Unidentified Creature. Danger Nearby

A battle cry sounded in the air as a figure went through many beasts. This figure left afterimages as he rushed against the horde of beasts.

The figure then stopped and quickly afterward, the beasts spilled out blood before dropping dead to the ground. A pool of blood quickly dyed the ground red.

The figure was breathing heavily as he caught his breath.

"That's amazing, Xu An. I didn't know you could kill monsters easily." A girl's voice managed its way into Xu An's ears.

"Really? This is nothing," Xu An responded humbly as he flicked his blade. The blood on it splashed to the ground.

The kid's body is amazing. He had a good foundation training since he was young, after all, Xu An said to himself as he felt amazing with his body.

His body was many times better than his past life! It was light yet had much power in it.

The original Xu An being a talented genius when he was young wasn't for play! Even if his cultivation realm dropped, his body's durability, speed, and strength were still there.

It just needed a bit of training to get his body to its peak.

With this body, the original Xu An could beat fifty normal adults! Just thinking if he could reach the second realm of cultivation, his strength would soar and he would be stronger compared to the time where he advanced to the second realm for the first time.

"You've heard the story, right? Where I was once a genius? My cultivation realm dropped to the beginning but it was otherwise for my body and mind.

"My body is stronger than most cultivators at the First Mortal Stage."

Xu An reached this conclusion after he beat up more than, let's see, hum… one, two, five, ten, twenty…

After killing twenty beast monsters.

Also, remember when he thought a sword couldn't penetrate his skin? After reading cultivation knowledge from the book in his mind, he realized that only applied to him while the average First Mortal Stage could not.

Their skin indeed became tough but not tough enough to block a sword!

"So that's what remains?" Morgiana said. She was referring to Xu An's body.

Xu An shifted his line of sight to her and nodded, "Yeah, it's been so long since I haven't fought like this."

The original Xu An could not fight as it was the doctor's order. He was in a coma for many months and when he woke up, he was rehabilitated for a few months.

After that, his body was still weak, and to avoid bad scenarios, the doctor told Xu An to not engage in activities that relied heavily on physical strength.

It's been many months since then but Xu An still remembered the doctor's words.

But after blocking Chin Sha's attack, everything changed.

Currently, his recovery rate was terrifyingly fast and Xu An had nothing to worry about.

"Good for you, Xu An." Morgiana smiled but then it disappeared.

"Can you win?" Morgiana suddenly asked with her worried expression. 

After a short pause, Xu An replied with a smile, "I can. It's just staying alive on a dungeon floor, right? What could go wrong?"

Seeing him saying so confidently, erased all the doubts and worries in her heart. Morgiana's gloomy face was quickly replaced by a smile, "That's right, I believe in you, Xu An."

Next, not waiting for Xu An's response, she asked cluelessly, "What are we going to do with these monster beasts?"

"Sell them of course. What else are we going to do? Eat it? I don't want to have diarrhea, you can go alone." Xu An sheathed his blade and went to the river as he washed the blood on his face.

Morgiana collected the corpses on top of a wheelbarrow. They were stacked.

Ignoring the background for a second, Xu An looked at his face on the river. The latter was clean after all, he could see the bottom too.

Xu An smiled as he hadn't seen this kind of river in a long time. The last time he had seen it was when he was a child, playing with his friends as they played by the river.

Good times.

After his face, Xu An turned around and saw the stacked monster carcasses. His eyelid slightly twitched.

"Morgiana, what, no, how?" Xu An pondered.

With Morgiana's build, there was no way she could carry a corpse and put it on the wheelbarrow.

Wait, when that thing is here? Xu An asked himself as he was surprised. He did not remember bringing anything.

However, Morgiana did not respond in words.

"Morgiana?" Xu An pondered as he shifted his line of sight to her. She was distant as she collected the last corpse.

Next, she grabbed it and for a brief moment, her body let out a golden glow. As if just consumed steroids, she tossed the corpse to the wheelbarrow!

Xu An's eyes were wide open as he saw the corpse, a dog with three eyes flew in the air before joining its friends.

Boom!

The wheelbarrow shook yet the stacked corpses did not collapse. Xu An reflexively wondered, what is the science behind this.

"Xu An, how many of these will sell?" Morgiana asked from a distance as she came to Xu An's side. Her voice echoed throughout the forest.

"Probably around 600 Yakhu."

"600? How small!" Morgiana complained.

"Can't do anything about it. They are all weak monsters and have little value," Xu An replied helplessly as he approached the wheelbarrow.

"Just how many years is it going to take for you to pay Master Reiner completely? Twenty years? You're lucky my price decreased considerably, if not. Even if you worked yourself to death, I doubt you could pay off your debt!" Morgiana was a bit furious.

"Well, I could sell my organs. That should be enough," Xu An shrugged his shoulders as he said so casually.

"You think I would be happy?" Said Morgiana solemnly as she glared at him.

"Sorry, sorry!" Xu An apologized.

Not waiting for her to utter a sound, he continued, "Don't worry, I'm only testing my strength. With this, I could become a mercenary to help people kill some monsters or maybe do some jobs."

"Then that's good. After this, I'm going to go back to the pub, my shift is not over yet." Morgiana said as she grabbed the handle of the wheelbarrow.

"Can you do it?" Xu An asked doubtfully. No matter how he saw it, carrying these corpses must be extremely heavy.

"We will change turns every fifteen minutes," Morgiana replied.

Hearing her prepared answer, Xu An nodded.

They then walked back to the hut with something in return.

In the process, Xu An and Morgiana chatted.

After around fifteen minutes, they halted their pace and switched on carrying the wheelbarrow.

Grabbing the handle, Xu An opened his eyes wide.

"So heavy!" Xu An was surprised and he averted his vision to Morgiana with a shocked expression.

"How on earth can you handle this?" Xu An pondered.

"Although the Rufh I got is weak. The Qiya it produced is good enough for me to enhance my physical attributes," Morgiana replied with a smile.

"That's amazing," said Xu An as he continued his pace while carrying the wheelbarrow.

"But compared to qi, it's still weaker. Rufh comes from humans while qi comes from nature. As I said, Rufh depends on how many people have belief and hope in me.

"The belief here is not like a believer to God or deity. Rather they believed, or maybe like a trust in me to govern the kingdom but I lost it, the people in my kingdom probably thought I was dead.

"So there's only hope left. This one is rather easy to get. There are many types of 'hope' after all," Morgiana explained.

Xu An nodded as he understood. 

"Sounds complicated," Xu An commented.

Morgiana chuckled as she said in a self-deprecating manner, "Indeed, when I learned it for the first time. I forget about it a few times."

After getting used to the weight of the wheelbarrow, Xu An walked naturally. Earlier, he was walking with great difficulty and easily ran out of breath.

He fixed his posture as he was searching for the right one and he did.

The veins in his arms slightly bulge out.

"Xu An, are you really okay?" Morgiana asked worriedly when she noticed this.

"It's okay," Xu An smiled.

After they walked another ten minutes, Xu An abruptly halted his steps.

"What's wrong?" Morgiana casually asked as she followed suit.

Xu An narrowed his eyes as he looked around his surroundings.

"There's a faint smell of blood."

Morgiana became alarmed as soon as she heard that. She got closer to Xu An as she observed the surroundings too. Aside from trees and thick bushes obstructing their vision, there was evidence of fierce battle.

It could only be noticed upon closer look.

There were strokes of a blade on some trees and tiny footsteps, as well as big footsteps.

Narukami let go of the handle as he inspected these strange footsteps.

The big one was the size of an adult but the small one.

"I've never seen anything like this before," Xu An pinched his chin. Their sizes were an inch.

"Xu An. There are many unidentified creatures in this forest and these small footsteps are probably one of them. I don't believe size determines the danger of a creature, the small ones are often problematic."

Made sense, Xu An silently agreed but was not fully convinced.

"What makes you say so?" Xu An asked as he retracted his gaze to Morgiana.

"There are many stories like that," Morgiana replied with a straight face. Xu An's mouth twitched.

Here he thought Morgiana was going to say something logical. Perhaps Xu An thought highly of Morgiana.

He was disappointed with her answer but it wasn't the reason why he should lower his guard.

Xu An followed the big steps as he left Morgiana behind.

"Hey, wait!" Morgiana quickly followed his steps.

Xu An was focused on following the steps and simultaneously thinking of what creatures could make these tiny footsteps.

There were two conclusions he got.

First, the steps were like tiny men walking on this forest, and judging by the many footsteps, their numbers were probably more than fifteen.

"They have numbers so it would be wise if we did not act once we found them," Xu An suggested. Morgiana nodded as she had no problem.

"Just what kind of creature is it? What an unfortunate fellow to be attacked," Morgiana said with a sigh.

"What's with that look?" Morgiana asked as she noticed Xu An shot her with a complicated look.

"Well… it's just weird you're worried about a stranger. I thought you were going to persuade me so I don't follow in these footsteps and ignore the strangers' situation."

"Just what am I in your mind? I'm not that cold-hearted. That aside, even if I tried to persuade you, I doubt it will work."

Xu An chuckled as he smiled, "True."

After a few minutes, Xu An sensed some presence and hurriedly halted his steps.