Naked Sword Art

Deep in the forest on the 7th level of the Ancestral Training Grounds, the sharp sounds of someone swinging their sword and large trees hitting the ground echoed throughout the forest. The person swinging their sword was none other than Xiao Fang.

Since he was alone, he comfortably practiced his Divine Sword method with his blindfold off. The natural qi was so strong he could make far more progress here than anywhere else in the sect.

'If the guys back at the Divine Sword sect knew about this place, they'd be burning with envy,' Xiao Fang thought with a smirk on his face.

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Xiao Fang climbed trees, scaled mountains, and crossed rivers. He spent most of his time just going place to place in search for higher tiered beasts, but all he could find were beasts in the 8th tier.

'Could I've been wrong?' Xiao Fang thought.

Hours passed, but after extracting the cores from over a 100 different 8th tiered beasts, he still hadn't even filled a quarter of his high-grade spirit pendant yet. From the looks of it, it seemed that he was going to be here for a while.

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Meanwhile, Xiao Hei was starting to get a bit worried for Xiao Fang. He had been gone for the whole day, so she kept having thoughts that he might be in danger.

She wasn't foolish enough to go looking for him, but she couldn't say that the thought hadn't crossed her mind.

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When Xiao Fang was feeling tired, he eventually sat down on the branch of a tall tree. It was too dangerous to fall asleep, so he did the next best thing which was to cultivate his spirit and rely on his swordsman's instincts to alert him if he was in danger. This way he could get some rest while also making more space in his high-grade spirit pendant.

Using the refined illusory qi in his spirit pendant, he cultivated his [ Illusory Body ] method, the result of which was astonishing.

In a matter of a few hours, Xiao Fang was able to make a breakthrough to the 2nd stage of the [ Illusory Body ] Spirit Refinement realm. It's only been a little more than a day since he made his breakthrough to the 1st stage, so he almost couldn't believe it.

What Xiao Fang forgot was just how dense the natural qi on this floor was. He had gotten so used to it that he hardly even noticed it was there.

!!!

Suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck began to stand as his swordsman's instincts suddenly alerted him of an approaching attack.

Xiao Fang dodged, even though he didn't know what he was dodging from.

Boom!

Xiao Fang looked back at what he dodged, then his jaw dropped.

What he dodged eventually hit the ground hundreds of meters away, but he could still feel it shaking the earth beneath his feet. Xiao Fang didn't need to wait for the dust to clear, he could sense it clearly with his ears. What he sensed was a tree trunk protruding out of the ground in an obscured angle. It seemed as though it had been thrown like a spear, but how could that be? Beasts weren't supposed to be capable of doing such a thing. Also, whatever was capable of throwing such a massive tree must've been ridiculously strong.

Suddenly, Xiao Fang felt a stinging pain on his left arm. When he looked down he could see that it had become all bloodied. Despite how fast he went, he was still unable to completely avoid that attack.

When Xiao Fang finally looked at the direction the attack came from, what he saw was a behemoth of a beast standing about 700 meters away. It was nearly 20 meters tall, had long pointed ears, thick black fur, a gorilla-like body, and bull-like horns.

'There's no way that's a 9th tiered beast,' Xiao Fang thought, because the 50 other beasts around it were all in the 9th tier, but only 13 meters tall.

Suddenly, Xiao Fang remembered the words of the Elder that was guarding the passage down past the 4th floor.

'So, this is what she meant by an abnormal beast...'

The Healing-regeneration pill was quickly healing his arm, so he would be ready to fight at full strength in a few minutes if he needed it.

Xiao Fang finally stood up strong as he exuded an air of confidence. Although he knew the fight would be tough, there wasn't a doubt in his mind that he would come out on top. The colossal beast curiously tilted its head as if it was surprised by what Xiao Fang was doing. All this time it had been waiting for Xiao Fang to start running, but it seemed that Xiao Fang wanted to fight. This actually made it happy.

"Rooooooaaaaaar!!!!"

The colossal beast roared so loud it shook the entire forest.

With that simple roar, it made Xiao Fang's heart race and droplets of sweat appear on his face. Xiao Fang was right, it wasn't as strong as a 10th tiered beast, but it wasn't weak either. It had a battle power equivalent to the peak of the Divine realm.

The roar echoed out for a moment then the entire forest suddenly became eerily quiet. What came next sounded like a stampede, but it was coming from all directions and headed straight for Xiao Fang.

'Is it toying with me?'

Seeing the grin on the colossal beast's face it seemed to be answering his question.

'I see. It seems your mother never taught you not to play with your food.'

Xiao Fang stuck his sword into the ground then calmly put his blindfold on. Any normal person would've been scared out of their wits, but Xiao Fang was different, he didn't show an ounce of fear.

'When was the last time, I felt such a rush,' he thought.

He tightened the knot behind his head, then every little thing that was within a kilometer radius from him came into view.

'I was wondering how I was going to fill my spirit pendant, but it seems the answer fell right into my lap. I'm grateful.'

***

((Short hiatus starting today.))