'Yet another way to increase my foundation'.
It seemed to Gu Zhi that there were a thousand different ways to increase your foundation and he was keeping track of everyone. In a perfect setting he might be able to have all he wanted but the thing that was limiting him the most was time. If he had enough time he could search or buy a familiar, if he had enough time he could master a plethora of techniques. If he had enough time he could go searching one by one the treasures and medicines that will help him. In this auction he had already heard about a few that could do so. Pills, elixirs, potions, natural medicine things that could significantly help someone's cultivation was fought over tooth and nail. Business boomed around these resources and costs were high. Everything Gu Zhi wanted other people wanted too.
'Time and money thats what I need' he thought to himself before heading into secluded meditation.
His focus was on the recent breakthrough in the soul enlightenment technique. He needed to find out a way to make his soul stronger through his own means. Although he already had many ideas he needed to test them first to find out what worked and what didn't.
He shut himself inside a room, with only the faint candle light illuminating the area. He still had on his demon fearing robes keeping his mental state firm. He let himself relax, as he dug deeper into himself and thought back to how he first found his soul. He followed the feeling and like a map he navigated his way into his mind before he was right before his soul. It looked exactly like himself in everyway. An abnormality for sure, considering that for everyone else from what he heard. Your soul was supposed to take on the appearance of you as a child and wasn't supposed to be fully formed or grown like his was.
'It's probably a good thing this way. Considering how I reincarnated and the journey I took on as a soul it would be weird if my soul was not abnormal. Now I just have to find out how to use this to my advantage and to find out the strengths and weaknesses of my soul'.
The place where your soul resided was called the spiritual domain. An area in your body unique only to you. Where you could change the environment by will. The first test Gu Zhi wanted to do was to change the environment to one that radiated zen. Making it a place full of peace and tranquility. He molded the landscape to one that was similar to the waterfall of tranquility they had back at the sect, with a late summer season and daylight pouring through. He made his soul sit on the rock in the middle of the river and meditate like he would when he cultivated. He wanted to see if the soul became any stronger because of it.
After some time passed he did notice a very small improvement. The soul seemed to glow just a slight bit brighter and seemed a slight bit more solid. he could vaguely feel like he had gotten more power in ways he couldn't explain.
'Success' Gu Zhi thought to himself.
It was unknown how good this method was however as it was the first one he tested but the fact that it worked was a success in Gu Zhi's book. Next he would test something a little bit more dangerous. He changed the environment this time to a forest with a pack of wolves Gu Zhi gave his soul a spear to use as a weapon. The wolves lunged at him as he used his spear to attack and block. His soul was fighting off the wolves as he started to notice a significant improvement, he felt like he was learning how to use the spear better than he could with regular training before one of the wolves bit him.
"ARGHHH".
A pain unlike anything he had ever felt before assaulted him. It went beyond physical pain as he could feel it in the depths of his soul. It was some of the worst pain he had ever felt. Maybe even the worst pain he has ever felt. He quickly got rid of the wolves using his own mind by changing the setting. His soul had a chuck missing out of him, it wasn't to big but it wasn't to small either.
'So that's why there was so many warnings'. There were many ways to improve the soul described in the technique as the potency of each iteration changed dramatically from soul to soul. But the one thing the technique seemed to be adamant about was the danger that some ways of improving the soul could have. Souls were not something to be taken lightly. If someone else had tried the same way Gu Zhi had just tried with a regular infant soul, they would have been annihilated right then and there by themselves. Not only would they die, but their soul would be destroyed. Meaning any chance of reincarnation would be cut off as well.
This is why a high degree of caution must be used in soul refining. Everyone has a different way of tempering or improving the soul. But for every successful soul cultivator there is a sea of those who died due to greed or negligence.
'Crazy how a domain and environment that you create yourself could be the cause of your own death'.
Gu Zhi had an idea and changed the environment to that of a hospital. But when he tried to conjure up nurses and doctors he failed.
'Interesting, why was I able to conjure up wolves but not people'.
There was barley any circulated knowledge about what Gu Zhi was doing so he had to guess and experiment on what to do and what not to do. In any case he found that his soul was healing better in the hospital than in the forest. So he spent his time thinking of new ways to increase the power of his soul and what benefits it could bring.