Cao Yun was still performing his punching routine under the night sky. He was getting tired of this forest and was wondering what he should do. He put aside these thoughts to first complete his practice.
When he was done, he mulled over his plan. The first thing to do was to fully recover his past strength, being a 2nd-grade Mortal at 15 was way too weak, he needed to be at least 3rd-grade. If he could become a 4th-grade, that would be good but how long would it take. The only reason why he was able to break through to the 2nd-grade in only 10 days was his past cultivation. Even though his body had been broken and reformed, the medicinal properties of all the balms and pills he had taken before stayed in his flesh. He also had a good experience of these grades and remembered how they felt.
For the 3rd grade, he could still rely on his past experience and on a portion of the medicinal essence still in his body. To temper your bones and marrow, there were several ways. The most superficial ones consisted in absorbing medicines that could penetrate the bones and nourish them. Physical routines could work in depth in your body, using your strengthened muscles and tendons to temper your bones. By using your intent, you could focus on the bones and marrow to amplify the results. You could also attack your body with vibrating strikes to penetrate deep in your bones, the point was to strike with enough power to have any gain, but not with too much power so that you would not get injured.
Other cultivators could also infuse their energy in your body to nourish them as well and guide your intent in the corresponding parts of your bones. But Cao Yun was alone for now.
The 'Cultivation of Wrath' had similar techniques. The main technique was a punching routine, a variation of the 'Dance of Slaughter'. The mantras were different as well as the images you had to visualize during the routine. It allowed you to focus more on the bones instead of the muscles. A strange part of the routine was to use the vibration of your own muscles to strike your bones. It was similar to the last movement, 'Slaughtering the Enemy', that could create a vibrating strike penetrating the defense of your enemies. By understanding this phenomenon, it was possible to infuse it in all the movements of the 'Dance of Slaughter'. By doing so, you could both cultivate and increase your fighting prowess.
Using the blood of demonic beasts was still useful in this grade. Cao Yun also found pill formulas, but he had no way of finding the ingredients necessary and he had no experience in forging any pill. And, of course, he could not buy pills in the forest. Going back into the city would be too dangerous, people would certainly recognize him even though he did not go out much, and the information could be heard by the assassins.
Finally, he found a last method of training. The 'Cultivation of Wrath' contained a special way to strike yourself in order to temper your bones and infuse the properties of the Drop of Wrath deeper into your marrow. While doing so, you had to focus on the Drop of Wrath and guide its intent in the parts you were training. It would then alter your marrow that would start to produce blood with even more properties of the Drop of Wrath.
This last method was tough to do alone, especially to hit the back, but Cao Yun had no other choice. First of all, he was alone, but even if he was not, he could not trust anyone with this cultivation technique, even a small fraction of it. The bond between a Master and his student was sacred and without the explicit agreement of the Master, sharing his secrets was forbidden.
Cao Yun was literally hitting himself with his own fists and against trees and rocks. The trees were rapidly broken and deep marks were left within the rocks. Yet, his body had no trace of injury.
His days were very similar to one another. He trained his body by striking it as a blacksmith would to forge a weapon. Then he meditated to focus on the feeling in his bones and guide his intent as well as the intent of the Drop of Wrath deep inside them. While this feeling was still fresh, he performed the 'Dance of Slaughter' with the new mantras and visualizations.
He felt that he was making huge progress.
He decided to go hunting again. He found the last Crimson lion-stag, it was a female. After the death of the other three, it seemed to be scared. It was staying in its den with the five cubs. Cao Yun had some remorse, but he really needed their blood, and after all, they were predators as well. He was not killing them for the fun of it but in order to survive the ordeal he was in.
Cao Yun breathed deeply and toughened his state of mind. He stepped into the den ready to kill.
But once inside, he discovered that the cubs and the female had been slaughtered. They were terribly mutilated and someone had taken their cores. These wounds were clearly caused by weapons and not by other beasts. Cao Yun was not the only human in this forest. The hunters seemed to have enjoyed torturing the beasts before killing them. Cao Yun was more than upset by this show of sadism. Fortunately for him, the hunters had taken the cores but there was still a lot of blood and right now it was even more important to him.
He took all the blood he could, using their skin as bags. It took him some time but it was worth it. Right now, he had to be careful not to be discovered by the hunters. He did not know their strength or their number, and they could maybe recognize him. As such, he went deeper within the forest, fully entering the mountains.
He then resumed his daily training, using the blood to cover his body according to specific pathways. As he was training, he felt the blood penetrating his skin and making its way deep inside his bones. He could feel a burning sensation in them. As they were heating up, his bones were hit by his own vibrating muscles. Cao Yun put all his mind and intent on this feeling, to really guide the process.
Cao Yun kept on training for two weeks when he finally broke through to 3rd-grade Mortal. A thunderous roar echoed from deep within him and a hot sensation spread throughout his body. He felt as if his bones were about to split open but they endured. His whole body was shaking for several minutes. He focused his mind on all these sensations to improve the quality of his breakthrough.
This feeling was a little different to the one he was familiar with. This difference, no matter how small, was still magical to Cao Yun. He realized that even though he was the same grade as he was before the attack, he was stronger. He had been able to fight a 4th-grade Mortal to a stalemate. Right now, he would probably win, with difficulty of course, but that was exceptional.
And besides this revived cultivation, he had gained a new insight into the 'Dance of Slaughter'. Every single one of his movements was filled with the concept of vibration. He decided to test his new strength by striking a rock. Putting all his power and newfound understanding in his fist, the rock was pulverized into dust. Killing a Crimson lion-stag would not be perilous for him right now.
Cao Yun had taken less than a month to fully recover. At first, he was convinced it would take him at the very least a whole year. But right now, he was aiming for the 4th-grade Mortal. The 3rd-grade Mortal focused mainly on the training of the Lower Dantian. The Lower Dantian was located in the lower abdomen, under the umbilical.
It was often referred to as a cauldron in which the life essence, called Jing, was transformed into life energy, the Qi. The Jing was the essence that gave birth to any life and could be considered as the lifespan of any living being. This Jing then was transformed by the body into Qi, the energy flowing in the bodies of every living being. Understandingly, this Lower Dantian was able to store huge amount of Qi. Filling the Lower Dantian with Qi was a key part of the cultivation path. But before filling it, it was paramount to strengthen and temper it, as one did with his muscles and tendons and then bones and marrow.
To temper the Lower Dantian, it was necessary to strike it from within with surges of Qi. Consequently, you needed to be able to direct your Qi toward your Lower Dantian. This process could be sped up by another cultivator guiding his own Qi within you. Cao Sheng had indeed guided his little brother in this grade. Since Cao Yun had entered this grade, months before the attack, he had trained with his brother to somewhat gain a little control over his Qi. He could now focus his intent and manipulate his Qi.
It was time for Cao Yun to use the three Crimson lion-stag cores he had. The core from the male was the biggest, containing more Qi than the other two combined. In the beginning, Cao Yun preferred using one of the core from the females. He sat down cross-legged, holding the core right in front of his lower abdomen. The 'Cultivation of Wrath' contained special breathing techniques and mantras to absorb the Qi from a core more efficiently. Absorbing the Qi from a core always resulted in a waste of energy, and that was greatly limited by these techniques.
Cao Yun had not absolute control over the Qi, but enough to focus it in his Lower Dantian. He imagined the filaments of energy intertwining and contracting inside his Lower Dantian. He put all of his intent within, even using the intent of the Drop of Wrath, and let go. The Qi exploded outwards. It erupted against the walls of his Lower Dantian. As with the bones, the force of the impact had to be managed so that it was strong enough to produce a result and not too strong so as not to harm oneself.
Cao Yun could feel his Lower Dantian react to this impact and contract a little before it returned to its natural state.
Cao Yun kept on meditating for almost the entire day. The core was not completely depleted but its end was near.
Even if it was only a little, Cao Yun felt a small fire in his lower abdomen. If he focused enough, he could feel the strings of Qi moving on their own inside him.
The first time he had entered the 3rd-grade Mortal, he had worked hard for over two months before being able to feel this sensation. Fortunately, he had not lost this feeling and was thus able to reduce the time he needed. But he had never broken through to the 4th-grade, so it would still take time for him to do it. For most people, it would take around a year. Cao Yun tried to estimate how long he would need. If he could train with demonic beast cores every day, and taking into account his familiarity with this level, he came to the conclusion that he would need 4 or 5 months.
The problem was that the cores he had would probably only last 10 days at most. The first one was very tiny and would crumble tomorrow, the second one could maybe last 2 or 3 days and the male core would probably last a little less than a week.
He was in need of other cores. Normally, a cultivator would mainly use Qi Gathering pills. Qi Gathering pills or even stronger pills like the Qi Condensation pills, were made from medicinal herbs and could send profound surges of Qi in a cultivator. The medicinal essence could even last for a week and be used freely by the cultivator. Alas, Cao Yun had no knowledge of pill forging, and did not even know how to recognize medicinal herbs. Surely, this forest was filled with such herbs but to Cao Yun it was as if they did not exist at all. Of course, he would be able to feel the fragrance of very high-grade medicinal herbs, but had no way of discerning the low-grade ones. And even if he could, ingesting medicinal herbs without understanding their properties would be stupid.
He could only rely on demonic beast cores. The beasts had absorbed and condensed the Qi themselves and Cao Yun could tap into it and use their hard work for himself. But he had to hunt these beasts. He was not too afraid, for these past few days he realized there was no demonic beast with more than one core. What was worrying for him were the other hunters. He did not want to meet anyone who could potentially expose his identity. For all intents and purposes, Cao Yun was dead and he meant to remain this way.