After collecting his loot, Shen the great canyon which was several kilometers wide. He just reached the Thousand Buddha Cave.
Entering the Thousand Buddha Cave, Shen realized that it was much bigger than expected. Shen even had the feeling that it was hollow as if it was a wide hall with a height of more than 100 meters. He could not see the end of the winding path, and the human traffic made it seem as if it was a populated marketplace.
Shen realized that there were no Buddha statues around when he first stepped into the Thousand Buddha Cave. However, there were many small stalls around, and even restaurants and inns were set up on the walls that seemed to be like caves.
Only after walking to a corner did he caught a glimpse of a Golden Buddha Statue. Only now did he realize that even statues could be quite magnificent. After the first statue, He discovered many others. Each with a height of over 50 meters, were placed in specific spots.
Each of them had a strange stance. Shen could feel these stances actually contained a technique. Someone situated the statues to leave their legacy, possibly, a Buddha Palm Technique.
He used his Absolute Vision to survey all the statues carefully, not to leave anything behind. By now, he walked a long path and hardly anyone ventured at this place.
Suddenly, Kitty, on top of his head, showed signs of moving.
"Do you feel something?"
"It's faint but follow me."
Kitty jumped from his head as she took a left turn and headed inside the corner. This corner was dark. Shen used Absolute Vision as the dark path became visible in front of him. It seemed similar to a crack, maybe only one person could venture at a time.
"Kitty, how long are we walking?" Shen couldn't help but ask as he walked for ten minutes straight. He was sure he already left the Thousand Buddha Cave.
"It should be just ahead." Kitty jumped from the place to place. The night didn't hinder her at all. A plus point for being a cat. Thanks to her small size, she could go faster even in this cracky path.
After twenty minutes of venturing inside the cracky path, Shen and Kitty finally found the item they were looking for.
It was a bronze color Buddha Statue with the size of roughly one meter. Kitty jumped on top of its head as a golden color suddenly engulfed her, before returning to normal.
"How was it? Enough for a breakthrough?"
"It's just stone, nothing near for a breakthrough," Kitty said through her connection, flailing her tails.
The Treasure Race can't cultivate in a normal way. The only way for their cultivation is to absorb treasure energy.
The treasure energy is something every treasure accumulates by time, similar to how a treasure can gain sentience after a long period of time. The Treasure Race cultivates by absorbing that energy. That's to say if there was enough treasure energy, even a newborn child from their race can cultivate to the top level.
But every treasure has a certain limit of energy they can hold. The higher the grade of the treasure, the better quantity, and quality of the energy.
"You can't find good quality treasures so easily," Shen said as he carefully observed the Buddha Statue.
It was similar to the statues outside but this statue was in a meditating position. Unlike the Buddha's outside, this one had thousands of hands. Every hand made different stances and motions.
Shen suddenly felt as if he understood something. All the statues outside were an extra part of this small statue. This was a technique.
Buddha's Thousand Palm!
Yang Energy inside his body started circulating itself frenziedly. Shen attacked with his palm. A wave of yang energy left his palm and fiercely struck on the wall behind the statue.
BOOM!
Right after that another three waves of palm appeared out of nowhere and hit the wall.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
The first step of the Buddha's Thousand Palm!
The mountains shook as many rocks fell from the top.
Kitty jumped on top of Shen's head as she started messing his hairs. Shen created a shield with earth Qi completely surrounding him.
At the same time, He felt his qi becoming clearer and much purer than before.
2nd Layer of the Absolute Body!
His Absolute Body which never progressed from the first layer finally moved by another layer!
"You, you almost hit me there. Do you want to kill me?!" Kitty shouted inside Shen's head and made cat-like noises from her mouth. It sounded rather cute but Shen could feel her anger.
"Hahaha, I got carried. Sorry sorry. More importantly, we are here for that, right?" Shen sheepishly smiled as he changed the subject.
After the palms hit the earth wall, it created deep holes in it. It was only five meters deep. After that space, Shen couldn't see a single inch. Even his 3rd Layer of the Absolute Vision was rendered useless!
"Yeah... it's a secret realm. Anything can exist after you pass through this passage... Wait, you know secret realms, right?" Kitty whined at first, still hurt by how Shen ignored her and went for the 'real' treasure.
Shen understood she was truly sad because he attacked without minding her. It was not entirely true but he made a mental note to never do something like that. But he ended up smiling embarrassedly when he heard her last part.
He encountered that term many times inside the Absolute Taming Manual but he had no clear idea about what it meant. From the estimation alone, he found them to be similar to Absolute Realm but without any time ratio or any level up rewards.
"Seriously?" Kitty sighed. Shen could imagine her facepalming, "Basically, its a bigger space sealed inside a small space. Anyone who reached the 9th Big Realm can easily make something like this."
"By 9th Big Realm, you mean the Spirit Ascension Realm?"
"Spirit Ascension Realm? Is that another secret realm or something?" Kitty said as she stared at Shen's eyes with her cat eyes. Her cat lips touching his forehead.
Shen pushed her head back, "Nothing, it's possibly the current 9th Big Layer." He added inside his mind, 'From my cultivation technique that is.'
"I should use my time before entering the secret realm. It might be too late by the time I get out. Maybe, I'll use the tiger for making Tiger Bone liquor too. It would be waste to not make some good liquor. I hardly tasted any good ones in my last life." before entering the realm, he didn't forget to take the statue with him.
The statue was created by 90% pure yang stone. Which was quite rare even in the higher continents. He won't obviously leave such a piece of meat. Plus, there were many parts about the Buddha's Thousand Palm, he had yet to learn.
Entering the Absolute Realm, he cultivated his Absolute Strengthening Technique. After a complete circulation of the technique, he practiced his control over Primordial Genesis Flame.
(A/N: Primordial Genesis Fire -> Primordial Genesis Flame)
Alchemy was one of his main targets. Spirit Concentrating Pills, Pure Spirit Pills, and Body Cleansing pills were one of his main targets. Golden Sore Ointment and Platinum Sore Ointment which heals external injuries were also his practice targets. But all of them are nothing if he can't properly control the fire.
Like his first try, everything will burn to nothingness.
After completing this practice, Shen decided to make Tiger Bone Liquor.
The Tiger Bone Liquor needed many ingredients other than tiger bones, such as grains, fruit, herbs. Shen spent two days to gather all the ingredients he needed. He lacked herbs but now the herbs inside the Absolute Realm was more than enough.
Following the manual of wine-brewing, Shen mixed a variety of corn, rice, wheat, dried potatoes, seasoning, and water. The basic processes of wine-brewing involves steaming, fermentation, filtration, and most importantly aging.
Many liquors taste the best after it ages for a good amount of time. For normal people, it takes a long time but to Shen, one year equals to three-hundred years. After completing the brewing process, he just had to wait patiently before enjoying the delicacy of high-grade wines.
Alternative Title: 2nd Layer of the Absolute Body!