12 Chapter 9 : Great improvement.

2 weeks had passed since Zhang Feng's last breakthrough. Now he had reached the 4th Qi Refining peak realm and decided to breakthrough. The qi in the surrounding trembled as he madly sucked it into his body. The momentum of Zhang Feng's breakthrough was 5 times greater than normal cultivators breakthrough in same realm. Zhang Feng passed the bottleneck smoothly as he broke through. His aura stabilized at 5th Qi Refining. "Finally broke through!" exclaimed Zhang Feng. Zhang Feng exhaled a breath of impure qi as he got up to stretch his body. "It's late at night now and I forgot to hunt for food due to cultivation. Ahh, I am hungry", complained Zhang Feng. Zhang decided to settle for wild berries for dinner.

" Let's take walk in the nearby unexplored areas. I still haven't explored the southern side of the this area." thought Zhang Feng. As the moon, the very bright, Zhang Feng didn't have to worry much about it. Zhang Feng travelled a few miles and came near an abandoned cave. This case was likely used by a cultivator for retreat. Zhang Feng went in casually to check. He saw a Table, A bookshelf and a bed in the cave. Zhang Feng noticed something lying on the bed. As Zhang Feng went near, he was surprised to see it. It was a skeleton. And judging by the skeleton, the cultivator was likely a male. "Since I met him, I should give this guy a proper burial." thought Zhang Feng. Zhang Feng dug a grave and placed the skeleton there. As he was about to bury him, Zhang Feng noticed a ring on the finger on the skeleton. "Could this be a storage ring?", Zhang Feng had heard about storage rings in books he read. They had a much bigger space than Storage Bags and were easy to carry. Zhang Feng gently removed it and checked inside the ring. There were few sets of clothes, nearly 500 low tier spirit stones, 100 mid tier spirit stones and two martial arts technique. One was called as 'Drawing Sword art' which was a high yellow ranked Martial Art and another was an incomplete body refining technique called as '4- Bronze Bell Body'. "Hiss! This is a lot of wealth." hissed Zhang Feng. There was a very less aura remaining in the Chaos Bead and he sure that his speed of cultivation would be reduced once he finished refining it. His current clothes were already torn at many places and were in rags. Obtaining these things now, was like a apple pie falling from the sky at right time. "It's a pity that I don't have a real sword. Looks like I need to use a bamboo sword to practice this 'Drawing sword art'." muttered Zhang Feng. After bowing and thanking the predecessor who left this ring, Zhang Feng returned to the hut.

The next day Zhang Feng woke up early in the morning and went out to hunt. After travelling some distance, Zhang Feng saw a huge boar in the distance. The boar was nearly 6 metres in length and 2 metres in width. It had fiery red skin and hot vapor was spouting from his nose. His tusks were shining like bronze and nearly 50 cm long. "Lava Boar! Hehe, today I feel that my luck seems to be good. This pork will make a great sandbag to practice and eat." saying this Zhang Feng attacked the boar. The boar which was grazing suddenly felt a sense of danger. It saw Zhang Feng attacking it. Boom! A collision sounded as the boar flew nearly 4 metres backwards. The boar gave a loud grunt as it glared at Zhang Feng hatefully. This human dared to sneak attack him. He was the boss in this area and he had never been actively attacked before. The boar charged towards Zhang Feng, brandishing its tusks. Zhang Feng too fiercely attacked the boar with Wind Tiger claw. Boom! Bang! Both of them flew 3 metres backwards as they collided. The boar's eyes couldn't hide its shock. It was at peak Qi refining realm and its combat power was at the 9th Stage of Qi Refining. Whereas, Zhang Feng was only at the 5th Stage of Qi Refining. Zhang Feng should get easily crushed under its power. Such a result was beyond its expectations. "Once more!", saying this Zhang Feng punched towards the boar. Jab, Uppercut, Lowercut, High Knee, Roundabout Kick....were displayed by Zhang Feng. Zhang Feng wanted to fully maximize his potential. The Boar understood that Zhang Feng was using him to hone himself and got furious. It felt greatly humiliated. Giving a loud oink, it charged towards Zhang Feng once again. Loud bangs echoed throughout the area as their attacks met each other. Whenever the boar came too near, Zhang Feng used Floating Cloud Steps to avoid the tusks. Therefore the boar couldn't land a solid hit on his body.

While fighting, the boar suddenly increased its attacking speed. It began to attack fiercely. The tusks of the boar scratched Zhang Feng at many places. " Dammit, has this boar gone nuts? Why did he suddenly increase his attack speed? I see, he must have understood that he cannot land a proper hit on my body with his tusks so he is using most of his energy to increase the speed.", cursed Zhang Feng. After a few minutes of constant dodging, the boar finally stopped attacking and breathed heavily. "Great! Now's my chance! Wind Tiger Claw!", breathed Zhang Feng. A pair of illusory claws materialised in the air blasting towards the boar. The boar got hit by the claws and grunted painfully. It's red eyes seemed to have seen despair. It gave a murderous look towards Zhang Feng before charging at a great speed towards him. Zhang Feng was surprised by the boars incoming attack. Zhang Feng knew that it was too late to dodge. Taking a deep breath, Zhang Feng braced himself. Just as the boar arrived near Zhang Feng to pierce him with its tusks, Zhang Feng held the tusks in his hands trying to stop the charging of the boar. However, the momentum of the boar was so great that it dragged Zhang Feng all along the way it ran. Zhang Feng used his feet to get a grip on the ground to stop the boar. Zhang Feng pushed against the boar with all his might as the boar's speed finally started decreasing. The boar's and Zhang Feng's eyes were only few inches apart from each other. The eyes of the boar revealed madness and murder while the eyes of Zhang Feng we're calm, without any fluctuations. As the boar finally neared to stop, Zhang Feng locked his arms around those tusks and pulled them with all his might. The boar, exhausted, could only grunt loudly. " Mmmm..... Break for me! " yelled Zhang Feng as he pulled the tusks with all his strength. Zhang Feng's arms had started to ache but he didn't reduce the strength of pulling the tusks, instead tugged at them even more fiercely. Suddenly a loud crack sounded as a the tusks broke with a bang. Blood showered out from the wound of the boar. Zhang Feng held that tusk and impaled it into the boar's head. The boar gave a loud grunt as it made its last attempts to escape. But soon the boar collapsed weakly and died due to fatal injuries and heavy blood loss. Zhang Feng's body was filled with injuries and blood.

Zhang Feng soon dragged the entire body for miles back towards the hut. Then after separating the bones and the flesh, Zhang Feng quickly roasted its meat. Mouthwatering aroma of meat spread through the area as it simmered in the fire along with spices. Zhang Feng ate with huge bites and relish. After eating, he stored the remaining meat into a dark and cold place. Zhang Feng then sat and started refining the energy stored in the boar's meat. After refining, he stood up and started practising martial arts. After practising till late at night, Zhang Feng sat down to cultivate. Using the energy in the Chaos Bead, Zhang Feng's cultivation reached the peak of the 5th Stage of Qi Refining. Zhang Feng slept through the night as the battle with the boar was quite tiring. After he got up in the morning, Zhang Feng decided to temper his body under the waterfall so as to lay the foundation for practising 4-Bronze Bell Body. Zhang Feng sat for nearly 8 hours under the waterfall while simultaneously comprehending the Wind Tiger Claw and Floating Cloud Steps to Small Perfection. He repeated this process for nearly a week when his physical body finally broke through to Peak Qi Refining Stage. Soon the techniques of his Martial art too broke through to the point of Small Perfection.

Zhang Feng took a handful of low-grade spirit stones as he hit the 6th Qi Refining Stage bottleneck. Zhang Feng's body trembled as huge amounts of Qi swirled towards him and entered his body. Boom! A low bang sounded as Zheng Feng broke through. Zhang Feng got up and gave a smile," I am finally ahead of my peers!" In Blue leaf County, a 10-year-old 6th Qi Refining Stage would be considered as a genius among geniuses. Most of the children of his age would have the cultivation of the 4th Stage of Qi Refining. Not to mention, he has much more difficulty in breaking through than average practitioners due to his huge Dantian. "Let's cultivate the 'Pure Thought Sutra' since I haven't been able to breakthrough in mental strength for a long time." thought Zhang Feng. One must know that his mental strength is in the mid-Purple Mansion Realm. It would be hard not to imagine how much shock it would spread if known. As Zhang Feng couldn't use Mental Energy properly so he decided to practice attacking low tiered monsters by using mental energy.

Zhang Feng crept up near a tree as he gazed a Blue Grass Snake ahead of him. It had a strength of the 4th Stage of Qi Refining Realm. Therefore, Zhang Feng had confidence in dealing with it even if things go south. Zhang Femg gathered his mental energy and tried to condense it into a enclosed shape. After many tries Zhang Feng finally succeeded and attacked the snake with the mental energy. The snake fell down and writhed in pain as his mind was getting hurt by Zhang Feng's mental strength. After a while, Zhang Feng stopped and panted heavily. The snake saw Zhang Feng and understood that Zhang Feng was the one who attacked him. It gave a loud hiss as it darted towards Zhang Feng. Zhang Feng quickly dodged and once again tried to use his mental energy to attack. This time Zhang Feng pictured a needle condensed it into that shape and attacked the snake. The snake gave a loud hiss in pain as its sea of consciousness was getting pierced by Zhang Feng. After nearly 30 seconds, the snake stopped moving as Zhang Feng completely obliterated its sea of consciousness. "Heh, it's quite difficult to attack with mental strength but I won't give up that easily. This mental strength is tremendously useful in sneak attacks so it can be my powerful hole card." thought Zhang Feng.

After that Zhang Feng practised to attack with mental energy daily on different monsters. His proficiency in using mental strength was increasing steadily. He soon could be able to shock a 7th Stage of Qi Refining strength monsters for some time. Time passed like grains of sand slipping through the palms it had been nearly 6 months since Zhang Feng started living in the hut.