It was in the middle of December and only two weeks were left until the end of the year. Quin remembered what Leyn had said to him before he left Crows’ Road, that she would visit him on the New Year’s celebration in Hounxi. One part of him was quite happy and excited that he would be able to finally meet his friend, yet another part of him was filled fear. He had thought it through several times and had long realized that the things in the past were his fault, and that he should apologize to her. Quin also knew that Leyn did not mind it up until now, so there was little chance that she would start now. However, it was one thing to know what was right and that there was nothing to be afraid of, and another to actually do it. Quin had never been the type who apologized, and it wasn’t easy even back at the hospital -- when he could at least blame his behavior on his condition -- so it would be even more so now.
After a day of worrying, he had finally had enough. Alright, I can’t be this much of a chicken. I faced death multiple times, I’ve been nearly killed and I’ve lived a long time in hellish pain. Is this really the time when I get scared? He snorted and shook his head, then went to meditate to calm himself down.
Even though the speed of his improvement started to slow down, he had already made huge progress in his martial path. Last time he checked, the strength he could exert with both of his arms was one thousand kilograms, which was probably something unprecedented in the history of mankind. Naturally, there had been some exceptionally strong humans, but rarely did the people of Ranfel focus on improving their body. What they considered important was their Qi Cores and later in the Spirit Forming stage their spirit, and thus neglected to cultivate their bodies. It wasn’t because they had preconception against it, or were lazy, but due to the simple fact that cultivating the usual way -- focusing on their cores and spirit -- was incomparably more rewarding.
You could spend decades trying to strengthen your body and yet you would still be inferior to someone in the Qi Condensation sub-stage, as that was about the limit of what one could reach by body cultivation. Of course, that was under normal circumstances and Quin’s was fairly different. Not only was he able to absorb more than just a bit of the healing type of wild energy, his entire body was constantly filled with it. This, along with the fact that he had no option to relax and had to train day and night, made his body exceptionally strong.
It was on the next day that he decided to test out exactly how strong he was. Smashing a rock was easy even with his weaker right hand, so he needed something stronger. He recalled how easily his lightning had pierced through blocks of iron, thus he decided that he would try his strength on those.
There was a single, one cubic meter big block of iron in front of him. Quin took a deep breath, focused his mind and struck down on it.
An ear-splitting sound could be heard as his left arm pierced easily through the entire cube and smashed to the ground below it. Damn... He was so surprised that he did not even know what to say or think. Although he had expected to be able to dent the iron block, he did not think that it would be so easy to punch a hole through it.
Next, he tried with his right arm, and although he could feel that it was significantly harder, the end results were the same.
If I had reached this strength through not even a year of training, then what will my limits be in the future? he wondered.
Knowing how powerful he was, he really wanted to test himself in an actual battle. There was no opportunity for that in Hounxi though, so he had to look elsewhere. It would be a bit inconvenient, as he would have to leave the lake and its healing energy, but just a few days or a single week would not matter much.
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The lake was right next to the forest, but the wild beasts and the stronger animals obviously lived way deeper into the woods, so that was where Quin decided to head off to.
Quin spent most of his first and second day traveling, however, he moved a lot faster than previously thanks to his improved stamina and strength. While using Lightning Qi he could have been a lot faster, he would not have been able to sustain that speed for a long period of time, as his reserves of energy would have depleted. That said, he did not face this problem currently, as his source of energy was unlimited.
Naturally the pain returned as well, but he was able to put up with it even before his mental strength had greatly improved during the time he spent in Hounxi. Despite the fact that he could not travel all day and had to stop for some rest and meditation occasionally, these stops only took up about six hours of his time each day. The surprising thing was that, during the rest of the day, he was able to maintain a speed similar to someone in the Qi Condensation sub-stage when they were using their qi. Running at such a fast pace for eighteen hours? It was a feat even some Spirit Forming experts would be envious of, as the path of Qi cultivation was more focused on achieving brief but powerful strength rather than stamina that could last for hours.
On the third day, Quin was far enough into the forest that he often met various wild beasts. He was rather shocked to discover that most of them simply avoided or even fled at the sight of him.
Why’s this happening? Am I really that scary? He looked at himself and then snorted. I guess they’ve got great instincts then. Well, I’m not here to just mindlessly massacre wild beasts, but to find one strong enough to be willing to fight me.
Quin wandered around in the forest for another day, and other than the boar he hunted for his meal, he did not find any opportunities to test his strength. On the fourth day though, he found a wild beast quite familiar to him: Fire Wolves, a whole pack of them consisting of around twenty members.
As Quin did not want to ambush them, they easily noticed him and started to move into what he assumed was their attack formation.
“So, you wanna fight?” He asked with a half-smirk.
Four of the biggest-looking ones came to face him head-on, while the others were trying to completely encircle him. In just a moment, those four Fire Wolves started to bombard him with their fireballs. Hmph, it’s like they’re in slow motion! I clearly remember how I was just barely able to evade these ones back then, but now?
The first two targeted his head, but just by simply swaying his body left and right, he easily managed to evade them. Next, he sidestepped a couple of times and dodged the remaining ones as well, then waited for the next volley, which came in no time.
This time he wanted to try something new, so he grabbed his spear by its shaft and made a few lightning fast horizontal slashes at the fireballs. His opponents just stood there shocked and confused, not understanding where the fireballs they spat disappeared to. On the other hand, the smirk on Quin’s face grew even bigger. Damn, now that’s something! I was able to create a strong enough wind which extinguished those fireballs with nothing but the sheer force of my strikes. He was filled excitement.
As of now, Quin was surrounded by all sides, but he was fully aware of it and he wasn’t afraid in the slightest. He threw his spear into the ground in front of the four bigger Fire Wolves with enough force to explode the earth around it and blind them for a few moments with a spray of dirt. Then Quin quickly leaped backward and turned around, targeting the ones that had been behind him.
There were three of them in his vicinity and Quin disabled them with just a slap at the back of their heads in no time. Next, he jumped toward another group of them and did the same before they were able to even react.
Their entire group -- except the four bigger ones -- was lying on the ground unconsciously in just a few moments. Quin looked at one of the four Fire Wolves standing in front of him, whom he had identified as the alpha of the pack for some time now. It tried to stare back at him, but could not hide his fear for long and started to tremble. Quin walked toward them to pick up his spear and while Quin was less than a meter away, all four of them rolled onto their back in submission.
He looked at them and said, “You don’t have to worry, I’m not planning on killing you, I just wanted to test my strength.”
Although his instincts, or more accurately the egg inside his mind, tried to convince him that it was not the right thing to do and he should just kill his prey, it was not his ways of doing things. He enjoyed testing his strength and the thrill of fighting, but he did not find any meaning in pointless slaughter, so there was no way that he would be giving into what it wanted.