Chapter 3: A Suspicious Looking Shrine
Ten hours have already past since Shi Ye began his breakthrough and he is now on the verge of completing his goal; reaching the 5th level of Celestial Aura. Realizing he was at a critical point, Shi Ye began to desperately suck in as much celestial energy as he could from his surroundings. However, no matter how much celestial energy he sucked in, it could not fill the last centimeter of his Dantian.
'What's going on here...how is reaching the fifth stage of Celestial Aura so hard?'. Worried that he couldn't break through, Shi Ye began to frantically go through all the information Infinite Pillar sent him via the Starter Pack. 'Reaching Star Establishment... no... how to concoct pills... no... how to make heaven-defying weapons... no... how to successfully get a job... the hell are you trying to mock me?!? Oh, here it is, 5th Stage of Celestial Aura'. After a few minutes of searching through, Shi Ye finally found the reason why he couldn't break through to the 5th level.
Apparently, the 5th stage of Celestial Aura is also known as Half-Star Establishment. To reach this stage, the cultivator is not supposed to just take in celestial energy but also circulate it into their Dantian to create the core of a star. This core would first be like a dormant star and then as the cultivator's stage increases to Star Establishment, the tier after Celestial Aura, it will become brighter and denser. When Star Establishment is finally reached, the star inside the Dantian would be like an adult star and will be able to provide celestial energy to the cultivator from inside their body.
Now equipped with this new knowledge, Shi Ye began to form his dormant star inside his Dantian. The process of taking in celestial energy, leading it into the Dantian, condensing it into a dormant star took roughly 2 hours for Shi Ye. When Shi Ye finally opened his eyes, he found himself somewhere different from where he began cultivating. Instead of the lush green forest with many shrubs, he was now in some kind of dense forest with decoration hanging from the treetops, it kind of reminded Shi Ye of those forest shrines he saw on Earth.
Realizing this, Shi Ye began to be filled with dread. 'Not this again... hey... Infinite Pillar is this your doing again?', thought Shi Ye. A few hours ago he had suffered greatly in the previous forest, who knew what this new one had to offer...
After waiting for a few minutes, Shi Ye still did not receive a response back. "The hell..." Right now Shi Ye felt very wronged, he had been sent from his world to another, forced to complete an impossible job, trapped in a forest and after he finally accomplished something, he gets transported to an unknown location again. Now the person who did all of this to Shi Ye won't even respond to him!
Whilst internally crying, Shi Ye sat up and began to survey his new surroundings. The trees in this forest were not as densely crowded together as the previous forest and there seemed to be more celestial energy in the surroundings as well. "Please tell me that there is a path or something I can follow..." plead Shi Ye. He really did not want to suffer like he did in the forest again. Soon after surveying the shrine forest (temp), Shi Ye found a stone path just west of him. 'Perhaps the heavens are finally by my side! Or that Infinite Pillar finally decided to stop trolling me...' thought Shi Ye.
"Hopefully this trail leads me to the exit of this forest shrine..." Shi Ye muttered to himself while starting to walk the path. At first, as Shi Ye walked along the path he felt hopeful that he would finally get out of this whole ordeal, however, as he walked for hours and hours, the path didn't seem to end. In an attempt to cheer himself up, Shi Ye told himself "I have to endure if I want to get out of here!". As Shi Ye continued to walk, hours turned to days, days turned to weeks, if Shi Ye hadn't reached the 5th Stage of Celestial Aura he would have starved a long time ago. "This path...just what the hell is wrong with it..." a fatigued Shi Ye muttered to himself. By this point, Shi Ye forgot how long he has walked, but nevertheless, Shi Ye continued to walk, clinging to the hope that he will be able to leave this forest once and for all.
After god knows how long, Shi Ye finally saw a change in the path. There was a small shrine located at the front of the path, it had very little decorations, yet still looked clean and new as if someone was taking care of every day. Realizing that there may be people at the shrine, Shi Ye began to quicken his pace towards it. At the entrance of the shrine, Shi Ye found a sign reading "Shrine of Yuan Huo". Although he didn't know who this Yuan Huo was, Shi Ye guessed that he wasn't really that well known if he had such a small shrine. Entering the shrine, Shi Ye noticed that there was actually no one there, it was completely deserted, with not a single living being in sight.
"Haa... it turns out this was actually an abandoned shrine, I guess I'll just pay some respect to the god here and then leave..." sighed Shi Ye.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
LasPendragon
LasPendragon I'm so sorry for the extremely late chapter...I'll try to release regularly, but with this being exam season, I don't know if I can pull it off...
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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