Arc opened his eyes and a glint of energy could been seen escaping them, after cultivating the entire day his realm remained at qi condensation level 1
it was so dense he felt his power had increased significantly, the amount of energy at his disposal had changed thought
It decreased, whiles he currently has less energy due to its extreme density, when attacking or using spells he essentially will use nearly nothing
'I essentially won't run out of energy'
Arc thought to himself before snapping back to reality and saying
"No, this amount of energy means nothing, i could only outlast another qi condenser, any foundation establishment whose energy has been completely liquefied can beat me purely with the quantity of energy"
Arc got rid of his arrogant thoughts, he knows that there are countless strong people and many who were born gifted
there are already immortals who have have lived God knows how long, so there's no reason Arc should get Arrogant with his strength
Arc headed towards the 3th peak of the mountain, he was planning on using one of the sect facilities for training
Iron sharpens iron, he was heading to the combat arena within the sect to have practice fighting people of his own realm, he has only ever fought Aurora and demon beasts,
Arc believes he need to experience combat against someone who uses long range combat to have accurate countermeasures, as this was how most cultivator's fought,
After arriving to the arena he saw several people training and fighting together,
His arrival seemed to have surprised those who were there, as one would rarely see a core disciple on the combat grounds
Arc greeted the elder someone who was incharge of both the combat grounds and educating new sect members
"Greetings elder"
"Hello Archean i didn't expect you to become a core disciple so fast"
The elder spoke shocked as he thought to himself
'Archean has been cultivating roughly one year, how did he become a core disciple?'
"Yeah i was also pretty shocked when i was chosen as one"
Arc spoke before changing the conversation
"anyways i came here to practice combat, could you find me 10 qi condensation cultivators who are at the 9th stage"
As he spoke Arc thought to himself
'I would love to battle against foundation establishment, but at that realm one becomes an elder of the sect'
The elder nodded his head and began preparing opponents for Arc to face
Arc didn't have to wait long, as news quickly spread that a core disciple wanted opponents to practice, and he was only qi condensation stage 1
Many inner and outer disciples thought that this could be a great way to get the backing of a weak core disciple
Those guys would be in for a rude awakening after finding out that Arc is much stronger than them in both qi manipulation as well as pure combat skill
"Archean i have brought the people, they are waiting in the 3th area, it's blocked off so no one watches your fight"
The elder spoke
Maintaining secrecy of their techniques is first nature for cultivator's so many of the rings had walls to prevent people from watching
Having 10 people make dao vows to not spread information is much easier that 1000,
Arc nodded in appreciation, minimizing risks by preventing information about his fighting abilities could be helpful in the future
Arc headed towards the ring and found the disciples standing by the ring waiting for him
"Greeting Archean"
They spoke respectfully when Arc arrived
Arc nodded before speaking
"So here is what we are going to do, all of you attack me at once"
As he spoke he reached into his storage ring and pulled out a large flag, the image of a prison reflected in the eyes of the disciples
The disciples were shocked and before one could protect, they felt the pressure emanating from Arc it felt like a storm appeared before them
"Very well Archean, we will come at you"
A tall man spoke hesitantly, before pulling out a sword
At that moment a short girl behind him with no hesitation pulled out a talisman sending a fireball Arc's way
Arc didn't even react, he just swatted the fire ball with his left hand before charging forward
The tall man threw his sword allowing it to fly, he seemed to have realized that Arc was powerful and they needed to work together
The others began mixing their qi and forming a human arry, a common method for teams to fight
It seemed the elder chose people from the same team, and then found to extra's to fill in for the 10 count arc was asking for
The fire girl keep throwing fireballs, and the tall man's sword flew to Arc endlessly not allowing Arc to close the distance
Arc looked and found the that they had begun to surround him, and so he activated the flag's defensive array
The flag wrapped around him, the image became clearer to Arc adversaries, the could see the prison surrounding him,
he appeared as though he were the warden, ready to imprison them at the slightest chance
Now protected by the flag Arc rushed towards the tall man, his flying sword was currently the biggest threat
The man realized that he was Arc's target and began channeling his energy into a shield and his sword quickly into his hand ready to defend
Arc's swug down with incredible force with mana, this strike brought the man to his knees and before he could react Arc kicked him sending him out of the ring
"1 down, 9 to go"
Arc said camly, this intimidated the rest of the fighters
Yet they didn't stop their movements, the team had him completely surrounded and the fire girl was standing behind them seemingly shielded as she threw endless fireballs at Arc
Arc realized that they could slowly shorten the distance and he wouldn't have anywhere to go
He activated the isolation array at full power attempting to trap everyone simultaneously
At that moment the found their surroundings had changed, they found themselves within a prison
"This isn't an illusion?"
One spoke confused before turning his sight to the window
This action caught the attention of everyone else and the found what could only be described as an immortal city
It was beautiful beyond all measure, it was as if everything they have ever wanted was right before them, the path to immortality
This marks the end of the fight, as they had been so absorbed by what they had seen they didn't realize that some of them slowly disappeared from the prison
When only the fire girl was left she turned her head see Arc standing before her, the point of his spearhead on her throat
"I win"
Arc spoke cheerfully before sitting down, even though they forgot to resist the formation trapping so many people at once was not energy efficient
After the fight they all felt exhausted, it was extremely stressful and they found that Arc fought like a machine he was cold and calculated
Arc slowly caught his breath before finding the fire girl was sitting next to him closely staring at him
Arc felt extremely nervous, and spoke
"uh what's the problem?"
She got closer before speak, her voice was hoarse as if she hadn't spoken in a long time
"What was the city, my eyes couldn't see through it, was it real"
She seemed to gain confidence with each word and he voice sounded nicer by the end
The other who had their heads turned the other way, looked back as they too were interested in the origin of the city
Arc slowly backed up before answering her question
"It was a painting, i painted on the space of the isolation array"
"It looked so real"
She got closer before speaking
At that moment Arc felt his hairs stand and he turned back to find Aurora watching, she had a smile on her face
Yet that smile was probably the scariest thing Arc has seen in his life
"Archean"
Aurora spoke calmly yet it sounded like thunder to Arc
Arc stood up and quickly ran towards her and stood below her, he didn't even dare to look her in the eyes for fear of pissing her off even more
This worked nicely as it allowed Aurora to calm down and she felt as though she overreacted, it was clear Arc wasn't flirting with other women
Yet she couldn't help but get defensive, thus knowing Arc wasn't at fault,
she turned her anger towards the fire girl and looked at her the same way she looked at Arc
The girl felt as though cold water was dropped on her head and she didn't understand why, she was just curious about the formation
She then thought to herself
'Was that supposed to be a secret??'
She spoke fumbling over her words, it took several minutes before anyone could understand what she was saying
"Was that a secret i'm sorry i didn't know, i won't tell anyone about the painting"
Aurora looked away feeling a bit better seeing her scared, she smiled lightly before placing her hand on Arc and turning into a stream of light
They disappeared right before their eyes, leaving the fire girl to breathe feeling happy that she didn't die
Since cultivators spend most their time training or in isolation they can be fairly socially awkward leading to the situation that happend
Aurora felt Jealous over a girl who had no idea she was flirting with Arc, she just doesn't know what personal space is and tends to get close to people when talking
After catching her breathe she turned her head towards the others who were present and spoke
"Let's not talk about what happened today or else we might die"
They all agreed on that before going separate ways, most of them wanted to go into close cultivation after a fight like that they felt as those a breakthrough was close
When Arc could open his eyes he found himself in Aurora room and he was worried if she was still mad
He lifted his head and found Aurora sitting on the bed looking at him, before he could say anything Aurora spoke
"Sit"
She pointed towards a chair next to the bed,Arc listened to her and sat down and when he tried to speak Aurora cut him off
"Forget about what happened earlier I came to tell you something else,"
"I have decided the date for my attempt to reach nascent soul cultivation".
Arc got serious and began focusing intently on what she was saying
"I will try in 3 days, i would love to spend more time preparing but i will need time to adjust to the realm after advancing"
"As i need to be combat ready in time that we head to the nascent soul party"
Arc nodded his head while feeling worried for her, she assured him everything would be fine before sending him on his way