, and so Wu Guang decided to try and search for it. If the stash was there, then he would accomplish his objective. And if it was not, then he would be a step closer, with one of the two most promising spots eliminated.
The trees he was searching for were not very high, and so could not be seen through the dense forest that covered all of the surroundings. Searching blindly would be a loss of time, and so after looking around for a suitable target, Wu Guang deftly began climbing the tallest tree around.
The tree resembled a common oak, but the leaves were at least three times the size. Such an increase in the size of the foliage also meant a similar increase in the size of the branches, and so climbing it was easy even for a mortal. What to say about a cultivator that had several times the strength of one.
Wu Guang reached the topmost branch after climbing for less than five minutes. His location was a bit over 30 feet high, and it allowed him to see above the 20-25 feet high surrounding trees. The foliage was too thick to easily determine the location of the 10 or so feet high Lighting tree's, and so Wu Guang mostly concentrated on places that looked like clearings or had less foliage than the surroundings.
His improved eyesight could see about two and a half miles to the distance if there were no obstructions, and so he found two probable spots.
The examination of both of them did not net him anything, and so Wu Guang again searched for a suitable tree and scaled it. This time he found three places that looked promising. One of them was the place where the cabin was located, and so Wu Guang only had to examine two. Regretfully he was unlucky and one of the spots was a normal clearing while the other was a small area where the trees had been cut down by someone. The latter was a bit strange, as what normal woodcutter would risk coming to this dangerous and faraway place? Still, the stumps showed clear indications of a woodcutter ax, and so there was no doubt about the reason.
He had already spent almost two hours in his search, and the sun was about to set down. After all, he had used up most of the day to complete the challenges meant to unseal the Spiritual being. Searching in the dark would be unproductive as Wu Guang had no real means of seeing in the dark, and so he decided to call it a day.
Returning to the place where the now disappeared entrance was located, Wu Guang sat down crosslegged, deciding to spend the night in meditation. His goal was to clearly understand every cell in his body. This would both help him decide on what training to center, as well as to find the deficiencies. And there would be many of the latter, after all, he had never paid attention to anything except overall combat strength. Still, he was in time to improve them. The real deadline for a cultivator's original body was the Earth realm, from which the body strength development would mostly depend on the cultivation method, rare training methods, or physique refining skills.
Hearing such someone without knowledge would ask, why bother then? The answer was easy, any increase would be dependant on the initial quality, and so the more advanced one's original body was, the more gains it would gain from all further increases.