Broken Fang Ridge greeted Xuan Li with a thick, sticky mist and the pungent scent of rotting pine needles. Ancient trees with black, knotted trunks stretched toward the sky, their branches intertwining so tightly that even at noon, a deep twilight reigned. The air was heavy, saturated with wild, untamed Qi that would make an ordinary person's head spin instantly.
But for Xuan Li, this environment felt different.
As soon as he crossed the invisible boundary of the forest, the interface before his eyes flickered, recalibrating to the new conditions.
[Location change. High radiation background of wild energy detected.]
[Activating "Radar" mode. Scanning radius: 50 meters. Error margin: 2%.]
The world around Li transformed. A faint neon grid overlaid the dim forest landscape. Dew drops on leaves, tracks on the damp earth, even the currents of the wind—everything was analyzed and converted into data. Unlike other cultivators who had to painfully strain their hearing and sight, fearing an ambush from every bush, Xuan Li saw the forest as if it were in the palm of his hand.
He moved silently, gliding from one massive trunk to another. His breathing remained even, and his old hunting dagger sat in his hand so naturally it felt like an extension of his own limb.
After twenty minutes of cautious advancement into the forest, the System issued a quiet warning.
[Signature detected. Distance: 38 meters. Azimuth: Northwest.]
[Classification: 1st Rank Demonic Beast — Steel Boar.]
Li stopped, taking cover behind a fallen tree trunk. Ahead, in a small ravine, a massive beast was rooting through the earth. The Steel Boar was the size of a large calf. Its hide was covered in stiff bristles resembling metallic needles, and two yellowish tusks capable of piercing stone protruded from its maw. A 1st Rank beast possessed strength equal to a cultivator at the sixth or even seventh stage of Body Tempering. An ordinary fifth-stage disciple would have been torn to shreds in seconds.
But Xuan Li was no ordinary disciple.
"Vulnerability analysis," he commanded mentally.
The System interface focused on the beast. Lines of green code swirled around the boar's carcass, x-raying its anatomy.
[Target: Steel Boar. Vitality: 100%.]
[Defense Type: External carapace of compressed Qi. Impossible to pierce with current weapon through direct impact.]
[Searching for vulnerabilities... Vulnerability found. Blind spot under the left ear: lacking protective bristles, skin thickness is minimal. Direct access to the carotid artery.]
[Calculating attack trajectory...]
A pulsing red line appeared before Li's eyes—the perfect vector for a strike. He didn't need to engage the boar in a prolonged battle and exhaust his strength. He only needed to land one mathematically precise blow.
Xuan Li picked up a small stone from the ground and tossed it into the bushes on the other side of the ravine.
A dry snap of breaking branches rang out. The boar instantly threw up its massive head. Its bloodshot eyes fixed on the bushes; it grunted fiercely and charged toward the sound, kicking up clouds of mud.
At that moment, Li lunged.
He moved strictly along the line traced by the System. Not a single wasted motion. No wasted Qi. As the boar thundered past the tree where the youth had been hiding, Li slid toward it.
Time seemed to slow down. Xuan Li could see every hair on the monster's snout. He pivoted sharply on his heel, dodging a lethal tusk, and with surgical precision, drove his dagger into the tiny, coin-sized blind spot directly under the beast's left ear.
The blade went in up to the hilt. Li instantly leaped back, clearing the distance.
The boar ran another ten meters by inertia, let out a piercing squeal, and a fountain of hot black blood erupted from its neck. The beast collapsed onto its side, hooves thrashing convulsively, and fell silent after a few moments.
Xuan Li calmly approached the carcass. His breathing hadn't even quickened.
[Threat eliminated. High concentration of blood essence detected.]
[Launch absorption protocol?]
"Yes," Li answered coldly, placing his bloodied palm on the beast's still-warm hide.
The black ring on his finger flared with a dim light. The energy the boar had accumulated over the years flooded into the youth's body, purified and filtered by the System. Li felt a pleasant warmth spreading through his channels, strengthening his muscles and densifying his bones.
[Extraction process complete.]
[Progress of restoration and transition to 6th stage of Body Tempering: 15% -> 28%.]
"Twelve percent for one beast," Li thought, looking thoughtfully at the interface. "Slow. I need to find a larger nest or kill something stronger."
Xuan Li wiped the bloodied blade on the boar's stiff fur and moved on. The forest grew thicker, and ancient trees closed overhead, allowing almost no sunlight to pass.
An hour later, the System suddenly flashed yellow, signaling increased danger.
[Warning: Anomalous Qi spike detected. Distance: 120 meters. Azimuth: East.]
[Classification: Multiple human signatures (3 objects). 2nd Rank Demonic Beast signature (1 object).]
A second-rank beast. That was serious. In terms of strength, such a monster was equivalent to a master at the peak of Body Tempering.
Xuan Li instantly suppressed his aura, merging with the shadows of the forest, and silently slipped along the branches of a sprawling oak, closing in on the source of the noise. From a height of ten meters, he had a clear view of the events in a small hollow.
Three Outer Peak disciples—judging by the silver cranes embroidered on their robes, they were from a wealthy side branch of the Zhao clan—were fighting a desperate battle. In the center of the hollow, a Twin-Tailed Shadow Panther darted about. It was a graceful, lethal predator with jet-black fur and claws capable of tearing through steel.
Xuan Li settled comfortably on a thick branch and activated the analytical module.
[Battle Analysis...]
[Target: Twin-Tailed Shadow Panther. Rank: 2. Vitality: 64%.]
[Subjects 1, 2, 3: Body Tempering Cultivators (Stages: 7, 6, 6). Qi levels: Rapidly declining. Teamwork effectiveness: 12%.]
Li snorted contemptuously, watching the aristocrats' struggle. They were acting like idiots. The group leader, swinging an expensive sword, mindlessly wasted Qi on beautiful but useless lunges, trying to hit the incredibly fast panther. His two lackeys huddled together, hindering each other's attacks.
They weren't hunting the beast. The beast was playing with them.
"Help me corner it, you morons!" the leader shrieked hysterically, barely dodging a clawed paw that whistled inches from his face. Three deep, bloody furrows already decorated his shoulder.
The panther, as if sensing the victim's fear, let out a low growl and dissolved into the shadows. A second later, it materialized directly behind one of the lackeys. A blow from a heavy paw sent the boy flying into a tree trunk with such a crunch that Li winced. The boy slid to the ground, spitting blood.
The remaining two panicked. The leader, forgetting his pride and noble birth, turned and bolted, leaving his wounded comrade to be devoured. The panther crouched gracefully, preparing for a final, lethal spring into the fleeing man's back.
"Now," Xuan Li decided coldly.
[Syncing trajectories... Calculating lead... Done.]
He leaped from the branch not at the moment the panther was below him, but to the exact spot where it was destined to be a second after its jump. Gravity and the perfectly calculated acceleration from the System did their work.
The beast lunged into the air, extending its claws toward the back of the fleeing aristocrat. And in that same instant, Xuan Li descended from above like a punishing meteor.
His knee slammed with monstrous force directly into the base of the panther's skull, driving the beast into the ground. Without letting the predator even whimper, Li gripped his dagger in a reverse hold and drove it into the vulnerable joint of the plates on the monster's nape, twisting the blade.
The panther's body jerked and went limp.
[Target destroyed. Initiating extraction protocol...]
[Absorbing 2nd-rank beast core. Progress to 6th stage Body Tempering: 28% -> 89%.]
"Impressive," Li muttered, shaking the blood from his blade. He was very close to a breakthrough.
A rustle came from behind. The group leader, realizing death hadn't come, stopped and turned around hesitantly. His eyes widened in shock when he saw exactly who was standing over the carcass of the terrifying monster.
"Li?! Trash Li?!" the aristocrat gasped, his face flushing red from both the lingering fear and sudden indignation. "You... how dare you interfere in my hunt?!"
Xuan Li straightened up slowly. He looked at the trembling "master of life," at the wounded disciple by the tree, and at the pool of blood beneath his feet.
"Your hunt?" Li's voice was quiet, but it had the ring of cold metal. "I only see a pig that was running to the slaughter, abandoning its comrades."
"Shut your mouth, bastard!" the leader shrieked, holding his trembling sword before him. Greed in his eyes quickly overpowered his fear of Li's inexplicable strength. A 2nd-rank beast core was worth a fortune. "You stole my prey! We wounded it, and you landed a cowardly blow from the shadows! Carve out the core and give it to me immediately, or I'll report to the Elders that you are attacking fellow disciples!"
Xuan Li didn't even move. The System interface dispassionately displayed a red inscription above the hysterical youth's head:
[Threat: Zero. Attack Vector: Predictable. Recommendation: Eliminate witnesses.]
Li tilted his head, and an icy smirk appeared on his lips.
Xuan Li didn't grace the aristocrat with an answer. Instead, he took a calm step forward. The smirk vanished from his lips, replaced by a mask of absolute, icy indifference. In that gaze, the group leader read his sentence.
"You... you wouldn't dare!" the youth shrieked, raising his sword in a panic. Not a trace of his former arrogance remained; he was shaking violently. "I am Zhao Ming! My father is an Elder! If anything happens to me, they will find you and—"
His threat was cut short mid-sentence.
[Initiating "Elimination" protocol. Calculated time: 1.3 seconds.]
For Xuan Li, the world slowed down once more. He saw Zhao Ming convulsively, and quite incorrectly, trying to channel Qi into his blade. He saw every flaw in his clumsy defensive stance. It was as if an inexperienced programmer was trying to run corrupted code on an ancient server.
Li didn't bother drawing his dagger. Wasting blood essence on this trash was beneath him.
With surgical precision, he slid under the raised sword, letting the blade pass an inch from his shoulder. His palm, reinforced by a dense flow of Qi, slammed directly into Zhao Ming's Adam's apple. A dry, sickening crunch of breaking cartilage followed.
The aristocrat's eyes glazed over. He dropped his sword, clutching his throat with both hands, trying to breathe, but only blood entered his lungs. A few seconds later, he collapsed to his knees, then tumbled face-first into the mud, falling silent forever.
[Target 1 eliminated. Securing residual biomaterial. Recommendation: Absorption impractical.]
Xuan Li fastidiously wiped his hand on the dead man's robe and slowly turned to the third disciple, who had been lying by the tree the entire time, watching the scene in horror. The boy was heavily wounded by the panther; his chest was unnaturally caved in, and foam was coming from his mouth. He had only minutes left to live.
Noticing Li's gaze, the wounded boy tried to say something, his lips moving soundlessly, but his eyes held a plea—not for mercy, but for a quick death. He understood perfectly that in his state, he was only a burden, and in this forest, a long and agonizing death from small scavengers awaited him.
[Subject 3 Analysis: Critical internal organ damage. Vital signs: 4%. Time until full cardiac arrest: 120 seconds.]
Xuan Li approached him. In this world, there was no room for pity, only for pragmatism. This boy had seen his strength. Leaving him alive was an unacceptable risk. But killing him... it would be an act of mercy he himself had never received.
"Farewell," Li said quietly.
With a short, precise movement of his dagger, he ended the wounded boy's suffering.
[Target 2 eliminated.]
Now that the witnesses were gone, it was time to collect the trophies. Li approached the carcass of the Twin-Tailed Shadow Panther. With the help of his dagger, he skillfully opened the beast's skull and extracted a small core, pulsing with a soft violet light. The energy within it was incredibly dense, pure, and dangerous. An ordinary seventh or eighth-stage Body Tempering cultivator would be afraid to absorb it directly without special alchemical preparations.
But Xuan Li had the System.
He placed his palm, with the core gripped in it, onto Zhao Ming's corpse.
"System, launch extraction and absorption protocol. Use the body as a filter to ground the residual aggressive Qi."
[Protocol launched. Initiating overload of 2nd-rank beast core.]
The black ring on Li's finger grew white-hot, but the System instantly redirected the excessive, explosive energy through his body and directly into the aristocrat's corpse, which began to char beneath him. Into Xuan Li's meridians flowed a perfectly pure, concentrated stream of essence. It was as if the System were rewriting his DNA, making his tissues stronger than steel and his bones harder than diamond.
[Progress of transition to 6th stage of Body Tempering: 89% -> 100%.]
[Warning: Mortal body threshold reached. Initiating breakthrough.]
The world around Li exploded in pain. It felt as though every cell in his body was being bombarded by microscopic needles. His muscles contracted convulsively, and a foul, black oily liquid—the impurities the System was purging from his organism—oozed from every pore. This cleansing process was agonizing, but it lasted only a few seconds.
And then the pain was replaced by an incredible, divine lightness. Xuan Li took a deep breath, and it felt as though he had inhaled all the air in the forest.
He opened his eyes. The world became sharper. Sounds were louder. Smells were richer. The System interface before his eyes flickered, updating the data.
[Host analysis complete.]
[Current Status: Body Tempering — 6th Stage.]
[Condition: Backup meridians formed at 25%. Physical strength level: Above average for current rank.]
Li clenched his fist. Colossal power surged beneath his skin. The fifth stage had merely been the return of his former potential. The sixth—it was the first step on the path to true power.
He cast a final glance at the charred remains of Zhao Ming and his two companions. In an hour, the forest beasts wouldn't leave so much as a bone. The Burning Plum Sect would never know what happened here. They would simply write off three arrogant aristocrats as a hunting accident.
Xuan Li turned and strode confidently away from the scene of the slaughter. Broken Fang Ridge still held many secrets and resources, and now he had enough strength to take what was rightfully his.