The blazing sun hung overhead.
Li Qingxu wore a loose set of training clothes, his thick, jet-black hair falling over his shoulders.
With no weapons in hand, he strode across the wilderness.
This wilderness might once have been fertile farmland, but decades had passed, and now it was overgrown with weeds.
Perhaps because it was close to the military camp, he hadn't spotted a single monster.
But he wasn't in a hurry. He followed a winding path and quickly ventured deeper into the wilderness.
Half an hour later.
Following the path, Li Qingxu arrived at a desolate village overgrown with weeds and towering trees.
He could make out nearly a hundred dilapidated three- and four-story buildings.
As he drew closer to the village, monsters' roars rang out from here and there.
"Roar!"
Suddenly, a low, muffled roar sounded nearby.
A monster nearly three meters tall, shaped like a tiger and covered in grayish-white fur, burst out of the dense woods.
It was a Junior Beast General-level monster, a Tiger Mastiff, comparable to a Junior War General among humans.
The Tiger Mastiff's eyes gleamed with bloodthirsty madness.
Just then, branches snapped in the dense woods behind it, and another dozen or so smaller monsters darted out.
The difference between Beast Soldiers and Beast Generals wasn't just a matter of strength. Most importantly, Beast Generals possessed a degree of intelligence.
To protect themselves, Beast Generals naturally gathered large numbers of Beast Soldiers around them.
Aside from the few monsters that preferred to roam alone, most Beast Generals had plenty of Beast Soldiers nearby.
"Roar!"
Looking at the human before it, the Tiger Mastiff roared as if issuing a command.
The eleven high-level Beast Soldiers behind it charged forward, snarling with bared teeth, like heavy Hummers hurtling toward him at over a hundred kilometers per hour.
"Filthy beasts."
Li Qingxu stepped forward. The ground beneath his foot caved into a small crater, and his body became a streak of light.
Why had he dared to enter the wilderness without a weapon? Naturally, because—
He was a human weapon!
Divine power surged out of his Bitter Sea and gathered in his arms. A faint golden glow appeared on their surface.
Clenching his fists, he unleashed a flurry of blows at the oncoming high-level Beast Soldiers.
In an instant, four consecutive thuds rang out.
The heads of four high-level Beast Soldiers burst apart under his punches.
Then Li Qingxu turned sideways and kicked two Beast Soldiers in the ribs.
Those two powerful kicks sent the Beast Soldiers flying hundreds of meters away.
The difference in strength was simply too great!
"Roar!"
The five remaining Beast Soldiers roared where they stood, not daring to come any closer.
"Your breath stinks!"
Li Qingxu cursed. His body once again became a streak of light and vanished from where he stood.
Almost instantly, five sounds of exploding heads rang out.
In just a dozen breaths, he had killed all eleven Beast Soldiers.
"Now it's your turn, little dog."
Li Qingxu turned his gaze toward the Beast General.
"Roar!"
The Junior Beast General-level Tiger Mastiff bristled from head to toe and let out an enraged roar.
The roar echoed through the wilderness and woods, shaking the heavens as leaves swirled through the air.
The next moment, the Tiger Mastiff lunged at the human before it.
"Heh."
Li Qingxu laughed. His figure flashed like a streak of light as a faint golden glow appeared over his body.
At that moment, he resembled a golden Arhat. He swung his fist toward the Tiger Mastiff's doglike head.
Thud!
His fist slammed into the monster's head with tremendous force!
The Tiger Mastiff's entire body was punched straight into the ground.
In an instant, dust billowed into the air like a tornado.
"Awoooo!"
A terrible canine yelp rang out.
Despite taking Li Qingxu's punch, the Tiger Mastiff hadn't died. It still had enough strength to yelp.
Rumble!
Li Qingxu showed no mercy. He unleashed a flurry of punches at the Tiger Mastiff's head.
The shockwaves from his terrifying fists made the ground tremble again and again.
He only slowly stopped punching when a series of crisp cracking sounds rang out.
The Tiger Mastiff's head had been pounded almost to mush, plain as day!
"Still barking, are you?"
Li Qingxu let out a breath and cursed at the monster's corpse.
For some reason, this canine monster had really gotten under his skin.
Thinking it over, he figured it must have been because of that damn Black Emperor from the Shrouding the Heavens World.
He left the monster corpses on the ground and continued deeper into the wilderness.
Eventually, deep in the mountains, he came face-to-face with a high-level Beast General, a Black Gold Ape.
The Black Gold Ape stood nearly five meters tall, with a bulky frame like a small giant. Its fists were as large as human heads.
Its whole body was covered in glossy black fur, as if it were wearing black-gold armor.
Without hesitation, Li Qingxu unleashed his full strength. Divine power streamed out of his Bitter Sea, spreading over his entire body.
A faint golden glow enveloped him.
He formed the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist with both hands and fought the Black Gold Ape head-on.
The ground collapsed and trees exploded, as if they were being blasted by one small missile after another.
In no time, the area had been utterly devastated, as if the ground had been turned over.
Soil and bits of grass flew through the air, like a downpour.
It was the middle of the night, and the bright moon hung high overhead.
The pure white moonlight illuminated the land.
Li Qingxu stood where he was, surrounded by heaps of monster corpses.
They were packed together, numbering at least several hundred.
Monster blood pooled together, almost enough to form a small pond.
"Roar!"
Li Qingxu suddenly threw back his head and let out a long roar.
What a rush!
Fighting felt incredible.
At last, he had completely unleashed the pent-up energy inside him.
He had already been fighting monsters for more than seven hours, yet he didn't feel tired at all.
His eyes even shone brightly, and he was brimming with energy.
But he didn't continue. Instead, he found a hilltop and sat down cross-legged.
As cosmic energy poured into him, his cells greedily devoured and absorbed it, while a constant stream of powerful life essence surged out.
As the Dao Scripture circulated through his Bitter Sea, a crystalline sheen began to shimmer over his skin.
The next moment, Li Qingxu's Bitter Sea suddenly blazed with golden light. Waves surged like a roaring tsunami as golden light flooded his whole body, and his Bitter Sea slowly opened up.
Divine light burned brilliantly. Countless waves surged, towering and deafening!
It was as if thousands of armies were charging forward, or endless meteorites were crashing into the earth.
Amid the terrible roar of the waves came a rumbling thunder. Lightning tore across the sky, weaving over the Golden Bitter Sea in a terrifying display.
Li Qingxu focused intently on opening his Golden Bitter Sea.
Divine patterns formed one after another within the Bitter Sea, like chains of divine iron or streaks of lightning, spanning the sky above it.
The Golden Bitter Sea changed again, expanding by an entire circle. At its very center, the ripples churned more violently.
Bubbles welled up like spring water. When they burst, they formed a hazy, multicolored mist that completely shrouded the area, lending the Bitter Sea an air of deep mystery.
If an ordinary person's body absorbed this much cosmic energy, it would have exploded by now.
But he possessed the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, and his Bitter Sea was like a bottomless pit that could never be filled.
All the abundant life essence produced as his cells absorbed cosmic energy surged into his Bitter Sea.
At that moment, his flesh, organs, and bones were crystalline and immaculate, gleaming like exquisite works of art.
His skin also shimmered with a crystalline sheen as the power of life slowly coursed through him.
Before you continue