Sebian was really lucky. Were it any other kind of monster and even its own teeth could prove to be insufficient to gut its corpse out. Thankfully, this tiger-like beast had its main biological focus on offense, making it a formidable predator. But for the alchemist right now, its sharp teeth were the key to the riches.

The skin gave up pretty quick. Striking the bone knife right at the beast's stomach, Sebian quickly cut off several pieces of meat. As much as he wanted to smoke it on the go, there was no time for it. Disassembling the beast seemed like the most reasonable thing to do right now.

Using his manual experience of handling any kind of alchemy material, Sebian sank his knife deeply into the flesh of the monster, searching for its heart. Since he could feel a slight echo of magic energy in the air, it would be possible for him to cultivate. And that meant, even if this was some kind of a different world, this monster could still hold the same treasure as the monsters from Sebian's home world.

"There it is!" Feeling something hard against the tip of his knife, Sebian's lips curled upwards. Pushing his hand into the cut without even a shred of hesitation, he plucked a small stone from the very middle of the beast's heart.

Pulling his hand out of the hot flesh, Sebian tightened his fingers around the stone before closing his eyes and focusing his mind. Before this stone, all the other spoils that this dead beast had to offer paled in comparison.

"AH!" Feeling the surge of pristinely clear energy entering his body, Sebian's entire body shook in pleasure.

Using the momentum that the clean mana from the stone infused into him, Sebian attempted to direct this force around his own internals. At first, the momentum transferred into a repelling force, that cleansed his body from all the impurities.

In a sense, having his cultivation reverted all the way to how it was at the beginning of his path to glory was a blessing in disguise. Adding both of his curses on top, didn't it seem like an actual blessing?

'Unable to die, unable to be stopped… What kind of God that Bart thing thought he was if even his curses fail to be working the right way?'

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With all the impurities in his flesh and bones expelled, Sebian's skin covered in a disgusting oil. Heavy and stinky, it was basically the essence of everything that was wrong with his body.

While the energy of the stone was far from exhausting itself, Sebian could already feel the insane changes that this simple step did to him. Without the baggage of the impurities that he failed to clear before stepping into the second stage to the cultivation in the past, his strength would soar!

But rather than focusing on the effects from a single breakthrough, Sebian regained his focus, directing it towards pushing his cultivation even further. Making use of the raging energy from the stone, Sebian focused once again. Bit by bit, the free energy that roamed his body was sucked into his flesh, reinforcing its structure. Bit by bit, Sebian continued to fuse the mana with his flesh, quickly climbing the steps of the second stage of primary cultivation. Before the energy in the stone could even reach half of its volume, the alchemist already broke through yet another limit, reaching the third stage in one go. But then, the raging stream of energy finally entered a pond capable of challenging its might.

With his body now perfectly fused with the energy, Sebian could start driving it. By adding the momentum to his own mana, he could condense it and start working on reaching a full cultivation base. Sadly, as potent as the magic stone of the beast was, there was a limit to how much energy it could hold. And as counterintuitive as it could be, only the true spirit stones could help Sebian reach his true speed of cultivation. And there was absolutely no point in looking for them in the jungle, as one could uncover them only in the great depths of the enormous mines and ravines.

"So that's it for now, huh, " muttering under his nose, Sebian threw the emptied stone away, before focusing on his job from before. With the aura of the energy that surrounded the stone now disappearing, it was only a matter of a very short time before some other beasts would be lured by the scent of blood. Still stuck at the initial level of the third cultivation stage, Sebian would be no opponent for them. That's why, with just a few swift moves of his bone knife, a huge patch of the beast's skin fell to the ground.

Still covered in fur, it could provide a great cover from the cold winds permeating the forest. But instead of instantly throwing it atop his naked back, Sebian places several pieces of meat in it, before digging a hole as deep as he could unearth in a short moment, before burying the spoils. Sensing that he still had some time, Sebian rushed to cut another patch, when his sharp senses picked up a worrying noise.

The monsters were closing in.

Speeding up his movements, Sebian only managed to hide yet another small package of meat and useful bones, when the long wailing of the approaching monsters appeared behind him.