Earth Wolves

The black blood in front of Alex was proof of his breakthrough into the 4th stage of the Body Refinement realm.

When one successfully refined all their blood and stepped into the 4th stage, the impurities in the blood would be expelled, which was the black blood that Alex had just thrown up.

Alex was now at the 4th stage of the Body Refinement realm. He felt as if all this was too good to be true. Just a month ago, Alex was still unable to cultivate, but now he was close to tackle the Qi Gathering realm. Alex sat there for a few moments before storing the remaining pills in his inventory. He then decided to take a bath.

After he took his bath, he left for his parent's home. After arriving there, Alex ate some dinner with his family before going to his room and climbing into bed. He prefers to stay with his parents these days and rarely returns home.

'Tomorrow, I'll go to the forest outside the clan to truly test out my new strength,' thought Alex as he slowly fell asleep.

....

Alex found himself once again floating out in the void, but unlike the void when he first reincarnated, he could move. Alex could see stars shimmering in the endless distance.

In the void thousands of miles away, Alex could barely make out two figures floating there, staring at each other. Although no features of either of them were discernible, Alex was sure that there were two figures floating there in the blackness.

All of a sudden, both figures punched at each other when their fists met, an explosion beyond description filled the void, radiating outwards from where the two figures were floating.

Alex watched as space collapsed and disintegrated as the explosion annihilated all in its path, including himself.

"Ahhh," Alex screamed out as he woke up, hastily sitting up in his bed while panting.

Alex took a few seconds to analyze his surroundings before he realized he was still in bed at home.

"That was just a dream? It felt so lifelike though, like what I was dreaming about was actually happening."

Alex sat there for a few minutes, replaying the dream he just had. "Well, it must have been a dream. There's no way an explosion like that could ever exist. It seemed as if the entire universe would be destroyed by something like that," thought Alex as he climbed out of bed.

Alex went and washed himself clean before walking to his wardrobe and donning his favorite black robe.

After getting ready to tackle the day, Alex walked downstairs and had breakfast with his family.

"What are you going to do today, Alex?" asked Alina while looking at her son devouring his food with a slight smile on her face.

Alex swallowed the food that was in his mouth before replying, "I'll probably just go to the library again today, and maybe the training area. I just got a new weapon, so I need to go test it out."

"Oh, is that so? Well, do be careful while sparing. Also remember that tonight is the night the clan is throwing your celebration party. Be home before dark, so you can freshen up and make it to the party on time." replied Alina before taking a sip of tea.

Alex had completely forgotten about it with all that was going on, but he did now remember that tonight was the night of the celebration.

Alex finished his breakfast and thanked his mother before heading out the front door. After walking for a few minutes towards the martial training area, Alex looked over his shoulder for a few seconds. Seeing that no one was following him, Alex turned around and headed towards the clan gate.

After walking for some time, Alex arrived at the Dracon Clan's front gate. He greeted the two guards that were stationed at the gate before walking through.

"Are you going out, young master?" asked one of the guards.

"Yep. Don't tell anyone though," replied Alex with a coy smile before passing through the clan gate and walking down the wide road leading away from it.

It wasn't his first time sneaking out of the clan and will not be the last.

The mountain range spanned thousands of miles, with the forest at the base of the mountain range spanning thousands of miles in each direction. The Dracon Clan was situated at the base of one of the mountains and had cleared out quite an expanse around the clan grounds.

The road leading out from the Dracon Clan eventually branched off in multiple directions, leading to different clans and kingdoms. However, each road cuts through the forest, making it quite a dangerous journey to undertake without appropriate protection.

Alex kept walking for about an hour before he came to a branch in the road. By this point, Alex was quite deep in the forest, with Body Refinement level beasts visible everywhere.

"This is around the same spot as last time," Alex thought to himself, it was the place where the Grade 1 beast attacked him.

He turned off the road and started to walk deeper into the forest on the side of the road. Alex walked for several minutes before hearing a loud howl.

"Awoooo!"

A mighty wolf's howl echoed throughout the forest, at which point many similar howls were heard responding to the first howl. A smile crept across Alex's face as he started walking towards the source of the howls.

"Hahaha, my exp, here I come." Alex's excitement was palpable as he made his way to the spot where he knew his pack of wolves awaited him.

A few minutes later, Alex walked through the treeline and into an open clearing in the forest, at which point he saw around a dozen Earth Wolves lying around lazily in the hot sun.

[Name: Earth Wolf]

[Element: Earth]

[Level: Body refinement stage 2]

There were wolves with the strength of stage 2 and stage 3 body refinement cultivators, but they posed no danger to Alex. He began walking toward the pack.

Surprised by the sudden intruder, the wolves hastily stood up before growling at the newcomer.

Alex took out his Mid Tier 1 katana from his storage ring and held it at his side. He stared at the wolves for a few seconds before pushing off the ground and dashing forward as fast as he could.

Before the wolves could react, Alex was in front of one of them, his katana slashing down. The wolf raised its giant paw to parry the sword, but was unable to stop it as it cut directly through the paw before continuing down towards the wolf's head.

"Bang!"

The sound of metal meeting bone rang out as Alex's sword passed straight through the skull of the wolf.

"Ding"

[+20 Exp]

Alex quickly steadied himself and spun around, his sword whistling sideways as he struck out with all his power at the three wolves attacking him from behind.

The sound of metal cutting through flesh and bone continuously rang out as Alex bisected all three wolves with a single attack. The wolves could hardly believe what happened before they collapsed to the ground, dead.

The other eight wolves had been getting into position to follow up on the attacks of the previous three, but completely abandoned the thought as they saw their three members fall in one attack. The wolves hesitated for only an instant before turning around and fleeing as fast as they could.

"Oh no, you don't," Alex shouted out loud as he started to give chase; there was no way he would let his Exp escape from him.

It took quite some time before Alex caught up to the first one, bringing his sword down on the wolf and cutting its skull. This momentary attack was all the other wolves needed to put some distance between Alex and themselves.

Alex continued his chase. Weaving between trees and jumping over boulders, Alex chased after the remaining wolves, traveling deeper and deeper into the forest.

Despite running with all his might, Alex was only able to slightly close the cap after several minutes of running. After Alex kept up his chase for almost fifteen minutes, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and watched the wolves run off into the distance.

In front of him, Alex could see dozens of trees on either side of him painted with red markings. These markings were painted by the Dracon Clan elders and signified that beyond this point was the area where Qi Gathering level beasts started to appear.

He knew the risk was not worth it.

"Well, I guess that's where today's hunt ends. I did manage to bring down five of the wolves, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. I should look around the area for more powerful Body Refinement level beasts to fully test my strength, as those wolves were only comparable to 2nd and 3rd-stage Refinement cultivators at best."

Alex stored his sword in his storage ring and turned around. He walked away from the red-painted trees for a few minutes before stopping and looking around the area.

Not seeing any beasts in the area, Alex turned to his side and started walking in parallel with the red lined trees, although quite a distance away from them.

To Be Continued...