After living like this for a month, Andrew finally brought up going out to temper himself.
Howard patted his shoulder and said, "Andrew, you've been smarter and more mature than other children since you were little. I believe you must know the path you want to take. Go. I'll always support you." Janice and Ling'er said nothing either. They could sense what Andrew was thinking, and as his family, even Ling'er, who was only eight, showed him great understanding.
With his family's blessings, Andrew set out to temper himself. This time, he planned to spend half a year on it.
Early that morning, Andrew headed east in a fitted black outfit, toward Mogan Forest. With his long saber on his back, he covered over ten meters with each step. This was the footwork he had comprehended from Fire Element battle-qi, which he had named "Explosive Steps." Andrew guessed that it was related to "Explosion," one of the advanced mysteries among the six profound mysteries of the Fire Element.
With this footwork to speed his journey, he soon reached Mogan Forest.
Peaceful, secluded cultivation might improve my cultivation, but without real combat, without years of fighting for my life, even the highest cultivation would be meaningless. There are no shortcuts to becoming strong. Battle alone is the fastest path!
With this mindset, Andrew stepped into Mogan Forest again after three years.
Mogan Forest could hardly be called a perilous place. It was dangerous to ordinary people, but to the strong, it was nothing at all. There were many magical beasts here, but very few high-level ones. Over the decades, the Keli Tribe had frequently hunted here, yet the high-level magical beasts they had encountered totaled fewer than ten.
Mid-level magical beasts no longer have any value as opponents for me. Only fighting high-level magical beasts can give me a sense of urgency and draw out my potential.
Andrew made no attempt to conceal himself and headed straight toward the center of the forest. He seemed slow but was actually fast, his figure flickering continuously. Each flicker carried him a hundred meters forward, and in the blink of an eye, he had already traveled an unknown distance into Mogan Forest.
Since he was so close to home, Andrew had not even brought a pack. The inconvenience was another reason.
Spatial rings exist in this world. They're nothing special in the Higher Plane, but in the Material Plane, especially on the Yulan Continent, they're definitely rare. Unless I encounter some other opportunity, I'll probably have to reach saint-level before I can get one.
In both his previous life and this one, he had greatly longed for a spatial ring.
Mogan Forest spanned only a thousand li, and at Andrew's speed, he soon reached its interior.
The interior of Mogan Forest was mountainous, with rolling peaks and waterfalls scattered among them. The scenery was beautiful, forming a striking contrast with the grasslands outside. There were many large trees in the mountains but little grass. Instead, vines covered the ground. These vines varied in thickness, the thick ones as broad as an adult's arm, the thin ones like strands of hair.
Holding his long saber, Andrew neatly cut through the vines and slowly advanced.
This place is different from outside. There could very well be high-level magical beasts hiding here. I'd better be careful.
Near noon, sunlight filtered through the trees, dappling the ground. After traveling for half a day, Andrew was a little hungry. He searched around, caught a few odd-looking fish in a five-meter-wide stream, and lit a fire to roast and eat them.
Even while eating, Andrew dared not relax his watch over his surroundings. His spiritual power was formidable, and even without specialized detection magic, he could still sense movement within ten meters. Within that range, Andrew could clearly distinguish even an ant crawling past.
This was also one of the things he relied on to venture out alone!
Among the mountain woods, Andrew felt an unprecedented tranquility. The wind rustled through the trees. The stream flowed slowly, occasionally meeting rocks and chiming endlessly. In this setting, he gradually became entranced, forgetting himself and everything else, his spirit seeming to merge with heaven and earth.
Rustle, rustle!
Amid the harmony, a slight disturbance startled Andrew awake.
Something's approaching!
Andrew stood up and leaped onto a branch of a tree over ten meters tall, sitting there as he surveyed the surroundings for movement.
A sixth-level magical beast, a Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake!
Thirty meters away, Andrew found the source of the disturbance. A strange, pitch-black snake over two meters long was approaching him. The golden thread along its back was especially conspicuous, and its two tails were distinctive as well.
A Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake, a Fire Element magical beast. Its tails can cast fire chains, which are quite powerful. Andrew had already learned about this snake from the grand elder, so it was no stranger to him.
Jumping down from the tree, Andrew waited quietly. He recalled a battle three years earlier, when he had rashly provoked an Iron-Armored Boar and nearly caused Baru's death. That Iron-Armored Boar had been a sixth-level magical beast. Now, facing a sixth-level magical beast once again, Andrew felt entirely different.
The Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake moved very slowly. Wriggling its body and flicking its tongue, it finally reached Andrew. Andrew remained motionless, waiting for it to attack.
When it crawled within four meters, the two were already very close. The Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake swung its two tails hard, using that force to shoot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow. In midair, it opened its jaws as wide as possible. Andrew could even count the venomous fangs in its mouth.
A magical beast is still a magical beast. It can't escape its bestial nature.
Andrew sighed inwardly, planted his foot, and charged forward to meet it. This time, he did not draw his saber but punched toward the snake's belly instead. This was not because he was being overly careless, but because he wanted to test the results of his physical cultivation.
Without a special bloodline, an ordinary person could cultivate their body only to the level of a sixth-level warrior. Andrew could not escape this limitation either. Ever since his body had broken through two years ago, making him a sixth-level warrior, nothing he did could increase his physical strength. This was the limit.
Andrew knew very well that unless he could change his bloodline or become a god, his physical cultivation had reached its end.
His sixth-level body gave him nearly a thousand jin of strength. No ordinary person could withstand this punch. His opponent, however, was a magical beast, a creature renowned for its physique, so the effect was very different.
The Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake was small for a sixth-level magical beast. The Iron-Armored Boar from before, for instance, had been over three meters long and over two meters tall, an enormous brute. Compared with it, the Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake was hardly impressive in size. In defense, however, it was not the slightest bit inferior to the Iron-Armored Boar.
Snakes were naturally good at defense. Their soft, rounded bodies were well suited to redirecting force, and the Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake was no exception. When Andrew's fist struck its belly, he felt his fist slide along its skin, diverting much of his force. Of his thousand jin of strength, only forty or fifty percent actually acted on the snake's body.
My use of strength is still far too lacking. If the grand elder threw that punch with the same strength, he could probably severely injure this snake.
Andrew was deeply dissatisfied with his performance and unconsciously compared himself with the grand elder.
This was indeed true. The use of strength was precisely what separated high-level warriors from mid-level warriors.
The Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake was sent flying by the blow, landed on the ground, and immediately sprang up again. This time, it whipped its tails hard. Bright flames appeared at the tips of its two tails, intertwining into three fire chains.
What strange magic!
Seeing the fire chains, Andrew could not help comparing them with the spells in his magic books. These fire chains somewhat resembled the second-level spell Flame Bind, yet they were different and far more powerful. Not only that, but the basic principles behind their formation were entirely different as well. It would be more accurate to say that the two were fundamentally distinct.
The flames flickered rapidly, the fire chains intertwining more and more, growing longer and longer. In the blink of an eye, they were two meters long. With a swing from the Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake, the three fire chains flew toward Andrew, two high and one low, sealing off his room to dodge. This was the Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake's innate magic, and its killing move.
Andrew could easily have dodged the fire chains. His Explosive Steps was an extraordinary footwork technique. With his current cultivation, a single all-out step could easily carry him a hundred meters in an instant. Fast as these fire chains were, they could not bind him.
However, Andrew had no intention of dodging.
If he had to dodge even the attack of a sixth-level magical beast, what would he use to challenge a seventh-level magical beast?
A blade flashed, and the long saber was already in his hand, slashing toward the fire chains. He used Fusion Battle-qi in this strike. It was not that the Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake had put him under tremendous pressure, but that he wanted to test the power of Fusion Battle-qi in actual combat.
A sixth-level magical beast's innate magic was equivalent to a top-tier sixth-level spell and could not be underestimated. Andrew was very cautious with this strike as well.
After being infused with fusion magic, the long saber turned blue-green, a result of the battle-qi surrounding it. The blue-green battle-qi looked calm, yet it was filled with destructive power.
Bang!
With a soft sound, the long saber met the fire chains. The blue-green blade cut through them without any resistance. Not only that, but the fire chains were directly annihilated by the blue-green battle-qi, disappearing into the air!
Incredible, truly incredible. I underestimated Fusion Battle-qi before!
Seeing this result, Andrew could only marvel. Previously, he had cultivated alone in seclusion. Even after successfully fusing his battle-qi, he had lacked a point of comparison and had not known just how powerful Fusion Battle-qi was. Now, after comparing it with the magic of a sixth-level magical beast, he had a clearer idea.
"You have no value left!"
Andrew sighed softly and swung his long saber, slicing the Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake in half from head to tail. To him, the Twin-Tailed Golden Thread Snake was merely a target. Flicking out its magic core with his blade, Andrew left without looking back. This time, he was going to challenge a seventh-level magical beast!