Chirp Chirp

Zhao Fan suddenly woke up and was treated to the sound of crickets chirping all around him. He tried to get up and look around, however he was burdened by a giant weight on top of his legs. After the giant wolf and him crashed into a tree, the wolf slid off of him so it was not too difficult for Zhao Fan to move himself.

As for his condition, he felt mostly alright save for the heavy feeling in his body due to over exhausting his energy and a few bruises lining his chest.

After extricating himself and standing up, Zhao Fan’s eyes widened as he realized it was now night time. Although he passed out for a few hours, no other beast stumbled on to the scene.

Thinking this, Zhao Fan shivered from fear, afterall if even a normal beast stumbled on to them, wouldn't he be dinner? Looking around for signs of danger, he saw a familiar handle stuck in a tree. As he drew closer he found that the blade was covered in dried blood.

He walked over and made a weak attempt to pull it out, but it was firmly embedded in the base of the tree. Zhao Fan's eyes furrowed, if he was assaulted by a wild beast without his sword he could only run. Furthermore, if he wanted to get a new one, he would have to go all the way back to the city and spend money he didn’t have.

Deciding to use the Spirit Dash technique, he circulated his qi into his legs but what he felt left him shocked. He had broken through to the second realm of qi condensation!

In the cultivation world, in order to break through realms one would have to either accumulate energy or receive enlightenment of some form. The former method was generally a safe method which took a lot of time and resources, but the latter on the other hand, required one to squeeze their potential and break through by undergoing myriads of battles which was a dangerous but effective method. Due to the huge disparity between backgrounds, poorer cultivators generally resorted mostly to the second method while the richer cultivators resorted to the first. However, there was obviously a limit to the young master's external help since the wealthy families wouldn't want to groom trash.

After undergoing his first major tribulation, Zhao Fan successfully reached the second realm. He didn’t receive any sort of automatic increase in qi strength but rather his dantian expanded! Despite the realm being named ‘Qi condensation’, it was also often called ‘Qi gathering’ because one had to gather qi into the dantian and condense its walls making it able to store more qi. Even though increasing rank does not mean more condensed qi, since the dantian has stronger walls, it can allow a person to condense their qi more than had it been the previous rank.

Zhao Fan revealed a happy smile as the sword that was deeply stuck smoothly came out upon the activation of the Spirit Dash. It seemed the myths about breaking through at the brink of death were true. Now that he thought about it, didn’t he break through during the moment that he overcame his fear of death during the battle? Without the increase in rank, he probably wouldn’t be able to kill the beast. At this thought, he froze and looked at the carcass of the huge wolf.

Chirp Chirp

Zhao Fan looked around again confused at the sound when he suddenly realized. It was night time!

Staying in the forest during the night was suicide for someone as weak as him and he actually broke this unwritten rule on his first trip. His eyes widened in panic and he instantly went over to the carcass of the wolf. His blood-coated sword in hand, Zhao Fan cut open the body and quickly threw out all of the innards and bones. The organs of powerful beasts usually contained the most power but since the wolf was very low leveled, the organs have not been tempered yet and were completely ordinary. Therefore meat was the most valuable part of this wolf, causing him to abandon everything else.

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A short time later a large silhouette sped past a multitude of trees in the dark night, producing a cacophony of sounds as heavy footsteps sounded on the underbrush of the forest. Its pace wasn’t too fast or too slow, as if burdened by something. For a while it ran, only stopping when it broke the cover of the trees and left the dark forest.

Crash

The figure instantly lost its strength and fell down on the cold ground. Gentle moonlight illuminated its face revealing the face of a black-haired youth. A black carcass twice the size of the figure was slung over the shoulder of the youth creating an interesting sight. That figure was obviously Zhao Fan. Luckily for him, he managed to make it out without attracting any unwanted attention.

After a while, Zhao Fan regathered his strength and set out towards the nearby mountain at an unhurried pace. Luckily for him, the mountain wasn’t far away and it was not very elevated.

“Phew!” Zhao Fan collapsed on the few rice sacks which he brought with him and hurriedly drank from a vat of water nearby. After he realized it was midnight, he pushed himself to the limit in order to quickly escape the forest leaving him in an exhausted state. On his way back he even felt the eyes of various beasts eyeing him and weighing the risk of attacking. Luckily, the beasts feared the cleared area close to the city and did not act rashly.

Zhao Fan broke out in a cold sweat thinking about the dark forest and decided to not think about it anymore. That’s right, now that he was in relative safety, it was time to think about the rewards! Zhao Fan broke out in an excited expression when he thought about the precious meat which made his stomach growl.

Bringing over a huge carcass, Zhao Fan licked his lips. In the forest he had not eaten anything so he was extremely hungry. However, when he was about to bite into the meat a sudden issue arose.

‘Should I eat this raw?’ He internally questioned as he did not want to get some sort of beast sickness from eating raw meat. Obviously as a poor cultivator his knowledge of the world was extremely limited and he couldn't even answer this basic question.

After some solemn contemplation and an intense argument session with his stomach, Zhao Fan eventually came to a conclusion, ‘Beasts temper their bodies with qi, so naturally no sickness should survive, but if I cook it maybe the meat will be spoiled’

After one bite, his hesitation faded. Although the meat had an incredibly tough texture, the amount of qi it provided was insane. To someone who did not possess cultivation resources like Zhao Fan this was like heaven! To him, the taste became completely secondary when he felt the distinct feel of his body becoming stronger. Forgetting any initial worries, he dug in earnestly.

A long time passed and the cave which was previously filled with chewing sounds turned silent.

“AAHH!” Zhao Fan who was now filled to the brim with wolf meat suddenly stood up and shrieked, his hands darting to his stomach. A sharp and intense pain like thousands of daggers coursed through it, gradually growing in intensity and spreading to the rest of his body.

The rampant and unrestrained energy continuously ran through his body, his skin cracked open and blood covered each crevice causing him to lose his resemblance to a human. Instead, a barely standing demonic figure wholly covered in blood roared at the ceiling of the cave. Even under extreme pain, his determination to live was like a burning flame, refusing to be put out.

However, as the pain intensified even further, even his organs failed and his limp body fell on the cold ground without any movement. The light in his eyes slowly began to fade, the overwhelming damage to his body was past the point of no return.

It was already commendable that he was able to persist for that long as any ordinary person would have fainted long ago.

Furiously squeezing everything out to survive, the last thing Zhao Fan felt was a cool sensation which slowly emerged from his dantian and an indescribable feeling of pleasure coursing through his body. If the rampant energy was like a tidal wave, then the cool energy was like a peaceful stream. Sadly, the damage was already done and despite the cool energy surging through every pore of his body, he could no longer hold on and his vision turned to black.

Chip chip

"AHH" Zhao Fan awoke with a shriek, sensing a pain on his head. A bird which thought he was dead flew away as he jerked up. His pained expression suddenly stopped and he sat up from his lying position, putting his back to the wall. As he did this, he incredulously scanned over his body.

"Impossible, I clearly remember the state my body was in, but now it looks fine?!" With a shocked look, he stretched out his arm which was previously filled with cracks and waved it in the air.

To his surprise, he felt a penetrating pain and he quickly retracted his arm "Was I a bit hasty and opened a wound?"

He inspected his arm and saw his palm releasing a small trickle of blood, however the small cut looked fresh. Surprised, he looked to the wall on his right. There was a dent in the stone which was about 10 cm in width.

"Impossible..." With a dumb founded look, Zhao Fan raised his hand again and put it up against the dent. It fit almost perfectly. He froze in shock for a good ten seconds carefully looking at his hand and trying to understand how he obtained this power so suddenly. Overcoming his shock, Zhao Fan shifted his body and jumped up from his sitting position.

Bang

Underestimating his new strength his head shot up into the stone ceiling and he crashed down to the floor almost immediately after jumping, lying there motionless. Above him there was a large crack.