Zhang Tie stayed in those mountains for ten days before leaving them.
Over those ten days, Zhang Tie fought alone in the mountains no fewer than ten times and chopped off dozens of heads. The last time, after ambushing a squad of Holy Alliance Empire Warriors, Zhang Tie, disguised as Fred, "discovered in surprise" that he suddenly seemed able to ignite bright points elsewhere in his body besides the Spinal Bright Point. Having made this discovery, Zhang Tie followed the Sword of Radiance Legion's instructions and voluntarily withdrew from the mountains, preparing to report back to camp.
There was no need to dwell on the fighting of those ten days. To Zhang Tie, not one of those battles had even counted as acting, much less held any danger. With his Saint-level realm, even in his weakened state, pretending to be a level-nine Warrior and fighting lackeys of the Devil Race at his own level—or even below it—made for dry, flavorless battles. What sense of accomplishment could there possibly be?
The only thing that had been even slightly "dangerous" was when Zhang Tie discovered a level-eleven Battle Master of the Holy Alliance Empire in the mountains. After weighing it over and over, Zhang Tie felt that, with his level-nine strength, leaping two levels to kill a level-eleven Battle Master would be difficult to justify. It was a little too heaven-defying, and would expose a flaw. So, with the will to "die rather than submit," Zhang Tie finally "jumped off a cliff" while being pursued by that level-eleven Battle Master, and "escaped" his pursuit...
It was two days after that "cliff-jumping escape" that Zhang Tie discovered that, after surviving a great calamity, he seemed to have made some breakthroughs. He could "finally" ignite bright points beyond his spine, so he ended his