Zhao Fan set out and by midday arrived at the forest. He came back to his cave where he deposited some more rice bags, salt, and other supplies he bought with the last of his stashed money. As he put on his new equipment he felt a lot more confident than before.
"I think if I face the bear again, I should be able to kill it fairly easily. This time I should hunt a tier 3 beast." Although he was absolutely destroyed by the bear last time, his strength improved exponentially. Overall, he could try to hunt a tier 3 beast or at least he would be able to run away safely from one.
As he stepped out from his cave and got ready to hunt, Zhao Fan felt a weird sensation. He looked at the space above and in front of him seeing a tiny dot.
SHUA
In the middle of the sky a crack appeared as space was sliced open by an unimaginably strong power. A dominating aura spread out as all beings within one hundred kilometers froze in fear. From the crack an old man dressed in golden robes flew out while emitting a dreadful aura.
The old man wore a gloomy expression covered partly by a white beard. His golden robes had an intricate design of two dragons interlinking which created an air of majesty and dominance to his look which was further deepened by a leather scabbard hanging at his side.
Zhao Fan, who was fairly close to the old man, couldn't even breathe. The unknown cultivator turned around and looked straight at Zhao Fan. Suddenly, he felt that the man was actually standing right next to him as if reality shifted. Zhao Fan blinked in surprise but the illusion didn't disappear and the man actually was in front of him.
"Good, I'm not late!" The old man let out a sigh of relief as he inspected Zhao Fan closely with his dark eyes and immeasurably deep eyes which created the impression of two wells. His gloomy expression considerably brightened but a moment later became stern.
"I am the Grasping Fortune Sect's current Sect Leader and I have come to give you a special gift. Don't bother asking why, you aren't qualified to know yet.." Out of thin air, a pendant appeared and floated above the elder's hand. He used a small gesture and it flew into place around Zhao Fan's neck. Having done that, the elder sighed again and slowly moved towards the crack in space.
"Senior, c-could you tell me your esteemed name?" Before he went through, Zhao Fan managed to open his mouth to ask a question. The old man stopped moving and contemplated for a few moments before turning around.
"My name is Wan Yi but there is no use knowing, I only ask that you remember the Grasping Fortune Sect as you mature!" Wan Yi's expression changed once again as he suddenly laughed and shot back into the crack. The moment his body went through the space crack, it suddenly disappeared as if it was never there.
The moment the horrifying aura disappeared, every beast and person within a large area collectively relaxed and wiped cold sweat off their foreheads. The aura made them feel as if it could extinguish their life with one thought.
"Is this the power of the Core Condensation Realm or even the Nascent Soul realm?" Zhao Fan was the most confused out of all. Inspecting the necklace, it looked completely ordinary and even channeling it did not have any effect. Despite its apparent uselessness, he felt some sort of weird connection with it.
"The only reasonable explanation is that due to the wolf pack, a visiting elder from a sect passed by and noticed me either because of my potential or by fate." Grasping Fortune Sect probably had something to do with fate so it would make sense for the sect leader to notice him because of fate but Zhao Fan didn't know enough to make a rational conclusion.
"He said it's not too late, which most likely referred to the wolf pack. The situation seems to be much worse than I anticipated" Zhao Fan creased his brows. Although thinking about it, it didn't make a difference since he didn't have a choice in the matter. That being said, he set off to start his hunt.
In a meadow, a burly looking dark wolf was enjoying eating a rank 2 deer. It was over 2 meters tall and twice as long and clearly much stronger than the wolves which Zhao Fan killed before. However, it didn't know that right above it Zhao Fan was carefully observing its every movement, waiting to pounce. His right fist was clenched and faintly emitted a blue color contrasting the white glove.
Woosh
As the wolf revealed an opening, he immediately channeled qi to his legs and pushed off, diving down at the wolf. It didn't even have the chance to retaliate as Zhao Fan fiercely smashed its head sending it into the dirt.
Crack
A sharp cracking sound was heard as the wolf's skull was broken and it was instantly killed. As it crashed to the ground, the spot which Zhao Fan struck was clearly deformed and the wolf's brain littered the crater.
"Wow, I'm actually pretty strong," he said jovially. Killing a tier 3 beast for the first time with one strike, Zhao Fan clearly felt a little cocky. Although it was tier 3, it was around the same strength as the bear and it would be a tough fight if he didn't have the element of surprise which allowed him to catch the wolf off-guard.
His first instinct after he killed the wolf wasn't to take it back but instead to take off his clothes and enter it. Obviously, he literally meant to enter the body of the wolf in order to absorb its beast essense directly.
"F*ck this is strong" A tier 3 beast had a more condensed beast essense and the quantity was bigger as well causing Zhao Fan to feel as if he entered a sauna. His entire body felt hot but at the same time it felt very pleasurable. His body was getting harder and harder as he absorbed more beast essence and he felt more powerful with each passing breath.
After an hour, Zhao Fan came outside the beast, with smelly liquid around his body dripping onto the ground. Luckily there was a river nearby so he washed himself free from the beast's internal juices before going to harvest its organs to take back. Very soon, he made his way back to his cave and focused on cultivating by eating the organs directly. This was hundreds of times faster than when he used to just absorb qi in the air, in fact he felt that he might step into the third level of Qi Condensation soon.
In this way, he passed the days until the week was over. This process repeated itself as he hunted in the day and cultivated in the night.
As he was finishing absorbing a piece of meat one fateful night, a bang resounded in Zhao Fan's mind as unstable energy broke out in the room. The third level of Qi Condensation! Stabilizing his cultivation Zhao Fan felt that his improvement was insanely fast. However, each subsequent breakthrough would only get more difficult so even if the third level took him a week with this method, the fourth might take a month or more. Still, there was a little less than two months left so if he cultivated to the fourth level in time for the competition he could have a realistic chance to fight for top 10.
However, how could Zhao Fan settle for just top 10? His happy expression was immediately numbed by the news of Liu Zhong already defeating a rank 4 snake some time ago.