The next day, Hou woke up completely refreshed. He did not remember his dream but nevertheless his conviction was strengthened.
He stood up and got dressed instantly. He tied on his robe then put on his wings. The wings ripped through the robe and stinging Hou's shoulders and then assimilated.
He stretched and said to himself, "let's get this done with!"
He looked through his house and found the new room. On the opposite side of the house to the storage and alchemy room, the cultivating room sat.
It was a small stone chamber. It was neither cold nor warm and had paths in the stone all around the walls. They all led to a large runic circle on the floor.
'This must be the formation that allows me to cultivate without starving...'
Hou nodded at the room and sat down in the centre of the floor, sitting up in a cross-legged position. He sat up straight then looked into his quasi-Nascent Soul at the spirits he had.
"Next up, liquid!"
He made sure Yue was aware then flicked it out of his quasi-Nascent Soul and into the Celestial Law Amplifying Physique, the Spirit Stone Soul. Instantly the spirit seemed to shatter.
However, instead of instantly trying to break out, the laws seemed attracted to the atmosphere ones he had already absorbed.
Yue noticed this and said something to Hou, "perhaps the atmosphere and liquid are linked and have an attractive force. It might not take as long to absorb the spirits if we focus on ones that are attractive to each other!"
"That makes sense, it's just like when meditating and taking laws from the environment..."
"Next spirit chosen should be something that can be a bridge between other spirits so the attractive force can speed up how long it will take, for now let's focus on this one"
Hou nodded and started to use his willpower to force the liquid laws to keep them at bay. While they had a slight attraction to his body, they ultimately wanted to assimilate into the world.
If he didn't keep them restricted, they would mostly dissipate into the air and only a few would go into his body. Hou didn't want to be lazy, he wanted all he could get no matter the time sink.
While Hou restricted the laws from bursting out, Yue began using the Celestial Law Amplifying Physique and absorbing the laws.
As he did Hou felt it, just like the atmosphere spirit. It was like he was bloated after eating a full meal. He felt weighted down but at the same time, he felt flexible. Rigid but soft, strong but weak.
This spirit took only three days to absorb, four days shorter than before. Hou then quickly looked at his options for the next spirit.
"Growth, flight, sun, space, sword. Those are my options. And what I have right now is atmosphere, and liquid. What could connect to either of those, or both, and another?"
"Space, atmosphere and liquid seems to be connected. And the reason I can think of is that they are both laws of the environment. So perhaps space. Then space can connect with..."
"Nothing?"
"I don't think we should aim for perfection, this is just to speed it up, we don't need to have a perfect plan. If we wanted, we could disregard any order and that would be fine."
"I guess that is true...Let's do it, like you said this is just to be even faster. We don't need to be this fast, this is purely just us!"
Hou cracked his neck then straightened his back again, closing his eyes. He chose the space spirit, the one he gained from his very first ability.
This was one of his most treasures abilities, he did not use it often but he was always attached to it. From Saviour blipping through different areas of the world, saving other. To then teleporting around Sacrarium. To his days as Hou, he regained the spirit and teleported around the Hou Sect. This was important to him.
He flicked the spirit stone in his body with his quasi-Nascent Soul. It cracked open and released all the laws from it.
Instead of bursting out they stayed still. They were like their own universe, a swirling ring of space. They coiled up like a serpent, refusing to unravel and be absorbed easily. Unlike the other laws, he did not need to restrict them, he just needed to pick at them manually.
"Stubborn, I guess. It's like Mo Huai said, nothing in the world is as straightforward as you think. We thought we had this thing all figured out but the space laws are different,"
Yue began regardless, he used his own and Hou's mental energy and slowly chipped away at the space laws. That was until had a thought shortly in,
"Wait! I have an idea, if these laws are so stable we don't need to worry about them assimilating, let's try something. Bring out the sword laws, use them to break down the space laws. Let them go berserk and cut the space. That'll make it easier to absorb"
Hou thought for a second and then looked up, "this is it! Mo Huai once compared cultivation as alchemy but internal. This is exactly what he meant. We've been going too simplistic, we should be using various techniques. Let's do it!"
Hou smiled in his meditative position and used his quasi-Nascent Soul to crack open another spirit stone lodged into his body. This one was containing the sword laws.
He recalled Hamar, hesitating for a moment but then knowing he wouldn't want to be a bother, he continued. He smashed open the stone, and the sword laws instantly shot out.
They were fast and strong, much more so than any of his other laws. He felt them instantly cut other laws in his body.
Hou used his mental energy and tried to control them. He needed to focus them on the stubborn space laws. The sword laws would attack the space laws and ultimately make it easier to absorb both of them. He might lose a small amount of sword laws but Hou was fine with this, he never was focused on the sword too much.
"I'm sure Hamar would be like Nine Clouds Sword Master, Gang Yi. He would just need sword laws and focus all his potential on them, but sorry. I'm not the same,"