Back at Blue Mist Gorge

Before heading to Malirin Forest, Shui stopped at Blue Mist Gorge. His memory was enough for him to find it, and entering it wasn't a problem either since the martial academy only sent low-ranking core students to check on it every once in a while.

For the most part, the gorge was covered in forests and greenery and was in the shape of a slit running from north to south. An underground river flowed through the bottom of the gorge, which was where Shui had the most encounters with evolved beasts during the trial. He was considering having the siblings come here for training, so Shui tried to avoid the evolved beasts as he collected resources. His divine aura made this difficult at times, so he also took the opportunity to become familiar with himself once more.

In essence, what caused Shui's aura to be divine was the divinity he possessed. Divinity was proof of a level of comprehension or essence of the natural world and had three levels: profound, divine, and primordial. Even after gaining martial intent, Shui never reached any level of divinity because his understanding of it was too shallow. However, the divinity Shui possessed had little to do with his own efforts. There were three factors that granted Shui profound divinity: his quasi-divine body, his divine energy, and the Sage God Eyes of Wisdom. Of these three factors, his quasi-divine body could be considered the root cause.

Successfully reaching the King Realm required insight equivalent to a profound level of divinity, and similarly, a divine body was integrated with natural laws and blessed with innate divinity. This form of divinity had little to do with the host's actual level of comprehension but rather the laws composing the body. This was the reason why divine corpses could still serve as valuable materials for studying natural laws. Although Shui was still a distance from the divine body boundary, surpassing the peak of saint body caused a shred of divinity to be born in his body. Additionally, due to surpassing the peak of the saint body boundary, Shui's body now demanded divine energy rather than nature energy.

In order to absorb divine energy, a suitable vessel was necessary. This vessel could be cultivated or created by the environment, and Shui had reached the former condition. Even if he wanted to absorb nature energy, it would take more effort to cultivate with it since it was too inefficient in his current vessel.

Finally, the Sage God Eyes of Wisdom were passed down by the Father God, so it wasn't a surprise that they held divinity. While most of the eyes' abilities were sealed, as Shui grew stronger, the seal would naturally unravel.

In order to hide the divinity granted by these factors, Shui needed to either comprehend the source or conceal it, and he chose the latter. He spent the day securing resources, and at night he tried to dilute his aura. Rather than pulling his aura inside, he chose to let it roam free. As he had spent most of his life restraining his aura, it took some time to get used to, but after a month of training, he could see progress.

At first, the divinity caused nearby animals to flee or cower from him, but that was because rather than dilute his aura, he was only spreading it. Even though his aura was far from his body, his years of habit ensured that it was still firmly under his control. The next step was for him to spread his aura as much as possible until he finally lost control of it. Shui's abilities meant his aura was thick enough to go quite a distance, but he was able to reach his goal before his aura escaped the gorge.

The ecosystem was hit by a disaster thanks to his training frightening the wildlife, but that was a consequence he was willing to accept.

Once he became familiar with losing control of his aura, Shui adjusted it so that it was as mundane as possible before releasing it in a relaxed state. He hadn't perfected this method, but his divinity no longer stuck out, and he could appear ordinary as long as he used a disguise.

By the time he made it this far in his training, he sensed that Cin's breakthrough would be soon, so he planned to wrap things up. His resource gathering went well, so he visited the golden electrolion that was the boss here. He wanted to get used to diluting his aura so he didn't use it to intimidate the beast. Instead, a quick slap was enough to make it obedient. The beast was still a way off from becoming a high beast, so after taking most of its spoils, Shui was about to leave when he noticed an oddly precise flow of energy.

He didn't know if he had missed it during the trial or it simply wasn't there, but Shui followed the flow of energy to the right of the exit and found a hidden array on the wall. The trigger condition for the array seemed to be the death of the golden electrolion, but since it didn't activate during the trial, Shui guessed that he needed proof like the beast's heart or head.

While it wouldn't be a difficult task to trigger it the right way, Shui decided to test his skills and override it instead. The array seemed to have been made by a tier 4 array master, which would be a match for Sky Realm experts, but it was still a tier 3 array, and the component for the trigger was simple enough for him to fool by using a different beast spirit's heart.

Once the array was activated, a cave was revealed behind the wall, but Shui hadn't sensed anything behind the wall before, so he suspected that the space had shifted. Inside the cave were three items set atop stone platforms: a spirit-rank halberd, a set of precious elemental crystals, and a cultivation technique. He could tell that these were to be used for those at the peak of Soul Realm or fresh Earth Realm cultivators, but only one could be chosen. Shui felt no greed for any of these items, but he figured he might as well accept what was offered, so he used mental control to take them. The resistance was high because he tried to take them at the same time, but the one who set this up hadn't prepared for someone with a soul as strong as his.

He had to put in some effort, but Shui was able to retrieve the items and store them in his storage ring. After another look at the frightened electrolion, he then made his way up the exit.