The next morning dawned.
Wang Mu leaped lightly onto the roof and gazed at the distant sunrise, allocating the action points he had just earned this month to his Tiger Crane Seven Forms.
In the serene early sun, Wang Mu's form shifted, seemingly like a mirage, with a trailing phantom lingering where he practiced. Perhaps it was the encounter with the Xuan Gu from the day before, but the latter layers of his Cultivation had progressed quickly, making him feel increasingly agile. By the end of his practice, he almost felt as if he was floating, desiring to ride a crane up to the heavens...
When Wang Mu came back to his senses, a gentle breeze suddenly started blowing around him, making him feel even lighter.
"Hmm...this Ten Layers of the Tiger Crane Seven Forms seems to have something to it," he pondered, feeling his current state. It was very subtle. The earlier layers seemed to add more strength, while the latter layers seemed to enhance his Agility more.
With a gentle leap, the breeze followed, his arms spreading like wings, and he actually leaped more than a hundred meters away. Upon landing, it was as if a crane touched water, startling a few leaves and leaving no trace upon the ground.
"If there were Attributes, my Agility would probably be quite high now..."
Wang Mu felt incredibly light, like a feather or a leaf, able to soar into the air with only a little effort – it was indescribably wonderful.
He sensed within himself.
[Cultivation: …Tiger Crane Seven Forms (10)…]
"I've reached the top layer," Wang Mu was quite satisfied. It was a pity that he only had these two rudimentary Skills.
"Right..."
A question suddenly occurred to Wang Mu. "The two rudimentary Skills given by Luo Qifang only have Ten Layers written on them... If I use action points to continue my practice, can I still increase the proficiency and raise the layers?"
This was a question. Wang Mu had never tried it.
"I'll try it when I get the chance later."
If he had three action points next month as well, it would mean that he was slightly more comfortable with his monthly action points. Although it was still less than the four points he had in the game every month, it was already enough for the time being.
"Speaking of which, the game was a martial arts game... Normal practice of those Cultivation Techniques would take just a few years to master. But this is the Immortal World, where some Cultivation Techniques take centuries to cultivate, so the action points shouldn't just be four, right..."
After finishing his Cultivation practice, Wang Mu then took one of the Bone Refining Pills that Yan Qingwu had given him. The earlier he took it, the sooner he would enjoy its benefits. He decided to take one first to see its effects. Before taking it, he got some water ready for rinsing.
"This Bone Refining Pill is said to cleanse impurities from the body and strengthen it... Hmm, in those cultivation novels, the first time one takes such an Elixir, the body seems to exude some sort of black mud that's like impurities... Just to be safe, I'll get the bathwater ready and strip down."
Wang Mu returned to his wooden house and, in the yard outside, revealed his muscular and proportionate body, clad only in a pair of shorts.
After getting everything ready, Wang Mu took out a Body Refining Pill. It was about the size of a beef meatball and emitted a faint fragrance without any medicinal smell. There were also a few ancient characters on it.
Wang Mu looked at them: "Vanilla flavor."
"..." Wang Mu.
Who made this Elixir? Does it sound like ice cream, coming in different flavors? If it weren't for Yan Qingwu giving it to him, Wang Mu would have had his doubts.
He popped it into his mouth, chewed it once, and found the texture to be surprisingly good, similar to eating chocolate.
"A sweet taste with a hint of bitterness... The Elixirs of Cultivators taste unexpectedly nice," he said to himself.
Only when he swallowed it did Wang Mu feel a warm flow instantly spreading throughout his body, like drinking an ice-cold soda on a hot summer day – very refreshing.
Wang Mu waited quietly for the effects of the Elixir to take hold.
After a while, the warmth began to fade...
Wang Mu felt his body getting slightly stronger...
"The effects of the Elixir must just be starting, I'll wait a little longer..."
Wang Mu continued to wait.
「Yet, after an hour.」
The warmth gradually faded away.
"???" Wang Mu.
Is that it? With such little effect, could it be a bit too meager?
Wang Mu was somewhat taken aback. There was a moment when he began to doubt whether the Elixir given to him by Yan Qingwu was a fake, substandard Body Refining Pill. It was supposed to Wash Marrow and temper the body!
"It shouldn't be... Yet why is the effect so poor? It feels like it's only equivalent to my Cultivation of the Tiger Crane Seven Forms and Turtle Breathing and Life Nourishing Skill at the Sixth Layer? It might even be slightly worse..."
Wang Mu couldn't understand. Were the Elixirs Cultivators ate really this lousy?
Poor reviews!
"And here I've been told to only take one a year because I couldn't handle more..."
Wang Mu directly took out another pill and, as if popping a bean into his mouth, tossed it in, chewed twice, and swallowed.
After finishing two pills, Wang Mu finally felt a more significant change in his body.
"Where's the promised marrow cleansing impurities?"
Wang Mu, somewhat disappointed, grabbed a bucket of water nearby and poured it over his head in a symbolic rinse before he continued his way to hunt in the Divine Wood Forest.
「Time meandered on, and before he knew it, three months had passed.」
Divine Wood Forest.
HUFF. HUFF.
A black-patterned giant tiger with an enormous body was charging through the Divine Wood Forest. As it ran, confusion and panic alternated in the fierce beast's eyes... Although it was large, in the Divine Wood Forest, it was like a shadow intertwined with black and white, flitting by, leaving only disturbed branches and leaves in its wake.
At this moment, it was fleeing. As one of the Beast Kings of the Divine Wood Forest, which was nearly a Spirit Beast due to its Cultivation, it was now running away.
As it ran, the tiger's gaze became somewhat vacant. Its memory drifted back to a day six months earlier. On that day, it chased a human for nearly half a day, failing to catch up and nearly exhausting itself in the process.
Six months later, it was now being hunted by that same human hunter... More accurately, it was running for its life.
There was no choice; the human was too strong. An arrow from him could have nearly ended the tiger's life. Moreover, the Tiger King even felt that the human was toying with it because every arrow just grazed its fur...
Deliberately!
WHOOSH!
Another arrow shot out from the shadows of the forest.
Once, the Tiger King adored this forest, as it was its natural hunting ground, with no wild beast able to escape from its paws in the Divine Wood Forest... Now, it despised this complex and mysterious woods.
RIP...
An arrow flew by the white crystal pattern on its head, at a tricky angle. A bit slower or a bit faster, and it could have been hit right between the eyes. But it wasn't.
The Tiger King stopped and touched the offshoot crystal pattern on its forehead.
It was enraged! A tiger could be killed, but not humiliated!
The Tiger King turned around and roared into the dim forest, as if to say: Come out!
"Well, well, giving up the chase?"
In the distance, a young man dressed in a light green raincoat emerged from the trees, laughing. "Little tiger, you chased me for a good part of the day back then. How come you don't have the patience when it's your turn to run?"
The young man was none other than Wang Mu.
Three months later, his Hunting Skill had become much more advanced, reaching level 19. According to the village chief, he was no longer his inferior. Moreover, this Skill had become Wang Mu's highest-level Skill at this time. After all, he had spent most of the past three months Hunting in the Divine Wood Forest, barely short of sleeping with the Fierce Beasts at night.
As the action points reached three points each month, the progression of his Hunting Skill was rather swift. His physical attributes had greatly improved, especially since both of his beginner-level Skills were at full layers, and he had eaten the Purple Peach and taken a double dose of the Body Refining Pill. Using action points to enhance these Skills meant his proficiency didn't skyrocket, but it steadily improved. At the same time, the advancement of these Skills also led to the improvement of his Agility...
Of course, in addition to this, the abilities gained from Hunting weren't limited to physical Attributes. There were other gains, such as a better understanding of the many Fierce Beasts, the distribution of some resources in the Divine Wood Forest, and so on, which were not insignificant benefits.
And today, Wang Mu was planning to hunt the same Tiger King that had been used by the village chief on his first day of learning to hunt to exercise his escape skills.
It was also that legendary White Crystal Tiger King!