"To get stronger and heal the spirit, you need to learn how cultivating works. You draw in qi and feed your soul and spirits. The spirits all have mysterious powers and the soul is but the spirit of man. Humanity has capability to use their soul and expand it, domineering others. This is the basis of cultivating, absorb qi and grow the soul. But there are alternate paths such as body cultivation and my blood path is a path that brings soul and body together as one. But that is not all, now that you have expanded your soul to an inner world, you are going against the natural laws of the world. This means that spirits will fight you, randomly spirits will cause a tribulation, you will fall back into sleep. Conquer that dream realm and you gain a new spirit and your inner world grows. So now rather than focusing solely on the material world around you, focus on cultivation the inner world and growing your strength"
"Is there no way to take the spirit wills in the parasites?"
"Not that I know spirit wills die once they leave the owner's inner world so theres little chance to be able to take the parasites without first taking in the inner world of it's owner."
"Then should I stop collecting parasites and solely focus on collecting qi? Or can I keep the parasites and bring them back to the past to help me fight ?"
"Exactly as you say, you can extract the spirits and while they won't be yours their abilities can still be used. So when you go the the past if all goes well then you can use their abilities for yourself, and if not you should be able to isolate them from the enemy so they can't use them against you!"
Hou felt better, now that he was a real cultivator he had real strength.
Even though right now he only has one spirit will, it can help him save anyone of he goes back in time after they die!
Hou sat at the campsite and meditated activating his symbiote to recollect more qi he expanded when he flew here.
A few days later, Armen and his family came charging at the campsite on Da.
The large grey wolf with one red eye had locked it's eyes on Hou and shook Armen off. It released its power and shrunk, jumping into Hou's arm. While Da needed to stop and reabsorb qi slowly, Hou flew over with near infinite qi so they took days longer.
Armen slowly walked over making sure to stay near his family just incase there were any enemies.
"So this is where we're camping for a while? On the way I saw a small group of people heading over, are they joining us?" Armen casually asked Hou while pulling the tent of his back and unraveling it.
"Yes, I presume so. Let me help you set up your tent, we should also make some more. How bout I set up that camouflage dome and we go hunting for leather?"
"Sound like a plan Hou, you set up that dome, I'm fine doing the tent myself "
Hou smiled and nodded, he turned his head and cut his palm. Blood started to flow out but Hou stopped,
"No need anymore, now insert blood into your inner world, make sure not to pass out, and it should be filled with will. Now like how you extended your will outwards, do so with your inner world. You should be able to move the blood back and forth between the intangible inner world and the physical realm. Now you won't need to continue rebuilding the dome everytime"
Hou did as instructed and under Armen's confused looks he sat down and looked inwards. He rushed all the blood he could into his inner world and started to build the blood formation as he did before, this time much easier with no physical action needed
Hou sat up half an hour later as Armen was nearly finished and stood still.
Hou felt his inner world and tried to move it outward, he felt something shift but it was in a different realm and now that it left his body he felt a lessened connection.
"Master is it normal that I feel weaker and cannot control the inner world now that it has left me?"
"Yes that is normal, you are just awakened, your inner world has a weak connection and the more you stretch it out the more it will weaken. But this is good, only slightly but with sustained extending the inner world will become stronger just slightly."
Hou nodded and continued, it felt like a deep stretch becoming more painful as he started shaking.
Hou covered the whole camp with his inner world and tried shifting the blood around. Like magic the blood appeared but only for a second. Hou focused on sustaining it and spoke the chants that Yue instructed.
Now the dome worked and Hou collapsed. He quickly regained consciousness as Armen ran over to heal him but the dome stopped.
"How is this possible, I can't sustain it for more than a second, it's useless!"
"No, be patient disciple, you should be able to grasp this easily and do it without second thought. I'll give you a hint, your inner world is you"
"My inner world is me?! What do you mean, master?master!"
Just as Hou questioned Yue, they hibernated again and Hou contemplated his hint.
'Me, inner world, I am my inner world...'
'That's it! I've figured it out!'
Hou stood up again and ignoring Armen's concern he activated the blood dome. This time however it was stable and did not lose control.
What Hou realised was that he was thinking of expelling the inner world out of his body, the whole time he was unconsciously trying to put the inner world back in! He was fighting against himself to keep the inner world out. Instead he now simply... Left the body, now with the intangible connection he felt with his body Hou thought.
Hou was stood still like a deer hearing the hunter when suddenly he raised his arm. Not like a human but like a puppet, Hou had to control his own body manually!