Opening his eyes, the young man felt reinvigorated. Clenching his fist he felt even stronger than before. Stronger than he could've ever imagined. "Still not enough." He sighed before scanning his surroundings.
Fortunately it seemed as though his plan worked out. The commotion he created caused the numerous surrounding beasts to run away in fear rather than come over out of curiosity. This allowed the young man to peacefully absorb the Crimson Blood Fruit.
Now that he had finished digesting the Crimson Blood Fruit, he walked away from the scene of the battle and aimlessly into the forest once again. Rather than looking for a way out now his goal were gold lines.
So far each gold line had led him to a coveted treasure, one that could make anyone from his home City drool in envy. But simultaneously that worried the young man even more after all while these resources were rare for an Empire like the Blood Flame Empire their elites could have as many of them as they wanted.
--------------------------
"So has everyone understood? This is one of our last lessons before the Academy Examination." A teacher explained pointing towards the board behind him.
"Understood." The students replied in unison, only one student had an unsure expression on his face as he raised his hand to ask a question.
"What is it Atlas? Speak up." The teacher said before pointing his ruler at the boy in the back. He was of average height standing at about 170 centimeters tall and had medium length brown hair and eyes.
"Well if we can go to a Small Academy if we're lucky, how strong are those from the Capital?" Atlas asked out of curiosity. Even the best in their class was only at the 6th Level of Spirit Gathering but at best he could only go to a slightly bigger Small Academy.
"Do you know what Realm the City Lord is at?" The teacher asked with a mischievous smile on his face.
"Complete Spirit Formation right?" The boy called Atlas answered.
"You'd be correct. The average genius in the Capital is already at that level. Our Green Wind City is extremely small and isolated compared to the rest of the Kingdom, meaning the resources we can acquire and receive are equally as small." The teacher explained, this shocked the entire classroom.
--------------------------
Looking back on that day still gave the young man chills. He was simultaneously grateful and regretful that he'd asked that question. 'At the time it was a great blow to all of our confidences but if I didn't know that, I'd have no chance of getting my revenge.' The young man thought.
In reality the geniuses of the Blood Flame Empire were stronger than those of the Capital, which only meant that to get his revenge would be an even greater challenge. 'I don't know what realm is after the Spirit Formation Realm, but if I can reach completion and possibly whatever Realm is after that I'll have a real chance of finding and killing that general.'
With his conviction reignited the young man spotted yet another gold line before following it. A few minutes later he ended up in front of a cave he'd never seen before. 'The treasure must be in there.' He pondered before deciding to head into the cave.
At this point he was stronger than ever before so he wasn't that fearful of any beasts that could potentially live within the cave. Entering the cave, it was dark and damp, unlike most other caves he had come across so far it seemed to be quite long and led deep into the ground.
"Drip. Drip. Drip."
The further he went into the cave the louder the dripping sound got, a rancid smell wafted through the air. 'Corpses.' With that thought the young man grew cautious as he slowed his steps and breathing.
He had now reached a turning point in the cave, sticking to the wall the young man peeked around the corner, the sight shocking him.
From one end to another corpses filled the cave, blood leaking out of them, the only thing left alive in the cave being a large slumbering green snake with a glowing blue mushroom in front of it. 'Glowshroom, a very beneficial Spirit Qi supplement.'
With one look the young man recognised the herb that the gold line was pointing towards. While he'd already reached the peak of the Spirit Gathering Realm, he'd need a lot of Spirit Qi to make it to the Spirit Formation Realm so he'd need any help he could get.
But this snake was no pushover, although he wasn't 100% sure the young man was confident that it was no ordinary snake. 'A Demonic Beast.....' So far he'd been lucky enough to not encounter any of these fearsome creatures, but it seemed as though his luck had come to an end.
Compared to a human a Demonic Beast was always stronger at the same level, not to mention their various natural abilities and instincts. Fighting a Demonic Beast was extremely risky to say the least, because of this the young man began to think twice.
'No! What Demonic Beast? Can it be compared to the Blood Flame Empire and their army?! To that general!? If I can't even beat a small snake how can I hope to get my revenge!!' With that thought he rushed out towards the snake at full speed.
He had thought about sneaking up on it, but that was unlikely to work for a few reasons, so in the end he simply decided to rush at the snake.
Running at a speed no normal human could ever hope to achieve, his bare feet slamming against the cold hard stone, the young man punched out towards the snake.
"HISS!"
Before the attack could even land the snake awoke from its slumber, its tail thicker than the young man swinging at him from out of nowhere.
"BOOM!"
As fist and tail hit one another the clash ended in a stalemate. "I guess this is gonna be quite the fight." He muttered before going in for another punch, he wasn't going to back down now or ever again.