Elder Gui looked at the two of them as they laid on the ground, both still unconscious due to the pain of the poisons they had just adapted to. He shook his head and sent out a little martial energy into them and forced them awake. The two of them snapped awake in a panic and looked fearfully at elder Gui but relaxed upon seeing no new vials in his hand. Elder Gui said, “I'm going to take the two of you to do some other things real quick. We shall resume our training after all of these events have been completed. Ah right Naath your wolf will also be participating in this next little event as well.” Without waiting for the two of them to respond, elder Gui grabbed both of their shoulders and took them back to his hut.
The instant he dropped them off he disappeared from their sights again and ten seconds later returned with Brutus by his side. When Brutus saw Naath his tail immediately started wagging and made a small tornado. Naath could tell instantly that he had gotten his whirlwind arts up to the third stage and that his cultivation had risen to the entry-level muscle strengthening level. Brutus tackled Naath and pinned him to the ground licking his face excitedly. Naath let out some laughter as this happened and eventually pushed Brutus off of him and stood back up.
Elder Gui spoke up again saying, “alright you three we’re going to be testing what physiques the lot of you have. Baal, you might take this test later on as I plan to have Naath teach you the same cultivation method he did his wolf here. Even I cannot help but praise this method. It gives complete mastery over wind it seems, it’s almost as if this wolf has become the embodiment of wind already and I can tell he hasn't even reached mid-level completion in the art.” Baal’s eyes went wide and he looked to Naath seeking confirmation that he was going to learn this method. Naath simply nodded his head.
Before Baal could become too excited by this fact he was interrupted by a glowing, light black orb forming in elder Gui’s hands. He waved his hand and the orb made contact with Baal expanding on contact surrounding his entire body. Elder Gu as if just remembering something said, “ah right before I forget, this formation measures our bodies in every way possible and even part of your soul, so this may hurt a little.” As if on cue Baal began to scream in agony worse than when he was being repeatedly poisoned. After a moment characters floated off of the sphere and into the air in the same color as the formation itself. The characters read “ baseline mortal body, no special traits.”
Elder Gui nodded as if he had expected this then he grabbed and retrieved the formation. Waving his hand again he sent it over towards Brutus and Brutus let out a few low whimpers as the formation invaded his body and soul. When the formation didn't react even after a full minute had passed elder Gui said, “hoho, a good quality physique huh?” Naath looked at elder Gui curiously. He let out a sigh saying, “the longer this formation takes to observe and identify one's physique the greater it is and the harder it is to identify. A normal mortal physique like Baal’s here takes about 10 seconds.
A low ranked physique would take about 30 seconds, a middle-rank physique typically takes a full minute. A high ranked physique will take up to five minutes. A peak rank physique will normally take 10 minutes or more, an absolute physique will take up to an hour. As for a pure physique, ha, if one of those legendary things were to appear it would take at least 24 hours to be identified, it may even take the formation a full month to analyze it.” Hearing this Naath went a little bit pale and said, “ah senior c-can I just tell you what rank my physique is and its name?” Elder Gui eyed Naath curiously but ultimately said, “haha you can try, however, it’s considered a secret of your soul to everyone and you will be unable to share this with anyone other than those who are part of your soul.”
Naath gulped and tried to say his physique’s level and type however it was as if his brain refused to allow it to happen at all. Naath paled further and wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or cry for having a pure physique. After ten minutes passed and the formation still didn't tell everyone the name of Brutus’s physique, elder Gui just about had stars in his eyes. This meant it was an absolute physique. An hour and a half later the formation finally emitted characters and told the name of Brutus’s physique. “Whirlwind body, boasts an almost absolute control over wind, thunder, and water elements. Has a weakness to earth and metal type elements.”
Elder Gui’s smile went wide and he paused for a second before quickly retrieving the formation orb and looking at Naath with a malicious smile. Baal had grown incomparably excited, the cultivation art he would learn could produce an absolute physique?! Naath tried to actually run this time and used his innate true void body's ability for only the second time ever as he ran he hid his aura completely. He went full throttle and managed to make it all the way to the edge of the lake before elder Gui caught him by the collar of his shirt. He brought him back forcing him into the formation. Naath was screaming for mercy and begging not to be put in the formation the entire way back, resisting with all the power in his body even circulating his true void mist fully.
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However it was pointless, elder Gui simply ignored the mist overloading it with his own martial energy, and tossed Naath inside the silently spinning black sphere. The short distance Naath was going through the air to the formation he screamed “Nooooo!” at full volume shaking the entire hut and making large waves in the lake. He landed inside of the orb all the same and its energy slowly began to invade his skin and the energy began to sweep through every single cell and analyze everything. Naath felt more pain than any of the poisons had ever induced and began to scream out in agony. Elder Gui waved his hand erecting a sound canceling formation around the orb and watched silently and mercilessly.
Inside of the formation, Naath was in utter agony he felt the elder Gui’s soul energy from this formation drilling into every single cell along his skin starting at the tips of his fingers. It moved at a pace that to Naath was horrifying and immoral, it took this energy more than a minute just to reach the first knuckles on his fingers! The rune in Naath’s soul sea let out a low whistle as it spoke. “I knew this world was a little low level and behind the curve but to use such an old and painful method. Ah, this world must be behind in terms of soul masters by about 15 thousand years!”
Naath who would normally have some witty remark or rebuke or question was instead silent entirely focused on enduring the pain. After a full two hours, the energy had gone through every single cell of Naath’s skin. Just ah he was about to relax and thought that the torment was over and the energy started over at his fingertips once more. This time though it began scanning along the muscles in his body and it was at an even slower pace than before! When he realized this he felt like crying realizing this might continue on for a full month. He couldn’t even pass out from the pain, it was observing his soul at the same time as it was his body to find the name for the physique making sure he was conscious the whole time.
After the muscle scan was over the energy moved in to invade Naath’’s nerves and moved twice as slow as when it did with the muscle. At this point, 12 hours had already passed and Naath’s throat was hoarse and he could no longer even cry out from the pain. He just sat on his knees breathing heavily and gripping his fingers inside of the stone floor as hard as he could for comfort. After 24 more hours the energy was now looking inside of Naath’s organs and digestive tract and the pain was immeasurable. Elder Gui outside of the formation watched on coldly as if it was none of his concerts except for the glimmer of pride and overwhelming joy in his eyes.
He was keeping these feelings suppressed though and appeared like a cold uncaring devil as he sat watching while he sipped on some tea. Finally, another 48 hours later, the energy was done scanning Naath’s organs and digestive tract and moving onto his bones. The instant the energy made contact with his bones every single vein on Naaths body was popping out and pulsing slightly from the intense pain. With every beat of his heart, every single vein on his body would throb and wiggle slightly. Finally, another 72 hours after this the energy was done scanning once more and Naath thought it was finally over.
Much to his disappointment however once all of this energy reached the top of his skull and seemed to be done it moved inwards into Naath’s soul. When it made contact with his soul sea barrier Naath actually coughed up a mouthful of blood. After 10 more minutes, it was finally over and the energy receded from Naath’s body going back into the formation. However just when Naath thought it was finally, finally over and was fading into unconsciousness the energy came back from the formation and started at his skin once more. This even caught elder Gui off guard as this had never happened before, clearly, Naath’s physique was very, very great. Baal to the side paled and said, “master Gui shouldn't we stop the formation? Senior brother Naath seems to be in great pain.” “Ah sorry Baal, but this formation once started has to finish or it will never work on a personal gain in their lifetime.”
Baal let out a breath and looked at Naath inside of the formation, he felt fear and concern. Fear knowing he would be learning a cultivation method that would make his next formation test a similar level of pain. Concern wondering if Naath would even be able to survive this test. After another three weeks had passed the formation was done for the second time. It did not stop however and went into a third scanning of Naath’s body, at this point even elder Gui felt somewhat bad about what was happening. Baal and elder Gui waited patiently outside the formation for the results. Naath inside knew that this third one would take a very very long time however.
It took an hour just to reach the knuckles of his fingers at the skin scanning stage! Finally, after a full year and a half, the formation finished and it projected out the light black words into the air. “Unknown physique.” After these words were projected they went back into the formation which without elder Gui’s guidance faded away. The reason elder Gui failed to guide the formation was because he was stunned on the spot and couldn't move no matter what. Baal right next to him was in the same stunned silent state. Naath was on the floor and finally slipped into unconsciousness accepting it with unbridled joy and a new shining appreciation for sleep.