The first thing that Zhi Ruo encountered was a mangled piece of corpse. It crawled with it's legs and it's arms were dangling; evidently broken. She had just walked roughly around 5 minutes straight on the path, and the slowly the path was a path no more.
The trees were closing in, and they loomed over Zhi Ruo. Their heights reached the clouds. And the deeper she walked, the trees also grew thicker and she could no longer see the crown of the trees.
The corpse was the first thing that Zhi Ruo encountered, that could be counted as a monster. Briefly Zhi Ruo wonders if the corpse used to be a human. As she could see the clothes that was ragged in soot, and the clear distinction of the ruddy dried color of blood.
She was about to steer away from such monster when she was stunned to see a window pop up on her vision. It was the system. The contents were something that Zhi Ruo did not expect.
[Kill Gathering; Concentration rank 1 beasts (Lvl- 1) 0/100
Rewards: 400EXP → all stats raise to 1→ additional 10SP
Penalty: possible death.]
[Kill Gathering; Concentration rank 2 beasts (Lvl- 2) 0/100
Rewards: 800EXP→all stats raised to 1 → additional 20SP
Penalty: possible death.]
[Kill Gathering; Concentration rank 3 beasts (Lvl- 3) 0/100
Rewards: 1200EXP→all stats raised to 1 → additional 30SP
Penalty: possible death.]
.
.
.
The windows popped up with an exclamation point, it triggered a series of missions. There were five in total. And Zhi Ruo could not help but zero her eyes to the penalty. She was sure that 'possible death' doesn't really mean that the system would dish out the penalty. She was sure that it was related to the mission, and to the situation that she was currently in.
She wasn't scared of the fact that she could die. She was concerned over the fact that there's five consecutive missions. It was the first time Zhi Ruo had encountered this with the system.
Zhi Ruo furrowed her brow in question. The corpse in the distance was noticing Zhi Ruo too.
[What's the meaning of this?] Zhi Ruo asked within her mindscape.
[The host is in a situation where the requirements for a mission was triggered. Currently, due to the host's level is shorter than the host's cultivation rank. The system has to put the mission as a series mission.] The system replied without missing a beat.
[...] Zhi Ruo didn't like what she was hearing, as she prefered when she got to set the pace of her training. Though, given that she was unfamiliar with how the system works, she could not find it within her to be angry.
[Please raise your Level faster hosts!] The system continued.
[...] Zhi Ruo did find it within her to be irritated at the system eventually though.
Instead of talking again, Zhi Ruo chose to dash towards the corpse that was getting nearer. Her figure hovered on the ground as she dashed towards the mangled corpse. With a simple hand and eye coordination, Zhi Ruo's fists landed soundly on the mangled corpse's head.
With rapt satisfaction, she watched as the monster's head flew to a nearby tree before exploding like a watermelon.
[Congratulations! You have killed your first beast, you have earned 50SP!]
Zhi Ruo waved the notification lazily as the body of the corpse also fell down with a thud. Within the visible eye, the corpse's body decayed at a very fast rate. And as it did so, it left a core on the place where it's heart was supposed to be.
The core was a simple transparent purple crystal at a size of Zhi Ruo's pinky finger.
Zhi Ruo picked the core from the pile of ashes and watched as the mission to kill a Gathering; Concentration rank 1 or Lvl- 1 rose by a point. Zhi Ruo then categorized the mangled corpse as a level 1 beast.
Zhi Ruo took a closer look at the core, and was in deliberation on what to do with it. As she suspected, the level 1 beasts was weak. Weaker that she imagined it to be, even two grown adults could have killed the beasts with just a shovel or a sickle.
[Please note! Cores can be turned into Status points.] A window hoovered over Zhi Ruo's vision. She raised an eyebrow at this.
In the end, instead of making the core into a Status point. Zhi Ruo threw it into one of her replicating dimension. And just left it their until it multiplied in a outrageous amount.
[MP:MP: 260/260→ 258/260]
For some odd reason, she felt like the system was displeased that she didn't turn the core into a Status point.
But the thought didn't linger enough for Zhi Ruo to pay it any heed so her thoughts moved into another setting. Like the fast approaching mangled corpses behind the gigantic tree that Zhi Ruo was sure that it wasn't there before.
Her eyes flashed with hidden irritation, although she knew that it would easy enough to dispose these low leveled monsters. It doesn't mean it was pleasant in the eyes for her to see such ghastly things.
Their was five of them in total that Zhi Ruo could see, another two was emerging from the tree that was conveniently in front of the mangled corpses. Zhi Ruo looked up at the low hanging branches of the trees and considered traveling on the air.
But before that, she faced the corpse. It dragged its body at a faster rate than the first one she encountered. Given the fact that this corpse was almost fully intact. She bolted right at the middle of the monsters, her hands were out stretched the moment she landed on the middle.
From her wrist to her palms, sand gathered as hit the face of the mangled corpse that was heading straight to Zhi Ruo. Thus halting it's actions. But within a blink, it's head fell off, it did not even know how it died, it's vision blocked by the sand.
Zhi Ruo swung her legs, with a grace you would not expect to see from a woman wearing traditional wooden high heels. And as she did so, heads fell, left and right.
Within just three moves, the monsters fell and turned into ashes, it's ashes mixed with the sand that Zhi Ruo's skill produced. The bar on Zhi Ruo's peripheral vision rose up slowly.
[MP:MP: 258/260→ 246/260]
Zhi Ruo 's MP dropped as she tossed the crystals into the same dimension that she tossed the first crystal into. This time, she did not hear the system's voice, nor the notification that would pop up in her vision.
"That's odd." Zhi Ruo quietly murmured as she saw the odd trail of sorts from where the level 1 monster came out. She has not seen a formal path since 5 minutes ago, as was quite surprised to see a path, although it was a bit unclear.
She followed the direction of the path, attentively looking out. She walked, and gradually the trees around her started to have signs of battle. The trees itself started showing signs of contaminations, and she was quite sure that it was wilting.
But the odd part is, the trees did not wilt normally. The leaves were no more, but the bark felt like a dried corpse. That itself made Zhi Ruo stop using the trees as leverage on the path.
The air turned humid, and it briefly smelled like Cadaverine and putrescine all together. Zhi Ruo heard wheezing sounds, alike the ones the monsters that Zhi Ruo slayed made when they approached her.
But this time, the sounds were numerous. She felt like she encountered what the souls of the dead would sound like. But she wasn't perturbed; rather Zhi Ruo was curious.
The veiw of a few thousand zombie like monsters fell on her vision. Their voices were ghastly, and the air smelled like feces and rotting flesh. It was so disgusting that Zhi Ruo jumped on a higher branch but could still smell the putrid air.
She resisted the urge to pinch her nose, as she jumped on a tree unnoticed.
"What—" Zhi Ruo narrowed her eyes at the tree that was at the center of the 500 or so monsters. "—is that?" Zhi Ruo watched alarmed when she saw the monsters part into two as a living corpse of some another odd monster walk down in between.
Her blood ran cold when she saw people tied up on the back of such monster. She saw the familiar clothing of the Ye clan.
The cow like monster was nearing the tree; Zhi Ruo one of the tree's branches was made out of countless strands of hair. She was sure that it was hair, no strings could have that consistency.
Zhi Ruo then recalled the books that she had skimmed upon. She remembered that that monster in the crowd of undead was called a Nogral.
What confuses her the most is not the fact that the Nogral is so vastly different from the crowd of undead. But the fact that the Nogral is from the north.
Nograls are hulking beasts that stalks the wastelands of the northean plains that ceaselessly hunts for food. Nograls can been seen solitary or in small packs of 4-6, they are immune to most of some cold biomes and they are very aggressive in nature.
Zhi Ruo almost didn't recognize the Norgral because it was in a undead state. A lot of parts were missing but it's hulking nature and the patches of white distinctive fur made her realize what the monster was.
On the other hand, she did not recognize the tree that looked like it was made out of hair. Zhi Ruo looked at the tree wearily, she noted that the undead creatures were a different level each. The highest level should be that tree.
In a second Zhi Ruo made a split decision, she gritted her teeth and leaped at the outskirts of the crowd of undead creatures. Her entrance halted the Nogral that was transferring the unconscious people to the blood-curdling looking tree.
She did not waste time and started attacking the undead monster nearest to her. Zhi Ruo did not use any fancy skills, only the skill she earned from the system that she could use without worrying for her MP depleting.
If some people saw Zhi Ruo, they would say that she is stingy. But Zhi Ruo was more thatln stingy, everytime a strand of Qi escapes her. Zhi Ruo lotus mark on her forehead would gobble it up. Never letting anything go without a cost.
Although Zhi Ruo didn't practice any cultivation technique currently, with her memories alone and her battle experiences. She could defeat anyone in her level and the levels above her with ease. As long as her enemy wasn't overwhelming like her grandfather. She was fine facing such creatures.
She was more than fine actually, Zhi Ruo giddily beheaded each and every undead creatures around her. The bar rising at the corner of her peripheral vision gave a boost of serotonin that only fired her up.
It came to the point that Zhi Ruo was just harvesting cores from the ground because nothing could go near her. The undead creatures— although dead, could feel the sense of danger everytime Zhi moved by an inch.
The Nogral could not take it anymore, it dashed to Zhi Ruo. On it's back was the three unconscious people, they were waking up bleary-eyed. The tree shrieked suddenly, it was so near on touching the human but the Nogral suddenly dashed. Although mad the tree could not do anything as it stayed rooted at the spot (quite literally).
Zhi Ruo shot a glance at the tree, but her vision was blocked by the gigantic Nogral coming to her way.