"Mm~~ These Beast Crystals are crunchy, but they don't taste like anything." Su Wuming muttered to himself as he swallowed the Beast Crystal in his mouth.
Since his Rubber Constitution could rapidly digest the essence of food to restore himself, Beast Crystals counted as food too.
His cultivation speed now surpassed that of Spirit Martial Practitioners with Grade-A Aptitude, but he had fallen too far behind. If he wanted to rapidly raise his cultivation within five short days, absorbing Beast Crystals was his only path.
Normally, this was a privilege reserved for the wealthy children of great families. Ordinary households could hardly afford large quantities of Beast Crystals.
As for the twenty-five Black Iron Rank Beast Crystals currently in Su Wuming's possession, he could sell them to the Monster Hunters' Office for one thousand yuan each.
But after the Monster Hunters' Office's specialists purified the Beast Crystals, they could resell them for five times the price—five thousand yuan apiece.
And that was only for Beast Crystals used by Black Iron Rank Spirit Martial Practitioners.
There was a principle well known among Dragon Nation's Spirit Martial Practitioners: unpurified Beast Crystals could not be absorbed. Forcibly absorbing them would harm cultivation rather than benefit it.
Yet Su Wuming was doing exactly that.
What he relied on was his unique and freakishly overpowered physique.
Su Wuming admitted that he was gambling.
But wasn't life itself one huge gamble?
Win, and he would soar to the top. Lose, and he could start over. Besides, the system had explained that any injuries and exhaustion suffered by his Rubber Constitution could be replenished and restored through food.
At that moment, after a Beast Crystal entered his stomach, Su Wuming quickly felt a reaction in his abdomen.
First came a burning sensation. Then, a tearing pain spread through his stomach, as though countless blades were tumbling around inside him.
The pain made cold sweat stream down Su Wuming's face. He gritted his teeth and endured it while activating the Dao Guidance Method.
Fortunately, the pain did not last long. Two minutes later, a stream of energy belonging to the Beast Crystal's essence, guided by the Dao Guidance Method, completed a major circulation before entering his Dantian. It was converted into Armament Haki, and his cultivation rose by a sliver.
It worked!!!
This was far more efficient than what Spirit Martial Practitioners got from absorbing purified Beast Crystals.
He had asked around about this before. Under normal circumstances, it took a Spirit Martial Practitioner two hours to absorb a single Beast Crystal.
And during the process, the Beast Crystal would show signs of energy loss, making perfect absorption impossible.
But Su Wuming was different. As long as it entered his stomach, he could absorb every last bit of it.
As for the harmful substances in Beast Crystals that had not been purified, Su Wuming no longer worried about them. He burped, and they were directly expelled.
The injuries in his abdomen were even easier to deal with. He only needed to eat to recover.
However, Su Wuming felt that he could still endure it, so he was in no hurry to eat the Qi-Blood Sausages Pangpang had prepared for him.
Over the next stretch of time, Su Wuming repeated the process and absorbed all twenty-four remaining Beast Crystals.
He consumed two Qi-Blood Sausages during that time to restore the injuries in his abdomen.
His cultivation rose to Black Iron three-star as well, advancing two full stars.
Every three stars was a minor watershed for Spirit Martial Practitioners.
Su Wuming roughly calculated that he currently needed ten Beast Crystals to rise one star. From four-star to six-star, he would need fifteen Beast Crystals per star, and from seven-star to nine-star, likely even more.
It truly showed that the saying, "wealth, companions, methods, and land," was no lie when it came to cultivation.
Wealth ranked first.
By his standards, those families with Beast Crystals would need at least seventy-five Beast Crystals just to cultivate to Black Iron six-star.
At the price of purified Beast Crystals, that would cost 355,000 yuan. And that did not even include what would be consumed along the way. The entire Black Iron stage would probably cost at least a million yuan.
It might not sound like much, but one had to remember that this was only the lowest Black Iron stage. Beast Crystals would only become more expensive afterward; amounts in the tens of millions would be considered small.
Sure enough, even in this awakened high-martial world, people still worried about money. The world had changed, but the rules had not. Su Wuming was still among the lowest class of society.
After sorting out his emotions, Su Wuming stood up and headed straight for the Dark Forest.
It was already the latter half of the night. It was time to hunt Demon Beasts and obtain Beast Crystals.
In this life, he firmly believed that diligence could make up for shortcomings. If wealth was lacking, strength would make up the difference.
When he returned here again, he chose the same route as yesterday, following the stream straight toward the stone forest where the conflict had erupted.
That realization in his heart made him understand, at that very moment, the martial path he longed for.
---Youth was the arrow, the peak was the target. Once the bow was drawn, there was no turning back.
The moment he stepped into this dense forest again, the gears of fate began to turn, and the arrow left the string.
Burn, youth!!!
---Might Guy
Along the way, Su Wuming encountered a lone Demon Beast Devil Horse heading toward the stone forest. The moment they met, Su Wuming chose to face it head-on with his fists.
A man should fight barehanded. It was absolutely not because Power Type Spirit Martial Practitioners could not wield spirit weapons.
Thus, Su Wuming used only one move: [Rubber Pistol]. It struck directly into the Devil Horse's vital heart region. His suddenly increased cultivation, combined with the fully unlocked Rubber Constitution, had also enhanced his strength.
With a single punch, the Devil Horse died on the spot without even a trace of struggle.
The main reason was that the Devil Horse could not understand Su Wuming's suddenly lengthened arm. It had never seen anything like it before. Combined with the speed granted by Su Wuming's strength, the attack was fast, accurate, and ruthless.
The current Su Wuming could no longer muster any interest in an ordinary Black Iron Rank Demon Beast.
After a barely adequate warm-up, he accelerated toward the stone forest.
When he was still roughly a hundred meters away from the stone forest, Su Wuming caught a pungent scent of blood.
But one thing was certain: the battle over there had already ended.
As he slowly approached, he could hear Demon Beasts chewing. From atop a large tree, using the moonlight to see, he found dozens of Demon Beast corpses scattered across the clearing. There were Devil Horses and Copperback Hyenas alike, the two most common Demon Beasts on the outskirts.
Seven Copperback Hyenas were feeding on those corpses. Judging from their condition, they were in excellent shape—perfect opponents for a fight.
Taking a deep breath, Su Wuming patted his chest. After steadying himself and suppressing the stench of blood, he launched the attack himself.
Naturally, his first strike was a sneak attack, targeting their waists and abdomens—the weak point of these Demon Beasts as well.
Like wolves, they had heads of copper, brains of iron, and waists of tofu.
This was destined to be a battle that battered both heart and lungs.
In the night, the sound of his rubber body snapping back intertwined with the howls of the Copperback Hyenas.
Su Wuming skillfully used the terrain to retreat into a dead end. Several places on his body were already stained with blood, but he did not care. Instead, he grew more excited.
The saying that real men bled without shedding tears was fully embodied in him.
He appeared to be trapped in a desperate situation, but he was actually finding life in the face of death. It also gave the Copperback Hyenas a chance to confront him head-on.
The remaining four Copperback Hyenas swiftly surrounded him and charged together.
Seeing this, Su Wuming grinned and unleashed his favorite move:
[Rubber Gatling]!!!
Before you continue