Wu Guang had entered the cave with the intention of training for four weeks. He had planned everything, albeit if he shared his plans, most people would think that he was either suicidal, crazy, or both.

He was not only planning to train inside the core cave of the forbidden zone, where the sheer heat was enough to injure him, but he also intended to do so by absorbing natural energies.

Natural energies referred to elemental qi that was heavily influenced by the environment or a unique natural cause. For the 'Earthfire' training zone, this was the primal magma from the core of the world as well as the fact that it was underground. The magma influenced the qi and gave birth to Fire qi, while the location itself gave birth to Earth qi. Both of them mixed into a one-off natural energy that was the so-called 'Earthfire'.

A non-cultivator would not fathom the reason why cultivators would suppose that Wu Guang was either suicidal or just plain dumb, but there was indeed a reason. Natural energies were mostly stripped of the rest of the elemental particles contained in qi, and so when absorbed, it was like absorbing their element. There were different methods to counteract this, and one of the safest ones was to use a gathering rune to gather the energy and then refine it via a refining rune.

This method was the one that was being used by the sect inside the lower alcoves and upper caves. Some elemental disbalance would still exist, but it would not lead to danger and only help cultivators that practiced the respective skills and techniques.

Still, this method only allowed a cultivator to absorb about half of the real amount of qi contained inside the energy.

Wu Guang intended to absorb the full amount. As to correct the disbalance that would naturally occur as he absorbed pure Earth and Fire qi... his method could not be called safe.

He intended to use both fire and earth techniques as soon as the disbalance reached a dangerous mark, and so spend their respective elemental qi gathered in his body. Such a method would not only require having full knowledge of the current status of one's qi, but also very careful timing and control. After all, Wu Guang was currently underground in a small cave, what would happen if he suddenly used too much force?

In any case, Wu Guang did not think much about the dangers, as he felt that he would succeed.

And if he didn't, well, he had already prepared a spell to instantly purge himself of all qi. Granted, such a spell would save him, but it would also leave him without any qi, basically meaning that he would become a normal human until it recovered. Here any other cultivator would again think that Wu Guang had a death wish, how could a normal human survive in the environment he was currently in?

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The first ten days of training went pretty well. Although Wu Guang's body restored itself while he absorbed the natural energies, it would be burnt again as soon as he stopped. And he had to stop, as the qi he was obtained from the natural energies was enough to fill his dantian to the brim in less than an hour. As soon as he stopped, Wu Guang used his mind power to quickly analyze the consistency of his qi, and depending on the elemental qi levels, he would start using techniques.

Using techniques in an environment of their element was also a necessity to advance the mastery starting from the Advanced one, which was also part of Wu Guang's overall training plan.

For expelling the Fire element, Wu Guang used all of his 'Flaming' techniques in combination. And around the 6th day, he had mastered them to full mastery. Not only they were now comparable in power to a low-level martial skill, but they could now be fused into a single technique. Which was one of Wu Guang's initial objectives when he chose the 'Flaming' set of the other ones available in the library. Plus, using them in such an environment strengthened the flames themselves, and so while Wu Guang was covered with his flames, he could fully ignore the surrounding heat.

As for expelling the Earth element, Wu Guang depended on his personal 'Earth Spiked Shield'. As the spikes and slabs created by the technique were infused with his qi, he could dispel and make them mostly disappear, adding only a few small pebbles to the ground and not affecting the cave overall. The technique was something he had created, and so it's no wonder that he reached the maximum mastery possible, which was full integration.

Normally such a level was not possible for cultivators below the Saint realm, but in this case, Wu Guang was the creator and it gave him a small advantage. Fully integrated skills were one with the cultivator, and so Wu Guang could now use the technique without any preparation at all. His overall qi expense lessened almost to a one-tenth of the original, but thankfully any technique could be over infused and so he did not meet trouble while expelling the earth elemental qi from his body.

During these ten days Wu Guang also used the qi to slowly grow the spiritual part of his dantian, also called the qi pool. This was a requisite for entering every one of the following three levels of the Spirit realm.

His qi capacity was higher than normal at the beginning, so by the 11th day, Wu Guang had expanded his qi pool to the equivalent of a peak Soul realm cultivator.

As it could not be expanded anymore without advancing his cultivation, this was also the day he made his breakthrough. To enter the 7th level, a cultivator had to forcibly separate a small part of his qi pool. This separated part could not be used to store qi, but it would store objects. Initially, it will only accept objects related to qi, like qi shards and cultivation resources, but as a cultivator continued growing, it would evolve into something comparable to the storage ring he had on his finger. And far later, it would fuse with the qi pool and become a small world, with its own laws.

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Around the 13th day, Wu Guang's body had fully adapted to the environment of the cave, and so even when dropping all defenses, he did not feel any pain, and not even his skin reddened.

He was forced to take a break on the 14th night, as it was a full moon night. He had theorized that mind power could be used to form a barrier and so the pool's overflow would not endanger him. Still, Wu Guang moved outside the cave and tested his theory on the fringe of the magma just to make sure. The primal magma was something that could even burn to death a Soul realm cultivator, so even if he was sure of his idea, it was better to test it first. It turned to be the right call, as the mind power barrier he created was also dissolved by the magma.

Wu Guang decided to test some other methods, but when the magma began withdrawing, he still had not found something workable. In any case, it was not needed now, as there would be no more overflows during his training.

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On the 21st day from the start of his training, Wu Guang made another breakthrough. His qi pool had expanded again and could contend with the most trained peak Soul realm experts. As for the object storing space, which was called the Void pool, it had expanded to around a dozen square feet.

During the training this day, Wu Guang also made a discovery. The 'Ghostflame' fused into his qi had been absorbing some of the Fire element qi and had grown stronger. He had no way to communicate with it now that it was fused with him, but the changes were visible. When he used the 'Flaming Body', the complete form of the 'Flaming' four technique set, the flames surrounding him were not fully white. They were now partially black, being changed by the 'Ghostflame'. This meant that his flames now surpassed even some martial skills!

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On the 23rd day, Wu Guang reached the point of being able to ignore the elemental qi, and did not require to expel it from his body. This did not mean that he had grown impervious to natural energies, or that he gotten stronger. No, this simply meant that he was completely accustomed to the environment and the energy present. He would not be able to gain much from continuing to train here.

Discarding the option to leave, there were two remaining options. The first one was to enter the magma where the energy was denser, but it was simply too risky. Plus, Wu Guang had not yet found any method to defend against it. He could freely stay near it, but entering? He would be heavily burned in the best-case scenario.

The second option was to start refining cultivation treasures. Thankfully Wu Guang had about 100 stones worth of Flaming rocks, which he started refining.

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Wu Guang left a tenth of the Flaming rocks aside, but even so, refining over a thousand pounds of cultivation resources took time.

When he finished, it was already the 25th night since he started training. His qi pool had reached the maximum possible size and he could not expand it anymore, so he simply filled it to the brim. Although he could breakthrough now, he decided to spend most of the qi that came from the energy he absorbed to stabilize his cultivation. He had before similarly used the water essence, but now that he was getting closer and closer to entering the Soul realm, Wu Guang wanted to counteract any possible side effects from the successive breakthroughs. This meant that he needed to reinforce his body.

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The last three days of his seclusion were spent to familiarize and train with the chakrams he had bought in Wei's auction house.

He also did a thing that would shock any other cultivator, and that was to start filling his void pool with primal magma. At the 8th level of the Spirit realm, only qi-related objects could be stored as well, but the magma was full of natural energy... what else could be said to be qi related?

The absorption process was pretty simple, a cultivator would need to make a seal and then use his qi as a conduit between the physical world and one's void space. Still, one's qi was part of the cultivator's body, and so it was like touching the magma itself.

Initially, even a drop of it not bigger than a fingernail was enough to make Wu Guang wince in pain while absorbing it, but gradually he accustomed to it. In less than four hours, he managed to fill the entirety of his void pool with the primal magma. Although no one except he could understand why he did it.

"The Ghostflame like any other spiritual flames improves by consuming Flame elemental qi and other unique flames. The part in my body is incomplete and so cannot compare to even unique flames, what to say to spiritual ones, but it could at least contend with the primal magma. In such a case, I should be able to slowly chip at the magma with my qi and improve it. If this goes well, it may even be possible for the 'Ghostflame' part to become a complete flame without me seeking the other parts". He intended to use the magma to slowly improve the 'Ghostflame' part in his body.

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On the morning of the 28th day, Wu Guang left the core cave and made his way back to the bottom of the stairs that led towards the exit. As expected, the Fang brothers had come to pick him up, and so without any trouble, he left the training zone. Strangely, Wu Guang sensed the presence of at least twenty cultivators in the caves nearby. From Elder Mo's explanation, Wu Guang knew that there were only four personal disciples allowed to enter the forbidden ground freely. As for the elites, they would gain the opportunity once a year. The last opportunity was a month before the admission tests, so it was indeed strange. Either more than a dozen people suddenly qualified, or something occurred and the admittance rules changed.

In any case, Wu Guang would have the opportunity to ask about it later, as he would meet Elder Mo and Zhen Mang today. After all, tomorrow he would need to depart the Sect again.

His first destination would be the 'Earth Cry Ridge', as the people from the Refining Hall were still enclosed in there. They were supposed to be recovered a few days ago, but Elder Mo had given priority to Wu Guang's training. In any case, they had extra supplies with them, and so there should be no problems.

Then, after opening the door and letting them out, Wu Guang would travel to the Qiu family lands.

As a protective measure, Elder Mo had decided that Wu Guang's route would not be the one expected route, and so he would take the Coastal Road instead. He would travel from Coastal Hill City to the Qiu City along the western coast, thereby allowing him to bypass the territory of the 'Leaf Shadow Sect', and give him a chance to familiarize himself with the road. After all, no one knew if Wu Guang would need to travel it later.