《Existence: Cultivating Through Enlightenment》 Chapter 1: Enter the tutorial On planet Earth, in a small apartment located in a city of China named Chengdu, a young man is sleeping in his bed. He is Ling Xu, and he is an orphan ever since his mother died three years ago. Before moving to the city, he lived with his mother in his hometown. It didn''t take him long to decide to move to a large city after she died, as he was accepted into a prestigious university. Leaving him with an inheritance, Ling Xu managed to buy himself a small apartment where he could live. He then used the rest of his money for his daily expenses and he currently has enough to cover the next year. Thinking about what would happen once his money was spent, Ling Xu took a part time job that allowed him to almost double the time he would be able to cover his expenses. Having sustained a diligent life where he only uses his time for studying and working, Ling Xu has had little time to make friends. Even though his life seemed bleak at the moment, he felt satisfied given his circumstances as he had no one to rely on. When the sun came out, Ling Xu was already leaving his apartment ready to attend his first class. "Ugh, so tired!" he said while stretching his arms. Studying the entire night made him have just a few hours of sleep, and now he felt very tired. He went to the elevator as he heard somebody call him from behind. "Little Xu, are you going to class?" Turning around he looked at his neighbor. "Hi uncle Sun! I was about to, and you? I don''t see you wearing your usual uniform" he looked at his neighbor with a blank face. "Hey! Show some respect to your elder, I haven''t taken a break from work for years." "Okay, okay" saying it as he didn''t mean it, Ling Xu continued looking at Sun Min with a blank face. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. He was just having fun with him, after living for three years in the same place he has become pretty close with his neighbor Sun Min. Mr. Sun couldn''t withstand the pressure from Ling Xu''s look so he decided to leave. "Well, I have to go, see you" he turned around and took a few steps going to the elevator on the other side. The conversation ended pretty quick as they both had somewhere to go. Ling Xu also continued to his elevator on the opposite direction as they both led to different streets. [Detected that planet Earth is devoid of spiritual energy.] [Awakening spiritual veins of planet Earth.] He immediately stopped walking as he heard a voice in his mind. "What is this?" All of a sudden, a transparent message appeared in the middle of the air. [Spiritual veins awakened successfully.] It contained the same information as the voice that sounded in his mind. Ling Xu''s face was that of shock as he couldn''t believe what was happening. [Humans from planet Earth, you have been given the chance to enter on the path of cultivation.] [Once the explanation ends you will be sent to the tutorial mission.] [All of you who meet the age requirement will be teleported when the countdown ends.] [Tutorial mission starts in 30 seconds.] [Tutorial mission starts in 29 seconds.] Ling Xu didn''t understand what was going on as he saw the messages floating in the air and a countdown that continued decreasing. "Uh?" he heard his neighbor a few steps away from him reacting as a new series of messages poured down. [You may call for your status and mission panel once you have entered the tutorial mission.] [The tutorial mission will be full of danger, to survive you must gain experience and enter on the path of cultivation. You can gain experience after killing beasts.] [When the beast has a higher stage of cultivation than you, the experience doubles for every stage. When the beast has a lower stage of cultivation than you, the experience halves for every stage.] Ling Xu and Mr. Sun were reading the messages, trying to understand as fast as they could. [Do your best!] [Tutorial mission starts in 10 seconds.] "Am I imagining things after getting old?" Sun Min asked himself, trying to understand if he was hallucinating or if it was actually real. "No, I can see it too." They were quiet as they tried processing the bomb that had fallen in front of them. At the same time, the countdown continued to fall. [Tutorial mission starts in 8 seconds.] [Tutorial mission starts in 7 seconds.] [Tutorial mission starts in 6 seconds.] Ling Xu just watched as the countdown neared the end. He didn''t know what to do, these messages appeared out of nowhere and they didn''t give them any time to prepare. "The time is about to end, let''s hope to see each other back again" Ling Xu said as he sighed, knowing he couldn''t do anything about it. "Be careful" said Mr. Sun, hoping they both could survive in the tutorial mission. They didn''t really have the time to understand the situation and had to just believe what they saw. As Ling Xu nodded with a conflicted look, the countdown ended. [Tutorial mission starts now.] Then everywhere around the world, those who were old enough disappeared. And as the strange message said, time on Earth seemed to stop. At least for those who entered the tutorial. While those who were younger than the criteria had to wait for them to come back without knowing. ... "Uh?" Chapter 2: Dark Cave In a dark place, Ling Xu opened his eyes. "Where am I? It looks so dark in here." he observed his surroundings as he realized he was inside a cave. [Welcome to the Dark Cave.] Ling Xu saw the message and then checked his surroundings. He could barely see a dozen meters afar before the light faded. He tried to remain calm, taking the situation the best way he could. As he took a step, he saw the light as if it followed him, allowing him to always see a dozen meters around him. He saw himself positioned in the middle of a crossroad where he had four different paths to choose from. He felt scared of the dark and didn''t know if something would approach him. "I remember the message told there were beasts in here, let''s enter a path just in case." Ling Xu thought that being subjected to openings from the four paths would be tantamount to death, so he entered the path he had in front. He took just a few steps, enough to put his back on the wall and tried what the system told him before being put in here. As he gave the command in his mind, information appeared in front of him. [Map]: Dark Cave [Mission]: Survive 3 hours [Participants]: 10/10 [Progress]: 0 hours, 0 mins "There are only ten people in the tutorial! The number of tutorial missions that must be happening right now should be hundreds of millions." He observed the information that had the time he had to stay before the tutorial mission ended, the number of participants that were in here with him, and the time that had passed since he came. He gave the other command he was told he could use and another panel instantly appeared. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: (0%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (unavailable) After seeing the panel of the tutorial mission he observed his status panel. Watching his own information for the first time he felt excited. Although Ling Xu was alert about any possible danger, his mood relaxed a bit after seeing information that made him expectant. [You have received a random skill.] "Uh?" Before he had the time to answer his doubts about the information that his status panel brought, another message appeared. He looked in surprise as he knew what it meant. "I didn''t expect that there would be skills too." [Do you want to learn it?] "Yes!" Ling Xu didn''t wait even a second before accepting the gift the system gave him. [You have learned Enhanced Synapsis (high grade).] He saw the message but before he could even think about the name he fell to the ground. "Kuuugh!" Breathing heavily, Ling Xu felt an immense pain in every nerve of his body as he wanted to scream. "What the hell?!" He said in his mind without being able to make a sound. Without being able to muster any strength to move, Ling Xu thought that nothing could be worse as suddenly he screamed in his mind again. As the pain in his nerves traversed through every part of his body, Ling Xu felt an indescribable pain that reached his brain. It didn''t end there as he felt his five senses being overwhelmed by an indescribable sensation, completely numbing his mind. It took a dozen seconds for the pain to disappear, but Ling Xu felt those seconds as an eternity. "Ughhh!" regaining his consciousness, he waited a bit as he started to recover his senses once again. "I want to see my status!" he called in his mind curious about this skill he had gotten. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. After all, this happened the moment he agreed to learn the skill, so it was logical that the pain he felt came from it. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: (0%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (unavailable) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade) "The name of my skill seems to be related to the parts of my body I felt pain." Ling Xu could distinguish that the pain he felt originated from his nerves. It was a very particular sensation. He pondered what its function was and decided to try to activate it. As he thought of activating it within his mind Ling Xu didn''t feel anything. "Is this not the way to use the skill?" Ling Xu suddenly realized that he wasn''t wrong to activate it through his mind as he felt his nerves and senses stimulated. He waited for a few seconds but nothing else changed apart from that. "Is that all there is to it?" He felt disappointed as he realized that he could barely feel an improvement in his senses. He felt strange as he only felt the nerves around his body stimulated but nothing else happened. While pondering he moved his head as a change occurred. Ling Xu started to see everything move slower. His mind raced and his shock could be showed on his face. "This is incredible, it feels as if time has become slower." Ling Xu thought about it more as he realized that it wasn''t that time was slower but that his perception''s speed had increased. He felt his head moving at a normal speed, but he saw it rotating much slower. It was a very strange feeling for him as not only his sight, but his other senses had become able to sense everything faster than before. Ling Xu now knew why the pain in his nerves moved all the way to his brain and senses. He couldn''t forget the pain he felt from them. "It''s time to start exploring." he stood up as he decided to start exploring the path he had already stepped on. ¡­ "What is that?" After walking for a minute, when the light allowed him to see, Ling Xu saw two small beasts a dozen meters apart from him. He was surprised at the familiar yet unfamiliar beasts that were just in front. A pair of rabbits. They weren''t rabbits like the ones from Earth but they looked very similar. These ones looked bigger as they were more than one foot tall. They had distorted faces that made them even scarier after you saw their ferocious frontal teeth. Ling Xu was nervous as he understood that he had to kill them. He thought of the possibility of going back but realized that it probably wouldn''t change the fact that he would have to face other beasts just like them sooner or later. He took a few steps as the beast noticed him and the one in front charged at him. Pressing its legs hard against the floor it jumped forward faster than Ling Xu''s running speed. Ling Xu felt surprised at the beast''s speed. The beast was almost in front of him as he activated his skill. The rabbit slowed down and Ling Xu managed to see its movement decrease to almost half its previous speed. He noticed as the beast opened its mouth ready to take a bite at him. Ling Xu moved right away as he avoided its attack. He moved his leg, which was where it aimed at. As the beast missed, Ling Xu took his chance and hit it against the floor. "Kiiiik!!!" Screaming in pain, the rabbit''s partner that was a few meters apart reacted and started to come at him too. Ling Xu beat the rabbit on the floor one more time leaving it unable to move for a short while from the shock. As the other beast arrived it threw itself at Ling Xu''s neck. Ling Xu noticed its movement as his skill remained activated and moved again. Avoiding a fatal wound, he stumped at the beast on the floor that had started to stand up. Ling Xu heard a crack the next moment. [You have killed a Ferocious Rabbit (1st stage of Blood Qi).] He didn''t pay attention to the system''s message. He then avoided a bite on his stomach and when it landed on the floor, he was already next to it. Kicking in its face, it rolled on the ground. He moved again and stumped on it as he heard its head crack. Not hearing a message, he hit again. The rabbit couldn''t do anything about it. [You have killed a Ferocious Rabbit (1st stage of Blood Qi).] Ling Xu calmed his breathing as he deactivated his skill. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: (20%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (unavailable) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade) "I still don''t know what realm means but its progress has increased to twenty percent. It must have increased after I killed both ferocious rabbits." Although Ling Xu felt excitement after he saw his status panel, he found out that he didn''t understand what the realm and cultivation category meant. He stood up and was about to move forward as he thought of something. ¡­ Back at the crossroad again, he entered the path to the right. Ling Xu had decided to go back as he felt that going deeper would mean finding stronger beasts, something for which he didn''t feel prepared at all. "It would be best if I continue fighting beasts with a similar level as the ferocious rabbits, I''m not confident I can face a stronger beasts." He made the right decision, as not even a minute after encountering the same two beasts, he checked the messages again. [You have killed a Ferocious Rabbit (1st stage of Blood Qi).] [You have killed a Ferocious Rabbit (1st stage of Blood Qi).] He then saw his progress change from 20% to 40% on his status panel. He went back to the beginning and repeated the same process. ¡­ Choosing the fork on the left, Ling Xu walked for a minute. This time he encountered three ferocious rabbits. Ling Xu tried the same fighting strategy, killing one while avoiding the others. Unfortunately, it didn''t work that well. After taking down the first beast he managed to avoid the second one. But then the third came. "Aghhh!" Ling Xu felt a lot of pain as he had the ferocious rabbit''s big teeth inserted in his muscle. He tried to throw the beast but it didn''t budge from his leg. So he pressed it against the wall with all his strength. He saw some results as the ferocious rabbit felt extreme pain. Ling Xu didn''t leave it any room to breathe as he continued pressing. But when he saw the second rabbit come at him slowly, he had to dodge, letting room for it to escape from being pressed against the wall. Able to breathe again, it freed itself from his leg and fell. "Not a chance!" Ling Xu kicked it hard against the floor, trying to stomp on it. [You have killed a Ferocious Rabbit (1st stage of Blood Qi).] Having one last ferocious rabbit to kill, it took just ten seconds before the message appeared again. [You have killed a Ferocious Rabbit (1st stage of Blood Qi).] ¡­ While resting on the floor he saw the mission panel. Having not seen it after he began exploring and hunting the ferocious rabbits. [Map]: Dark Cave [Mission]: Survive 3 hours [Participants]: 8/10 [Progress]: 0 hours, 13 mins "Uh?" he looked at the number of participants that had decreased. He didn''t know if the number decreasing meant whether they have excited the tutorial mission or they have died. Either way he tried not to think too hard about it, Ling Xu couldn''t afford to distract himself. Right now his top priority was to survive and become stronger. "It''s time to take the last path." ¡­ Once he entered the last path, Ling Xu had to walk for two minutes before he encountered only one ferocious rabbit. After killing it, he decided to continue this time as he had already entered the other paths before regressing to the crossroad. Chapter 3: Basic Blood Circulation After a short time. As he was walking forward, he stopped in his tracks. Only a dozen meters apart from him, Ling Xu met a beast like the ferocious rabbit but with double its size. It was alone but he felt that even if he fought multiple ferocious rabbits it wouldn''t compare to the difficulty of defeating just this one. It had two muscle packed legs with noticeable explosive strength and teeth much bigger than the tiny ferocious rabbits he encountered before. Ling Xu doubted whether fighting was possible. But before he could decide on it the beast noticed him and took the lead without giving him a chance. As it moved, Ling Xu noticed something behind the beast. "What is that?" behind the beast that had started jumping towards him, he saw a table against the end of the path. And above it laid down a weapon. "I have to take that weapon to survive" he said seeing some hope again. After all, he didn''t have the confidence to hurt the beast with his bare hands. But wanting to take the weapon and being able to do so were two different matters as the beast he had in front was blocking his path. Ling Xu activated his skill and was shocked. He saw it slow down as he realized that it looked to be going just a little slower than the ferocious rabbits if he didn''t see them with his skill. It not only doubled it in size but it almost doubled it in speed. "That''s some dangerous speed!" When the beast was near, it tried to take a big bite from Ling Xu''s body. He avoided it with difficulty as he took several steps back. The only reason he managed to do so is because its movements were more direct and predictable than the ferocious rabbits. He then punched its face, trying to wound it. The beast didn''t seem to feel his punch as it threw another bite. He managed to avoid it again just by a hair''s breadth, and then he hit again at the same spot. "Alri¡­" Ling Xu''s face tensed as he realized that hitting the beast again didn''t do anything as it just managed to make the beast angry. He fell to the ground after the beast violently pushed him using its body weight. Ling Xu couldn''t breathe as he was pounced by it. He rolled to the side as the beast jumped past him making it so he had no obstacle between himself and the weapon. "Now is my chance!" he thought as he ran with all his might. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The beast reacted very slowly as its body structure made it difficult to rotate. [You have obtained Small Dagger (low grade semi-treasure).] Ling Xu didn''t listen as he avoided a bite that came to his neck. He then attacked with his new weapon giving the beast a sense of danger. The rabbit, not planning on letting itself lose its advantage, threw its right claw as he had an advantage in speed. Although its attack came later it arrived before Ling Xu''s dagger. But to the beast''s surprise, Ling Xu received the rabbit''s paw with his left hand. He felt the difference in strength as it pressed hard against his hand making him feel a lot of pain. It didn''t end there as between Ling Xu''s fingers the rabbit beast pressed its claws making his hand bleed continuously. Still, his right hand holding the small dagger didn''t stop. It continued on its path as Ling Xu''s greeted teeth even made a cracking sound. The beast''s face changed its color as the dagger landed in its eye. Ling Xu pressed with all his strength as he pierced through and his hand entered its head. [You have killed an Adult Ferocious Rabbit (2nd stage of Blood Qi).] It couldn''t even scream as the rabbit had a horrible expression before it died. "I can finally breathe¡­ugh!!" falling to the ground to take some air and rest, Ling Xu felt the pain from his hand that was bleeding out. [You have entered the 1st stage of Blood Qi.] Without giving him time to arrange a piece of his clothes to stop the bleeding, he heard the message. "What is this now?" inside Ling Xu''s body, a dim light of energy was awakening but he wasn''t able to feel it as it grew within his blood slowly strengthening his body every time it passed through his veins. Although he wasn''t aware of it, as his body became stronger and was constantly stimulated by the energy awakening inside his blood, he felt full of energy as if he hadn''t just gone through a fight between life and death. After less than a minute passed, Ling Xu stood up and moved once again as he felt the changes his body had undergone. He tried making a few punches in the air and run a bit to see the difference from before. "This is what it meant when the system said that I could become stronger, now I feel that with my increase in strength and speed I can kill the adult ferocious rabbit using my small dagger without suffering as much as before." Ling Xu had officially entered on the path of cultivation as he had entered the first stage of the Blood Qi realm. Before he stopped rejoicing over his changed body, he felt even better as re realized that his left hand''s wounds had stopped bleeding and closed after entering the first stage. He felt a burst of confidence from the sudden satisfaction of having his body being transformed and he soon called for the status panel. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 1st stage of Blood Qi (0%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (available) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade) Ling Xu noticed the text that said Basic Blood Circulation changed from unavailable to available, his mind focused on it as another message from the system appeared. [Do you want to learn Basic Blood Circulation technique?] "I want to learn it." he didn''t doubt for a second as he almost yelled, full of expectation about what it would bring to learn this technique. Ling Xu felt a stream of knowledge suddenly entering his mind as he began to organize it. It took him a few minutes to manage to understand the general knowledge and the method he required to use it. "This Basic Blood Circulation technique is a method meant to guide in the refinement of the body, as I circulate my blood qi through the indicated veins my body will become stronger." Ling Xu learned several concepts that he never imagined that he would need to know in his life. For example, when he said blood qi he referred to his blood which had awakened when he entered the first stage of Blood Qi. Ling Xu received knowledge about how to refine his body in the nine stages of the Blood Qi realm. The nine stages of the Blood Qi realm are divided into three steps and each lasts for three stages of the realm. From the first to the third stage comes the first step where he will have to refine his muscles. From the fourth to the sixth stage comes the second step where he will have to refine his organs including the skin. And from the seventh to ninth stage comes the third stage and the most difficult as there comes the refinement of the bones. Every time he advance a stage not only will his body become stronger but the amount of blood qi he has will increase. To make sure every breakthrough increases his strength and blood qi reserves the best they can, Ling Xu has to make sure that his body is refined to the limit and no further refinement is possible until he advances to the next stage. This is absolutely necessary to have enough blood qi so it lasts every fight without decreasing his strength. As blood qi is not only meant to refine the body but it is its source of energy. Chapter 4: Another survivor "Let''s try this!" Ling Xu felt excited and wanted to try practicing the Basic Blood Circulation technique immediately. But first, he called his status panel as he expected to change the word "available" in his Basic Blood Circulation technique. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 1st stage of Blood Qi (0%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (entry 0%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade) Seeing the available word change to entry and having a percentage with it, Ling Xu realized that it probably meant the degree of mastery that he had over the technique. He stopped looking at the status panel, as nothing else had changed, and he assumed the lotus position. Following the first step, he focused his mind within his body and while breathing in and out he tried to feel his blood qi flowing through the veins. "I can feel it." He was surprised as it took a very short time for him to feel his blood qi. After all, the information he received from the technique said that it could take a few minutes for an average person. After that, he tried connecting with his blood qi as his mind focused and he slowly attempted to circulate it. Once he has control over his blood qi and he is able to move it with his own will, he will have officially started practicing the cultivation technique as only then will he be able to refine his body. Ling Xu was extremely focused as he tried for a minute to establish his connection as he suddenly felt a movement. "It is moving!" Ling Xu was ecstatic at the speed at which he was learning the Basic Blood Circulation technique. But just after feeling that he had won something, he realized the difficulty of the next stage as he tried circulating his blood qi Ling Xu could barely make his blood qi move and turn as it continued circulating on its own. After stepping into a wall, he decided that he would continue until he managed to increase his control over his blood qi before he began exploring the cave again. After all, with this level of control he wouldn''t be able to refine his body and he would never be able to advance into the next stage of the Blood Qi realm. He poured his heart into practicing the cultivation technique as after several minutes of trial and error he finally made progress. Although his blood qi moved very slowly through his veins, he managed to make it follow his will completely. Ling Xu knew that this speed wasn''t enough to advance into the second stage unless he took several months, but he felt more than satisfied as it was on another level compared to his previous control where every time he made it move, it would stop. Now Ling Xu had officially started practicing the cultivation technique as he felt his muscles being refined by his blood qi, although extremely slow and the feeling was almost unnoticeable. Enjoying the feeling that gave him sensing and moving his blood qi while refining his muscles, he stopped abruptly. A sense of exhaustion came as he realized that his blood qi had been almost completely spent while refining his muscles. About to end his cultivation, Ling Xu felt something that made him open his eyes. "Ughh!" suddenly, the feeling of a needle piercing right between his eyes invaded him as he realized that the pain he felt wasn''t physical but in his mind. As the feeling increased, he was about to scream in excruciating pain but the next moment another feeling came making it disappear. Where he previously felt the pain between his eyes, a path was opened as a stream of golden energy started entering his body. "I feel so light!" he felt the pain subside and his mind becoming clear every moment that passed, making it run without any obstruction. "I don''t know why this is happening but I will take this opportunity" he focused his mind in continuing circulating his blood qi through his veins. Closing his eyes once again, through the feeling that he was going through Ling Xu felt any external thought being washed away as he only had the purpose of practicing his cultivation technique. Every second he was in this state he felt that his connection with his blood qi was increasing as it started moving faster than before under his complete control. Ling Xu couldn''t notice the energy that was entering his body, as he was immersed in this state where his mind became extremely clear and his blood qi, that had almost been completely used was recovering faster than it was used for refining the body thanks to this energy. The effect of this stream of golden energy didn''t stop there as it started bathing his whole body, washing away any impurities wherever it passed through. As this continued and Ling Xu''s body was being baptized, every pore within it started opening. At the same time, from outside you could see a black substance coming out of his body. This didn''t come unnoticed as Ling Xu sensed the circulation of his blood qi become smoother than before. ¡­ This process took a few more minutes as it finally came to an end. Ling Xu then opened his eyes with a wide smile that couldn''t be hidden. "What just happened?" From the moment he felt that pain to the next instant when he entered a clear state of mind, he didn''t know what he had done to experience this. Although Ling Xu was still in the first stage of the Blood Qi realm, he felt like he had been reborn. If entering the first stage of the Blood Qi realm gave him a sense of increase in strength and energy, now he felt as if his body had broken free from shackles that dragged and made his body feel numb. Ling Xu''s current sense and control over his whole body had become clearer than ever. Even his eyesight, which only allowed for him to see a dozen meters before the light completely faded, had improved as he was able to now see sixteen meters away. That wasn''t all as he realized that even his appearance had changed, he observed his arms and then upper body as he had lost all his previous body fat. If Ling Xu looked like he had gained more volume in his muscles as he entered the first stage, he now looked like a professional athlete who was well defined. Even his blood qi, which was very difficult to move before, felt very easy to circulate through his body now. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. As he realized the sudden improvement he had affected his whole body, Ling Xu thought of a possibility and activated his skill right away. "As expected, even my skill has improved. Not only can I perceive slower the speed at which I move my head, but even after deactivating it I don''t feel any straining in my eyes anymore." After all, Ling Xu''s skill involved improving the perception speed of his senses which put a great strain on his nerves. He never used his skill to the limit as the duration of the fights were very short, but he knew that the longer the fight went on the stronger the straining would be. "Let''s see my status panel now." [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 1st stage of Blood Qi (0%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (small success 0%), Existence (Shadow Will 0%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade) "Uh?" Ling Xu saw a new name appear in the category where his Basic Blood Circulation technique was. "What is this technique? It has such a unique name" he saw its name and knew that it wasn''t something ordinary. "It must be the reason why I entered that state" Ling Xu didn''t understand what its purpose was but he guessed that it had something to do with the sudden change he had while trying the Basic Blood Circulation technique. He then looked at the new progress in Basic Blood Circulation technique as he realized that it increased from the entry level to small success. "It makes sense that the level of mastery has increased as I feel like I can control my blood qi with ease now." Suddenly, Ling Xu remembered that he was still inside the cave as he remembered how dangerous it was. Entering this state for around ten minutes left him unable to do anything, so if a beast approached him and decided to attack while he was practicing his technique, he would have been its meal. "I can''t repeat this mistake again." Ling Xu then decided to turn back and returned to the beginning where he first appeared. It took him a short time to get there as he observed the already familiar scene. "Swoosh!" As he was trying to decide on which path to continue next, he suddenly heard a soft sound of wind flying at him. Ling Xu''s body reacted instinctively. "What was that?" The moment the sound of cutting through air passed, Ling Xu avoided purely out of instinct and took several steps forward. He then turned around. A few meters away was another person. "Someone attacked me?" The man looked to be around his forty''s and he had a hideous smile that made him look as if he didn''t just try to attack him with the sword he had in his right hand. Apart from that, he looked quite normal with just a few torn clothes, which was normal for the situation they were in. Ling Xu could feel from the man a subtle aura which told him that he had also entered the Blood Qi realm. "Why did you attack me?" "Is it important?" The man in front smiled even wider as if it was a funny question. "It doesn''t matter, here no one would know if I killed you." "What?" Ling Xu was left speechless at the man''s reasoning. "Don''t misunderstand, I wouldn''t do it if there was no reward." Ling Xu''s ears moved when he heard it. "What do you mean?" "You don''t know? Well, it doesn''t matter if I tell you, after all you will be dead anyways." Ling Xu''s face darkened as he continued hearing. "You can get skills by killing beasts." Ling Xu was surprised by what he heard. He had already killed several ferocious rabbits and even an adult one but none of them had dropped any. "But what does it have to do with me?" "If I can get skills from killing beasts, I can also get them from killing humans." Hearing the statement from the man, Ling Xu was infuriated. He couldn''t believe that he would try to kill him without knowing if the reason was valid in the first place. The man he had in front was betting Ling Xu''s life to get a skill that may not even drop. It was just a slim chance but it seems he didn''t care if he had to kill a fellow human for it. Ling Xu said inwardly as his eyes activated the skill to enhance his perception speed. "Now it''s your turn to die." He said it inwardly but his eyes were full of murderous intent. While the man was about to speak again without realizing Ling Xu''s change, he charged forward. As the distance was just a few meters apart and Ling Xu''s speed had increased after he entered the Blood Qi realm. The man reacted when he was just a meter away from him. His eyes shrank as he was surprised by Ling Xu''s unexpected move. Ling Xu started attacking right away with his dagger when the distance was right. As he thought he had the man where he wanted, he was surprised by the sudden change. As he was about to be cut by Ling Xu''s weapon, he avoided the next second. Ling Xu was surprised when he saw the man''s reaction as he got incredibly fast in such a short moment. He was even more shocked as the man rivaled his speed while going backwards. Amazed by this, he noticed the man''s strange movement as his feet barely touched the ground. They moved elegantly as they showed a flexible movement which allowed him to avoid Ling Xu''s attacks. "Is this a skill?" The appearance of this skill took away the advantage Ling Xu had gained by taking the lead attacking. But that didn''t matter as Ling Xu''s skill allowed him to be in control of his every move. Ling Xu followed with another slash with the small dagger. The man managed to avoid the attack again as he moved his feet with great flexibility. "Got you." Ling Xu didn''t mind and immediately changed his hand''s trajectory, following the man''s every move. "Damn!" He got close to the man very fast, giving a sense of death. The middle aged man felt a chill running down his spine as his eyes could only see the dagger getting dangerously near him. Ling Xu''s dagger closed by and slashed very fast without leaving him a chance to defend himself. It didn''t take more than a few breaths until the fight ended. Ling Xu heard a message after he cut the man''s head. [You have killed Liang Yusheng (1st stage of Blood Qi).] Ling Xu looked at the man''s corpse with a mixture of feelings. He didn''t like the idea of killing fellow humans. "Although I don''t like killing, if they try to harm me I won''t hesitate to do the same." Taking the weapon from the corpse, Ling Xu read the message. [You have obtained Short Sword (low grade semi-treasure).] As he felt the short sword''s grip was more comfortable, Ling Xu changed the small dagger he was using with the short sword. He then proceeded to put his small dagger between his pants and belt in case of need. It was uncomfortable but he wasn''t planning on leaving it there. Ling Xu was about to leave when he realized that another message appeared after the killing notification. [Liang Yusheng (1st stage of Blood Qi) has dropped a skill.] [Do you want to learn it?] He froze in his place thinking about what the man had said before. "He wasn''t lying after all." Ling Xu still didn''t think it was justified that the man tried to kill him for his own benefit, after all they were fellow humans. If the line is never drawn, society would be in complete chaos after everyone returned to Earth. "I want to learn it!" [You have learned Swift Steps (middle grade).] Ling Xu suddenly felt a tingling sensation in his legs that intensified in his toes after he said yes, but he felt like this was a joke compared with the pain he had felt when he got the skill Enhanced Synapsis. Compared with the agony he felt before, this skill barely gave him any discomfort. As the process ended, Ling Xu felt he could instinctively use this skill as if he had practiced it countless times. He tried to activate it as he moved his feet, feeling his blood qi moving around the legs and concentrating on his toes to sustain the skill''s usage. Ling Xu felt a little strange at first while using the skill, but after a minute he started to make the same movement the man he killed did. "Amazing!" He moved his legs and feet as if they were flowing barely touching the floor, Ling Xu felt excited about the skill he had gotten by luck. He enjoyed it very much. When Ling Xu activated his skill not only did his speed increase, but his flexibility improved and he could now do movements while running that he never thought would be possible. He even felt his legs become lighter as his feet barely touched the ground making the use of his blood qi and stamina not small but enough to last him for a fight. Ling Xu didn''t know how the process of his blood qi moving around his legs allowed for this skill to happen as it flowed naturally thanks to the system. He then called his status panel once again to see the changes. [Name]: Ling Xu. [Realm]: 1st stage of Blood Qi (0,5%) [Cultivation Method]: Basic Blood Circulation (small success 0%), Existence (Shadow Will 0,005%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade) "Uh?" As he saw the new skill appear on the status, he also noticed his realm progress had a slight increase. Although it was already expected that he had to kill beasts to enter the first stage, Ling Xu never thought that killing humans would also increase his experience. "I hope when I return to Earth things don''t get chaotic." Ling Xu still didn''t think that after they return they would start killing each other. After all it required a lot of experience just so he could advance to the first stage, so killing a fellow of the same species to get experience wasn''t enough of a reason. He also noticed the hundred fold difference as he saw the Existence cultivation technique had a very small increase too. "How much time will it take me to reach a hundred percent if killing someone in the first stage gives me such low experience. I don''t even know what this strange cultivation method is for." Ling Xu already felt how extraordinary this technique was, after having his mind enter a state of complete clarity, which allowed for his mastery of the Basic Blood Circulation technique to increase rapidly. Ling Xu realized that if he wanted to reach the hundred percent by killing beasts, he would need to kill thousands of them or even more. Then he remembered. If he killed beasts with a higher realm the experience would double for every level increase. "I need to kill beasts that surpass my own level of cultivation if I want to advance my technique mastery any time soon." He then stopped thinking about useless things and continued exploring. Chapter 5: Clearing the cave Ling Xu went back and took the cave on the right, as he noticed that was where the man who attacked him came from. He knew that because he had left a pair of footprints on the ground. Entering Ling Xu didn¡¯t expect anything to gain from this, after all he assumed that the man had killed every beast that was in his path. Still, he didn¡¯t intend on leaving any path unexplored. While running he saw a few ferocious rabbit corpses and a few seconds later he arrived at where the man was teleported to. He chose one of the paths he could choose from. After a short while he arrived at the end. On it he saw a similar scene to where he first encountered the adult rabbit and where he got his small dagger. And he saw a corpse filled with wounds and a deep one on its mouth. He also saw the table where the short sword was supposed to rest against the end of the path. Going back to search on the second and last path the man could choose from, except the one Ling Xu came from, he found four ferocious rabbits dead on his way to the end. He continued to advance as he arrived at the end of the path. Feeling surprised as he found two adults ferocious rabbits still alive, Ling Xu felt eager to try and fight them with his new strength. It seems the other man probably didn¡¯t feel confident seeing two adult ferocious rabbits together. That¡¯s probably when the man decided to take the path where he encountered Ling Xu and tried to kill him by surprise. Ling Xu felt he would have done the same, after all he was barely capable of defeating one before advancing on his realm and starting his cultivation technique. But now he is different. He had increased a lot in strength after defeating his first adult rabbit. With the short sword, the advance on his cultivation realm, the initiation of his cultivation technique and the skill the man left behind he felt more than confident. He charged at them without hesitation. [You have killed an Adult Ferocious Rabbit (2nd stage of Blood Qi).] Before they could react, Ling Xu killed the first one as his speed took them by surprise, having acquired Liang Yusheng¡¯s skill that increased the movement speed. It only took one big slash of his short sword on its neck. It couldn¡¯t even resist. The ferocious beast barely reacted trying to dodge moving its head. But Ling Xu¡¯s senses perceived everything and allowed him to not miss on the target. Ling Xu left the short sword on the beast as he felt resistance from it and changed to his small dagger. Trying to make the process faster and avoid stopping to take it out. He then avoided an attack coming from the beast with ease as he used the swift and flexible movement of his feet. As he closed the distance with the adult rabbit he got to its side. Stabbing his dagger to its neck he heard. [You have killed an Adult Ferocious Rabbit (2nd stage of Blood Qi).] The big rabbit couldn¡¯t even scream before it died. Ling Xu proceeded to take a small box, previously guarded by the corpses on the ground. It was above the same table he was familiar with as he found there his small dagger. He opened it and was surprised by what appeared. [You have obtained Luminous Stone (middle grade).] ¡°What is this?¡± Ling Xu was surprised by the appearance of the luminous stone which looked almost like a normal stone. It would be identical if it wasn¡¯t for the light that came out of it. Ling Xu was curious about the use of this item as the brilliant stone touched by accident his short sword that he had recovered from the corpse. Almost instantly, he saw a reaction. The stone melted and covered the blade of the sword, shining with a strong white light. As the progress continued and he noticed the light starting to subside, Ling Xu felt the weight of his weapon slowly increase. It felt a little bit more difficult to move around as its weight continued increasing until the end. Ling Xu saw the transformation end as the light disappeared and his previous short sword turned from its previous old look with a grey metal color, to a more refined and obscure one. [You have obtained Refined Short Sword (middle grade semi-treasure).] ¡°It has upgraded its grade! I didn¡¯t expect that this shiny stone would be able to do something like this.¡± After seeing the message, he gripped the short sword and slashed at one of the corpses to see the changes after it increased in grade. He slashed with all his strength and was surprised right away at the result. An entire leg was cut clean as he felt almost no resistance from the tough fur of the corpse. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. He called then for his status panel again to see how his progress increased. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 1st stage of Blood Qi (2,5%) [Cultivation Method]: Basic Blood Circulation (small success 0%), Existence (Shadow Will 0,025%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade) ¡°As expected, after killing both adult ferocious rabbits I got twice the experience compared to killing a ferocious rabbit in the first stage.¡± Although his current progress had increased five-fold to what it was before, it was very short if he wanted to step into the second stage of the Blood Qi realm. Ling Xu then went back to where he began, arriving in less than a minute. This time he took the path to his left. Two minutes later he came back. He wasn¡¯t even sweating. He had killed five first level ferocious rabbits in the middle of the path and two adult ones at the end. Ling Xu killed every one of them almost instantly and took a box that was guarded by the second level adult rabbits. On it he found another luminous stone that could upgrade an item to middle grade. He decided not to use it this time on the dagger as he felt like waiting for another item would prove a better choice. He was already very satisfied with his refined short sword. Finally, taking the last path, the one in front and the first he had entered in the beginning, Ling Xu advanced without ever returning back. [You have killed a Ferocious Rabbit (1st stage of Blood Qi).] [You have killed a Ferocious Rabbit (1st stage of Blood Qi).] [You have killed a Ferocious Rabbit (1st stage of Blood Qi).] ¡­ [You have killed an Adult Ferocious Rabbit (2nd stage of Blood Qi).] [You have killed an Adult Ferocious Rabbit (2nd stage of Blood Qi).] ¡­ Two minutes later. ¡°Status panel!¡± [Name]: Ling Xu. [Realm]: 1st stage of Blood Qi (14%) [Cultivation Method]: Basic Blood Circulation (entry 3%), Existence (Shadow Will 0,14%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade) After killing thirteen first stage and five second stage rabbits, Ling Xu¡¯s body was finally exhausted. It was the first time he actually felt tired since he got his cultivation technique and advanced to the first stage of blood qi. Now Ling Xu¡¯s cultivation progress has reached fourteen percent and he has noticed his strength slowly increase as his muscles were slowly refined by the energy he received from killing the beasts. Still, the increase in strength wasn¡¯t significant. He sat on the ground and calmed his breath, trying to recover his blood qi. His mind was very clear after fighting for so long, so he was able to focus right away. While recovering his energy, Ling Xu felt between his eyes the same sensation as before, only that this time it didn¡¯t hurt. Ever since he entered that clear state of mind Ling Xu has felt that the part in his mind between his eyes where the pain first appeared never closed helping him in recovering his blood qi much faster. So this time again his mind became clear and Ling Xu felt in sync with his body, following a natural rhythm. Ling Xu¡¯s blood qi started to move easily through his veins, following the Basic Blood Circulation technique in the most natural way. The progress of his realm also started to increase rapidly. Previously, although he felt his blood qi was slowly refining his muscles, the progress was insignificant. After all, Ling Xu had focused on managing his blood qi and becoming more natural with its control. But this time, as he felt like his control was enough to make progress, he started refining his muscles as his blood qi circulated faster than before becoming more proficient in it. ¡­ A few minutes passed and the circulation of his blood qi kept improving, making its circulation speed increase. ¡­ This process took a whole fifteen minutes before his mind was alerted. Suddenly, Ling Xu felt a big movement going on inside his body. Ling Xu¡¯s muscles roared as they absorbed his blood qi crazily. Thankfully, he had more than enough blood qi to sustain the process as the golden energy from between his eyes was constantly helping in its recovery since the beginning. After absorbing all they could, Ling Xu¡¯s muscles started bursting with strength as he felt this surge of vitality that invigorated him. Although his muscles had just burst with incredible strength, his blood qi didn¡¯t seem to stop as it remained restless and it continued refining his body. Ling Xu waited for a few minutes before he recovered complete control over his body. Finally returning back to normal, his blood qi stabilized as it slowed down to its normal state. ¡°What just happened?¡± calming his breathing, Ling Xu called for the status panel in his mind. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 2nd stage of Blood Qi (32%) [Cultivation Method]: Basic Blood Circulation (proficient 32%), Existence (Shadow Will 1,64%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade) ¡°I have stepped into the second stage of the Blood Qi realm!¡± He also noticed as his level of mastery on his cultivation technique had improved again. Trying to circulate his blood qi once, Ling Xu felt the changes from before when his level of the Basic Blood Circulation had just entered the small success. ¡°Now not only I feel like the control of my blood qi has become very easy, but even its speed has improved to a whole new level helping increase my cultivation speed several times from before.¡± Ling Xu realized that using the same cultivation technique could bring different results depending on the level of mastery he had on it. As his level increased from small success all the way to proficient and continued until it reached 32%, the refining of his muscles increased so fast that he managed to breakthrough in barely fifteen minutes. Ling Xu felt extreme joy after having gone through a state of clarity for the second time as it brought several benefits, even now he felt like the path between his eyes hadn¡¯t completely closed as his blood qi continued recovering from the refining of his muscles he just ended. And now he even knew the next level of mastery. By now, Ling Xu had seen the following levels of mastery: entry, small success, and proficient. He then remembered that his realm progress also shared with the progress of the Existence technique, so he concluded that it was divided by two after seeing that the numbers added up. To upgrade to the second stage of blood qi he needed eighty six percent. Then he also advanced another thirty-two percent when in the second stage of blood qi. He then added both numbers considering the progress of his cultivation method Existence. After he checked the mission panel to see the time he was in the trance while cultivating. [Map]: Dark Cave [Mission]: Survive 3 hours [Participants]: 06/10. [Progress]: 0 hours, 58 minutes The last time he checked, before killing the group of three adult ferocious beasts, was eighteen minutes ago. Considering he took some time before he started to calm his breath and then his mind entered that calm and clear state, he deducted correctly that he cultivated for fifteen minutes. He felt it made sense as the total experience he got was 300%, if he counted it altogether between his realm and cultivation technique. So basically, a minute of him cultivating gave him 20%. That was way faster than killing any beasts. But he knew that it was all thanks to the clarity his mind entered after he circulated his blood qi. He knew that if he didn¡¯t possess such a strange cultivation technique, he wouldn¡¯t have made such rapid progress. Ling Xu then started to think about the mission panel as he realized another person had died, excluding the man he killed himself. Putting those thoughts aside, Ling Xu then did something he didn¡¯t try before. ¡°Should I check my strength to see how strong I¡¯m now?¡± He closed his fist and assumed a punching stance as he punched on the wall of the cave. His hand moved and after it hit he took it out. It hurt a bit but when he looked at the result he was more than satisfied. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I have the strength to leave an imprint of my fist in the wall, even if it is quite shallow. This wouldn¡¯t be possible for anyone on Earth before we were forced in here.¡± He then tried testing his speed too as he didn¡¯t know how fast he had become. ¡°Let¡¯s try this!¡± As he ran at almost full speed, he felt he at least surpassed the world record of the hundred meters run. That was to be expected as it felt only natural to surpass the fastest humans who haven¡¯t even entered the first stage of Blood Qi. And this was considering he hadn¡¯t used his skill Swift Steps to increase his speed. Ling Xu was already in the second stage of blood qi and he felt he was capable of sustaining that speed for a while as his blood qi reserves had increased compared to when he was in the first stage. After ending the test of his new strength, Ling Xu continued on killing every beast he encountered once again. But after a few seconds of running, he had to stop. Chapter 6: Clearance reward Ling Xu could only see sixteen meters before the light faded completely and he couldn¡¯t see anymore. As he was reaching the end of the path, Ling Xu saw a beast that looked similar to the ferocious rabbit and the adult ferocious rabbit. ¡°Is it guarding the door?¡± He asked himself, seeing it blocked the path to a door which stood just behind the beast. What Ling Xu had in front of him was a beast bigger than the ones he had met before. It even had a horn in its forehead making him feel insecure. He didn¡¯t want to experience being pierced by it as he knew he would die on the spot. Ling Xu then looked again at the wooden door which it was guarding. It wasn¡¯t that big as only one person could enter at a time. Ling Xu still had his eyes from the beast as he never left it out of his eyesight when he noticed something that took his attention from it. ¡°There is a countdown on it!¡± he noticed something that made him anxious. [Time ends in 1 minute 30 seconds.] [Time ends in 1 minute 29 seconds.] [Time ends in 1 minute 28 seconds.] Ling Xu didn¡¯t know its purpose but he felt the need to cross that door before the time ended. He looked again at the horned beast and charged forward using his maximum speed. He even activated his skill to move flexible and enhance his speed even further as he felt it was strong. Still, he didn¡¯t feel an ounce of intimidation from the big beast he had in front. Although its horn seemed dangerous, Ling Xu realized he didn¡¯t feel the same gap he felt compared to when he fought in the first stage of blood qi against the first adult ferocious rabbit. So, he went for the kill right away as he felt the need to enter that door before the time ended. Noticing Ling Xu¡¯s footsteps while running which couldn¡¯t be concealed, the horned beast realized someone was coming before it could see him entering his field of vision. So, once it saw Ling Xu charging at full speed it charged forth too, aiming its horn directly at him. Ling Xu didn¡¯t waver even when he was only a meter apart from it, he dodged the attack easily having his skill Enhanced Synapsis which allowed it to see the beast way slower than it was. After his body was washed away of any impurity he had been able to process even faster the speed at which he perceived his surroundings, helping him see the big rabbit in front much slower than the adult ferocious rabbit when he was in the first stage of Blood Qi and he had fought his first one. And without decreasing in speed, he made use of his flexible movements to move to its side. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The next second, he aimed at its thick neck. Sadly, the beast reacted and moved its head to defend with its horn that suddenly brimmed with light. But Ling Xu could easily see at slow motion the rabbits try to defend so he redirected his attack. Following closely behind the necks position. ¡°Kiiiik!¡± Chirred the beast. It tried to turn to look at Ling Xu to attack once more but couldn¡¯t muster the strength. Ling Xu¡¯s slash had left a deep wound on its neck that cut through its bones. ¡°This beast has such strong vitality that it doesn¡¯t die even after I almost cut its head.¡± He was stunned at the beast as it kept struggling to move, he knew that if he had such a wound on his neck he would have instantly died. It showed a strong will to fight for its life as its eyes looked ferocious. Ling Xu landed another blow to it, managing to end its miserable state. The whole process seemed effortless but Ling Xu had to spend quite the effort to concentrate his vision on the beast¡¯s movement, considering that it surpassed him by a stage. Ling Xu saw the kill confirmation. [You have killed a Horned Rabbit (3rd stage of Blood Qi).] Being distracted by the notification he looked at the countdown still decreasing. He now had a minute remaining. He was about to reach the door when he saw the beast¡¯s corpse. He noticed the shiny horn on the corpse even after it was dead. He wanted to take it but he didn¡¯t have a way of transporting so many items with him. Right now, he had his small dagger between his pants and belt, having no other place to put it. He didn¡¯t have an inventory like those from a game. And the extra luminous stone he had was in one of his pockets, while the other was torn from accidents while fighting. ¡°I need to find a way to save my items. I don¡¯t know if that horn would be helpful, but I need to resolve it before I have to leave something vital behind.¡± Ling Xu continued with a bit of reluctance as he opened the door. [You have cleared the 1st floor of the Dark Cave before the time ended.] [Conditions met.] [You have obtained a Random Box (middle grade) as a reward.] What he met inside was a small room with its walls made of stone. The first thing he noticed was a stairway leading down. But before he decided to go through it, his attention was swept by a table emerging from the stone floor. It looked the same as the ones before but this one looked to be made of stone too, just like the walls. It was against the wall and had an inconspicuous box above it. ¡°It must be my reward¡± he didn¡¯t wait for a second and opened it as he saw a pair of shoes which looked quite robust. But when he took the pair to his hands he was surprised as he realized the pair of shoes was weightless. [You have obtained Wind Blood Shoes (middle grade semi-treasure).] ¡°Wow!¡± He put on the shoes as he was eager to see which ability they had. ¡°I feel so light, with this I will be even faster than before.¡± He said as he moved around a bit and felt how the pair of shoes not only were weightless but they even made his weight decrease, helping him become faster. Feeling excited, Ling Xu¡¯s blood qi circulated in his legs as it was suddenly absorbed by his shoes while he tried jumping again. ¡°Aghhh!¡± The shoes took a considerable amount of his blood qi as he flew up. Fortunately, he was fast enough to protect his head from crashing into the ceiling. Ling Xu wasn¡¯t used to the usage of the shoes yet and didn¡¯t know that it could even absorb blood qi to increase his movement speed even more by decreasing the weight of his body. They seemed to require a considerable amount of it as he felt the blood qi that was in his legs was almost used up in that instance. It was quite shocking that he could reach it, as the room had a height of five meters. Before he had entered the first stage of blood qi, he knew he could barely jump a little more than a meter. But with the shoes plus him being in the second stage of blood qi, his jumping strength had increased to a little over five meters. Ling Xu then remained in place as he tried to recover from the shock. A minute later he went down the stairs, seeing there was nothing left to do in the stone room. It took less than a minute as he entered a similar scene to the first floor of the cave. Ling Xu observed the room, wary of the presence of any beast or human that might attack him. He became very careful as he didn¡¯t know how it would be after descending and he was even more afraid to find another person with bad intentions. As there was no other presence apart from his he checked the time on the mission status. He became wary of the time as he didn¡¯t want to lose any reward he could gain. Chapter 7: Fusing skills Ling Xu observed the second floor in detail and saw a familiar scene to where he first began. While he had on the first floor four paths to choose from, now he had two paths and a door in front big enough for two people to enter at the same time. It seems that after knowing of its existence he didn¡¯t need to search for the door anymore. He could enter the paths leading to both sides anytime. But he looked at the door. This one had a timer showing a countdown too. But this time he had almost an hour remaining. He decided fast on which way and went to the left. He walked for a few seconds and encountered a second level adult ferocious rabbit. ¡­ After a short while, Ling Xu had killed seven adult ferocious rabbits. Then, he encountered a horned rabbit. Ling Xu had no problem evading its horn having experienced a one-sided fight against it already. Thanks to his skill which accelerated his perception, as if it slowed down time, he could see the horned beast running at him much slower. He ended it in one hit. Then he checked his personal status noticing some progress on both his realm and cultivation technique. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 2nd stage of Blood Qi (37,5%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (proficient 32%), Existence (Shadow Will 1,75%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade) Feeling that coming to the second floor didn¡¯t help him much in the progress of his realm or cultivation technique, Ling Xu didn¡¯t feel satisfied at the changes in the status panel. He still didn¡¯t know what his progress amounted to compared to the rest of the world as the only person he had met was killed by him. So, he hunted faster without time to rest. ¡­ Ling Xu found three pathways he could enter. Entering the third one after completing the first two in no time he didn¡¯t meet any beast stronger than the previous ones. ¡°Is this it? It doesn¡¯t seem to be that difficult¡± he felt the difficulty wasn¡¯t that high after clearing the first floor alone. Even when he encountered at the end of the last pathway a group of three horned rabbits. Having a huge advantage with his enhanced vision and other senses, he could be in complete control of their every move. As they weren¡¯t able to cooperate, and thanks to their big sizes they could attack only two at a time. So, Ling Xu killed the group of three very fast. ... [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 2nd stage of Blood Qi (52,5%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (proficient 32%), Existence Shadow Will (2,05%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade) Ling Xu cleared the whole path on the left killing a total of thirty two rabbit beasts, with six of them being in the third stage of blood qi. He didn¡¯t find any table with rewards as he did on the first floor, so there was no reward for clearing the whole path even though he killed dozens of beasts. Although he felt a bit tired, as the difficulty wasn¡¯t that high, Ling Xu didn¡¯t feel unsatisfied after seeing his realm and cultivation technique had made significant progress. Even though he progressed much faster just circulating and refining his body with his blood qi, it was another sensation to become stronger while defeating beasts. ¡­ After clearing the path on the left, Ling Xu had yet to explore the right one before going through the door. Fortunately, he had managed to kill dozens of beasts in just a few minutes, giving him more than enough time before the countdown ended. He arrived at the entrance of the floor and took the right path. ¡°It looks so different.¡± When Ling Xu entered, he noticed that this path was actually a small entrance to a big room. The cave had the shape of a circle, though not perfect as it seemed naturally made. It had natural carvings on the walls and ceiling made by the deterioration of time. Inside the cave there were three noticeable ponds, separated by the ground made of hard soil and rocks. When he delved deeper into the cave, he noticed four lizards with a length of two meters each on two of the deep water tanks. Noticing they wouldn¡¯t leave their place, he approached right away the pond to his left when he saw three of the four lizards on the tank coming out. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. He used his blood qi to activate Swift Steps and Enhanced Synapsis right away. Seeing them in more detail, the first thing he noticed was their tough looking skin. It seemed hard to cut through. But he was confident in his middle grade short sword capable of cutting low grade beasts as chopping vegetables. After all he felt their aura wasn¡¯t as strong as the horned rabbit. Ling Xu had to first severe the tails of the three lizards as they persistently attacked him with them, blocking off the paths to attack their bodies and killing them. After doing so he observed the end of the severed tail starting to grow back. Fortunately, it didn¡¯t seem capable of regenerating right away as their speed would only allow them to grow back after a few hours. Still, it was impressive as Ling Xu had never seen such regenerating ability before. Severing their tails didn¡¯t take more than one slash of his sword. Although they were tougher than the rabbits, having a middle grade weapon probed to make the difference. After taking their form of long-rage attacks, the lizards tried to kill Ling Xu by throwing acid projectiles from their mouth. But that made it even easier for him as he could see them clearly. ... [You have killed a Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi).] [You have killed a Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi).] [You have killed a Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi).] As Ling Xu killed three of the four lizards, he realized that one stayed hidden at the water tank. He approached the tank and poked the lizard trying to make it come out. The copper lizard didn¡¯t want to die but he wouldn¡¯t stay still if he was provoked. So, Ling Xu managed to irritate it easily as he made the copper lizard come out enraged by his mate¡¯s deaths and such a cheap provocation. [You have killed a Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi).] [Copper Lizard (3rd stage of Blood Qi) has dropped a skill.] [Do you want to learn it?] ¡°What?¡± he didn¡¯t expect he would get another skill so soon. Ling Xu said yes instantly and heard the notification. [You have learned Copper Skin (middle grade).] Suddenly, he felt his body changing. Ling Xu had to grit his teeth as he felt his skin as if a group of ants were gnawing at it. Fortunately, it didn¡¯t take that long for his body to completely adapt to the skill. After the pain was gone, Ling Xu noticed his hand looked different. He looked at his reflection in the water and saw his skin color had become a little darker. Ling Xu looked carefully at his hand again as he noticed something. ¡°It¡¯s actually a protective layer which made my skin look that way, this should be the effect of the skill.¡± Ling Xu didn¡¯t care that much about the difference in color, but something came to his mind so he tried it right away. He then tried to remember the sensation of the skill activating. ¡°If I can¡¯t make it transparent, it should be possible to hide it under the skin.¡± He thought of that as he remembered the feeling that came when the copper skin came to form and his mind moved. As he concentrated on it for a few seconds he saw the copper color starting to fade and merge into the skin. Still, once his body was attacked Ling Xu would stop hiding the copper skin and would put it back out to protect his whole body. He then used his blood qi, feeling his body getting tighter. When Ling Xu acquired the skill, he realized that he could feed it blood qi to increase the defense of this protective layer even more. But it seemed that once the blood qi he fed the copper skin was used, it would turn back to its normal state. Making it not viable to maintain this use of blood qi unless he urgently needed to resist an attack. ¡°Let¡¯s see how hard my skin has become.¡± Ling Xu then took out his small dagger of the lowest grade and pressed it hard in his left hand. He felt almost no pressure even though he ended up using all his strength. After taking out the dagger he saw a dent barely noticeable to the eye. ¡°This is what I needed, a skill that can finally give me some life protection.¡± Ling Xu felt relieved about gaining such a useful skill. That way he wouldn¡¯t be so insecure against sneak attacks. He felt very satisfied with the result of testing his new defensive layer. After a minute or so Ling Xu cleared the second pond. There he killed four copper lizards of the third layer as the ones before. He even had to do the same trick as it seemed one still remained hidden deep within the water. Having the third and last mass of water to clear, he went directly. As he got closer, he could gradually see more inside the tank. Ling Xu felt surprised at the depth of the last pond which looked like a small lake. Finally able to see the whole tank, Ling Xu saw an impressive lizard resting at the bottom of the pond. He felt weird that it didn¡¯t come out even while the rest were being killed and he was left alone. But just when he landed his eyes on it, the lizard finally moved. It opened its eyes and saw a strange species he hadn¡¯t seen before. It looked at it and saw it as food right away. It came out of the pond right away with its eyes showing the eagerness to eat something he had never tasted before. But when its eyes landed behind Ling Xu and looked at the other water tanks it realized that all his fellow species had been killed by the man in front. As it remained under water, and because of the depth it had, it couldn¡¯t sense any sound or vibration while Ling Xu killed them. The big lizard beast felt enraged right away and its eyes looked ferocious. Ling Xu also noticed a ray of light inside the water mass at the end of it while the lizard was distracted. But before he could see clearly what it was, the lizard attacked using its long three meters tail. ¡°Danger!¡± he saw as the tail moved there was the sound of the wind being cut by a sharp blade which was a part of the end of it. Ling Xu didn¡¯t feel confident that he could withstand a blow from the tail as it not only had quite the momentum but its blade looked able to cut through his body. Even after getting Copper Skin, Ling Xu wasn¡¯t confident he could resist the impact. So, he stimulated his blood qi to strengthen his copper skin. His arm¡¯s hair stood on end seeing the tail flying at him. Fortunately, he avoided the first attack that came. Ling Xu¡¯s shoes then activated as he fed them his blood qi and he used his Enhanced Synapsis to see the fast paced attacks of the big lizard¡¯s tail. He exploded with a charging speed far surpassing his realm as he was using his skill and shoes to increase it to another level. The big lizard was taken by surprise as he became as fast as its flying tail or even more. It became extremely dignified as its eyes could barely trace him. Ling Xu swung his short sword on its torso but he only made a small wound. But he didn¡¯t despair. The lizard threw its tail again as Ling Xu took a step back and the lizard¡¯s tail missed. He became more wary as he saw the blade on the tail move faster than before. Though he had an amazing reaction speed thanks to his vision, his body didn¡¯t have the same ability. So, he had to be extremely careful and use his vision to see every movement the lizard made to avoid the attacks pouring down every second. Fully concentrated he avoided every attack that came to him. Then he left another wound in the same place as before. Ling Xu started to see the wound get deeper and even saw a slim part of its bone exposed. The lizard was feeling a lot of pain from the wound which made it worried and start to get nervous. Ling Xu had to retreat again, standing up right where he first began the fight. He decided to charge forward trying to end the fight with one last blow. He went forward and when the tail came, he used the Wind Blood Shoes to jump very high and fast. He jumped in an angle which made it so he didn¡¯t jump as when he crashed into the ceiling when he first got the shoes. ¡°Now is my chance.¡± Ling Xu fell above its body and pounced with his short sword on the deep wound using both arms. The lizard started to swing its tail desperately as it felt the pain. Ling Xu avoided a few of them while the rest didn¡¯t even pass by. He pushed deeper the sword on the wound as the lizard dropped to the ground. Seeing the beast trying to resist but unable to stand up, he cut its throat with some effort to end its suffering. He got off its body as he heard. [You have killed an Adult Copper Lizard (4th stage of Blood Qi).] [Adult Copper Lizard (4th stage of Blood Qi) has dropped a skill.] ¡°Another skill? I¡¯m so lucky.¡± Ling Xu¡¯s face showed joy as he answered to the system that he wanted to learn it. [You have already learned Copper Skin (middle grade).] ¡°I got the same skill?¡± Ling Xu felt strange. ¡°What am I going to do with the same skill?¡± As if to answer his question, the system jumped again with a message. [Do you want to fuse the skills?] Ling Xu stood frozen in place. Chapter 8: Blood Exchange He never expected there would be such a function. ¡°This is even better than getting a different skill, with the fusion of the skill it will get even stronger!¡± He was very happy with the feeling after fighting the fourth stage big lizard. He was capable of coming out uninjured after killing it without getting a single blow. But still, Ling Xu wasn¡¯t unaware that if he met a faster beast he would have had to defend against their attacks. So, he knew the importance of having a skill which upgraded his defense. ¡°Fuse them!¡± Like when he first learned the skill, Ling Xu started to feel his body in pain as if ants were gnawing at his skin. Unfortunately for his mental health the pain was amplified many folds as the skin wasn¡¯t the only part that was changing. Ling Xu felt the pain moving to his bones as it magnified it even more. ¡°Damn it!¡± he even felt as if a hammer was hitting against his bones making him fall to the ground as he lost the strength to move his body. He felt his whole skeleton vibrate making the pain even worse. His senses started to become dull as the seconds went on. ¡°How much time is it going to take?!!¡± Ling Xu was going through hell right now as he felt that torture would be much better than this. It was way worse than before as the changes took even longer. Ling Xu remained in this cycle of pain for three whole minutes, a lot more than what he had to go through when he first learned the skill. Three minutes may seem short, but even someone who is dying burnt alive will feel tremendous pain even if it is just for a few seconds. The time for the transformation of the body ended as Ling Xu finally recovered his senses. After he recovered, he felt the change on the sensation of his body right away. But he decided to first check his status as he hadn¡¯t looked at it after he entered the path on the right. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 2nd stage of Blood Qi (62,5%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (proficient 32%), Existence Shadow Will (2,25%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) ¡°The grade hasn¡¯t increased?¡± Ling Xu felt surprised as he saw that the skill remained as a middle grade one. But he soon remembered the insufferable pain in his bones. ¡°It still feels like it has improved compared to before, let¡¯s see its effect.¡± Ling Xu activated his skill once again as he saw the layer of Copper Skin come out, he realized right away that it looked much stronger as its color was more intense. He started to move as he noticed something when he first moved his hand. Ling Xu threw a few punches in the air and felt they carried a little more weight. ¡°It seems that as I felt the hammering on my bones, their weight and density have increased. This will prove helpful when I have to face a strong attack as they won¡¯t break that easily.¡± Wandering in his thoughts, Ling Xu suddenly remembered something important. ¡°Wait! What about that shiny object that the lizard was guarding.¡± He moved and started to look at the pond trying to find where that brilliance came from. He could barely see through as the light was dim. But thanks to his improvement in senses, he managed to find the location after some time. Seeing something he was very familiar with under the water he dived right away expectant. As he got there, he saw a box in the water resting on a rocky table that protruded from the ground. He went back to the ground and opened it with full expectancy. ¡°Please be something good.¡± As he opened the box, he saw a stone that shone on the box. ¡°Another one, why can¡¯t I get another equipment like my Wind Blood Shoes.¡± Thinking that it ended there, he heard another notification from the system. [Do you want to fuse the items?] Ling Xu¡¯s mouth opened wide as he realized that not only skills, but items were also possible to fuse. ¡°It has to increase in grade this time.¡± Ling Xu took the luminous stone from his pocket and answered to the system to fuse them. The luminous stone which he took out from his pocket suddenly started to shine and merged into the one he just obtained. The one remaining started glowing and glowing as it acquired the essence from the other luminous stone. The process ended and Ling Xu observed the shining stone. [You have obtained Luminous Stone (high grade).] ¡°It looks brighter¡± he didn¡¯t really expect that the fusion would be possible for items as it was different from the skill, but after it happened, he felt happy. Ling Xu could only see from the transparent stone that the amount of light it had increased. ¡°Let¡¯s try and see if it can increase the grade of my Refined Short Sword.¡± Taking the luminous stone to his weapon, he saw another reaction. The stone disintegrated very fast as it started to envelop the short sword¡¯s blade. When the light subsided and Ling Xu could see the finished product he was surprised. From a dark grey color which had a refined look to it just like its name, Ling Xu admired the dark blade in which his short sword had turned to. [You have obtained Refined Short Sword (high grade).] ¡°It looks so strong.¡± He felt surprised as the system didn¡¯t change the name of his weapon, but he couldn¡¯t care less as he admired the sharp edge of the sword. The reason why the short sword changed in name when he first used the luminous stone to upgrade its grade from low to middle was because it hadn¡¯t gone through that process before. Making the new weapon change into a completely new one. But now, although its quality increased, it still was the same weapon. ¡­ Ling Xu walked to the entrance where he descended at first to the second floor of the cave. He decided to rest as he still had time before the countdown ended. ¡°I should recover my energy first.¡± Thinking that once he entered that door, he wouldn¡¯t be able to recover if he had to fight right away. Being stronger than before wasn¡¯t justification to walk into danger carelessly. After all, he had spent a lot of energy fighting against the copper lizards. And as he fought the adult copper lizard, he had to spend almost all his blood qi to penetrate its tough body and kill it. In the path to the left, Ling Xu only needed to make a swing of his sword to the beasts¡¯ necks to receive the kill confirmation. A few minutes passed and Ling Xu was circulating his blood qi to recover. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. [Map]: Dark Cave [Mission]: Survive 3 hours [Participants]: 05/10. [Progress]: 1 hour, 29 minutes He looked at the mission panel while recovering, to see if there was any change. ¡°Another person has died.¡± He then proceeded to stand up as he had recovered a big part of his blood qi. Thanks to entering the mysterious state, Ling Xu was able to recover faster as the energy between his eyes would enter his body and help its recovery. [Time Limit ends in 30 minutes 28 seconds.] [Time Limit ends in 30 minutes 27 seconds.] [Time Limit ends in 30 minutes 26 seconds.] Looking at the countdown, Ling Xu went to open the door. Touching the door, another message from the system appeared. [You have cleared the 2nd floor of the Dark Cave.] [Conditions met.] [You have obtained the chance to raise the difficulty of the 3rd floor as a reward.] [Do you want to raise it?] ¡°I thought they would give another box with equipment inside, but instead I get to raise the difficulty.¡± Seeing the message in silence for a few seconds he made a choice. ¡°Raising the difficulty will make the third floor even more difficult. But this means that the reward will increase after clearing it.¡± He took a step forward as he was about to choose the raised difficulty as he froze in place. ¡°Now that I know the difficulty will be higher, I should prepare and try to advance to the third stage of blood qi.¡± Ling Xu¡¯s current realm was less than forty percent away before he advanced to the third stage of blood qi. ¡°Surviving is my top priority, if I can¡¯t advance to the third stage before the countdown ends, I won¡¯t raise the difficulty.¡± He decided on refining his body until the time was about to end. Ling Xu sat down and circulated his blood qi with an incredible focus. His blood qi circulated very fast without any disturbances. He felt his muscles become sore from the constant refinement that made him slowly become stronger. Every breath he took made his blood qi circulate stronger. Even now, Ling Xu¡¯s mastery of his cultivation technique slowly increased. Although it was far from comparable to his progress when his mind entered a state of complete clarity. ¡­ Minutes passed and Ling Xu suddenly felt the path between his eyes, which hadn¡¯t completely closed, open once again. A stream of pure energy bathed his whole body making his mind become clear once again. That wasn¡¯t all as his blood qi followed its own rhythm running faster and faster every moment. After a few minutes, Ling Xu suddenly felt his blood qi circulation change as it started to move smoother than ever. It followed the most efficient routes as it refined the muscles much faster than before, increasing his speed in completing the second stage of Blood Qi. Ling Xu¡¯s muscles were tense from the ongoing refinement of his muscles and his mastery of Basic Blood Circulation technique kept increasing with every breath he took. ¡­ After a few minutes, Ling Xu felt his body soar as his muscles suddenly started absorbing his blood qi crazily once again. ¡°I¡¯m breaking through!¡± he realized that he was advancing into the third stage of Blood Qi as his muscles kept taking in all of his blood qi, depleting it from his body. Fortunately, just like before, the stream of energy coming out between his eyes allowed for a faster recovery of blood qi than the speed at which his muscles absorbed it. The process continued and Ling Xu felt the last step as his muscles roared with endless strength making him feel invigorated once again. ¡°I can now feel safe entering the next floor.¡± He said as he let go of any obsession about surviving or securing his safety. After all, this tutorial was Ling Xu¡¯s first time ever fighting and he had been on edge for almost the whole duration. So as he felt that his strength was enough to advance and being able to fend for himself against a raised difficulty, his mind let go for the first time. A few seconds passed and as he was about to end circulating his blood qi as he felt a change. Suddenly, the stream of energy that came from between his eyes started flooding in as if breaking from a dam. As if advancing into the third stage of Blood Qi wasn¡¯t enough, Ling Xu¡¯s blood qi continued refining his muscles. The cycle of his muscles absorbing his blood qi and the stream of golden energy helping restore it kept on as it maintained an insane speed of refining with the help of his increasing mastery of Basic Blood Circulation technique. Ling Xu felt his muscles soar for the second time in less than half an hour as his muscles were refined incredibly fast helping him feel the increase in strength that brought being advancing from the start of the third stage of Blood Qi to its completion. His muscles were refined one time after another, strengthening after every cycle his blood qi made. As the stream of energy had completely entered his body, Ling Xu¡¯s mind had reached a state of clarity that allowed him to let go of any control of his body so he didn¡¯t control anything and just went with the flow feeling every change. After a short time, his muscles stopped making progress as they couldn¡¯t be further refined. This continued for a whole minute as Ling Xu¡¯s blood qi kept on circulating trying to refine his muscles. After some time passed, his muscles made a reaction. As if they were stranded on a desert island, they became desperate trying to absorb madly any blood qi they made contact with. This process wasn¡¯t anything similar to when he broke through to the second or third stage as it continued on absorbing madly his blood qi as if trying to leave it completely dry. The absorption continued frantically as the stream of golden energy that at first overflowed in his body now looked thinning every breath he took. Sustaining the state of extreme clarity Ling Xu was experiencing plus recovering his blood qi made it impossible for this energy not to be completely used up. This kept on as the golden energy thinned until almost none was left. Fortunately, it seems that Ling Xu¡¯s muscles were satisfied as they stopped absorbing his blood qi the next second. Ling Xu recovered his senses as the energy couldn¡¯t sustain anymore his state of clarity. He felt as his muscles burst with an incredibly energy as if breaking free from an invisible shackle. After breaking free, his muscles started feeding back to the whole body the blood qi they had absorbed. Returning a blood qi that was purer than before as it had been refined by his muscles. Even the amount had increased again as when entering the third stage of Blood Qi his blood qi reserves had increased too. Ending the circulation of his blood qi, Ling Xu opened his eyes as he stopped refining his body. ¡°This is amazing!¡± Not able to restrain his facial expressions, his face had a smile from eye to eye. He felt excited about what had just happened as he felt that his muscles had been completely reborn. Ling Xu already knew that he had entered the third stage of Blood Qi, but although he didn¡¯t know what process he went through he knew that his muscles had also completely transformed. Checking the timer, Ling Xu saw that he had been cultivating for a total of twenty-seven minutes. His mind moved and he called for his status panel next. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 3rd stage of Blood Qi (peak) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 2%), Existence Shadow Will (4,75%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) He observed the new level of mastery he had reached but the next second he thought of something else that took all his attention away from the status panel. ¡°I wonder what my current strength is.¡± Ling Xu neared the wall and he positioned his right arm ready to make a punch. His blood qi moved as his body roared in strength. The punch was extremely fast as it arrived to the wall making a sound from the collision. Seeing the result he was amazed as it had left a complete imprint of his hand leaving several cracks around it. It was clear that Ling Xu¡¯s current strength was enough to destroy the wall from a building with ease as it wasn¡¯t as solid as the hard wall of the cave which was underground. Ling Xu then activated his copper skin iron bones once again spending some of his blood qi. He now had more than enough blood qi to activate it several times while in combat as his blood qi had become abundant. He even felt the layer of copper skin tighter and tougher as the increase in quality of his blood qi had an effect on the skill too. ... Ling Xu ended his preparations as the countdown neared the end. As he confirmed to the message on the door that he would like that the difficulty was raised he opened the door. [You have raised the 3rd floor¡¯s difficulty.] Ling Xu had done what he could to raise his chances of success as he advanced in his realm. He was excited already as he thought about what kind of reward he would be able to get if he cleared the third floor. After he entered the door Ling Xu found himself on a grand path of stairs leading down without any turn like the one that sent him to the second floor. Walking for a long time he started to wonder why the long distance as there was no need to make it that far from the second floor. The answer came immediately as he reached the end of the stairs and his jaw dropped to the ground. It seems the third floor was far from the second as it needed enough space. Ling Xu saw the ceiling being so tall as if the cave was the size of a building. The height was estimated to be around four or five floors. His eyes moved a lot as he observed the scene he had in front. Although the cave had the same earth looking like structure, he saw some pillars made of a strange rock that followed along a carved path made out of a clear colored stone. The path was long and it had a platform that had space for a few beasts that were laying there. Ling Xu advanced patiently for a short while before he was close enough to see the beasts he was already familiar with. He looked at a group of six big lizards from the distance, fortunately they hadn¡¯t seen him. ¡°Is there something at the end?¡± He observed that the path continued as he saw a big door. Chapter 9: End of tutorial Ling Xu charged to the group of lizards as he identified they were the same stage as the adult copper lizard and they were on the fourth stage of the Blood Qi realm. He had already prepared and didn¡¯t need to delve on it any longer as he knew that after breaking through to the third stage and reaching its peak he would be able to kill several of them. So, he approached very fast trying to make it quick as he knew this was just the beginning. He used his shoes¡¯ skill to enhance his speed and jumped three meters high. The lizards sensed a big movement as they all looked at a figure flying down. Ling Xu landed as he cut the neck of the nearest copper lizard. Then he moved as he wasn¡¯t planning for the lizards to pounce on him all together. As he moved to the side, he severed the neck from another one that was close. All this happened in just a few breaths and Ling Xu cut both beasts without any problem, he even felt that he didn¡¯t have to use much strength as he had killed them with little effort thanks to the grade increase of his refined short sword. As he sensed a tail coming at him, he avoided it without a problem dodging to the side once again as he was eyeing his next prey. A few breaths went on as Ling Xu had already killed two more lizard beasts, leaving only a pair of them. He slashed at the fifth one in no time as they were scared and didn¡¯t know what to do to save themselves making them stagger in their place. The last lizard was scared to death as it tried one last attempt for life. It desperately jumped straight at him trying to bite him. Ling Xu felt a little funny seeing a beast so scared while he was in complete control. He still remembered how he acted just an hour ago after he fought his first adult rabbit. When he was a few centimeters away from its mouth, he smoothly made a flexible turn with his whole body making the lizard bite the air. He then punched it without using half his strength as the lizard was sent flying several feet away. The lizard fell chaotically to the ground and rolled before getting up once again. It had lost all spirit after being completely overwhelmed so it was no surprise a breath later when Ling Xu ended its life having his sword inserted on its chest. Without having a drop of sweat coming out of his body, Ling Xu looked once again at the door in the distance. He walked straight to it as he saw a figure become clear. Ling Xu observed a beast guarding the door as he looked at it. The lizard was already aware of him after hearing the big commotion when he fought his underlings but it didn¡¯t go and help them because it had the job of guarding the door. It looked at Ling Xu¡¯s sword as it saw his underlings blood pouring down from it and felt rage wanting to kill him right away. Confined in a limited space it waited until he entered the range where it had access to. If he wasn¡¯t limited to a specific space the guardian would have stayed with his underlings and would have fought Ling Xu to the death, but the leader had ordered him to guard the door as it had a special guest inside. Ling Xu looked at the lizard that was over a dozen feet long glaring at him with eyes that had the intent to kill. He remained calm as he stared at the beast straight into the eyes. Feeling like the difficulty of defeating the guarding lizard was lower as he wouldn¡¯t need to focus on several bladed tails flying at him, Ling Xu charged right away. He appeared in no time at the beast¡¯s side ready to land a strong slash with his refined short sword, but before he even tried he was greeted with the lizard¡¯s attack. Being of a higher stage than the adult copper lizards, although it looked identical it was much bigger in size. Ling Xu never expected that apart from its size it would also have another difference. He was surprised as its tail that suddenly attacked him divided itself into three razor sharp blades. And although it was divided, that didn¡¯t mean that they were smaller. It was quite the opposite as Ling Xu saw the three tails were the same size as the ones the fourth stage lizards had. Ling Xu avoided the first two attacks but the third one came from an angle that he couldn¡¯t avoid. He reacted right away as he blocked with his bare hands calling out his Copper Skin. Ling Xu didn¡¯t feel any pain as the copper skin had managed to withstand the full blow from the copper lizard. He didn¡¯t even budge as his body weight was higher than before after his bones had turned stronger than metal. While being careful of the ongoing attacks, Ling Xu managed to make a direct cut at the lizard¡¯s back. He even used his blood qi to make the bones in his arm heavier to improve his attack strength using the advantage of gravity by slashing downward. Hearing a low-pitched cry of pain coming from the beast he attacked again in the already big wound as he directly pierced through it reaching its inside. The lizard could only move in place having no strength to defend itself while he destroyed its internal organs. Hearing the notification sound, Ling Xu confirmed that the guarding lizard was of the fifth stage as he sat down to rest and recover. It only took him a few minutes as he still felt very energetic and had more than enough blood qi to confront what was on the other side of the door. The door was opened and Ling Xu stepped inside as he observed the beasts laying in the room. He saw a four-legged rabbit in the center of a big dome. The place didn¡¯t look like a cave anymore as it started to have carved stones that were used for the ground and walls. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Why it was beasts and not one beast is because he noticed after seeing behind the four-legged rabbit a small part of the body of a big lizard while the rest remained submerged in a water pond that was at least twice as large as the one on the second floor. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I am going to make it quick.¡± He said planning to kill both beasts the fastest he could as he doesn¡¯t like prolonged fights. As he had already settled on it, he saw the door actually close as if it wouldn¡¯t give him a chance to leave anymore. Going all out he stimulated his eyes with Enhanced Synapsis to the limit as it was the biggest advantage he had against every enemy he encountered from the beginning. Having the ability to see every movement in more detail making him capable of avoiding fatal wounds and almost always landing a precise attack. He also needed to pay attention to the lizard on the big pond as he didn¡¯t know when it would come and interrupt his fight with the rabbit. He never expected he would be allowed to kill the rabbit because that would put the lizard in a disadvantage. Even if it was a beast, it would be normal to think that numbers made a difference when fighting a strong enemy. As he ran straight at it, Ling Xu saw the rabbit charging with a long horn as the horned rabbits Ling Xu had many times killed before, this one tried to pierce him with it too. And as it had four normal legs, it didn¡¯t jump but run. It was unprecedently fast as he had never seen a rabbit running but jumping, making them a little slower because they couldn¡¯t focus their whole strength on running forward. Avoiding the horn and then another attack from the beast, Ling Xu used the fastest movement he had as he used both movement skill and his wind blood shoes. But unfortunately, the lizard had interrupted as the moment both parties charged towards each other it was already coming to help its partner. Ling Xu detected its movement pretty fast with his peripheral view, but he acted as if he hadn¡¯t noticed continuing with his ongoing fight. So, when the lizard was just a few meters apart from them, he interrupted his refined short sword¡¯s and made an angle directing it towards the lizard¡¯s eye. The thick-skinned lizard couldn¡¯t yell before Ling Xu pressed with all his strength as his blood qi roared through his whole body making his muscles explode to another level. The sword made a sound as it broke through the lizard¡¯s skull and pierced right into its brain. The four legged rabbit was standing in the same position as it barely had time to react at the sudden scene he just witnessed. He never expected that a foreign being would be capable of completely overwhelming its partner before. Left on the ground with a sword in its brain it started spasming as it lost all bodily functions. Snapping out of it, the rabbit reacted moving to the side to avoid Ling Xu¡¯s incoming charge. Taking the dagger from his pants, Ling Xu was running at it as he slashed to thin air. The rabbit had dodged the incoming attack but it never expected what would come next. Seeing everything way slower than it was he changed precisely the target of his attack curving it to the side the rabbit dodged to. He slashed at its neck from bottom to top, completely severing it. [You have killed a Four-Legged Rabbit (5th stage of Blood Qi).] Even though it took him his whole strength to pierce through the copper lizard which was one stage higher in cultivation than the four-legged rabbit, Ling Xu wouldn¡¯t have been able to kill it in one go if he didn¡¯t use his whole strength too. Although the four-legged rabbit had a much weaker defense because its specialty was speed and its cultivation was lower, leaving the refined short sword in the lizard¡¯s brain significantly decreased his combat power as he had to use his small dagger which was two grades lower. If it wasn¡¯t because it wasn¡¯t specialized in defense but speed, Ling Xu wouldn¡¯t have been able to kill it in one cut. After all the short sword was stuck in the lizard¡¯s brain and he didn¡¯t intend to take his time taking it out while giving his back to the rabbit. He then looked at the lizard which was spasming on the ground and got in front of it. ¡°I will end it now.¡± He said as he pressed hard the refined short sword once again completely cutting off the lizard¡¯s brain. The lizard didn¡¯t even know what had happened before it died as it had lost his consciousness ever since it was pierce in the head. [You have killed a Penta-Tailed Lizard (6th stage of Blood Qi).] After Ling Xu took the sword stuck on the lizards mouth and he set himself in a comfortable position, he read the messages from the system that appeared after killing the penta-tailed lizard. [You have cleared the 3rd floor of the Dark Cave with a raised difficulty.] [As a reward you have obtained a Random Skill (high grade).] [You have obtained a Spatial Ring (low grade treasure).] [You have cleared the tutorial mission.] ¡°They are incredible! If I am right with what I think the spatial ring is it will be very helpful.¡± He never expected he would have the chance to get such a thing in his life. ¡°It even has a different rank than the small dagger, short sword and wind blood shoes I have.¡± Ling Xu was shocked, after all this was the first time he had gotten his hands on a treasure grade item. Having great expectations for its performance, Ling Xu took it out and placed it on his left index finger. As he observed it, he saw the ring had a black stone place in the middle. ¡°It looks so small.¡± He said as he felt the stone was extremely small being way less than half an inch long. But it didn¡¯t look simple at all. He put some of his blood qi to see if it would activate and it sure did. As the ring¡¯s stone shone a bit he suddenly felt a suction force coming from it. ¡°As expected, it is really the spatial ring that is able to store items.¡± He looked around in search of something useful to put inside and he threw his dagger to the ground as it was already deemed useless. Realizing the slow performance of a low grade weapon, Ling Xu didn¡¯t think of taking it with him at all. ¡°What can I take into the ring then?¡± Looking around he only saw the beast¡¯s corpses as he thought of something. ¡°The meat from the beasts!¡± Ling Xu started to cut them down as that would make it easier if he wanted to later take it out, that way he wouldn¡¯t need to take the entire body out he thought. Living in a small apartment would make it impossible for him to take out the beast¡¯s body that were almost as big as its size. Ling Xu was actually planning to use their meat as a delicacy at home so he cut their bodies into many pieces and only took the parts he considered edible. As he ended the cutting process, Ling Xu started putting the beast¡¯s meat into the suction range of the spatial ring. After he was done with it, he checked his status panel. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 3rd stage of Blood Qi (peak) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 2%), Existence Shadow Will (5,31%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) And he also saw once again the mission panel. [Map]: Dark Cave [Mission]: Survive 3 hours [Participants]: 05/10 [Progress]: 2 hour, 7 minutes He didn¡¯t see anything new. He felt that it was quite natural for the number of survivors to remain the same. Even though a long time had passed, those who already survived wouldn¡¯t put themselves in danger that easily. They had already been in the cave for two hours and knew the range of their strength so they wouldn¡¯t through themselves into a fight they couldn¡¯t fight. He even expected that many of the survivors would even group up. As more people were together it would probably become less dangerous to hunt the beasts. ¡°I wonder why I haven¡¯t met anyone else apart from the one who tried to kill me.¡± He thought as he lied down on the floor trying to rest a bit. He was going to wait for the mission to end as he had been notified that he had already cleared the tutorial so he didn¡¯t plan on checking the upper floors again as he had already passed through every room. It took a few breaths before Ling Xu¡¯s eyes started to close without him noticing. After all, he was mentally exhausted and physically exhausted. Although the blood qi remaining in his body was still quite high, in less than three hours he had gone through so many fights that his body needed to rest. Chapter 10: Final rewards ¡°When did I get asleep? I can¡¯t believe I actually did that in a place like this, fortunately I have already cleared the whole floor.¡± Opening his eyes, Ling Xu could see the panel of the tutorial mission in front of him. His eyes took very fast the information it had as they opened wide. Seeing the time, Ling Xu knew that the time of the tutorial was about to end. He remained on the floor while feeling a little bit more energetic after sleeping and recovering. Time continued to go down as just a few seconds remained. [Tutorial Mission ends in 3 seconds.] [Tutorial Mission ends in 2 seconds.] [Tutorial Mission ends in 1 second.] As the time reached cero, Ling Xu felt something and when he opened his eyes he saw himself in the same place he was before being forced into the tutorial. He couldn¡¯t help but feel strange at his surroundings appearing in the hallway of his apartment¡¯s floor. He even saw his neighbor in front of him feeling moved and remembering how sudden it was when they were forced into the tutorial mission. ¡°I¡¯m glad to see you here, I thought you were dead or something happened to you.¡± ¡°Why would you think that?¡± Ling Xu asked with a question mark on his face. ¡°Because I didn¡¯t see you in the tutorial and there were only five people that had survived. After grouping with three of them I found out that they all knew each other and that they lived in the apartment below.¡± ¡°That makes sense, after all I was the closest to you when we entered so if you met them you would probably have thought that I was there too.¡± ¡°That¡¯s exactly it, when I descended with one of them to the second floor and found his friends I was in shock when they started talking as if they knew each other. But everything became clear after we talked about where we were last time.¡± ¡°Then it makes sense for you to think that I had died, but fortunately I haven¡¯t. Also, I think that we shared the same tutorial as mine also had five people remaining when it ended.¡± ¡°That¡¯s great news, I can¡¯t believe you survived all on your own!¡± He flattered him genuinely as he couldn¡¯t think how hard it must have been for him to be all on his own. Ling Xu became quite shocked after being told that he could have met his neighbor but he thanked himself he didn¡¯t as he wouldn¡¯t have been able to take all the rewards. ¡°That may also explain why I saw some footprints on the ground on the second floor, if I hadn¡¯t gone fast enough I would have probably met him there.¡± He thought about the foot prints he had seen after coming out from lizard cave after killing the adult copper lizard. Ling Xu thought about his neighbor and his group¡¯s speed of advancing and realized that he had actually gone way faster all on his own. That¡¯s because while he had broken through his realm the others were still on the first level fighting and gaining experience slowly. It also probably means that their luck with their initial skills wasn¡¯t as great as his or even the man he had to kill. Ling Xu had already forgotten its name after reading it only once on the confirmation of his kill. Feeling the aura from his neighbor, Ling Xu realized that he didn¡¯t manage to advance to the second stage of the Blood Qi realm even after being there for three hours. That was probably related to the fact that his mastery over the Basic Blood Circulation technique was way above his, making his speed of refining his muscles and body surpass him several times. Ling Xu talked with him a bit more as he got the information of how much it to officially start practicing the Basic Blood Circulation technique as they had all gotten the same basic cultivation technique. For Mr. Sun, it took him around half an hour to be able to connect with his blood qi and to start refining his muscles, but this process was too slow as his control over it was the bare minimum. And it seems it was almost the same for the rest as they all took around five minutes more or less than him. ¡°Do you think those who died in the mission actually died?¡± Ling Xu asked, curious about the destiny of the man who sneak attacked him. ¡°I don¡¯t know but it is also possible that dying there doesn¡¯t mean dying in real life, but I will soon find out as there was one guy from the group I was with that had died before I had the chance to meet him.¡± They talked for a few more minutes before parting ways as they both were eager to see their rewards from the tutorial mission. Although Ling Xu had already gotten rewards, those were only because he had cleared the third floor with its difficulty raised. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Ling Xu entered his apartment and realized that he didn¡¯t tell his neighbor much about his own experience. ¡°I have to be careful about what I say in case I bring too much attention, I may be stronger than Mr. Sun and the rest of the survivors in my tutorial but that doesn¡¯t mean that I am the strongest or that I can even face a big group of people while being alone.¡± Entering his apartment he almost shed a tear thinking about all the time he had been here after moving away from his town. He went to his sofa and sat on it while he checked the messages from the system. [You have survived the tutorial mission!] [Do you want to receive your rewards based on your performance?] Ling Xu affirmed to the question from the system with full expectancy. [You have received 10 Blood Tempering Pills (medium quality first grade).] [You have been given the choice to choose between a Random Skill (high grade) and a Random Technique.] ¡°Amazing, I already want to know what these pills are for. But first I have to decided if I want another skill or a technique.¡± Wondering which option was better, he thought about his cultivation techniques. ¡°The difference between Basic Blood Circulation and my skills is that one needs to be practiced for it to have an effect and the other is automatically learned and it doesn¡¯t need to be master.¡± It took him a few minutes to decide as he answered to the system. The next instant he got a small bottle that once he opened he saw blood colored pills and a book that contained his new technique. ¡°After all, if it needs to be learned it should be stronger than those skills which don¡¯t need any practice. It doesn¡¯t matter how easy they are to use, it won¡¯t bring me future benefits.¡± ¡°Ring!¡± Ling Xu took his phone from his pocket as it had reappeared after coming back from the tutorial. ¡°It really is the same time as before I was brought into the tutorial!¡± He said surprised after seeing the hour on his phone. Putting his rewards inside his spatial storage, Ling Xu decided to answer the call as it was from someone he knew. ¡°Ling Xu, is it you? How are you doing? Did you enter the tutorial mission too?¡± ¡°Lu Xie, it¡¯s great to hear you are alright! I was there as I guess the rest of the world was too. How are you?¡± Ling Xu¡¯s face showed concern as he was talking to his one and only friend. ¡°I¡¯m happy to hear you are alive, I thought you would have died by now or at least would be scared to death crying in your lonely apartment.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t lost your humor Lu Xie.¡± ¡°Did I say anything wrong?¡± ¡°...¡± Afraid that Lu Xie would make again one of those awful jokes Ling Xu stood quiet. ¡°Hello? Ling Xu, let¡¯s meet and have something to eat.¡± ¡°Which restaurant do you expect to be open at this moment?¡± He asked not expecting any normal person to continue with his daily life after everything that happened. ¡°What about the old place we always go to? Let me contact the owner and see if it can open today.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine for me, see you then.¡± The call ended pretty fast as Ling Xu didn¡¯t have anything else to talk about that he couldn¡¯t say when they met in person. Lu Xie also understood why he hung up as he knew his friend¡¯s character after knowing each other for the last three years since he started college in Chengdu. He knew that Ling Xu was more of a serious person but he always managed to make him open up and laugh whenever they met. Lu Xie was his only friend in the city, as Ling Xu didn¡¯t have the time to socialize a lot between his intense hours of study and his job. Fortunately, they clicked pretty fast and Ling Xu liked Lu Xie¡¯s humility as he was treated the same as others even though his friend came from an extremely wealthy family. Ling Xu had already met many third generation chaebol students that came from a high status and he was never treated with a bit of respect. They did that because they were jealous that someone of a poorer background was at the top of the class in grades. And Lu Xie appreciated Ling Xu¡¯s resilience and his sense of responsibility that came after living alone for so many years. He even liked his humor although it took him some time to make him open up and make his own jokes. After Lu Xie made sure both his parents were still alive he had immediately called Ling Xu, he was very worried as although he looked up to him he knew that Ling Xu had never been of the athletic type. ¡­ Ling Xu took a very long shower as he took out the tension he had accumulated over his time in the tutorial. Then he checked his phone looking for news as he found a website made by the government where he could see anything related to the tutorial mission. The page was very well organized with a lot of information and questions posted by the citizens. There were even the top posts which were those that everyone needed to see so they knew the basic information about the system, the tutorial mission and cultivation. Seeing the level of detail the website had, Ling Xu searched about some things that he was curious. Although he already knew anything that could be known about the tutorial as he had cleared it completely. ¡°I died after being pierced by a strange rabbit that had a horn and the next second I appeared in my bed.¡± ¡°I had the same experience! Although I died when fighting a rabbit bigger than the ferocious ones, I couldn¡¯t even last ten minutes before it bit me to death. But then I appeared again at home.¡± Ling Xu looked at a post that stood out between the ones in the top as there were many people that were discussing how they had died in the tutorial but they still came back to life. ¡°They actually didn¡¯t die in the tutorial and returned at the same time as the rest of us. That¡¯s the best that could have happened as now it won¡¯t be as chaotic as it would have been if everyone that died had actually died in real life.¡± Feeling as if something was off Ling Xu remembered something the next second. ¡°Then what about that person that tried to kill me?¡± He didn¡¯t like the idea of leaving someone who had tried to kill him without punishment. After all they never knew that dying in the tutorial didn¡¯t mean actually dying. Still, he forgot about him as he already guessed that he had escaped ever since he appeared an hour ago. After all, Ling Xu may not have recognized him but maybe he remembered him and could guess that they lived in the same building. And even if that didn¡¯t happen, after seeing on the website that they were transported into the tutorial with those nearest to them he would have figured out that he wasn¡¯t safe here. ¡°I want to know more about cultivation techniques and what information there is related to it.¡± Chapter 11: Blood Tempering Pill Looking into it very interested he found out pretty soon that everyone had gotten the Basic Blood Circulation technique. Seeing another post he clicked on it as they talked about the cultivation stages of the Blood Qi realm. ¡°Hello everyone, I have managed to enter the second stage of Blood Qi but after coming back and trying to cultivate using the Basic Blood Circulation technique my progress has only slowed down. I don¡¯t even know when I will be able to advance to the next stage at this rate, can somebody help me?¡± ¡°I hear you brother, although I haven¡¯t entered the second stage, whenever I use our cultivation technique I can¡¯t help but feel that it will take me at least a month to advance to the next stage. Fortunately I have discovered a way to advance faster!¡± ¡°What?! Please tell us big brother.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to call me that way, after all we all have the opportunity to advance faster, you just have to use the blood tempering pills you have gotten as a reward. I have already seen many posts and it seems that it¡¯s the most basic reward so everyone should have at least a few of them.¡± Seeing this Ling Xu understood that the vast majority of the citizens of China haven¡¯t been able to progress much without the experience they got from killing the beasts. It all came to how far they had comprehended the Basic Blood Circulation technique as he had already felt the differences between each level of mastery. Every time he crossed into the next level he had gotten more than twice as fast as before when it comes to refining his muscles and progressing on his cultivation stage. ¡°I don¡¯t know why I got this Existence technique but I will make sure I use it to the best of my abilities.¡± He remembered that he had barely taken less than half an hour for him to advance from the second stage to the third and then enter the peak where his muscles transformed and purified his blood qi. If someone knew about it they would die from the shock. ¡°Why has nobody mentioned the countdown on the doors? I understand if no one had seen the one on the first floor but what about the one on the second floor, is it possible that once you loose the chance on the first floor you won¡¯t have another one on the next floor?¡± Ling Xu remembered that when he entered the second floor, he could see immediately the countdown on the door in front of him. He didn¡¯t know if they had lost their chance to have a bonus reward from breaking the countdown or if they just were deprived of that information but still could get it if done on time. Either way it seems those few who knew about this didn¡¯t have the intention of sharing any information. ... After a while of reading several posts, Ling Xu felt curious about the bottle he got as a reward as he had learned from the website that the blood tempering pills they contained inside where helpful for refining the body. He took the bottle of pills out of his space ring and took the cap out as he smelled a strong scent of blood. ¡°My whole body is stimulated just by the smell from these pills, I wonder what their effect will be like.¡± He took one pill out of the bottle and swallowed it whole. Sitting in the lotus position, Ling Xu followed the Basic Blood Circulation technique refining his muscles very fast. A few seconds passed and the blood tempering pill started to take effect as he felt his blood circulating at an astonishing speed while the rest of the medicinal effect from the pill helped in refining his muscles. Not even a minute passed and Ling Xu suddenly felt that he was about to break through into the fourth stage. He remained calm and continued circulating his blood qi, rapidly refining every muscle in his body. The breakthrough came and Ling Xu observed the process of his blood qi being absorbed by his muscles as they strengthened every breath. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Even though Ling Xu had felt that the channel that opened between his eyes had completely closed after he broke through to the peak of the third stage, and the stream of energy that helped in recovering his blood qi was now gone, he had no problem. Entering into the third stage of Blood Qi and then reaching its peak while having the blood exchange as his blood qi became purer, Ling Xu had more than enough blood qi to complete the breakthrough without external help. ¡­ After a few minutes, Ling Xu stopped his circulation of his blood qi as the medicinal effect from the pill had been completely used. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 4th stage of Blood Qi (10%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 2%), Existence Shadow Will (5,31%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) After breaking into the fourth stage, Ling Xu continued until he had used the effect from the pill. With its help he progressed another ten percent even though he only refined his body for another two minutes. Taking into the account the speed at which the rest of the world was progressing on their realm right now, Ling Xu was too overbearing as he had only used one pill and his realm had already reached between two and three stages higher than others. ¡°It seems the only way I can increase my comprehension of the Basic Blood Circulation technique and completely master it is by slowly understanding it or entering the state of clarity once again. But I don¡¯t know how to open the channel between my eyes once again.¡± If the rest of the world knew about Ling Xu¡¯s worry about his ¡°slow¡± progress in mastering his cultivation technique they would feel as if they had been slapped on the face. ¡°I should forget about that for now, next let¡¯s keep the rest of the pills in the storage ring. Although they help in increasing the speed of refining, with my current mastery of my cultivation technique being at great success I don¡¯t need them as I am already progressing extremely fast compared to others. Maybe I can use the pills to exchange for something valuable later.¡± Ling Xu knew that his progress was already at the top of the world as he didn¡¯t have to ask to know the value of his Existence cultivation technique, which somehow allowed for him to enter a state where his comprehension improved making his mind flow naturally. And he also knew that the value that this pill would bring was limited as once he ingested it he was able to feel its purity, which was almost as high as his before breaking into the fourth stage of blood qi. Once his realm advanced, its help would greatly lower as its quality would have less effect against the increase in blood qi. Even now, if Ling Xu used all the blood tempering pills, he would probably advance to the fifth stage. But with his current speed of refining, it would only take him less than an hour to do so all on his own. ¡°At least I got rewarded with medium quality pills as the vast majority have only gotten low quality ones.¡± If he had actually gotten low quality pills too, its help would almost amount to nothing as he read in the posts the help they provided to lower stages of cultivation. So if they had to be consumed by someone like him who was in the fourth stage, he would be lucky if they at least helped him increase one percent. ... A few hours went by and Ling Xu woke up after sleeping for a few hours as his mind and body wasn¡¯t nearly enough to being recovered from his exhaustion from the tutorial. Even then, Ling Xu hadn¡¯t almost slept at all last night as he had been studying preparing for college as he had a very important test in less than a month. But now it all seemed to not really matter after Ling Xu exited the tutorial mission. It was as if he had taken a big load off his body. After all, the direction at which Earth was going to go next would be one of cultivation where only strength mattered. ¡°What time is it?¡± He woke up as he remembered that he had agreed to meet with Lu Xie. ¡°I steel have two hours left, why don¡¯t I take a slow walk and enjoy my time outside.¡± He thought confidently as if nothing was going on right now. While half of the world was currently hiding in their homes or returning in a hurry, feeling insecure about their safety. Ling Xu wasn¡¯t the only one that had fought another human being, it was natural for those that experienced it or even had to kill someone to feel unsafe. He changed his clothes and went to the restaurant taking the longest path that also happened to have the best view. While he took some detours and was having fun walking outside, those few who were returning home or looking out of the window looked baffled at Ling Xu¡¯s attitude as if nothing mattered. They only saw a crazy child not facing reality. Those weren¡¯t the only people that observed him as Ling Xu discovered a presence following him from a fair distance. If it wasn¡¯t for his Enhanced Synapsis he wouldn¡¯t have noticed it as he heard the same footsteps following him for a long time. Although he enjoyed his walk to the restaurant that didn¡¯t mean that he would be as carless as to think that he was invincible. Having entered the tutorial mission didn¡¯t change the fact that guns existed, Ling Xu was still far from able to resist a bullet with his body. Before he decided to take action and see who this pursuer was, Ling Xu had arrived at his destination as he observed two bodyguards in the entrance of the restaurant. At the same time, he could hear the footsteps that were following him slowly disappear. ¡°I never expected Lu Xie to have his own bodyguards, I knew that his family was wealthy but I didn¡¯t know that it was this much.¡± He said in shock as he felt the aura from the bodyguards and realized that they both were in the second stage of Blood Qi. Chapter 12: Blood Thread Transformation Ling Xu entered without any problem as the bodyguards had already been shown a picture of him, he saw Lu Xie on a table looking the other way. Trying not to make any sound, Ling Xu sneaked near him and slapped him in his back. ¡­ ¡°You really surprised me there!¡± Lu Xie said a few minutes later still feeling his back burn like hell from Ling Xu¡¯s friendly play. ¡°I never thought you were capable of making these jokes, I almost had a heart attack.¡± ¡°Does it still hurt? I barely used any strength¡­¡± ¡°Do you think I would feel this much pain if you had barely used any strength? How in hell does it make any sense?!¡± Ling Xu laughed seeing his friend¡¯s reaction as he looked at him curious in how it had gone for him in the tutorial. After meeting him he felt Lu Xie¡¯s aura and realized that it wasn¡¯t any less than his bodyguards. From what he has read in the posts, those who reached the second stage of Blood Qi were already very impressive as the majority barely managed to reach the first stage. ¡°I can¡¯t believe how much you have changed.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t you noticed? Although I don¡¯t know why I can¡¯t feel your cultivation, I can tell that you have grown a lot. You have grown muscles that you didn¡¯t have before and even your eyes have changed a bit.¡± ¡°My eyes?¡± ¡°I always saw a mature man through your eyes, but now I can also sense confidence. I can tell without having entered the tutorial with you that you have gone through a lot.¡± ¡°I never thought that you looked so carefully into the details. And what about you, I can feel you have entered the second stage. That¡¯s very impressive.¡± ¡°Very impressive? You say it as if it was something cute. By the way, what stage are you in?¡± After all, with Ling Xu¡¯s current level of mastery over his cultivation technique and his deep control of his blood qi, it was impossible for someone with a lower stage of cultivation to detect his aura. Ling Xu thought deeply about whether to tell his friend his current realm, before arriving at the restaurant he had already thought about this. ¡°Lu Xie is my friend and the only person that has been with me ever since my mother died. I don¡¯t know if what will happen if I tell him in the future but I should give him a chance and trust in him.¡± Having decided, he answered to his friend truthfully. ¡°I have entered the fourth stage after coming out of the tutorial.¡± ¡°Ah so you were also able to reach the second stage, after all you are my friend¡­ wait, did you say fourth stage?!!¡± ¡°You heard correctly.¡± ¡°How the hell did you manage to reach two stages higher than me? It¡¯s not that I am doubting you, but apart from when I had to recover from my injuries I had been fighting the whole time I was in there.¡± Lu Xie¡¯s face showed shock, he never doubted if Ling Xu was lying as he knew his friend¡¯s character. ¡°It¡¯s not only about how many beasts you kill.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°After cultivating using the Basic Blood Circulation technique, I realized that if your comprehension of it is high enough it can help you advance in your realm several times faster than killing beasts.¡± ¡°I have tried it already but it is so difficult to control my blood qi that it took me an hour to feel my connection and then start moving it. And every time I think I¡¯m doing it right it stops and I have to try again to connect with it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because you are still in the entry level, once your mastery level has reached a certain stage you will be able to move it with ease and refining your body will become faster than killing beasts.¡± ¡°Then what level of comprehension of the cultivation technique did you reach?¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°I have completed the entry level and I am currently in the small success, once you complete it you will be able to progress faster too.¡± Ling Xu decided to lie this time, although he wasn¡¯t used to lying to his friend this was something that was related to his secret. Telling him his cultivation stage was one thing, but how would he be able to explain that he has already reached the great success level which is three stages above his friend¡¯s. Their time on the tutorial and before they met wouldn¡¯t allow for his comprehension to reach this high unless he had something that he was hiding. And Ling Xu knew that if he told him his mastery level his friend wouldn¡¯t believe him, after all he already felt the difficulty of improving his control of his blood qi while in the entry level. ¡­ ¡°Can you believe he tried to kill me after taking the weapon behind the rabbit we killed?¡± Ling Xu was still conversing with his friend as he saw his face full of anger while telling him how he had barely survived after killing the person who shared the first floor of the cave with him. ¡°Fortunately I got this skill called iron fist that enhances the destructive power of my fists and helps me resist attacks coming from sharp weapons.¡± He showed Ling Xu how his fists suddenly turned red once he activated the skill. ¡°You got a pretty good skill, my skill helps me enhance my senses and see everything clearer.¡± Ling Xu tried not to talk about the full extent of his skill as he didn¡¯t want to come too overbearing with his friend. After all he had already told Lu Xie that his realm was far above his. ... They continued their conversation without forgetting to eat everything they could for a few more hours. Ling Xu walked home in the middle of the night feeling full after eating six dishes of the best on the menu. Lu Xie offered him bringing him home with his family¡¯s car but he rejected it as he wanted to feel the breeze of the night. Lu Xie was worried about his friend¡¯s safety after seeing a few alerts from the government about cases of killing on the street and fighting. But he remembered Ling Xu¡¯s strength and realized that he didn¡¯t need any help to arrive home safely. He had already fought an adult rabbit while being in the first stage and he knew the big difference in strength between one stage and another. They also saw a notice from the government that killing humans outside of the tutorial wouldn¡¯t drop a skill as there wasn¡¯t any current case of someone getting one. The government was really trying their best to calm the citizens and regain control of their country. ¡­ The next morning, Ling Xu woke up eager to check the rewards he hadn¡¯t seen as he only tried the effect of one of the blood tempering pills before he received Lu Xie¡¯s call. [You have learned White Heavy Strike (high grade).] Looking at the system¡¯s messages he hadn¡¯t seen, Ling Xu saw his reward for clearing the third floor with its difficulty raised. It was a skill made for attack, so Ling Xu fed his spatial ring his blood qi and took out his refined short sword. He swung down the sword as he activated the skill in his mind. ¡°White Heavy Strike!¡± Suddenly, the weight of the sword increased tremendously and Ling Xu started to panic. The speed at which the sword moved increased with the help of its increased weight and Ling Xu barely managed to stop it by using all his strength. He looked to the floor and saw a small cut where the sword was going to fall. ¡°Amazing, I really needed a skill like this that directly increased my attack power.¡± He was happy that he had finally gotten a skill made just to increase his as he already had exceptional skills that increased his movement and reaction speed, and even one that increased his defense. Ling Xu only felt he needed to make his attacks stronger for when he needed to land a decisive blow. He wouldn¡¯t always have the chance to attack the weak spots of his enemies as he did before, striking on the eyes or neck. Thinking about his reward, Ling Xu remembered that he still had to practice the new technique he got. He opened the manual and started reading it. ¡°This Blood Thread Transformation technique is a unique method to condense the blood qi in the body through the heart, greatly increasing its purity. To be able to practice I need to reach at least the sixth stage of Blood Qi or my heart won¡¯t be strong enough to condense my blood qi.¡± Ling Xu was impressed at the contents of the technique he had obtained as a reward and was eager to try it, but he remembered its requirement to be at least in the sixth stage of Blood Qi. He then continued as there was more to its introduction. ¡°But it has a big downside and unless I have a great supply of resources able to help in replenishing my blood qi, the time it will take condensing my blood qi could increase from a few months to years. And the lower my capacity of blood qi the higher the time increases.¡± His face showed disappointment as he didn¡¯t expect this technique to have such a big problem, he was still in the fourth stage of Blood Qi and he knew that it would take him a week or two to enter the sixth stage so he was very shocked when he read the time that would take him condensing his blood qi. ¡°If only I could enter that state again where the path between my eyes opened and the energy I felt last time helped me in recovering my blood qi. That way I feel like the time it would take me to complete this technique would shorten a lot.¡± Not knowing if there would be a next time to enter that state again, Ling Xu felt no hope of completing this technique in the near time. Ling wanted to start practicing immediately the Blood Thread Transformation technique but he couldn¡¯t as his realm didn¡¯t reach the minimum requirement. ¡°I will try and comprehend its contents first and then try to reach the sixth stage of Blood Qi to start practicing it and see how hard it is.¡± ¡­ Night came and Ling Xu ended reading the book completely. ¡°I can¡¯t believe it took me the entire day to completely understand the manual, there were several parts that needed to be understood in detail.¡± Unless he wanted to have an accident while practicing the technique later, he needed to understand it to the bone to not make any mistake that may put him in danger. ¡°I¡¯m so hungry, I want to try the taste of the beast¡¯s meat.¡± It took him almost two hours to cook the meat from the sixth grade beast as it was extremely tough and resilient. But the result was better than expected as it now looked and smelled incredible. ¡°Let¡¯s try and see how it tastes.¡± Chapter 13: Dual threads Taking a piece to his mouth, Ling Xu had to chew with effort as it was still very hard even though it softened after being cooked. Enjoying the flavor from the meat, he felt his body suddenly become stimulated once the first piece of meat was completely swallowed down. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect the beast¡¯s meat to have this effect, I should cultivate after eating all of it.¡± After half an hour he left the plate with nothing left. Ling Xu felt his body burning with the tonic effect from the meat and he immediately started cultivating. ¡­ This refining lasted until it was three in the morning. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 4th stage of Blood Qi (38%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 2%), Existence Shadow Will (5,31%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) ¡°The speed slowed down a lot after entering the fourth stage, it feels so difficult to refine the organs. Not only do I need a lot of blood qi to help refining them but I have to be very delicate with it or I might cause an internal injury.¡± He said as he realized the difficulty of refining his body from the fourth stage onwards. The organs are very delicate and Ling Xu had to be more careful while circulating his blood qi. While before it barely took him half an hour to complete and enter the peak of the third stage, now Ling Xu had to refine his organs for several hours to complete almost twenty percent of the fourth stage. ¡°At least the progress can be felt, not only my skin but my internal organs have become stronger than before.¡± He felt inside his body and realized that although the progress was slower than before, it was worth it. ¡­ A few days passed and Ling Xu maintained a routine of having breakfast, going out for a long walk and then enjoying the taste of the beast¡¯s meat. Afterwards he would enter meditation and start refining his organs for several hours. Now he was in the middle of breaking through to the fifth stage of Blood Qi. Circulating his blood qi as the Basic Blood Circulation technique guided, Ling Xu felt his organs absorbing it continuously. After a few more minutes his organs suddenly started bursting with energy as he felt he had advanced to the fifth stage of Blood Qi. ¡°This feels very different from when I advanced in the previous stages and my muscles became stronger, I feel as if my resistance has increased and even my skin has become harder.¡± Ling Xu took out the small dagger he had almost no use for and tried to slowly press against his skin. Not feeling like he was hurting himself he slowly increase his strength on the dagger until he saw a cut. ¡°Although I can¡¯t completely resist low grade weapons, unless I receive the full blow from someone in my current stage I won¡¯t have a problem blocking them with my bare hand.¡± Ling Xu decided to enjoy the rest of the day as he had broken through after waking up, feeling eager as he knew that he was about to advance and he couldn¡¯t wait until it was night time. The rest of the day was the same as ever as Ling Xu took a walk outside. He even tested his endurance as he started running at full speed in the street. Ling Xu run as fast as many cars after having surpassed the limits of the human body since he entered the second stage of Blood Qi. Still, there were some that he couldn¡¯t follow as they were going way over the speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour. After running for an hour Ling Xu stopped to rest as he had reached his limit, several people looked at him afraid or shocked at his speed as they started to move away from him. Now that almost a week had passed, people had started to come out of their houses as they couldn¡¯t live without food and water, so the majority of Chengdu¡¯s citizens resumed their work. It was quite difficult as there were several cases of fighting, but the government made some arrangements and punished those who started the fight in cases where they caused harm to others. Ling Xu didn¡¯t care about that as he had left his part time job in a store, having enough money to sustain himself for the next year. If he stayed with his job he would have been able to sustain himself for another year but he knew that in such a long time many things would change and right now his top priority was to become strong and advance in his realm. ¡­ Two days passed and Ling Xu was cultivating normally as he got accustomed to for the last week since he got out of the tutorial. He was becoming more proficient in refining his organs with delicacy as his refining speed started to increase once again. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. About to end the time he set himself for cultivation, Ling Xu felt something. ¡°Is it what I think it is?¡± He calmed his breathing when a stream of energy started to enter his body, Ling Xu remembered what happened after he had completely let go the last time so he stopped trying to control his body and he felt as it followed its own rhythm. Between Ling Xu¡¯s eyes, the golden energy was entering and completely bathing his body as his refining speed was increasing. Not only was his realm progressing but his mastery of the Basic Blood Circulation technique started advancing too. This continued for a complete hour as Ling Xu came back to his senses once again. He felt the path between his eyes close and the energy that came out of it slowly decrease until there was no more. ¡°Incredible, I thought it would take me another week to enter the sixth stage of Blood Qi but after the path between my eyes opened once again I only needed one hour to do so. Now I know that this ability needs time to activate, I just need to wait.¡± Ling Xu then took out his small dagger and tested the toughness of his skin once again. He became excited as he got a small mark that could barely be called a cut after using his whole strength. Now, unless he was attacked by someone above his realm or with a higher grade weapon, Ling Xu felt confident that he wouldn¡¯t be hurt. He didn¡¯t even need to use Copper Skin Iron Bones to resist normal attacks anymore as his skin was tough enough. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 6th stage of Blood Qi (29%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 62%), Existence Shadow Will (5,31%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) ¡°Amazing, even my mastery on my cultivation technique has increased. After practicing for the last few days I barely saw it increase from two to five percent. If I didn¡¯t have this ability I would have never been able to bring it this far.¡± Having entered the sixth stage finally, Ling Xu decided that it was time to practice the Blood Thread Transformation technique. ¡°I will read through the manual again in case I forgot something.¡± ¡­ ¡°Ufff¡­¡± It took him three hours to completely read through the manual again as it was quite extensive. But as it was his second time reading it, he took less than half the time it took him to read it before as he had already understood the content. ¡°Fortunately I read through it again or else I would have forgot a few important steps.¡± Now that Ling Xu had the technique fresh in his mind he was ready to start practicing it. Assuming the lotus position, Ling Xu¡¯s blood qi circulated as it made a wild sound. Having completed more than half the level of mastery great success and with his current blood qi capacity, you could hear it running wildly inside his body. He calmed his breathing and focused his mind inside his body, ready to start the first step of condensing his blood qi. Using his control over his blood qi, Ling Xu started separating it. Two string of blood qi slowly begun to differentiate as they started to move separately. Everything seemed to progress smoothly until Ling Xu lost focus for a moment and his blood qi merged again into one stream. Time passed and Ling Xu realized the difficulty of practicing a technique compared to the skills that didn¡¯t need any practice as they were completely learned and you could use them instinctively. ¡°Again.¡± A few hours passed and Ling Xu had finally been able to divide his focus between both threads of blood qi without any of them losing control and merging again. The end of this step was to replicate this until all the blood qi inside his body was divided into two threads of blood qi. Doing this required the help of the heart that with its strength and pressure it would allow for the beginning division he had already made to continue until it connected with it again after completing the whole circulation of his body. This part would need quite the consumption of his blood qi, so Ling Xu knew that this step wouldn¡¯t be completed un just a day or two. ¡­ After five whole days of being completely immersed in dividing his blood qi into two separate threads, Ling Xu managed to complete the first stage of the Blood Thread Transformation technique. He had to take almost ten hours every day where he repeated the cycle of using his blood qi to help in the consumption of energy from his heart while dividing the rest of it into two separate threads, resting his heart as this action put quite the strain on it and then enhancing the speed of recovery of his blood qi by following the technique contained in his Basic Blood Circulation technique. After all, refining his body and recovering his blood qi needed two completely different types of circulation. Fortunately, it all was contained in his cultivation technique, otherwise it would have been very difficult for Ling Xu to complete this stage after five days. Still, this wasn¡¯t the stage of the technique that would need a large consumption of his blood qi ,as it was made of three stages and with every increase in stage the consumption of blood qi would increase exponentially. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 6th stage of Blood Qi (29%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 62%), Existence Shadow Will (5,31%) [Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (first stage 100%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) ¡°I can¡¯t believe it took so long to complete this first stage, and from the technique¡¯s explanation, the time it will take to complete the next stages will increase several times more.¡± Although he said it with some dissatisfaction, Ling Xu¡¯s face showed joy as he was motivated feeling the new changes that brought the completion of the first stage. Feeling now that he had two separate streams of blood qi, Ling Xu felt his control over them increase as if one thread complemented the other. He even started circulating his blood qi not with the intention to refine his body but to further progress in his level of mastery as he became surprised. After a whole hour of comprehending it, Ling Xu finally saw some progress in his cultivation technique. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 6th stage of Blood Qi (29%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 63%), Existence Shadow Will (5,31%) [Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (first stage 100%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) You have to know that before, after refining his organs for an entire week, Ling Xu had barely managed to progress from 2% to 5%. But now, in just one hour he managed to progress 1%. Considering that the higher the level of mastery the more difficult it is to progress, Ling Xu¡¯s current 1% progress was equal or even higher than his progress over the first week. So for the next day, Ling Xu set his goal to deepen his comprehension of his cultivation technique to add some variety to his routine. Afterwards he would resume on starting the second stage of the Blood Thread Transformation technique. ¡­ Being at the end of his second week since he returned from the tutorial, Ling Xu felt like it was becoming more and more distant and he almost doubted if it even happened. But seeing the posts on the internet and the changes that the world was going through, he could do nothing more than accept the truth. Fortunately, the government was well organized and every day there were less and less instances of fighting between the citizens. Either way, Ling Xu remained almost half his day on isolated training so he didn¡¯t have that much knowledge about the situation in his own country. Chapter 14: Second Blood Exchange After a whole day of comprehending his cultivation technique, Ling Xu¡¯s progress had advanced from 63% of great success to 68%. Although it could seem like nothing, he noticed the difference as his speed of circulating his blood qi became faster than before. Next he would resume on starting the second stage of the technique. At the end of the second week since he left the tutorial and everything begun, Ling Xu was beginning his practice of the second stage of the Blood Thread Transformation technique. With his increased control over his blood qi, after transforming it into a dual stream, it wasn¡¯t difficult to progress. Passing through his heart, Ling Xu moved the dual threads of blood qi as they slowly started to rotate between each other. It all seemed easy, but once the beginning of the dual threads was linked together in this rotating motion, Ling Xu realized the problem the manual had advertised before. As the rest of both streams of energy passed through the heart, Ling Xu felt his blood qi draining incredibly fast. While enhancing the pressure from his heart, the consumption of his blood qi needed to complete this process was immense. ¡°Ufff, ufff¡­¡± Sweating profusely, Ling Xu became perplexed at the difficulty ¡°With my current capacity of blood qi this will probably take months before it is finally completed. I can¡¯t believe that exhausting all my blood qi barely helped me rotate an insignificant length from the dual threads.¡± He felt his blood qi and he could barely perceive the tip of both streams of blood qi rotating as the length was imperceptible. ¡°I have already started practicing this technique so I can¡¯t go back now, there have been no news from the system up until now so I have nothing else to do more than advance with what I can.¡± ¡­ After a few more hours, Ling Xu started to feel the length of the dual threads rotating a little more as he had repeated the cycle of rotating them using his heart¡¯s pressure, resting his heart and recovering his blood qi. He was now doing it for the last time of the day as the sun was already setting on the horizon and Ling Xu was going to eat before going to sleep. Rotating where he last left, Ling Xu suddenly felt the path between his eyes open as the feeling of his mind becoming clear came. ¡°I have been waiting so hard for this, now that the problem has gone I can complete this stage tonight.¡± Feeling a stream of pure energy swimming in his body, Ling Xu was ecstatic as with the coming of it his blood qi would now recover insanely fast. His mind entered this ethereal state and Ling Xu¡¯s blood qi threads started rotating after they left the heart. The sound from his blood qi circulating incredibly fast could be heard louder and louder, as the longer time passed more and more of his blood qi entered this rotating motion that increased its circulating speed even further. ¡­ It was one in the morning when Ling Xu¡¯s body came back to normal. Once his mind came back, Ling Xu¡¯s eyes opened wide in shock from the new changes he could feel already. Feeling his blood qi moving naturally almost as fast as when he circulated his blood qi to refine his body, he felt that his strength had improved once again. He then circulated his blood qi using his Basic Blood Circulation technique to refine his organs and he could clearly hear the sound of his blood qi out of his body. Now that the dual threads of blood qi had started to rotate in unison, the speed of his blood qi increased to the point that Ling Xu could feel the strength of his body increase as if he had advanced into the next stage of the Blood Qi realm. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 6th stage of Blood Qi (30%) If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (great success 63%), Existence Shadow Will (5,31%) [Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (second stage 100%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) Not even a minute had passed but as Ling Xu opened his status panel he realized that his realm had progressed 1%. It was obvious that the transformation of his blood qi not only improved his combat power but even the speed at which his body could be refined. Coming out of his excitement, Ling Xu thought about his Existence Shadow Will technique which he didn¡¯t know much about. ¡°After waiting for this cultivation technique to activate its ability for the second time already, I know that the path between my eyes will open once every week. So I only have to wait for another week until I am able to complete the Blood Thread Transformation technique.¡± ¡­ The next day, Ling Xu tried to start the third stage of the technique but after less than a minute he had to stop. ¡°Ugh!!!¡± He felt his heart in excruciating pain as he had overexerted its strength. The third stage of Blood Thread Transformation technique consists of merging both dual threads while rotating them into one and putting them under the extreme pressure of the heart. But not only does it spend an insane amount of blood qi to the point that after a few seconds Ling Xu¡¯s blood qi reserves had become as thin as a paper, but the pressure that his heart needs to exert for the rotating dual threads to merge is extremely high. This was to the point that Ling Xu realized that unless he completed the stage of organ refining and entered the seventh stage of Blood Qi, he wouldn¡¯t be able to even start the merging process of the threads of blood qi. The rest of the day Ling Xu decided to recover as he felt it would be impossible to progress much in his realm as one of the most important organs, his heart, was in no state of going through the refinement process. In the following days, Ling Xu ate, enjoyed his daily walk and refined his organs once again after feeling that his heart had recovered its strength. This time, he lowered the time he took to refine his body as he realized that it wouldn¡¯t take long before he completed the sixth stage. ¡­ His guess wasn¡¯t wrong as on the last day of the third week, Ling Xu had already completed the stage and reached a 100%. His current strength couldn¡¯t be considered anything more than monstruous as Ling Xu once tried in a black alley to punch a thick wall of concrete and ended up destroying it to the ground. The commotion was quite big as he decided to run from the scene in case someone decided to come and see what the noise was about. Now he was continuing the refinement of his body as he felt that something was missing. Ling Xu felt that he could advance any time and breakthrough to the seventh stage of Blood Qi, but he never tried in the last few days as he felt that his organs could still be tempered as if they hadn¡¯t reached their limit. With his current refinement, Ling Xu¡¯s skin was invulnerable to attacks from low grade weapons and his organs had become very strong and solid. Ling Xu felt that even if it snowed he would become cold as he had become resistant to heat and cold. Even his immune system had increased as Ling Xu never felt, not even once, ill or anything similar since he exited the tutorial. ¡­ After three hours of refining his organs, Ling Xu was waiting for the opening of the path between his eyes that still didn¡¯t come even after the sun had come down and it was midnight. About to stop circulating his blood qi a change occurred. ¡°It really is once a week!!¡± Letting his body move on its own, Ling Xu realized that his mastery of his cultivation technique was increasing once again. That wasn¡¯t all as his organs had finally shown a sign of being fully tempered as they had stopped strengthening. An entire hour passed until the increasing mastery of Ling Xu¡¯s cultivation technique made a commotion. Ling Xu¡¯s mind was disturbed as it came out of its pacific state, feeling his blood qi following its own rhythm as if it was alive. With its increase in speed after reaching the second stage of Blood Thread Transformation, his blood qi suddenly started to reach parts of the body that they had never passed before. Unblocking every extreme of Ling Xu¡¯s body, his blood qi made a natural cycle as the refinement of his body had deepened. His blood qi seeped his organs as they started to break free from their own limit. They started absorbing crazily his blood qi as the golden stream of energy helped in recovering it, compensating the insane speed of absorption that would have suck him dry if not. For a few minutes, Ling Xu¡¯s body was entangled in a dangerous balance between his organs absorbing his blood qi madly and the stream of golden energy helping him recover it. But once it ended, he felt incredibly strong as his organs had started to feed back to the rest of the body a purer and more refined blood qi. This wasn¡¯t the kind of strength that came from simple raw power from the muscles. It was the strength that came from having his blood qi become refined twice, once by his muscles and once by his organs just now. Ling Xu felt a few seconds ago that the path between his eyes had closed as the stream of pure energy had stopped entering and it was becoming thinner every second. ¡°There is still time to breakthrough, my blood qi is already at its peak with the help of this energy.¡± Continuing the circulation of his blood qi, it completed a natural cycle after another as he felt that his organs had started to absorb his blood qi once again. This time, the process wasn¡¯t as hard as entering the peak as the amount of blood qi his organs demanded wasn¡¯t as intense. Everything progressed smoothly and Ling Xu felt another movement as he felt his organs strengthening one more time. He opened his eyes feeling the increase in his body¡¯s capacity of blood qi with extreme satisfaction as he revealed a crescent smile. Opening the status panel, Ling Xu observed several changes. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 7th stage of Blood Qi (0%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (13%) [Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (second stage 100%) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) Chapter 15: Lu Xies shock ¡°I have reached perfection in the Basic Blood Circulation technique! I can¡¯t believe that while the rest of the world is having a hard time increasing their mastery over their cultivation technique, to increase their refining speed, I have already completed it.¡± He said in excitement as he thanked his second cultivation technique, Existence Shadow Will. ¡°Now that I think about it, it looks very strange that its progress has stopped before reaching the 10%. Should there be some kind of change once I breakthrough the 10% mark?¡± Thinking about something else, Ling Xu took out his refined short sword as it was finally time to test his skin with it. After entering the peak of the Blood Qi realm and surpassing the limits of his organs, Ling Xu¡¯s current skin was extremely hard. Even more so after he advanced to the seventh stage of Blood Qi and his organs were strengthened once again. Pressing against his left arm, Ling Xu felt nothing. He tried to press harder and harder as he finally saw some reaction. When using his whole body strength, Ling Xu¡¯s arm revealed a small cut. ¡­ The next few days, Ling Xu has officially started condensing his rotating dual threads into one. Still, the progress was extremely slow as the consumption of blood qi was several times higher than making the dual threads rotate through the pressure of the heart. During the week, everything went as usual except that he went out to have dinner with Lu Xie. There he was told that he was invited to a reunion with his classmates from college. Although Lu Xie told Ling Xu that he didn¡¯t need to go as he knew the intention of his classmates in inviting him, he still told him about the invitation as he had realized that with his current self, Ling Xu didn¡¯t have anything to fear. Ling Xu had once revealed his aura to him showing him that he had far surpassed the third stage of Blood Qi, which was Lu Xie¡¯s current realm. Lu Xie couldn¡¯t breathe and almost became afraid of his friend after feeling his aura. But it soon was washed away as he saw that Ling Xu was the same as always. ¡­ Friday night, while going to the reunion in the center of the city, Ling Xu observed several buildings in the midst of remodeling as they were planned to be used to sell and exchange items from the tutorial. Although this new market was currently monopolized by wealthy people, as the supply of these items was extremely low because the vast majority had barely managed to gain a few Blood Tempering Pills, companies were thinking on the long run as humans were entering a new era. Even the meat from beasts was bought at sky high prices as it was very rare. The number of people that had the idea of taking the beast¡¯s meat with them was very small and after they came back they realized its exquisite taste. And more important, the incredible tonic effect it had in the human body, helping increase the refining speed. Ling Xu didn¡¯t sell any of his as he had the money he needed and he really liked the meat¡¯s taste. After entering the middle stage of the Blood Qi realm, the tonic effect of the meat decreased severely as the quality of blood qi he needed to refine his organs had insanely increased. This was something that those few who managed to enter the fourth stage realized, as they began focusing their time on increasing their master on their cultivation technique instead of refining their organs which showed almost no progress. And now that he had reached the high stage of the Blood Qi realm, Ling Xu only ate it just for the purpose of enjoying it. His current realm was too high for the energy from the meat to have any effect on him. ¡­ After half an hour of walking, he arrived at the building that had a luxurious restaurant made of flour whole floors. Each representing a difference in status. Ling Xu entered through the third floor as Xiao Xuan, the person who reserved the table, was the son of one of the biggest companies in construction in the whole country. As he entered the corridor, he noticed himself in a mirror. ¡°Wow! I didn¡¯t expect to look this handsome.¡± The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. Not having paid too much attention to his appearance, ever since he came back from the tutorial, this was the first time that Ling Xu was seeing his face in a mirror. ¡°Ling Xu, over here!¡± He turned around as he was greeted by Lu Xie who was waiting for him. Following him, Ling Xu soon found out that the table that had been reserved was located in a private room just for them. ¡°This should be your first time here, I can¡¯t believe you didn¡¯t come before even after I advised you to sell a small part of the beast¡¯s meat, you could have gotten a small fortune. Even now, the price is increasing.¡± Lu Xie said as he had been invited by Ling Xu to eat some of his beast¡¯s meat and he knew that the price he would get for it would be able to make him a small fortune. Having tasted it after his father bought a few pounds of a second stage beast from the market. Lu Xie knew that with the strong effect of Ling Xu¡¯s, it was at least one stage higher. Every increase in stage increased the price ten times or even more, having the first stage beast¡¯s meat sold at thousands of yuan. Lu Xie had tasted the second stage meat, so he expected Ling Xu to be able to make at least tens of thousands of yuan. Ling Xu entered the room as he saw familiar faces, there were already a few people who had arrived and he recognized all of them as they were the students with the highest status in his year. ¡°Look who is here, Lu Xie!¡± ¡°Lu Xie it¡¯s so nice to see you! Who did you bring with you?¡± Ling Xu was made the center of attention as everyone stared at him. ¡°Can¡¯t you recognize him?¡± Lu Xie had a smile as he was playing with them, planning to see their reactions. He expected this night to be fun. He expected to see Ling Xu have a little payback as he had heard several times the people in the room talk behind his back, jealous of his high grades among the top while being of low status. Although he didn¡¯t like that much the people around him, Lu Xie had no other choice as they all were from wealthy families and shared the same age. The first to recognize him was the one who reserved the room, Xiao Xuan. ¡°Wait everyone, isn¡¯t he Ling Xu?¡± He said with an incredulous face as he saw the change in appearance he had over the last month. ¡°What?! Ling Xu?!!¡± The rest said as they were impressed by how different he looked from before. They saw a man with a strong build, handsome face and great eyes that showed a calmness he didn¡¯t have before. ¡°But he looks so different now!¡± After a few seconds passed and they all calmed down, they realized that it actually was their old classmate who they were used to make fun of. ¡°Humph! And so what if you have a good face, it¡¯s not like you are anything special. I bet you didn¡¯t achieve anything in the tutorial.¡± Xiao Xuan thought as he recovered from the shock, he then was the first to speak. ¡°So how did you do in the tutorial?¡± Ling Xu looked at him in silence with a meaningful face as he knew what Xiao Xuan was trying to do. Not caring at all he sat down and continued talking with Lu Xie. ¡°Lu Xie, is it right that the meat cooked in here comes from the tutorial?¡± ¡°Humph, you wish you had the chance to taste the meat from a beast. Without it you will never be able to enter the fourth stage of Blood Qi.¡± Xiao Xuan said full of anger as he didn¡¯t like Ling Xu¡¯s change of attitude. ¡°Just because you have changed your appearance doesn¡¯t mean that you can get full of yourself. See how I humiliate you.¡± Ling Xu continued his conversation with Lu Xie as Xiao Xuan exploded even more this time. ¡°That¡¯s enough! If you think you can come in here and disrespect me you are wrong, you have already ruined the mood in here, you can now go.¡± Ling Xu looked at Xiao Xuan. The moment Xiao Xuan felt Ling Xu¡¯s face he felt a chill run down his spine, as if he had met a predator hunting small prey. ¡°Guards!¡± Two bodyguards protecting the entrance on the door entered right away as they touched Ling Xu, planning to force him out violently. Lu Xie observed all of this with peace of mind as he knew what was about to come. Ling Xu felt their aura that let him know they were in the second stage of Blood Qi. He stood up as one of them tried to grab him from the shoulder. Xiao Xuan looked expectant at Ling Xu¡¯s change of attitude once he was forced outside and he lost his chance to prove the effect of the energy from the beast meat. The next second, his eyes showed complete shock as he saw Ling Xu completely overpowering the bodyguard that touched him. Ling Xu took the hand from the bodyguard in an instant as he started pressing on it. ¡°Arghh!!!¡± Fortunately for the bodyguard, he went easy on him or else he would have turned it into complete meat paste. Everyone in the room became quite for a second as they didn¡¯t know what to say, they never expected Ling Xu to be able to break so easily the hand from someone that was in the second stage of Blood Qi. The other guard hesitated as he didn¡¯t know what to do, he didn¡¯t feel confident in gaining the upper hand after seeing his fellow worker in such a desperate situation even though he was about to break through the third stage. ¡°I will walk out myself, thanks for the invitation.¡± He turned around and headed to the door. Lu Xie sick of Xiao Xuan and the rest, who only watched as Ling Xu was about to be thrown outside from their points of view, stood up and went with him. ¡°Lu Xie, what are you doing siding with him? Don¡¯t think you will have an easy time after doing this.¡± ¡°Humph, don¡¯t think just because you didn¡¯t succeed that I don¡¯t know the purpose why you invited him here.¡± Exciting the room, Ling Xu looked at his friend. ¡°Thank you for backing me there.¡± ¡°Humph, now you have to compensate me, don¡¯t think that just because my family is wealthy I can eat beast meat every day. I even heard from the group that Xiao Xuan had prepared the meat from a third stage Blood Qi realm beast.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, since we have already come I¡¯m sure I can do something about this.¡± Lu Xie saw Ling Xu get close to a waiter as he told him something, the next moment the waiter became nervous and guided him somewhere as Lu Xie tried to guess not having heard anything. After fifteen minutes of waiting, Lu Xie saw Ling Xu coming back. ¡°What did you do? You told me to wait here.¡± ¡°We now have a table on the fourth floor.¡± ¡°Hahaha as expected, you got a room in the four¡­ What?! You got a room in the highest floor?!¡± ¡°Come on, let¡¯s go.¡± Looking at his friend in complete shock, Lu Xie followed as he saw the waiter. He was the one who previously had a nervous look after Ling Xu approached him, but now he was faithfully serving them as he opened the door to their private room in the highest floor. Chapter 16: Lonely Forest An hour later, the waiter entered with the plates of food. ¡°Are you still not going to tell me what you did for us to get this room?¡± ¡°Look for yourself.¡± ¡°What?¡± The waiter opened the lid from the plate as an intense fragrance took Lu Xie¡¯s attention completely. ¡°What is this? Is this beast meat?¡± He looked at Ling Xu and connected the dots immediately. ¡°I went to the chef and he agreed to give us the room and cook the beast¡¯s meat I gave him with the condition that he could take what was left.¡± ¡°Ling Xu, thank you so much, I swear I won¡¯t waste anything and eat it all.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve been friends for so long, it is only normal for friends to share some benefits.¡± ¡­ ¡°Huff! Huff! Huff!!¡± Half an hour later, Lu Xie looked struggling as he ended his plate, having eaten all the food that remained from the plate. Ling Xu ate less, having already experienced the taste of this meat several times. Although its flavor was amazing as it was prepared by a top famous chef, he was already very familiar with it. Seeing his friend like this, he laughed as he couldn¡¯t believe his friend who had travelled around the world become like this. Lu Xie laughed too as he was surprised by his own attitude. ¡°Ling Xu, what are you going to do now?¡± Ling Xu became serious, not knowing if the tutorial was just a one time thing or if it was just the beginning. After being almost a month out of thee tutorial, they didn¡¯t get any news regarding what would happen next. [Humans from Earth, now that the tutorial has been completed you will be sent to your second mission.] [Mission starts in 2 days 23 hours.] ¡°There is going to be another mission!¡± They looked at each other as they realized the urgency of the situation. ¡°Ling Xu, I need to go and talk with my father.¡± ¡°I know.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I will use this chance you gave me to enter the fourth stage before the mission comes.¡± Thanks to his father¡¯s influence, Lu Xie had already surpassed more than 50% of the progress in the third stage of Blood Qi as he had eaten several times first and second stage beast meat. With the effect of the beast meat he just ate, he knew that it was more than enough to help him advance to the fourth stage before the mission starts. ¡­ Ling Xu didn¡¯t stay idle as he went back to his apartment ready to continue progressing in the third stage of the Blood Thread Transformation technique. Two days later, Ling Xu had barely advanced to 5% of the technique. He remained calm, knowing that being anxious wouldn¡¯t help at all. This day was the end of the fourth week after he came out of the tutorial. While Ling Xu was focused on merging his rotating dual threads, a small grin could be seen as he felt the path between his eyes open. He was about to stop merging them, needing to recover his blood qi for a while, when he felt his mind become extremely clear and his body was bathed by the pure and golden energy. The rotating dual threads continued flowing through the whole body as they were merged once they passed through the heart. Thanks to the fast recovery of his blood qi, the process didn¡¯t even take an hour as Ling Xu came back from the state. Embracing the feeling of having his dual threads merged, Ling Xu felt his aura increase as even the ground below him started to shake from the pressure. Ling Xu¡¯s eyes suddenly turned red as the condensation of blood qi had completely changed his whole body. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. After realizing that his control over blood qi had increased with the completion of his Blood Thread Transformation technique, he slowed down its circulation speed to what it was before he started to practice the technique. Ling Xu¡¯s blood qi started to slow down as the pressure on the ground decreased and the color in his eyes returned to normal. Still, with the current density of his blood qi, it was as strong as when he had completed the second stage. All of this happened in less than a minute and Ling Xu¡¯s mind was taken back to the state of clarity after the movement had ended. He thought about refining his bones next as it was the only thing he could do now, but less than a minute after he started refining it, the path between his eyes had a reaction. It started vibrating uncontrollably as a very subtle drop of energy entered his body. It looked very different to the stream of energy that normally came out of the path between his eyes, it looked like a shadow. Once it entered, Ling Xu didn¡¯t notice anything more than the path calming once again. The drop of energy moved to his abdomen and slowly merged with Ling Xu¡¯s body as it didn¡¯t show any change in it. Half an hour later, his mind went back to normal and he decided to open his status panel and see what had changed. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 7th stage of Blood Qi (13%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (10%) [Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (completed) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade) ¡°It seems I have completed the Blood Thread Transformation technique, now I can only advance on my realm and wait to see how to increase the progress on¡­¡± He was surprised all of a sudden, seeing the progress of Existence Shadow Will reach 10%. ¡°But was that all? I thought there might be a change. Forget it, let¡¯s first observe my body and feel the new changes after condensing my blood qi.¡± He started feeling his body as he focused one part at a time. Once his mind observed the center of his abdomen, something moved. ¡°What is this?¡± Opening his eyes, Ling Xu observed a very delicate golden shadow covering a small fragment of his abdomen. Looking at it, he felt a very intimate connection as his mind moved and the golden shadow moved to his hand, covering less than a third of it. ¡°What is this energy, it can actually follow my will.¡± Ling Xu took out his refined short sword and tried to cut the part of his hand that had the golden shadow. Pressing with all his strength, he was surprised to see that his sword couldn¡¯t penetrate through his skin. He then released the speed of his condensed blood qi slowly, as his strength increased the faster it went. After barely releasing its speed 10% in, Ling Xu saw as his refined short sword made a small cut. ¡°If it can already withstand this much pressure after it has barely been formed, I wonder how much stronger it will get once the progress of the Existence Shadow Will technique reaches 100%.¡± ... The rest of the day Ling Xu relaxed as it passed very fast and he woke up the next morning. He received a call from Lu Xie where he told him that he had broken through to the fourth stage and he was very thankful to him. Nothing particular happened as time continued ticking until less than a minute remained. Ling Xu made a small grin, excited about what he would encounter and what kinds of rewards he would get. His whole body shivered in excitement as the time reached the end. [Mission starts in 3 seconds.] [Mission starts in 2 seconds.] [Mission starts in 1 second.] ... [Welcome to the Lonely Forest.] Ling Xu opened his eyes as he noticed he was standing on an old platform hidden by the moving sand. He realized right away that he was in a desert. Next, he observed that there were four people besides him on the platform. ¡°Little Xu we can finally meet here!¡± Hearing Mr. Sun¡¯s voice, Ling Xu realized what was going on. ¡°Is he the last person from the tutorial?¡± ¡°Yes, he is my neighbor Ling Xu. He was alone in the tutorial and couldn¡¯t meet with us.¡± Ling Xu looked at the person who asked about him. He looked just a few years older than him. ¡°He must have been on the first floor the whole time, I wonder if he has even reached the first stage. I hope he doesn¡¯t become a burden to us, after all he couldn¡¯t even pass through the first floor.¡± Ling Xu heard the rude guy talk and didn¡¯t respond, he couldn¡¯t care less what he said. The reason they didn¡¯t meet him wasn¡¯t because he didn¡¯t descend to the first floor at all, but because he descended to the third floor before they could even bump into him after exiting the left path on the second floor. ¡°Ling Xu, you still don¡¯t know their names let me present them to you. They are Xie Tan, the petty man who just talked is his cousin Xie and the last member and only woman is Xu Min.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Ling Xu, let¡¯s work well together!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pleasure Ling Xu, let¡¯s do our best!¡± Xie Tan and Xu Min answered with a cheerful attitude as they didn¡¯t feel great about Xie Lin¡¯s previous attitude. Having ended the introduction between themselves, they all called for the mission panel. [Map]: Lonely Forest [Mission]: Survive 1 week [Participants]: 1000/1000 [Progress]: 0 days, 0 hours ¡°What? How can we be a thousand people, isn¡¯t that too much?¡± ¡°The number of participants has increased a hundred times, I wonder if will increase again if go through a third mission.¡± Xie Tan and Xu Min said as they were surprised by the sudden increase in participants. After Ling Xu read through the details while looking carefully at his surroundings. He observed the desert which looked to be endless, seeing nothing more than sand. ¡°Uh?¡± He managed to see something different in the distance but he couldn¡¯t see what it was. Fortunately he activated his Enhanced Synapsis or else he wouldn¡¯t have noticed the change. ¡°Is it okay if we go that way?¡± He was the first to speak as he knew that he would need the approval of the rest if he wanted to go together. ¡°Why should we, choosing a random direction won¡¯t help us at all.¡± ¡°Xie Lin stop ruining the mood.¡± ¡°Tsk!¡± ¡°Ling Xu, is there a reason why you want to go that way?¡± Xie Tan asked as he was way more patient than his cousin who jumped every time Ling Xu talked. ¡°I can¡¯t see what, but if we go that way there is something else apart from this desert.¡± ¡°How can you tell when not even us can see it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s okay guys, Ling Xu wouldn¡¯t lie about such a thing I trust him.¡± ¡°Ling Xu, please forgive my cousin¡¯s behavior. But I¡¯m also curious, how are you able to see from here when we can¡¯t?¡± ¡°I can see further than all of you because I have a skill that enhances my vision.¡± Xie Lin frustrated gritted his teeth as he didn¡¯t like someone weak leading the group. But he couldn¡¯t do anything as it made sense. ¡°Let¡¯s go then!¡± Xu Min said with enthusiasm as they moved in the direction Ling Xu gave. Chapter 17: Xie Lins silence After a few minutes walking, the group met a beast that had the appearance of a scorpion but was much bigger and had a sting. ¡°It¡¯s in the third stage of Blood Qi.¡± Said Xie Lin with confidence as he had advanced to the third stage a few days before the mission begun. ¡°Let¡¯s go together, I don¡¯t feel great about the black substance hanging by its sting, it should be extremely poisonous.¡± Sun Min said, although he was in the third stage too, he was very careful. Xie Tan and Xu Min nodded a bit nervous, but they were confident in their group strength as they had already managed to defeat the fourth stage adult copper lizard in the second floor of the tutorial. Ling Xu remained indifferent and he gave a slight nod too. Not long after they encountered a third level beast. ¡°I will take care of it.¡± ¡°Wait Xie Lin, we should deal with it together.¡± Ignoring Sun Min¡¯s advice, Xie Lin charged alone without trying to get into formation to kill the beast with ease. He unsheathed his middle grade sword which had the same appearance as Ling Xu¡¯s previous refined short sword before upgrading to high grade. Getting close enough to the scorpion, he activated his skill as the veins from his right arm protruded and his arm acquired a red color. ¡°Damn, it feels as if we have returned to before we fought through thick and thin in the tutorial, he always does this in the beginning.¡± Said Xie Tan who was very familiar with his cousin¡¯s attitude. Still, they didn¡¯t panic as they knew Xie Lin¡¯s strength was the highest in their group, so they got close in case he needed their help and observed. Although Sun Min¡¯s realm was the same, the difference came from their skills as Xie Lin had a middle grade one while his was of the low grade. Xie Lin¡¯s arm exploded with amazing strength and when the sword slashed it made a big wound in the scorpion. The scorpion enraged and feeling its wound¡¯s pain, shot its tail at him planning to pierce him with his gloomy sting. Xie Lin was prepared and he reacted as he shot again, the fight ended after this second slash as he cut through the shell and destroyed its internal organs afterwards. ¡°This shell is quite hard, it might even be stronger than the one from the copper lizards, after all it needed several strikes from someone in the same stage with a middle grade weapon and the use of a skill.¡± He thought remembering that it didn¡¯t take that much effort for him to kill the copper lizards. ¡°When I killed the copper lizards I didn¡¯t even have a skill that directly increased my attack strength.¡± After all, although both beasts had defensive characteristics, the copper lizard had an agile tail able to help them react faster while the scorpion beast had barely done one attack with its heavy tail. ¡­ ¡°This is going too slow, if only I was alone.¡± Moving forward, Ling Xu realized the speed at which his teammates explored the map was incredibly slow as they refrained from spending their blood qi before a fight occurred. He started to have thoughts of going alone but decided to wait as he had just entered the mission and there was enough time. He was also observing his neighbor and seeing if he would be fine with his group once he left, after all Sun Min had barely got to know them by coincidence in the tutorial, so there wasn¡¯t much time to build up a bond with them. The group encountered different beasts from the desert as they met more scorpions and a few desertic tortoises, rats and even coyotes. The majority were in the third stage of Blood Qi while some were even weaker. The tortoises put them under a lot of pressure as the time it took to kill them was very large. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Once the desertic tortoise realized it was at a disadvantage it would hide on its shell, which was extremely hard to break. So after a few minutes of trying and leaving a few scratches on it, they decided to avoid fighting it as it wasn¡¯t worth their blood qi. If Ling Xu had decided to help it would have been extremely easy, the rest would need to stay in their places and he would have cut right through it. With his high grade short sword and the great gap between his realm and the tortoise, a slash containing a bit of his strength would have cut it in half. He only helped once or twice when they met a small group of beasts as he gave his help to lessen the pressure on the group, but he didn¡¯t show much of his strength as he didn¡¯t have the need for it. Although he didn¡¯t feel like showing off, he also felt like it wasn¡¯t necessary as with just a bit of his strength he could do the work. But although he wasn¡¯t even breaking a sweat for the group, Xie Lin stopped saying anything to him as he noticed every strike of Ling Xu¡¯s was extremely strong. He couldn¡¯t feel the exact power but he knew that he wasn¡¯t anything lower than himself. ... After a few hours of walking, hunting and walking again, the sun had started to descend as it had reached its highest point a few hours ago. ¡°Over here!¡± After two hours since the mission started, the group had started to see the forest which was first seen with difficulty by Ling Xu. The difference was great as they realized Ling Xu¡¯s senses were way above theirs, it took them two hours to finally see as much as Ling Xu did when he first noticed the forest in the distance but couldn¡¯t tell what it was. Now, they were following Ling Xu once again as he had called them to see a hole that was unnoticeable to the eye even if you were a few feet apart from it. Ling Xu had found it by luck as they weren¡¯t very close to it and it was very well hidden. ¡°Ling Xu, you have an amazing eyesight!¡± ¡°Yes Ling Xu, I can¡¯t believe you were able to tell this hole apart from the sand even though we were dozens of feet apart from it, I barely noticed it ten feet apart.¡± The group was surprised at Ling Xu¡¯s ability and even more at the blending of the hole in the sand. The entrance wasn¡¯t anything impressive as it was small and made of hard sand and rocks, but once they entered they realized that it was actually much bigger than it seemed. Entering a cave that was almost in complete darkness, just like the tutorial, the group advanced forward. They weren¡¯t afraid as they knew that although danger was something probable in there, there was a chance that they could earn something. Even the experience was already enough as Sun Min and Xie Lin had realized the difficulty of completing the third stage of Blood Qi with their current Basic Blood Circulation mastery. As they continued to go deeper, they found themselves in a small room which has a few bats. There were around a dozen as three were in the third stage and the rest were in the second. If any more of the bats were at a higher stage it would become a big burden as only Xie Lin, Sun Min and Ling Xu had the strength to fight them. Because the bats¡¯ strength was in their speed, it was incredibly difficult to land a hit if you weren¡¯t in the same realm. Xie Lin was the first to attack as the rest of the group followed in formation, the hunt progressed smoothly as they cooperated very well. Ling Xu had everything under control as he saw the bats very slow without even using his skill, having a difference of five and four stages in his cultivation realm. He had to kill some bats that had entered the blind spots of his group and he did so without anyone noticing. ¡°They are very cunning! While one or two bats take someone of the group¡¯s attention, there is always another one lurking in the dark ready to strike.¡± He was surprised as the bats were very smart and if he hadn¡¯t intervened maybe Xie Tan or Xu Min would have become gravely injured as they only attacked at the neck. Although the bats were small, their claws were very sharp and fatal. Because Ling Xu¡¯s group hadn¡¯t even reached the fourth stage of Blood Qi and they haven¡¯t started to refine their organs and skin, they would have probably died having their necks severed if one of the bats landed a precise attack. Still, Ling Xu helped and casually swung his refined short sword killing the bats that were hiding in the dark. ... Moving forward, the group entered another two identical rooms, with each having a dozen more bats than the previous one. Ling Xu felt that as the difficulty increased, he had to help his group more to lessen the pressure that they couldn¡¯t withstand alone. Fortunately, there was a long and stretch path between each room, leading to the next one. Occasionally there were some small openings on the ceiling where they could see a little bit of light between the rock and sand. Ling Xu¡¯s teammates started to notice something strange as they went through the path with a bit of light. Walking forward, they realized that Ling Xu didn¡¯t have a single piece of torn clothes. They all had exposed wounds on their body while he looked unharmed and almost completely clean. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect you to hide so well.¡± Mr. Sun said with a very low voice as he saw it too. Ling Xu gave a small grin as he continued forward without saying anything. Sun Min had already felt something from seeing Ling Xu fight above in the desert as he had observed that the swings from his sword looked very casual as if he didn¡¯t need to exert that much strength to kill the beasts. Xie Lin¡¯s face had become quite the spectacle as he didn¡¯t understand why he didn¡¯t say anything if his strength was so high when he talked rudely to him. He felt a chill running down his spine when he realized that he had actually provoked him. But fortunately, he realized that Ling Xu didn¡¯t seem to care about his attitude. It took them two hours to see their path change as it widened a lot, having already cleared the third room full of bats. Although they had several blood wounds that stood out of their torn clothes by now, they had already closed them up as they used their blood qi to do the work. Entering a great hall made of stone, the group had already become vigilant of what they would encounter next. They looked everywhere to no avail as the light was very dim and they couldn¡¯t see a single bat or even hear the sound from the wind. ¡°Is this room empty or wha¡­¡± As if losing all the air from his body, Xie Lin¡¯s face became colorless as it looked a few feet in front. The rest of the group looked in Xie Lin¡¯s direction as they found two red beads appear in the dark. Chapter 18: Outer layer A three meter tall bat opened its eyes, looking at the group as it was upside down while hanging from the ceiling made of hard rock. It stood there as it suddenly started to move, opening its winds which were glued to its small arms. ¡°Kriiiiiiiiiich!¡± Mr. Sun was the first to recover from the shock, as he looked at the rest including Xie Lin, who had become paralyzed. ¡°Everyone, let¡¯s get in formation!¡± Xie Tan and Xu Min couldn¡¯t even move from the giant bat¡¯s pressure as they were completely frightened. They had never faced such a monstruous beast that even surpassed the strongest they ever faced. Even when they grouped together against the fourth stage adult copper lizard in the tutorial, they barely won as they all were in the first and second stages of Blood Qi. Only after they came out of the tutorial and they refined their body using their blood tempering pills could they advance to the next stage. And after killing it, the one who got hurt the least was Sun Min as he was very careful and he cooperated very well with Xie Lin. But still, he was left with blood all around his upper body. The rest was even worse, Xu Min and Xie Tan even got a few fractured bones and Xie Lin was seriously cut in the abdomen after being careless as he was cut by the beast¡¯s bladed tail. After that happened, they couldn¡¯t go to the third floor as they didn¡¯t have enough time to recover from their injuries. Sun Min observed his teammates that were still in shock, with Xie Lin just coming out of it, so he positioned himself in the front ready to contend with the bat. While all of them were going through their own mix of emotions, the bat wasn¡¯t idle as it flapped its wings ready to pounce on Sun Min. Feeling the beast getting near he could feel its pressure, coming from a big gap in cultivation. ¡°Damn, how the hell am I going to face this monster!!! Is this how I die?¡± Having no strength to resist, he asked himself as he saw the distance of himself and the bat get extremely short. But suddenly, Sun Min felt a gust of wind coming from behind. The bat was just two meters apart from him before they exchanged their attacks as this wind that came from behind arrived in front of him right away, but he couldn¡¯t care less as he used his whole blood qi to resist the coming attack from the bat. Waiting, he opened his eyes. He looked in front as he saw a few meters apart the carcass of the ferocious beast. It was completely deformed with its body perfectly cut in half. As he moved his eyes, he saw Ling Xu turning around getting close to him. He couldn¡¯t believe what he was seeing. One after another they all woke up from the shock of the bat as the pressure had suddenly disappeared. Before Sun Li got smashed by the monstrous bat¡¯s sharp claws, they had started to try and move full of despair as they saw his teammate about to die. But then they saw an afterimage advance in front of Sun Min and the bat suddenly falling to the ground, completely dead. The movement was fast but they felt a gust of wind coming from behind. The one who was behind all of them was Ling Xu as he stayed back unless they needed his help. Having their jaws open wide in shock, Ling Xu interrupted the shock. ¡°I will keep the reward box.¡± They couldn¡¯t react until they heard about a reward. Ling Xu was the first to notice it in the middle of the dark room. There was an octagonal small platform protruding from the ground, which with his superior senses and high stage of Blood Qi he noticed it right away when they entered after feeling the aura from the giant bat. Not able to speak, they all agreed as they nodded in unison. [You have obtained Luminous Stone (middle grade).] ¡°At least I got something in return, I didn¡¯t expect much from it to begin with. The first day hasn¡¯t even passed and I haven¡¯t been able to enter the forest, I have to go faster after I separate from the group.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Ling Xu had already made his choice to separate as he realized that the group couldn¡¯t keep up with him. As he now or later would need to fight stronger beasts and they wouldn¡¯t be able to help, he wasn¡¯t planning to take care of them either as it would also prove detrimental to their own progress. Looking at the box next to the one that contained the luminous stone, Ling Xu observed its size, which seemed to be much bigger. [You have obtained Heavy Bracers (middle grade semi-treasure).] ¡°Wow, these bracers are quite heavy, they should be very useful to use for defense.¡± After looking at the two rewards he got, Ling Xu moved his eyes to the side. ¡°This is where we part ways.¡± ¡°What?!¡± Sun Li was surprised, he already knew that Ling Xu would have to go alone after some time as he saw his overwhelming strength. But he never thought that it would be less than a day before he decided to do so. ¡°If you keep going forward you will go through the exit, there are stairs leading to the surface at the end of the room.¡± Behind the bat, he had observed a path leading to a staircase which had a dim light. He figured out right away that the light came from the surface. ¡°Stay safe and become stronger, until we meet again.¡± Beeding farewell, Ling Xu turned again and run straight to the stairs. ¡°I can¡¯t believe he was this strong, it¡¯s almost unbelievable, what did he do in the tutorial for us not to have seen him?¡± ¡°This is beyond my expectations too, I figured he had hidden his strength after seeing him without a single clothe torn, but this is too much!¡± ¡°Is it possible that he descended to the third floor of the tutorial before we even had the chance to meet him? No wonder he didn¡¯t even see me in his eyes, at first I thought that his silence was because he lacked the confidence but seeing it now he didn¡¯t even feel the need to explain anything.¡± Muttering to himself, no one could hear him as he spoke to low. Xie Lin was understanding several things about Ling Xu as he retraced every moment they shared since entering the mission. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, we can become as strong as him one day, we just need to persevere.¡± Sun Min spoke as he forgot the shock and became worried seeing Xie Lin muttering all alone. He didn¡¯t believe they could catch up to him, but becoming as strong as Ling Xu¡¯s current self was something they were more than capable of doing. They would just need to comprehend the Basic Blood Circulation technique and increase their control over their blood qi. Advancing to the fourth and fifth stage of Blood Qi would then come naturally after refining their organs through the passage of time. ... On the other side, Ling Xu arrived at the surface. He looked around, finding himself in a different view than before they entered the underground cave. Observing the forest above him, Ling Xu left the last step of the staircase as he heard a message from the system. [You have entered the outer layer of the Deserted Forest.] The outer layer didn¡¯t look very impressive, having the appearance just like any forest he saw back on Earth. ¡°At least it isn¡¯t small.¡± Feeling the size of the forest with his eyesight, he observed hundreds of meters afar before a plant or tree blocked his vision. Wandering deeper into the forest it took him a very short time before he encountered a beast he had never seen before. With its front hooves, the boar charged at him with its front hooves as it pointed its big white tusks directly at Ling Xu. Knowing the difference in realm, he took the attack head on as he punched forward against the boar¡¯s head. The punch went right into its forehead, piercing through its skull as he saw the beast fall to the ground dead. [You have killed a Tough Boar (4th stage of Blood Qi).] Ling Xu continued on his way, not caring about the materials and meat he could get from it. After entering this mission, he realized that the beast meat he had previously eaten wasn¡¯t anything special. It took him less than a day for him to meet with a fifth stage beast, so he only expected to meet even stronger ones from now on. Meeting more tough boars, Ling Xu killed herds of a maximum of five with one being at the fifth stage of Blood Qi. He continued forward for an hour as he realized the size of the forest, noticing he was still inside the outer layer. Feeling the rays of light that barely entered through the tree leaves almost gone, Ling Xu decided to look for a safe place to rest as night was about to come and the forest would turn into complete darkness. Being on his first day here, he didn¡¯t try and continued deeper into the forest as now that he was alone he would go much faster, so he didn¡¯t feel pressured with the time like in the tutorial. He took refuge on a tall tree as he escalated it easily with his grip strength alone. If he applied enough strength, Ling Xu could even pierce through the wood of the trunk so he didn¡¯t have trouble escalating knowing that he wouldn¡¯t fall. Not caring about any beast coming near him, Ling Xu closed his eyes. Even while asleep, his senses were very strong and they could alert and wake him up in case of a beast getting near. With the tree leaves blocking the sky, he managed to fall asleep pretty soon. ... The rays of light started to fall and Ling Xu woke up as he observed the time. He slept for six hours and felt like he had fully recovered as he felt no tension in his body and brimming full of blood qi. Feeling his stomach make a sound, he remembered he hadn¡¯t eaten for almost an entire day after entering the mission. He fell to the ground with ease, even though it was around six meters high, and looked at the direction that was supposed to go deeper as he noticed while advancing that the more he went that way the bigger the plants and tress became. Ling Xu then made a small fire with two branches and some small pieces of dry wood, he took the last piece of his four-legged rabbit meat. It took him over an hour to completely cook the meat as it was quite a lot and its resistance to fire was fire high. Ling Xu started exploring again as he changed direction, he travelled sideways trying to explore a bit more of the outer layer before he reached the next one. He didn¡¯t know if he would find anything but run for 10 minutes when he finally found something new. Very close to him, a deer with very long legs which made it look agile, was standing alone. Its whole body had a mixture of red and brown color, and it was the one who looked the most like the animals on Earth, making it a little harder for him to kill it. He had already set his mind to advance forward and become stronger even by killing this beast but it took him dozens of seconds as he hesitated quite a bit. Chapter 19: System Store Settling his mind, Ling Xu¡¯s eyes changed as he viewed the red deer as his prey. The deer heard a rustle of wind and the next second Ling Xu was already in front of it, it was completely shocked, left unable to move as Ling Xu¡¯s speed frightened it. It took just a swing of his sword as he killed the beast with a clean cut. [You have killed a Red Deer (5th Stage of Blood Qi).] ... Four hours later, Ling Xu stopped hunting as he had been hunting nonstop, the time he didn¡¯t kill the beast was when he was running trying to find them faster. ¡°This progress is too slow, I don¡¯t even know why I am doing this. After searching for hours I killed dozens of red deer but the experience gained was barely 10%.¡± Frustrated because the time and effort it took to make this progress was extremely slow compared with his cultivation technique mastery which increased his refining speed to a terrifying level. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t mind if I gained a skill, but why have they not dropped once after killing so many of them. Is it that after the tutorial, they have stopped dropping skills?¡± Ling Xu decided to delve deeper into the forest as he felt that the outer layer had nothing for him to gain. After encountering several red deer and occasionally a few boars as he entered their territory, Ling Xu looked at the mission panel. [Map]: Lonely Forest [Mission]: Survive 1 week [Participants]: 963/1000 [Progress]: 0 days, 23 hours ¡°I wonder how many people will remain at the end of the mission if there are already several who died even before the first day passes.¡± ... Ling Xu stopped walking as he looked in front of him. Just a few meters in front, he observed a thin layer of light that delimited the terrain. He first tried to pass his hand through it. Once he saw that there was no problem, he entered successfully as a new message appeared. [You have entered the inner layer of the Deserted Forest.] ¡°Finally! The strength of the beasts in the outer layer was far from enough to make me sweat. If I encounter stronger ones I can at least gain more experience and maybe even get a reward.¡± [You have survived for a day in the Deserted Forest.] [You have unlocked the store where you will find everything you need to survive and become stronger.] [Turning on the sacrifice mode you won¡¯t be able to gain experience but you will get in return points from the store.] ¡°What? So, there was such a thing, maybe that¡¯s why I haven¡¯t gained almost anything until now.¡± Not caring about the idea of not gaining more experience, he called for the store panel excited about what he would be able to obtain from there. [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] ¡°Let¡¯s see what pills I can buy first.¡± [Blood Tempering Pill (low quality 1st grade)]: 50 points [Blood Replenishing Pill (low quality 1st grade)]: 50 points [Blood Condensing Pill (low grade 1st tier)]: 100 points [Wound Ointment (low grade 1st tier)]: 70 points In the pills category he saw a short list of pills, they all started at low quality first grade and at the end of the list there were even high quality first grade ones. Every increase in quality increased the pill¡¯s price significantly. Reading their descriptions, Ling Xu learned about new pills as he had only heard about the blood tempering pills which he got as a reward, and the blood replenishing pills which were mentioned in a post he read about the rewards a person had gotten. The blood tempering pill increases the circulation of blood qi and the refining speed of the body. The blood replenishing pill recovers the blood qi of the body. The blood condensing pill is very helpful for breakthroughs and it helps condense blood qi and increase its purity, although it has a limited effect and after a few pills are used it won¡¯t help anymore. And the wound ointment helps the healing of superficial injuries incredibly fast and to close wounds. ¡°If I ever need a pill I would have to buy high quality first grade ones as those are the only ones that could have an effect on me. Even then, once I step into the eight or even ninth stage of Blood Qi, their effects will increase even more. So unless I really have to, I should save up the points I gain for the other categories.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He then entered the equipment store which had weapons and armors with different qualities. [Spear (low grade semi-treasure)]: 300 points [Long Sword (low grade semi-treasure)]: 250 points [Blade (low grade semi-treasure)]: 230 points ¡­ [Black Steel Sword (high grade semi-treasure)]: 3000 points [Overbearing Blade (high grade semi-treasure)]: 3000 points [Azure Spear (high grade semi-treasure)]: 2500 points Going down the list, Ling Xu saw a few weapons that were to his liking, but he decided to not buy any of them as he was already very comfortable with his refined short sword which already had the highest grade the store provided. He felt very attracted to the black steel sword but felt like it would be pointless and just a waste of his points. Even though its range would be higher, with Ling Xu¡¯s current strength and use of his short sword, he didn¡¯t have a problem using the one he already had. He then passed on to view the armors that were also listed as he set his eyes on a few high grade armor and equipment pieces which would increase his defense greatly. But he didn¡¯t give it much thought as the amount of points he had was cero and he was already very curious about the last category. Expectant, he entered the special items category eager to see what it would bring. [Random Skill (low grade)]: 3000 points (10) [Luminous Stone (low grade)]: 1000 points (100) [Upgrade Skill (middle grade)]: 3000 points (10) Shining with greed, Ling Xu¡¯s eyes were open wide as they looked at the precious items he could be from the special items category. ¡°This is amazing! I can¡¯t believe they are now selling the skills and even an option to upgrade them. I really want to buy them all.¡± He wanted to get every one of these items as they all were very good options that could enhance his strength significantly, but he calmed down very fast after seeing the prices they had. Ling Xu still didn¡¯t know how hard it would be to acquire that amount of sacrificial points but he knew that if they were already this expensive, it would be a difficult task to acquire one of these special items. So he set the goal for now to obtain at least one skill from the store. ¡°This upgrade skill option looks extremely useful, but I don¡¯t need because all my skill are at least middle grade.¡± And finally, he discarded the idea of getting luminous stones to upgrade his equipment as he was already very happy with the ones he had. ... A few minutes later, he saw an imposing yellow leopard with what looked as a subtle electric current flowing all over its skin. Its eyes remained sharp and had an electric current on them too. ¡°Roar!!!¡± Ling Xu stroke while the iron was hot and charged before the other one did after trying to intimidate him and seeing no response. He arrived in front of the leopard almost instantly, without giving it time to react as he pierced his refined short sword into the beast. But after he touched its skin he saw something strange, the leopard suddenly moved very flexibly avoiding the attack making the short sword slash into the air. He felt confused as he had seen that the leopard was about to be slashed and its reaction was slower than his speed. His short sword had even touched its skin before it suddenly moved and changed its body posture to avoid the attack. Either way he had complete control over the situation as his eyes could see everything, so after the leopard avoided, he made another two slashes. But this time again the leopard managed to avoid it at the last moment. It only managed to leave unscathed as Ling Xu wasn¡¯t even going with half his strength, but it still surprised him how it had the ability to avoid the attacks in such a way. He then used the movement skill to go even faster than before as he didn¡¯t plan on taking any longer observing it. Slashing from the side, Ling Xu detected any small change from the beast¡¯s movement using his Enhanced Synapsis skill which greatly increased his processing speed. The beast that just a second ago felt confident in its dodging ability suddenly felt a chill down its spine as it felt that the attack that was coming didn¡¯t stop and followed its avoiding direction. Seeing the electric current on its skin breaking apart, Ling Xu understood right away that it had something to do with the leopard avoiding his sword. He figured it out as once the current on its body broke, Ling Xu saw that the leopard couldn¡¯t dodge as before. Without its ability, the leopard didn¡¯t have any chance as it was cut in half. [You¡¯ve killed a Charged Leopard (6th stage Blood Qi).] [Do you want to activate the Sacrifice Mode?] ¡°Yes!¡± It didn¡¯t take a second for him to decide on it as he had no problem with not gaining any experience in the mission. After all, he was very eager to have the chance to buy a few armor pieces and the random skill. [You¡¯ve killed a Charged Leopard (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] The previous message that confirmed his kill appeared once again, but this time it showed how many points he had gained from killing the leopard. ¡°Counting the way the experience I gain increases depending on which stage the beast is at, it seems that the system for gaining these points is the same. Every increase in the beast¡¯s stage the quantity of points I can acquire doubles.¡± He felt hopeful as he felt like he was completely capable of gaining enough points to buy the armor and skills. ¡°At first I thought it would be extremely difficult to have the chance of buying all the things I wanted from the store but seeing this I may be able to. Only yesterday I killed dozens of red deer alone which would have been able to increase my points to almost a thousand.¡± And that was considering that they were beasts in the 4th and 5th Stage, so if he now killed only stronger beasts, he would get to double the points he could get. As he checked the points in the store change from 0 to 32 he stop dilly dallying and started running trying to encounter every beast he could before the day ended. He maintained a speed at which he felt comfortable while advancing several meters after every step he took. It was noticeable that Ling Xu¡¯s current power was way over what a normal human was capable of. Even the rest of the survivors on the map could who had already entered the Blood Qi realm couldn¡¯t compare to him. Ling Xu had already assumed that he was one of the strongest in the world as he had never heard any news about someone even reaching the fifth stage of Blood Qi on Earth. And if you took his Blood Thread Transformation technique into consideration, which condensed his blood qi and made it stronger than before, you could say that his current speed wouldn¡¯t be achievable even by someone who managed to reach the same stage as him. Ling Xu had left his blood circulation speed at the speed it normally went before he had started and completed the second stage of the Blood Thread Transformation technique. But even then it was stronger than before as it was condensed after completing the third stage of it. Still, he decided to let his circulation speed increase a little as he wanted to make faster progress and he decided to run even faster. ... Ling Xu met for the next ten minutes more than ten current leopards in the sixth stage of Blood Qi. Even though he already got more than 300 points, he felt that it was far from enough. When Ling Xu entered the middle layer, he noticed a big change. As he progressed the size of the trees went as far as several dozen meters high, and the area of the layer was actually bigger than the outer one. Ling Xu realized that it would take a while longer to reach the next layer if there was compared to going from the outer layer to the inner layer. Chapter 20: Electric Sensory Field ¡­ Surrounded by a big pack of leopards, Ling Xu stimulated his blood qi to the limit letting it run through his body like a torrent. The sound of blood qi flowing could be faintly heard. Ling Xu¡¯s eyes which had turned red were now looking at the leader of the group of leopards. He felt its cultivation which was on the seventh stage of Blood Qi and its body that looked bigger than the rest. Even the electric current on its fur looked stronger as it was noticeable to the eye. Ling Xu¡¯s blood qi run wildly as it emanated an intense pressure, leaving the leopards staggering and moving with difficulty. Even the leader felt pressured, after all having the same cultivation didn¡¯t mean their strength was the same. Having gone through the peak of the third and sixth stages of Blood Qi and undergoing the three transformation of the Blood Thread Transformation technique, Ling Xu¡¯s current purity and density of blood qi surpassed the seventh stage of the Blood Qi realm. ¡°So this is my current strength, I haven¡¯t even moved but these beasts are already having a hard time deciding on whether to attack me after feeling the pressure from by blood qi. Well, if you are not going to come let me do the honors.¡± He looked with his red eyes at the leopard as it felt his gace and became frightened, it had already decided to run away as it felt powerless against their difference in strength just from his pressure. Ling Xu moved barely touching the ground as he activated his movement skill which increased the flexibility of his every move. He arrived in front of the nearest beast in breath, even though he was dozens of meters apart from it. The leopard leader didn¡¯t even react as Ling Xu noticed once he activated his skill Enhanced Synapsis that every one of these beasts looked dead. It wasn¡¯t that they weren¡¯t alive, but with his current speed he could barely notice any reaction. With his current speed, they weren¡¯t even able to react as he was currently far surpassing their speed. Coming at the leader of the group, he slashed downward. A pressure of air started to appear as he activated his unique attack skill White Heavy Strike. The weapon didn¡¯t even touch the leopard leader when its tough body, with a cultivation of the seventh stage of Blood Qi, exploded from the pressure. Without having the chance to avoid the attack once the electric current on its body activated, the leopard leader had already become blood and meat paste. Ling Xu didn¡¯t stop there as he went for the rest of the group. Dozens of leopards that were almost frozen in the same place, since he moved and killed their leader, had died just like that. A few breaths barely went by when he could finally deactivate his Enhanced Synapsis skill and return back to normal. Looking from the same spot he was at before going at the leopard leader and then the rest, Ling Xu saw the remnants of the beast¡¯s body. He saw several marks of his sword on the ground and when he got near the leader¡¯s corpse, there was only blood dripping and falling into a whole which was a meter deep. This was the result of fully circulating his blood qi after condensing his blood and using White Heavy Strike at the same time. Ling Xu then looked at the system which sent 36 killing notifications including a few leopards he had killed before. He realized that only half an hour had passed after the store was introduced as he observed the system points he had now amounted to 1216. ¡°I didn¡¯t expect obtaining points would be this fast, with the current speed I have there is more than enough time until the end of the mission to get the items that I want from the store.¡± ¡°Grrr!!¡± The sound of his stomach interrupted him. ¡°I forgot that I haven¡¯t eaten since I entered the inner layer of the forest, let¡¯s try the taste of this so called charged leopard.¡± Ling Xu took a small break before continuing again on his race to get points. ... After more than eight hours, Ling Xu had slaughtered hundreds of charged leopards and a dozen of them were even in the seventh stage of Blood Qi. Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t test his power because there wasn¡¯t any beast stronger than that. [System Points]: 9.480 [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] Ling Xu looked with joy at the accumulated points he had gotten after less than a day since the store opened. You must know that he would have gotten even more had it not been for the beasts to be scattered all over the inner layer. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. But after going for hours he found a direction where the habitat actually changed from a forest to what resembled a jungle, seeing the vines hanging from the extremely tall trees ¡°Now that I have almost completed the charged leopards¡¯ habitat, it is time I head to the jungle as it looks like they have become more difficult to find after killing more than a hundred of them.¡± He said indignant as he had been struggling to find them, as for the last half an hour he had to run for several minutes before he could even find one single charged leopard. ¡°Before I enter this new habitat, it would be wise to start investing the points I have gained and turn them into actual power.¡± Ling Xu opened the equipment category immediately and searched for the pieces of armor he had been eyeing ever since the store appeared. [You have spent 3000 points on Spider Silk Shirt (high grade semi-treasure).] [You have spent 2500 points on Tough Boar Chest Plate (high grade semi-treasure).] Two items suddenly appeared in the air before they landed on the floor. Ling Xu took them up and observed them. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t believe I have the Spider Silk Shirt in my hands if I wasn¡¯t looking, I can¡¯t feel any weight. And this chest plate is completely the opposite.¡± Changing his attention from the silver shirt made of silk, he looked at the tough chest place made of boar skin that looked extremely tough and was quite heavy. Fortunately Ling Xu had already undergone the lower stages of the Blood Qi realm and even the peak of the third stage, so his muscle strength was more than enough to lift it up without restraining his movement speed. Putting them on he observed that they fitted perfectly as if they were made for him. Ling Xu then observed his points again as he realized that he had more than enough to buy himself a random skill, having 3.980 points left to use. [You have spent 3000 points on Random Skill (low grade).] [You have learned Electric Sensory Field (low grade).] ¡°Why does this name sound so familiar?¡± Activating his new skill, Ling Xu suddenly felt a current of energy flowing through his skin increasing his awareness of his surroundings. He now felt every current of air that touched his body. ¡°This is the same skill the charged leopards had that allowed them to avoid several attacks when they didn¡¯t have the strength to react by themselves. Still, its effect should be very low as I can barely see the current of energy through my skin. Maybe if its grade increases it will look the same as those from the charged leopard leaders.¡± Trying to hit himself with the refined short sword, Ling Xu tested its power as he threw the weapon very hard. He wasn¡¯t scared as he had already tested his skin toughness which was capable of resisting it unless he increased his blood qi circulation speed to more than 10%. Once the sword reached his skin, Ling Xu found out its function. It wasn¡¯t as impressive as the charged leopards, as he realized that his body wouldn¡¯t move on its own trying to avoid the attack. But it would alert him through the currents of air of the incoming attack, once the sword got an inch or two away from touching him. ¡°It seems this skill isn¡¯t omnipotent, but at least it will become very helpful to avoid an attack I am not aware of. Maybe it is different because I got it through a skill while the charged leopards inherently since they were born I suppose.¡± Then he checked his status panel after a long time after a few days of not seeing it. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 7th stage of Blood Qi (23%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (10,1%) [Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (completed) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade), Electric Sensory Field (low grade) After seeing the change of his new skill on the status panel, Ling Xu had less than a thousand points in the store once again. ... After an hour of running Ling Xu finally entered the jungle as he had become quite far from it when he stopped hunting the charged leopards. ¡°Why do I feel as if something is staring at me?¡± It hadn¡¯t even passed a minute since he entered before he sensed a beast looking at him from above. While turning his head Ling Xu noticed a black snake that was falling with its mouth open right at him. Its black scales made it perfect to attack through the dark. Ling Xu avoided its sneak attack and killed it with a single punch from his hand. [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] A headless corpse flew through the air before hitting a tree and falling to the ground. Ling Xu continued for an hour as he killed almost a hundred black scale snakes. Most of them were grouped in the dozens so he was the most part of the time searching for places where they lived. It seemed the snake he first found when he entered the jungle was very strange as the majority of them would remain together. He proceeded to look at the store panel once again. [System Points]: 4.100 [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] ¡°Should I increase the grade of my new skill or get a new one?¡± Entering the special items category, Ling Xu made his decision as he saw the light slowly fading from the sky. He decided fast on which option to choose before going to sleep once the sun had completely set. [You have spent 3000 points on Upgrade Skill (middle grade).] Ling Xu used his upgrade skill chance right away as he had only one option to choose from, having the rest of them being at least in the middle grade. [You have used Upgrade Skill on Electric Sensory Field (low grade).] After the notification disappeared, he saw the skill on his panel change to middle grade and he activated it right away. This time not only did its appearance change to the one the charged leopard leaders had, but after throwing his refined short sword against his arm he felt a difference. When the skill was low grade, Ling Xu could sense the currents of wind touching the electric sensory field before they reached his skin. Now, Ling Xu felt the refined short sword itself before it even touched him. ¡°This sense of complete awareness over what is around my own body starts to feel very magical. I can now differentiate between the different objects that are near me without the need to even look at them.¡± He realized that if he tried he could walk without even looking to the ground as he could now know where to step, feeling any matter several inches away from his body. ¡°This feels like it has gone through a different path compared to the inherent ability the charged leopards had.¡± Chapter 21: Big reward and another upgrade The night set and Ling Xu decided to look for a place to sleep. [You have entered the outer layer of the Deserted Forest.] He went back to the outer layer because the beasts on the inner layer were stronger and he didn¡¯t feel like putting himself in unnecessary danger. ¡°I see a fire light in the distance, it should be a few hundred meters apart. Let¡¯s go and check it out.¡± On the fire camp. ¡°How on Earth did they get enough points to buy a skill and even an upgrade? Both of them cost several thousands of points.¡± ¡°I think they may be a group that decided to share the points so they could advance faster than the rest. It is a good approach but personally I would never give my points to someone else.¡± ¡°But even then, how can they get each one of them at least a thousand or even hundreds of points. We are already struggling to defeat the beasts after we entered the outer layer, and we can¡¯t return to the desert because the experience you get from the beasts will only decrease.¡± ¡°If it wasn¡¯t for those bastards that killed Lin Yu we wouldn¡¯t be in this situation.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t believe it either, if he was still here we wouldn¡¯t be struggling so much, he was the first of us to advance into the fourth stage of Blood Qi. I thought we would advance faster after he became stronger but who would have thought that we would suddenly be ambushed by another group of people, sight.¡± A small team composed of four people was talking freely as they expressed their anguish about their friend who died in the mission, they didn¡¯t even know if he would appear this time on Earth. After all, the tutorial mission may be the only time they had the chance to come back alive after dying inside. They were a group of friends from work who were forced into the mission after going out together to have some drinks. They continued chatting when Xie Sudin was alerted by something. ¡°Who is it?¡± ¡°Uh? He is just one person.¡± The other three looked at the direction the woman yelled at, startled that they didn¡¯t notice the man who was slowly approaching from the distance. Maybe it was because that man had no aura surrounding him making them feel that he didn¡¯t even enter the first stage of the Blood Qi realm. Xiao Die, who was the one to notice the man¡¯s lack of aura, was very careful as he didn¡¯t believe that someone without entering the Blood Qi realm could survive here alone. ¡°How can he hide his aura?¡± As Ling Xu arrived, he saw a group of three men and one woman looking at him carefully. They were all at the third stage of Blood Qi and he felt the strongest aura coming from the woman, he guessed that she was about to enter the fourth stage after getting a little more experience. Remembering the group he had been with his neighbor Mr. Sun, Ling Xu felt from their auras that this group was quite strong compared to them. After noticing the woman¡¯s aura, Ling Xu realized that she seemed to hold a nice long sword between her legs. He observed her figure which showed the appearance of an elegant woman accompanied by a pretty face. She remained calm the entire time since she noticed him coming at them and called him out. ¡°Who are you?¡° She spoke calm with a cold tone normal for the situation they were in. After all Ling Xu was all alone in the night and she didn¡¯t think lowly of him. ¡°I have no ulterior motives, I just saw the fire light and hoped to find a place to stay for the night.¡± ¡°Why are you alone?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t misunderstand, I separated from my team by accident while running from a pack of boars.¡± Xie Sudin nodded as she felt that what Ling Xu said was possible, she didn¡¯t completely believe him as they had just met so she decided to consult the rest of the group. Looking at the rest, she saw they had no problem with letting him stay for the night. ¡°You can stay for the night, what¡¯s your name brother?¡± ¡°Ling Xu.¡± Xiao Die asked him after seeing that Xie Sudin had made the decision to let him stay once she consulted him and the rest. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°My name is Xiao Die, the woman who first felt your presence is Xie Sudin our leader. And the other two are our friends Liao Li and Yuan Shi.¡± The night progressed smoothly as they continued to talk before they all went to sleep, Ling Xu stood quietly trying not to bother the group as they had their own conversations and he didn¡¯t know the details. He was the first to go to sleep as he felt secure about these people¡¯s character and even if they tried to turn against him, they wouldn¡¯t be able to do much to him. Ling Xu had already activated his Copper Skin Iron Bones skill before closing his eyes, and even before he did so, he felt confident that none of them were capable of breaking through his skin. It would take someone in the seventh stage of Blood Qi and a high grade semi-treasure before they could even make a cut. ... The third day begun and Ling Xu was already awake. Standing up, he tidied up his clothes which had gotten dirty from the soil on the ground and he was ready to leave the group that allowed him to stay for the night. ¡°Are you leaving?¡± Seeing Ling Xu about to leave she asked with one eye still closed as she was still asleep. ¡°I will try to find my team now, thank you for letting me sleep with you all. I hope you accept a small gift from me.¡± ¡°What gif...¡± As Ling Xu¡¯s image suddenly disappeared from her view she realized that he was hiding his strength. Because of his incredible speed and the dense forest full of plants and trees, it only took a few seconds for her to lose his sight. Looking around she saw a corpse from a charged leopard which gave a strong feeling even after being dead for almost an entire day. ¡°He has hidden his strength so well, I never thought he would be so strong. I don¡¯t even know what strength this beast had before dying. It should have been at least on the fifth stage of Blood Qi.¡± Having met a tough boar in the fifth stage of Blood Qi before, she could already guess that when the beast was still alive it was at least as strong or even more. Considering that she barely had the chance to feel the aura from the beast before her group run away from it, being powerless as they had just confronted the group that killed their teammate and they were exhausted. Two hours later, in the inner layer, Ling Xu had already eaten and was now ready to hunt for points. He entered once again the jungle like forest and searched for places where black snakes lived. It didn¡¯t take long for him to find a small hole between the bushes where he found a group of snakes. ¡°There should be at least a hundred of them!¡± He yelled in his mind as he realized that he had encountered a bag full of points ready to take away. There were black snakes with all kinds of cultivation as he observed that some were smaller than others, but the bust majority where in the 5th and 6th Stage. As he looked further Ling Xu realized that what he was seeing looked more like a pool of snakes, he couldn¡¯t see the bottom but every time a snake moved there were even more below. He observed that the ones below were of a lower stage and the ones above should be the adult snakes guarding them. Up until now the pool of snakes haven¡¯t realized that they were about to become Ling Xu¡¯s prey. ¡°Should I kill them in one go?¡± Seeing the size of the hole, which was about three meters wide and long, Ling Xu was more than sure that he could do a powerful strike powerful enough to kill them all in one go. Ling Xu¡¯s blood started to circulate faster and faster and his eyes gained that red color. Suddenly, a strong pressure descended upon the snakes below which made them frightened in their place. They struggled with all they had but this pressure was impossible to resist, and even if they could, they wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything as they had their offsprings below which activated their maternal instincts. It only took a second for Ling Xu¡¯s blood to reach its peak as he jumped with his refined short sword and activated White Heavy Strike. All of a sudden, a few of the strongest black scale snakes became able to move after desperately resisting, so they jumped against Ling Xu when an invisible air pressure descended upon them. They were the first to die as the pressure from the sword alone dismembered them. [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] The messages started to appear even though the strike hadn¡¯t landed. ¡­ [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (5th stage Blood Qi) +16 points.] ¡­ Seeing the result of his blood qi circulating without any restraints, Ling Xu was surprised. He saw the entirety of the hole where the pool of snakes were, full of blood with only a few remnants that hadn¡¯t turned into meat paste. He then killed a few black scale snakes that seemed to have just returned. [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (3rd stage Blood Qi) +4 points.] [You have killed a Black Scale Snake (2nd stage Blood Qi) +2 points.] After making sure that not a single snake remained, he started to see the barrage of notifications from the system. He counted the number of them and stopped after counting more than a hundred. He counted dozens of kill confirmations of black scale snakes in the sixth stage and a hundred in the fifth. Ling Xu called the system store to see how many points he had now. [System Points]: 5.042 [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] ¡°I have gained almost four thousand points from a single group of snakes, this is amazing!¡± Ling Xu entered the special items category when he realized that a new item had been added to the short list. [You have spent 5000 points on Upgrade Skill (high grade).] [You have used Upgrade Skill on Swift Steps (middle grade).] He didn¡¯t even hesitate before buying the option to upgrade a skill form middle grade to high grade and then he instantly used it on the skill he most wanted to upgrade. ¡°I hope they were worth the use of my points.¡± Activating his upgraded skill, Ling Xu felt a difference as he tried taking a step and ended up advancing the equivalent to three or four. When he was about to fall and tried to use his other leg to touch the ground his body suddenly turned in the air and he fell with his face to the ground. ¡°Cough! Cough! Cough!¡± Full of earth in his mouth, Ling Xu realized that it wasn¡¯t as simple as its previous grade starting to have some difficulty using it. Standing up he tried once again, almost committing the same mistakes with the only difference being in that he didn¡¯t fall with his face to the ground. Chapter 22: Jackpot! New Habitat After a dozen minutes he started to get the hang of it, Ling Xu was running through the jungle like habitat looking as if he was flying as his speed had achieved a new height. After several trial and errors, Ling Xu made less and less. He suddenly got in front of a tree but he barely moved his feet and he avoided it as he flowed with the flow of air. Ling Xu was having fun while using his skill as the most he felt was his blood qi being spent, but with his vast reserves of energy it would take a while before he would have to stop running. This is only because his current level of cultivation is already in the seventh stage of the Blood Qi realm. If he was still in the middle stages it would have become harder and the time he would have been able to use the skill would have been significantly reduced. ... The night approached and Ling Xu was hiding on a tree in the outer layer, he decided that he would continue sleeping alone as he felt it was too tiresome to group with other people and having to explain himself every single time. ¡°I think it is time to search for another kind of beasts, the amount of black scale snakes has already decreased so much that it takes dozens of minutes to find a group of them.¡± Feeling proud of his results after exploring almost the whole jungle habitat, he stopped his killing spree on the black scale snakes after killing several hundred and going through several dens. Ling Xu found the beasts in different places every time, sometimes they were on a whole like when he found the one between the bushes and sometimes he found a gap between the rocks and trees. But by now, Ling Xu was tired as the last den of snakes took him an entire hour before finding it. Fortunately, the rays of light started to come less and less so he decided to enter the outer layer and find a tree to sleep and the next day he would search on another place. [System Points]: 3.354 [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] Looking at his new points in the store, Ling Xu refrained from using them on a new skill or piece of equipment as he decided to save them for now. He liked the idea of upgrading another of his skills from middle to high grade. He still didn¡¯t know which to upgrade as he had two skills in the middle grade, his Copper Skin Iron Bones which has proved to have a great defense even able to resist a bit of pressure from his middle grade refined short sword before he upgraded it to high grade. He was very expectant to see if it would be able to withstand a high grade weapon once it advanced to high grade. Still, Ling Xu¡¯s current best defense is his own skin as he had already refined it to the limit after reaching the peak of the sixth stage of Blood Qi and surpassing the limits of his skin and organs. The other skill he had was Electric Sensory Field which he had gotten on this mission, it was extremely helpful for sensing external objects a few inches before they touched his skin. He felt very curious about what this skill would become once he upgraded it to high grade, so he wasn¡¯t sure on which of the skills to choose from. ¡°Maybe I should wait and upgrade both skills together, after all the speed at which I am earning the points is extremely fast. If everything goes right I will be able to upgrade them by the end of tomorrow.¡± Ending his choice, he decided to buy them both together and spend 10.000 points to upgrade both skills. After all, it only took him the second day of the mission, when the store opened, to earn more than that. ¡°Wait, if the people on the mission have already advanced quite far in the outer layer, maybe by the end of tomorrow they will have already entered the inner layer.¡± He realized that he didn¡¯t have much time before the groups of people actively entered the inner layer to hunt beasts, taking away his points. Therefore, he decided that tomorrow would be the last day he would be in the inner layer and then he would go deeper and see if there was another more. ... The sun rose once again and Ling Xu had woken up, he had a hearty breakfast eating several pounds of snake meat and a leg from a charged leopard he had put inside his storage ring. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. It took him around two hours to cook everything as he had to make the fire himself and roast the meat piece by piece. Sadly, the system didn¡¯t provide items that helped the survival process in the forest, so not only did it take longer to cook but Ling Xu was missing his bed and the comfort of his apartment. [You have entered the inner layer of the Deserted Forest.] As soon as he entered the inner layer he went through the jungle like habitat and entered another forest, but his one was very humid and had several puddles of water around. It looked like a swamp. ¡°I wonder what kind of beast I will find this time.¡± The answer didn¡¯t take long, when Ling Xu looked carefully at one of the puddles of water he saw a crocodile looking beast with sharp teeth and impressive scales incomparable to the ones from the black scale snakes. [You have killed a Ravenous Crocodile (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] It didn¡¯t take more than a strike for Ling Xu though as he was more than capable of killing a beast which didn¡¯t even have his own cultivation level. ... Time passed and several hours had gone by since Ling Xu entered the swamp and started hunting the ravenous crocodile beasts. He managed to get around 2500 points, getting enough to upgrade one of his skills already. But he didn¡¯t do so as he had already decided to upgrade them together. Ling Xu continued his hunt for another hour before stopping to see his current progress. [System Points]: 6.454 [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] ¡°I have barely gotten 600 points in the last hour, am I doing something wrong? If this keeps up I don¡¯t know if I will have the time to get the points by the end of the day.¡± He activated his skill Swift Steps to the limit and started to run as fast as he could, now Ling Xu couldn¡¯t care less about his blood qi reserves draining extremely fast as he had a major preoccupation within his mind, time. Once the groups entered he would have to compete for points, so to avoid that he wanted to advance as fast as possible to the next layer. It took an hour of finding not a single beast for Ling Xu to be about to change of habitat as he had started to dislike the swamp. ¡°Damn, I can¡¯t believe I am left with no choice but to go back and hunt charged leopards once again.¡± Taking a turn, Ling Xu was ready to go back. He started to walk when he realized that he hadn¡¯t gone through this place before, he looked in front and saw a huge lake which had dozens of crocodile beasts. ¡°Jack pot!!!¡± He was extremely happy as he realized that he would now be able to earn several points, not being able to see the end of the lake and how many ravenous crocodiles were inside. Ling Xu was happy but soon found a problem, he didn¡¯t know how he would reach the beasts as they were all in the middle of the lake. ¡°What if¡­¡± An absurd idea came to him. Ling Xu thought of jumping from one crocodile to another and when he could, jumping to a tree near him as there were some inside the lake. This idea wasn¡¯t bad as his current speed far overwhelmed the current leopards, so he was even more confident in getting a step ahead of the ravenous crocodiles and having the speed to not fall to the lake and being preyed upon the many crocodiles inside. ¡°Let¡¯s try this.¡± He didn¡¯t think long as he knew he would regret it and jumped right away. He stopped slowing down his blood circulation speed and he felt a current of energy traversing through his whole body. His eyes turned red and his speed increased to a whole new level. After taking a ten-meter jump Ling Xu fell on a crocodile¡¯s back as he inserted his short sword in its head very fast, he didn¡¯t take even a breath to react and jump to the next one. [You have killed a Ravenous Crocodile (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] [You have killed a Ravenous Crocodile (6th stage Blood Qi) +32 points.] He continued jumping from one to another as he realized he had fallen on a crocodile that seemed much bigger and had a tougher look. Ling Xu used his short sword the same way as before but he had to use a little more force this time before he received the message from the kill. [You have killed an Alpha Ravenous Crocodile (7th stage Blood Qi) +64 points.] He continued doing this for five minutes before the number of crocodiles decreased to the point where he couldn¡¯t find any more support in the water, so he had to go to the ground. After landing on the ground and making sure that he was safe he opened the store. [System Points]: 13.130 [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] ¡°So many points!¡± Ling Xu¡¯s red eyes opened wide after reading that he had earned almost 7.000 points from just a few minutes of hunting the crocodile beasts. But on second thought it made sense, after all he killed one every second as his speed far surpassed what a normal human could do. So, after pondering for a while on what to do next Ling Xu went back to the leopard habitat as that was the nearest from where he first entered the inner layer. He could just go to the outer layer from here but he wanted to have a sense of direction as he was more familiar there. Running straight for almost half an hour he finally entered the charged leopard¡¯s habitat. Ling Xu observed that the charged leopards had started to slowly appear once again, but the amount wasn¡¯t comparable to when he first entered. He expected them to reappear as it would make it easier than to search for them, but reality proved him wrong as he had to wait for the next day before they started to reappear. ¡°It¡¯s time to see how my group is doing, I hope Mr. Sun is doing fine.¡± Ling Xu thought, he decided to look for his team as it had been several days and although he hadn¡¯t formed a very strong bond with them he still cared for his neighbor who he had known for several years already. Sun Min was the person he had known the longest since he started living alone once his mother died. ... In the outer layer. ¡°Finally! We have all stepped into the fourth stage, maybe before the mission ends we will be able to enter the fifth stage and hunt safely in the inner layer.¡± ¡°Yes! I hope then we will be able to buy something on the store, after all if we had started saving points and sacrificing our experience we wouldn¡¯t have been able to enter the fourth stage and advance deeper into the next layer.¡± ¡°If it wasn¡¯t because our stages are extremely low and we can¡¯t kill the beasts very fast, I would have already bought that middle grade blade.¡± ¡°Yeah, me too, I¡¯m really anxious to get that black steel sword but I don¡¯t know if we have enough time to get it.¡± Sun Min was leisurely chatting with the rest of his group when he felt something and his eyes opened wide. ¡°Stop hiding and show yourself!¡± Chapter 23: Damsel in distress Being the most careful one in the group, he felt a trace of aura from one of the bushes that was several meters away. The rest of the group was frozen in place as they didn¡¯t sense anything had it not been for him. Looking in the direction Sun Min yelled, they felt confused as they saw nothing out of the ordinary. ¡°Are you sure there is someone the¡­¡± Before Xu Min could continue, several figures started to come out from behind the trees and plants in the same direction Sun Min had sensed before. ¡°You must be quite the careful fellow, I can¡¯t believe you sensed us even after we did our best to conceal our aura. It seems we still have much to learn.¡± A middle aged man leading a group of five man said while looking surprised at Sun Min¡¯s senses. ¡°You are the first to have noticed us, but if you are smart you should already know that you are not my opponent.¡± Sun Min felt their auras and was very surprised by the result as he realized that the entire group was in the fourth stage of Blood Qi and their leader, the man who spoke, was in the fifth. Although they tried to conceal their auras the best they could, there was plenty of blood qi leaking out of their body showing a faint aura of their cultivation stage. Sun Min and his group had realized that they could conceal their aura too, after being with Ling Xu, but they realized how difficult it was as it required a very delicate and precise control of their blood qi. ¡°What do you mean by doing this?¡± Feeling the pressure of having a disadvantage in numbers and cultivation stage, he was in complete awe. He didn¡¯t know how they were going to get out of this alive, the difference in cultivation stage wasn¡¯t something that could be overcome easily. Even less when they had a disadvantage in numbers too. Xie Lin was sweating cold drops feeling nothing good would come out of this, and the rest were doing even worse. ¡°Nothing much, I just need your weapons and that girl.¡± Said the leader as he pointed specially at Xie Lin¡¯s weapon and Xu Min. He didn¡¯t plan to do anything good if he got his way with her. The rest of his group looked at her with lustful eyes. Gripping her hand hard until there was a mark of blood, Xu Min was infuriated at their pig like expressions. She wanted to slap them to death this moment but couldn¡¯t do anything as she knew they were at a serious disadvantage. ¡°And what would happen if I say no?¡± ¡°Well in that case you are going to die, you should know the difference in strength between us.¡± The leader then laughed as he was already thinking about what he would do to Xu Min before giving her to the rest of the group. They had already done this a few times since they entered the mission and he was very confident that there was almost no one who could rival him. ¡°Mr. Sun what should we do? I don¡¯t want to be touched by those bastards, I would prefer dying right now.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry Xu Min, we would never give you to them. Even if we did they would probably kill us next once they had our weapons.¡± Said Xie Tan backing her up, Sun Min and Xie Lin nodded showing their full agreement on not selling her for their safety. ¡°Well, you leave me no choice.¡± The leader of the group of bastards said and instantly charged at Sun Min with his full speed. He tried to fight back but once they exchanged blows he knew what would be the outcome of this fight. Activating his skill, Sun Min parried the second attack with difficulty as his hands had started to hurt from the first exchange. He knew he couldn¡¯t last very long as the difference in strength from was very high. On the other hand, the leader who seemed to be taking a stroll, felt nothing as the toughness of his skin could withstand Sun Min¡¯s blows. He barely felt any kind of discomfort when a blow landed on his chest. ¡°Mr. Sun!¡± Running to help, Sun Min¡¯s teammates were stopped by the rest of the leader¡¯s crew as they started to fight and choose their own opponent. They tried to defend but after Xie Tan was defeated, as he confronted one of the enemies and he was hit in the back by another one, the outcome was clear in just a few seconds. On Mr. Sun¡¯s side, it didn¡¯t take more than a minute to see him with the leader¡¯s feet pressing his back against the floor. ¡°Arghhh!!!¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The sound of his rib breaking could be heard from the pressure. ¡°Stop! Let him go!¡± Said his teammates gritting their teeth in anger. At the same time, a trace of tears could be seen as they saw their precious teammate in extreme pain, they felt despair and powerless. ¡°Don¡¯t worry girl, I will leave your friends alive so they can watch me have fun with you.¡± Taking his feet out of his back, he walked to take his price. ¡°Don¡¯t touch me, nooo!¡± Xu Min was yelling in despair when the pig took her forcefully by the hand. He started taking her clothes slowly, one layer at a time. ¡°Let her go!!!¡± The rest of the group had the same fate as Sun Min, having a fot on their back and their faces pressed on the ground, full of dirt. ¡°Hahaha! Don¡¯t worry, you will be one of the lucky ones to have been touched by me, Ren You.¡± Putting his hands on the last layer of protection on Xu Min, he tore it off as he felt a gust of wind brushing against the back of his face. ¡°What?!¡± The feeling continued as it turned from the back of his head all the way to the front. Ren You¡¯s vision started to spin until it showed him his own body. The last thing he saw was his headless body without any idea of what had just happened. With a small part of her peach blossoms showing her white skin, Xu Min opened her eyes full of tears. She couldn¡¯t care less about the headless corpse belonging to the man who was about to abuse her, seeing behind a familiar figure she hadn¡¯t seen in a few days. ... On Ling Xu¡¯s side, he was moving extremely fast with his Swift Steps skill, he was leisurely running while enjoying the feeling of moving as if following the wind. ¡°What was that?¡± He heard the sound of a person very far away. ¡°Something must have happened, for me to be able to hear from this distance they must have screamed with all their strength.¡± Changing his direction, Ling Xu turned to the place where he heard the sound coming from. He didn¡¯t know who it was from but he wouldn¡¯t ignore someone in need when he had the opportunity to help. [You have entered the outer layer of the Deserted Forest.] Ling Xu advanced very fast and smoothly while avoiding any obstacle he had in front, with his use of the skill¡¯s flexibility to turn when he had a tree in front he didn¡¯t have anything to worry about. Hearing the sounds of people every time closer, Ling Xu paid close attention as he realized that a hundred meters apart there was something going on. He activated his Enhanced Synapsis to enhance his senses to the limit. ¡°It¡¯s actually Mr. Sun and the rest, why are they fighting?¡± He saw in front the fight unfold to its end and Ren You taking his feet off Sun Min to get his way with Xu Min. ¡°Damn, you dared to touch one of Mr. Sun¡¯s teammates!¡± He clenched his hands in fury. Ling Xu¡¯s body made a subtle sound like the one from a torrent and his eyes turned red with a wild expression. His feet moved barely touching the floor and he made a turn in the air before reaching the next instant in front of the bastard who dared to touch her. His short sword moved instantly, cutting his head in half very smoothly. ¡°Who are you?¡± When Ling Xu appeared, Ren You¡¯s lackeys yelled in anger seeing him interrupt their fun. Seeing Ling Xu appear a meter behind their boss they became furious as he didn¡¯t know who he was messing with. But the next second, they saw their boss¡¯ head falling to the ground. You could hear a pin drop as no one made a sound. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Our boss is dead?!¡± Ren You fell and now it was his lackeys turn to pay for what they were about to do. Ling Xu moved again as he disappeared from their view for a second. The next moment, he reappeared in the same place. ¡°What happen¡­¡± Before they could end their question, their vision turned until they saw their bodies lacking a head. ¡°Go to hell!¡± Ling Xu turned his eyes to the fragile girl who had seen the same as the corpses on the floor. She then looked at his eyes, which were red and felt the pressure emanating from his blood qi. Seeing her reaction, Ling Xu restrained his blood qi circulation speed once again until his eyes returned to normal. ¡°I hope I didn¡¯t arrive too late.¡± Saying with worry, he helped her stand up and turned to the rest of the group. Seeing his neighbor breathing with difficulty and being in a complete mess, he walked to him right away. ¡°Wai¡­¡± Xu Min from behind extended her hand and tried to say something, but her voice barely came out of her mouth so Ling Xu couldn¡¯t hear her as he was paying attention to Sun Min. ¡°Is that Ling Xu?¡± Sun Min said as it was the last thing he saw before falling unconscious with his head against the ground. ¡­ Half a day later. ¡°Don¡¯t you dare lay a hand on her!¡± Waking up, Sun Min yelled in anger as he thought he was still going through the moment Xu Min had her clothes ripped apart. ¡°Uh?¡± He saw Xu Min guarding as it was already night and the Xie cousins were sleeping trying to recover from their own injuries. ¡°Mr. Sun, you are finally awake! How are you feeling?¡± ¡°Xu¡¯er, how is it that you are¡­¡± ¡°That I am alright?¡± Looking at her with pitiful eyes and feeling guilt as he wasn¡¯t able to avoid it from happening, he waited for her to explain. ¡°Mr. Sun, you may not know this as you fell unconscious but while I was about to have my virginity taken aw¡­¡± ¡°Cough¡­ I know that part, but what exactly happened?¡± He interrupted her before she completed the phrase, after all it wasn¡¯t something easy to talk about. ¡°Don¡¯t you remember who saved us?¡± Sun Min looked at her in confusion as he started to remember a vague figure he saw before falling unconscious. ¡°It was Ling Xu that saved us! He appeared out of nowhere and killed that bastard and his lackeys in a matter of seconds. You should have seen him, well¡­ I couldn¡¯t even see when he cut their heads as he went extremely fast so I doubt you could have actually seen him in action.¡± ¡°Ling Xu?!¡± Sun Min¡¯s expression became solemn as he finally realized how deep Ling Xu had hidden his strength, Xu Min who was in the same stage of cultivation as him wasn¡¯t even able to see him move before they were all dead. He couldn¡¯t imagine how much the difference in strength must be for Ling Xu to be able to achieve such a feet. ¡°He even used a pill to help you replenish your blood qi so your body had enough energy to recover by itself and then he applied a very high grade wound ointment on your injured parts and where you had broken your bones.¡± He observed his body which seemed to have completely healed as he became shocked. Sun Min was completely aware of the several wounds he had on his body. ¡°Ouch!¡± Moving carelessly, he felt the pain from his broken rib which had barely started to heal with the constant use of the wound ointment by Xu Min. She had almost used it completely after staying awake during the night letting the ones who were injured rest. Although she was the one who would have suffered the most, and she knew that this event wouldn¡¯t leave her this easily, she was the one who suffered the least when it came to physical injuries. ¡°Be careful! Although this wound ointment helps recover injuries, it doesn¡¯t help with internal ones. Only after the constant use of it can there be some help in recovering faster.¡± Chapter 24: Core Layer ¡°I hope it didn¡¯t cost him much. Where is little Xu, I want to thank him.¡± ¡°He left.¡± ¡°Left?¡± On another place in the outer layer. Ling Xu was trying to sleep while thinking of how he barely arrived in time before Xu Min suffered something she wouldn¡¯t be able to forget. ¡°Fortunately I didn¡¯t arrive too late!¡± Feeling grateful, he still didn¡¯t stay with them. Barely knowing them, Ling Xu still cared about his group after spending a day with them. He even had something good to say about Xie Lin, as he observed on the first day of the mission how he cared for the rest of the team in his own way. But his path was different having a great gap in strength with all of them. Ling Xu could differentiate between taking care of someone, as he just did, and sacrificing his own growth in fear of them being in danger. So he gave Xu Min another blood replenishing pill for each of them in case they needed to recover their energy in an emergency, and another wound ointment apart from the one he gave her to help Sun Min recover from his injuries. After doing that, he left to sleep elsewhere as he had already got accustomed to sleeping on the trees alone. Xu Min couldn¡¯t say anything before he disappeared once again, looking in the direction he left with a special light in her eyes. ¡­ [System Points]: 12.230 [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] Once he woke up, Ling Xu ate and then called the store panel ready to claim his rewards. There was a small decrease in points after he bought the high grade pills and wound ointment for Sun Min and the rest of the group. He entered the special items then as he saw the following. [Random Skill (low grade)]: 3000 points (8) [Luminous Stone (low grade)]: 1000 points (73) [Upgrade Skill (middle grade)]: 3000 points (8) ¡°Someone has already managed to buy a skill.¡± By now, Ling Xu had bought a random skill and two chances to upgrade skills. So he was surprised when he saw that the random skill had one less available as someone else had bought it. He wasn¡¯t surprised about the big decrease in the available luminous stones as its price was the lowest and there were more than 900 survivors remaining. After all, there were still may participants who haven¡¯t gotten their own middle grade weapon. [You have spent 5000 points on Upgrade Skill (high grade).] [You have used Upgrade Skill on Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade).] [You have spent 5000 points on Upgrade Skill (high grade).] [You have used Upgrade Skill on Electric Sensory Field (middle grade).] Ling Xu fell to the ground, experiencing the same pain he had already gone through when acquiring the skill and fusing it into middle grade. The process was three minutes long and once he could stand up again you could see inside his body a layer of protection around every one of his organs. He then activated the skill on his skin as he realized that this layer had completely turned into a bronze color. It then disappeared as it merged with his skin, this time he realized that the protection was still there even after doing so. The effect was even stronger as he realized that it had become quite robust, changing from a thin layer of protection to increasing his skin width half an inch. ¡°Cling!¡± The sound of metal could be heard as he tried cutting himself with his refined short sword. It bounce back after he used his whole strength, so he slowly unleashed his blood qi until he saw a small cut on his arm. Stopping at 30% his blood qi speed, Ling Xu finally saw a cut made by the sword. He was extremely satisfied as it had turned from 10% with the use of the golden shadow energy, to 30% with the increase of his skill grade, making it even harder for beasts to make a scratch on him. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 7th stage of Blood Qi (23%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (10,1%) This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. [Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (completed) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Gale Steps (high grade), Bronze Body (high grade), Profound Electric Field (high grade) ¡°The names have changed too, after upgrading from middle to high grade they have turned from Swift Steps to Gale Steps, from Copper Skin Iron Body to Bronze Body and from Electric Sensory Field to Profound Electric Field.¡± The only thing he had to do now was try the changes of his new Profound Electric Field skill which needed his activation to use. A soft electric current appeared all of a sudden on his skin, giving him a weird sensation. Ling Xu felt weird not because of the current but because he could now perceive inside his own body. As the sensory field introduced into his body, he was able to see the insides of his body. From the blood qi flowing through his veins to his organs and even his bones. Ling Xu observed his body, which had slowly separated from the body of a normal human. After being refined in the low and middle stages of the Blood Qi realm, his muscles and organs looked extremely dense and resilient, full of vitality. But on the other side, he couldn¡¯t see that much of a difference on his bones as he had barely advanced into the high stage of Blood Qi and there wasn¡¯t an apparent change. Moving his attention out of his body, he also observed the new appearance of Profound Electric Field which now had a vague current flowing through his body. He could now sense even more sharply anything that was three inches close to his body. [System Points]: 2.230 [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] ¡°Now that I have spent almost all of my points, it¡¯s time to hunt once again.¡± ... It took him almost three hours to see another transparent barrier that divided the inner layer to the next layer. Ling Xu decided to delve deeper as he was very curious about what would appear next and he couldn¡¯t continue hunting in the inner layer when other survivors had started to enter it. While Ling Xu was in the outer layer hunting the tough boars and red deer, the rest was still in the desert having not found the deserted forest. After entering the inner layer and wiping out three different habitats where he found the charged leopards, black scale snakes and ravenous crocodiles, the rest had started hunting in the outer layer. And now that he had been a few days inside the inner layer, the rest of the survivors had started to delve deeper into the inner layer. Ling Xu had already started to feel a few traces of aura closing the distance with him, so after careful thought he decided to enter the next layer while he still had the chance to hunt alone. He knew that it was still possible to continue exploring other habitats of the inner and even outer layer, but his desire to continue didn¡¯t allow him to go at such a slow pace, and even less now that other people would start to take his points. [You have entered the core layer of the Deserted Forest.] After hearing the message, he looked in front and observed a few beasts that looked like the apes from Earth. They looked more imposing than any other beast he had seen in the inner layer as they emanated a denser aura, coming from the blood qi which could surpass any of the seventh stage beasts he had met on the mission. ¡°Although they are pretty similar, apart from their beast like appearance, they also have two tails instead of one.¡± Approaching slowly, Ling Xu sensed something with his improved Profound Electric Field as he dodged to the right. Behind him, he was startled by the appearance of another ape like beast that had tried to kill him with its sharp claws. ¡°Fortunately, I kept my skill activated. I doubt it could have broken through my Bronze Body skill, let alone my skin, which has been refined to its limit. But still, if I wasn¡¯t cautious who would have known what could happen if my opponent was just a bit stronger.¡± Falling to the ground in confusion, the two tailed ape was confused as he didn¡¯t even have the chance to hit his target. It was always easy for it to hunt for food in the inner layer as it was the apex predator in the forest, only weaker than his leader. ¡°Although it¡¯s very fast, the problem is it didn¡¯t make a sound. I wouldn¡¯t have noticed it without the help of my Profound Sensory Field skill.¡± Ling Xu activated his Enhanced Synapsis as his eyes also became red. He stopped suppressing his blood qi as his aura increased dramatically all of a sudden. The ape suddenly trembled and felt a chill down its spine but without even a warning Ling Xu took its head off with his short sword. [You have killed a Whirling Ape (8th stage Blood Qi) +128 points.] He didn¡¯t look at the message as he charged at the two other apes that he was previously sneaking at as they had noticed his aura too. They could barely move a bit before Ling Xu appeared next to them, moving faster than they could react. [You have killed a Whirling Ape (8th stage Blood Qi) +128 points.] [You have killed a Whirling Ape (8th stage Blood Qi) +128 points.] All of a sudden, with his blood qi running rampant and his senses enhanced, Ling Xu heard several gusts of wind coming at him from different directions in the forest. A few breaths passed and he suddenly saw several enraged apes coming at him from different places, they screamed at him seeing the corpses of their fellow species on the ground. [You have killed a Whirling Ape (8th stage Blood Qi) +128 points.] [You have killed a Whirling Ape (8th stage Blood Qi) +128 points.] [You have killed a Whirling Ape (8th stage Blood Qi) +128 points.] ... After 15 minutes of Ling Xu going around in a radius of hundreds of meters killing every ape he found, he started to sweat a little after spending a considerable amount of blood qi. Fortunately, the only skill he used repeatedly was Enhanced Synapsis which didn¡¯t have a great impact on his use of blood qi, so he had more than enough energy to continue with the hunt. He also used his Wind Blood Shoes, but their effect started to decrease compared to before as Ling Xu¡¯s current cultivation stage surpassed the middle grade, making its effect diminish. Looking at the store panel, a smile from eye to eye could be seen. [System Points]: 12.470 [Equipment] [Pills] [Special Items] Ling Xu had actually recovered in less than an hour the number of sacrificial points he used to upgrade his skills. Not knowing what to use his points for now, he decided to continue going deeper into the core layer of the forest. ... Opening his eyes wide, Ling Xu observed a massive tree that spanned twice as tall as the biggest tree he had found yet while seeing their sizes grow while delving deeper. It was very wide and was located in the center most part of the forest. After running for ten minutes straight, Ling Xu had run into it. And hanging on one of the wide branches the tree had, he found a gorilla with a strong build, looking straight into his eyes. He didn¡¯t doubt whether it was related to the whirling apes as it also had two tails. The gorilla jumped to the ground, caving it a bit from its huge size and pressure. Seeing the beast unfaced by the dozen meters fall, Ling Xu felt its aura and realized what he was dealing with. ¡°It should be on the ninth stage of Blood Qi, its aura surpasses a few times the whirling apes!¡± Chapter 25: New Cultivation Realm Its eyes looked ferocious giving the impression it wasn¡¯t happy about Ling Xu¡¯s attitude of coming into his territory. It hadn¡¯t even realized that he had also killed every one of his fellow species, leaving only a pair of them that had run away in time as they felt his aura in the distance. In Ling Xu¡¯s hand, his sword was hanging as the gorilla turned its attention to it. It felt the aura from his fellow apes and realized what it meant. ¡°ROAAAAAAAAR!!!¡± Its double tails moved through the wind as his body disappeared instantly. Moving extremely fast, Ling Xu¡¯s eyes which had a red color could trace them without a problem. Taking its size into account, he was very surprised as he saw its speed comparable to his. Gripping his sword very hard, Ling Xu moved a bit faster as a wind force could be felt on the blade. With his eyes, which allowed him to see the gorilla twice as slow, Ling Xu stabbed it in the chest. ¡°Kuughhh!¡± Blood could be seeing coming out of the beast¡¯s mouth, having a very scary wound in his chest which made him look very pitiful. What wrong did it do for it to be dying right now. It was only trying to defend his territory as it then realized that the blood of his tribe was on the human¡¯s blade. With a face full of anger and regret, its eyes started to close losing its life. ¡°What is going on?¡± Ling Xu felt normal when all of a sudden he realized that the atmosphere in the air had changed. He looked again at the gorilla as he felt its aura disappearing. The next image would have been the gorilla falling to the ground if it wasn¡¯t for the fact that it opened its eyes full of vigor. ¡°This doesn¡¯t seem right.¡± Feeling no aura left, instead of the beast falling Ling Xu saw a light shining subtly in its eyes. The blood from its chest stopped falling as the wound healed incredibly fast, becoming a horrifying scar. Ling Xu had already taken his weapon away from its body as it left the process go unimpeded. Just a few seconds have passed after it was about to die and the gorilla beast had become a completely different being. Its aura was untraceable, but instead of making Ling Xu feel secure it only made him feel a chill running down his spine. The gorilla looked at Ling Xu with a different face from before, feeling completely confident in its sudden increase of strength. Ling Xu was trying to understand the situation when he saw it disappear in sight, the next thing that happened was him seeing everything move very fast. ¡°Cough! Cough! Cough!¡± In his abdomen, his skin became extremely bruised with a few strands of blood slightly coming out from small cut wounds, made by the sheer force of the gorilla¡¯s fist. For the first time, Ling Xu felt the consequences of his carelessness. Having deactivated his Enhanced Synapsis skill when he thought the fight was over, made him unable to react at its sudden increase in speed. Fortunately he still had his Bronze Body skill activated, merged with his skin, allowing him to survive the violent attack from the gorilla and not becoming severely wounded by the strike. Even the golden shadow energy from his abdomen came out at the critical time as it condensed where the gorilla hit him, saving him from having a hole in his body. But now it had been broken and Ling Xu felt that it returned inside his body to regenerate as it had used almost every bit of energy to block that attack. His eyes, red again, started to move incredibly fast as they saw the gorilla about to punch him hard again. Coming out of the small crater, Ling Xu avoided the next strike that made the ground cave even more, leaving incredible web cracks on the ground. ¡°I can¡¯t let it hit me again!¡± He reactivated his Bronze Body skill as it merged with his skin and started to dodge the next attack that came, leaving him with no room to make one of his own. Using his Gale Steps skill to the limit, Ling Xu was barely able to keep up with the help of his enhanced vision. The gorilla made several hits that landed in the air. Every hit it made had a gust of wind blow into a tree and leave a small hole in it. With the help of his Sensory Body Field, Ling Xu maintained incredible control over the terrain as he moved smoothly with the flexible moves of his movement skill. ¡°I need to land a decisive attack or else I¡¯m going to be the one who dies.¡± He continued avoiding several fists as the gorilla became impatient. Enraged, it made several strikes in one go as Ling Xu couldn¡¯t keep dodging, being thrown into the air by the last fist it threw. Seeing him in the air, the ferocious beast saw its opportunity as it charged at him. But the gorilla didn¡¯t know the full extent of Ling Xu¡¯s skill, which even allowed him to react in the air. The sound of the wind came with its fist, but as Ling Xu¡¯s body was about to be hit, it suddenly turned. Avoiding the fist and the air current that came with it, he took a downward posture. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°It¡¯s now!¡± He swung his blade using all his strength and a current of air could be seen from the activation of White Heavy Strike. The sound of a torrent of energy started to be heard from outside of his body as Ling Xu¡¯s aura increased for a moment. You could see blood coming out of his eyes and other orifices as he stimulated his blood qi to the limit. Using every trace of blood qi he could, the wind pressure coming from his weapon¡¯s blade increased in size as it fell on the two tailed beast. The wind tore its shoulder¡¯s skin completely as the blade entered and cut all the way to the abdomen, passing again through the big scar he had just received less than a minute ago. With its body wreaked in havoc, the gorilla fell to the ground with its body almost cut in half. This time it couldn¡¯t muster any strength to move as its eyes closed almost instantly, losing all the momentum he had gained from its increase in strength. The atmosphere in the air became normal once again as the gorilla died and a face of fear of death was left. Breathing with difficulty, Ling Xu took out the sword that was stuck in its corpse. After a few seconds passed, he could hear the sound of the system confirming the kill. [You have killed a Mutant Whirling Ape (1st stage Qi Refining) +2560 points.] ¡°Is Qi Refining the next cultivation realm? I still barely know anything about cultivation as the system has barely given any explanation.¡± He said aloud as he didn¡¯t hear an answer even after a dozen seconds have passed. But instead of answering his question, the system came with another set of messages. [You are the first to overcome the limits of your cultivation stage and defeat a beast in the Qi Refining realm.] [You have earned a one way teleportation chance to the cultivation world, after using it you won¡¯t be able to go back to Earth.] ¡°What? I won¡¯t be able to come back?¡± Ling Xu¡¯s mind, which was in turmoil, was suddenly interrupted by another notification. [You have received a once in a lifetime chance in the final reward of the mission.] ¡°Oh, this is much better.¡± He felt satisfied after hearing the last message and decided to think the least about the teleporting matter and the world of cultivation. Either way he was still on the mission, and he didn¡¯t need to think about it for now. [Notice to all participants: the boss on the core layer has been defeated and it won¡¯t appear again.] ¡­ On the rest of the map, several people yelled in confusion doubting their life. ¡°There is actually someone who could enter the core layer and defeated the boss. ¡°This is impossible! What have we been doing all this time, struggling to kill a few charged leopards on the inner layer?¡± ¡°I have already met several groups of people and none have dared to enter the core layer. How can there be a group to have already defeated the strongest beast in the map?!¡± ... After the shock from the messages he received, Ling Xu climbed the massive tree in the center of the deserted forest, where the mutant whirling ape was resting. ¡°So this was where he was resting, there seems to be nothing.¡± Searching for a reward, Ling Xu was surprised to see nothing but the branch he rested on. But on second thought, he saw from the corner of his eyes, a hole on the side of the trunk. ¡°There should be something there.¡± He almost inserted his whole face inside the whole as he found two white fruits connected to the tree through a root, which made it seem as if it was its heart. ¡°Jackpot! This should be a real treasure.¡± He pluck them out of the core of the trunk and put them on his spatial ring, they looked very tempting but he felt it would be smarter to wait until he found out what their function was. Before putting them inside the ring, Ling Xu sensed a trace of energy that made him remember the feeling he got when the gorilla broke through to the Qi Refining realm. ¡°There should have been another fruit on the third root, maybe this treasure was the reason the mutant whirling ape got the chance to breakthrough.¡± After searching a bit more, Ling Xu found nothing else to gain from there. Deciding on resting for the time left on the mission, Ling Xu sat on the branch the mutant ape was resting originally. [Name]: Ling Xu [Realm]: 7th stage of Blood Qi (23%) [Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (12,1%) [Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (completed) [Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Gale Steps (high grade), Bronze Body (high grade), Profound Electric Field (high grade) ¡°This is what a real status panel should look like.¡± Looking at the progress he had made since a month ago when the system appeared and he was forced into the tutorial, Ling Xu felt proud of his growth. He knew there was still a lot of room to grow so he decided to enter the system store. [Random Skill (low grade)]: 3000 points (7) [Luminous Stone (low grade)]: 1000 points (52) [Upgrade Skill (middle grade)]: 3000 points (8) ¡°The luminous stones seem to be very popular. After all they are the cheapest of the special items and once you acquire a higher grade weapon the ability to kill beasts increases a lot. It¡¯s almost as if you have acquired another skill.¡± After the majority of the participants entered the inner layer, it was only natural that with time they gained a thousand points. Still, it wasn¡¯t very easy to get so even though the mission had around a thousand people, only half a hundred had bought a luminous stone. And buying the random skill or upgrade skill chance was three times harder, so it was completely normal that only one more skill had been bought since the last time he checked. Seeing the effort that many people had put into increasing their strength, Ling Xu had a change of mind. As he was already capable of killing a beast in the Qi Refining realm, he felt that buying another skill wouldn¡¯t help that much as an addition to his strength. He was even less eager to buy one as he realized that buying one would take a quarter of the points he had left. Ling Xu had decided not to continue hunting as he realized that he had already completely wiped out several habitats of their respective beasts, so the amount of points he would get compared to his effort would only become lower and lower. And he had already gained a lot after reaching the core layer and defeating the mutant ape. He then entered the other sections once again as he saw something that called his eye on the pill category. [Blood Tempering Pill (low quality 1st grade)]: 50 points [Blood Replenishing Pill (low quality 1st grade)]: 50 points [Blood Condensing Pill (low grade 1st grade)]: 100 points [Wound Ointment (low grade 1st grade)]: 70 points ¡­ [Recommended] [Blood Tempering Pill (high quality 1st grade)]: 120 points ¡°Why is the system recommending me the blood tempering pills?¡± Ling Xu looked at the message that advised him to buy high grade blood tempering pills. He was speechless as there was no reason why it would advise him that, up until now it had never done such a thing. ¡°It didn¡¯t even give me a discount after asking me to buy it.¡± He looked at the rest of the store and soon enough realized that he had gotten everything he needed and there was no need to buy something else. ¡°I will trust on you system.¡± ¡­ In Ling Xu¡¯s spatial ring, you could see eleven small bottles containing ten high grade blood tempering pills each. His current points had turned from 15.030 to 1.830 in a matter of a few seconds. ¡°I don¡¯t know why I should buy them but I have more than enough now. Next I should buy the high grade wound ointment so I can heal faster my wounds.¡± [You have spent 150 points on Wound Ointment (high grade).] [You have spent 150 points on Wound Ointment (high grade).] The rest of his points were then used to buy a bottle containing five high grade blood condensing pills, and another one containing five high grade blood replenishing pills. At the end of the transaction Ling Xu had only 30 points remaining, which wasn¡¯t enough to buy a single thing in the store.