[So, Hunting Tiger, huh?]

“Well, yes… Since it mimics the movement of a tiger.”

I wrote the name in my notebook as well as a detailed description of the movements, together with a few quick sketches.

I then did another thing to test myself, and that was a straight-up vertical jump. I did it beside a tree, and at the top of my jump, I clawed at the bark, leaving a noticeable mark. I then did another by standing on the ground, and measured myself against the tree, after which I did some simple math. The result came back at an approximately 4-meter vertical jump. In comparison, I believe that was a bit over double the previous Earth record. Not that I had any way of confirming that, and in this world, it probably didn’t seem all that impressive.

Still, I surprised myself, not expecting to have the ability to jump that high without any prior training or preparation whatsoever. I’m sure I could improve my results with proper technique and a bit of practice.

But anyway, it was getting late, the sun was going down and the warm summer night slowly came. The forest was alive with various sounds of insects and night birds, and the sky was nice and clear, illuminated by the two moons, slowly moving through the sky. They were shifted by nearly 180 degrees, so just as one of them went down, the other came up, never leaving the sky completely dark.

I climbed on one of the tall Ironbarks and sat on a thick branch near the top, looking up through the canopy. So many stars began showing themselves as the night came, and it made me wonder if I would ever see the night sky of my home again.

It has been almost a year since I created that damn formation in my room and powered it with the mysterious black crystal. I later came to realize it was most likely a Core, or a piece of it at least, of some strong beast, but since then, I was unable to find another Ether Crystal of similar color.

I subconsciously rubbed my chest where my own Ether Core once lay hidden. And just like the last time, I felt a bump where an indentation in the ribcage should be. Just a few fingers above the solar plexus.

My Core was growing. The Cultivators called it Dantian, but it wasn’t yet complete. It would be fully formed after stepping into the Golden Core Realm. For now, it was just the core of my powers, where the Qi was most concentrated.

I wondered if it would once again be black, just like my Soul. Though after the resurrection, my Soul had streaks of red and orange. Like a sculpture of black obsidian with cracks of magma running through. That was probably why I had such a high affinity for Fire. Perhaps some of the Phoenix’s power got transferred to me? I honestly had no idea.

I just laid there, with a mind full of random thoughts, watching the sky, until I fell asleep.

----------------------------------------

I woke up at the crack of dawn. The sun managed to find a way for its rays to pierce through a small gap in the leaves, stabbing me straight in the eye. I awoke, feeling partially blinded and disorientated. Luckily I didn’t move from my spot until I recovered or I would have probably fallen down off the high tree branch. Slowly rubbing my eyes I yawned. It would have been nice if I could have slept a few hours longer, but it was too late for that. Daylight waited for no man.

I took a cold shower even though I despised cold as I had to keep clean. I could have heated up the water I summoned, but that would go contrary to my beliefs. I needed to grow big and strong, with thick skin. I couldn’t let little things like that bother me anymore.

However, one thing I would allow myself to indulge in was food. I needed it to grow stronger anyway, so it was okay in my mind. I entered the Inner Sect from the forest and made my way to one of the nearby restaurants. However, as I turned the corner, I once again came face to face with someone I knew.

He appeared just as surprised as me, and I became a tiny bit annoyed. Not being allowed to use Magic Eyes inside the Sect was such a pain. Not knowing who was where did nothing to soothe my slightly paranoid mind.

“It’s you again!” Su Ker shouted. I could see his nose was healing well, but he had clear signs of it once being broken. Oh, well… Just another day in the Sect, I guess. I swung my hand casually, but he dodged, which was surprising.

“Would you stop targeting my nose already?! What are you, a wild beast?!” He took a step back and guarded his face with his hands.

[What do you want me to do then? If you keep chasing me all the time, I have to defend myself.]

“But we are not even chasing you! I had no idea you were here!” He vehemently protested. The guys behind him just nodded in unison, also guarding their noses.

I lifted an eyebrow in suspicion. [Are the White Minks then going to leave me alone, or do I have to keep watching behind my back all the time? Because if that’s the case there will be many more broken noses.]

“No, no!” Su Ker quickly denied it. “The higher-ups decided to leave you alone… if you just pay… 20 SSS! Yes, that’s all you need to do, and we’ll leave you alone forever.”

Stolen novel; please report.

[Really?]

“Yes! Definitely!”

[Why did I suddenly feel my Soul tingle when he said the last few parts? Should I be worried? Is he doing some secret Soul attack on me?] I asked the old ghost mentally.

“Ah? You felt it too, huh? That’s because he is lying. Those that have a lower Realm than you cannot lie without you knowing it. Well, that is if they know they are lying. If they are giving you false information without knowing it, then there is nothing you can do. But generally lying in the Sect is severely looked down upon.”

After the explanation, I could barely contain a smirk. [I don’t believe you.] I said out loud.

“But it’s true!” Su Ker insisted. I felt my Soul tingle once more.

[No, no! I bet you are lying. Tell me what they really said or… I’m going to speak with Liam!]

“Ah! No, please! Anything but that! He’ll beat me again.”

Su Ker quickly covered his mouth, but it was too late. He said too much. I triumphantly crossed my arms across my chest and stared at him in silence. I could see him swallow nervously.

“Okay, fine… The… higher-ups decided you weren’t worth the effort and said to let you off the hook.”

[Is that all?] I didn’t feel my Soul tingle, so he wasn’t lying, but I didn’t feel like I was getting the full story. [How about you tell me everything that happened and I might consider letting you go with a healthy nose this time.] It was an empty threat since it felt beneath me beating up children, but it seemed to do the job. It worked too well some might say.

“What’s with you and my nose?! Leave me alone! You want to know what happened? Fine, I’ll tell you! I had to explain how we managed to let you slip from our grasp, and then they all laughed at me. Then we got beaten with sticks instead, for failing the mission!” His buddies subconsciously nodded, giving some validity to his story. Also, I didn’t feel like he was lying.

“And they even decided you weren’t worth the effort and said to stop chasing you around the Sect, adding insult to injury. You can just escape whenever you feel like it and run away from your problems, but we can’t! It’s not fair! We have to deal with all the shit and abuse that comes our way! And you think all of this is funny?!” Su Ker began crying in anger, and I could see him visibly shaking as his hand turned into fists. He didn’t do anything more than that though.

[Well…] I began.

“Shut up! Just shut up! I don’t want to see or hear you ever again!” Su Ker shouted. With that, he stormed off in the opposite direction, taking his group with him. I just stared as they left, not knowing what to say.

[Dude...]

“I know, right? What a wuss! We don’t need Cultivators like that in the Sect!”

[No, I meant… Never mind…] Why the heck was I suddenly feeling bad for them? That was an annoying feeling, having so many conflicting emotions. Maybe there was a pill to dull them? My mind automatically went to the easy solution, instead of addressing the underlying issue.

This was real life for them, with real problems and consequences, while I was acting as if all of this was just a game. A very interesting and hard game, but a game nonetheless.

I wasn’t some main character, a hero, having to act all cool and solve every situation perfectly. I was just some lowly scrub in the Myriad Beasts Sect, one among the countless Disciples, and while my talent seemed to be a bit above the rest, I was still just a person, made of flesh and blood, like the rest of them.

I shook my head to get the thoughts out of my mind and went to do what I came for. Food. I was hungry. I entered one of the restaurants and ordered a meal, but my mood was significantly dampened after the encounter. I just hoped I would feel better after eating my fill. And the loud chatter of people and divine smells all around helped to lift my mood just a bit.

I got my food soon enough, and then ate, and ate, and ate… Okay, I didn’t eat that much, but I was slow at it. I was thinking about things, how to best train all my various techniques. After learning the last one, the Tyrant Forging Bones, I had seven of them in total.

While it was true that Golden Meridians could be left alone for later, the rest of them still had to be trained for at least a few hours every day. And even if the Turtle Breathing Technique could run on its own the entire time, that was still at least ten hours each day, if I only did two hours of each technique. Awakening Breath needed a few cycles to even change my Soul slightly, and each cycle took me more than two hours. Mostly because I had to wait for my Qi to refill.

As the quality of my Qi increased, it needed more time to replenish, since it became much denser. While it might seem like it needed longer, in reality, the amount of Base Qi that was needed to be converted into higher grades was insane. I wasn’t exactly sure of the ratio, but it could easily be tens of thousands of points to get me full.

In fact, I started noticing a slight dip in Qi concentration around me while I Cultivated in my home. If I repeated too many cycles, the time to replenish it would go up, and that was slightly worrying. But I only noticed that effect in the Outer Sect, obviously. There was no change in the Inner Sect no matter how much I trained.

I was currently worth thousands of Outer Disciples, my peers, in terms of Qi, and the effect barely became noticeable. Maybe that’s why segregation existed. I imagine it was because all those people in higher Realms, Nascent Soul and above, would quite literally drain the land of Base Qi in a matter of days.

If I had to guess I would say there was probably a massive Formation under the Sect, bringing Qi to the inner parts and concentrating it for their Cultivation. The change in concentration between the Inner and Outer Sect hinted at that.

I slowly finished my meal and then paid for a pint of ale. It tasted okay and went nicely down my throat after a satisfying breakfast. I then soon returned home and got back to work. I did one full cycle of the Awakening Breath to completely drain my Qi, and then went and trained with the glaive for a bit since it didn’t require much of it, going through the moves with the Toothpick. Refreshing the Living Fortress Martial Art daily, I was slowly getting more confident at it, faster, and had to think less to go through the motions. An overall increase in ability.

After about an hour, after my Qi was refilled partially, I did a session of Scales of the Earth, Ether Blood, Tyrant Forging Bones, and then another cycle of Awakening Breath to finish it off. I then took another hour to simply train my running and jumping abilities while fighting against imaginary enemies in the forest with my glaive.

I repeated that entire cycle one more time, and just like that, most of the day was gone. That was kind of the problem. Everything took so much time I barely had any left for other things. At most I could hunt for a few hours every day if I organized everything well and wanted to have a good night's sleep as well. And yes, despite what I have read in stories, with Cultivators requiring less sleep, I still needed the full eight hours to feel fully rested. While some could work on less than that, I could not.

Maybe in the future, I would require less sleep, but that day was still far away.