Thief of the Forest

Zhou Ying set a slow pace, leaping from branch to branch while observing his surroundings. There were actually some diurnal, venomous snakes that surprised him. He stepped on one and provoked a tangled bunch of them that he decided not to bother with.

The pain in his sore body was beginning to slow him down, but he continued with the speedy jumps until he happened upon corpses of profound beasts.

Zhou Ying leapt down and found both horned deers and gray-furred wolves together in death. He concluded that it was a cultivator or a group of cultivators that found a pack of wolves hunting deers and decided to take both of them down. Neither of them are Nascent Profound beasts, but energy is energy.

Zhou Ying would've sat down on the spot and eaten them had an interesting idea not crossed his mind. "I can probably track them down from here and steal whatever they have. I need a new weapon anyway."

The young cultivator focused his eyes on the ground and looked for disturbances that were shaped like footsteps. The fact that there were traces means that the group is either unworried of being followed or they're amateurs. Zhou Ying decided to believe in the former due to theorizing that the forest is a training ground for a sect with the emblem of a silver eagle.

It only makes sense. And since they're part of a sect, that means there's a chance that they'll have some good stuff to steal.

Zhou Ying sped up his pace through the forest, jogging on the ground while making sure he's following where the hunters treaded to. Sounds of fighting up ahead told him that his tracking skills paid off. He took to the trees to gain a bird-eye view of the situation.

Before him were three cultivators: one being a Nascent Profound Realm level one and the other two being at the peak of the Elementary Profound Realm. The opponent is a bear that specializes in wind laws. Both sides have already been wounded with the two Nascent Profound fighters having the highest percentages of injuries. The three human cultivators, however, have the advantage due to one of them pelting the bear with a reinforced bow.

The arrows were sharp enough to pierce into flesh and harass, so it was only a matter of time until the bear fell.

"Come on, Senior Brother! He's almost down. Just one more strike and then you can use its core to improve your Wind Blade!" Zhou Ying sees the picture.

He bent his legs, ready to pounce on the archer the instant the bear falls. He's unfortunately going to snatch that wonderful opportunity away from the senior brother, but it's all for the sake for gaining power to achieve his his dream. If he thinks of it like that, guilt is a nonexistent concept.

"Grooooooah!!" The bear wound up for one final charge, its profound energy surrounding its body with the force of a gale. The Nascent Profound cultivator met its charge with his own blade surrounded by the force of wind. Claw raked chest and sword split head.

Before cheers or recuperation could happen, Zhou Ying dropped from the tree, foot first on the archer, knocking him out immediately.

Immediately after that, he charged for the other Elementary Profound cultivator and summoned up his profound energy with the strength and heaviness of the earth before throwing a body blow at him and sending his consciousness flying.

"You dare?!" The remaining one standing was indeed a cultivator of a higher realm, possessing vigor even with all the injuries riddling his tired body. A gust of wind hurled itself from his blade as he swung it and the cutting gale grazed Zhou Ying's leg.

The Branch Sect cultivator was invigorated by his successful attack and repeated it. Unfortunately, Zhou Ying has seen through the attack after seeing it once and launched a kick at the bottom of the sword before it could swing down again, sending it flying up.

He dropped that leg with force and pivoted with his hips to punch the Nascent Profound cultivator in the chin. The senior brother didn't give up after being disarmed. He sent a fist flying at Zhou Ying immediately after.

Zhou Ying tilted his head out of the way and landed his forceful punch on the man's jaw and knocked him out.

An Elementary Profound Realm cultivator crossing levels to defeat someone in the Nascent Profound Realm is something that any normal cultivator on the Sky Profound Continent should be proud of. It shows talent and battle experience, yet Zhou Ying couldn't feel exuberant at this success in the slightest. There's just no getting pumped up from feeling victory.

There was a slight buzzing from the fragment of memories that constitutes the real Zhou Ying, but other than that, there was nothing.

In short, there's no way he can get cocky. He beat up an injured person. Zhou Ying shook his head and began rummaging through the man's clothes, searching for any goods to steal. What he found was a pouch of money and pills... He just realized he doesn't get the currency here.

He'll have to go with the flow on that later. At least Zhou Ying got a large amount of pills to gulp down for now.

Taking four different pills from the pouch and putting the pouch in his clothes, Zhou Ying strolled up to the person he gave the lightest attack to. He rolled the archer onto his back and apathetically slapped him until he started waking up. His cheeks resembled two bright red apples, swollen to the size of them as well.

"What?! Stop it, how dare you?!" Zhou Ying slapped him again before holding out the palm containing the pills.

"Which one of these heal?"

The archer hesitated before speaking up: "...The green one."

Zhou Ying surrounded his hand with profound energy, a noticeable yellow glow forming as a threat.

"It's the deep-blue one!" Zhou Ying nodded.

"Thank you for your honesty." Immediately afterward, the brown-haired cultivator knocked out the archer again before moving the bodies up on a tree, so they wouldn't get eaten. If they roll off while sleeping...well, that has nothing to do with Zhou Ying anymore.

He ventured further in the forest, consuming deep-blue pills that gave him an itchy feeling. The sensation of his bones and muscles mending along with the slight cuts he gained from fights was a strange thing. Itchiness shows that the pill is working, but a truly good pill wouldn't have that feeling.

Zhou Ying is still satisfied.

Now with his body healed, he then proceeded to make a temporary retreat amongst a cluster of trees he marked. He can't trust his memory at the moment, so markers were needed. He stayed there for a week.

During this peaceful week for Zhou Ying, he robbed twelve groups of Xiao Sect Branch Sect cultivators and collected four Nascent Profound Cores. His pouch of pills were on the verge of bursting and his injuries were completely healed. Right now, it can he said that he's in good shape.

Yet, the biggest haul of his looting spree wasn't the pills nor was it the Profound Cores. Zhou Ying finally chanced upon a blade-wielding cultivator who was robbed with great haste and alacrity.

The poor cultivator was beaten like a pig and thrown on top of a tree while the vile thief, Zhou Ying, familiarized himself with the blade, an odd nostalgia overcoming the boy. His foggy mind couldn't pull out any Profound Arts relating to the blade, but he knows he wielded this type of weapon in the past: a curved blade made primarily for chopping and cutting.

After a week of embracing his inner bandit, Zhou Ying retreated back to his dwelling of trees and finally began consuming all the pills, turning them into energy that would strengthen his recovered body.

By repeating this action nonstop, Zhou Ying increased his speed of of absorption and managed to improve his understanding of the Refining stage even further by now being able to expand his ability of transmuting things into energy outside of his body. Things in his hands, for example, can now be absorbed, so there's no longer a need to swallow beasts anymore.

He still needs to eat them if he wants to relieve his hunger though.

After devouring the energy inside all of the pills in his possession, his bodily strength took a leap forward. Zhou Ying then began to absorb the energy in the Nascent Profound Cores.

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"Branch Leader, there's some minor issue I think you should be aware of." An elder of the Branch Sect, Xiao Zaihe, spoke in a somewhat servile manner to the leader of the sect. It came to his attention that there is an upstart intruder preying on members of the Xiao Sect, which is unacceptable.

The leader of the sect was an overbearing man with arrogance in his marrows. He sighed before giving Xiao Zaihe the go-ahead.

"There is an individual making a mockery of our territory and assaulting our disciples. I warned all the members of our sect to be careful and travel in larger groups, yet I'm wondering if you would find it acceptable to make it a mission to track the youngster down. The reward would be a True Profound Realm weapon from the storage."

Xiao Tiannan thought to himself about this information. He knew that there was some outsider running around the Dark Forest, but it was never really an issue for outsiders to access it. Since there's someone beating up members of his Branch Sect though, it must be dealt with now.

"Hmph, that's fine. See to it that this trash is made an example of why fools shouldn't try to step on us."

Xiao Zaihe bowed before leaving the room with a grin on his face. He can't wait to personally chop Zhou Ying to pieces. One of his personal disciples was beaten and robbed by him, so this mission needed to be carried out as soon as possible!

If Zhou Ying knew the impact he was causing, he'd be content.

More people entering the forest means more people to loot. He'll have to leave this place eventually, but he'll make sure to get as many benefits as he can before he does so.