Obvious Progress

Diya made a careful estimate and came to a conclusion—his mental strength had been strengthened by roughly three times. If his mental strength value had been ten before, then now it was forty. It could be called an enormous improvement.

According to Diablo, for a period of time from now on, his mental strength would continue to grow. Though the speed might not be fast, it was still better than nothing.

Suddenly, a mountain wind blew past, and Diya felt a chilly emptiness over his body. Only then did he remember that before fusing with the Hell Fragment, he seemed to have forgotten to take off his clothes. In the end, his clothes had once again been ruined. Now things were just great—he was not at home, and he had not brought any clothes out with him. This really was troublesome.

What a pity about that Azure Tiger. Because it had started rotting, he had thrown it away. Otherwise, he could have skinned it and barely used its hide to cover his shame. Now he had to search for another wild beast all over again. Searching the mountains for fierce beasts while completely naked, bare ass and all—this scene really was unique.

He did not know if he had some special fate with Azure Tigers, but before long, Diya found an Azure Tiger that had come out to hunt. Without another word, Flick Swords shot out, and his longsword stabbed swiftly. The Azure Tiger lost its life. Diya carefully used a Flick Sword to peel off the Azure Tiger's hide, then struggled through a meal of roasted tiger meat. After that, he spread the Azure Tiger hide open and placed it on a boulder to dry in the sun.

Then he began cultivating battle energy again. After his mental strength had been strengthened, the effects showed. Vaguely, Diya sensed that beneath his skin, within his muscles, there seemed to be something strange quietly staying there. Diya knew that this was the so-called qi. He had finally entered the first step of sensing qi.

Immediately afterward, Diya draped the Azure Tiger hide over himself, casually cut off a strip of hide to use as rope, tied it around his waist, fixed the tiger skin in place, and descended the mountain looking completely like a savage. As he walked, he would stop to rest, then sense the qi in his muscles. It became clearer and clearer.

Going down the mountain was originally faster than going up, but Diya had spent two days climbing the mountain and likewise spent two days descending it, because as he walked, he would suddenly stop to cultivate battle energy for a while, then continue walking.

Two days later, which was the third day after Diablo had helped Diya fuse with the second Hell Fragment, Diya finally arrived at the foot of the mountain. There was another stretch of woodland, but fortunately, it was only a small grove. Most of the trees were as thick as the mouth of a bowl and only two or three meters tall.

Diya tossed the Grey Leopard he was dragging to the ground, then walked into the surrounding area to gather firewood, preparing to barbecue a Grey Leopard hind leg and have himself a big meal first.

After eating, Diya took another walk to help digestion. After that, he entered a state of cultivation. This time, he sensed the existence of qi in his muscles even more clearly. Sheets of emptiness twined around Diya's mental strength, and subconsciously, Diya's will came into contact with the qi and guided it.

It moved. The qi began to move. Under Diya's guidance, though it moved with great difficulty at first and was extremely faint, Diya truly felt that the qi had begun to move, circulating bit by bit according to his will.

In the human body, there were a total of six hundred and thirty-nine muscles, one connected to another, forming a complete whole. Within every muscle was a portion of qi. Diya concentrated all his mental strength, covered every single muscle, and guided the circulation of qi within them.

Originally, Diya had tried controlling only the qi within one muscle. Though this allowed him to mobilize the qi better, it was confined within that one muscle and could not flow into the other muscles. Naturally, it could not form a cycle, and there was no way to strengthen the muscles during the cycling process.

Who knew how much time passed. Diya wholeheartedly controlled the flow of qi until he felt waves of tingling numbness coming from the muscles of his body. Only then did Diya stop the circulation of qi. The qi slowly sank into his muscles and went dormant. Diya opened his eyes, sat in place, rested for a moment, and felt happy about the results he had achieved.

At present, of the three major steps in battle-energy cultivation, he had already entered the second, and the time he had spent was only six or seven days. This kind of speed could truly be called unprecedented before him and unrivaled after him. If those so-called geniuses knew, they would probably be so frightened they spat blood.

But the fact that Diya could accomplish this, that he could sense qi so quickly and complete the second step, could not be separated from his own conditions.

Just taking Diya's body after its transformation, it was more than twice as powerful as those of ordinary cultivators. In this way, his cultivation speed would naturally have risen by a large amount as well, at least more than doubled. In addition, there was the strength of his mental power. Diya's mental strength had already been ten times greater than an ordinary person's; even compared to warrior cultivators, Diya was seven or eight times stronger than them.

After that, he had fused with the second Hell Fragment, and his mental strength had been strengthened once more—by a full three times. That was equivalent to surpassing those warrior cultivators by more than twenty times. Added to the combination of body and mind, as well as Diya's control over his own body and so on, all this led to him being able to sense the existence of qi within a short period of time, and then very quickly enter the second step.

Being able to use his will to control the qi in his muscles and cycle it once through all the muscles was basically equivalent to grasping the second step. Of course, this was not the end, but a beginning. Only when his will could easily control the qi, making it circulate quickly, smoothly, and without obstruction through the complete network of muscles, would he truly have grasped the second step of battle-energy cultivation.

Diya estimated that in about a few more days, he would be able to completely grasp the second step and thereby enter the cultivation of the third step.

He grabbed his longsword. Hanging at his waist was a small bag made of beast hide. Inside the bag were six Flick Swords and the Magic Core of the Mutated Blood-Sucking Mosquito King. Apart from those, there was nothing else.

After several days of living a life of hair and blood, eating roasted meat raw in spirit if not in fact, and not finding any water source, Diya looked rather terrible. His long hair was a messy clump, like a chicken nest. Its original black color had become somewhat unsightly, covered in dust and scraps. The skin exposed outside the Azure Tiger hide was somewhat dark, mottled patch by patch, making him look just like someone who had not bathed in a very long time.

He looked exactly like a vagrant, and if the beast hide was counted, then he was an out-and-out savage. Diya walked quickly through the woods. He did not know how large this stretch of woodland was, but the trees were sparse, and on the ground, some small broken stones could occasionally be seen.

Diya had never come here before and did not know which way he should go. He casually chose a direction. Before long, a road five or six meters wide appeared before his eyes. It was a road paved with sand and stone, and on both sides of it were clusters of short, emerald-green grass.

Diya walked out of the small grove and stood at the edge of the road. Behind him was the small grove; ahead was a stretch of rolling grassland, and farther beyond it was another stretch of woodland. To the left, one could not see the end at a glance—only a road winding and twisting into the distance. The right side was the same.

He had no map on him, nor had he ever come here before. Diya looked left, then right, then looked at the sky. Another day was about to end. The setting sun was almost completely down, draping this woodland and grassland in a faint dusky-yellow radiance. A light wind blew past, carrying away the warmth left behind by noon and leaving behind waves of coolness. Diya went into battle vacuum-packed, and the cool breeze ran through his body, making him feel extremely comfortable.

Unfortunately, he could not see any river or the like. Otherwise, throwing himself in, washing himself, and soaking for a while would have been a rather fine enjoyment. Diya sniffed the smell on his body; waves of sour stink rose from him.

Forget it. Tonight, I'll stay in the small grove. Tomorrow morning, I'll leave. When the time comes, I'll see which way to go before deciding, Diya muttered. He turned and returned to the small grove. It seemed dinner was still nowhere to be found. The Grey Leopard meat he had brought down at noon was no longer fresh. Better look for something else.

Diya began wandering through the entire small grove. Relying on that powerful mental strength, he carefully explored the movements within a range of a dozen or so meters, seeing whether he could find a rabbit warren. Recently, he had always been eating the flesh and blood of fierce beasts. It was about time to change his food, or wouldn't things be a little too violent?

After searching for over an hour, he did not find a rabbit warren, but he did find some fruit. He could only make do and eat them, replenishing a little vitamin. Once his stomach was almost full, Diya casually found an empty patch of ground. First, he looked left and right to see whether there were snakes or the like lying hidden. After confirming it was safe, he entered a state of battle-energy cultivation.

Under Diya's control, his powerful mental strength became as soft as silk twined around a finger, covering the muscles of his body. He carefully sensed the existence of qi within his muscles, then used his will to control the qi and make it begin circulating. Compared to the morning's cultivation, his control over qi this time had clearly improved greatly. It was no longer so difficult, and its speed had also increased.

Who knew how much time it took, but under Diya's will, the qi finally completed one full circuit around the muscles of his entire body and returned to its original position. That sore, numb sensation appeared in his muscles once again. Diya stopped cultivating and opened his eyes, only then discovering that the night had already gradually retreated, and light was slowly descending.