3 months later
It has been a few months since Fan Cheng died and Fan Zhi underwent the trial given to him by the Soul within the Pearl.
Currently, Fan Zhi was sitting in a tree; waiting for a demonic beast to pass carelessly below him so he can ambush one.
Since the trial's completion, the Soul within the Pearl had been constantly pushing Fan Zhi to travel deeper into the forest and trying to push Fan Zhi to his limits.
The Soul, who had made Fan Zhi address him only as Master, was very Spartan and cruel in his methods of training.
Ordinary cultivators would likely give up after less than a week of the Soul's casual training regime, let alone the one that the Soul had personally planned for Fan Zhi.
Fan Zhi however, was perfectly happy training in such a manner.
Not only did he love the process of training in general, but he had also comprehended the Primordial Dharma.
Despite the fact that it didn't change much before the middle Domains of cultivation, to comprehend a Dharma always required a certain mindset and gave boosts to the cultivator that related to that mindset.
This was the hidden advantage of having comprehended a Dharma early on in cultivation; the Dharma boosted certain aspects of the cultivator's mental functions depending on the Dharma comprehended.
The other more complicated effects of comprehending a Dharma were only revealed in the middle Domains and higher of cultivation.
Fan Zhi's Dharma, the Primordial Dharma, had a mental effect that was the simplest of all the Divine Dharma.
It just boosted his willpower. That was all it did.
It didn't improve comprehension of the Dao like the Astral or Nether Dharma, it didn't make a cultivator vicious and beastly as the Demonic Dharma did.
It didn't do any of these things, it just boosted the willpower of the cultivator.
This boost, combined with the natural disposition of Fan Zhi, meant that he had no problems or complaints with his master's training regime and he actually enjoyed such intense training.
He saw how he was growing quickly, having already become an Earth Foundation Champion who was preparing to break through and become a Sky Foundation cultivator.
The past few tri-fused tribulations went off without a hitch.
This was partially due to the boost in willpower that the Primordial Dharma gave him which allowed him to have an easier time surviving the clash with the Heavenly Will; it was also because his master had helped Fan Zhi better improve his use of the [Elemental Devouring Art] so he could siphon the energy of the tri-fused tribulation quicker.
It was still an incredibly mentally taxing thing to break through, usually leaving Fan Zhi unconscious for a day, but it didn't put him on the bridge between life and death as his first breakthrough had.
Suffice to say, Fan Zhi was improving at a blistering pace with the harsh training and incredible teaching ability of his master.
However, Fan Zhi's master within the Pearl absolutely refused to give Fan Zhi any Combat Arts; explaining that not only did he have none that he could give Fan Zhi, he also muttered something about Fan Zhi not needing such things since he couldn't even store and use qi yet.
While Fan Zhi was reminiscing on his life since he could cultivate, his master was also going through Fan Zhi's memories.
He had felt a familiar aura on a particular cultivator that Fan Zhi had received the Pearl from and he was looking through Fan Zhi's experiences of that cultivator's power to try to identify the feeling.
As both master and disciple were busy, a black panther, a user of dark qi had snuck up behind Fan Zhi.
The soul in the Pearl sensed its presence in the perception field he had permanently extended in a 3-metre sphere around Fan Zhi in all direction.
Normally he would let Fan Zhi suffer such an attack for not paying attention, but he himself had been guilty of not noticing the beast and he hated hypocrites with a burning passion.
Smiling lightly to himself, he gave a slight mental nudge to Fan Zhi, enough to put him on guard.
Jolting slightly, Fan Zhi immediately felt a malicious gaze on his back, hearing the whooshing wind of the pouncing panther an instant later. Relying on his instincts more than his mind, Fan Zhi swiftly rolled backwards and his clothes ruffled in the breeze of the panther who was passing through the air mere millimetres above his head.
Getting up, Fan Zhi directly nocked and fired an arrow at the panther.
*Thwuck* *Thunk*
The dull noise of an arrow penetrating flesh sounded out and a body limply impacting the ground were heard.
The panther was dead with an arrow sealing its throat, unable to dodge the arrow due to nearly missing the tree branch that Fan Zhi had been on.
Fan Zhi calmly approached the beast while drawing another arrow.
Having broken his dagger a few weeks prior from a particularly tough skinned demonic beast, Fan Zhi had to use his arrows as a makeshift dagger.
Without hesitation, Fan Zhi swung his arm onto the right chest of the dead panther, the arrow in his hand penetration its heart.
He had known the panther was dead, but a habit that his master had ingrained into Fan Zhi had made him always launch a certainly lethal blow to make sure his opponent was dead.
After he had nearly died from a demonic beast that had feigned death in the first month of being in the forest, both Fan Zhi and his master had made sure to ingrain that event in Fan Zhi's mind.
Mentally sending a message to his master through his soul, Fan Zhi made his master casually manipulate the surrounding ambient qi to skin the panther and retrieve his arrows.
While doing so, Fan Zhi's master casually extracted the demonic core of the panther and drained it to make up for his lost soul energy.
As much as Fan Zhi wanted to, his master had strictly prohibited any form of cultivation enhancers like demonic cores or herbs for the being.
Explaining that such things had a lot of impurities within them, this meant that they were detrimental to any cultivator aiming to reach high levels of cultivation in the higher echelons of the realms.
This was especially valid for someone like Fan Zhi whose qi had incomparable purity.
A demonic core of such low quality as the panther's qi from its demonic core would be like pure poison to Fan Zhi's pure qi.
His master butchering the panther, Fan Zhi started to collect wood and prepare the clearing for camping.
The fire was roaring by the time Fan Zhi's master was done so Fan Zhi created a makeshift spit roast using many sticks of incredibly tough wood.
Spit roasting the panther meat, Fan Zhi conversed with his master while relaxing.
"So master, what comes next? You said that once I became a Sky Foundation Pupil then it would be easy to pass through the middle of the forest."
"Yes, I did say that.
Your strength is far higher for your level than even your grandfather could have imagined.
What he considers to be on the level of a Sky Foundation Champion is merely a Sky Foundation Pupil to you.
Being honest, the exponential difference between the Earth and Sky Foundation realms, which is far higher than most, means that your strength, once you break through, would likely allow you to survive while fighting a Heaven Foundation Realm cultivator.
After all, the big changes in the Foundation Domain are mainly related to having more qi storage and physical prowess.
Your physical prowess is higher than most due to cultivating both qi and physique while the amount of qi you can use doesn't really matter. What matters is that you can actually use qi."
"I am a mere few days away from breaking through Master, what are our plans once I have broken through?"
"Hmm… I guess we can start travelling through the forest's core while training you up some more.
This area is no longer enough to put you on the edge of death if you let your vigilance drop, so I was going to get you to get closer to the core of the forest anyway.
Once you break through, we are going to go through the forest ok kid?"
"Yes, Master."
"Hey, hey hey hey hey!
What did I tell you about formalities kid?
No need to keep up with the master thing.
I only asked you to call me that because you are too weak to know my name, personal disciple or not.
Now go cultivate and solidify your comprehensions of that battle!
Get to it!"
Fan Zhi quickly closed his eyes and reviewed the battle in his head.
His master had made Fan Zhi stay in areas of the forest where he could be killed the minute he showed inattentiveness.
This and the fact that all of the demonic beasts were always equal or even slightly superior in strength had caused Fan Zhi's combat abilities to grow at a scary rate.
Even his master was in awe of his speed of growth.
Lost in thought, Fan Zhi's master was observing the surroundings while going back to searching for the identity of the familiar aura.
"Hmm… who could it be?
That looks like the Dao of Yang yes, but there is an aura of the Dao of Yin as well… They also seem harmonized… he is apparently a cultivator of the Yangyin Dao and he seems to have had a pretty pure qi.
Ahhh! He is related to that old guy!
I heard that old guy was planning to combine the [Yin Yang Revolution Scripture] into a pair of twin longswords and placing it on some random planet in one of the Outer Heavens.
Could he have told his disciples about it?
No, he wouldn't have.
Well, that Lone Wanderer's aura is similar to that old fellow's personally created cultivation arts-based off of the [Yin Yang Revolution Scripture].
I guess he was a core disciple of his sect because he hadn't reached the same level his personal disciples tend to reach with insights and purity of qi at that cultivation realm.
I wonder if he is still alive... I doubt it since it seemed he was being pursued because of my Pearl, so he would likely be killed either to get the Pearl or in spite when they realise that it is unable to be used now even if he had it on him."
After discovering the identity of the person who Fan Zhi referred to as the Lone Wanderer, the soul in the Pearl went back to watching Fan Zhi.
"This kid, he grows in battle instincts so fast.
I guess that is the kind of talent someone has when they can comprehend the Primordial Dharma as an Earth Foundation Pupil.
Besides, the Primordial Dharma is one of the more combat oriented Dharma anyway.
Wait, it doesn't enhance the mental abilities of the cultivator in that aspect though; that is the Demonic Dharma which does that right… Well whatever, I suppose I will just call him a monster and leave it at that hahaha."
Laughing as his thoughts ran rampant, Fan Zhi's master mentally leaned back and prepared for a long night of watching Fan Zhi while he cultivated.
* * * * *
Over the next few days, Fan Zhi had slowly entered a slightly more dangerous area of the forest.
Fan Zhi's master would never let Fan Zhi even waste the few days of safety that Fan Zhi wanted so he could break through by having demonic beasts that Fan Zhi could kill as easily as the black panther.
Therefore, Fan Zhi was very busy doing intense training and cultivating instead of sleeping.
This harsh training had brought out all of Fan Zhi's potential and figuratively ignited it in an incomprehensible explosion.
Within 2 days, Fan Zhi had begun his smooth, but difficult breakthrough into the Sky Foundation realm.
Due to his soul's cultivation rising, the backlash from the constant mental strain during the breakthrough process was slowly lowered the more breakthroughs Fan Zhi made.
Unfortunately, this breakthrough was Fan Zhi's first inter-realm breakthrough and it was just as hard as the first tribulation he faced.
In the end, Fan Zhi passed it perfectly, at the cost of a loss of consciousness for 2 and a half days; something that his master never ceased to remind him of facetiously once he woke up.
During the period of unconsciousness though, Fan Zhi instinctively circulated all 3 Arts of the [Elemental Divinity Scripture] while he recovered.
This resulted in Fan Zhi not needing to solidify his cultivation when he woke up and in his master instantly forcing Fan Zhi to begin his journey of harsh training through the forest mere hours after he woke up.
He didn't even teach Fan Zhi how to use his now externalisable qi, flippantly reassuring Fan Zhi that he will learn to do so when he fights demonic beasts.