Riyue took a deep breath as he went into his stance.

If it were some other stronger monsters, perhaps he would’ve run away, but mere Dire Wolves were not a threat to him, even if there were a lot of them.

‘It’s also a good test to see my current combat capabilities, and I would hate to relinquish my dinner to them.’

It was also a good chance to see what exactly the Mastery Gauge in his status window meant. Would it simply increase with mere training, or did he need to fight? If so, did he need to fight a monster or a human to increase his mastery?

Riyue constantly rotated his body and stance to make sure not to lose sight of any wolf. With that said, he didn’t have eyes on the back of his head, so it was inevitable for him to lose sight of some since the wolves were located in four separate directions.

As soon as his eyes arrived at the wolf in front of him, he could hear the sound of the wolf behind him lunging. As Riyue looked back in reflex, the others also made sounds of footsteps.

‘Cunning bastards.’

Riyue grinned as he took a deep breath and waited. As soon as the nearest wolf was within his range, Riyue enhanced his body with Sun Qi, jumped, spun, and delivered a spinning kick straight to the first wolf’s snout, breaking it and killing the monster with one hit.

Riyue immediately changed his energy to Moon Qi as he dashed away from the middle of the joint attack from all four sides as soon as his feet touched the ground. The wolves nimbly landed on the ground before the three of them ran and surrounded the boar. It was as if they were the ones to catch it.

'How shameless.'

Riyue leapt toward the wolves using Tiger’s Pounce. The Sun Qi moved from his Qi Core inside his heart into his right palm, and the Moon Qi followed. Just as how fire and water do not get along, the same is true for Sun and Moon Qi.

At least, usually, that’s how things work.

The Sun and Moon Qi, instead of repulsing like magnets of the same pole, converged together, combining to create a Chaotic Qi that was neither Sun nor Moon. Riyue grinned at the wolves’ reaction to the overwhelming energy inside his right palm.

During the Training Room, there were a couple of other things he had tested beyond just acquiring the Mountain Tiger Martial Technique, and during one of the tests, he had accidentally combined both the Sun and Moon Qi. The result of it was—

Tiger Paw Strike.

Utter destruction.

With his palm, he struck the closest wolf, and its body exploded into pieces.

The Yin and Yang do not combine naturally, yet when they do, they create an energy far surpassing the others, an immense energy of utter chaos and destruction that was much more than simply one plus one, two plus two. Such is the Convergence technique Riyue discovered.

“Urgh.”

But of course, how could a great technique not have its consequences? Riyue’s face winced, yet he ignored the extreme throbbing pain of his right palm as he enhanced his arms with Sun Qi and ravaged the remaining wolves.

Palm strikes, punches, claws—everything he had briefly learned from the Mountain Tiger Technique—he used in this fight. In just a few seconds, the wolves turned into extremely battered and bloodied corpses. Riyue breathed out and frowned inadvertently after looking at the remains of the wolves.

‘How come fist arts are even more brutal than sword arts? The world of martial arts is scary.’

Ignoring the fact that he was the one who made the wolves like that, Riyue shook his hand, which was throbbing in pain, before grabbing the boar corpse and immediately leaving. He was worried that the smell of blood would attract other beasts. As for the blood that had gotten onto his clothes, he ripped them off and threw them away. If someone were to look at his current state, they would think he was a beggar rather than a former young master of a great family.

While carrying the boar corpse, he continued to head toward the Qilin using the confirmed path used by the Zhang Family in the past to give offerings to the sleeping Qilin. He also checked his remaining Qi amount after the battle.

Qi Amount: 342/511 (recovery 3/minute), (Next Stage requires 2000).

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‘I still have quite a lot, not bad. The recovery is somewhat fast as well.’

Riyue traveled cautiously while carrying the boar corpse. It surprised him that despite not using Qi, the body of his current self was strong enough to carry the huge boar effortlessly.

‘Body reformation for the win.’

Riyue decided not to think too much about it and continued to walk until he arrived at another small cave. This is also one of the resting spots on the way to the Qilin, but it’s not as good as the one from before due to not having a natural water spot.

‘But it can’t be helped; beggars can’t be choosers.’

After settling at the cave and dropping the boar corpse there, Riyue destroyed the nearest small tree with his bare hands and dragged it toward the cave. He intended on making a primitive-style hanger to grill and smoke the boar, but he was not a carpenter. After hours of struggle, he finally managed to make a small campfire. As for the boar, he first cut off the skin using the sword, sliced a big pile of meat, and stuck many branches into it like marshmallows before grilling it atop the campfire.

‘Having a sword is really convenient.’

Since the meat was tougher than the branches, he had to make a hole first using the sword before putting it on the branch and cooking it. It was a whole load of work, but at least he got to eat. Once the boar had finished cooking, Riyue ate the pieces of meat. It was gamey and tough, but it had fat, so it made it somewhat good.

‘It’s a shame that I don’t have any salt.’

Riyue thought as he began eating the boar. As for the rest of the boar, he made a makeshift hanger with his limited skill and smoked a big part of it using the campfire. As for the rest, he discarded it. He didn’t need that much food.

‘Rather than food, I need water more. I only have a little left in my bottle.’

Riyue sighed and checked his status window.

Name: Zhang Riyue

Age: 20

Constitution: Sun and Moon Qi Attribute

Qi Stage: 1

Qi Purity: 73%

Qi Amount: 514/514 (recovery 3/minute), (Next Stage requires 2000).

Martial Arts and Mastery Gauge:

* Mountain Tiger Martial Technique: 2%

Training Room

Riyue looked at the Qi Amount and the percentages that changed.

‘Mastery increased by 2%. It is a lot faster than I expected. I need to check what exactly changes with the increasing of mastery and what exactly helps one master the martial arts.’

Riyue then looked at the Qi Amount and smiled bitterly.

‘No wonder that the strong ones in cultivation are about thousands of years-old cultivators. Though this world is probably not that nuts, I should still consider getting some Qi-increasing pills.’

In this world, what is considered talent is the efficiency with which the body absorbs Qi from the surroundings to grow their Qi Core. If he were to use himself as an example, the reason why the original Riyue thought of himself as talentless is that, despite being fed tons of Qi Increasing Pills and training ever since he was a child, he was still stuck at Stage 1. This meant that his body was not compatible with Qi, and the absorption rate was very low.

It’s like if he absorbed a Qi Pill with 500 Qi Amount, the original Riyue would only be able to absorb around 30 or 20 at a time, maybe even less. He was truly devoid of talent.

‘Fortunately, after the body reformation, my body absorption rate is probably going to be insane. I haven’t even used all of my Qi, but I already gained around 3 points of Qi. I also gained 4 points after expending all my Qi and letting it recover after the Training Room… This is already considered fast, but if I wanted to get revenge in the next 10 years, I would need to resort to pills.’

With that being said, Qi Increasing Pills are considered extremely precious commodities that every martial artist would be willing to die for. As with any other product with limited supplies but outrageous demand, they are ridiculously expensive or hard to get.

‘Ahh, the nostalgic problem of being poor. Tsk, damn it. If the Jin Family hadn’t attacked, I would’ve been enjoying myself as a young master! Though I guess I wouldn’t have been transmigrated if that were the case… Then I would have died of cancer.’

Riyue sighed again. He had decided to work hard in this life, but being poor again still sucked. It was then Riyue frowned and clutched his head; a surge of dizziness, exhaustion, and sleepiness appeared in Riyue’s psyche.

‘Right… I haven’t slept for a day, and I have been battling all those monsters and running away the entire time.’

Riyue yawned but still kept his eyes peeled as he thought.

‘Will it be safe if I sleep here? Hm… should be safe. The original Riyue had slept here without any problems. Even if it was with guards around, there was not a single attack…’

Riyue decided to extinguish the flames of the campfire as a precaution and sleep further back into the cave. Unlike in the past, where the original Riyue had guards keeping watch and surrounding him, he was now alone.

‘Honestly, I prefer not to sleep, but if I were to make a mistake due to fighting without sleep… That would be a lot more dangerous.’

It’s not like he could just not sleep at all.

At least in sleep, he had a chance of waking up when footsteps drew near or when he sensed something wrong. Riyue eventually decided to trust and pray to his body to wake itself up if it’s in a dangerous situation.

As Riyue’s eyes closed and consciousness eluded him, he opened his eyes to see a pure white space that didn’t seem to end. Riyue tilted his head.

‘Isn’t this the Training Room? Why the hell am I here?’

Riyue tried to think about the reason for him being here despite clearly sleeping.

‘Perhaps the Training Room occurs when I am unconscious? Right, this Training Room is quite the mystery now that I think about it.’

Riyue then decided. Tonight, he shall explore this Training Room and learn of its secrets and rules.