Feng Zhiming found himself within a small wooden house, nothing too extravagant but not too shabby either, he sat upon the bed and began to think.
"Let me get my resources in check."
He gazed within his storage ring and thought about all the items in his possession.
"About fifty third order demon beast cores, two fourth order demon beast cores, a set of eyes, a fan, three doses of a paralyzing toxin that affects cultivators up to Spiritual Awakening, a cultivation manual, a human skin mask, a decent amount of coins and a few spirit stones."
Spirit stones were crystallization of Qi found deep underground, they acted as a supplement during cultivation and thus are more valuable than usual currency such as gold or silver coins.
"What else, what else."
He also found some fireworks, an old unfinished pill recipe, an unhatched egg someone scammed him with, a spiritual compass and a tattered old black robe.
"Well, it seems travelling light might not have been the best idea." He fell backwards into the bed and began to lament, he had many more useful items back in his cave, and now they would go to waste.
"The spiritual compass might be useful, though."
The spiritual compass was something that he had chanced upon while visiting some family's burial ground without express permission.
It was said that this compass would allow the user to chase any thread of spiritual energy that the user wanted, in the same way everyone's fingerprints were unique, so was their spiritual energy.
"Another Item I can't utilize properly till I reach the Spiritual Awakening Realm."
There was always the option of hiding and waiting for everyone to kill each other, but due to rule number seven prohibiting idle behaviour and the fact that cultivators in realms above him had longer lifespans, it made that a non option.
"I can't stay here, but I can't leave either, and I definitely can't shake anyone's hands right now."
Feng Zhiming got back up and sat in a lotus position before retrieving one of his fourth order demon beast cores.
The surrounding air started to fluctuate as he siphoned the beast core's energy.
Methods like absorbing energy straight from raw materials such as beast cores were the hallmark of the demonic path, it rejected refinement of pills and such to aid cultivation.
Within the scripture he practiced, it was stated that refinement of raw materials leads to the loss of vital properties of the absorbed Qi and the spiritual energy it generates.
Feng Zhiming began to sweat as he sat there for three days straight.
"Let's stop right there."
Feng Zhiming put away the beast core, which was near seventy percent depleted.
Just as he felt like it was time to break through to the Condensed Ethereal Core realm, he stopped. He had been within the Quasi Ethereal Core realm for five years already he could have forced a breakthrough long ago but with greater power there were naturally greater problems.
"Now I can break through at any time, so catching my opponents by surprise should be no problem."
Feng Zhiming opened his eyes as someone entered within his spiritual sense's range.
"Senior, Grandfather, grandfathe- huuuh." Mu Han was panting as he barged into the house, trying to catch his breath.
Mu Han caught his breath.
"Grandfather has summoned all available Quasi Ethereal Core disciples to the Fiend arena."
Another memory resurfaced in Feng Zhiming's head, the Fiend arena was the battleground within the sect where disciples would compete.
It was said all the Primal Demons under the command of the Matriarch fought the entirety of their respective realms within the arena before given the path to become primal demons.
"Do you know why the second elder would summon everyone at this time, and specifically Quasi Ethereal Core disciples?"
"I heard a rumor circulating that it's for some sort of mission."
They both left the residence and began walking towards the arena.
Feng Zhiming thought about the matter carefully, one of the derivatives of his cultivation manual was a method that allowed him to think at an increased rate.
The usage of spiritual energy upon neurons within the brain to increase the frequency of neuronal signaling, effectively hyper-charging thinking speeds.
"It's not a mission based purely on strength, they have guards of the spiritual awakening realm at the gates, so there's definitely no shortage of them. It's not a matter of a mission specific to Ethereal Core in general, otherwise they wouldn't summon just Quasi Ethereal Core disciples."
The cogs in his mind were turning non-stop as he followed Mu Han to the arena.
"The relevant distinction between spiritual awakening experts and Ethereal core disciples is divine sense, divine sense is easily observed by another divine sense when in use, meaning it's a stealth mission that requires face to face interaction with the enemy."
Mu Han looked over at Feng Zhiming as he walked and noticed that Feng Zhiming was blankly staring forward, very clearly deep in thought. The technique did have a side effect of leaving him temporarily vulnerable, and it did drain him quite quickly.
"Ethereal Core Disciples fit that criteria, they don't have divine sense meaning they won't be exposed, the only way they are exposed is if they actively use their demonic phenomena or techniques. Obviously this mission is high risk seeing that they aren't risking future Spiritual Awakening prospects that being the Condensed and Actualized Ethereal Core realm cultivators."
Feng Zhiming had nearly grasped the mission.
"They want disposable tools, something that high risk means being behind enemy lines, with the current information I possess the greatest cause of this could be the recent announcement from the orthodoxy, this can only mean the second elder is looking for s-."
"Senior brother, we've arrived."
He snapped out of thought as he arrived at the arena.
An arena around fifty square feet in size was laid out if front of him, the stone slabs were cracked and tattered from the long history of fighting.
Feng Zhiming inhaled deeply.
The unmistakable stench of blood was ingrained into these tiles, no doubt innumerable warriors met their end here.