The cave.

A month had passed since the tournament.

During this time, Ling Jun had managed to push his Blackwind Bow technique to genuine completion. He had also pushed his cultivation to peak early seventh stage. At this point he would be able to contend with some weaker spiritual realm cultivators and could even kill some if he took them by surprise with his bow!

Today was the date he had agreed upon with Meng Li. He donned his black robe and strapped his swords and bow to his back before informing Xue Ying that he would be leaving for a week. He took his horse from the stable and left the city.

He headed over to the Beastwood forest in half a day and spent another hour reaching the spot he had agreed upon. Meng Li still had not arrived yet but he could see the string arriving closer and closer.

Ten minutes later, Meng Li arrived and acted surprised to see him. Ling Jun lifted his right finger and tapped his right ear. This was to let Meng Li know that there was no one in the immediate vicinity.

Meng Li immediately smiled. It was like the flowers blooming in spring, and Ling Jun couldn't help but smile as well.

"I got the stuff!" She whispered with a shifty look in her eyes. It had become a habit for her. Even though they were in the clear, she still acted like this. Ling Jun couldn't help but be amused.

Meng Li took out the spirit stones and the Lightning Flash sword technique before handing the technique over to him.

"I'll assume you still want me to hold on to the spirit stones until you get a spatial ring?"

"Yeah."

Ling Jun took the sword technique and placed it underneath his robe before sitting down to relax.

They had a weeks time to kill. Ling Jun asked Meng Li what they should do. Meng Li thought for a while with her delicate finger rhythmically tapping on her chin.

"Let's just relax and catch up?" She said in an inquiring tone.

Ling Jun was okay with that. They were quite deep in the forest and night was falling. They set up camp and laid a few alarms to warn of trespassing beasts or humans. Ling Jun then quickly killed a bear which he gutted and they roasted over the campfire. He seasoned it and waited till it was fully cooked before handing a piece over to Meng Li.

He felt a bit awkward, knowing a delicate girl like Meng Li would usually use cutlery to eat.

Meng Li looked at the meat and then at Ling Jun's awkward expression. She couldn't help but laugh. "It's fine, I'll just eat it like this!"

She grabbed the meat and tried holding it from a less greasy part, to avoid staining her fingers. She looked extremely awkward. Now it was Ling Jun's turn to laugh.

Eventually Meng Li simply gave up and began to wolf the food down, not caring for her image anymore. Once finished, she used her left hand to cover her mouth which was full of food, whilst using her right hand to give him a big thumbs up.

It seemed his dish had passed the taste check. Ling Jun burped contentedly before sitting back.

Meng Li finished swallowing her food and began to compliment it. Later they began to talk about other more important topics.

Meng Li announced her intention to be recruited into a sect so as to get much better resources and techniques as well as treasures. Ling Jun also had the same intention though he would go about it in a different way.

Meng Li had thought he would show off his talent in the sect recruitment trials but she was surprised to realise that he would enter the sect as one of Ling Ji's two servants who could also enter the sect along with him, though they could not learn much techniques and would have lower status.

From there he would show enough talent to barely be promoted to the outer sect as an official disciple.

"What's the point of gaining strength if you never show it?" Meng Li asked in confusion.

"If you are always this cautious then you will only be able to reveal your strength once you become the strongest being in existence. How far away that would be and who's to say that we would ever make it that far?

"What if... what if you die without having ever revealed your strength? Won't everything have been for nothing?" Meng Li couldn't help but feel that Ling Jun was too cautious.

"I don't plan to remain low key forever. Once I have something to rely on I can show my strength off for the world to see. I'm only cautious now as I can easily be killed by any powers within and out of Xin city."

Once he had backing that he could rely on, as long as it wouldn't threaten him Ling Jun wouldn't mind revealing some of his strength. Of course, he would always keep some strength hidden as reserve power and trump cards.

He planned to learn a side profession upon entering the sect, as those with side professions would generally have extremely exalted statuses which was something he could rely on. Even if he left the sect later his status would still be there with him.

Ling Jun and Meng Li chatted for a bit before deciding to sleep. The next morning, they got up just as the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon.

Meng Li covered her mouth as she stifled a yawn. She stretched her arms out wide and blinked her eyes a couple of times to remove the grogginess.

They packed the supplies and the tents, put out the last embers of the campfire and set off deeper into the forest.

Today, the both of them would head to a specific region within the forest to have a look around. Yesterday, Meng Li had told him that after her incident in the forest almost seven years ago, she had begun researching the forest so as to uncover any information on her good fortune.

Over the years, she hadn't learnt anything but had been successful in gathering information about a so called treasure that had been hidden in the forest. Decades ago, many spiritual realm cultivators had come to look in the forest yet none had ever found it.

Eventually, people had just given up although many people still tried their luck with it even today.

Ling Jun cautiously inspected the surrounding area as they moved. Meng Li was easily able to keep up with his speed. Eventually they neared the region the treasure was supposed to be in.

Ling Jun found a nearby cave with his spatial sense and killed the wolves sleeping within.

Meng Li then cleared the central area and laid down a scrolled map about three square feet. She placed some rocks on the corners to keep them in place before circling a certain point with her quill pen.

"This is our position right now."

She then went on to put a few X marks down on the map.

"These are the areas we should check first.

"The legends tell of the treasure being found when soul, spirit, flesh and Qi merge together. Over the years, many methods have been tried including sacrificing spirit, Qi and body refining realm cultivators. Unfortunately they were unable to sacrifice any soul realm cultivators as only spirit realm cultivators had taken an interest in the treasures."

"Why would soul realm cultivators not be interested in the treasure?"

"According to the clan records, in the beginning even soul realm cultivators had swarmed the area. However, a ploy had been put in place by one man, at the time a peak ninth stage soul realm cultivator in order to attract a group of his enemies which he then slaughtered without mercy. Over time, soul realm cultivators were convinced that this had all been an elaborate set up and left the area.

"Some had tried to contact the soul realm cultivator to find out if it had all been a lie, yet the man had all but disappeared after the incident. This further convinced others that it had all been a hoax.

"However, to this day some cultivators with lower talents or status would still come here hoping for good fortune to turn their lives around."

"So why is the treasure more likely to be in those areas?" Ling Jun asked in confusion as he focused on the map.

Meng Li looked up as she answered. "These were the areas where people reported sensing disturbances. Apparently, after checking the place out there had been a cave which none could enter and also disappeared shortly after.

"This could obviously be some rumour thought up by random people for fame, but it doesn't hurt to check out these areas first since we don't have any other leads."

Ling Jun thought it was a decent idea so they decided to follow it.

They joked about as they went on their way to the first circled area. Ling Jun had his spatial sense constantly activated even though it drained his mind. He could use it for hours before he had to turn it off.

Once they arrived, they saw an extremely tall tree jutting out from the forested region. Surrounding could be seen various ditches in the ground, reminiscent of a battle of long ago.

Using his spatial sense, Ling Jun couldn't tell anything was off at first. But he could feel that there was a slight increase of the Qi in the area. After looking around for an hour, they decided to look at the next area.

All the spots marked in the area weren't too far from each other. There were three spots in total arranged in a somewhat triangle formation. One of the points was directly beneath the other.

They were currently at the lowest point marked on the map. They decided to head to the closer point, which was somewhat northeast. This area was a clearing with a bunch of trees in the middle somehow separated from the rest of the forest.

One thing they noticed was that the ditches reached all the way to these trees yet none of the trees were damaged at all. Even the earth underneath was not affected.

After looking around for clues they headed to the final area. Here they found a pond. The ditches also lead to this area yet did not damage the pond in any way. They looked around again before deciding to follow the ditches.

Ling Jun wouldn't have noticed it if he didn't have spatial sense. The ditches were reminiscent of the meridians within the body. Of course everyone's meridians were a little different but had the same general layout which was how techniques could be channeled by all practitioners.

Could this be a hidden technique using the earth to pass it on? Ling Jun thought with a frown as he rubbed his chin. Was that the treasure? He couldn't help but feel he was on the right track.

He told Meng Li of his findings causing her to frown also.

"How are we supposed to know how to channel our Qi? The meridian system may be mapped out but there's no sign of a Qi flow." She scratched her head in frustration. They had been here for five hours now.

Ling Jun thought carefully. He carefully recalled all details that they knew of so far. Soul, spirit, flesh and Qi must merge...

Ling Jun had already figured out that the three areas they had visited were representations of the heart, brain and dantian of a cultivator.

Dantian is where Qi is. In the novels, the soul was always in the mind. And spirit is related to the heart. In that case, where is the flesh? Ling Jun rubbed his chin frustratedly. All of a sudden Meng Li spoke.

"Wait! Where the soul was we found water. The soul is essential to existence just like water. In the heart area we found trees. Trees grow using water just like the spirit is fed by the soul. Where the dantian is we found a tall tree. Being tall is a sign of a strong tree, however it is not necessary for a tall tree. That is similar to Qi, which is not necessary but makes us stronger.

"Our body encloses our heart, mind and dantian, similar to how the earth itself encloses all of these three areas. The earth itself must represent the flesh."

As soon as she finished speaking, Ling Jun came to an understanding. And at that moment, the entire forest rumbled intensely. Ling Jun panicked instantly as the ground began to sink down. It was only once he reached tree height that he realised he was flying up and the ground hadn't moved at all.

He tried to look around but was stuck in place. He began to panic crazily as he thought back to his days as a sessile herb. He struggled intensely. What do I do? No, I can use my space affinity to affect this lock in space.

He tried closing his eyes which was impossible so he simply began to calm down and concentrate. All this time he was still rising slowly. Eventually he could sense that space was flowing differently to anything he had ever seen before. It was as if it was being manipulated by some power to move in a specific way.

Ling Jun carefully observed the flow of space. He tried to interfere with the way it flowed to find that the view in front of him suddenly began to shake and became fuzzy like a television screen from his past life.

He immediately stopped what he was doing. He was comforted by the fact that he could break this strange situation instantly if he so wished. Of course he didn't do it at the moment as he was aware that this was probably a result of figuring out the message hidden in the earth.

If he stopped here, he might lose an opportunity.

He couldn't see Meng Li anywhere near him so he decided to wait. Eventually he stopped rising at a point where he had a clear view of the three areas and the surrounding areas.

All of a sudden he could see a red liquid burst out from the tall tree representing the dantian, it flowed through some of the ditches, sometimes flowing in ways which defied physics. How could liquid flow forward and then sideways without any interference? Obviously Ling Jun realised this was supposed to a technique and the liquid was reminiscent of Qi so he observed carefully.

Once the entire technique had been completed, an identical copy of the area had appeared off to the side. A cloning technique? Ling Jun mused to himself. This could come in extremely handy he grinned to himself.

Suddenly he found that he was back in the same place he had been in when Meng Li had figured out what each area represented.

He shook his head slightly to get rid of the disorientation before looking over to find Meng Li doing the same. He instantly knew she had experienced the same thing he had.

Meng Li saw his look and smiled. "That was cr-"

BOOM!

They both heard a loud sound ring out from some distance away. That was the last thing they heard before both lost consciousness.

Unbeknownst to them, after they lost consciousness, both of them were dragged to the dantian region by an invisible hand. Just before the large tree, a cave had formed, the result of the large booming sound earlier.

They were dragged into the cave and left in a dark area. Other cultivators close by had come to check the disturbances and had been excited by the cave, yet none could enter. Neither were any able to see the two unconscious cultivators dragged inside.