Outer layer

A three meter tall bat opened its eyes, looking at the group as it was upside down while hanging from the ceiling made of hard rock.

It stood there as it suddenly started to move, opening its winds which were glued to its small arms.

"Kriiiiiiiiiich!"

Mr. Sun was the first to recover from the shock, as he looked at the rest including Xie Lin, who had become paralyzed.

"Everyone, let's get in formation!"

Xie Tan and Xu Min couldn't even move from the giant bat's pressure as they were completely frightened. They had never faced such a monstruous beast that even surpassed the strongest they ever faced.

Even when they grouped together against the fourth stage adult copper lizard in the tutorial, they barely won as they all were in the first and second stages of Blood Qi. Only after they came out of the tutorial and they refined their body using their blood tempering pills could they advance to the next stage.

And after killing it, the one who got hurt the least was Sun Min as he was very careful and he cooperated very well with Xie Lin. But still, he was left with blood all around his upper body. The rest was even worse, Xu Min and Xie Tan even got a few fractured bones and Xie Lin was seriously cut in the abdomen after being careless as he was cut by the beast's bladed tail.

After that happened, they couldn't go to the third floor as they didn't have enough time to recover from their injuries.

Sun Min observed his teammates that were still in shock, with Xie Lin just coming out of it, so he positioned himself in the front ready to contend with the bat.

While all of them were going through their own mix of emotions, the bat wasn't idle as it flapped its wings ready to pounce on Sun Min.

Feeling the beast getting near he could feel its pressure, coming from a big gap in cultivation.

"Damn, how the hell am I going to face this monster!!! Is this how I die?"

Having no strength to resist, he asked himself as he saw the distance of himself and the bat get extremely short.

But suddenly, Sun Min felt a gust of wind coming from behind.

The bat was just two meters apart from him before they exchanged their attacks as this wind that came from behind arrived in front of him right away, but he couldn't care less as he used his whole blood qi to resist the coming attack from the bat.

Waiting, he opened his eyes.

He looked in front as he saw a few meters apart the carcass of the ferocious beast. It was completely deformed with its body perfectly cut in half.

As he moved his eyes, he saw Ling Xu turning around getting close to him. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

One after another they all woke up from the shock of the bat as the pressure had suddenly disappeared.

Before Sun Li got smashed by the monstrous bat's sharp claws, they had started to try and move full of despair as they saw his teammate about to die.

But then they saw an afterimage advance in front of Sun Min and the bat suddenly falling to the ground, completely dead.

The movement was fast but they felt a gust of wind coming from behind.

The one who was behind all of them was Ling Xu as he stayed back unless they needed his help.

Having their jaws open wide in shock, Ling Xu interrupted the shock.

"I will keep the reward box."

They couldn't react until they heard about a reward. Ling Xu was the first to notice it in the middle of the dark room.

There was an octagonal small platform protruding from the ground, which with his superior senses and high stage of Blood Qi he noticed it right away when they entered after feeling the aura from the giant bat.

Not able to speak, they all agreed as they nodded in unison.

[You have obtained Luminous Stone (middle grade).]

"At least I got something in return, I didn't expect much from it to begin with. The first day hasn't even passed and I haven't been able to enter the forest, I have to go faster after I separate from the group."

Ling Xu had already made his choice to separate as he realized that the group couldn't keep up with him. As he now or later would need to fight stronger beasts and they wouldn't be able to help, he wasn't planning to take care of them either as it would also prove detrimental to their own progress.

Looking at the box next to the one that contained the luminous stone, Ling Xu observed its size, which seemed to be much bigger.

[You have obtained Heavy Bracers (middle grade semi-treasure).]

"Wow, these bracers are quite heavy, they should be very useful to use for defense."

After looking at the two rewards he got, Ling Xu moved his eyes to the side.

"This is where we part ways."

"What?!"

Sun Li was surprised, he already knew that Ling Xu would have to go alone after some time as he saw his overwhelming strength. But he never thought that it would be less than a day before he decided to do so.

"If you keep going forward you will go through the exit, there are stairs leading to the surface at the end of the room."

Behind the bat, he had observed a path leading to a staircase which had a dim light. He figured out right away that the light came from the surface.

"Stay safe and become stronger, until we meet again."

Beeding farewell, Ling Xu turned again and run straight to the stairs.

"I can't believe he was this strong, it's almost unbelievable, what did he do in the tutorial for us not to have seen him?"

"This is beyond my expectations too, I figured he had hidden his strength after seeing him without a single clothe torn, but this is too much!"

"Is it possible that he descended to the third floor of the tutorial before we even had the chance to meet him? No wonder he didn't even see me in his eyes, at first I thought that his silence was because he lacked the confidence but seeing it now he didn't even feel the need to explain anything."

Muttering to himself, no one could hear him as he spoke to low. Xie Lin was understanding several things about Ling Xu as he retraced every moment they shared since entering the mission.

"Don't worry, we can become as strong as him one day, we just need to persevere."

Sun Min spoke as he forgot the shock and became worried seeing Xie Lin muttering all alone. He didn't believe they could catch up to him, but becoming as strong as Ling Xu's current self was something they were more than capable of doing.

They would just need to comprehend the Basic Blood Circulation technique and increase their control over their blood qi. Advancing to the fourth and fifth stage of Blood Qi would then come naturally after refining their organs through the passage of time.

...

On the other side, Ling Xu arrived at the surface.

He looked around, finding himself in a different view than before they entered the underground cave. Observing the forest above him, Ling Xu left the last step of the staircase as he heard a message from the system.

[You have entered the outer layer of the Deserted Forest.]

The outer layer didn't look very impressive, having the appearance just like any forest he saw back on Earth.

"At least it isn't small."

Feeling the size of the forest with his eyesight, he observed hundreds of meters afar before a plant or tree blocked his vision.

Wandering deeper into the forest it took him a very short time before he encountered a beast he had never seen before.

With its front hooves, the boar charged at him with its front hooves as it pointed its big white tusks directly at Ling Xu.

Knowing the difference in realm, he took the attack head on as he punched forward against the boar's head.

The punch went right into its forehead, piercing through its skull as he saw the beast fall to the ground dead.

[You have killed a Tough Boar (4th stage of Blood Qi).]

Ling Xu continued on his way, not caring about the materials and meat he could get from it. After entering this mission, he realized that the beast meat he had previously eaten wasn't anything special. It took him less than a day for him to meet with a fifth stage beast, so he only expected to meet even stronger ones from now on.

Meeting more tough boars, Ling Xu killed herds of a maximum of five with one being at the fifth stage of Blood Qi.

He continued forward for an hour as he realized the size of the forest, noticing he was still inside the outer layer.

Feeling the rays of light that barely entered through the tree leaves almost gone, Ling Xu decided to look for a safe place to rest as night was about to come and the forest would turn into complete darkness.

Being on his first day here, he didn't try and continued deeper into the forest as now that he was alone he would go much faster, so he didn't feel pressured with the time like in the tutorial.

He took refuge on a tall tree as he escalated it easily with his grip strength alone. If he applied enough strength, Ling Xu could even pierce through the wood of the trunk so he didn't have trouble escalating knowing that he wouldn't fall.

Not caring about any beast coming near him, Ling Xu closed his eyes.

Even while asleep, his senses were very strong and they could alert and wake him up in case of a beast getting near.

With the tree leaves blocking the sky, he managed to fall asleep pretty soon.

...

The rays of light started to fall and Ling Xu woke up as he observed the time.

He slept for six hours and felt like he had fully recovered as he felt no tension in his body and brimming full of blood qi.

Feeling his stomach make a sound, he remembered he hadn't eaten for almost an entire day after entering the mission.

He fell to the ground with ease, even though it was around six meters high, and looked at the direction that was supposed to go deeper as he noticed while advancing that the more he went that way the bigger the plants and tress became.

Ling Xu then made a small fire with two branches and some small pieces of dry wood, he took the last piece of his four-legged rabbit meat.

It took him over an hour to completely cook the meat as it was quite a lot and its resistance to fire was fire high.

Ling Xu started exploring again as he changed direction, he travelled sideways trying to explore a bit more of the outer layer before he reached the next one.

He didn't know if he would find anything but run for 10 minutes when he finally found something new.

Very close to him, a deer with very long legs which made it look agile, was standing alone.

Its whole body had a mixture of red and brown color, and it was the one who looked the most like the animals on Earth, making it a little harder for him to kill it.

He had already set his mind to advance forward and become stronger even by killing this beast but it took him dozens of seconds as he hesitated quite a bit.