Killing A—'Sea Serpent'!

After the competition, Long Yu received his new residence in the Inner Sect along with rewards for his promotion: a few spiritual stones and a spiritual sword, though he didn't really need them.

Currently, he sat in a lotus position, a powerful suction force emanating from his dantian, absorbing Qi from all directions.

However, as he continued absorbing Qi, he suddenly hit a major obstacle in his cultivation and came to a halt.

He stretched his hands out, murmuring in annoyance, "Tsk... Now, I need to gather some materials to build a solid foundation. I should be able to create a perfect foundation, though."

"But, I'll need to obtain those three troublesome materials," he scratched his head in thought.

There are three ways to breakthrough into the foundation realm.

Firstly, one could simply swallow a realm-breaking pill, but that would result in a weak foundation.

Secondly, gathering heaven and earth materials could aid in creating a stronger foundation.

And thirdly, one could swallow the foundation of another person, but that method was considered diabolic.

[Ding! The host has survived another day! You've received a high black-grade movement technique!]

At that moment, a small book appeared in Long Yu's hands.

"Drifting Through Clouds... Two levels..." Long Yu began reading the technique, and within minutes, he had memorized it.

"Ah... Having a perfect memory is useful," he sighed in relief.

Flick!

With a flick, Long Yu burned the book and began practicing the technique, recalling the scenes in his mind.

Slowly, his progress became evident, and within hours, he had mastered the first layer.

Taking a Qi Replenishing pill, he pushed on.

The second layer required more time, and after more than nine hours of practice, Long Yu finally achieved it.

"Second Level... Cloud Steps...!" he exclaimed.

A fluffy texture enveloped Long Yu's feet, increasing his speed more than five times compared to normal.

As he moved, a faint materialization of himself trailed behind him.

"Ah... excellent!" Long Yu cheered, satisfied with his progress.

"Now... I should be able to take down that sea serpent if I use an array. And with these extra spiritual stones, it shouldn't be too difficult."

Putting away his belongings, Long Yu accepted a sect mission as an excuse to leave and then set off.

Coincidentally, there was a mission to slay the sea serpent, which made Long Yu quite pleased, despite the mission's requirement of being at least in the foundation realm.

'Is Luo Shengxue following me...?' Long Yu wondered as he headed towards the sea serpent's location.

Although his cultivation was much lower than Luo Shengxue's, he still felt a sense of danger triggering his instincts.

Moreover, he sensed a mysterious force warning him to be cautious.

Long Yu instantly thought of this mysterious force as the concept of 'Luck' itself, as he felt a certain favorability towards it.

After all, he also had a 'protagonist halo'.

"Huff...!"

"I've finally reached the river," he exclaimed, wiping the sweat from his forehead and setting up spiritual stones on the ground.

After some time, all preparations were complete.

"Now, I just need to provoke that serpent..."

With a faint grin, he immediately leaped into the river.

"..."

Minutes passed, yet nothing happened.

SPLASH!

Suddenly, Long Yu emerged from the river, water splashing everywhere as a large snake-like creature appeared behind him.

Hiss!

The serpent launched a water beam at Long Yu, who narrowly dodged it using his new movement technique.

As the serpent hissed once again, Long Yu smiled widely and activated the array.

"Array Rise!" he cheered...

However, nothing happened...

'I fucking knew it...' he muttered, noticing the absence of spiritual stones at their designated spots.

"Dammit..." he cursed.

'Ah... she really fell for the bait...' he thought, grinning inwardly.

"Rise...!" he spoke again.

And suddenly, some golden-colored chains emerged from the river, ensnaring the sea serpent.

HISSSS!

Struggling to break free, the serpent was trapped, prompting Long Yu to take action.

"Pure Ice Lotus Sword!"

Several flying swords materialized around him and as he pointed his own sword towards the serpeart, they were sent flying towards the monster. 

BOOOM!

FREEZE!

A massive explosion followed by intense cold ensued, revealing the frozen sea serpent as the smoke cleared.

"Heh..." Long Yu approached and swung his sword, cleaving the serpent in half.

At that moment, he noticed a small orb emerging from the serpent's body and quickly retrieved it.

"Sea Serpent Core... obtained!" he exclaimed, storing it in his spatial ring.

'But... where is Luo Shengxue?' Long Yu pondered, subtly scanning his surroundings.

Unfortunately, he couldn't find any traces of her.

So, he decided to leave; he didn't have anything more to do here, and he still needed to gather three more materials for now.

Even if those materials don't have a high grade, the real reason they can create a perfect foundation is because of their compatibility.

The only reason he knew about this, was because it was mentioned in the novel itself and was how 'Luo Yang' created his own foundation.

"Well, well, look who we have here...!" Before he could leave, a voice rang out from behind him.

'...Are these the "courting death!" people?' He wondered as he looked at a small group of five, looking at him with murderous eyes.

'Well... I hope they have something good in their spatial rings...!' Long Yu's eyes flashed with a red glint.

Swish!

—

SPLURT!

A sword pierced through the chest of the last man in the group.

Long Yu silently withdraw his bloodied sword from the man's body, before turning to the lifeless bodies.

He... felt nothing upon killing them. No remorse, no disgust.

It felt strangely unfamiliar to him. Despite being a professional debt collector in his past life, he had never taken a life.

However, since he came to this world, he knew that if he wanted to survive, he had to dirty his hands, or in this case, his sword.

He silently picked up the spatial rings of each guy and saw the resources in them.

"Rubbish..." He sighed, shaking his head.

They had nothing of value except a few low-grade spiritual stones and yellow-grade swords.

"Ah... Let's move on to the next location." Long Yu headed towards the next area where he could find the second material.

He looked towards the sky and noticed that, in just a few hours, another day would already have passed.

Which means... another reward from the system.

BOOM!

Suddenly, a huge explosion reverberated through the whole space, and from the impact, Long Yu was directly hustled towards a tree.

Crack!

The branch snapped under his impact, sending him crashing to the ground.

"Arghhk..." He groaned in pain as he opened his eyes.

And on the sky, two figures of a man and a woman fighting could be seen.

And from their extremely strong auras, they appeared to at least be Nascent Soul cultivators!

"...Dammit! I should get the fuck away from here!" Long Yu clenched his teeth and dashed away.

However, he suddenly felt a very high danger when he saw a huge palm made of fire coming towards him.

"Fuck... I can't escape...!" He enveloped himself for the impact

BAAMM!

The huge fire palm met his body, sending him flying hundreds of meters back as blood escaped his wounds.

His eyes flinched as he felt himself losing counsciounsess.

"Fuck you... Luo Shengxue!" He clenched his fists weakly...