Hunting

A snake's head fell to the ground followed by its body. Mu Yue then slashed her sword downward which removed the bloodstains from it.

"This is our third kill for the day. We have been hunting only those in tier 1 of the Magical Beast stage as a practice but... aren't they too weak?" Mu Yue asked as she sheathes her sword.

"We are only fighting one at a time. A two versus one would be an easy fight, especially if our true power surpasses the average. Get used to it Mu Yue. The goal of cultivation is not just to improve our level, but also to surpass the limits." Xiao Yan explained after storing the snake's carcass.

Since the two have just advanced, they needed some simple battles to gauge their power. They went to the forest to hunt the tier 1s. It was easy to tell as beasts have spiritual energy leaking out of their body. They can 'see' it and deduce the beast's strength.

It was very different from how one can sense the strength of a cultivator. Cultivators have trained to have a strong controlled spiritual energy. This means that almost nothing leaks out of their bodies. Their strength can only be measured by sensing it with spiritual energy or with just a look of someone that is a lot stronger. Doing the first method would alert the one who is being sensed.

However, knowing how strong a beast or a cultivator by their spiritual energy was not enough to accurately tell their power. For one, technique and skills couldn't be sense unless you saw them fighting. Then there's the body, constitutions, or other special circumstances that make someone stronger than average.

"I have always wondered something. We have been killing a lot of beasts and I can assume that the other cultivators have at least killed more than one beast in their life. How come we never annihilated them? or at least make it so that they are no longer a danger to us?" Mu Yue asked while resting under a tree.

Xiao Yan thought for a reason that is simple and said, "They have more numbers and longer life expectancy depending on the species. When united, the beasts will not betray each other as they follow the strongest. Unlike us humans, we fear the strong but we can do tricks in the dark. Cultivators are also only a low percentage of our race and the length of our life is dependent on our cultivation level or the use of special items."

"They why are we not annihilated? All those reasons just made me think that we have a lot of disadvantages."

"Mu Yue, have you read the general history that is written in the books?"

"Yes, we won the war against the beasts and made some kind of contract or something to them."

"Since you read that, then you know we won because of our intellect. Another reason was because of the teamwork of humans. Beast can fight well together but humans are better at this since they knew each other's weaknesses and strengths and act accordingly. Unfortunately, losing the war made the stronger beasts to learn from it. They have adapted human thinking to the point of having a human body transformation. These advantages are slowly being learned by them. If not for the contract that prohibits each side to go to another large-scale war, the humans might be on the losing end."

After resting, the two of them looked for a safe place to spend the night. The task they took couldn't be considered as an actual one. It was because the task was more of hunting beasts for points. The real tasks give specific instructions and a more strict deadline. They only 'accepted' to earn the right of going outside the school to hunt for at most two weeks.

"We still have 13 days that we can spend outside the school. We accepted the task to test ourselves so we could do things slowly. Tomorrow, we will look for a tier 1 beast and only one of us will fight it. Then look for tier 2 and fight it together. The next day would be the same pattern until we reach our limit." Xiao Yan said to which Mu Yue agreed to.

They might not have the so-called life and death battles by doing this since they prefer to keep their life intact and not risk it. Deadly battles might improve someone's strength but it was also risky. Having a lover also made the two cautious as dying will leave their other half behind. They knew that they each are worried about each other and they don't want to let the other feel something worse.