New Strength

It had been 2 days since the incident with Chef Zhao, giving enough time for Yang Ning to recover his strength. Feeling quite stale after meditating in his Cave Abode for 2 days, he remembered he had not tested his strength after advancing to the Nascent Soul realm. Deciding not to take any detours, he quickly flew in the direction of the South Mountain Valley located a bit further south from the sect. Despite the humble name given, it was a location that was swamped with Beasts. The Valley's, warm weather and surrounding mountains provided the perfect living conditions. Previous attempts were made to build a city however the plan was always thwarted. The beasts that lived there were formidable and destroyed any sight of human settlements.

This did not deter Yang Ning from entering, as the South Mountain Valley provided several benefits to cultivators. Although strong beasts were present, they generally lived towards the inner part of the Mountain Valley where the energy was more abundant.

Yang Ning landed on a clear field, with grass as tall as 1 meter covering the land. To the left and right of him were tall mountains stretching as far as the eye could see. This area was a relatively safe as it was located in the outer most part. It also provided a clear image of the landscape ahead without being hindered by trees and taller plants

Swiftly moving forward he entered the the boundary between the outer area and inner area. What lay in front of him was a vast forest. This was the place that Yang Ning decided to test his strength as he knew the beasts here were all either in Core or Nascent Realm.

Entering the forest slowly, he noticed the sun above that radiated the lands had became specs of light as the tall branches and leaves blocked most of the sunlight. 

Crack 

A snapping sound echoed in front of him. As a Nascent Soul cultivator, he had the ability to manipulate and expend his energy to sense his surrounding. This was known as 'Divine Sense'. The range of an individuals divine sense varied but most could only sense their surroundings within 5 meters at level 1 of the Nascent Soul Realm. Prolonging the use of divine sense drained the cultivators energy reserves, hence most either used it out of necessity and never extend it outside their natural range.

However in Yang Ning's case, he was surprised he could  use his divine sense at 10 meters without any issues. Generally going beyond 5 meters at level 1 Nascent Realm would greatly drain the cultivators energy reserves. Not clearly understanding why, he shifted his focus towards the Dark Wolf laying in wait for him as he sensed it using his Divine Sense. The name 'Dark Wolf' was categorized by cultivators due to its black fur that coated it.

Sensing its presence and aura, which was at the late stages of Core Realm, Yang Ning decided to try out his attacks from weakest to strongest. The Dark Wolf noticing that Yang Ning had stopped moving forward, it pounced towards Yang Ning in an attempt to have its lunch! 

Yang Ning unsheathed his sword and covered it with his flame energy. Upon seeing the Dark Wolf pounce and reaching striking distance, he swung his sword forward. He immediately bisected the Dark Wolf in half cleanly, where both its body drifted just past him before landing on the ground.

He sheathed his sword and turned around, to see the Dark Wolf bisected. Yang Ning was quite surprised how easy it was for him to achieve such a feat, as the Dark Wolf was in the later stages of Core Realm. Its height had already achieved 2 meters tall and length was over 7 meters. 

"If was in the Core realm I definitely wouldn't have been able to kill this Dark Wolf Swiftly" he muttered to himself 

He tried to pick up beasts Core that could be later sold for spirit stones but soon realized he had also sliced it in half. Beast cores were only present in beasts that had reached the core realm and above. 

Slightly dejected that it was destroyed, he placed the corpse inside his storage ring to give to the sect later on and decided to move on.

The Storage ring was a rare commodity in the world as a specific stone called the Argosy was needed to construct it. It had the element of spatial and void which were part of the extreme element criteria however, because its only function was for storage and preservation, the Argosy stone was considered safe to use. The size of the storage space also took into consideration the size of the stone. Most were at 50 cubic meters as the baseline, however, some storage rings could reach over 100 cubic meters.

Moving deeper into the forest, he found it surprising that the only beast he encountered was the the Dark Wolf

He soon stumbled upon clear area shaped as a circle within the forest. Although it was quite small considering the vastness of the forest, it was still over 100 meters in diameter. What made it quite eye catching was the trees were completely missing whilst the sunlight illuminated the area. In general, most cultivators would avoid places that were highly suspicious, however Yang Ning in the Nascent Soul realm gave him enough confidence to proceed. It was also noted that places that were dangerous generally contained priceless treasures.

Approaching cautiously, he noticed a burrow in the center of the circle. Curious as to what was inside the burrow, he decided to investigate it. Unsheathing his sword closer to the entrance, he found himself staring at dark burrow that could fit 30 people side by side. Holding his sword in front of him, he lit the tip of the sword using his fire energy to see through the darkness.

Yang Ning moved forward cautiously deeper into the burrow. He soon started to noticed carcasses of Beasts strewn around. Squinting his eyes, he decided to see if he could see further ahead, even using his divine sense, however all he noticed was the carcasses increased the further he went in. 

"Should I keep going or not" he muttered to himself 

Questioning himself for a moment, he steered his conviction to keep going. Walking over piles of beast carcasses, he soon stumbled upon a larger opening. Increasing the fire at the tip of his sword, he found himself in large cave where right in front of him was large demonic spider looking at him.