Hou sat down and looked at the cube from his bed, squinting at the shining exterior. He sighed and closed his eyes, exiting the body.
In his quasi-Nascent Soul from, he floated over and began using his intuition to exam the cube. And as he did, he felt there was something else.
It didn't feel...natural. Hou came up with a possibility,
"Is this...made specifically by Master Sheng? Is there some sort of message he's hidden in, this definitely isn't natural. It must be man made. But how do I find it, I'm not sensing any sort of essence. It's like it's completely blank..."
Hou kept on pouring his willpower into searching the cube. And yet, he saw nothing. No matter what, he was blind to how to see what Master Sheng wanted.
He could tell basic things. It was a cube. Metal, bronze. It would absorb heat when held. But while he couldn't tell what it was, he could tell there was something else, it was like it was hollow. There was something inside, and he needed to find out what.
"Maybe there's something I'm missing... Hmmm. So Master Sheng is doing this to teach us about intuition. But why, he wanted us to know about intuition for what reason?"
Hou returned to his body and began thinking deeply on the 'why'. And then maybe if he figured out the 'why', he could figure out the 'what'.
"I don't remember, he just said let's focus on intuition...maybe I need to go back. Think back to the introduction in the amphitheatre."
Hou thought back, returning himself to the amphitheatre. Back to Master Sheng's talk on the Dao.
"How does any of this relate to intuition...wait. I...I think I recognise this cube. I just didn't make the connection until now. When Master Sheng showed off how humanity uses laws compared to animals, he held something up. It was this cube... I think, I wasn't paying attention"
Hou opened his eyes and looked at the subject. He imagined in Master Sheng and squinted. He walked up to the cube, touching it slightly to feel the heat laws escape him.
Then suddenly he slammed the desk and chuckled, "I figured it out"
Hou smiled and picked up the cube in one hand. Instantly, the hand became freezing cold; the Celestial Law Amplifying Physique only exacerbating the pain.
But still Hou endured until he sorted out his laws. He locked I to the flight laws he had, but did not apply them to himself.
Instead, he injected them into the cube, causing it to peel away from Hou's skin and float in the air. The laws were apart of the Dao, the world itself. So by injecting the laws, it shaped how the Dao expressed itself. Then in the air, Hou began the next step.
He shot fire laws from his hands either side of the floating cube. They began to swirl and get absorbed into the cube. Slowly, it started to separate into four quarters.
But Hou did not stop there, he looked deeper into himself. He realised his sight, and in doing so his sight laws became manifest to him.
He felt them with his intuition then used willpower to throw them out of his eyes. He became blind but used his intuition to continue working. The sight laws would be remade through the natural order since his eyes function.
He sent the sight laws into the cube. But not before changing his impression on sight. Realising that sight causes visibility, and so without sight, there is no visible; one becomes invisible.
And so the cube, from an outside perspective, became translucent. Then finally, Hou sent the final laws into the cube.
He looked deep into his mind. His physical mind, one that allowed for thought in a more digestible manner. He used only his consciousness with a weirder and more abstract thought pattern to continue his plan.
This is because he took the cognition laws within his mind and sent them into the cube. This also created a minute invisible connection to the cube within Hou's body.
Finally, Hou fell down and fell asleep. He had used lots of willpower in law manipulation, intuition and the changing of impressions.
And so, to recover both willpower and laws (sight and cognition) Hou fell asleep. For the next few hours he recovered all of what he lost and regained consciousness.
"Did it work?!" Before recognising anything else, instinctually he needed to know if it work.
He stumbled up and frantically looked for the cube. Instead, in the ground he saw four different pieces of metal. Hou let out a breath,
"...I think that worked. I was taking a chance there, recreating Master Sheng's speech there."
That is what Hou had done, he took the story Master Sheng told and applied it to the cube. First he used "flight laws to make swords fly" or in this case make the cube fly.
Then, he used "fire laws to stay warm" as the cube was 'cold'.
Then he used "sight laws to become invisible", applying that to the cube once more.
Then finally, he used "cognition laws to facilitate it all", which powered the cube internals causing it to burst into pieces.
Hou, still lightheaded, carefully stood up and took the four pieces of metal. He stumbled over to the desk and threw the metal prices onto it.
He sat down and looked at the pieces of metal. As he did he furrowed his brows and turned his head,
"Do they go together, this peak matches this peak. And this..."
Hou realised that it was a diagram. He matched the pieces, clicking them together with a metallic and magnetic tang.
As he did, they formed a scene that revealed itself hidden in the metal sculpture. Hou smirked and shook his head,
"So that's how it is..."
***
So the next day, everyone was called again to class. As soon as they opened their doors, they turned I to blood which flew through the air into their respective rooms.
As everyone sat down, Master Sheng exclaimed while clapping his hands,
"I presume nobody found the real answer?"
For a second everyone became silent. There was shuffling of clothes, even muttering and hesitant hands moving up.
But then Hou stood up, making his chair squeak loudly.