A Stronger Hunt

Huan Wei left the house just as the sun was about to rise. This time he woke up before his father and walked into the forest, feeling the morning cold in his bones.

Today, for the first time, he planned to go very deep. He was going to attack something stronger than himself. At the very least, he had to find a monster in the middle phase of the Natural Fledgling Realm.

Huan Wei's Qi density was not high enough to kill them. But he relied on the Mouth of Flame, which had reached the mastery level.

As he walked through the quiet streets, he thought that the time for the tournament was approaching. Every three years, the nearby towns would organize a small tournament among themselves. Bitter Sea Town, Broken Mountain Town and Black River Harbor participated in this tournament, as they were located in the southwesternmost region of the continent. It was a perfect way to show the power of their younger generation.

The tournaments were also encouraged by the Great Sword Palace, the ruler of this region of the continent. Participants from the winning town were given various prizes, and some were even invited to the Great Sword Palace because of their potential. This was the highest offer a cultivator could receive. Yet very few ever reached it. The Great Sword Palace was very selective.

Black River Harbor had won the tournament the last few times. Their younger generation, who had chosen the Path of Water and studied the River Dao, had some techniques that would give them an edge over other generations. The Black River, next to which the harbor town was built, was a great benefit for them.

"Maybe I can climb the arena rankings and even enter the tournament."

Huan Wei left the town and walked towards the Moist Forest, where the first rays of the morning sun were beginning to fall on the earth. The redness of the clouds on the horizon made for a magnificent view.

When the young man came to the first tree, he wanted to test his power. He was going to do something risky. He had to be sure of what he could do.

So he let the Qi flowing through his body catch fire. He understood fire better now. He could realize that the heat flowing through his veins was much deeper than he thought.

It was as if he had entered an ocean of fire. His feet were burning. His blood was boiling from the heat. For now the fire only reached up to his knees. But as he kept going, he was sure it would be hundreds of times deeper than he was tall.

"Mouth of the Flame."

He pointed his hand towards the tree. The Fire Qi that accumulated in his fingers and flowed into his palm turned a deep orange color and flew forward, bigger and mightier than before.

Even the wolf's opening of its mouth was different. In its eyes was a true desire to destroy, with no need for hiding.

When its Fire Qi struck the tree, there was a violent explosion. Huan Wei raised his arms and shielded his face to protect himself from the fragments of the destroyed tree. His heart began to pound.

The scattered flames forced him to retreat. There was too much fire. The Moist Forest slowly extinguished itself as the tree fell, its trunk shattered. Only the embers of a tree remained.

Huan Wei raised his hand and looked inside in astonishment. He couldn't help laughing with excitement. "Hahhahhahhahhaha! This is perfect! Beyond my expectations! I'm only in the early phase!"

Mastery had significantly empowered the Mouth of Flame. The fire technique was now a power that even a person at the middle phase should be wary of. All of Huan Wei's worries disappeared. He was ready now.

"This will be wonderful," he said and dived into the forest. Careful not to trip on the branches, he ran past the burnt tree and started running. He didn't want to waste time with simple monsters.

Of course, simple monsters had a different idea. Suddenly a group of Cannibal Plants attacked the young man.

These large plants, each with different colors and patterns, met Huan Wei's agitated expression with a mocking smile.

"Mouth of Flame."

The fiery wolf head reshaped. When it hit the ground in the center of the plants, an explosion erupted, shattering them all into pieces, sending the pieces flying in different directions.

[Cannibal Plant x6 killed. 120 xp gained.]

"So that completes today's daily quest, haha!"

Huan Wei didn't want to bother collecting their crystals. Each one was already worth 1 snake coin. He didn't want to distract from his main purpose. He wanted a battle.

He kept running. Along the way, he destroyed every group of monsters he encountered in one blow. Neither the Forest Bombs could escape him, nor the wolves. The master-level Mouth of Flame killed every monster in the early phase of the Natural Fledgling Realm with a single blow.

Huan Wei kept moving forward. He had made it until noon. He didn't care what he encountered on his way into the depths.

The youths who entered the forest saw the destruction he had left behind. No one in the Moist Forest would choose to fight by tearing down trees. The only one strong enough to do that was Tian Shanyuan. He was heading to the Bright Forest instead of the Moist Forest.

Tian Shanyuan was the young star of Bitter Sea Town. He was the grandson of the town leader Tian Fu and had already chosen a path. He had chosen the Path of Fire and was studying the Volcano Dao. He was the only one whose fire techniques were strong enough to shatter trees. Other than him, there was no fire cultivator that powerful. The Moist Forest was famous for being able to extinguish itself.

While they were thinking about this, Huan Wei kept moving forward and finally arrived at the area he wanted. After too long, he realized how empty the Moist Forest was. He had not come across any energy fields until he arrived here. Nor had he found any treasure areas or corpses.

"Maybe I should increase my luck a bit?" he thought. It was the first time he had come this far. He was hoping to find something.

"Any monster I'll encounter here will be at least in the middle phase. It might be a good idea to take a look around first."

Huan Wei looked around, searching for a suitable spot. He didn't want any monsters to surprise attack him. He had increased his attack power, but his defense was still weak. He wouldn't be able to resist an attack from the middle phase with just his body.

Soon he found a place next to an old rock among the trees. The huge piece of stone was covered with moss, as if it had been there for a hundred years. Huan Wei leaned his back against it and checked the area in front of him. He could see nothing moving.

"All right." he said and sat cross-legged. "Oozing Soul."

The silhouette of blood appeared. Huan Wei transferred his consciousness to it and ascended meters high, checking the surroundings. He often looked at his physical body.

He spent a minute or so looking between the trees. Finally, near some kind of swamp, he noticed something moving.

"I found it. Let's see what you are."

Oozing Soul began to descend towards it. Huan Wei saw mushrooms moving. They swayed left and right in the mud.

The blood silhouette came a little closer. The young man had never seen it before. Maybe it wasn't a monster? A swamp with something underneath?

When Oozing Soul came a little closer, Huan Wei realized that his suspicion was wrong. An ugly creature, half the height of a human, covered in mud, with mushrooms growing on its back, emerged from the swamp and leapt at Oozing Soul.

Huan Wei reflexively flew to the side. The creature that had passed him and landed behind him, under the gaze of the blood spirit, plucked a mushroom off its own back and threw it at him.

The mushroom shattered into pieces in mid-air. A purple gas erupted from the mushroom and filled the air. Oozing Soul was not breathing butHuan Wei felt his lungs burning.

He had found the hunt he wanted. This thing had to be some kind of goblin. He had heard that many of them lived in the depths of the Moist Forest. Now one of them was standing in front of him.

Using his new tactic, Huan Wei flew at the creature's head. The agile beast tried to somersault away from him, yet Oozing Soul was completely under Huan Wei's control. He didn't let it escape and wrapped on its head around it, cutting off its breath.

The creature jumped several times. It could not see what was in front of it because of the color of the blood. Not being able to breathe made it panic. Huan Wei's physical body smiled. He had caught the beast badly.

But the goblin opened its mouth and vomited a purple liquid. This liquid, which had come into contact with Oozing Soul's blood, reminded Huan Wei of the time he had been dissolved in acid. It burned him. His focus began to losing.

In the end, the monster was able to repel Oozing Soul thanks to the poisonous liquid it vomited. When Huan Wei retreated, the vomit spilled onto the ground.

The blood spirit attacked once more. Yet a gas spewing from the mushrooms on the goblin's back swallowed the creature. Huan Wei dived into the gas but could not find it. So he rose a little and came out of the gas. At that moment, he saw the goblin running towards his real body.

"So that's how it's going to be."

Oozing Soul spilled onto the ground, forming a puddle of blood. When his consciousness returned to his original body, Huan Wei quickly stood up and drew his dagger. The goblin ran towards him, vomit dripping from the corner of its mouth.

"Come then!"