35 Danger

Feeling disappointed at the result of his first fight, Shi Li decided to head inside his wooden house and cultivate his body. A Rank 3 Beast at the moment had twice the strength when compared to Shi Li. If he tried to fight against one, he would surely die.

He grabbed the Wooden War Hammer he crafted and lifted it up with one hand, slamming it down with his full strength on his body. At the second stage of the [Iron Vessel Tempering Manual], the cultivator has to focus on tempering the muscles to have the toughness of iron, which meant that Shi Li had to hit his body hard enough to affect the muscles.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Every hit that held the strength of 42 people created a soft explosion limited to the insides of Shi Li's wooden house. He would usually move his muscles to mitigate the amount of sound produced per hit, allowing him to speed up his cultivation, as well as his muscle control.

...

And so, three days have passed, nearing the halfway mark of the one week challenge set by Shi Li's father, Shi Xingwan. During this week, Shi Li didn't slack off at all, using the morning and afternoon as time to kill beasts while using the time at night to cultivate his body, allowing him to get closer to the peak of the second Martial Novice stage.

Most of the time, he would toy around with Rank 1 Beasts to get an idea on how beasts fight, as well as getting an idea on where their vital spots are located. If the challenge only needed Shi Li to kill 50 Rank 1 Beasts, he would have already finished it since he has killed over that amount.

After getting used to Rank 1 Beasts, he then moved on to Rank 2 Beasts, beasts that had a strength on par to the current Shi Li. It was only yesterday that he fought against a Rank 2 Beast. Anyways, it was an anticlimactic end, with Shi Li beating the beast with a single Flame Slash.

During this time, Shi Li's proficiency with the Flame Slash technique has improved by leaps and bounds, allowing him to execute the technique in half a second. Referencing Tian Zhenfei's memories, the peak of the Flame Slash technique would allow him to unleash it within a blink of an eye.

...

At the moment, Shi Li was facing against three beasts of different species. One was a tiger, another one was a boar, and the last one was a wolf.

The tiger had a body frame that was twice as big as a normal tiger, which meant that it looked directly at Shi Li in the eyes. The large body frame also meant that the tiger held a lot of strength befitting a Rank 2 Beast. The tiger's fur was a golden yellow color, glistening under the rays of the sun. According to Tian Zhenfei's memories, the tiger in front of Shi Li was a Golden Tyrant Tiger.

Beside the tiger was a boar that had tusks the color of metal. Not only was it colored metal, but it also felt like metal as one glance at the tusks would make the person's eyes who looked at it feel pain. As for its fur, it was a glistening silver, complementing its metal tusks while its eyes shone a dark crimson red, filled with killing intent. This boar was a Silver Boar according to Tian Zhenfei's memories. Although the boar's name sounded simple, one must not underestimate the enemy.

As for the remaining beast that was a wolf, it was a Rank 2 Blood Wolf. The tips of its fur were of a light crimson color while its fangs took on the same color as well, giving Shi Li the feeling that it had killed a lot of beasts, dying everything on its body crimson.

Nonetheless, Shi Li was not afraid of the three beasts fighting him simultaneously. Not long ago, Shi Li made a breakthrough on his external cultivation, achieving the state of stone on his muscles. Although he did not know how much ren he got, he was sure that he was stronger than before.

"Come!" Shi Li shouted at the beasts as he tried to agitate them.

As if the beasts understood Shi Li's words, the three of them simultaneously charged towards Shi Li at a fast speed.

Shi Li gripped on his sword tightly, waiting for the moment that one of the beasts gets close to him.

And getting close to him they did.

The Rank 2 Blood Wolf that was previously on Shi Li's right side, leapt up in the air as it opened its jaw filled with sharp crimson red teeth. Shi Li looked at the wolf with slight contempt as he slashed horizontally through the wolf's jaw.

"Flame Slash!"

Bang!

The orange sword light was significantly stronger when compared to his previous execution, allowing him to bisect the wolf's jaw into two. Not to mention, it also cut through the wolf's throat, easily rendering the wolf dead.

While Shi Li looked at the wolf that was hastily falling from mid-air, he felt a strong gust of wind from his back, forcing him to turn around. What greeted him was the Golden Tyrant Tiger's massive paw. Shi Li held his sword up as he used all of his strength to push the paw away, forcing the tiger to become off balance.

The tiger was surprised that a puny human was able to deflect his well-renowned paw, angering it substantially. Even though it became off balanced, it was able to regain its balance in an instant, allowing him to attack the human in front of him once more.

Shi Li saw this and took a few steps backward as two sharp tusks headed towards his back, forcing him to jump in the air. Using this chance to gain distance, Shi Li grabbed onto a nearby tree and stood on top of its branch, looking at the result of the collision of the Golden Tyrant Tiger and the Silver Boar.

Bang!

What happened was that the boar's tusks were stuck inside the tiger's body, basically impaling the tiger and rendering it immobile. As for the boar's condition, the tiger's massive claws cut the boar's face to shreds, making it squeal in pain.

"Now's the time!" Shi Li jumped down from the branch and easily killed the two remaining beasts with a single Flame Slash, allowing him to easily obtain the important materials from the three Rank 2 Beasts afterwards.

"The Silver Boar's tusks, the Golden Tyrant Tiger's claws, and the Blood Wolf's fur. With these, the amount of Rank 2 Beasts I've killed has increased to 10," Shi Li calculated. It was surprising that within just three days, he gained the ability to kill Rank 2 Beasts as if he was just cutting tofu.

He couldn't help but smile at the thought as he started to walk back to the clearing he made. But as he walked, he felt a menacing intent coming from his back. Not only that, he also felt that the beast behind him could easily rip him to shreds.

Unfortunately, Shi Li ignored the threat he felt and grabbed the sword from his back as he turned around to look at the beast behind him...only to pale in fear.

Although he didn't know what type of beast it was, he could feel a raging energy emanating out of its body. Even the beast's stare made Shi Li feel like he was on tenterhooks. Looking closer, Shi Li noticed that this raging energy came from its bones, which could only mean...

"Inner force! A Rank 4 Beast!"

"I have to run away!"