"Hah!"
Fan Zhi shouts loudly as he launches a strong uppercut to the chin of a sleek black panther; the hard fist of Fan Zhi sending a pulse of light-qi into the panther's brain and killing it.
As he gets deeper into the forest, not only do the demonic beasts have purer bloodlines, they also have a higher average strength.
Although the black panthers are still the same race, their intelligence and combat prowess is far higher than the ones residing in the outer regions of the forest.
"Good, keep going. We are around five kilometres from the boundary between the Deep Forest and the middle regions."
Fan Zhi nods in acknowledgement of his master's demand.
Ever since he became a Sky Foundation Pupil, Fan Zhi's master had increased the intensity of his training drastically.
He was training Fan Zhi to get used to fighting with low reserves, and for that, he had made Fan Zhi fight without break for long periods of time.
Claiming to Fan Zhi that it would also help increase his passive absorption of the ambient qi, Fan Zhi had started to notice the improvements from this training.
"Your usage of qi is still so crude. I think we need to make you fight some more challenging enemies."
Despite all his constant disparaging comments of Fan Zhi's performance, the soul was honestly incredibly surprised at the growth Fan Zhi had been having.
Knowing how effective his training generally was for previous owners of the Pearl, he knew that Fan Zhi was progressing just as well despite lacking the knowledge and resources to assist him.
Not that he would let Fan Zhi use any cultivation resources that were made on such a backwater planet, but even without those Fan Zhi was still keeping up with all his previous disciples.
"Fan Zhi, while we are travelling through the forest I want to try to discover the properties of each attribute of qi you have.
By the time we are through the Deep Forest, I want you to know the properties of each attribute of qi you can use off by heart.
Know your enemy, know thyself and you will win a hundred battles."
After giving Fan Zhi some instructions, the soul fell into deep thought.
Since Fan Zhi had lost his knife, the soul had started to think about what kind of weapon to teach fan Zhi.
He originally planned to teach him how to use a sword or a sabre, but he felt that those weapons were far too common and any cultivator would know how to fight someone with those weapons.
"Maybe an exotic sword would be good….
A katana, longsword or broadsword?
No, Katanas are too speed and technique dependant, he won't be able to use his strength to its full potential.
Longswords are too light for their size and length for someone like him.
The broadsword won't work either; they are very unwieldy for the size and weight that he would need to make use of his strength.
Materials that have a high enough density and weight are far too rare in a place like this.
No wonder physique cultivation is such a rarity in this place..."
While his master was mumbling incoherently to himself within Fan Zhi's soul, the subject of his mumbling was rapidly leaping through the forest about 10 metres aboveground like a nimble monkey.
By travelling aboveground, Fan Zhi felt he was high enough to avoid any of the weaker beasts that would only waste his time.
Like this, Fan Zhi continues to draw closer to the core of the Deep Forest, unaware of the perilous battle between man and beast that was happening only several kilometres deeper.
* * * * *
{5km away, within the heart of the Deep Forest]
"Young miss, duck!"
A group of 6 young cultivators dressed in azure clothing with red trim are circling a large, dark green tiger with black strips.
A few meters away, dressed in similar robes is a pair of middle-aged cultivators observing the battle.
The younger cultivators are all armed with a variety of different swords.
Within the group, a girl looking to be around 14 wields a pair of slender and gently curved swords made for speed based sword arts.
This girl was currently ducking a heavy swipe by the tiger's tail.
Dodging the blow, the girl gets up to see a small tree get uprooted and shattered into pieces by the impact of the tiger's tail.
Breathing a quiet sigh of relief at her choice to dodge rather than block the hit, the girl lunged forward, her swords flashing with a cold white light to slash the back left leg of the tiger.
The slightly deep cuts caused by her attack emanate a chill, the fur surrounding the wounds quickly turning stiff from the frost.
Upon seeing her attack, the two middle-aged cultivators -a male and a female couple- nod in recognition of the useful injury that was inflicted on the tiger.
"Go! Attack it now! It has lost some of its mobility from our young miss's frost-qi."
One of the young male disciples shouted enthusiastically and he swung his sword.
A stream of white light followed the blade.
Responding to his shout, the group of young cultivators all swung their weapons, blue or white light being emitted from their weapons.
The was unable to dodge and parry the wave of attacks, suffering two more reasonably deep cuts.
More strikes quickly followed and the cold qi that invaded the cuts slowed it down even more.
The longer it had to defend against the assault of the young cultivators, the weaker and slower the tiger got.
It didn't take long before the tiger succumbed to its injuries, the variety of cold qi's invading its body and shutting down the organs.
The group of disciples all immediately sat down, breathing heavily.
The fight had only gone on for about a quarter of an hour, but the combination of high concentration and sending constant attacks with high quantities of qi being released at once for the last 5 minutes of the fight had exhausted all the disciples.
The middle-aged couple still remained a moderate distance away in the clearing.
They were simply there as the guardians of the young miss, Bai Xun.
She was the daughter of the Clan Patriarch and it was only with the inclusion of the two elders to accompany her that the Patriarch had allowed her to enter the Deep Zone of the Hunchun Wilderness.
Secretly, the Patriarch was quite pleased with the desire of his daughter to want to gain experience.
She was the most promising possible heir of the Clan, so he was trying to think of ways to convince her to go out and experience the world of cultivation before she suddenly expressed her desire to enter the Hunchun Forest.
Therefore, the two elders were only there to save the young miss in emergency situations.
While they were waiting for the group to recover their qi and continue their exploration they were talking to each other about the performance of each disciple of the Chione Sect.
The Chione Sect was a sect that was made by the Bai Clan to further increase their power without relying purely on the descendants of the Clan.
The Sect was named after the founder of it, Bai Chione.
Bai Chione was a legendary cultivator of the ice attribute and the sect she made focuses entirely on the wide variety of cold-based attributes.
As the disciples were getting ready to proceed deeper, suddenly a large black panther seemingly made of shadows appeared out of nowhere.
The disciples all panicked, unprepared for the sudden ambush and scattered with no organisation.
The only one who stayed calm was Bai Xun.
Standing calmly in the more defensive form of her combat art, Bai Xun prepared to fight the panther.
However, how could Bai Xun, a Sky Foundation Pupil possibly compete against a Rank 2 Fierce Beast.
If the group didn't panic and stuck together then maybe they could have at least forced the panther to retreat.
Unfortunately, they didn't.
Fierce Beasts were the weakest of all the types of Demonic Beasts, the strongest of them only matching a Heavenly Attunement Champion.
A Rank 2 Fierce Beast, while weak when compared to other types of Demonic Beasts, could still fight evenly with a Sky Foundation Champion; a cultivator of two stages higher strength than Bai Xun.
If Bai Xun was at her strongest, she would still have no chance of possibly fighting the fierce beast.
As Bai Xun was preparing to risk her life to hold back the panther from the disciples of the Chione Sect, an arrow shining in a pure white light flew at incredible speeds towards the panther.
The panther, having noticed the arrow at the last moment, instinctually tried to dodge.
However, the arrow was too fast to dodge completely and managed to bury itself into the right lung of the panther.
Following the arrow, a young boy landed on the panther, immediately punching it with a fist emanating the same white light the arrow did.
The panther was struck in the base of the head, the white light entering the panther and destroying its brain directly.
Leaping off of the now dead panther, a young teenager with a boy strapped on his back approached Bai Xun casually.
He appeared to be 15 years old; his hair a pitch black and his eyes shining a bright white for but a moment.
Extending his hand. Fan Zhi introduced himself to Bai Xun.
"Hello. My name is Fan Zhi. I am sorry about the panther. I have been hunting it for an hour now and thought that your group had already departed this clearing."
"err…. Hello. I am Bai Xun. Thank you for killing the panther."
Bai Xun awkwardly introduced herself, still in slight shock about the whole situation.
However, the voice of Fan Zhi had brought her back to reality and his casual response to her introduction shocked her.
'Yeah, no problem.
Even though those two cultivators over there would have been able to easily deal with the panther, I was hunting it so I felt that I should probably finish what I started.
I guess since they observed that you are a group of young cultivators from a sect or clan; out adventuring for experience?"
"Yeah, we are. We are a part of the Bai Clan.
At least I am, that group of cultivators are members of the Chione Sect; the subsidiary sect of our Clan."
Bai Xun was surprised at the lack of reaction to the revealing of her Clan.
The Bai Clan was the ruling clan of the nearest province to the Hunchun Forest.
Furthermore, Bai Xun hadn't heard of any young cultivators that had the name or appearance of Fan Zhi.
Such a young Sky Foundation Pupil would surely have quite the fame in the province due to his high level of cultivation for his age.
"The Bai Clan…
Sorry, but where exactly am I?
I came through the forest after my clan got annihilated and I escaped."
"Ah... no problem, we are in the Hunchun province of the Hai Kingdom.
The Bai Clan is the ruling clan of the Hunchun province and is among the top 10 of the 23 ruling clans."
Not forgetting to throw in the power of her backing, Bai Xun answers the question of Fan Zhi.
Being curious, Bai Xun decides to invite Fan Zhi to travel with her group so she can question him along the way.
If her clan can obtain a genius with such strong cultivation and combat potential their power would be sure to rise at least a few ranks in the Kingdom Clan Ranking.
"We are about to travel back to Thousand Winters City, the capital of our province.
Would you like to journey with us?
There have been reporting's of quite a few bandits on the route to Thousand Winters city so it would be safer to travel in a group."
To her surprise, Fan Zhi agreed readily.
"Of course. I was just about to ask if I could travel with you guys anyway.
Travelling in groups, especially one with two Heavenly Foundation Warriors is a smart idea for any traveller or adventurer."
Suppressing her shock at the casual mention of the cultivation level of her guardians by Fan Zhi, Bai Xun was even more curious about him. Luckily, she would be travelling with him for almost a month.
That was plenty of time to ask him questions.
Gathering the scattered disciples together, Bai Xun introduced Fan Zhi and informed them of him joining their group back to Thousand Winters City.
After doing so, the group turned around and began their journey back to Thousand Winters City; Fan Zhi accompanying them.