Chapter 9: Underground Holy Spring

The next morning Cao Guang kept his appointment with Mu Zhuoyuna and met him at the entrance of Silver Commerce Tower. A pentagonal tower at the heart of Bo City.

"Let's go in" said Mu Zhuoyun.

Mu Zhuoyun chatted with Cao Guang a little bit. He was in a better mood than yesterday and willing to make connections with a young genius.

"According to knowledge that has been passed down natives of Bo were once tasked with protecting the Underground Holy Spring. The true intention behind that has been rather puzzling ..." Mu Zhuoyun went on about the history of Bo City but it was not that rare a knowledge.

Cao Guang had read all of that in the military library. Nothing truly monumental like their ancestry and the name of the person who ordered the citizens of Bo was mentioned by either sources. And from their the only reasonable deduction was that the Ancient King ordered that his identity or they were unaware of the secret themselves. Cao Guang was leaning towards the latter.

As he was led by Mu Zhuoyun he observed the structure and security in passing before coming in front of an impressive rock door infront of which stood a staid middle aged man in uniform. 

"You must be Cao Guang, this year's winner. You can cultivate inside with the Underground Holy Spring." said the man " Starting now you have a week" added the man while checking his watch.

"Go on then, I'll be leaving now" said Mu Zhuoyun.

Cao Guang went on through the opened doors and they closed right behind him sealing the place shut. The Little Tora pendant started shaking and shining as soon as it came near the Underground Holy Spring.

"You can't drink all of it. I'll give you portion to absorb" said Cao Guang in reply. So far Cao Guang had made simple contact with the pendant as he knew it was intelligent.

The Underground Holy Spring of Bo City wasn't enough for the pendant to evolve to the Star Constellation level by itself and he couldn't finish it of either. So he would first break through to third-tier in his Summoning element and then let the pendant drink a little.

Cao Guang sat down quickly and meditated. He focused on the Stardust of Summoning element that was twinkling lightly as he gathered his and the Spring's energy in attempting to break through.

---

It took Cao Guang three days to break through to third-tier. Now he would focus on helping the Little Tora pendant. He moved closer to the Underground Holy Spring and let the agitated pendant drink without stopping it this time.

He let the pendant drink about 25% of the Underground Holy Spring. He actions would force Bo City's authorities to conduct the ceremony once every three years instead of every year starting next year.

After that he finally managed to observe the world inside the Little Tora pendant for the first time by sending his avatar into it's Inner world. A small white Nether stream had formed inside and it was trickling forward in a loop inside the pendant's inner world.

The pendant had reached peak of the Stardust level. It would allow him to cultivate 30 times faster now. It also had some a lot energy left after absorbing the Underground Holy Spring but he was not in a hurry to use it up. He realised he could achieve third-tier of fire element perhaps in a couple of months and maybe even leave the safe zone for the first time.

He spent the next days cultivating hie fire element as much as he could and practicing casting his spells faster. Right now each of his spells would take him a bit more than 2 seconds to cast. 

In the wilderness this casting could be deadly in some scenarios. 2 seconds was maximum casting time possible for a peak primary mage. There were few situations were faster casting was possible even before breaking through. One an innate talent, two equipment however these equipment were really expensive!. Finally if the spells were brought to higher levels a faster casting time was achievable. However, even the fourth-tier would need seven Servant class Soul Essences. These would cost about three to four million.

However, Cao Guang had no need to buy these things. The Little Tora pendant could condense Soul essences from soul remnants of the monsters killed by him and by extension his summoned and contracted beasts. Sometimes monsters would drop soul essences directly by the drop rate was low.

All he needed to do now was to start killing monsters.

---

Another six months had gone and it was June of 2003. Gao Xuan and Song Xia had both achieved third-tier of the primary level while Cao Guang had reached third-tier in his fire element as well. His summoning element was only a bit away from saturation.

His past six months had been more than about cultivation as he filled time learning useful knowledge he ignored in High school to improve cultivation. Basics of healing/treatment, basics of herbology: identifying poisonous and healing plants in the wilderness, geography of the world and it's consequences for battle and some strategy books.

The time had come for the young geniuses to lock horns and battle.

Song Xia had been wanting to battle Cao Guang for some time but army rules had prohibited duels and combat before third tier of the primary level. 

"Are the two of you ready" Zhan Kong was officiating this duel and he ready to prevent any serious injuries using his Wind element.

Song Xia and Gao Xuan looked at each other before nodding. Both of them started casting their and completed them at the same. A grey white wolf jumped out and bolted straight at Song Xia as she completed her spell.

Sound Chord: Emerging Waves

Song Xia's innate ability boosted her spells by a level. If her cultivation of an element was at third tier she could cast fourth tier spell. The efficacy of these were very different as the spell disoriented both Fenrir and Cao Guang allowing Song Xia to close the distance between the two of them and attach with a piece of equipment she ahd recently received. 

The rookie days were almost over. After that all resources they received would depend on the performance and contributions they made. Song Xia's second equipment was a Deathstrike equipment that could attack.

However a servant class beast would not loose out because of one spell. If that was the case humanity would be in a much better place. Fenrir scaled back ignoring his bleeding ears.

This match quite important for Cao Guang as well. It was his chance to recruit Song Xia just like he recruited Gao Xuan. Peers cultivating at the same level often formed a squad around a leader and this match would decide if Song Xia could be recruited.

A single mage had too few elements and power. Often a team of mages or an army of soldiers would be needed to go forward.

Song Xia's Deathstrike equipment could reach fifteen metres, ofcourse Fenrir would reach her first but she could a blow or two using her defensive equipment. Then it would give Cao Guang to retaliate using his Departing Nether Shield and win.

However he was ready to go all out inorder to win Song Xia over. As Fenrir approached and delayed Song Xia he was already channeling his Fire spell.

Fire Burst: Rupture 

Shouted Cao Guang as a stream of fire was fired towards an astonished Song Xia, upon contact these flames would rupture causing lethal damage to human being.

Primary mages only had a physique on the same level as a top athlete and could survive a spell using their body regardless of the spell level.

A quick green guest of wind blew the flames away from everybody as Zhan Kong declared the winner.

"You have two elements?" asked a disbelieving Song Xia "Your talent is Dual elements"

"My talent is related to Summoning, I awakened fire element due to a fortunate encounter" said Cao Guang blandly as he knew he would succeed in recruiting her.

"All right all of you gather around, you three are still not qualified to out of the safe. You have yet to fight a beast that has the intent to kill you. I have received the report of an Ape Rat invading near the military base. I've sent out a few squads to contain the beast. You guys will follow sergeant Zhang to hunt it down. Clear"

"Affirmative" yelled trio with obvious excitement.

"Then prepare yourselves"

Sergeant Zhang was an intermediate level mage. He was one of the fourteen intermediate mages currently stationed in Bo City. He was the only person who was from a different town, originating from a town twelve kilometres north of Bo. His elements were Fire and Wind respectively. He was among top five in the military for strength excluding their commander.

"Are three of you ready" asked Sergeant Zhang " then you will introduce yourselves and your elements"

"Gao Xuan, Earth element third tier"

"Song Xia, Sound element fourth tier"

"Cao Guang, Summoning third tier"

Sergeant Zhang looked at the three of them with a raised eyebrow. 

"Talented indeed, but talent alone won't help you. You will learn that as you go. Now you will follow my commands understood?"

Affirmative said the trio.

A/n: I couldn't find the forth tier for the primary Sound spell, so it's made up. It'll be like for all the spells I can't find, but I'll keep the rest same.