Battle

A few months passed quickly, Gu Yuan successfully reached the outermost layer of the Misty Forest Maze. He saw a few cultivators coming and going on his way there, all of them had fierce auras and sharp demeanors.

The deeper he went, the deeper the spiritual energy in the atmosphere, and the greater the number of monsters wandering, all of them had strength comparable to cultivators in the Body Tempering Realm.

Gu Yuan carefully avoided monsters while going deeper toward the center of the Misty Forest Maze, but he stopped when he was near the third layer, monsters too strong for him to handle lived there.

After going so deep into the fourth layer, he could sometimes see monsters as strong as Qi Refining practitioners from afar.

Gu Yuan sensed carefully, and the spiritual energy in that place was about three times denser than in the ordinary wilderness. His cultivation would speed up a lot just by being there.

Gu Yuan followed his previous modus operandi and found a small cave on a cliff, it was barely enough to accommodate three humans, but it was very hidden, he only found it because he was actively seeking an obscure place.

Near the cliff was a lake and a river, he could fish there for food, and there were many edible fruits available everywhere in the forest. He only had to be careful to not provoke a beast strong enough to cause trouble for him.

He found a boulder that was big enough to block the whole entrance of his cave, leaving only a thin aperture enough for air to enter and the sunlight to illuminate the interior.

After doing that, he began to enter a period of frantic and all-out cultivation. When the sun set, he cultivated, and when it rose from the horizon, he cultivated.

He only stopped when he needed to, for sleep and food. He disregarded everything else, like a madman.

The spiritual energy consumed by him every day was enormous, but it was a drop in the ocean compared to the available energy in the atmosphere, so it didn't attract any kind of attention.

Feeling the internal energy in his meridians growing day by day, Gu Yuan was very happy and also full of expectations for the future.

Although his Dantian was already opened, its true value would only surface after reaching the Qi Refining Realm and when his True Qi was formed.

Internal energy had little to do with his Dantian, and more to do with the whole physical body.

"But with a stronger internal energy, the stronger and more abundant the True Qi formed after the breakthrough..." Gu Yuan muttered to himself, "My Dantian will probably expand beyond imagination at that time, but my body will be strong enough to bear all that."

One month after beginning his "closed-doors" cultivation, he reached the third layer and his strength improved so much he felt a bit inflated.

He thought his strength was very close to an ordinary Qi Refining practitioner without relying on his trump cards, so he believed he didn't need to fear the monsters in the layer too much, he was sure he could at least run away safely from strong beasts.

Only after going out for a bit and being scared to death by a late-stage Second-Rank monster did he lose his impetuous and return to his calm state. He only managed to escape because that monster had no interest in him.

After two months of cultivation, he crossed the space between the early stage and the middle stage and became a fourth-layer Body Tempering cultivator!

His internal energy sublimated beyond his imagination and was so strong that he could blast giant boulders from far away despite its innate weaknesses. It was well known that internal energy wasn't suitable for long-distance attacks.

By reaching the fourth layer and the middle stage of his Realm, he also noticed that his body was slowly gaining a new essence.

Every time a cultivator advanced he would be rewarded with some extra life-span. A small layer of advancement gave very little, but advancing stages of his Realm gave Gu Yuan at least an extra decade to live.

His blood was full of vitality and his internal organs already began to transcend mortality. Common injuries could be healed in minutes, and injuries to his internal organs were no longer as dangerous as before, at least he had higher chances of survival.

But the greatest happiness for him was the growth of his strength. He was full of confidence that he could fight an ordinary first-layer Qi Refining cultivator without relying on his trump cards.

"How strong will I become when I reach the ninth layer?" Gu Yuan glimmered with ambition, "Invincible in the same realm!"

With his new strength, he began to hunt monsters for food, he was more confident in running away in case of danger. First-rank monsters were easily slaughtered by him.

The meat of monsters was much more nutritious and beneficial to him than ordinary meat, it could help his cultivation greatly.

As he expected, it took him two months to break through to the fifth layer, and he was even more amazed by how fast he was growing stronger.

After three more months, he reached the sixth layer and began to feel a great distance until the next breakthrough. From the middle-stage to the late-stage the difficulty of advancing was many times higher than before.

Knowing it was pointless to cultivate madly like before, he began to study his fighting technique. It was more like a style than a technique.

Techniques were systematic, but the system upgraded his fighting technique forcibly by pilling up experience. He was like an old veteran who fought for long years without any kind of technique, relying only on instinct and experience.

Because of that, his fighting technique didn't incorporate important characteristics, like the ability to use internal energy in every move in the best way possible.

Although he could forcibly use internal energy when using the fighting technique, his circulation of energy didn't match and harmonize with his technique, causing chaos.

Gu Yuan began to study a way to perfect his fighting technique while also sparing time for cultivation. Because of that, time passed quickly without any clear signs of progress for him.

After six months, Gu Yuan was still a bit far from breaking through, and he made little progress in his research.

"Despite my understanding being comparable to that of someone with a heavenly spirit root... it proved more difficult than I expected..." Gu Yuan sighed after ending a session of meditation in his cave.

[Of course, you are trying to perfect a technique that is at the level (5), it won't be easy for an inexperienced fellow like you.]

Gu Yuan thought deeply about it and found no way out, so he asked for a tip.

[Tip? What about using your fighting technique to... fight? I can't think of another way. Until now you never fought against any being with strength similar to yours.]

Gu Yuan felt a headache and said, "It's too dangerous, I have no one to help me in this place. If I'm seriously injured, I can be killed by weaker foes."

[I am also helpless about it.]

"Wait, what If I suppress my strength?" Gu Yuan's eyes flashed and he had an idea, "I can suppress my strength to fight against weak monsters. This way, the risks can be minimized."

[Better than nothing, I guess.]

Because his cultivation technique was very advanced, it was easy for him to place a seal on his cultivation base. He lowered his realm to the fourth layer and began to fight against beasts.

Against wolves, apes, monkeys, tigers, and many other strange beasts. All he used against them were his fists and feet, in short, his body.

Other cultivators would normally use weapons or focus on a type of physical technique like palm or fists, but he was different.

Sometimes he used his palms to chop, his feet to smash, and his elbows to crack skulls... His whole body was used as a weapon unsystematically.

Months passed quickly and Gu Yuan seemed to turn into a complete caveman, his hair and beard grew uncontrollably, and he wore clothes made of leaves and other materials.

Gu Yuan discovered... he loved to fight more than anything else. The moment he fought a strong foe was the moment he felt most alive and most happy, even if he suppressed his true strength.

He never once thought he was a battle maniac before, but reality never failed to surprise people.

After six more months of continued fights and cultivation, he broke through to the late stage of the Body Tempering Realm, the seventh layer.

He only took so long because he focused more on battling than cultivation in the past six months.

He was at the center of a muddy pond, sitting cross-legged under heavy rain. He didn't seem to care about the dirt covering him and his savage appearance.

Gu Yuan felt his body changing and his life essence being improved again, just like the time he advanced to the middle stage of the Body Tempering Realm.

His internal energy felt so dense that he had the illusion it was about to turn into something material. His whole body was being washed by it and being transformed further.

As the rain intensified and lightning fell from the sky, Gu Yuan's aura began to surge terrifyingly. He wasn't afraid of attracting beasts with that movement. He wanted to attack them!

Not long after, a black ape two meters tall appeared under the trees' shades formed by the lightning bolts. Although its appearance was ordinary, Gu Yuan felt a great oppression coming from it.

"Strong..." Gu Yuan narrowed his eyes and got up from the muddy pond, "You want to eat me? Not so easy!"

The ape began to strike its own chest and plunged towards Gu Yuan.

A ferocious smile appeared on Gu Yuan's face and he greeted the ape with his own fists.

The ape's fist struck Gu Yuan's face, and in turn, received a punch on its own face as well.

Gu Yuan immediately kicked the ape's crotch but also received a hit in his chest.

They began a savage battle of fists, kicks, palms, and other types of bodily confrontation.

Blood began to ooze from their orifices as the battle was prolonged, but Gu Yuan never lost his confidence.

He just broke through and his body was still transforming, he was getting stronger as the battle continued and he absorbed more spiritual energy.

The main thing was that he was using that situation, when his body and internal energy were transforming, to perfect his fighting technique.

After dozens of minutes of fierce fighting, Gu Yuan felt a surge of inspiration and channeled his internal energy while doing a palm chop toward the ape's head.

Different from the past, this time his internal energy flowed calmly and harmonically through his meridians, following the same flow of his movements.

The palm chop caused a shock wave and immediately cracked the ape's head, killing it immediately.

Enlightenment hit Gu Yuan and he continued an imaginary fight even after the ape died. Every time he moved, his internal energy moved flawlessly.

The fruit of his many months of research and dedication finally matured and was reaped by him.

[You did it... huh, I thought it would take longer. Is it because this type of fighting technique is very compatible with you? You do look like a barbarian right now.]

[Name: Gu Yuan

Age: 18

Authority Level: Seventh Layer, Body Tempering Realm (10).

Authority Technique: Mysterious Mountain Body Cultivation Technique (Final Mastery) (Body Tempering Chapter) (10)

Talents: Wordly Spirit Root (10)

Fighting Techniques: Miscellaneous (Blazing Excellence) (6)

Troll Points: 1256097

Remaining lazy time: One year and five months

...]

"It actually reached the level (6)..." Gu Yuan was pleasantly surprised and happy, but he quickly understood the reason.

The system had already upgraded it to the extreme limit of level (5), but because it was incomplete it couldn't go further. Now that it was more complete, it naturally reached (6).