After the incidents with Huan Jing, Shen didn't encounter any problem. He cultivated endlessly as he kept figuring out the mysteriousness of Absolute Strengthening Technique and Absolute Qi.
On the tenth level of the 2nd Layer of Absolute Strengthening Technique, Shen's muscles were surrounded by 10 Golden Color Qi with the bone in the middle. They looked as if hardened steel string that can't be cut. From the distance between them, Shen estimated the 2nd Layer only had another two-level remaining.
It's common knowledge to every cultivator of the Nine Continent of Kyushu that cultivation in this world was broken down into 10 realms. These 10 realms are Martial Student, Martial Warrior, Martial General, Martial Commander, Xian Tian, Martial King, Martial Saint, Martial Emperor, False God And divine. Each of these realms further consisted of 10 grades. First Grade being the lowest and 10th being the highest.
Yet, Shen encountered this strangeness. He didn't know what stages he cultivated before Xiantian as there was no indicator other than the power level. His power level even before Xiantian Realm was already ridiculous from norm, now if he gets to cultivate 12 grades on every big realm then he can possibly fulfill his to be OP.
Still, everything wasn't so easy as it looked. After he reaches the peak of his current realm, his breakthrough will be much harder than any normal cultivator. That's why to achieve breakthrough more easily, he had to work on his foundation more than anyone else.
Aside from his cultivation, he mainly focused on Absolute Manipulation. After achieving the third level of Absolute Vision, one of the techniques that caught his eyes was 'Primordial Genesis Fire'.
Unlike the most techniques on his dreamscape, this technique had a name and its uses are versatile. This fire was extremely potent and hard to keep under control and the requirement was also heavy. The Chaos Qi... naturally speaking he met the requirement to use the technique and started cultivating it, but only to be met with failure after another.
After going through everything, he finally understood, his Absolute Qi and Chaos were not the same. Only after separating all elements from Absolute Qi and combining them together can he form Chaos Qi.
So far he can only control the five elemental Qi's easily and a few others, but still not proficient enough to use them during battle. As for the rest, let alone controlling them, he couldn't even find out some of their natures.
He lifted his left hand and different colors of Qi started coming out from his hand. Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. These five types of Qi were also known as Elemental Qi in the world of Kyushu and also Shen can control them with most proficiency.
The five Qi all circled above his palm in a disciplined manner and unlike how one would expect, their power didn't clash with each other. Another light green Qi left his body, this was the Nature Qi and not long after another light blue Qi came out, but unlike the six Qi before this one contained violent energy and were extremely hard to control.
"Continue..." a few droplets of sweat appeared on Shen's face, but he still kept on going. One after another three different colored Qi came out from his body. One of them exuded warm energy while the other exuded a freezing chill. On the other hand, the last one seemed like extremely gentle and calm Qi, but this is the only one Shen had to exert his hardest effort to control.
From his all previous experiment, he deduced this Qi to be Void Qi. So far he didn't find any technique to utilize this Qi, but for him to use the Primordial Genesis Fire, he needed Chaos Qi.
"Merge!" the different type of Qi's spinning above his palm started to merge in a single point. Sweat started dripping from Shen's face as he completely focused on controlling these Qi.
Promptly, all different Qi converged into a single point as a Qi similar to Absolute Qi formed in front of Shen.
"Success..." Shen's eyes brightly shined as he was the forming Chaos Qi!
"Boom!"
"Cough, cough..." Shen coughed out blood as he was sent 7 meters backward, flying. His face looked pale, but his eyes were still smiling.
'Although, I failed in the end. I was still able to form the Chaos Qi. If I try a few more times, I should be able to master this technique!' Shen didn't feel down at all, in fact, he thought more positively. He kept practicing Absolute Manipulation from the time he got the technique. For him, it's a long duration, and finally, he got some result from such hard practice!
After circulating the Wood Qi to recover, he cooked a few fish with some herbs as he kept experimenting with them. Creating new recipes was also one of his new goals.
His Demon Wolf, Kawa, also became far stronger than it was before. After absorbing many demonic cores from Xiantian Grade Demonic beasts, its cultivation increased by huge margin. From its cultivation of 4th Grade Xiantian, it reached to 7th Grade Xiantian.
Shen personally trained the wolf to make sure it didn't slack off inside the Absolute Realm. Although he had no idea what it did during the time, he didn't enter the realm. He made sure bully it till as long as it keeps standing.
After another intense 'training' session which is literally bullying Kawa, Shen left the Absolute Realm with a satisfied expression, but his mood fell bottom-down as soon as he saw a black orb on the bed by his side.
This was none other than the sealing orb. As there's a being sealed inside the orb, he can't keep it inside the Absolute Realm. Same way, when he enters the realm himself, the orb stays on the outside world. Honestly speaking, he wants nothing more than to throw this orb somewhere else, as it only smells trouble. But that being said, he can't just throw it away either.
Taking the orb on his hand, he checked it out with his Absolute Vision. 'Essence, Essence, Soul, Treasure.' these are the only things he could findon the seal inside the orb. He hoped to figure out something new, but only met with disappointment.
"Shit, I'll just get rid of it. Since it will break after I upgrade it once, I'll do it. I'll do it and see what happens!" finally Shen snapped as he thought how every had to put it away and sometimes he would even forget about it.
He left the mountain as he went 1 few kilometers southward. Although the orb will break, it was unknown whether the being inside the seal will be still alive or dead. There was also a possibility of that being dangerous.
Shen calmed his heart as he prepared to... run away at moment. "Absolute Upgrade!" One second passed by, two seconds passed by... twenty second passed by, nothing happened.
"Meh, I'll just think the seal broke and nothing happened..." Shen turned back as he threw the orb behind his back while lazily thinking loudly.
Suddenly, golden colored runes started forming in every direction. "This... This is... Hmmm... where was it? Yeah, Absolute Taming, let's see. Yeah, that one. Soul Contract: One can only form one contract in lifetime. Not severable. No Condition. As long as the Master doesn't die, the other party won't die either. Immune to any soul destroying technique or ability." Shen started going through the contract description as it was already impossible to escape from the contract circle.
The Absolute Taming Manual had myriads of different contracts and taming techniques. Thanks to his Eidetic Memory, Shen could remember everything just after taking a look, but he couldn't possibly go through tens of thousands of contract and techniques in such a limited amount of time. Still, he went through the rough view of all contracts and techniques.
Shen turned to his back as he someone's gaze. As soon as he turned back, he became dazed as if his soul left his body. Moments later, he regained his consciousness and looked at his left and right as if searching for something.
For an instant he felt as if he saw something. Something beautiful and mesmerizing enough to suck his soul out of the body. It was just for an instant so he couldn't capture it with his eyes properly but he badly wished to see that once again.
He searched up and down, left and right but didn't find a hint of living beings. But he still that the contract was successful as he felt another connection other than Kawa's. Following the connection, he entered the Absolute Realm.