Chapter 14 - Advancement

Li Kang awoke on the sandy riverbank, having escaped his adversary. Goddamnit! Why do I keep ending up in the Wang River? He thought to himself. I've taken two dips in the river against my will just in the past couple days. Come to think of it, that's probably the most I've ever fallen in the river in my whole life.

He was mostly in decent shape following his battle with the rogue cultivator, and while he had lost most of the pills and elixirs as well as the gold, he still had the yin yang daggers, Master Guansho's book, and the best of the pills and elixirs which he'd kept inside his robe.

Realizing that the cultivator might still be in the area, he quickly activated his ki sight and scanned the area. The masked man was nowhere to be found, so Li Kang made his way up the riverbank and sat down in the shade of a tree. He then pulled out the book and looked up the cultivator's sigil, the skull impaled by a lance. 

Wanyi Group: Sigil - Skull and Lance. Extremely dangerous group of rogue cultivators not associated with any particular family or clan. Current location of group leadership is unknown. A branch of the Wanyi Group is known to operate as bandits around the Wang Mountains, stealing and killing without compunction. Avoid whenever possible. Martial spirit affiliation unknown. Total group members unknown. Power level unknown.

Huh, Li Kang thought. This Wanyi Group seems like it should be avoided at all costs, at least until I am powerful enough to take them on. At that point they might be good targets for my dagger of avarice since they're unaffiliated.

Regardless, Li Kang was grateful to have escaped with his life. Even at his elevated power level for his stage of cultivation, there was no way he could defeat a martial spirit user. This only fueled his desire to become stronger as he set off back down the path to find somewhere secluded to cycle some of the pills he'd acquired.

He consulted Master Guansho's map and found that he was relatively close to a defensible cave structure marked as uninhabited. He traversed through the forest and arrived there after an hour of walking. "What a perfect spot to cycle these pills!" he exclaimed.

Truly it was the perfect location. It was private, protected by the stone walls of the cave, and possessed of a fantastic amount of Light and Dark aura which would aid his cycling as those were the attributes that his ki was attuned to. Li Kang broke out the pills from his pouch and selected the finest among them - a dark purple pill which radiated pure ki energy. Sitting in the lotus position halfway inside a shaft of light coming in through a hole in the roof of the otherwise pitch black cave, he swallowed the pill and began the simple ki refinement technique.

Power surged within his meridians - truly the ancient Lo Chang Clan had manufactured a superb pill! He continued to cycle, pushing the power through and down his ki channels, forcing them to become wider and stronger, improving their capacity tremendously. It was a painstaking process, but after cycling all day he had managed to cycle all 7 of the pills he'd saved from the Lo Chang inheritance. The end result was even better than Li Kang could have anticipated. His cultivation had swelled to the peak of bone tempering stage 3, but his power level couldn't be considered worse than a cultivator at the pinnacle of the bone tempering stage! He could feel his ki channels more solidly, and his overall body composition had improved and strengthened to provide him with a fantastic foundation for his cultivation.

Interestingly, he could feel reserves of power in his meridians that the pills had seemingly drawn out and allowed him to cycle. The reserves felt the same as when he'd stabbed Suhn Jin with the dagger of avarice. Ah, Li Kang thought, My body must not have been able to utilize all the energy from the dagger of avarice, but instead stored some of the excess in my meridians so that I could cycle it once my cultivation level improved. That explained why he was able to gain 2 stages from the pills after only advancing one stage from consuming the ki of the two Suhn Clan cultivators. How efficient! He thought. 

At his current power level he would easily be more powerful when compared to an average member of the Suhn Clan, the power from his grade 1 heavenly treasures and the Lo Chang Clan's inheritance snowballing his power level to a usable standard. 

With this, he laid out his stolen Suhn Clan robes to dry and got some sleep in the cave. In the morning he would finally begin his subterfuge in Suhn Clan territory!