After eating some cooked wolf meat and realizing its effects, Zhao Fan tested his hypothesis about raw meat. Cutting off another piece, he bit a small piece away. This time, a more condensed energy was released into his body, however it did little to harm him. Last time he ate raw meat and almost died because of the large amount he ate without any reservations. However, now his body was stronger and he could absorb more energy at once than before. Still, Zhao Fan did not want to repeat his reckless actions.

Cautiously, he began to eat the piece at a faster pace and soon moved on to another one. Naturally, he preferred the raw meat because of its powerful effect but in comparison to the cooked meat it was a bit disgusting. Zhao Fan tried to at least put some salt on it to make it bearable.

Soon, he realized that his natural digestion already slightly hurt from the abundant energy so he decided to stop for the day.

"If I eat this meat everyday not only does it strengthen my body, the spiritual energy is comparable to using spirit stones. By the time of the competition I can maybe get to the third level!" Zhao Fan was delighted. The meat not only helped to strengthen his body through the weird red energy but also the spiritual energy contained in the meat went to his dantian and was even more condensed than the spirit stones he was awarded.

"At this rate I can even compete with geniuses from some of the rich families in the city!" Zhao Fan thought. The third level would be enough to compete for the top ten in the competition which reinvigorated him. Reaching the top ten would be a ticket to turning his and his dad's lives around. After all, the top ten would mostly be taken in by outside sects or at worst they would be heavily cultivated by the academy.

"To maintain my growth I will need lots of meat" The wolf would last him about two weeks if he just ate it everyday and since he had two wolves, it would last about a month. However, the academy competition would start around two months from now. If he hunted two more wolves, he could eat wolf meat every day and not worry about food. This meant that the remainder of the time could be spent on searching for more valuable resources. Also, he could always hunt some more wolves and bring them back to the village in order to exchange for more resources.

Having planned everything out, Zhao Fan grinned and went into the forest.

Hiding in his spot from before, he put himself in a comfortable position and waited for a few hours. As a result of the spot being in the outer periphery of the forest only some extremely weak beasts passed by. He could approximate the strength of a beast by sensing the qi coming off of it, which was one of the few elementary skills Zhao Fan learned in the academy. As cultivators, they were hypersensitive to the flow of qi around them. Through directing this qi to the dantian and forcefully expanding it, a cultivator can advance in cultivation.

Thud

A while later he finally felt something stronger. A black bear created a loud sound as it trod across the forest. Zhao Fan, who was hiding in a nearby bush, could feel that although this bear was weaker than the wolves, he was only a little off.

"Perfect for practice." Zhao Fan smirked and charged forward. Like an arrow, he flew through the air straight towards the bear. The huge bear only noticed the small human that was dashing toward him when he was almost next to him. As it turned to face him, Zhao Fan's sword was already unsheathed.

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Zing

The sword whistled through the air and finally landed on the stomach of the bear. A laceration was left from the strike however it did not pierce deeply due to the powerful and huge build of the bear. At the same time, the bear ignored the strike and smashed his heavy paw in a devastating blow.

"Sh*t" Although Zhao Fan tried to defend himself, the sword that he put up was instantly shattered and he was sent flying. On his way, his leg hit a tree and broke instantly. If he did not strengthen his body using the meat, he would most likely have had his entire lower body shattered. Now that he thought about it, a normal bear was already many times stronger than the strongest human and along with its status as a demonic beast, it could probably kill anything at the same level with pure strength alone. Naturally, since he was so huge and bulky, the bear's weakness must be his speed. Even if Zhao Fan broke his leg he still should be able to escape.

Feeling confident, he looked up to inspect the bear. Seeing the bear, however, his confidence disappeared. Originally, Zhao Fan was thrown quite far, however the enraged bear charged at him at an incredibly fast speed. He could clearly see it releasing large quantities of qi through its legs.

"This bear can use Spirit Dash!?" A panicking Zhao Fan decided to act as quickly as possible. He immediately jumped onto the branch of the tree that he was lying on. Although putting strength on his foot was insanely painful, at the moment he had no choice. He knew that bears could climb trees, but at least he wouldn't instantly die. The bear was getting closer and Zhao Fan started panicking internally.

Suddenly he had a crazy plan. Zhao Fan dug through his jacket at the highest speed possible and soon found a wrapped piece of meat. Not caring about the wrap, he swallowed the whole piece. An explosive strength surged towards his dantian and his muscles. His bone was rapidly healing as he directly poured all of the energy into it.

BOOM

The bear didn't even climb the tree, instead it instantly plowed through it. At the last moment, a figure jumped from the falling tree directly down at the bear.

"DIE!" A glowing fist smashed at the head of the bear. Unable to defend properly in time, the bear put its arm up at an awkward angle.

CRACK

The bear's arm was instantly broken and some of the impact reached its head.

"ROAR" The bear went berserk and swung its other arm at Zhao Fan. Having used all his strength and the energy in the meat to punch, Zhao Fan was blown back once more. The bear's paw landed on his chest and broke several ribs. The force was like a train as it hit him, blasting him back hundreds of meters. Like a kite with its strings broken, Zhao Fan powerlessly smashed on the ground and bounced off several times before coming to a stop.

At the moment, several of his ribs and dozens of other bones were broken, his face was deformed and bloodied and he had used all of his spiritual qi. He lacked strength to stand and it was hard for him to even breathe.

"In a place like this.." Zhao Fan could feel his consciousness slipping away due to the pain. All he could do at the moment was lie there and await his gruesome death.

"Young master, a peak tier two Ironpaw bear seems to be up ahead. While you should be able to kill it, be careful of its deceptively fast movements. With that and its extreme strength, it has the strength to match fourth tier cultivators." A party of people appeared and a middle aged man, who seemed to be the butler, spoke. Right next to him was a young man about Zhao Fan's age and behind them were people dressed in white robes.

The young man in the party charged out at the bear at a very slow speed, seemingly completely relaxed. The bear was a little damaged in the head from Zhao Fan's strike so it took longer for it to respond. However, the young master was moving so slow it barely mattered and the bear had enough time to attack. It's huge paw swung down but the young man did not stop.

SING

Just as the paw met his body, it was instantly slashed in two by an incredibly fast sword. Ignoring the bear's cries, the young man went further and met the bear's chest. His eyes furrowed as he saw something and the next moment, his fast sword once again was unleashed but this time it directly pierced the bear's heart.

Just like that, the bear fell down powerlessly, not even able to put up a struggle.

"Young master, your wind shadow sword has truly reached greater completion." The butler praised the young master but noticed a figure lying on the ground in the distance.

"Let's go" He remarked with a cold glint in his eyes and turned around and went further into the forest with the rest of the party.