A pair of hours later, Wu Guang was visited by a young soldier that introduced himself as his assistant. Albeit Wu Guang's opinion of him was neutral as the soldier quickly left after saying that he will be around for any requests, it was still easy to guess that he was here to keep a look at him.

In any case, Wu Guang had no real need to hide his potion experiments, after all, he had revealed the fact of knowing about them before. So as soon as he was able to, he took out the herbs, set up the tools, and began. Most of the process depended on one's flame control, but with Wu Guang's being able to use his aura to control surrounding qi, there was no problem for him to create a small normal flame and keep it under full control. Even if he did not pay real attention to it.

Deciding to start with something easy to get accustomed to this craft, one that he never had practiced, Wu Guang began with the easiest potion he had read about. It was called 'Replenishment Potion' and its effect was akin to the 'Nutrition Pill' he had used before. It was meant to provide sustenance in place of food or qi. The rarest ingredient was a quasi-spirit herb called 'Qi Root' which looked akin to a brown carrot, while the supplementary ingredients could be comprised of any non-poisonous healing herbs. In short, the potion used the medicinal properties of the latter and the qi from the first to replenish one's body and, slightly, dantian.

After quickly selecting a few herbs from the ones he knew that could serve for the matter from his storage ring, Wu Guang introduced each stalk into a flask filled with normal water and began heating them.

An hour or so later, when the consistency of all the flasks began to look like broth, Wu Guang remembered the formula and slowly stirring the contents of the main ingredient's flask began adding the others. After that, it was simply a matter of keeping an exact temperature of the flame for a pair of hours before cooling and dividing it into a few, in this case, 10, small bottles.

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There should be nothing dangerous in the potion, so Wu Guang had decided to test it on himself. For this, he had neither asked for food nor allowed his qi to sustain his pretty starved body after such a long unconscious period.

With his senses confirming that indeed the potion was safe, he carefully opened the lid of the previously sealed potion and drank the brown, almost gelatinous, content in one gulp.

A few moments later, he used his inner view to observe what would happen and note the effectiveness.

"Hmm, the taste can be improved by changing or adding supplementary ingredients. Effect wise, it's about a third below a normal 'Nutrition Pill' while the cost for a potion is hardly more than a fifth of the pill" With such thoughts surfacing, Wu Guang's overall opinion was that his experiment was a success.

He had set himself an actual objective, being to concoct a potion called 'Body-Strengthening Elixir' which would help him to cope with his sudden increase in cultivation. And would allow him to continue making breakthroughs, at least in the Soul realm, without any real need to settle down his cultivation.

This potion, or elixir, was one of the recipes that were shown as an example for advanced ones, so Wu Guang decided to train a bit more in the craft before attempting. Especially as the ingredients it required were a few exact Spirit herbs, of which he only had a single stalk of each.

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Wu Guang spent almost 40 hours before he considered that he was ready to start with his main objective. He did not spend them idly, in place training with three other easy potions, and a medium-difficulty one. Their effects were similar, meant to heal external wounds without the need for any other medicine. As for the difference between them, it was the effect and what wound they worked better on. For example, 'Fresh Skin' was a type of potion applied like a balm that cured most of the wounds related to burns and external corrosion, and so on.

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An hour after Wu Guang finished the elixir and successfully consumed three of the six resulting flasks, he was calmly meditating while sensing all the changes this potion brought to his body. Granted, he wasn't much stronger, but he felt that the amount of overall cultivation his body could support had grown up for a few notches. A thing to note was that his physical, no cultivation, body also got a slight power up from the potion. Such a thing was only vaguely mentioned in the manual, but in any case, it was good enough.

So when Xue Ru entered the room, it was no wonder she encountered a cross-legged, slightly smiling, Wu Guang.

Still, before she said anything, a strong herbal odor entered her nose and so in place of her greetings, her phrase was related to it

"Did you decide to use herbs as incense?"

Wu Guang had been aware of the fact he had a visitor, but it was not until she spoke up that he opened his eyes and looked at her. Albeit she was now dressed in chest plate over a common black martial robe and her nose was twitching, there was no doubt to the fact that Xue Ru was beautiful.

Still, Wu Guang had enough control as to don't forget his current situation and so answered in a normal, if not easygoing, manner

"Almost, I simply decided to experiment a bit with herbs. Does the smell is so strong?" Wu Guang had been ignoring the smells around himself while being concentrated on the task at hand, but now, he found out that the room indeed smelled like a herb warehouse. He had already cleaned up and stored everything that he had used, but indeed, he forgot to air up the room.

"Mmm, it does"

"I see, let me correct that" After Wu Guang spoke up, he quickly spread up his aura, encompassing the entire room, and using his control over qi made the air go out through a window he had previously closed. With that done, he asked

"I wonder why... you, did not do something like that if the herbs were molesting your nose? Anyway, I take it that two full days have passed and you have come to pick me up for the action part of my schedule?"

"Yes, I have arranged sparring for you today. And as for action, well, we have a hunting expedition against a group of dishonored bandits. It was supposed to happen today, but I changed the schedule to allow you to participate"

"Thank you"

"No need, it wasn't anything" With a small blush, Xue Ru shrugged off the theme. All the arrangements she had made did require her commands, but overall, it was indeed nothing extreme. After all, who cared when the expedition to eliminate the bandits started? The only thing that mattered was for the result being in time, something that if needed she would guarantee by taking field herself.

"Mmm, so... Who will be I sparring against?"

"Oh, that will be a surprise. Still, I can guarantee that your opponent is strong enough to make you sweat"

"I already fear that" Wu Guang jokingly replied back.

"Well, he may be a bit extreme..." Xue Ru started saying but cut down the phrase to change the theme

"Anyway, have you remembered me?"

"Truly? No. I have tried to look into my memories, but I still have no idea of where I could have met such a young, beautiful, and important figure of the Black Empire" Deciding to go with the previous manner, Wu Guang both joked and complimented the person in front of him. After all, he had no idea what would happen after his task with the key was complete. Granted, he was promised a mostly safe journey back to the Black Island and freedom to use the Astral Gate, but... Who knew? It was something promised to him by the Sect, not by the Empire itself. So why not get a few new, possibly old, friends in the place.

"Hmm, my previous impression of your intelligence has dropped a bit. Still, it can not be helped... If you don't find the answer by yourself, I will tell you later"

"Oh, I hear and remember" Wu Guang answered before asking a question himself

"Didn't you mention having a pair of questions for me as well?"

"I did, but there is no real need for them to be answered right now. They are mostly related to the soul you awakened, as well the reason why it is so powerful"

"I see... Regretfully, I can not answer much about that. I indeed felt something strange, and a lot happened while awakening it... But right now I feel that this soul is truly mine. I will need to truly familiarize myself with it to confirm, but for now, this is what I feel" Wu Guang lied a bit in the first part of the phrase, but the main idea about the soul being his was true. After all, if Bai Qi's soul wasn't his own... Then who's it was?

"Mmm, okay then" Xue Ru grew pensive for a moment as if analyzing his words, but a few moments later she snapped out of her thoughts and said

"No need to dwell on that for now, follow me. You should not make your sparring partner wait"

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Even before Wu Guang entered the inner, open-air, courtyard that served as an arena in the fortress he sensed a powerful, aggressive, and surprisingly slightly familiar aura expanding from there. Recognizing it was not hard, after all, how many 4th level Soul realm cultivators he had met?

"Is the owner of this aura my sparring partner?" Wu Guang decided to confirm.

"Yes"

"But... Why a ship captain?" Wu Guang almost exclaimed. Granted, his interactions with Tian Xue were pretty decent, if not cordial... Still, he saw how the captain directed his men, and he was fully sure that the man was by far not a sheep clad in wolf-clothing, no, he was for sure the opposite to that!

"Captain Tian Xue is someone you know, so it will be easier for you two to spar. Plus, the Tian family is somewhat indebted to my, Xue, family and so there was not much problem in asking him of such a small favor"

"..." Albeit Wu Guang did not answer, he did want to ask what kind of 'somewhat' indebted family went so far as to name their child in honor of their... benefactors? masters?

"I have ordered everyone to stay out from the arena for a few hours, so you will be not interrupted. As for me, I think I will leave now. Captain specifically asked for you to be alone, so he can fully concentrate on you in place of the needed formalities that would arouse with me present" After a strangely hurried explanation, Xue Ru, added a short phrase before leaving

"Good luck there!"

"Thanks?" Wu Guang answered instinctively while watching Xue Ru, the Fortress garrison commander, someone with both status and cultivation far over the one the captain had hurriedly leave.

Such a turn of events alarmed him, still, between his methods and abilities, there would be no issues to escape or defend himself from any unexpected danger... Plus, a spar was not a deathmatch, how bad it could be?