Chapter 3 The Lines

Waking up the next day, the young man removed the shrubbery from the entrance of the cave before walking back into the forest. This had almost become second nature to him, wake up, look for the exit, hunt, eat, continue looking for the exit, sleep, repeat.

So naturally this day was no different. Until something began to distract his vision as it did yesterday. 'What are these red and gold lines again.....' He was beyond confused and this time tried to figure out what they were.

'Either I am going crazy....or I am going insane.' With that thought he decided to follow one of the red lines clouding his vision. Focusing on it the line began to pulsate and guided him to a specific direction.

Following the directions, a few minutes later the young man was shocked at what he found. 'Why is this pointing towards a boar.' He thought in shock, before deciding to back away, he had barely even explored today so he didn't feel like having a potentially dangerous battle.

Moving away, the young man began to ponder on what happened. 'So do these red lines point randomly, or do they only point towards boars? ....Looking back on it didn't many of them pop up after my fight....'

After thinking about it for a moment he came to a shocking conclusion. 'Could it be that the red lines point towards any living creature within the vicinity?' Reaching this conclusion the young man decided to test his hypothesis by following another red line.

And in fact, this time he found a lone wolf. 'So I must be right....but why would a wolf be by itself.' In his confusion the young man began to look around and noticed a few more red lines in his vision. Focusing on them he realised they were pointing not all that far away.

'Shit its not alone its just scouting ahead, good thing I didn't provoke it.' He then silently left the area making sure to dodge anywhere the red lines pointed to. 'This is gonna come in handy.'

With his newfound ability he could now rest easy. If there were beasts nearby, or he required food he could easily find it now with the red lines. Not to mention before going to sleep he could ensure no beasts were following him stealthily.

'Unfortunately it doesn't help me escape the forest but at least it'll keep me safe.' He concluded before focusing on the singular gold line in his vision. 'On the other hand that begs the question, what are you?'

Now that he understood the red lines he was quite happy but this gold line was still a mystery. Where did it lead? To another beast perhaps even a Demonic Beast, or could it even point him to the way out. The young man was unsure to say the least.

Deciding that there was no use standing around, he put his focus on the gold line. This time all the red lines simultaneously disappeared, while the gold line pulsated brightly pointing him once again in another direction.

Seeing this the young man felt a bit worried. While he'd only figured out their usage for maybe an hour the red lines had given him a sense of security, and now they were gone.

Shaking his head he began to follow the gold line. 'Fuck it, I've survived over a month without them, my conviction isn't that weak!'

He walked and walked, and almost an hour later he arrived at his destination. 'This better be good.' As he peeked through the bush in front of him, the young man's eyes finally rested on that which the gold line was pointing to.

It was a small pond that glittered under the light of the sun and its water was pure almost crystalline in colour. Seeing it the young man almost lost his cool. "Spirit Liquid!" He whispered in excitement.

The young man was so excited he almost jumped out and into the pond but he soon recollected himself. Losing focus on the gold line the red lines soon reappeared in his vision, but compared to before there were very few of them.

'Does that mean this is mostly hidden?' He concluded, and soon he was assured that that was the case. In reality this pond would benefit man and beast alike so the fact that it was completely untouched indicated that it undiscovered thus far.

Feeling confident in his assertion the young man walked out of the shrubbery and next to the pond. Scooping up some of the water he began to drink it. In an instant his body felt invigorated, a strong energy circulating throughout his meridians.

'With this alone I can reach the 4th Level!' Instantly the young man put his face straight into the pond and began drinking as much as he could. Since he didn't have any storage tools it was possible that what he drank here would be all he got from the pond.

One gulp, two gulps, after over 30 gulps of Spirit Liquid the young man was so bloated he looked as though he was about to explode. And this was actually accurate. Taking to much Spirit Liquid could overload one's meridians with Spirit Qi causing them to blow up.

Because of this the young man was forced to step back and meditate to break through. The surging Spirit Qi in his body was quelled as he used it to break through.

Currently the young man was in the 1st Realm of cultivation, the Spirit Gathering Realm. In this Realm one would gather Spirit Qi in their meridians and dantian filling them up and then using said Spirit Qi to excavate the rest of their meridians.

In total there were 9 Levels and the young man was stuck in the 3rd Level, well not for much longer anyway.

Controlling the surging Spirit Qi the young man used it like a spear to breakthrough another set of his meridians. A few minutes later he broke through into the 4th Level but he wasn't done yet. In a flash his new set of meridians were immediately filled to the brim and he began to break through into the 5th level.

Almost an hour later a small sound echoed out from the young man's body, before he stood up his eyes bright as the sun. "The peak of the 5th Level! In the City only geniuses reached this level so young!" He said to himself excitedly, before quieting down.

"....The City..." Muttering to himself, the young man look around his eyes cold. Very few red lines were nearby, and because of this he turned back to the pond. "My strength isn't enough, I'll be back."

After saying this he locked onto the nearest red line. 'If just kill them all no beasts will interrupt me or steal my pond.'