Chapter 8 - Five Months

A whole day passed since Long Yang passed out. The tension he felt for the past few days tired him out completely. The confrontation with the beast, injuries after injuries and days without a rest have finally come to an end.

It was in the afternoon Long Yang opened his eyes. He groaned when day light entered his eyes directly.

'Ugh, i should stop tiring myself out like this in the future. It's not safe to sleep in the open like this in such a dangerous place.' thought and rubbed his eyes Long Yang. He felt completely refreshed. Only then he noticed he was lying on the beast he was constantly confronting.

"Now it's time to gather my loot." muttered. After he confronted the old man he took his belongings. There wasn't much since he was a servant like Long Yang, only a knife and a pill he couldn't recognise. Long Yang took out the knife and tried to cut open the beasts head. Demon beasts had a chance to concentratetheir life force in a spot which could condense a Beast Core. And one could use them only by mixing with other medicines through alchemy. Only then one could extract the Qi inside and push their strength forward.

Long Yang didn't know the names of such pills concocted that way. But he knew he could find a chance to sell them in the sect.

And the beast core wasn't the only thing he could benefit from the carcass of the beast. A meat with such a life force could also push a cultivators cultivation slightly. When he came to this world, he couldn't find much chance to think about these kind of things so the Blood Wolf could be counted as wasted.

But the middle level beast in front of him was a much better opportunity for him. He tried to cut the pelt of the beast but even after the death of the beast, the knife couldn't damage it at all. So only thing he could do was searching the beasts head through its mouth. Dissecting it that way was disgusting at first but he quickly got used to it.

'There really is a beast core!' surprised Long Yang pleasently when he could finally hold something weighs in gold in his hand. It was a round ball smaller than his fists, which had a blueish color. He could feel a power sealed. It was apperant that it was a treasure but he could only deal with it in the future. So he quickly put it in his sack and started skining the beast starting from his mouth again.

He wasn't familiar with it even if the old Long Yang had a hunter family. Even though he could see his memories, he used to much clean life in his past life. He didn't have a family and wouldn't bother much about cooking so he would mostly eat in restaurants. Cooking for hours only to eat it in five minutes always seemed a waste of time to him.

After finishing dissecting the meat he started gathering some branches and sticks. He watched some videos for starting fires by using sticks so he decided to try out it. He could be said as a power hungry person, especially after finding out the martial arts of this world, so he was down for eating the meat raw. But that was the last resort.

He started to rub the sticks together and continued it for minutes. He got bored and felt hopeless but didn't give up. He couldn't find himself to use that last resort. But it seems the videos he watched weren't for nothing. A small fire indeed could be between the kindlings he gathered.

'I am really surprised that videos indeed helped. I used to watch them before going to bed just to tire myself out.' thought Long Yang.

After that he started cooking the meat and a delicious smell slowly spread around. As soon as the meat was ready, Long Yang dived in. It has been so long he eated something. Surprisingly even without any seasonings it was delicious.

-The meat from Demonic Earth Bear consumed. A racial skill has been activated. All Devouring. Congratulations.-

Systems voice was as emotionless and brief. But as soon as he heard the voice, he felt a burning sensation in his stomach. He quickly took a lotus position and started cultivating.

After five minutes he opened his eyes and an excited look could be seen on his face. "Even a single bite helped my cultivation this much..." muttered Long Yang. Even if it was not noticible much, he felt his Qi improving. So he hurriedly started gobbling down the rest of the meat from the beast.

But the size of the bear wasn't small at all, so it took a whole day for him to eat it completely and devour. In the end he couldn't breakthrough to the fourth layer but he felt it wouldn't take much time for achieving it.

After he finished his delicious task, he felt lost inside. The beast was a tough nut to crack even in its injured state, and it was probably in the lowest spot in the food chain in the inner circle. Thus unless he found more information about beasts in the inner circle, he decided not to dive too deep into the forest. So he decided to wander in the outer circle and focus on his cultivation.

In this way, Long Yang's journey in the forest started. His days passed with repeating the same things. Completely consume his Qi reserves by practising Dragon Stretching Its Claws and cultivating after that. In the first month he felt his Bronze Skin and Bones hit a bottleneck. He tried chanting the mantra and practise the technique for the methods but he couldn't feel any improvement. Even if there was, it was unnoticable. He knew the solution for it of course since he experienced the way in the first hand but he couldn't find the courage for it at the start.

Only after a month he started actively injuring himself. He would jump, hit the pine trees randomly. Sometimes the ruckus from those activities would alert the surrounding beasts such as Blood Wolf. But they were only low grade beasts, and another chance for similar self harming activites. He would occasionally hit them without activating any Qi, or let them injure him.

But amongst all these he didn't forget his purpose of coming to the forest. He tracked the way to the west in a curve while avoiding inner circle of the forest. And the time has passed in such a way with everyday repeating itself. And exactly those days without excitement passed quickly.

...

"In the blink of an eye, four and half months have passed." muttered Long Yang as he passed the woods. He finally could see Mount Emei, it was towering before him stretching to the clouds.

After doing the same things in the forest, practising, gathering plants, cultivating and eating, he finally had a chance to see some people. In the Sun Clan, he could see the people but couldn't interract with them.

But now, he was free.

Also he now had the power to stay free and become part of his generation.

'I knew i had some talent since i reached the third layer in a couple of weeks but this much progress even i couldn't predict.' thought Long Yang and called the his status screen in his mind.

Long Yang (Age 20)

Cultivation: Seventh Layer of Qi Condensation (Late Level)

Cultivation Method: Azure Dragon Cultivation Art

Body Cultivation: Bronze Skin Level 3, Bronze Bones Level 6

Martial Arts: Bronze Skin Method

Dragon Stretching Its Claws (Mastery)

Bronze Bones Method

Long Yang took a deep breath and stepped out of the forest for the first time in months. Recruitment of the Mount Emei Sect was only a week away.