Living on the Edge

Wei Huoran approached the entrance of the secret realm, and aimed for the location he understood to the connection between the world and the realm. When he reached out and touched this place, his hand easily entered. Feeling that his theory was correct, Huoran continued to push forward. After a momentary flash of light, he found himself in a new environment.

As Houran observed the jungle that had appeared in front of him, Quanliyuan was doing its best to calm down.

'That was highly dangerous!', the spirit berated him, 'What in the world possessed you to try a think like that?'

'My arrival at Sun & Moon island', Huoran replied.

'What?', Quanliyuan responded, 'Explain yourself, do you realized we could have been ripped apart by the laws of space by forcing our way in?'

'Do you remember when we arrived at the island, and later on the cave?', Huoran asked.

'Yes', Quanliyuan said, 'But I don't see how that relates to what just happened.'

'You saw that grand array, and the protection array that guarded the senior's door', Huoran commented, 'But you never said anything as I headed toward them.'

The artifact spirit was quiet as it contemplated that day.

Huoran continued, 'I walked through two high level man made formations that day as mortal, so I figured I could go through a natural formation today as well.'

'Huoran', Quanliyuan finally spoke, 'I wanted to warn you of the formations back then, but wasn't able too due to needing a rich Qi environment to support my repair process.'

'I'm not blaming you', Huoran remarked, 'Anyways, no reason to dwell on the past. Let's explore the edges of this world to set up for the extraction.'

'It's actually amazing that you're able to enter', Quanliyuan told him, 'According to my analysis, only cultivators below the Foundation Establishment stage are allowed to enter. Whatever is going on with your physique, it seems to ignore the laws of the world.'

Huoran didn't want to stand around discussing things anymore, so he summoned his hover bike from his ring. Even though theoretically nothing should be high enough level to threaten him, he still activated the stealth mode to travel. After three hours of slowly exploring the terrain, Quanliyuan made an informed guess, 'The history we read at White Tiger sect only stated that two Void Refinement cultivators battled here, but doesn't go into detail. I believe that one of them subsequently being the one we entered was a Void realm beast.'

'Why is that?', Huoran asked.

'From my experience, if the secret realm was a cultivator, the world inside would be more civilized', Quanliyuan explained, 'There are plenty of treasures here, but all of them are wild plants and beast. If we can find a certain item, it will prove my statement.'

Huoran made an odd face, 'What could we find to make you so sure of your deduction?"

'A beast core', Quanliyuan replied, 'Just like cultivators, at a certain point, magical beasts and beastkins grow a core inside. The core is thing of mystery, when a beast or beastkins dies, the core is left behind. There were cultivators who tried to use the cores to cultivate, but the bodies of cultivators are unable to refine its power. Every cultivator that tried this method either died or their body was crippled, and no one else dares to attempt it again. The same thing is true for artisans, they have tried to unlock the power of the core for various refinements. In the end, they all failed as the power locked inside the core is wild in nature. That being said this secret realm is an amazing find, there are magical beasts and spiritual herbs that haven't been found for a long time here.'

'This will be a good test for the life realm', Huoran said.

First, Huoran steered the bike straight up, climbing as high as he could before Quanliyuan let him know what he had reached the highest point. Next, he pulled a beacon out of his ring, and with the help of Quanliyuan attached it to the realm wall. Afterward, following his friend's guidance, he attached another at the northern end of the realm. It took sometime, but the two worked together to place beacons on the east, south, and west sides of the realm as well. Huoran returned to the calculated center of the realm, and began utilizing his earth abilities to dig to the lowest point of the realm when Quanliyuan stopped him.

'There is a chamber here', Quanliyuan informed him while displaying his findings on a map generated by the artifact spirit.

Huoran wasn't rushed for time, so he decided to alter his course towards Quanliyuan's discovery.

When Huoran broke into the chamber, his eyes immediately focused on a crystal the size of a bowling ball sitting in the middle of the room.

'This should be the Core of the beast this secret realm originated from', the artifact spirit declared.

'It has so much energy in it', Huoran's eyes brighten as he looked over the core, 'If I were to use this, I could breakthrough to the next realm easily.'

'Didn't you hear me before?', Quanliyuan sighed, 'No one has ever survived trying to refine the chaotic energies of a beast core.'

'No one can safely pass through array and natural formations either, but I can', Huoran retorted, 'I'm going to try, with this much energy and vitality, it should be easy to breakthrough to early Nascent Soul.'

Huoran walked over to the large black crystal, picked it up, and summoned a mediation pad from his ring. The mediation pad was the design from one of the grandmasters that he crafted for himself. It was a comfortable cushion that would deploy the usual arrays cultivators used to cultivate during their mediation. Holding the core in his hand, he activated the pad, and several array formations started to circle him while others rotating around him.

With Quanliyuan carefully observing the process, Huoran started to absorb the energies from the core. He braced himself to receive a painful shock from chaotic energies, but was surprised as the energy entered his body.

The energy he was told would be chaotic and painful simply wasn't. Huoran did notice that his golden core, which was already close to full, was about to completely fill soon. He knew if he let things continue this way, he would breakthrough while his three golden cores were uneven. So he came up with a plan, he split the energy, sending the bulk of it towards the golden cores for his body and mind.

Immediately, Huoran felt the effects of this as his body and mind convulsed in pain. He wasn't sure he had made the right decision, but after sometime his two other golden cores and quickly caught up to the golden core that was his Dantian. Thanks to Quanliyan, he was able to balance the improvement of all the golden cores until they all reach saturation at the same time. He prepared to use a surge of energy to pierce through the bottleneck, and proceeded to direct it. As the concentrated stream of energy rushed through his cores, Huoran felt an odd sensation. When Huoran broke through a major realm in the past, he never felt a bottleneck and would simply breakthrough. But he assumed that at some point, he would have to deal with bottlenecks. As he started to go through his break through, he stopped his distracting thoughts and focused on the present. As the process continued, he noticed a strange sensation with his three cores. The cores in his Dantain and mind began to move towards the one in his chest.

'Xiao Ran', Quanliyuan spoke up, 'I know this might be confusing, but this is supposed to happen. While it's usual for a cultivator that lives on this world to cultivate in body, energy, and mind due to resources available, I can tell you I have seen it a few times in the place I came from. What you are experiencing is normal.'

Huoran heard Quanliyuan, but didn't respond as he concentrated on his current situation. He was relieved to hear that everything was happening as it should, as he watched the two cores approach the third. Eventually the three cores touched, and then merged into the others becoming a core three times larger than the original. Inside the larger core, divisions began to form repeatedly until a miniature version of himself was clearly seen. When the smaller version of himself opened its eyes, it started absorbing all the energy in the surrounding area. Even though the beast core he was holding still carried a lot of energy, Huoran felt like something was missing. He searched his ring, and brought out a variety of resources, each one rich with energy of a specific type. His nascent soul also noticed the changes in the environment, and absorbed the energy of these resources. This process took awhile, and Huoran had to replenishing the resources several times before the nascent soul stabilized and his body stopped absorbing Qi energy at such an increased rate.

'Finally', Huoran took a deep breath, 'The breakthrough is completed. How long did that take?'

'According to the time system you use, it was just under seven days', Quanliyan answered.

'I did tell everyone that I might be gone a week or two', Huoran commented, 'Time to finish the job.'

Huoran used his new strength to reach the bottom of the realm, set another beacon, and return to the center of the realm. After he placed the final beacon, Huoran returned to the entrance of the realm and exited.

Once he returned to the world, Huoran brought the modified life realm artifact out of his ring and held it. He activated the artifact, and watched as seven beams of lights entered the secret realm. Over the course of a day, Huoran worked on other research until the light beams receded and the pair could no longer detect the entrance to the secret realm.

'It's time to return', Huoran stated as he put away the life realm.

Just as he was ready to bring his flying boat out, Quanliyuan stopped him, 'There is another secret realm here.'

'What? Where? How come you didn't detect before?', Huoran questioned the artifact spirit.

'Now that you broke through to the next realm, the range of my abilities have increased as well', Quanliyuan explained.

Huoran followed the spirit's directions, and arrived at the entrance of the second secret realm.

Huoran had a pensive look on his face as he contemplated his situation.

'What is vexing you, Xiao Ran?', Quanliyuan inquired.

'I only brought one artifact to test if it would work', Huoran replied, 'It's regrettable to find a second undiscovered secret realm so quickly, and not have a second artifact to take it home.'

'That is just fate', Quanliyuan sighed, 'we simply have to mark the location, and return for it later.'

'I have an idea', Huoran recalled something, 'I was worried about the failure of the beacons during the expedition, so I brought a second set with me. Maybe I should try and use them now.'

'Xiao Ran, that doesn't seem reasonable to trying and fit two secret realms into the same artifact', the artifact spirit cautioned.

'I should at least measure the realm', Huoran replied, 'According to my measurements of the first realm, the jungle was about forty-two square kilometers in area. If this second realm is fifty-eight kilometers or less, they both theoretically could fit.'

'Your calculations do seem correct', Quanliyuan tentatively said.

'Instead of speculating', Huoran responded, 'we'll go inside first, and investigate how large it is. If it bigger than fifty-eight square kilometers, I'll leave and return to collect it later. If it's smaller, I'm going to collect it now before returning home.'

Huoran easily entered the secret realm, and was greeted with a large, empty city. Huoran used his hover bike to oversee the whole area, and calculated the city was forty-five square kilometers.

'Is there a realm restriction on this secret realm as well?', Huoran asked Quanliyuan.

'Yes', Quanliyuan replied, 'Any Body Perfecting or Qi Gathering cultivator can enter, as well as Foundation Establishment younger than two hundred years old or Golden Core cultivator younger than a thousand years.'

Huoran contemplated these conditions as he placed the second set of beacons in the same arrangement as the first. He once again activated the life realm artifact, and to his pleasant surprise, the same seven beams appeared. Another day went by, and just like the first time, the entrance to the secret realm was gone.

Satisfied by the turn of events, Huoran brought out his flying boat, activated the stealth function, aligned his route, and disappeared.