Continued Farming and a Figure From The Past

...…

"So, this is what a spiritual beast in the 40% Tempering Marrow Stage is like, huh?"

A boy's apathetic voice echoed as he stood atop a massive, 20-meter-long gorilla-like beast. It had a sword lodged deep into its head, still gushing out fresh blood from the wound that severed its life force.

WAAA!

Blue tendrils of energy were constantly released from his blade as the inside of the gorilla's head was turned into a bloody and messy brain smoothie.

"It honestly wasn't as impressive as I had expected it to be, considering that it possessed such a large frame," Azmodeus sighed before cutting off the beast's ears and throwing them into his storage ring.

BING!

The ears instantly vanished from view and reappeared in a dark space filled with a wide assortment of items.

'This storage ring cost me nearly half of my three thousand silver coins, but in the end, the benefits of having such a large space to put my loot in is far better than carrying it all around inside a big backpack.'

After selling off all of his previous 'acquired items' to a few shops and obtaining a decent haul of silver taels, he decided to treat himself to a small shopping spree for his convenience.

Of which included a storage ring, a few pairs of daggers and swords, and a few other necessities.

Following this spending spree, Azmodeus was once again broke, so he headed to the Sect Registry Grounds to submit his 'confirmation of kills,' stirring quite the commotion. In return, he received a large sum of Sect Contribution Points.

However, instead of buying things like the Storage Ring with 1,000 Square Meters of internal space, he decided to use his Contribution Points to purchase a number of pills and cultivation materials.

After nearly an entire day of killing and cultivating, Azmodeus was able to push his cultivation to the Peak Stages of the 40% Tempering Marrow Realm.

He wanted to improve his cultivation even further; however, progressing past this stage would require higher-level resources if he wanted to maintain a flawless foundation. Yet, in the Yang Sect and even the Spirit River City, if you wished to reach the 60% Tempering Marrow Realm and beyond, you needed a certain social standing.

So, for the time being, Azmodeus had to halt his cultivation and let it stagnate until he could gather the appropriate amount of resources to advance further without compromising his foundation.

Even so, his combat abilities were constantly and steadily improving, so he didn't have many qualms regarding waiting for his cultivation. But because of this pause in cultivation advancement, he also had to stop spending his Evolution Essence on leveling up and instead focus it on leveling his various Traits.

Among these, he boosted his Stealth Trait to Level 5 and the rest of his skills to Level 4, spending hundreds of thousands of Evolution Essence without a moment of hesitation.

On a side note, he also obtained two more Traits during this last day.

Namely, the 'Speedster' and 'Fortress' Traits.

The Speedster Trait significantly increased his speed, while the Fortress Trait enhanced his defense. He brought both of these Traits to Level 4 just like the rest of his other I-Rank Traits.

"My overall combat power is slowly but surely increasing. At this rate, I might even reach the 80% Tempering Marrow Stage before the Core Disciple Competition begins."

Azmodeus's mildly pleased voice echoed through the Yang Forest as he made his way back to the Yang Sect, or more specifically, back toward the Yang Arena. After all, he still had an Inner Sect Competition to compete in and win.

And then, two days later, he would repeat the same feat for the Core Disciple Competition. For now, this was his only plan. 

He aimed to take the entire Yang Sect by storm, holding nothing back!

_____

A few minutes later, Azmodeus stood outside the towering stepped walls of the Yang Arena.

"Well… it's time to win this Inner Sect Competition," Azmodeus muttered before his figure flashed into the arena's sign-up area.

Soon, he found himself inside the wide familiar room with various animal carcass decorations hung alongside lavish tassels adorning the walls.

Not long after making it into the arena, he signed up with the help of the same lady who had helped him sign up a few days ago.

She was probably jittery during the entire sign-up process. After all, she had essentially sent out a kill order on a twelve-year-old boy. However, he wasn't one to hold grudges over a woman just for doing what she was commanded to do.

A few minutes passed by as Azmodeus, with his new Top 100 Outer Sect Disciple identity, made his way into the stadium section of the arena. As he stepped in, he noticed the 99 other Outer Sect Disciples turn to face him.

"…" 

"…" 

"…" 

Every single one of the participants shot their heads in the direction of the last participant. They were about to berate him for being late, but when they saw who it was, they froze in their tracks and their throats just couldn't utter any words…

"Azmodeus… Is that really you?" a young boy from the Outer Sect Disciples inquired, his voice trembling.

This boy was no older than twelve years old and was someone who had been welcomed into the sect by Azmodeus with open arms all those years ago.

At one point in time, they could've been considered friends; however, like everything in Azmodeus's life, that friendship had long since withered away…

"…"

Azmodeus's apathetic gaze landed on the boy with medium-length brown hair, dressed in an outfit that would make one think that he came from upper-class nobility.

'It looks like Yang Xiao is taking the Inner Sect Test as well… I guess it does make sense. After all, it has been nearly two years since he cast me aside after figuring out that his cultivation talent was so high.'

'...Wait, I forgot about the time gap, so in reality, it has only been less than two weeks since he decided that I wasn't 'worth his investment'.'

Azmodeus scoffed at the mere notion of being looked down upon by someone in the Viscera Training Large Success Stage. His Super Strength Trait seemed to give him quite a level of pride.

He quickly turned his head away from the anxious boy as his gaze scanned the other Outer Sect Disciples, all of whom were equally nervous.

...…