[Word Count 2328]
After resting for the whole night, Zhao Wei woke up feeling light in mind and his body brimming with vigorous vitality.
Zhao Wei felt excessively freshened like the morning dew.
"A new day once again heralds another gamble with death!" Zhao yawned idly while thinking about his yet actualized plans.
With one day already gone, Zhao Wei was only left with fourteen days till the commencement of the final tournament.
Fourteen days were enough for him to prepare adequately as long as his time management skills weren't crazily poor.
Stretching himself, Zhao Wei searched through his mind for concealment techniques from the thousands of techniques he scavenged from the martial arts library.
Through thorough elimination, Zhao Wei found that there were only six techniques that were based on concealment and espionage-related activities.
Since what he was going to choose was a determinant of his survivability in what he would be undertaking, Zhao Wei took his time to comprehensively look through those six concealment techniques.
Finally, he chose one that felt suitable for him.
[Shadow Concealment Technique], it was a Peak middle ranked technique that allowed its user to perfectly blend with their surroundings. An initial level of comprehension of the technique would enable the user to completely erase the sounds produced from their footsteps. For the intermediate level of comprehension, in addition to erasing one's sound from perception, the user would be able to hide one's breath, body scent, inner energy and cultivation. And lastly, when one fully perfected [Shadow Concealment Technique], they would be able to hide from naked eyes and turn invisible. The user would be able to give out the ethereal feeling of fading into nothing and escape the senses of even higher realm cultivators.
The technique was perfect for spying and assassination but from its name, Zhao Wei had once thought that it would have something to do with hiding in shadows.
"If it had been centered around shadows, then this technique would have been extremely terrifying and broken!" Zhao Wei couldn't hide his wild thoughts.
"Just hiding in the shadows and attacking from within the shadows would mark the threshold of a perfect assassin but it won't be all powerful as there are various factors that can easily counter such types of sneaky attacks. But all the same, it was something someone wouldn't want to experience for themselves."
Taking a futon, Zhao Wei walked outside and couldn't help but first marvel at the beautiful morning sun.
Widening his arms recklessly, Zhao Wei closed his eyes with his face facing the resplendent golden rays of the morning sun.
"Uh, I feel like a fucking Kryptonian as the solar energy from the sun is being absorbed by my cells," Zhao Wei released a contented sigh as his lips curved into a satisfied smile.
Yes, Zhao Wei's [Primordial Stellar Energy Body Refining Art] could also use the energy from the Golden Crow's sunflame radiations. In fact, Zhao Wei felt like he could have just named it [Tri-Luminaries Energy Absorption Art] since the technique could utilize the three energies from the sun, moon, and stars. But due its uniqueness that was mainly centered around the stars, he chose to go with the former. The sun was also a star so it honestly didn't matter.
"Nothing beats sunbathing and lazing around but my current situation doesn't allow such leisure." Forcibly extricating himself from the momentary bliss, Zhao Wei placed the futon on the ground and sat on it.
He needed, no, he must perfect the [Shadow Concealment Technique] by the end of the day.
Zhao Wei calmly quelled any unnecessary thoughts from his mind and entered a serene state in the midst of nature.
In just two hours or so, he easily entered the initial phase of mastery of [Shadow Concealment Technique].
Zhao Wei then rose up and diligently started practicing to test the effects of the initial phase of mastery of [Shadow Concealment Technique]. The mode of soundlessness.
After feeling assured that everything was good, Zhao Wei once again sat cross-legged on the futon and started meditating in efforts of experiencing a higher level of understanding of [Shadow Concealment Technique].
Due to his outstanding comprehension talent, Zhao managed to completely achieve grand perfection in [Shadow Concealment Technique] by the end of the day.
Invisibility was good and all but it wasn't omnipotent, Zhao Wei reminded himself.
The subtle movements of an invisible person would naturally affect the flow of air and cause fluctuations in the breeze and an extraordinary cultivator with extremely sharpened senses that could even capture small changes in the air currents could easily pinpoint their position.
Zhao Wei was someone who considered all possibilities when making decisions. He didn't shy away from thinking about the "what IFs". Since he couldn't foresee his own future, it was only natural for him to think that not all things would always go his way.
"But people with such abilities are as rare as a qilin's horn but to those who have already unlocked their
Night had already fallen and the silvery rays of the Moon were already bathing his magnificent courtyard into what seemed like a silver-like domain.
Zhao Wei's mysterious eyes also seemed to change color under the colorful radiance of the moon.
He felt mentally exhausted after sitting like a reclusive hermit for almost the whole day.
"Seclusion really needs an unshakeable mind and steadiness. Just imagining myself sitting around in a secluded mountain cave for nearly hundreds of thousands years or even millions of years makes me feel terribly uncomfortable," Zhao Wei chuckled to himself as he went inside his house to cook something for his rebellious tummy.
Just like that the day ended and the following day, Zhao Wei went to Sun Feather City.
He needed to buy himself more resilient weapons for the expedition to come.
Zhao Wei still had twenty thousand pieces of silver coins on him and with that money, he bought some healing pills, a new sturdier dagger and a new bow with resilient strings capable of handling the intensity of his inner energy. For additional precaution, he purchased a high grade mortal spear - Earth Splitting Desolate Spear.
Zhao Wei just named it "Earth Splitter". Earth Splitter's main body(shaft) was adorned with golden carvings and characters that made it look quite mysterious. Its head was pure silver in color and the extremely sharp tip shone with a silvery glint. Its sharp edge gave a powerful illusory feeling of tearing the earth asunder. Feeling the cold spear in his hand and familiarizing himself with it, Zhao Wei felt satisfied. The Earth Splitter weighed roughly 1200 Jin but to Zhao Wei, it was as light as a feather. He could spin it around effortlessly without breaking a sweat.
Those shopkeepers always want to make their products sound more domineering and profound to capture their customer's interests, Zhao Wei mused as he hurriedly made his way towards Sky Cloud Forest.
Anyways, since he already had a good foundation on the use of a spear after discovering the mystery behind 'flow', Zhao Wei didn't have to worry about spear techniques at the moment. He had supreme confidence in his basic technique.
"Sky Cloud Forest never ceases to amaze me," Zhao Wei muttered in a low voice as he neared the ancient forest that seemed to be alive, waiting to swallow up anything that entered inside it.
It was a completely isolated world full of verdant trees and colorful splendor. Thinking about the Sky Cloud Forest, inevitably made Zhao Wei reminisce about Shinsenkyō - the Divine Island that has a forest with all kinds of extremely beautiful sceneries just like how a paradise would be.
With a relaxed smile on his face, Zhao Wei raced into the forest.
He was already familiar with it after his previous slaughter fest when he was honing his skills. But today, it was going to be different. His ultimate aim was going to be deeper regions of Sky Cloud Forest. The deeper one progressed into forest , the more dangerous it got due to the existence of High tier Deadly Beasts.
It was extremely risky. A place where you could die at any moment. Despite its horrifying danger level, it was also equally filled with precious treasures of heaven and earth. An intertwining point between good fortune and possible death.
Zhao Wei wasn't planning to venture into the unknown blindly. The novel couldn't provide him with every little piece of knowledge considering he was now living its reality. The directions and exact location weren't mentioned when Zhao Feng stumbled upon those earthly treasures but there were helpful clues that could help Zhao Wei in finding the place.
The Sky Cloud Forest was immensely vast and to search for one specific place in it was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. Zhao Wei wasn't discouraged, nonetheless.
His telescopic vision could currently cover over 30 miles of distance and it seemed it was only going to improve further beyond with his increase in Cultivation base.
Zhao Wei's vision covered over a 30 miles radius as he surveyed like a god from up a tall ancient tree.
Taking out the [Earth Splitter] from his back, Zhao Wei grinned when he located the first prey to taste the might of his spear.
Zhao Wei could use archery to snipe his prey but he wanted to test his foundational spear skills.
Jumping from a height of 100 meters, Zhao Wei's feet smoothly landed on the ground without making a sound.
From a safe distance, Zhao Wei carefully eyed the Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound which was leisurely munching on its unlucky prey's meat.
This was a beast with strength of peak fifth ranked Martial Artist but contrary to what expectations, Zhao Wei was trying to hunt it despite being one realm below it. No fear could be seen in his attentive eyes that eyed the prey with unbreakable concentration.
The Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound had an intimidating size that easily towered over a grown man, both in height and length. Fiery embers of fire spewed out of its maws with every opening and closing of its huge mouth. It looked like a self-serving grilling machine.
Tightly clutching the [Earth Splitter], Zhao Wei instantly used [Instantaneous Lightning Movement] and charged at the Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound.
The Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound survival instincts kicked almost immediately as if sensing an imminent threat of death coming towards it from behind.
The Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound felt pissed off that someone had the nerve to disturb its snacking time.
Who is that insignificant peon?!
Just as Zhao Wei's spear was about to pierce it from behind, the Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound quickly erupted with immense power from its legs muscles as it jumped out of the spear's attacking path and barely escaped from being impaled from its backside.
Too immoral!
"As expected of a fifth ranked Deadly Beast. Your bestial senses are quite good, dog." Zhao Wei wasn't disappointed by his attack missing its target and obviously expected the Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound to be extremely vigilant.
"Grrr!" The Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound growled in dissatisfaction and anger, probably from being called a dog and also its meal being disturbed by a twisted human.
The Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound could already feel that its current opponent gave it a tingling sense of extreme danger but as a hunter who had always predated countless prey, it mostly thought of making Zhao Wei its desert.
A cruel glint illuminated its hellish eyes as it threateningly bared its razor-sharp teeth that were as strong as steel and could easily crush bones into powder.
"UWUU!" The Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound abruptly brandished its shiny metallic claws and lunged at Zhao Wei with a vicious frontal attack.
'This beast is determined to make me its meal and I am determined to kill it. Both of our lives are currently on the line and the victor would be determined by the speed and lethality of our attacks.' Zhao Wei overclocked his senses and his perception of time slowed down as he stared and analyzed the Hound's weak spots.
If he wanted to win, he had to attack faster than the Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound. The beast had a [berserker mode] and it could go berserk at any moment where it would rampage with strength equaling the sixth rank of Martial Artist Realm.
Zhao Wei could already see the weak point under its throat and underbelly.
SHWAAH!
Zhao Wei used all of his speed, muscle strength and his body weight and focused all that destructive power on the tip of the [Earth Splitter] before performing a cataclysmic thrust that seemed capable of sundering the heavens.
SWIISH!
BANG!
Zhao Wei's spear was like a storm; like a tempest dragon as it violently pierced through the throat of the Ancient Fire-Breathing Desolate Hound and severed its large dog head from the roots!
Its headless lifeless corpse then languidly dropped on the ground.
One moment. One moment was all it took for one of them to survive. It was a moment of immense precision, lightning speed, and titanic strength.
Zhao Wei could hear his own heart drumming in unknown excitement after killing a living thing.
It was the joy of a life and death battle!
"That was so close - a graze from death." Zhao Wei touched the fresh scar on his cheek and then looked at the blood smeared on his fingers.
Rustle!
Suddenly, from the spot where he was standing to his immediate surroundings, a dark purple shadowy fog appeared and quickly diffused to cover the ground and the air.
'A predator had been camping! Silently watching!' Understanding dawned in his eyes as his eyebrows creased into a grim expression.
He had been bested by a creature who had totally escaped his superior vision and senses!
***
[Author's End Note]
Hello fellow cultivators sorry for going MIA for the past 4 days... I was in secluded retreat fighting my inner demons (I mean had a bunch of consecutive CATs so I had to prep myself).
I am now good to go with the updates.
Shameless Self Promotion here for advanced chapters and general support visit my Patreon [Patreon.com/OneArmedImmortal]. If you do so, this old immortal might impart you with some valuable primordial treasure or heaven-defying technique.
Enjoy!