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Ryan watched as the snake's head was close enough and he attacked. His teeth sunk into the snake's upper jaw.

"Hiss!" The snake attack failed, but instead it was met with another painful bite, but this time it was more painful.

The snake twisted its body trying to break free from Ryan's grip but to no avail. Ryan knew that he won't have another chance to deliver another strike if he let go right now. He bit the snake head with all his strength.

Ryan took advantage of his current position and stabbed with his tail. The snake couldn't move its head from Ryan's grip and was stabbed right in the middle of its head.

Blood gushed out of the snake skull, its movements became more frantic. Ryan realised that his attack didn't penetrate the snake skull yet, he retreated his tail and stabbed once again with more force.

"ROAR!" The snake Suddenly roared, and the pressure around Ryan's body's was reduced. Ryan knew that his attack succeeded and he felt relieved, he felt the snake'ss body moving a little more before it stopped completely.

Ryan slumped on the snake body feeling tired, he didn't know how many bones he broke during the battle, but he could feel every inch of his body screaming pain.

He felt that he going to faint from exhaustion. But, he gritted his teeth when he realized that he wasn't safe yet. He thought for a while and made a decision, he stored the snake corpse inside the pocket dimension then he went inside as well.

Ryan felt the space around his twisting when he suddenly appeared inside a white room. He didn't have time to look around, as he felt safe, he no longer resisted the urge to faint and his vision turned dark.

...

Time passed, Ryan didn't know for how long he has been inside the pocket dimension but he finally woke up. He opened up his eyes while feeling pain all over his body, he laid on the ground as he couldn't move at all.

The things that he experienced lately made him realise that he was underestimating this world too much, he ran away from the wolves thinking that he was safe when he got attack by a snake. He suddenly wondered how do other cultivators temper themselves without dying.

In one day, Ryan felt that he experienced death many times, and he felt that he survived only because he was lucky. He thought that if he was a human, just that pack of wolves was enough to kill him. And even if he survived that pack of wolves, the snake that Ryan met would have killed him without any problems.

His human body would've been crushed by the snake without any struggle. He had the advantage with his big body and long tail while he was in shadow's body, especially the tail, which he used to kill the snake.

'Well, it's not like i made the tail like this for no reason.' Ryan thought, he remembered that the tail was the most efficient way to attack in this body. He could move it as he wished and it was long enough to deliver a longer ranged attacks.

Ryan felt happy knowing that his transformation was useful, but, what he needed right now was to recover his strength.

'And maybe start my body refinement cultivation.' Ryan realised that the damage done to his body could be used to as the first step to refine it.

He remembered that body refinement is done by using unusual methods, and most of them are painful. For example, cultivators could soak themselves in a medical path made from various herbs that could aid them during body refinement. Another way was to put the body under a lot of pressure which was more effective. And sometimes, the cultivator's could use heavenly resources and treasures.

Ryan thought about it and found the idea to be perfect, and by increasing his strength, he could increase his chances to survive any crisis that he might come across in the future.

The first thing that Ryan did was to transform back to his human body. The process was similar to when he transformed into shadow but in reverse, and it didn't take a long time.

Ryan laid on the ground, naked. He didn't have any clothes and he didn't mind, since he was alone inside the pocket dimension. If he ignored the giant snake body lying on the ground that is.

Ryan looked like someone who was beaten black and blue in his original state, he saw red and purple bruises covering his body, especially his upper half. Ryan felt the pain in his body and felt like crying.

'That bastard snake!' Ryan glared at the cold body that was lying on the ground with resentment. But he calmed down, knowing that it was useless since the snake was already dead.

He decided to start his body tempering but realized that he needed something to aid him during cultivation. He opened the system shop and saw and item that could help.

[Basic body refining solution.(low-level first grade item.): A solution made from various herbs that could be used aid body refinement. <300 SP>]

Ryan looked at the price and thought about how much system points he had. 'System how mich system points do i have?'

[The host have 250 system points at the moment.]

Ryan face turned gloomy, he was only 50 points short. He thought about giving up and healing himself when he remembered the giant snake laying on the ground.

'System, Recycle that giant snake.' The familiar light shot from between his eyebrows as he ordered. And as he didn't give any specific information like last time the whole body was turned into system points.

[Recycling completed. You have received 100SP.]

Ryan was surprised that the beast body was worth as much as killing one. But he felt pain as he lost the snake meat the could potentially help him during cultivation.

'It's okay, i can hunt more beasts later. The most important thing now is to improve my strength.' Ryan assured himself as he got ready to buy the item from the shop.