The transition from the manicured gardens of the Xiao Clan to the primal chaos of the Magical Beast Mountain Range was like stepping from a dream into a cold, hard reality. As Xiao Chen crossed the invisible boundary where the woodcutter's paths ended, he felt his Doubled Perception shift.
In the city, his senses were often cluttered by the noise of humanity. Here, they became a precision instrument.
"System," Chen whispered, his feet making zero sound as he stepped onto a carpet of damp moss. "Calibrate senses for high-density forest combat."
[System Calibration Active]
Acoustic Range: 400 meters.
Thermal Detection: Active (2x sensitivity).
Qi Signature Mapping: Scanning for 1st and 2nd Tier fluctuations.
Warning: Host's energy consumption is currently 300% higher than a standard 4-Star Dou Zhe due to 'High-Tier Awareness'.
Chen didn't mind the drain. He had prepared. In his storage ring, he had thirty Peak-Grade 1st-Rank Energy Pills he had refined in secret. To any other cultivator, this was a fortune. To him, it was just the fuel needed to keep his "high-performance engine" running.
The Predator's Logic
For the first four hours, Chen didn't draw his sword. He moved like a shadow through the canopy. He watched a group of mercenary hunters struggle against a Stone-Skin Boar. He saw how their formation broke, how their lack of perception led to one man losing an arm.
"They rely on numbers because their individual talent is a ceiling," Chen observed from a high branch. "But my ceiling is the sky."
He dropped from the tree, not to help the mercenaries, but to pursue a specific scent. His Doubled Affinity for Wood allowed him to "talk" to the forest. He could feel the distress in the trees where a specific beast had passed, rubbing its corrosive scales against the bark.
He was tracking the Wind-Track Wolf, but not for sport. He needed its agility-based essence to prepare his body for the massive physical expansion of the 4x Doubling that awaited him at the Dou Shi realm.
The Dance of Death
The wolf appeared not as a creature, but as a distortion in the air.
Whoosh!
A blade of compressed air whistled past Chen's ear, slicing a thick tree trunk behind him as if it were soft cheese.
The wolf was a 1st-Tier beast, but it was at the peak of its rank—comparable to an 8 or 9-Star Dou Zhe. Its fur was a mottled grey that blended perfectly with the shadows, and its eyes glowed with a predatory hunger.
Chen landed on a branch, his breathing rhythmic. "You've killed three hunters this week, haven't you? I can smell their iron-blood on your breath."
The wolf didn't growl; it lunged. It moved so fast that a normal person would only see a grey blur.
But Chen's Neural Processing was already running the simulation. He saw the wolf's hind muscles bunching two seconds before the leap. He saw the angle of the claws.
He didn't dodge. He waited until the wolf was inches away, then he twisted his torso—a movement that would have snapped a normal man's spine—and caught the wolf by its throat with his bare hand.
THUD.
The momentum of the wolf, combined with Chen's Doubled Strength, sent a shockwave through the air. Chen's boots dug into the tree branch, cracking the wood, but he didn't budge.
The wolf's eyes widened in sheer, animalistic terror. It tried to slash at his arm, but Chen's skin—reinforced by the Green Wood Flame Heart—felt like dragon scales.
"Your speed is yours," Chen said, his voice dropping to a low vibrato. "But your life is mine."
He tightened his grip.
Crrrk.
The wolf's neck snapped. Chen didn't feel joy, only a cold sense of progression. He pulled out a small dagger, expertly carved out the Wind-Attribute Beast Core, and tossed the carcass aside.
[Energy Core 1/5 Collected for 'Stabilization']
The Hunger and the Grind
By midday, the "Doubled Hunger" hit him. It was a gnawing, acidic pain in his stomach. His cells were screaming for more energy to maintain his hyper-active state.
He sat by a small, hidden stream and pulled out a piece of dried magical beast meat. As he ate, he felt the nutrients being absorbed at 2x speed.
"This is the reality of the Infinite Doubling," Chen realized, looking at his trembling hands. "Every time I become twice as strong, I become twice as expensive to maintain. If I reach the Dou Di realm... I might need to consume an entire province's worth of energy just to wake up in the morning."
He laughed, a dry, witty sound that echoed in the clearing. "I suppose that's why the Ancients were always fighting. It wasn't just for glory; it was for the grocery bill."
The Threshold of the Abyss
As he moved deeper into the mountain, the trees began to change. They grew taller, their leaves turning a dark, bruised purple. The ambient Qi here was chaotic, tinged with the aggression of 2nd-Tier beasts.
Chen stopped. His Doubled Soul Perception hit a wall of cold energy. It wasn't a beast. It was a person.
He masked his presence, sinking into the shadows of a massive root system. Five hundred meters away, the sky was being torn apart.
Columns of wind—each one a hundred feet high—were clashing against a pillar of purple fire. The sound was like a thousand glass cathedrals shattering at once.
"Dou Huang..." Chen whispered, his eyes narrowing. "A battle at the Ancestor Level."
He saw a figure in the sky—a woman with a grace that defied gravity, her blue robes fluttering in the violent gales. Opposite her was the Purple-Crystal Winged Lion, a beast that looked like it was carved from the very heart of a volcano.
Every time they clashed, the mountain beneath them groaned. Boulders the size of houses were tossed into the air like pebbles.
Chen knew he should run. Any stray spark from that battle would vaporize him instantly. But his System hummed with a different frequency.
[Warning/Opportunity]
High-level energy fallout detected. The local ecosystem is in 'Panic Mode'.
Probability of 2nd-Tier Beast migration toward your location: 95%.
Recommended Action: Stay. The 2nd-Tier Frost-Fire Python is fleeing the Lion's territory. It is wounded and carries the core you need.
Chen gripped his black iron sword. The hilt was cold, but his blood was boiling.
"So, the giants fight, and the ant gets the crumbs," Chen grinned. "But these crumbs are going to make this ant a King."
He didn't look at the beautiful woman in the sky. He didn't care about the Lion's roar. He turned his gaze toward the dark, steaming swamp to his North, where a pair of glowing, bi-colored eyes were fast approaching.
The hunt for the 4x Multiplier was officially on.