With a thunderous crash the 'Armed Eagle' that did not manage to react crashed against the stone slab that appeared right in front of it.

The slab was only five feet wide but as the beast was diving from the sky, Wu Guang had formed it with a slight incline and a length of almost a dozen feet. This giving it no chance to evade the wall at all.

Right as the crash occurred, Wu Guang dispelled the technique, and the slab that until now was being strengthened with his qi broke apart.

This was not surprising, as not only the impact was extremely forceful but also the stone called by the technique came from the hill and as all of the hills around were mainly limestone. Thus, it was not strong enough to sustain such an impact.

As the slab fell apart, Wu Guang opened a bit of distance and took guard. He was not sure if the beast was incapacitated or not, after all the wings from both sides of the slab still twitched. After a moment this turned to be the right decision as the 'Armed Eagle' was still alive, albeit in bad shape. Quickly scanning it, Wu Guang understood that the bone helmet protected the eagle against fatal damage but the impact almost killed it anyway.

Most of the spikes that covered the body were broken and from where they extended now only broken bones and blood were seen. One of the wings was fully broken as several wounds had opened in the places where the bone pieces broke through the flesh. It could not even stand up.

Not intending to give the beast any chance Wu Guang infused the muscles in his legs to the maximum and at his maximum speed lunged towards the beast. He had unsheathed his saber while retreating and so in less than a breath he arrived before the wobbly beast and with a clean slash, severed its head.

Returning to his previous position as a precaution, Wu Guang observed the now headless body fall on the ground. Only after confirming that there was nothing except him and the corpse on the hill and there were no beasts in the sky, he proceeded to gather his spoils.

From the body as a whole nothing except the skull and especially the bone that grew out of it and formed the helmet was valuable, so Wu Guang simply grabbed the decapitated head and stored it in the holding pouch he internally decided to use only for spoils.

'Armed Eagles' meat was not very good but Wu Guang still stored the remains of the beast inside another pouch after cutting it in several pieces. He did not really intend to eat it but he thought that it could serve as bait. He also took a few of the unbroken feathers as they may be useful for him later.

***

At midday when they met for a meal and to exchange information. Wu Guang had hunted a few beasts more and so was considering the first part of the day a success. Yuan Taotu had similar results and thoughts.

Still, they did not locate any nest, lair, or spirit beast, which were the real objectives for them. They continued scouting and hunting after this brief reencounter, but this time they had discussed to go farther, after all, until now they both had circled in the nearby area.

Traveling farther from the ruins proved to be the right move. When they met up in the building right after the sunset both could boast to have hunted more than a dozen beasts. Wu Guang had some advantage in quantity as he did manage to find a nest of 'Poison Spewing Snakes' which albeit not having any spirit beasts still netted him six corpses.

These snakes were similar to the eagle he had encountered before in being beasts that evolved after being exposed to qi and could evolve further into a 'Dissolving Spewing Snake' which was one of the few dangerous spirit beasts around this area. They were far less dangerous than their evolved form but still the poison they could spit over a distance of several feet could affect even cultivators so their poison sack as well the gallbladder were pretty valuable for both medicine and poison users.

Thankfully Wu Guang saw the nest before the snakes inside had noticed him. Not wanting to risk fighting poisonous beasts, he simply threw in a bundle of torches and closed it with a rock slab he formed with 'Rock Shield'. Afterward, he spent an hour or so in meditation.

He normally did not meditate on the field, but this time he had done so to recover the qi that was being used to maintain the shield. His plan for them to die from the remaining smoke and lack of breathable air worked perfectly and he only had to gather the remains after he dispelled the technique.

After discussing their findings both of them took some time to skin the prey they brought as well to separate and clean the materials that could be sold. With this done the pair found out that they had several dozens of pounds of meat that albeit edible was not of the best quality so after a brief discussion it was decided to be used for setting bait on one of the nearby hills during the following days.

Wu Guang after a brief thought decided to use part of the poison he gathered to free them from having to stay nearby the bait and simply check it later and gather the dead beasts. The latter decision was mostly because no Spirit beast would fall for bait as such. While losing time on waiting for common beasts was nonsense, still, the normal beasts would be worth far more than the poison so it was a win-win plan.

Wu Guang again took the first watch and it passed with no problems but as Yuan Taotu woke up to change with him he felt that the first layer of the dantian was almost complete - so he could try to breakthrough. Which he started to do after informing Yuan Taotu of it.

The process of entering or breaking into the 2nd level was mostly natural so except for the fact that the cultivator had to control and correct the integration of the now solid dantian into the cultivation system the process would finish without any problem right as the cultivator willed for the cover to close fully.

Wu Guang did such after preparing and after a couple of hours he had finished without any problem. The now solid dantian could be felt when he pressed the area below his bosom and albeit the dantian capacity would expand over the cultivation.

The physical form of it would always remain of the same size and position, which was about the size of a teacup below the bosom of any cultivator. The latter could be actually debated as Wu Guang even without trying could recite a few techniques that could move the dantian from the place but they were only useful to counteract hits toward that area. And the demerits of doing so were enormous, as the full circulation system would need to be changed as to accommodate - which would practically cripple the cultivator for the duration of the change.

After confirming his success to Yuan Taotu, Wu Guang returned to his meditation as he did not want to lose any time to create the other eight layers that were needed to complete the solid form and breakthrough towards the 3rd level of the Spirit realm. Thankfully or even surprisingly amongst the information about the set he decided to cultivate in this new life or start he obtained a technique that would help him with this and Wu Guang was very interested in trying it. This interest was not only because a technique meant that he could control and expedite the advancement but also because of the fact that even in his long life as Bai Qi he had never encountered a specific technique like this.

Yes, there were various manuals and even he penned one about how to quicken this process, but all of them were simply applications of circulation and absorption. But this technique would let him assign qi towards the formation of the layers directly.

Taking only a brief rest to accommodate and check his condition, Wu Guang analyzed the changes that his new level brought. These changes could be simply divided into speed and integration.

For the speed one, the main changes meant that his dantian now absorbed and on his will used up qi far quicker than before. If numbers were asked, he would calculate this as a three or even four times increase.

The integration part meant that the dantian, qi usage or even cultivation, was now a part of his body.

Another effect was that the strengthening of the organs, bones, muscles, and skin became natural and constant.

After the full integration of the dantian qi was constantly infusing into every part of his body. This process would now never stop at least while qi or the dantian itself were present. The battle capacity was not increased directly but this made it possible to fully concentrate on techniques during a fight.