After covering his cave with bushes, dirt, and boulders to prevent anyone from claiming it, Liu Xing walked toward the main gate.


    The two disciples on guard duty checked his paperwork and let him pass. Liu Xing descended the stairs that connected the sect to the town below.


    The stairs coiled and descended like a long white snake. Seeing this, Liu Xing decided to summon his gun, activate Lightning Cloak, and run. As the stairs turned, he jumped off the cliff, landing on a tree branch before leaping from branch to branch, descending like a ninja.


    He did not go full speed, just fast enough to prevent the world from blurring. This way, he enjoyed the beautiful scenery: green mountain peaks, a winding blue river, rolling white clouds, and a refreshing breeze that fluttered his robes, making him feel comfortable.


    At normal speed, it would take at least a week to reach Dragon Skull Forest, but at this pace, he felt quite sure he would arrive several days early.


    When will I be able to fly? he wondered. In this world, no rule dictated that cultivators could only fly after reaching a certain realm. Cultivators could fly with a technique or treasure, regardless of whether they were immortal or just starting cultivation. However, most cultivators in higher realms, especially in the Sun Refining realm, could control qi and fly freely, like birds.


    Liu Xing wondered if flying would be more enjoyable than jumping around like a ninja.


    After several minutes of jumping, Liu Xing arrived at the small town below the sect. The town bustled with activity. Roads teemed with merchants hawking wares, horses, and mules pulling carts.


    He bypassed the town, heading west and jumping through the trees. He was broke, without spirit stones or anything to trade for supplies. He had no reason to enter the town, even though he desired jerky or medicine pills.


    As he leaped through the forest canopy, Liu Xing considered his mission. Purple Tailed Lizards lived deep within Dragon Skull Forest, inhabiting swampy areas and spending most of their lives in water, much like crocodiles. These lizards, however, were immense, as large as houses, and notoriously ferocious.


    The specific lizard he needed to harvest a tail from had to be at least three hundred years old and display certain unique characteristics. First, its tail needed to be completely purple. Younger, weaker lizards had dark spots on their tails, and while those tails held some value, he required a perfect purple tail. The second sign was a small head. Legend held that the smaller the head, the more potent the tail, which also made the lizard more aggressive and dangerous—fitting, considering the effects the pills made from this tail would produce.


    Liu Xing passed a boy and a man, likely father and son, crouched in the bushes, aiming an arrow at a boar. He accidentally startled the boar, causing the father’s arrow to miss.


    “Sorry!” Liu Xing shouted.


    The father sighed, but the boy looked at him with shining eyes. Liu Xing waved to the boy, who waved back.


    “Hmm, mission first, or hunt first?” he muttered. While the mission was necessary, his primary goal was to hunt and advance his cultivation. “I’ll hunt and do the mission concurrently. There must be many spirit beasts on the way to the swamp.”Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    Nodding, Liu Xing grinned. Anticipation filled his heart. Dragon Skull Forest was renowned as a beginner hunting ground. He would encounter countless spirit beasts there, and Liu Xing felt confident he would reach the Lock Opening sixth stage quickly.


    Excited, Liu Xing channeled more qi into his movement technique, moving like a blue lightning bolt, swimming through the forest like a flying electric eel.


    Along his journey, Liu Xing encountered more people. He met a grandmother and her grandson in the forest. After he helped them kill a tiger, they invited him to join them and offered him beef jerky for supplies.


    Liu Xing came across a caravan under attack by a pack of wolves. The wolf leader was a spirit beast, albeit a weak one. Even without enhancement, Liu Xing punched the leader until it burst like a water balloon. This encounter confirmed something Liu Xing had wondered about during his previous forest stay two months prior: what would happen if he held the gun but killed a beast with his own power. The result surprised him. He had expected the qi energy to be absorbed, but it wasn’t. The beast core remained intact. The merchant offered a single spirit stone for the core, which Liu Xing accepted.


    Later, Liu Xing arrived at a village terrorized by a centipede monster. He shot its head with an explosive bullet. The villagers thanked him and gifted him two spirit stones. While still not wealthy, Liu Xing was no longer penniless.


    He then encountered a group of robbers, another pack of spirit beasts, and a hunting group who apologized and kneeled when they accidentally disturbed his rest.


    While eventful, his journey lacked any truly noteworthy incidents. Seven days after leaving the sect, Liu Xing finally arrived at Dragon Skull Town, located on the forest’s edge.


    Walking through the town streets, Liu Xing tried to maintain a normal gait. He didn''t puff out his chest or attempt to dominate the street, yet when the mortals recognized him as a cultivator, they held their breath and tried to disappear, as if he were a dangerous spirit beast.


    He passed a group of five cultivators.


    They wore black robes trimmed with red. A tan man with white hair walked at the front. One man carried a large metal fan on his back, while the others carried large gourds.


    As they met in the street, Liu Xing adopted a neutral expression and looked straight ahead. They noticed his robe—purple with a faint moon and cloud pattern—and also maintained neutral expressions.


    The Purple Moon Sect was influential, and people generally avoided provoking them.


    Afterward, Liu Xing passed a market area that seemed to specialize in spirit beasts. A merchant and a cultivator negotiated over a giant slug corpse with an intact shell. Others butchered a giant bear carcass. Liu Xing noticed a cultivator shouldering a large, long log before realizing the log was covered in tiny eyes and had limbs that resembled branches.


    Seeing this, Liu Xing smiled. The sight of spirit beast carcasses reignited his motivation. The sect mission was important, but he needed to remember his true purpose: to hunt, advance, and grow stronger.


    Excitement surged through him, and Liu Xing ran into Dragon Skull Forest.


    <hr>


    Liu Xing stood atop a cliff, gazing over a sprawling green forest. In the distance, a small hill, resembling a marble from his vantage point, took the shape of a lizard’s skull. Indentations like eye sockets and a slit suggesting a mouth capable of swallowing giants marked the hill. This was likely Skull Hill, the namesake of Dragon Skull Forest.


    He had finally arrived!


    Jumping from the cliff, Liu Xing landed on the grass in a small clearing. Upon landing, he realized a group of cultivators awaited him.


    One man sat on a tree stump. He had short hair and tanned skin, and wore loose-fitting gray clothes that seemed practical for movement. Another leaned against a tree, his red hair and eyes contrasting with his pale, thin face, giving him a sickly appearance. The third sat on a branch, swinging his feet. A thin smile played on his lips, and his narrow, almost slit-like eyes gave him a cunning and intelligent air.


    Upon seeing Liu Xing, the trio sprang up and stood before him, blocking the path into Dragon Skull Forest.


    “Fellow cultivator, welcome to Dragon Skull Forest! I am Mo Yan, the gatekeeper of the forest,” the tanned man said with a smile.


    Liu Xing knew they were not welcoming him as a friend. They were likely robbers.