Several hours before, Yan Zaizen was practicing the Soul Art: Pneuma Disruption at his own leisure. Despite being surrounded by disaster beasts from the left and right, he didn't feel any sort of fear in regards to this. A majority of the beasts that roamed about were only at the rank one or two and the occasional rank three. His cultivation may be weak, but his soul cultivation was at the Perfect Nascent-level. Therefore, it wasn't hard for him to get a forewarning if beasts of a high rank intended to cross his paths.
Whenever that happened, he would just decisively avoid their path of travel.
The soul art was considerably difficult to comprehend, even to the initial success stage. If one thought about it, It made sense. Superior-grade arts weren't given such a title for fun, but because amongst arts in its category, it was truly above standard-grade in both effect and difficulty. Pinnacle-grade arts, the arts that reigned at the apex of their category, were the only arts that stood above.
Originally, he was never accomplished at arts. One could look at his famed Great Yan Fist, a low-grade Qi Art, but in all of his years of cultivation was only at the minor success stage. Nonetheless, he wasn't frustrated. Before, he simply never genuinely tried, but now was different. Thus, he put all of his mind and talents into comprehending how to use his soul energy in accordance with the art.
After an hour, he felt dejected by his lack of success. He kicked a tree in frustration, causing a rank two serpent beast to slither towards him. Recognizing this, he didn't avoid it like normal but actually waited while it approached with bared fangs. When it did, Yan Zaizen, who was filled with frustration, propelled himself above it, raised his leg, and stomped down with all his frustrations. He didn't fear this snake because, according to the Immortal Herculean Method, his mortal body should possess the strength to rival even a peak-Qi Revolving Cultivator.
This one stomp possessed power Yan Zaizen didn't even know he had. The wind whistled at the force of his leg. Before the snake could even react, it was smashed into a puddle of blood and scales. Even more so, Yan Zaizen's legs were deeply imprinted into the ground.
"What?!" Shocked at his sudden display of explosive power, his eyes widened at the scene. This was a rank two disaster beast with strength equivalent to a late-Qi Revolving Cultivator!
It was flattened like paste with one stomp!
It had taken him a while before he lifted his feet out of the ground, revealing the foot-shaped hole that dripped with snake flesh and blood.
"The Immortal Herculean Method declared that the Minimum...strength would be peak-Qi Revolving Realm at the Initial Success Stage. Then…" He contemplated his circumstance and started to reassess the assumption of his strength. Thinking up to here, he wore an excited grin.
He was formidable!
Time to find out how much.
The next couple of hours left the Basilisk Forest in a complete and utter nightmare. Every beast he came across, be it rank one or rank two would have their lives reaped and cores harvested by him. At one point, his pockets were too full, and he had to fashion a bag using the skin and scales of a lizard. He liked it.
"Hahaha!" He couldn't help but laugh uproariously. He could easily do away with rank one or two beasts with a flick of his finger, quite literally. Earlier, he met a group of rank one snakes who attempted to ambush him from the trees, but each and every one of them encountered their end with a flick to their heads, causing them to explode violently.
This meant his body cultivation had already reached Essence Formation in strength, but he couldn't tell by how much. The only accurate way was to find more formidable opponents. That was when he saw a Rank Three Katori Lesser Dragon roaming about, seemingly following someone or something's trail. He contemplated for a bit. However, seeing that it definitely possessed the aura of a rank three beast with his keen spiritual sense, he decided to seize the chance.
If he wasn't the Dragon's match, he could simply retreat, right?
Thinking up to here, he rushed it.
The Katori saw this, felt challenged, and replied with a fierce rush of its own.
The Katori was not his match.
It ran away.
Fast.
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Where was its ferociousness now, its majesty of the strong? However, how could Yan Zaizen let his prey escape? "Come back for daddy, my precious beast core!"
At the present, he currently stood over the corpse of this particular Katori, laughing at the sheer ease of process of eliminating this beast. By his calculation, it's entirely possible his strength was near the peak-Essence Formation by body cultivation alone. Whether it was his speed, senses, or physical strength, all of them far exceeded the Katori. It was simply that he didn't know how to properly exert his newly revealed strength that it ran quite a distance away before its death. Even the soul strike it launched had little effect on Yan Zaizen's Perfect Nascent Soul.
It was only after this that he realized there were five individuals gawking at him like a monster. Feeling slightly awkward, he rubbed his nose and turned his attention towards the Katori. Without a sound uttered from anyone, he simply removed its beast core located near its heart, deposited it in his bulging bag of beast cores and turned to take off.
Seeing this, Xing Xuehan was the first to break out of her reverie. She immediately rushed forth, which caused Yan Zaizen to turn and look towards her. His actions caused her to stop abruptly.
He rose his brow at this. Are they...scared of him? He rubbed his nose again. This sensation felt new, but it was a much-appreciated one. It made him feel strong. With a slight chuckle, he inquired, "You need something?"
"Y-yes! I want to thank you." Xing Xuehan stammered.
This average looking woman wanted to thank him? His gaze turned towards Su Fengyan and her beautiful appearance. She seemed around his age. For Yan Zaizen, he would rather get thanked by this cutey. However, he'll take what he can get, even if he didn't really do anything special for them.
"Sure. You're welcome." He nodded with an expression of heroism, like what he assumed powerful cultivators looked like when they save others with grace. However, due to his unnaturalness towards making this expression, it looked a little awkward and overly solemn.
His words were like a wake-up call to them all, and they looked towards the body of the Katori that had taken the lives of their members. It all felt slightly surreal, especially to Su Fengyan, and only because Yan Zaizen Qi Cultivation was even weaker than hers. His age also looked similar to hers, being around 15-16 years of age.
Ying Sumian displayed her leadership role as she immediately stepped forward with a calm expression. "I and all the others owe you great thanks, Young Hero." Her words contained traces of great respect. The sudden addressing of 'Young Hero' made Yan Zaizen feel better than he imagined. For once in his life, he truly felt what it meant to be respected for his own personal strength, and not his status as the grandchild of the Yan Clan Leader.
"Mhm." He nodded with a slight smile. In truth, he felt somewhat awkward at the moment. Not because of the compliments, but because he wanted to leave. Just didn't know how without being overly rude. I mean, they were thanking him so earnestly. Thinking up to here, he looked towards the Katori body and realized something.
"You can have its body. I have no need for it."
The body of a rank three beast, especially a peak one like the Katori, was incredibly valuable. Unfortunately, even if he wanted to take the body with him, because he didn't have a spatial bag and the Meteor Ring didn't allow him to take things out or put things in, he could only leave this piece of fortune behind. Coming to the conclusion that they wanted the body and probably didn't want to seem rude, he simply gave it to them.
His words caused all of the members to look towards the bulky body of this peak rank three beast, and their eyes shined with desire and greed. The body of this beast was equivalent in price to its beast core. To them, the worth of its corpse was equal to what they gained in their entire hunting venture! With this, they can return home with full pockets.
Nodding his head in response, he was ready to leave.
"Wait!"
Again?
Turning to look at the one who shouted, it was a sweaty pale youth with a rather large wound on his leg. From the looks of it, he was poisoned.
Bai Dongzhe gulped but gathered his bravery to speak once more. "Benefactor! Please, can you help us?"
Help?