Next day

In a clearing lay a young man covered in dried blood. Suddenly, he slowly shifted his head and looked around.

"Who was that genius?" His mind was still immersed in the scene of the young master slaying the bear. It was only due to this twist of fate that he managed to survive, albeit barely. Putting away his thoughts, right now Zhao Fan's focus was on getting back home. Luckily, as the meat he ate earlier was digested, his body slowly healed. Even broken bones mended themselves at a speed which was tenfold of normal regeneration which was the benefit of cultivating the body. Still it would take a few days for him to go back to normal.

As he slowly stood up and stretched his body, Zhao Fan let out a groan. His whole body hurt and was sore. Setting out in the direction of his cave, he suddenly remembered something. On the ground away from him lay the body of a dead bear.

Zhao Fan let out a grin and went over. Grabbing it by it's massive legs, he slung them over his shoulder and slowly carried the bear in the direction of his cave. Since this was the periphery of the forest and he was only going out, there should be no trouble on the way.

As the bear was heavy, it took Zhao Fan a lot of time and breaks to finally get it into his cave. By that time, the sun had already gone down and crickets were chirping outside.

"Phew" Zhao Fan wiped his brow which was drenched in sweat as he placed the bear down. At this point he was filthy from dried blood, dirt and sweat so he decided to go wash himself in the river. When he was done, he returned to the cave and looked at the dead bear. Zhao Fan realized that he obviously was oblivious to most common knowledge and this placed him in extremely dangerous situations time and time again. Just because the bear had a similar cultivation to the wolf didn't mean it didn't have any other abilities or strengths.

"I only need a bit of it to sell. It should be enough for me to eat, pity I don’t have salt though." Zhao Fan internally thought of the best way to use all of the meat.

"Wait, the last time I ate the meat, I absorbed some spiritual essence from it which was even denser than a spirit stone." Thinking this, an excited grin formed on his mouth. He took out a small dagger, imbuing qi into it and cut the bear's body vertically. Although there was some resistance, the bear's body was weakened greatly after so much time which is why he was able to cut it with just a normal dagger. After doing so, Zhao Fan took off his clothes and put them aside.

"I need to get stronger." He reassured himself as he squeezed his whole body into the innards of the bear. His whole body was covered in blood and innards which he had to force aside in order to get in position. After that was done, Zhao Fan started to cultivate by absorbing the qi in the bear's body.

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Meanwhile, in another part of the forest

Swish!

A fast figure zoomed around a gigantic beast. It was the same Ironpaw bear that Zhao Fan had fought before, but this one was even bigger. Every paw that came down produced a gale of wind but the tyrannical paw missed the figure by a hair's distance each time. What's more, each time the figure dodged, it would attack the bear. As time passed by, the bear was covered in cuts. Although each was shallow, they added up and soon, the bear was in a weak state.

Not willing to continue, the bear began to back away while using its claws defensively. Unfortunately for it, the sword was able to find an opening every time. The bear looked pitiful, it was experiencing the death by thousand cuts torture and could not retaliate. It could accept getting killed by a stronger opponent but the slippery figure enraged the bear.

All of a sudden it stopped defending and went all out, trying to catch the figure. It's weakened body however could move even less agilely than before and soon it drew its last.

"Phew" The figure blew out a breath. It was a young man with dark hair. Despite being in the sun all day, his skin was pale and he looked frail. Despite this, his face was devilishly handsome.

He sheathed his short sword into the scabbard at his waist and sat down. Then, he took out a brown bag and took out a dagger. His hands moved swiftly as he cut the bear's chest and took out its organs. When they were stored in the bag he stood up and left.

As he continued venturing through the forest, he saw a pond. He bowed down to get a big gulp of fresh water while also paying attention to his surroundings. In the middle of his drinking, he suddenly jumped back.

Splash

The moment he did that, a loud sound was produced and a huge snake emerged from the pond in the spot he was drinking at. It was 10 meters long and covered in green glowing scales. With a calm expression, the young man took out his sword and faced the new adversary.

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*****

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Back in the cave Zhao Fan spent about 10 hours in the bear before it started to lose its effect. The amount and potency of the meat could be seen from this, as a normal spirit stone was able to last him a couple minutes. Overall, it was definitely a treasure trove for him. Not only that, it actually helped him fully heal his leg.

"Ahh, finally" Zhao Fan climbed outside of the bear completely naked and ran outside to the river. The stench coming from him was horrible and his whole body was covered in blood which made him look like some demon. Zhao Fan sped towards the water and jumped in without any hesitation and started to scrub himself. When he came out, he finally had some semblance of a human.

Walking back into the cave, he dressed up and ate some more meat. From his session, he jumped all the way to the peak second rank. In just a few days he managed to increase his strength by leaps and bounds. From the bear, Zhao Fan grabbed some vital organs and ate them since they were packed with essence which could strengthen his body.

"Unfortunately, its heart was destroyed when it was killed." Zhao Fan gobbled down the kidney of the bear without any hesitation. If before he was disgusted by the idea, now the benefits made him addicted and not care. A warm stream of energy slowly spread throughout his body as he focused on channeling the spiritual power into his dantian while his body was also getting strengthened. The energy lasted for a whole day because of his slow digestion and in this time he fully focused on cultivating. Because he was already at the peak of the second realm, it was important for him to take some time to stabilize his cultivation and lay the foundation for a breakthrough.

When the kidney was fully used, he moved on to the stomach, then the lungs and other organs. In total, it took him almost five days to digest all the important parts and that was when he was completely full everyday. However it paid off, he was able to make massive improvements even he himself couldn't quantify yet.

On a certain day, an unkempt and dirty figure came out of the cave. Zhao Fan had finally come out of seclusion.