Immunity

He kept walking deeper into the mountains while feeling the density of the qi around him. It had already increased a little from before, meaning he was on the right track.

He had already decided that he would stay in these mountains for 6 months without increasing his strength. Because if he increased his strength, then there would be nothing in these mountains that could pose any danger to him.

He wanted to hone his skills, and the only way to do that was to survive like a beast in dangerous situations. If he could pull it through, he had no doubt he would be reborn again in a different sense.

Jiang Hao wasn't worried that he would truly die here, as he had the ring for protection. If he was truly at his wit's end, he would use minor teleportation and leave.

This was also the reason why he wasn't truly afraid. Even if he encountered a demon, he would be able to escape easily, but he doubt that there exists any Demons here.

The night had already fallen, but since this was a full moon night, even a mortal could see well enough to walk.

For Jiang Hao, though, it was as good as a cloudy day.

He was just about to take another step when he received a warning from his senses. His instincts were telling him not to take that step. Although the warning was clear, it was almost negligible, as though the danger wasn't strong enough to kill him.

But he was surprised because he thought he had senses similar to beast instincts, which typically only worked when a beast saw something dangerous.

Yet right now, he clearly couldn't see anything around him, but he still got a warning. That meant he could sense unknown dangers. This was far better than any beast instincts he could think of.

He didn't know if it was true or not, so he stopped and observed the place where he was about to step.

There was only a single bush nearby that was noteworthy, and it was close to the place where he was going to step.

That meant there was something hidden under that bush, and it would have attacked him if he had placed his foot there.

Although the spiritual qi in this area was slightly higher than in the cave, it was still not enticing enough for spirit beasts. So, whatever was in that bush, he felt confident he could handle it. Without hesitation, he lifted his foot again and put it in the place he was about to step before.

He got another warning from his instincts but ignored it, and the moment his foot landed, a shadow darted out of the bush and struck him.

It was a green snake, and it had already bitten him.

He felt a slight numbing pain where he had been bitten, but that was it. He yanked his leg, and the snake flew into the distance. He looked at his leg and there were two bloody holes where he had been bitten, but they weren't deep.

What surprised him the most was that the wound on his leg was already closing. He also noticed the numbing pain had disappeared completely.

The poison that had entered his body had got completely refined in a second. The wound had healed completely too.

What a terrific regeneration speed. There wasn't even a scar left where the wound have been.

He was amazed by his physique. There were no words to describe it; it was, in fact, a little terrifying to say the least.

From this small accident, he came to another conclusion that his body was immune to poisonous substances. It didn't even take a second for the poison to be completely refined earlier.

No wonder the sense of danger he felt was so negligible—it wasn't even a real threat to him.

"Alright, time to speed up a little."

Previously, he had wanted to conserve his stamina by walking at a normal pace, but even after walking for hours, he didn't feel any fatigue.

So, he decided to run until he felt exhausted and then walk to recover. This way, he could reach his destination faster.

...

After running and walking for 11 hours, he finally reached deep enough into the area where the spiritual qi was much richer than in the cave. This meant that, from here on, he had a chance of encountering spirit beasts.

As he had expected, after 1 more hour, he encountered his first spirit beast.

It was a rat, about half as tall as him.

He didn't know how strong it was.

It wasn't easy to tell someone's cultivation realm unless they released qi or blood qi. Of course, there were some secret skills that could be used to see through others, but to learn those, one needed to join sects.

Even without those skills, he could tell this spirit beast wasn't out of his league. After all, this was still the outer area for spirit beasts, and the ones encountered here would be the weakest.

There was another reason: this rat hadn't attacked him yet and seemed worried.

"It's because I am far stronger than it," Jiang Hao spoke slowly. "Its instincts must be warning it not to attack me."

A beast's instincts were its best defense afterall.

But since this was the first beast he had encountered after such a long journey, he wouldn't let it leave.

He put strength into his legs and sprinted at full speed. As if the beast sensed the danger, it started running away, but it wasn't faster than him. He easily caught up to it.

He raised his palm and slammed it on the beast's back. The moment his palm landed, he heard a cracking sound. The beast's back caved in, and it was thoroughly dead.

Jiang Hao was stunned.

This was the first time he had used his power after reaching the peak of stage 2, but even then, he hadn't used his full strength. He had just wanted to injure it and have a good fight before killing it.

The rat was definitely not at the first stage of qi refinement, as its speed was faster than that. Even if it was only at stage 2, it shouldn't have died from his casual attack. Yet the result was unexpected.

It seemed he had still underestimated his physique. No wonder he had only been able to break through to stage 2 after consuming a core formation-level spirit herb. His strength even at stage 2 is far higher than he imagined.

He had to remember this for the future, he doesn't want to kill them this easily. After all he was here to gain experience, and without decent fight it was impossible to gain, so he will have to hold back his strength.

He observed the spirit beast, and as expected, he felt an inner urge to devour it. But he held back, as he would definitely break through to stage 3, making it harder to find decent opponents.

He could store the carcass inside his ring. He had already noticed that the ring isolated every item inside it—herbs stayed as fresh as if they were just picked.

So, this beast would also be isolated and wouldn't spoil anything but he let it go, it wasn't much lf value for him anyway.

From then on, he encountered many spirit beasts, all weaker than him. He killed them all while holding back to ensure a decent fight.

He kept moving deeper while fighting occasionally. He slept in trees, and whenever there was danger, his instincts would wake him from his deepest sleep.

Whenever he felt exhausted, hungry, or thirsty, he would cultivate briefly to satiate his body. Recovery from exhaustion was passive for cultivators, but the speed could increase with active qi absorption.

He maintained this routine for almost 10 days before finally encountering a beast that didn't run away when he attacked it.

It was a mountain bear, and it reciprocated his attack, fighting back. It was still weaker than him, but he learned from past experiences that this beast was definitely at stage 4 of qi refinement.

This meant that, even at stage 2, he could easily kill a stage 4 beast. Beasts were naturally stronger in bodily strength than human cultivators.

Judging by the strength he used, he was confident he could fight stage 5 beasts and even win easily. Thus, he had no doubt he could defeat a stage 6 qi refinement human cultivator quite easily

This meant his strength at stage 2 of qi refinement was equivalent to stage 7 of qi refinement, maybe even at peak of the stage 7.

His strength was truly heaven-defying. The might of his celestial physique far surpassed his expectations.

When he had learned that he had gotten a celestial physique, he wasn't too surprised. But now that he had experienced its might firsthand, he had no words to describe it.

He had no doubt that no matter how much of a genius someone was, in the same realm, a celestial physique could only be countered by another celestial physique.

Even if someone cultivated a full celestial cultivation technique, he doubted they could match an inherent celestial physique.

But the world was cruel. If it became known that someone had a celestial physique, many experts would try to eliminate them out of jealousy. After all, who would want to see a celestial physique rise and suppress them?

Unless someone with a celestial or heavenly physique had strong backing, they would definitely face many dangers if they were discovered.

These things were clearly mentioned by Senior Hu Tian in his notes. There was also a reason why he left that particular heaven-grade cultivation technique. If cultivated to a certain level, it contained a secret skill that could easily hide one's physique and cultivation realm.

Jiang Hao was already quite deep in the mountains. In 2 or 3 days, he would reach an area where he might encounter stage 5 and 6 spirit beasts. That place would be his real training ground for the next 6 months.

He stored the carcass of the bear and left. The urge to devour this beast was even stronger than he has for the other beast so far, but he ignored it and moved deeper.