Within the Lower Heaven, in a forest off the Eastern Continent, the clashing of metal swords echoed as two individuals battled to the death. Their swords clashed, accompanied by curses.
"Fuck! Eat my Coiling Sword Strike, you bastard!"
"Courting death!"
Boom!
A loud explosion rang out as one individual used a technique to send a diagonal sword strike with the force of a large mountain toward the other person.
Instantly, the earth trembled as they exchanged strike after strike, hoping one would falter and die.
"Devil Meng Li! If I can't kill you today, then I will eat shit!" one of the figures yelled, an expression of deep hatred and rage filling his face, his very blood boiling for the death of Meng Li.
"BWAHAHAHA! You think you can fucking kill me? Today I will show you what eating shit is! Die, Zhan Xuegang!" As soon as his words finished, he poured Qi into his blade and cut towards Zhan Xuegang, muttering the name of his technique.
"Bloody Sword Strike!"
"Fuck! Seven Earthly Sword Strikes!"
Clang!
A ripple far superior to anything before rang out as the earth below trembled from the force of the impacts. Trees were lifted and flew off, while the ground was uprooted.
However, in an instant, silence took over the whole forest. The world turned picturesque; the grass stopped moving, the trees froze in place, and the very air seemed to come to a halt.
"Time Sword Art: Timeless."
A single mutter that went unnoticed echoed throughout the forest as four corporeal slashes of pure and condensed energy, which seemed to halt the very foundations of the universe, appeared within the bodies of both cultivators.
The slashes instantly broke through space-time and tore apart every fiber of their being, yet in a moment's notice, their bodies returned to their normal state.
Cricket, cricket.
Time had once again resumed.
The two bodies flying through the air seemed to lose their souls as they flopped to the ground. Numerous trees that had been sent flying crashed down at this moment, making a lot of noise.
Before the two bodies could touch the ground, however, a figure appeared before them and caught them, before landing safely and dropping both bodies.
One of the bodies had long red hair, with both of its eyes open yet reflecting the deep abyss as if its life had been stolen. It wore black and red robes with a refined and beautiful appearance, while in its hand it held a black jiang sword with golden highlights.
The other figure had long dark hair and wore black robes with golden embroidery. In one of its hands, it held a black and red Jiang sword, its handle seemingly made out of flesh and deeply attached to the blade.
What really caught Fang Yuan's attention, however, were the two rings on either figure. Without another thought, he grabbed both of the Spatial Rings, sending a pulse of his Qi that broke the formation in them, making all the items within them spill out.
The first ring contained three bottles of Qi Condensing pills, each bottle holding five pills, along with a few robes of different colors, though their main themes consisted of black. The rest of the contents were gold, silver, and a bunch of scraps.
The other ring contained fewer items, though they were of better quality. It had two bottles of Mind Calming pills, a bunch of robes with the same black and golden embroidery, and four monster cores, two of which were 1st Level Spirit Master, while the last two were 7th-8th Level Spirit Warrior respectively.
Instead of consuming them right away, Fang Yuan merely looked back at the two corpses. A thin smile formed on his rosy lips, making his otherworldly appearance gain a terrifying aura.
Using one of the men's swords, he covered it with a red-like aura that radiated killing intent. He swung his new sword onto the ground, creating a slight fissure.
«You have learned Bloody Sword Strike»
«Player Gu Yue Fang Yuan has become the world's first player to have learned an Earth-ranked skill! Congratulations!»
«Congratulations! Player Gu Yue Fang Yuan has obtained the world's first Earth grade equipment!»
Ignoring the two announcements, having gotten used to them by now, he grabbed the two bodies, stripped them of their clothes, and chopped them up, dumping their remains into the hole as blood continuously gushed from their already soulless bodies.
The hole didn't take long to fill up with blood, mostly due to Fang Yuan crushing their bodies continuously and turning them into paste with his Spirit Qi.
Once finished, he took off his clothes and jumped into the hole, which was twice his size. His bloodline instantly activated under the exposure to the fresh and rich bound blood that contained Qi.
«Immortal Chaotic Void Bloodline has been activated»
«Blood Qi has been refined»
«+???? Physical Strength»
«+???? Physical Defense»
Fang Yuan's body absorbed the Blood Qi over a period of one minute. Once he finished, he simply got out of the hole and called up his status.
Name: Gu Yue Fang Yuan
Cultivation: Eighth Level Spirit Warrior
Legacy: ???
Bloodline: Immortal Monarch Bloodline,
Immortal Chaotic Void Bloodline
Physique: Heaven Refining Physique, Heavenly Divine Immortal Physique
Physical Strength: ?
Mental Strength: 25,500
Soul Strength: 32,600
Physical Defense: ?
Mental Defense: ?
Great Dao: Chaos
Minor Dao(s): Death, Time..
As expected, some of my stats won't show because they've become unquantifiable by this world. If I went by a normal player's growth, they'd have reached this point much later in the future, which would allow the system to make better numerical analysis on the stats of higher realm cultivators.
Fang Yuan merely turned a blind eye to this information.
"Xiao Hua, do you have a spare Spatial Ring?" Fang Yuan called out, forming a mental connection with Xiao Hua who was residing in the necklace.
Of course, Xiao Hua had witnessed the whole ordeal, along with how his body seemed to become more powerful after bathing in the blood of his enemies.
"Yes. Master, how did your body become strong after bathing in their blood.?" she asked curiously, popping up in the real world while touching his naked form and inspecting it.
"It's due to my Primordial Celestial Refining Physique. When I left after becoming a cultivator, I tried to learn a little bit more about my physique from my clan, which in the end led me to this," Fang Yuan replied calmly, as if his words were the most truthful thing in the universe.
"Wow! So master's physique lets him absorb the blood of humans to gain power?" she asked, looking a little excited yet terrified at the same time.
Brother Zun really is a prodigy! Not only that, but he may come from a big clan high up in the higher heavens!
Xiao Hua added inwardly, not expecting her brother Zun to be anything else but that. Otherwise, how would it explain the fact that he is such a genius?
"No," Fang Yuan chuckled, "my physique lets me absorb the blood from anyone, whether it be monster or human. It also lets me consume monster cores and demon cores."
Xiao Hua's eyes widened as she stared in disbelief at him. But in her mind, she slowly came to accept such a god-like physique along with how much of a genius Fang Yuan was.
After all, she believed that most of the things he had accomplished were possible because of his physiques.
It was the right choice to become Master's servant!
...
Meanwhile, among the hundreds of thousands of players throughout the Lower Heaven.
"Fuck! That bastard is way too overpowered!"
"You don't seriously believe he just happened to come across that stuff, do you, Elder Sister?" a person asked her sister while gazing intently at the lit-up sky that hadn't stopped showing a bunch of announcements—though a large part of them were from a single person.
Gu Yue Fang Yuan!
"So what do you think he did?" her sister barked back, clearly jealous and frustrated.
The younger sister couldn't help but shake her head and start moving toward a certain direction, heading to a city a little far from their location, which they had gotten information about from a caravan owner.
"That person must have cheated. There isn't any way he accomplished all of that within only three days of the game's launch," she replied.
Such conversations appeared within other continents, with people speculating about who this Gu Yue Fang Yuan was.
But clearly, a singular thought united every person, even across kingdoms or even continents.
"Gu Yue Fang Yuan! You are a cheater!!!"
...
Back with Fang Yuan.
Soon after explaining a little about his made-up physiques to Xiao Hua.
"We should move to some other place. I wouldn't put it past the sects that those two came from to come looking for trouble. Although you may be strong, I'm not and could easily end up dead if you let down your guard," he said, as Xiao Hua nodded her head.
"Then, where does Master wish to go? Xiao Hua will take Master there!" she said with mild enthusiasm, making a small smile appear on Fang Yuan's face.
"Take me to a place with monsters. I want to see if I can obtain a large amount of monster cores," he said, taking out a monster core from his spatial ring and eating it.
Instantly, a warm and pure concentration of Qi invaded his body and traveled quickly to his dantian, where it was refined and hungrily devoured.
«Heaven Refining Physique activated»
«A large amount of Qi has been refined from the Earth Eagle's monster core»
«You have absorbed enough Qi for a breakthrough»
«You have reached Ninth Level Spirit Warrior»
«You have reached First Level Spirit Master»
...
«You have reached Fourth Level Spirit Master»
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Finally I can start moving Fang Yuan towards his grand plan!