Practice Practice Practice

For the next three days, Chen Guan spent his time lying in his room, aside from his daily hunting and eating, trying to sense the qi described in the manual.

Yet, no matter how he searched, he couldn't find it.

It was on the afternoon of the fourth day.

After another fruitless cultivation session, Chen Guan knew something was wrong.

"I've been searching for four days and still haven't found the qi sensation. Could it be that my mind isn't calm enough?"

Chen Guan frowned and looked down at his chubby body. "Or is it that my black bear body is different from a human's, making the manual incompatible? After all, that manual has many strange diagrams of the upper, middle, and lower dantian. Their shapes and sizes are all based on humans, which is completely different from a massive black bear."

Chen Guan pondered, feeling it must be the latter.

Because his younger sister Xiao Qing, perhaps due to being a Demon Cultivator, was born with the "Ninth-Grade Yin Attribute" spiritual root bonus and possessed an innate "Upper Dantian."

Consequently, after studying the manual for two days, she found the legendary qi sensation and accelerated her breathing rhythm.

She was now a Demon Cultivator at the stage of Refining Essence into Qi.

According to the records in the book, the initial stage of Refining Essence into Qi was relatively easy to enter.

As long as a normal person had a focused mind and a spiritual root, it usually took only two or three days.

Although one could only perform simple breathing exercises and gain a slight increase in longevity upon entering this stage, once you were in, you were in.

There was no such thing as getting stuck at the "initial stage."

Therefore, Chen Guan, who had been unable to refine qi for so long, felt the problem lay in his "current form."

"I wonder if there's a cultivation method for a Demon Cultivator."

Seeing that he couldn't cultivate human techniques, Chen Guan suddenly thought of the demonic path.

As for this human manual, he would still memorize it by heart.

That way, if he were to be born as a "human" in his next life, it would come in handy.

Hoo-hoo.

Having made up his mind, Chen Guan stopped overthinking and began to continue training his physical body.

This "inherited talent" was very reliable.

As long as he trained, his strength would steadily increase.

Over these past few days, besides trying to sense qi, Chen Guan had not given up on his inherited physical training.

"If I can't practice one thing, I'll practice another!"

Chen Guan was clear-headed about the priorities in life. "A living person won't be stifled by a trivial problem, will they?"

Another three days passed.

In the forest, Chen Guan stood beside a hard piece of granite, his massive bear paw slamming fiercely against the large rock.

Boom! Boom!

Each strike caused the stone to emit a dull thud.

From time to time, edges of the stone would crack under his paw, sending small pebbles flying to the side.

Furthermore, within Chen Guan's strikes, there was a technique similar to kickboxing.

Looking from afar, it was a bizarre sight: a massive bear circling a large rock, striking it like a boxer.

[Proficiency +1]

Before long, the notification appeared.

[Bear Strength: 335/1000]

Seeing the proficiency increase once again, Chen Guan pulled back his throbbing hands, rubbing and kneading them to soothe the pain.

"I have roughly fourteen hundred jin of strength now. Back then, I had to run for an hour or two just to gain 1 point of proficiency. But now, by striking this large rock, I can gain 1 point in less than an hour. It seems that techniques and moves involving force exertion have a significant impact on the speed of proficiency growth."

Chen Guan had discovered some new tricks for cultivating his talent. It was just a bit hard on his bear paws.

Currently, even a slight clench of his fist sent a needle-like pain through his muscles. His skin and flesh were also damaged, but the skin that grew back was even tougher.

"I'm clearly practicing boxing, but the more I train, the more it turns into Iron Bear Paws."

Chen Guan shook his head, feeling that things were turning out the opposite of his intentions. However, as long as he was improving, it was a good thing.

After resting for a moment, Chen Guan began kicking the rock with his feet.

Boom! Boom!

As Chen Guan began a new round of training, the sound of striking stone echoed through the nearby woods once more.

"Woo-woo~"

Before long, some wolf-like beasts darted out from the forest, crouching fearfully in the distance as they watched the "Forest King" strike the rock. Although they were terrified, they did not leave. Because every time the Forest King finished striking the rock, he would go hunting. As long as they followed, there would be leftover scraps. Unknowingly, the sound of Chen Guan striking the rock during his training had become a "gong" calling them over for a meal.

"Little ones, follow me to eat!"

After a while, seeing his proficiency increase again, Chen Guan led these dozen or so beasts into the nearby woods to forage. He had always enjoyed leading this group of underlings. If he failed to catch prey one day, these underlings would become his "self-following mobile rations." They would not only give their hearts and lungs to him but also warm his belly. Such "loyal underlings" were definitely the more, the better.

"My number of underlings has dwindled; it's time to replenish them."

While searching for prey, Chen Guan glanced back at his well-behaved underlings. There were only fifteen left now. Ten days ago, Chen Guan had thirty-five underlings. Fourteen of those beasts had run away upon realizing the Forest King would use them as emergency rations. The other six had become Chen Guan's true confidants, sharing his life and death.

Meanwhile, just as Chen Guan was foraging, a low tiger roar suddenly erupted from the distance ahead, roughly a mile away.

"Woo-woo-woo~"

The food-babies following behind Chen Guan heard the tiger roar and scurried away, abandoning their boss in a flash. That low-frequency tiger roar brought an indescribable sense of palpitations to the other animals.

"Cowards."

As a black bear, Chen Guan was instinctively unafraid of the tiger's roar; instead, he found it amusing.

"A single tiger's roar, and you're already scared into such a pathetic state. No wonder you're only fit to scavenge for scraps behind me."

Thinking this to himself, Chen Guan cast his gaze toward the direction from which the roar had come.

"They always say the tiger is the king of all beasts."

Chen Guan flexed his bear paws, feeling the surging power within them.

"Today, I am the king of this forest, and I intend to drink this tiger-bone wine."

"Let's see if I can negotiate with Brother Tiger and have him spare me a few bones."

Lost in thought, Chen Guan strode toward the source of the roar.

But as he walked, he began to hear not just the tiger's roar, but also distinct human voices.

"Grandpa..."

"Someone, help!"

The voices belonged to an old man and a child, sounding somewhat strained and huddled together.

It seemed the two had been cornered by the tiger and were hiding in some narrow mountain crevice.

Perhaps because they were fellow "humans," or perhaps because he still intended to use Brother Tiger for his wine, Chen Guan dropped to all fours and sprinted toward them, hoping to reach the scene before the tiger could squeeze into the crevice.

In a slightly different direction, three hundred meters away from the tiger's position.

Rustle, rustle—

Constable Yan and several martial artists had just emerged from a thicket of waist-high bushes when they faintly caught the cries of the old man and the child.

Due to the background noise, the wind, and the humidity, the human voices were too low to carry far.

However, as practitioners of martial arts, their hearing was sharper than that of ordinary people.

"Is that a cry for help?"

One of the martial artists tilted his head to listen.

"The sound is..." another martial artist with large ears replied, "It's... to the east!"

"Move!" Once the direction was confirmed, Constable Yan shouted to the group:

"Forget about the bear spirit! Quick! Saving lives is the priority!"

Without another word, they drew their blades and shouldered their bows, rushing together toward the east.