“I suppose now that I have the time and I'm not starving anymore, I should do some training...” Bing decided.

  Qing did suggest for him and Lei Zhi to take their training a little more seriously or something like that. In this large empty desert filled with mostly nothing but sand, sand, and more sand. There wasn’t anything else he could do that was beneficial. Plus, if he stayed at the same rank he was before they got on this floor, Qing surely would look at him like he was trash.

  He wouldn't care too much but it still wouldn’t feel nice when he could’ve just cultivated and not get looked at in such a way in the first place. So, now he had to decide on which martial art he can train first. And it wasn’t a hard choice to make when considering all of his current martial arts. Training his Shield Art wouldn’t help him survive in this situation too much unless he encountered bandits after bandits. He didn’t believe his luck was so good that he could find several people that want to do him wrong and be coincidentally strong enough to beat them every time.

  Swift Devil, his movement art, was also similarly not too useful in his current state. He could use it to quickly travel short and large distances, but he would be wasting his energy by doing that. Lei shouldn’t be too far away from him. His qi signature hasn’t moved in several days so that must mean he’s exploring some place. Bing doubted he was dead because he was still sending qi through his message talisman. The dead can’t utilize qi, as ghosts aren’t real.

‘How lucky for him...’ He was jealous. He wanted to gain some treasures too.

  Devil’s Physique, his body martial art, couldn’t be trained without eating food. So, that one was immediately crossed off the training list. Bing hasn’t seen any animals in this entire desert besides the salamanders from the bandits. Not a single bird, bug, or plant. If he wasn’t able to circulate his qi through his dantian right now, he would honestly believe those bandits and salamanders from a few days ago were an illusion, and this was his afterlife.

  So, the only useful martial art he could train right now was his Devil’s Arms technique. Bing has only recently started to somewhat understand the true potential of this sky-ranked auxiliary art. It had more uses to him than just allowing him to grow additional arms over his body. Especially with the mysterious hand that seems to have a craving for flesh. Bing had a feeling that the thing that wanted him to feed it flesh all the time, held a deeper secret about his martial art. Something that he has yet to discover.

  Bing closed his eyes and begin cultivating along with training his Devil’s Arms. If anyone were to see Bing as he was now, they would scream and call him a disgusting freakish mutant. His skin bubbled like he had boiling bumps over every inch of his body. From time to time, arms of variable sizes would quickly jut out of random areas on his body. Sometimes extra arms formed from those arms and other times they would combine into one large hand. This unpleasing sight continued for several hours as Bing slowly started to understand just how his martial art worked more and more.

‘This martial art... is a little bit too strong isn’t it?’ Bing thought with a little excitement.

  Now he knew why his luck was so horrible. Him gaining these martial arts back during the recruitment test took all his good karma! And he hasn’t been doing any good acts of charity to refill his karma back up. The heavens weren’t screwing him over! He’s been the problem all along!

  Three sky-ranked martial arts at the start of his cultivating career? Why would he need anything good ever again with a jackpot like that? Some cultivators live for thousands of years without even being able to see a sky-ranked martial art in the flesh! Now that he thinks about it, his future was set as long as he makes sure to get plenty of resources.

  And that wasn’t it either. Bing felt that the potential of this auxiliary art possibly exceeded some heaven-ranked martial arts. Well, as of right now he couldn’t prove that statement. But if his hunch was correct, then there was a chance that he could grow without a limit as long as he continued to feed his devil hand.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

‘There’s a lot of people in this world, isn’t there? It shouldn’t be too much of a problem if a few cultivators were to go missing all of a sudden... Cultivators as a majority really don’t help the world. So, no one would mind if a few of the worser ones started disappearing...’ Bing’s thoughts took a sinister turn.

  Bump! Bing opened his eyes and realized he bumped into some sort of warm scaley object. He looked up and figured out that he just somehow ran into a large snake spirit beast. It didn’t even give him a moment to apologize for his rudeness. The snake hissed at him before striking with incredible speed. Bing had to use Swift Devil to avoid being bitten by those large fangs dripping with green venom.

  The snake’s eyes bulged in surprise as Bing didn’t use his movement technique to escape but to charge into the snake instead! This move tackled them both across the sand, accidentally getting sand into Bing’s eyes. Leaving him open to be knocked away by the reptile’s chunky tail and getting lodged into sand with his large behind stuck in the air. His opponent used this chance to try and sink their fangs into his thick shaking bottom.

  Only to be denied as Bing used his last movement talisman to get himself out of the sand and out of harm’s way. Using the snake’s surprise as it swallowed nothing but sand, Bing used Swift Devil once again to get the upper hand in this moment. His large rotund body appeared over the sand snake hacking up all the sand it gulped. He swung his shield into the side of the spirit beast’s head, burying it deep into the sand.

“Can’t let you get back up! But I will thank you for the meal!” Bing crashed down towards the snake before the sand could fill up the pit it was launched into.

  His beefy hands grabbed the head of the snake as an additional pair of arms shot out from the sides of his stomach and also grabbed on to the skull. The snake screeched as he used all the strength in his body to rip its head off. To make sure his grip was tight, he placed his foot onto its neck so that he didn’t just drag the snake with his strength. All the power he’s gained from devouring cultivators and spirit beasts with his devil hand was used to tear the head off this reptile. A gory spray of blood splattered all over Bing’s figure, drenching him entirely in blood. His hearing was also a little damaged from the snake’s piercing yell.

“Pleck! Yuck!” Bing spat out the blood that got in his mouth. He had his mouth open and didn’t realize it until it was too late.

  There was a big smile on his face soon after. He could finally eat a real meal! Bing didn’t count that salamander from earlier as food because the devil hand ate it instead of him. They might share the same stomach but Bing preferred cooking and enjoying the aroma, texture, and flavor of the food on his tongue. The devil hand was fine with anything that had meat and he doubted it cared about taste.

  Bing held onto the tail of the giant serpent and dug himself out of the sand trying to drown him. With a goofy grin on his face, he started preparing to cook the snake. Just imagining what this spirit beast was going to taste like was causing him to droll already. Spirit beast meat always tastes delicious if properly handled. There were a few exceptions to that but those types of spirit beasts taste gross to not be attacked by predators.

  The round Qi Gatherer threw several talismans onto the decapitated body of the snake and watched as its body slowly cooked in glee. He was sure nothing could possibly ruin his good mood as the snake cooked into a sparkling delicious smelling brown perfection. If he was being honest, this was the only time he’s ever been this happy during the several days he’s been on the 11th floor of the Great Tower. There was nothing like good smelling food to cheer up one’s mood.

  Bing could smell that the meat was almost ready for eating. It was a skill he gained since childhood. If there was food cooking nearby, he could tell exactly when it was ready to be served. He didn’t use this skill to pursue a career in cooking though. Who has ever heard of a chef cultivator? It's ridiculous. It’s much safer to become a cultivator that knows how to cook well rather than focusing on cooking entirely.

  What if a customer is a cultivator and says that your food is crap? You could only beg for mercy or die because you didn’t have the skills to satisfy this cultivator that was stronger than you. In the perfect world, the customer would just leave and never come back to eat your food. No need for violence, murder, or any type of pleading and begging. Just a dissatisfied customer and a chef who needs more training in the culinary arts.

“Haha! It’s done!” Bing cried joyfully.

“Surprise Fatty!!!” Several men popped out from the sand beneath him and leapt towards him with curved blades.

  Bing’s mind went blank as a massive amount of sand covered his hard earned acquired meal.

“I swear to the heavens above, none of you will survive my wrath...” Multiple blades pierced through his body.