Changes

"Uugh. My head hurts."

Xen didn't know how long he slept. The last thing he remember was using the 'Palm Art' and falling unconscious.

"Is it some kind of thing that I need to fell unconscious every time I learn something new?"

"And why are my hands so damn itchy."

Walking towards the bathroom, Xen put his hands inside a small wooden bucket before letting out a sigh of relief.

"Bzzz..... Bzzzz..."

Annoyed by the fly that was flying around him, Xen tried to swat it away. However, before he could react, his hand already caught the fly between his two fingers.

"Holy shit."

Xen almost jumped up in surprise.

"What the hell happened?"

Before he could make a sense of anything, a vast amount of memory was slowly unfolding in his mind. This memory was full of exercises related to hands. Different moves, strikes, swift movement, everything was inside his head.

After staying still for a moment, Xen slowly walked outside the house. Going back into the backyard, he stood in front of a tree. The tree was around two meters in height and half a meter in width.

Standing in front of the tree, with a serious face, Xen lifted his right hand slowly and suddenly struck out.

"Dhup."

With a dull sound, the entire tree trembled for an instant before coming to a still.

Moving his hands away from the tree, Xen noticed a deep palm print on the trunk of the tree.

"Interesting."

Even though Xen was at the realm of Muscles refining, he wasn't able to exert any strength. Every single person in this world trains in some kind of exercise before stepping into the realm of muscles refining. But for Xen, this was the opposite. He stepped into the realm of muscles refining first and then got exercise.

From the palm art, Xen realized a lot of things that he didn't know before.

"Every stage in Body refining has its own exercise. For muscles refining, it is external body art. As for others, there must be different arts too."

After taking a deep breath Xen nodded his head understandingly.

"No wonder majority of people couldn't progress further. You not only need arts but also various resources."

If Xen was to practice Palm arts from the scratch without the help of the system, he would need a lot of rare and precious resources along with a lot of time to slowly transform his hand. During the process of his hands slowly turning hard, his body will also go through the process of strengthening. Ultimately stepping into the realm of muscles refining.

"I see. So the process is different for every exercise."

Now Xen realized why the father of this body didn't give him any manuals. If he were to embark on the path of cultivation, he would have to spend a ton of resources. With his standing in the family right now; it would be a pipe dream.

Feeling weak, Xen made his way towards the kitchen. He missed his meals two times in a row. For a body refining cultivator like him, this wasn't a good sign.

After finishing the food, Xen stood up and glanced at the sunny sky. Right now he doesn't have any sense of time.

"It's not like I have something else to do."

Shaking his head Xen walked towards his room before sitting on the bed.

[Name: Xen]

[Cultivation: Muscles Refining]

[Tokens: 1]

[Skill: Palm Arts]

{Shop}{Quest!}{Inventory}

Looking at the newly added tab of skill, Xen nodded for a moment before clicking on the task.

After realizing the importance of the skills, Xen looked at the quests that were rewarding the skills.

'Kill 20 rabbits.' [Reward: Art Of Killing]

In this small list of quests, the only quest that has a reward of skill was this quest.

After taking a deep breath, Xen clicked on the quest before finding himself in the familiar forest. Before he could observe his surroundings, a loud shout got his attention.

"Brave traveler. Help us kill twenty rabbits, and we will reward you accordingly."

The moment he heard the word 'brave traveler' Xen's mouth twitched for a moment. Looking at the man that was surrounded by a group of rabbits, and was wearing the familiar green dress, Xen nodded his head before walking towards the rabbit that was just a meter away from him.

"Swish."

Before the rabbit could even react, a palm burst opened its head.

"This..."

Looking at his hand that was full of blood and the pitiful state of the rabbit, Xen stopped for a moment. Although he knew his power was great, he didn't know it was powerful to this extent. To try out the Palm Arts in the actual combat, he didn't bring the sword.

"To think this is so powerful."

Though he was disgusted by the blood and organs, he suppressed it with his excitement of a new reward before rushing towards other rabbits.

In a span of two minutes, the corpses of twenty rabbits were lying on the ground. Some were missing heads, while some were missing half bodies. Overall it was a pitiful sight to behold.

"Thank you for your help brave traveler. Here, have this book that I found in ruins."

Ignoring the words of the guy in front of him, Xen focused on the line of text in front of him.

"The task has been completed."

With a smile, Xen found himself back in his room. Xen was feeling a little tired, but it wasn't serious like yesterday.

"Looks like the more time I spend there, the more exhausted I become here."

He had some ideas about it yesterday, but it was only today that he got to confirm them.

[Name: Xen]

[Cultivation: Muscles Refining]

[Tokens: 1]

[Skill: Palm Arts]

{Shop}{Quest!}{Inventory!}

Looking at the screen, Xen clicked on the inventory. Unsurprisingly, there was an icon of a book.

[Item: Art Of Killing]

'A lost art found by a lucky explorer in the ruins.'

{Use: Yes/No}

After taking a deep breath, Xen clicked on 'Yes'. Compared to other times, he was fully awake now.

"Let's see what hap..."

Before he had the chance to finish his words, his eyes went dark and he lost consciousness.

.

.

.

Xen had a long dream. In this dream, he was fighting against people without any rest. Sometimes he would break their necks, sometimes he would gouge out their eyes. Sometimes he would tear their throat, sometimes he would cut them in half. He killed people in every possible way.

Opening his eyes, there was complete indifference in his eyes. His blue eyes that use to have an innocent luster were replaced by a cold unfeeling gaze.

Walking towards the bathroom, Xen observed the changes in his body.

Compared to the physical changes, the thing that changed most was his mentality. The dream was like another life that he lived through. Every kill, every move was deeply imprinted in his bones.

"Such an evil art."

After taking a deep breath, Xen thought about the cultivation process of this art.

The one who wants to learn this art should indulge in a mindless slaughter. One needs to kill people in all the way he could think of before drinking the blood of his kills with some medicine.

The only benefit it had was it was easy to cultivate. The herbs that were needed to practice were easily available. The progress was fast too. As long as one kills enough, he would eventually step into the muscles refinement.

"I need some time to collect myself."

Closing his eyes, Xen decided to stop doing quests for some time. Right now, he was having an intense urge to kill. He just wanted to rush out and slaughter the village.

After taking a deep breath, Xen walked out of the house and slowly made his way toward the river that was on the opposite side of the village.

After taking off his clothes, Xen jumped into the river. Right now he just wanted to cool his head and get rid of these thoughts.