This second dark silhouette had long hair that was let down freely, reaching all the way down to the waist level.
Its facial features remained completely hidden, but the figure showed through enough for anyone to tell that it was a female.
In fact, if Gu Qiansi was able to see this, she might be able to identify the owner of the female silhouette as well.
After all, it was the familiar figure of someone whom she had spent the past few days hanging out with.
This female silhouette respectfully clasped her fists towards the original male silhouette before quickly entering a battle stance.
The male silhouette did not cower either.
Instead, he raised his hand towards the female silhouette and gestured with his four fingers, beckoning the female silhouette to come at him.
The female silhouette did not need to be told twice.
Without hesitation, she shot forward with her fist raised.
It was the same improvised version of the Snapping Burst that Lu Zhiying had executed at the Hundred Puppets Array earlier today.
Faced with this aggression, the male silhouette's leg swept out the moment the female silhouette got in range.
Swift and precise.
Despite the boost of speed from the improvised Snapping Burst, it was impossible for the female silhouette to dodge the incoming attack.
As a result, the male silhouette's shin connected cleanly with the side of her waist.
There was no sound to be heard from this imaginary world of light, but Zhao Yunxiao could imagine just how heavy the impact was judging from the way the female silhouette was sent flying through the air.
Or perhaps it was the other around – the way she flew through the air was a result of Zhao Yunxiao's imagination.
Regardless, the female silhouette leapt back to her feet immediately after, completely undeterred by the earlier failure.
Once again, she raised her fist and charged forward.
However, things were slightly different this time.
The female silhouette no longer charged straight towards the male silhouette, instead approaching in a zigzag motion.
The male silhouette swept out with his leg once more, but he made his own adjustments as well.
Compared to the previous time, the angle was just a little sharper, but the speed was just a little slower.
The female silhouette's zigzagging movements did not grant her immunity against the kick as she was sent flying through the air once more.
Unsurprisingly, she got up and charged towards the male silhouette yet again.
This time, on top of the zigzag approach pattern, her speed kept varying as well, making it difficult to predict the time of contact.
The male silhouette responded with the same move – a sweeping kick to the waist.
Only that this time, the angle of the kick became even sharper while the speed reduced further.
Despite the varying speed of the female silhouette, the kick still managed to connect cleanly.
Zhao Yunxiao nodded to himself as he pictured this scene.
The reduced speed made it look as though the male silhouette was not taking this seriously, but that could not be further from the truth.
When faced with such zombie-like opponents that seemed to keep getting up no matter how many times they got knocked down, the first consideration should always be the conservation of energy.
That could be done in many ways, and the most direct method was through improving the efficiency of each move.
The slower or less powerful each move needed to be, the more efficient it was.
The more efficient each move was, the less energy expended.
This would in turn increase the total duration that that one could last in a fight, thereby reducing the chances of expending all energy before eventually taking down the opponent.
In reality, it was nigh impossible to improve the efficiency of one's moves just by willing it.
This was something that had to be refined through countless practice, and even that did not guarantee any progress.
Nevertheless, anything was possible in Zhao Yunxiao's imaginary world of light.
What mattered was whether he could fully absorb what he learnt here and eventually translate this to reality, but that was a problem for another day.
The female silhouette went at the male silhouette again and again, changing up her style every time she approached in a bid to find an opening in the male silhouette's defence.
In response, the male silhouette continued to refine his moves, sending the female silhouette flying repeatedly with moves that also continued to evolve and adapt.
Soon, the male silhouette's responses started changing up as well.
From kicks to punches.
From punches to evasive manoeuvres.
Zhao Yunxiao took everything to heart, making a mental note of everything that worked and everything that did not, as well as all the reasons why.
Slowly but surely, the night deepened, and so did Zhao Yunxiao's understanding of the moves in his arsenal...
***
At the break of dawn, Zhao Yunxiao slowly opened his eyes while letting out a long deep breath.
His meditation session did not last nearly as long as he had expected this time, but that did not mean the benefits were not immense.
Not only did he feel his cultivation improve, but his understanding of his combat techniques had also truly gone up a notch this time.
Zhao Yunxiao unhurriedly regulated his breathing before washing up and munching on some dry rations.
After which, he started loading his pushcart with the various items that he had prepared the night before.
The sun had yet to even fully rise beyond the horizon when Zhao Yunxiao left the Outer Disciples' Quarters with his trusted pushcart, heading straight for the borders of the sect territory.
This was a rare day when he did not have any sect jobs scheduled.
In other words, it was the best time to leave the sect grounds as he would not be bound by any time constraints.
Since he was going to be leaving the sect grounds, Zhao Yunxiao was dressed differently as well.
Instead of the thick long robes that he usually wore, Zhao Yunxiao donned fitting clothes with plain colours that blended better into the forest, making him just that tiny bit more difficult to detect.
Not only that, but he also chose clothes that were slightly shabbier looking.
He was out to hunt, but the last thing he wanted was to be hunted by robbers instead.
Of course, ordinary robbers were not of concern to a cultivator like him.
However, there were cultivators who had fallen to the unorthodox path. Those were the ones whom he was truly wary of.
It was a concern that most would regard as unnecessary since he would still be extremely close to the Black Tortoise Sect territory. In this region, few would dare to act out of line, fearing negative repercussions from the powerful sect.
But Zhao Yunxiao still went ahead with it regardless.
He was someone who preferred taking the necessary precautions to blaming his luck when something did happen.
Under the calm morning sun, Zhao Yunxiao made his way out of the sect gate and into the wilderness of Purple Plum Mountain.
Purple Plum Mountain covered a vast area in the northern regions of the Duyuan Empire, one that was difficult to measure in its entirety. The highest peaks were snow-capped all year round, while the body and foot were dense with vegetation.
While the entire Purple Plum Mountain was largely considered to be under the jurisdiction of the Black Tortoise Sect, the fact was that it only occupied a small portion of the entire Purple Plum Mountain.
Considering the size of the Black Tortoise Sect territory, this spoke volumes about how vast Purple Plum Mountain truly was.
And outside of the sect grounds, spirit beasts and monsters roamed the land, especially in the deeper regions of the mountain.
That came as no surprise either.
Most powerful sects were established in areas where there was a high density of world origin energy, simply because a higher density of world origin energy made it much more conducive for cultivation.
However, that was not the only effect that an area of high world origin energy density could bring.
It not only made it more conducive for people to cultivate, but also for monsters and spirit beasts.
That was why wherever a powerful sect was located, one would usually find numerous spirit beasts and monsters in the vicinity.
As for Purple Plum Mountain, precautions had already been put in place by the Black Tortoise Sect, protecting the main route down the mountain.
This made it relatively safe for disciples to travel in and out of the sect.
However, despite being capable of doing so, the sect did not set up similar precautions throughout the mountain to completely curb all of these creatures.
There were a few reasons for that.
Some of these creatures actually had symbiotic relationships with wild spiritual herbs. With them gone, so would some precious spiritual herbs that could have been worth a fortune.
On top of that, being overprotective was not always a good thing.
By allowing the proliferation of these creatures, the sect could keep all disciples on their toes, as well as essentially creating a natural hunting ground for more adventurous disciples to refine their combat capabilities.
Or at least, those were the official reasons.
That aside, there were some who believed that the true reason was because the mountain was simply too vast, and that the sect was too stingy to make the investment required to curb all monsters and spirit beasts.
Regardless of the reason, Zhao Yunxiao was just thankful for the current situation.
This way, at least he would not have to travel long distances just to hunt.
He made his way through the forested path with his pushcart, slowly deviating from the main road that led down the mountain and into the wilderness.
Over the years, the wilderness of Purple Plum Mountain had been carefully mapped out by the disciples.
By doing so, they effectively divided the mountain wilderness into three main regions with different risk levels.
Low, medium, and high.
These risk levels corresponding directly to the average strength of the spirit beasts and monsters that were usually found there.
The deeper one went, the more dangerous it would get.
In fact, there was even an unchartered region in the furthest depths where there was no public information about!
Zhao Yunxiao naturally knew his limits and was only aiming to stay within the region with the lowest risk level.
Still, it might be regarded as the region with the lowest risk level, but the dangers here were not to be underestimated.
Be it due to carelessness or overconfidence, there had been more than enough instances of disciples losing their lives while staying in this region!
Even before entering the region, Zhao Yunxiao started tapping on his dantian to cover himself in a shroud of essence energy – just like how he had hidden himself from the Frozen Spiders back at his garden plot.
He quickly found a remote corner to leave his pushcart, hiding it within tall grass and camouflaging it further with a layer of leaves. In addition, he even set up a simple concealing array before setting up some simple traps around it just in case.
After tightening the strap of his bamboo backpack, Zhao Yunxiao took a deep breath before leaping into the trees with a halberd in hand.
There were dangers in the trees just like on the ground, but Zhao Yunxiao always preferred to take a higher vantage point. This way, he could at least see everything that was coming his way.
The halberd had always been Zhao Yunxiao's main weapon of choice.
After so many years, it now felt more like a mere extension of his limbs.
For that reason, it did not prove to be much of a hindrance despite its size as Zhao Yunxiao stealthily moved through the mountain forest.
Leaping from tree to tree, Zhao Yunxiao had his senses on full alert as he constantly kept track of his surroundings.
It did not take long before he came across his first target of the day.
Standing by a small stream was a creature that resembled an oversized deer.
Silver spotted grand deer – it was a monster that stood at the height of two adult men, with silver spots all over its body and grand antlers long enough to replace the spine of a man.
More importantly, it was known for its unstoppable charge when threatened.
Zhao Yunxiao was no stranger to this creature, having come across others of the same species in the past.
Since he had already done his research on it in the past, he knew just about everything he needed to know about the general behaviours and traits of the silver spotted grand deer.
It was the perfect target to start off the day.
Nevertheless, Zhao Yunxiao did not rush into action, choosing to patiently observe the silver spotted grand deer from afar instead.
He understood that just like how no two humans were identical, different monsters of the same species could exhibit traits that differed according to the individual as well.
In order to reduce the number of uncertainties that could arise from the presence of such anomalies, Zhao Yunxiao would always try to collect as much information about his targets as possible, only making his move when he was confident of the kill.
Not only would doing this improve his chances of success, he also saw it as a way to hone his observation skills.
The silver spotted grand deer remained oblivious to his presence, calmly sipping on the stream water without a care in the world.
One minute passed.
Two minutes.
Five minutes.
Zhao Yunxiao remained unmoved even as the silver spotted grand deer moved up and down the stream in a relaxed manner.
Hiding within the trees, he carefully watched and scrutinised every minute movement that it made.
Thirty minutes passed, and he was still waiting patiently for the opportune moment to arrive.
And this opportunity did eventually arise.
At the moment when a cold winter breeze rustled the nearby vegetation, Zhao Yunxiao finally released a dagger that effortlessly cut through the air, as well as through any leaves and branches that were unfortunate enough to lie in its path.
Thud-!
The silver spotted grand antler looked up in alarm, its gaze fixated on the dagger that had pierced the ground on the opposite bank of the stream.
This one moment of distraction proved deadly for the majestic creature as a second – and much more silent – dagger arrived.
Pierce-!
This second dagger easily found its way through the defenceless deer monster's hide, directly burying itself in the back of its head.