Chapter 9: Black Wind Mountain Range.
As Wu Shen walked through the forested region, multiple beasts tried attacking him around every corner but they all met the same fate. Absolute Destruction. Just from one day of training in the mountain range, Wu Shen had gained a considerable amount of strength and empowerment of his elemental abilities. He always had the ability to use them naturally from his psychic abilities and the essence from the beasts of each respective element only made it stronger.
Currently, Wu Shen was facing off against a third rank spirit beast, a force of nature that even a cultivator of the fourth Ling Qi layer would immediately lose their lives in they encountered one. It was a large beast known as the Golden Flame Lion. Its size was such that the tallest trees around it matched its height and Wu Shen looked like nothing more than an ant compared to it. The trees shook and the surrounding beasts ran in fear as the beast roared at Wu Shen while licking its lips with a ferocious grin on its face.
Wu Shen drew his sword and held it at his side as he knew that he couldn't underestimate the power of this beast. In his past life, Wu Shen had learned southern Shaolin Kung Fu while at the temple and it's northern counterpart from wandering monks while traveling all around the forested parts of China looking for a place to hide from the law. He had learned how to use all types of weapons, from the staff to the broadsword to a rope dart. He had never gotten where he wanted to with bladed weapons before because he couldn't spar seriously against people but now, in this life, he had the chance to choose a weapon that would be perfect for him and the sword was his first option.
Wu Shen calmly used hirenkyaku and appeared above the beasts head, swiping his sword down with incredible force. The beast sensed his killing intent and dodged the attack while appearing behind him with blinding speed, swiping its claws at Wu Shen's back in hopes of tearing him apart with this one attack. While the attack was fast, Wu Shen's martial techniques were honed to such a level that they were even faster. He stomped on the ground causing a large number of cracks to spread across it and after sending the force generated from the stomp through his body towards his sword arm, he turned around with incredible power, slashing the claw that the beast sent towards him.
Unfortunately, the beasts attack didn't stop and it ended up hitting his psychic shield. He was sent reeling back a considerable distance but he didn't lose his balance nor was he injured. Wu Shen looked at the beast and noticed that its paw was bleeding a bit from the impact of his blade. He then readied his blade once more as he thought, 'Looks like I didn't apply enough force to my attack. No problem then. Blut Arterie.'{A/N: This is German for Blood Artery.}
Wu Shen started to channel Reishi through his blood vessels which increased his attack power drastically. The reishi was visible in his veins and the power he exuded made the beast become extremely wary of him. In a flash, Wu Shen disappeared from his position and appeared behind one of the front legs of the lion. With one quick, powerful slash, Wu Shen destroyed that leg before the lion could even react and flashed to another one doing the same thing. The beast roared out in pain and tried to fight back by releasing golden flames out of every pore on its body but Wu Shen was simply the wrong opponent.
The latter immediately released his martial spirit, the sealed doors, and started sealing the flames of the beast inside them, weakening its defenses considerably. Wu Shen took this opportunity to move behind the beasts head, slashing at its thick neck until it was fully decapitated. When he was done, Wu Shen completely absorbed the lion, causing him to feel like his cultivation was about to finally breakthrough. He immediately sat down cross-legged and began to cultivate, not worrying about any beast that could be around him. The two men who Duan Wu Yea sent to watch Wu Shen were both astonished at his strength.
"Old fogey, I thought we would've had to go save him but it seems that this prince has many hidden abilities. But how can he absorb those beasts whole? Does the Duan Clan have such a technique?"
"Yang Zhu, it would be better if you dont ask about the techniques he used. Although we're watching him, remember he's still a prince. There are some things men like us shouldn't know."
The other man nodded in understanding and continued watching Wu Shen cultivate to make sure nothing tried to attack him in this critical moment. Unbeknownst to them again though, Wu Shen had already covered himself with an illusion to make sure that they couldn't see what happened when he broke through to the Ling Qi Layer. A few minutes later, some dark black Qi started to radiate off of Wu Shen's body. Behind him, the shadowy figure of a man could be seen taking form as another portal opened up next to the one that supplied reishi to Wu Shen. A thicker type of blue energy started to flow from the portal and almost like the martial spirit was telling him what it was, Wu Shen immediately knew that this was Reiryoku.{A/N: Spiritual Power in English Terms. Reishi is Spiritual Particles. Reiatsu is Spiritual Pressure.}
Before, he could only absorb reishi and that only increased his spiritual power slowly while now, since he could absorb both directly, his abilities would be bolstered up considerably. Especially his ability to make spirit weapons which he never used in actual combat before. He also gained another Schrift which was called "The Overkill." The more things he killed, the more powerful he got. It was a simple power with a simple application that had incredible results. His sealing doors spirit also got much more 'tangible' in nature and it also added on 2 more doors to the original 10, increasing its power drastically.
Wu Shen smiled proudly as he thought, 'The first Ling Qi Layer! I never expected this spirit to keep increasing in power like this! It seems like this spirit isn't even close to achieving its maximum power. The soul king spirit has barely even started gaining power and I can already feel it unlocking parts of my soul that continue to fill me with power. The nature of my Qi has even changed on a fundamental level. This combined with the amount of strength I gained from absorbing those beasts will make my physical strength completely overwhelming. But, I should probably stop absorbing things for today, I'm not sure what the limits of my body are...'
Wu Shen got up from cultivating and deactivated the illusion with the two men still being no wiser about what he did.
'Now, it shouldn't be too long before that event happens, probably tomorrow or the day after. After that, I'll just hang around this city until things get more exciting in the Imperial City. Maybe I might join the Yun Hai Sect for fun...'
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