Disabling the formations wasn't too difficult, especially after understanding how they worked, it only took half an hour to get to the house the prince mentioned.
The silverback ape was still wreaking havoc in the city, but the barriers were fully adamant on stopping it in its place.
Once I arrived at the aforementioned house, I walked up to the top, once again there were no materials to harvest, so I just snuffed the lamp and placed it within my inventory, there was no need to leave it there, after all this is some powerful restriction that held a whole city down.
Once again, the Prince came to my Sea of Consciousness, this time, however, his whole body was shimmering with more Qi.
"You seem to have recovered," I said.
"No, not nearly enough, once all the lamps are gone, then I'll be able to impart you with a divine message. I'm just gathering my Qi and Will. Now, for your cultivation, what is cultivation to you?" the prince asked.
"Cultivation is to cultivate the mind, body, and spirit to ascend to a higher domain."
"Lackluster and far too general, no, that's not the answer, if you truly believe that cultivation is just this, then scholars and martial artists have already cultivated themselves to the peak."
"I don't understand how is this going to help me," I replied.
"It will because you're still thinking that cultivation is just about becoming stronger, or reaching immortality, but believe me, strength and immortality aren't difficult. For a Necro-Cultivator can easily achieve such, as he can curse his body with Undeath, and attain immortality, and obtain strength far too much for anyone in his same realm to contend with, but these very Necro-Cultivators can never attain the peak because they sacrifice the future for the present, they give up their progress for power and longevity that holds no purpose or meaning. So, I ask again, what is cultivation?"
I thought for a moment instead of opening my mouth, then sat down. I meditated on the Young Prince's answer for a while before I smiled serenely.
"I have already found the answer, but it seems that I wasn't sure about it before yet now I'm sure," I said.
"Cultivation, is the search of truth, the truth of the world, the truth of the body, the truth of the mind, and the truth of the spirit. In this search, one grows to higher realms, one grows to wrench perfection from the hands of heaven, and in his search of this truth, the heavens' jealous nature comes down to punish them.
Yet, this isn't all, to cultivate is to defy heaven, yet heaven itself isn't as merciless as to smite down everyone who dares defy her. Heavens wants for those who search the truth to be rewarded once they achieve a minor glimpse of Heaven's greatness."
I opened my eyes to look at an amazed, and proud-looking Zhang Tian in front of me. And almost immediately, my core began rotating far faster than it had before, as my Qi began surging forcing itself upon my body, excited as if I had unlocked something, or had outright destroyed a fog that was blocking my insight.
My core rotated fast enough that I felt it was about to shatter, and in this rotation, my Qi surged from my meridians and spiraled as it broke through a bottleneck that I didn't even think I was facing and managed to climb another rank in the Core Formation level. Not only one rank though, but the power of this core also continued spiraling until it broke another then another, and finally, the core began slowing down.
I was forced out of my Sea of Consciousness as a vile liquid gathered around my throat, then I threw up bile of disgusting matter that was composed of nothing but disgusting impurities of the body. How many do I have? Damn, that's disgusting.
I wiped my mouth and rinsed it with water from a water skin I had on my pouch.
I went back to my sea of Consciousness and found the young master still waiting.
"Congratulations, I'm really tempted to take you as a disciple since you showed such great comprehensive ability and great talent to cultivate the Dao. Sadly, the Poison God has beaten me to you," the young prince smiled.
Though he seemed like a complete jerk at the beginning, his smile was genuine right now.
"Thank you for your guidance," I replied clasping my hands. One must give thanks when thanks are due.
"No worries, now, your answer was almost perfect, but it was still incomplete, however, I cannot tell you the rest as you'll need to focus on this and understand it by yourself in order to create your domain."
"Domain, this is the third time I hear this, what does it mean?" I asked.
"Third? I spoke of it twice, where did you hear the third?" the Prince asked.
"I a venture to the Laughing Slaughterer's Pagoda."
"Hmm, I don't know of this Laughing Slaughterer, perhaps he is a person that came way after I was imprisoned. Still, a domain is something that you can create once you're in the Soul Formation level, but there were cases of people who created their own Domain in the Nascent Soul level, but those are rare as Qilin Horns and Phoenix's feather, even this prince had a hard time making my own Domain at the Nascent Soul." The prince said. though he was bragging, he had the right to.
"What does a domain do? And how does it impact cultivation?" I asked.
"I'll answer you once you remove the third Lamp. Go on," the prince said and I shrugged as I removed myself from my Sea of Consciousness.
I needed to remove a total of Six lamps, two down, four to go, and from what the Young master is saying, he will be imparting knowledge for every lamp I remove, this is some good motivation.
I pulled out my brush and went toward the nearest lamp location, knowledge begets strength, and without knowledge, strength is meaningless