Making the oath did not take much time, and a few minutes later Wu Guang was led by the puppet to the place where he was supposed to unseal it.
With some close observation, Wu Guang found out that the puppet had a small carved seal on its back. This seal was none other than the characters 'Three' and 'Hills', which were the insignia of his sect. Albeit the manner of speech of the one controlling the puppet was strange, Wu Guang still managed to find out several things while following it. First, the thing he was supposed to unseal has been in conscience for about ninety years. About sixty years ago, Elder Chen had found it by chance and indeed attempted to unseal it. Regretfully he failed, albeit he completed most of the requirements.
Wu Guang failed his attempt to find out what was required to unseal it and was rebuked with a
"Will see when you do"
Still, as he thought off, the puppet was indeed a training mannequin from the Sect that Elder Chen had on himself at that time. After failing and swearing to find someone who could complete the task in his stead, he gave the puppet as a temporary body that the entity could control. It was true that the entity, thing, or being that was speaking with Wu Guang at the moment did not know what it was, and even Elder Chen never identified it. But it was not evil, at least that Wu Guang could say for sure.
The place he was led to was a small cave located near a lake. Wu Guang had failed to ascertain his location before as Elder Chen did not tell. He only managed to identify the forest as the Eastern Great one. But seeing the lake, which was none other than the 'Salted Lake' he had investigated a bit before, he pinpointed his location.
The small cave entrance was hidden in a sand mound near the northern shore, so that meant Wu Guang was almost directly to the south from his Sect.
Inside the cave was empty, but after the puppet made some kind of ritualistic movements with the arms, a passage appeared. This latter led into a room brightly illuminated with runes.
Apart from the runes and plates to control part of them, there was only a person-sized transparent jar made of crystal. And it was filled with some kind of milky gaseous substance with green and black strains.
"Is that you inside?" Wu Guang decided to ask, even though he already knew the answer.
"Yes, this is my current real form"
"I see, so what do I need to do as to unseal you?"
"Each of the plates has a task engraved. If you complete it, the plate will recognize you as the owner and you can deactivate it"
"Mmm, only four of them are currently active, does that means?"
"Yes, only four locks of the original nine remain"
"Understood"
"Wait, I sensed your glance... Human, you know what I am?"
"I have a theory. And don't call me human, use my name, Wu Guang"
"Human... Wu Guang, what is that theory you spoke of?"
"You are a spiritual being formed from the interaction between a current of qi and some kind of resource or treasure"
"..."
"In short, a living being formed by qi. If the resource or treasure is a natural one, then you are a 'Natural Soul'. If it was a man-made one, then you are a 'Remnant Soul'. I can not say anything more until you are unsealed"
"I sense that a body will form in such a case, is that right?"
"Yes, but it will depend on what resource or treasure was the origin of your life"
"You will provide help?"
"Yes"
His explanation from before was the truth, as the thing inside the jar was indeed a spiritual being in its incomplete form. The jar did not seal it but simply did not allow anything, and especially qi to enter with contact with the being. Initially, it could not even communicate with the outside, but the five deactivated plates made it possible.
Destroying the jar was also a possible way, but most probably it would also affect the being, so he decided to go with the expected way. Especially as he was interested in these challenges.
As for the reason to help, it was simply because Wu Guang did not consider it a threat. Spiritual beings had full control over qi, but their real strength rarely went over the one that a third-level Spirit beast had. It was alike an advanced Spirit realm cultivator with several unique skills, almost like Wu Guang himself.
The plates had to be activated in order, and so the one that Wu Guang would need to resolve first was also the one that made Elder Chen fail more than half a century ago.
The challenge for it was to retrieve a key from the bottom of a well filled with 'Wood Essence'. This well could be accessed via a small hatch hidden below the rune plate. Normally one would think that submerging into a cultivation resource was more alike to a fortuitous encounter, but it was not so. Even the best medicine would turn into poison if used in extreme quantities, and this was the same.
"No wonder that Elder Chen gave me a bit of Wood Essence before. he was trying to attune my body to it. He failed because he could not allow such an amount of energy to flow freely through his body, and albeit the wood element is curative... he simply could not reach the bottom. But I absorbed some of the same essences when I was a mortal, and some of it later as well. My current resistance is also far above a normal Spirit realm cultivator, and even though Elder Chen did not know, his hunch was right. I will have few problems to do it" Wu Guang was voicing his thoughts. Albeit he did not know why he simply wanted the sealed being to know of it. He did omit some of them thought, which were that such an amount of essence will be enough for him to break into the secret level.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
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Heaven's secret level for the Spirit realm was a bit alike to the one for the Body one. It was also to break through the limits of one's cultivation and achieve a change from another realm. In this case, Wu Guang required a lot of qi, almost fifty times his capacity, to form a secondary spirit dantian. This secondary qi pool could not be used normally as it could only store elemental qi. Still, if the element was correspondent with his techniques, it would be used to greatly increase their power. This was a natural ability granted Warrior Lords or the Spirit minor of the Earth major realm. It would later be dissolved to create one's dantian world.
Thankfully the process would not take long, only requiring him to repeat the process of cutting a small piece of his original spiritual dantian. As for the enormous amount of qi, it would be used to speed up the creation. After all, if done in a normal and conservative way, Wu Guang would need to spend at least a year for it to be created by his qi.
Except for the danger when controlling one's consciousness to damage one own's dantian, there was nothing to fear. Thankfully the process was easy for Wu Guang, and so after preparing himself mentally, he touched the rune plate.
The hatch opened silently and Wu Guang jumped inside right away. His senses had already measured the dimensions, and he found out that his objective was only twenty feet below. There was no splash as he was using his qi to stop him from entering the liquid Wood Essence.
The width of the well was hardly more than three feet, and so Wu Guang had a bit of trouble to assume a cross-legged position on top of the liquid. This was counterproductive to the task of reaching the bottom, but he did not intend to fight the pressure coming from the wood essence. No, he planned to absorb and then safely and to take the key without straining himself.
This was possible only thanks to Wu Guang's knowledge, consciousness, and now improved cultivation.
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It took him only four hours to separate and then fully absorb the pure wood essence present inside the well. Such a way was an obvious cheat, and any challenge would have a counter-measure against cheating. Regretfully for the creator, the counter-measure consisted of hidden mind-power currents that would damage one's body, mind, and even soul when trying to absorb the wood essence. But how could a local cultivator be over Wu Guang's mind power? The latter detected the trap and quickly used a mind power barrier to keep the current at bay. Even so, Wu Guang got himself a bit battered during the process, but... he absorbed 71 drops!
He dissolved one of the drops to cure himself, as for the rest, he stored them in his normal dantian. If he started the process he could not stop it. And who knew how many hours or even days would he require?
Grabbing the key from the now half-depleted and filled with normal water well did not take more than an instant. Wu Guang did not even get himself wet by using a qi barrier.
After placing it on the rune plate, a new character appeared. He quickly pressed it and the rune plate dimmed.
"Done?"
"Yes" After responding, Wu Guang moved to the next one. He had read the contents of all challenges before, and this was the one that Elder Chen had hinted at. The challenge for this one was to fight against rune golems. The latter had no cultivation, but their strength was dependant on the creator's Soul power, and so none of them were weaker than a 1st level Soul realm cultivator. Thankfully the rune plate also had a clear indication that the strength would be no more than two levels superior to the challenger.
"Two-level stronger? What if I was a beginner spirit realm cultivator? I wonder how much and what golems are hidden in there?" Wu Guang voiced several questions that remained unanswered. Especially as he could not sense any golem nearby. There was no other way to find out so he touched the rune plate.
The rune plate shined with instructions, and as Wu Guang thought, the golems were not present here. They weren't even present in the cave. He would need to travel to another location, five miles from his current one, and there fight. If he won, then another key would be obtained. Losing was not an option as it would lead to death, and so this served as an extra test. A courage and commitment one.