The giant shrank down to a normal human being size and the beasts transformed into humans .
They introduced themselves.The tortoise was known as Xuanji ,the Giant was Zhan Xue a barbarian,The Crow was Jin Wu ,the Fox was Hu wei,The bull was Zhao Ma a Divine bull,The man was Tuoba Of the Chaos race and the Sacred lady was Lady Si a Pill Sovereign.
They all came from a place they called the Vast Expanse Domain.
They were captured by someone long ago to guard this orb and await the successor who will take it away .
According to them they have waited for Thousands of epochs they had even given up hope .
An epoch is a billion years .Xiao long didn't truly believe them as that was a long time to be locked up and not lose it .
For them to converse with him like this it was quite scary as he didn't know if their personality has been twisted.
They saw his worry and assured him that they remain in sealed state and only wake up for a few thousand years or else they would have died in boredom.
They admitted the minute they saw him enter the sealed palace in the inheritance hall they didn't have high hopes as he wasnt the first one to enter and return Empty handed ,but as luck would have it he did accure the orb .
When Xiao long heard the word luck his face twitched as he was sure it wasn't luck as his was rotten.
They have never left his area of the orb and thus didn't know what was beyond this place.
Every time they tried to leave they were shackles locking them down First they tried to break them but it proved futile as they were to many and they seemed to regenerate ones broken .
Xiao long was their first hope of getting out of here but his was too weak to even handle the burden of refining a billionth of the orb .
For him to be able to start refining the orb he was required to be at least at the Mortal Transcendant reallm as they called it .The strength of the peak of a Forgotten realm powerhouse was the minimum requirement not of fully refining the orb but for begining the refinement process.
Xiao long was shocked as it meant this realm cultivators Imperial dream was supposed to be his starting point.
There was a barrier around a certain mountain in this area that even the beings here couldn't enter.
They had Xiao long try to see if he could pass .
" If even you with your strength can't pass how am I supposed to pass through" Xiao long asked them in amusement.
" First you must learn that sometimes strength isn't always the answer ,fate, destiny,luck ,chance and many factors are the key" Lady Si explained softly.
Xiao long didn't understand but he still nodded he discovered he didn't have the will to retort mature lady's .
And it pissed him of it seems he was a little pervert but then again age is just a number as long as it was a woman he didn't mind it .He knew this was a flawed mentality but unless he learnt the mind fortifications technique he was doomed to eat soft rice if possible.
" And you don't have to worry as long as your existence isn't erased I will revive you " Tuoba assured him.
Walking towards the barrier Xiao long felt a deep calling in his body making him lose his reasoning and hurried to the barrier.The second he reached the mountain barrier and opening opened allowing him to pass through .
As he looked his surroundings all he saw was a herb garden stretching across miles and miles of land.
The fist breath he took filled him with strength as Qi flowed across his body and into his dantian filling it untill was torn apart .He was crippled but the next second another dantian was built a new ,but it didn't last long as it collapsed
again ,this went on untill it didn't collapse and had the strength to refine Qi .
The Qi refining realm consisted of forming nine Qi pillars that acted as a foundation to support his cultivation.
Each Pilar represented a stage of Qi refining realm
They were nine stages from the first to the ninth the peak of Qi refining realm .Xiao long has just entered the Qi refining realm but his foundation was sturdier that a Heaven mendind realm cultivator this was due to the time he spent in the War ranking realm .He spent almost 2000 years in that time acceleration formation.
It was not just his foundations that were sturdy but also the other clan disciples also benefited the same.
If they decided to take cultivation pillls they cultivation realms would rise to the Soul transformation realm without any problems but it was not advised.
Here Xiao long was getting a tremendous opportunity as his cultivation realm rose rapidly.His pillars were growing with each passing breath he took .Within a matter of seconds he had already formed all nine pillars all towering 81 zhangs .He had reached the peak of Qi refining realm but he was not ecstatic because cracks began to form all over the pillars at then they broke apart .Then another set of Pilar began to grow towering a height of 108 zhangs then they collapsed and another set this process went on untill the pillars towered 490 zhangs .They were tall that they seemed ready to support the heavens .
His dantian had expanded untill he couldn't sense it end it seemed endless .The Qi began to swallowed by the scroll in this sea of consciousness making give a golden hue.
But that wasn't the end a the ring he accured appeared in his dantian and began swallowing Qi making the place Xiao long sat down look like a funnel of Qi he absorbed the Qi for a long time until the scroll and the ring were full .Waking up from meditation Xiao long expected to find weathered herbs but all he saw were even healthier herbs it seems the Qi he enjoyed absorbing was impurities to this herbs .He tried touching the herbs but his hands seemed to pass through them as if they were illusion but he knew they were real it's just that they were stronger than him and didn't think he was worthy to touch them .
Xiao long was ashamed when he thought of this.
Far way he saw a hut in the middle of the garden.
' since I am already here they isnt a reason I shouldn't check it out ' he thought.