"Here…"
"Come… Here..."
The voice continued to beckon Yuan, its volume increasing the longer he followed the voice.
While Yuan subconsciously followed the voice, he checked his own body.
Cultivation: First Level Spirit Apprentice
Legacy: None
Bloodline: None
Physique: Heaven Refining Physique
Physical Strength: 134
Mental Strength: 375
Soul Strength: 1,310
Physical Defense: 110
Mental Defense: 1,221
His cultivation had been wiped like they said it would, and he was only at the first level Spirit Apprentice. However, for whatever reason, he didn't feel as weak as he did when he was at the same level before. Perhaps it was the Soul Weapons in his body, but he felt pretty confident in his own strength despite his low cultivation base.
As for his techniques, all of them remained unchanged. However, if he wanted to use them, he'd need to increase his Qi because he wouldn't be able to use most of his techniques at his current cultivation base.
Half an hour later, Yuan suddenly stopped walking when he realized that the voice was no longer calling for him.
He looked around, and to his surprise, he could see an ancient-looking temple in the distance from where he was standing.
"Is this the place the voice wanted me to go to?" Yuan mumbled to himself as he approached this temple that was about half a mile away.
As Yuan got closer to the temple, he realized how run down the place looked, almost like it had existed for tens of thousands of years.
Yuan stood directly in front of the staircase that led to the temple a few minutes later with a pondering expression on his face.
'Does that voice belong to the faceless person? Why is it calling for me?' he wondered.
After standing there for a few moments, Yuan decided to walk up the stairs and enter the temple since he won't have any answers without approaching the source.
There were exactly 100 steps on the staircase to the temple, and upon reaching the top, Yuan could see the inside of this temple through the empty doorway.
After taking a deep breath, Yuan entered the temple.
Inside the temple was a long and empty room except for the 10-meter tall stone tablet at the end of this room that had refined angles and clean words engraved onto it, looking pristine overall, almost like it was newly built, in contrast to the rest of the temple that was ancient and on the verge of collapsing.
Furthermore, there was not even a speck of dust on this tablet made of marble, almost as though someone cleaned it very recently.
Yuan tilted his head to look at the words carved into this tablet, but alas, he was unable to understand the language. However, despite not understanding a thing, Yuan still felt a sense of awe and dominance from the way the words were carved into the stone tablet, as each line was filled with precision and confidence.
"What's this feeling I'm getting from these words? It feels so familiar for some reason…" Yuan gently caressed the words on the stone tablet with his fingers, feeling slightly nostalgic, almost like he'd seen these words before.
"Anyways, what happened to the voice?"
Yuan then looked around while speaking in a loud voice, "Why did it call me to this place? I am here just like you wanted! Say something! Anything!"
"..."
However, there was no response.
Yuan scratched his head, unsure of what he should do now.
"Well, I should follow the Sect Master's instructions and quickly increase my cultivation base before I roam the Mystic Realm."
Before entering the Mystic Realm, Long Yijun gave them some advice, and one of them was to start cultivating as soon as they can so they have some capabilities to protect themselves.
Yuan proceeded to sit down directly in front of the stone tablet and took a deep breath before he began cultivating.
[Due to your title Pang City's Hero, cultivation speed has increased by 10%]
[Due to your Untainted Body, cultivation speed has increased by 100%]
[Due to the Nine Dragon Symbols, your cultivation speed has increased by 1,000%]
[Environmental effect has increased your cultivation speed by 400%]
"What? 400 percent? This place is almost like the Dragon Peak that had 500 percent!"
Yuan was shocked by this large number. Is this because of the immense spiritual energy in the Mystic Realm or this place specifically?
He recalls Long Yijun mentioning about the Mystic Realm having an abundant amount of spiritual energy, but he didn't expect it to be this much. At this rate, he'll reach Spirit Warrior in no time!
Thus, Yuan began reciting the cultivation technique in his head, absorbing the spiritual energy in the temple at a rapid pace.
[+7,502 Qi]
[+7,411 Qi]
[You have absorbed enough Qi for a breakthrough]
[You have reached Second Level Spirit Apprentice]
[All stats +150]
After literally two seconds of cultivation, Yuan had a breakthrough and reached the second level.
A few more seconds later, he enters the third level and so on.
[You have absorbed enough Qi for a breakthrough]
[You have reached Third Level Spirit Apprentice]
[You have reached Fourth Level Spirit Apprentice]
[You have reached Fifth Level Spirit Apprentice]
[You have reached Sixth Level Spirit Apprentice]
In slightly less than 10 minutes since he started cultivating, Yuan had managed to increase his cultivation base by an entire realm, entering first level Spirit Warrior with ease.
[You have reached First Level Spirit Warrior]
[All stats +1,000]
Yuan stood up to stretch after entering the Spirit Warrior realm for the third time in this life.
"The voice still hasn't returned. Why exactly did it bring me to this place? It probably has something to do with this stone tablet but I don't understand it." Yuan sighed.
Just as he prepared to sit back down and cultivate some more, Yuan heard a gentle voice resound behind him, causing him to turn around.
"Umm… Who are you?" This voice asked him in a slightly nervous tone.
When Yuan turned around, he could see a pretty young lady with silky long black hair and azure blue eyes wearing plain green clothes standing at the entrance of the temple, and on her face was a slightly surprised expression, almost like she didn't expect to see anyone in this place. Furthermore, she was holding a bamboo basket in her arms, looking like she was a villager out to gather herbs.
However, what surprised him the most was the powerful aura that surrounded this young lady's figure.
'A Spirit Master!' Yuan cried inwardly.
He had mistaken this young lady as a fellow participant at first, but there is no way anyone would be able to reach Spirit Master so quickly when their cultivation bases were wiped after entering this place, so there was only one explanation for this— this young lady was a native in the Mystic Realm!
To think he'd encounter a Spirit Master Cultivator so quickly after entering the Mystic Realm, nobody would've ever imagined this. However, whether this encounter is a fortunate one or not is still unknown.
"Hello…" Yuan greeted her in a friendly voice, and he continued, "My name is Yuan."