4 - The Endless Forest -

Xiao Long looks at the lord with a smile and drags the young master's head to make it visible to him.

 "You b*stard! What did you do to my son?" The city lord shouted angrily after seeing his son's battered body.

 "You should know how your son is, so you shouldn't ask me why he's like this. I will ask only a small compensation for what he did to me." Xiao Long said with a laugh.

 "Hahaha.. It's silly of you to ask for compensation for beating up my son, who do you think you're dealing with, huh?" The city's lord countered with laughter and ridicule.

 "No wonder this city is a poor city, it turns out the city's ruler is so stupid, what idiot made you a city ruler?" Xiao Long went down with the young master in his grasp, while the firebird got small and went unnoticed by the city.

 "How dare you! Let go of my son!!" Cried the lord of the city. Although he has many children, but only he has the highest talent among them, he will even enter the most prominent sect in the future. If he enters the sect, then his father will benefit greatly too, so this child is very valuable to him.

"You seem to love your son very much. I can return the child to you, on the condition that you give me adequate compensation. But if you don't want to, then your precious son's life will be lost. With his powers, I thought he'd entered a powerful sect, right? If he dies, who will maintain your position as lord of the city?" Xiao Long smiles, although young master is weak, in this small town he is a genius, so he holds a vital role to his father's continued power. The other families would surely overthrow the lord of the city if his son died.

 Xiao Long said that the weak spots of the city ruler are all true. Another family in the city had already planned to overthrow him from the city lord's seat. But since his son got the invitation to enter the great sect, they surrendered to overthrow him. But if the child dies, they will attack with full force. Although his father is very strong, other families also have their own experts.

 "Well-well, I will compensate you deeply, but you must promise to release my son" The city's lord said bitterly while throwing his Space Ring, what was inside was worth but it was worth all the honor and benefits his son will give him in the future.

Xiao long saw the contents of that ring, inside were lots of money and pills that were useful for Body Tempering to Core Formation Realm. Xiao Long, despite all the lower levels, is happy to accept it.

 "I am satisfied with your compensation, then take your precious son" Xiao Long threw the young master over to the city's lord.

 "Kill him!!" Cried the master of the city with a fury that had broken out. The soldiers behind him pounced at Xiao Long.

 Kyaakkk!

 Firebird suddenly came with his fire blasts that blocked Xiao Long from the soldiers' attacks. He quickly climbed onto firebird's back and waved his hand at the lord of the city. "Goodbye, lord of the city. You'd better check your treasure room " Said Xiao Long with a big laugh, the city's lord snapped at what he said.

 "Don't tell me, don't tell me! Check the treasure room!" City master's orders.

 Moments later one of the soldiers reported with fear. "Re-reporting! All the treasure in the treasure room is gone and I see a hole in the corner of the room"

 "The flame bird!! Arrggghhhh!" A terrible shout from the lord of the city was heard throughout the city. Even though he didn't lose his son, he lost all his possessions. What's even more embarrassing is that he got pushed around by a young man. His anger cannot be described in words.

The Endless Forest, that surrounds Four Continents and is a treacherous place filled with powerful Demonic Beasts. The forest where Xiao Long went out is also east of the forest without borders.

This way, Xiao Long knows that he's on The Eastern Continent. Despite this so-called dangerous place, a lot of other Cultivators come here to try their luck. As the saying goes, luck comes with danger.

Most sections of The Endless Forest have a distinguished layer of protection based on the degree of danger. Ordinary Cultivators can only be in layers one and two filled with demonic beasts levels 1 and 2 and on top. The forest where Xiao Long went out earlier is an area of forest that humans cannot touch for some reason, therefore there is no boundary layer.

Roaarrgghh!

Several terrible roars were heard at the end of the second layer. There's a human and a flaming bird struggling with some demonic beast. The human is only relying on his physical to unburden the demonic beast and The Firebird relies on his fire to burn them.

"I think we've had enough," Said Xiao Long. For a month, Xiao Long spent the time to demonic beast hunt in the second layer of The Endless Forest. Xiao Long wants to increase his Cultivation first with the burrowing results in the second layer before going to the next layer.

Xiao Long and Firebird entered the cave where the demonic beast that Xiao Long killed. This cave has enough spiritual energy because there's a lot of Spiritual Grass in it.

 Spiritual Grass is a Spiritual Plant that stores the energy of heaven and earth. The longer The Spiritual Grass lives, the more spiritual energy it has. The average 70-100 years of Spiritual Grass in this cave is enough to accelerate Xiao Long's cultivation several times over.

 Xiao Long sits across the grass and releases the core covered with spiritual energy and is called Beast Core. Every demonic beast would have a core that retains its power, and that core is The Beast Core.

 The Beast Core is invaluable in improving their cultivation. Normally, The Beast Core will be purified as a pill by The Alchemist, but since Xiao Long doesn't have a Spiritual Flame, he'll use The Beast Core directly. Although this is a little less effective, with the methods xiao long has, he can make it as effective as a pill.

Xiao Long's method is to distill the spiritual energy of The Beast Core and separate the impurities found inside the core. Of course not just any filtering, Xiao Long has drawn the formation over the dozens of Beast Cores, which will then distill the energy released from the beast core and the refined, filtered energy will enter Xiao Long's body. It sounds simple, but not many have been able to make this formation.

 Xiao Long started to close his eyes after drawing the formation with his fingers and Qi. Slowly, an energy surge from beast core, through formation and into Xiao Long's body.

 Time passed a week ago when Xiao Long absorbed the energy from the hundred beast cores and only a few of them are left now. Xiao Long has a strong spiritual energy. As the whole beast core is absorbed, Xiao Long opens his eyes and the spiritual energy that surrounds his body spreads in all directions.

"Well, this is what I hope, my cultivation has reached the top of Body Tempering Realm" Is actually Xiao Long's cultivation in the realm of Body Tempering and Earth Foundation would be very easy because it has completed the essence of both domains, the forge of the body and the foundation. Xiao Long's task in both sides is to strengthen qi and increase the size of The Qi Vessel.

 Xiao Long stood up and took an unused Spiritual Grass, stuffed it into a Space Ring. Xiao Long plans to enter the third layer, so he completes his training and leaves the cave. He's got a firebird outside the cave, standing guard.

 Xiao long wants to see if he can match the level 3 demonic beast. He can only rely on his physical and qi for now because he hasn't trained a single technique. Xiao Long is waiting for strong Qi enough to practice martial arts.

 The graceful firebird with its fiery plumage carries Xiao Long on its back to the next destination, the third layer of Endless Forest.