Deep within the Great Wilderness, a place teeming with dangerous demonic beasts and monsters of all kinds, a young man was lying by the banks of a river, staring listlessly at the full moon in the sky as tears ran down his face.
The poor boy had endured the jumbled mess of emotions that he had bottled up since he was crippled by a Young Master that was lucky enough to be born into a prestigious family. Knowing that he could not allow anyone to see him breakdown thanks to the combination of loosing his cultivation and awakening the memories and personality of his past life, doubling the pain and anguish he felt.
However, now that he was alone, with no one else in the vicinity, he silently cried to himself, letting go of his control over his emotions, to let out everything from his system.
He cried and cried for hours on end, contemplating many different paths he could take from this point, even considering ending it all by jumping into the river. But, the rationality that he inherited from his older self from another life allowed him to keep himself centred to a certain degree.
Unfortunately, the boy would no longer have the time to contemplate anymore, as the river suddenly grew turbulent before a massive turtle type demonic beast burst out of it, intent on devouring the human.
Tragically, the boy was unable to escape his fate due to the fact that he had lost all of his cultivation and barely had enough Qi to enhance himself to be stronger than a regular mortal.
The boy resigned himself to his fate as the jaws of the turtle snapped around his body, only for a bright light to erupt from the boy’s body and illuminate the forest.
The last noise that was heard from the area was the pained cries of the turtle and the powerful roar of an unknown being.
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Deep within the Great Wilderness, the massive forest that was the size of Canada from Earth which served as the border between the Yin Long Empire and the Baihu Empire, a young man wearing leather and furs silently hid within the tree tops, waiting for his prey.
The boy did not have to wait long before a massive white tiger with shimmering fur, antlers and small protrusions on its back walked leisurely towards the river that flowed nearby.
The massive beast that was the size of a truck knew that there were only a few beasts within its territory that would dare to challenge it, a beast at the peak of Foundation Establishment and close to forming its Golden Core. That was why it was so confident and did not bother to check its surroundings.
A major oversight that it was going to pay for dearly.
The young man waited patiently. Just as the beast passed by the tree that he was sitting on, he immediately pounced.
The beast immediately sensed the danger thanks to its instincts and looked up, only for a fist filled with Qi to impact it on its right eye, blinding it on the right side instantly.
The pained and enraged roar of the beast sent the nearby creatures running in all directions, yet, the man remained impassive as he rapidly circled the beast, keeping himself to the right side of the beast and within its newly created blind spot.
The beast’s black and white fur started to shine brightly as it released it’s Qi in an attempt to force its attacker into staying still. It’s Foundation Establishment realm Qi putting a formless pressure on the surroundings.
But it was a futile effort. Despite having his spirit roots crippled, the man was still putting out gargantuan levels of Qi from within his body and created a thick and tight layer of it just a little bit above his body, protecting himself while also making sure not to release any of it into the atmosphere, giving away his location to his prey.
As the Beast continued to move its body and head in all directions in an effort to spot its attacker while pushing its Qi sensing to the maximum, the young man stealthy approached the tiger from behind and jumped onto its back, grabbing hold of its antlers with one hand and pushing most of his Qi into the other hand.
“GRAAAAAAAAH”
The beast roared in anger as it felt it’s attacker on it’s back and started to run through the massive trees known as the Iron Woods due to how tough their trunks are. The beast tore through the trees, hoping to cause it’s attacker to fall off its back.
However, the young man had anticipated this and simply braced himself while tightly holding onto the beast’s antlers while still concentrating his Qi into his other hand, ready to enact his plan.
The beast continued to run through the trees for nearly a kilometers before finally exhausting itself, its Qi used up completely.
And just as planned, the young man took advantage of this opportunity and struck it beast’s back with his fist that was empowered with the majority of his Qi, causing a resounding crack to resound in the surroundings and the beast to yelp in pain before falling to the ground, paralyzed due to having it’s back broken.
The young man did not waste any time, not wishing to prolong the beast’s suffering any more than necessary, and directly pushed his Qi into his hand while making a chopping motion, decapitating the beast and ending its life.
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“This should be enough for a week, maybe.”
The young man lifted the corpse of the beast and took it’s head in one of his hands, running back in the direction where he had ambushed the beast.
Within minutes, the man arrived at the riverside where he had ambushed the beast and headed towards the familiar direction which he called home.
Soon enough, he arrived at a massive artificial clearing within the forest that had a simple house, a shed and an area that looked like it was dug up multiple times.
Dropping the carcass of the beast near the shed, the man entered the building and came out with tools necessary for processing the corpse.
With experienced hands, the man skinned the beast and processed it’s meat into sections that he could eat and that which was filled with poisonous Qi. Then, he separated its Core for use in the near future, and neatly stacked its skeleton so that he could use it in making his new tools.
He also separated its Antlers to be sold within the nearby village and its claws and teeth so that he could turn it into weapons.
With the processing done, he approached the turned dirt and dug out the pit, causing a miasma of foul energies to slowly rise from the pit, indicating that it was used to dispose off unwanted products from his hunts.
Just like he had done many times before, he threw the unusable parts of the tiger into the pit and covered it up again before pushing a lot of his Qi into the dirt, sealing off the Qi originating from the decaying parts of his hunts.
With his resources secure for the next week, the man walked into his home and started his day.
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Walking into the house that I built using the Iron Woods, I headed towards the small kitchen. It was equipped with a stove, a few bowls carved from rock, a few containers filled with spices and herbs, some I found in the wilderness while others I traded from the village, and a massive container used to store water.
I pulled out a rope connected to the floor near the kitchen, revealing a hidden cellar filled with a lot of clay jars.
Pulling out the nearest jar and opening the lid caused the fragrance of rice wine to propagate in the air.
Without wasting any time, I placed the some of the bones of my latest kill, the Winged Tiger, into the wine and sealed it back into the cellar.
With all the necessary tasks done, I headed back to my bed and collapsed onto it, sighing in contentment.
Truly, there is no life as fulfilling as that of a hermit.
Especially for someone like me. A person destined to be this world's main character if my memories and experiences in this world are anything to go by.
I felt a shudder go through my spine as I thought back to my life up until I finally decided to leave it all behind.
I was born into the Wang family, a powerful and influential family belonging to a local powerhouse known as the Heavenly Sword Sect.
But here is the kicker, despite being born with good talent and belonging to an influential family, the only thing that my previous self ever experienced was misery.
He lost his mother, one of the many concubines of Wang Qiang, my ‘father’, at the age of five. He was then targeted by many of his siblings due to his talents which threatened the other children’s position in the family.
He then had his cultivation crippled by a fellow disciple and nearly lost his life that night due to assassins sent by an unknown party. Then, to add insult to injury, his fiancée broke off their marriage contract established by his mother when they were children. The very same fiancée who was the main cause of the conflict between my previous self and the disciple, Xiao Kai, who crippled my cultivation.
Yeah, no matter how I look at it, this is the most basic and straightforward main character template that I have ever seen.
Fortunately, that assassination attempt only partially succeded and he died for a few moments on that night. Then, ‘I’ woke up in his place, with both of our memories and emotions completely intact.
Another main character like development.
But being who I was, there was no way I was going to go through all the bullshit that a main character is forced to go through. So, I took the chance and formally requested to withdraw from both the sect and the clan, a request that was quickly accepted due to political reasons, leading me to live in this wilderness for the past five years.
And honestly? It was the best fucking decision that I ever made in both my lives.
Away from all the bullshit that I no doubt would have to deal with if I had stayed in that sect.
Shaking my head to get rid of those thoughts, I sat up on my bed in a meditative position. I started the daily ritual that I had gotten used to doing in the past five years.
Focusing on the Qi within my body, I guided it towards every inch of my body, every single strand of muscle, every bone and organs, down to the cellular level. Filling them to the brim.
Then, all at once, I pushed the Qi into my very being, breaking my body past it’s limits.
Instantly, my blood started to gush out of every single pore in my body, skin tore apart and muscles burst out, bones started to disintegrate and organs blew up.
For a single instant, I died.
Then, the small bead that hung around my neck started shining brightly followed by the roar of a monstrous being that I can never hope to recognize.
Instantly, my body started to heal at unprecedented rates, probably surpassing a certain superhero from my old world’s stories.
Bones regenerated, stronger than before. Muscles regrew, much more tenacious. Organs reformed, much more efficient and durable. Blood vessels grew stronger and more durable, capable of handling the significantly enhanced blood flow thanks to my heart getting exponentially stronger than before. My brain became even more tenacious and faster than before.
But most importantly, my physical body became capable of storing double the amount of Qi than before, just like it does after every single session of my gruesome ‘cultivation’
“Seriously, are you some kind of a masochist? Why do you insist on such a harsh way of strengthening yourself when I could easily help you regrow heaven-grade spirit roots?”
I supressed the seething anger that I felt when the familiar voice rang out in my mind.
“And how do I get the so-called Heaven-grade spirit roots?”
“Quite simple. Head towards the nearest village and-“
“Yeah, I’ve heard enough. Now, shut up and get back to doing whatever it is that you do in there.”
“Careful, brat. I can very easily make this Heavenly Reversal Bead stop working-“
“If you were capable of doing that, you would have done that the moment I refused your ‘offer’ the very first time. Besides, you can never muster the will to kill me. If you had such willpower, you would have killed yourself before you became the monster that you are now. So, stop wasting my time and braincells and get lost.”
The monster hidden within the bead fell silent at my words as I felt his presence recede deep into it.
Seriously, I hate hearing that bastards voice fore even a single moment.
Even if that bastard is the future version of ‘me’.
Honestly, being a main character in real life is such a traumatic experience. Fortunately, I am genre savvy enough to escape the pitfalls that others would fall into.
Now, time to go back to my ‘cultivation’