The same voice called out. "Welcome to my home." It spoke out softly.
Haru clutched his head as he opened his eyes. He looked around and was in total silence. There seemed to be a slight echo as he inhaled sharply. The pain was unimaginable as he clutched the right side of his body.
[Essence Healing]
A faint golden light appeared before disappearing. The spell had only worked slightly, but he was still in pain. He tried to use it again, but nothing happened. It was like all of the mana he had worked so hard to use was gone. He couldn't sense even a trace of mana anywhere nearby.
"Huh, where am I? Who are you?" Haru groaned before slowly making his way to his feet.
He then tried to use a spell to light up the place so he could check out his surroundings. But it was no use. His magic had completely vanished. Suddenly a small flame appeared before one by one began to light hanging lanterns around the room. Haru looked around. He was in some kind of Chinese styled meeting hall, like the one the party was currently being held at. He then looked to the front of the room. There seemed to be something that glimmered under the light.
Haru walked over to have a closer look. He walked up a small set of stairs before arriving at a pedestal with a red silk pillow on top of it, and in the center of the pillow was a small golden ring. The ring was shaped like a dragon. It had golden scales all the way around it, with bright green eyes and a small round purple gem in its mouth.
'What is this thing?' Haru thought before reaching out to pick it up.
"Are you trying to steal from me after I saved your life?" Haru felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around with horror. The man standing behind him was around seven feet tall, was a traditional Chinese outfit, had long black hair, but most importantly his body was transparent. Haru was in shock.
"Ahh! A ghost!" He then stumbled back and fell over.
The man laughed at Haru's expense. "Of course, I'm not a ghost. This is just a fragment of my soul. You didn't actually expect me to keep my true soul within this pool for twenty thousand years, did you?" Haru eased up but was still on guard. "Your soul? Twenty thousand years?" Haru repeated out loud.
"That is what I said, didn't I?" The man said as he looked back at Haru with curiosity. "You are not a cultivator? Oh, but you are a pretty decent caster I see. Maybe... No what am I thinking?" He said before turning away, rubbing his chin with his hand. Haru began to get up once again. "Thank you for saving me. But how do I leave this place?" He asked whilst covering himself up. He was still naked and his clothes were back on the floor at the entrance to the pool.
"Get out? You are in a time array right now. Only a cultivator would be able to pass through without being ripped apart by the spatial storms. You will just die in here. But that is at least better than being boiled to death by the true dragon skull." The man said whilst still thinking about something.
Haru began to panic. "I'm going to die, what do you mean!? Did you bring me here just to die? You should have just left me to die in the pool at least someone might find my body."
Haru's stomach then growled. The man heard the sound and then laughed. "You're hungry? Here."
He pulled out a small red fruit. It resembled a peach but was smooth and perfectly round. Haru took the fruit from him and then took a bite out of it. A flavour he had never experienced exploded into his mouth as the juice overflowed and dripped down his lip.
"What is this thing? It's delicious" Haru said with his mouth still full.
The man looked at Haru for a moment. "Um... Phoenix fruit. They come from a tree that a Phoenix was born under. Wait. Why are you naked? Are you one of those sex freaks?" The man leaned down toward Haru. And sniffed the air in front of him. "No. You are definitely still a virgin. So that makes you... An exhibitionist!" The man said in a matter of fact tone and then started pacing up and down.
Haru shouted at him. "I'm not an exhibitionist! I left my clothes up at the surface of the pool! And by Phoenix do you mean as in the magical beast?" Haru asked as he finished the Phoenix fruit.
It was one of the best-tasting things he had ever eaten. The man laughed again. "Magical beast? Do you mean those cheap imitations? No, I mean a Phoenix, as in a divine beast. But yet again this small universe doesn't have any phoenixes so I wouldn't expect you to know. And will you put some clothes on already?" The man threw out a set of clothes similar to what he was wearing.
Haru struggled to put on the clothes as he had never worn anything like this before. It seemed to be a perfect fit but it felt off. "Don't you have anything more modern?" He asked as he adjusted the tightness around his waist.
"Something more modern? Those clothes are made from the silk of thousands of spiritual silkworms and you are complaining? You are practically immune to all attacks whilst wearing them. Well, maybe not if you fought against a cultivator. But for casters, you would be immortal."
Haru was confused for a second. "What are these casters you keep mentioning?" He asked.
The man stopped once again and looked over to Haru. "How many questions do you need to ask? I'm thinking. Casters are what in this world you would call mages. You use spiritual energy to manipulate things. You don't really have much power but there is no reason for you guys to have much power. You only fight against each other anyway." The man criticised the mages of earth.
Haru was at a loss for words. He always thought he was the strongest but he was in fact nothing compared to the strength of the cultivators.
"Erm... Can you teach me to cultivate? I don't want to die in here?" He said to the strange man in front of him. The man smiled sinisterly. "I thought you would never ask. I have never taught someone from this world. Maybe you will make a name for yourself in the upper realms."
The man then went on to explaining everything about the cultivating world to Haru. It was unlike anything he had ever heard of. There are thousands of universes spilled across three major realms. The lower realm, the middle realm, and the higher realm. Earth was located in the lower realm. That was why everybody was naturally weak in comparison to cultivators.
Qi was a power like mana that wasn't only exclusive to the lower realms. The upper realms had a higher natural concentration of mana and made everything that lived there insanely strong. Even a house cat from the upper realms would be strong enough to massacre a few thousand inhabitants of Earth.
Haru listened with an open mind but still had a little bit of doubt in his head. How could he believe something he had never experienced entirely? He still thought it all sounded oddly believable. The man then went on to explain about the current predicament they were in. They were both trapped within a time array that was used to condense spiritual Qi into the hot spring pool above them.
The man had attached a fragment of his soul into the dragon emperor ring but had lost it during a fight. The ring flew through all of the realms before it landed on earth like a meteor. The ring fell into the array just as it was being set up by Chinese cultivators of the past. The man then created a space within the array where he could await his rescue from his true body. He couldn't remember anything from his true body. The only thing he knew was that when he looked at objects, he would recall the past that his true soul had with them.
Like for the dragon emperor ring.
He knew that his true soul had it in his possession for hundreds of thousands of years. He found the ring and then reincarnated thanks to the dragon emperor ring and he remembered the power the ring gave to him during his path to cultivation within his second life.
"You should have experienced reincarnation, right?" The man asked Haru. "Wait what are you trying to say?" Haru tried to cover it up.
"Don't try to deny it. It was the reason I saved you. Reincarnation is something that is important for cultivators. It helps you understand techniques faster than regular people. It also makes you a target for stronger cultivators. They look down on people who reincarnated because they are naturally gifted, so most if not all of them are killed." He explained as Haru felt exposed and sat down on one of the steps in front of the pedestal.
Haru's stomach growled once again. "Excuse me. Do you have any more food?" The man sighed and then held out his hand. Hundreds of Phoenix fruit dropped onto the floor in a neat pile.