Zhao Feng immediately began working on the new improved Extreme Body Tempering and shifted his body to gradually adapt to the same stance that the new Refining Method displayed.
It didn't take very long as it was 75% similar to the previous one however unfortunately for him, the amount of pain experienced increased by many levels.
It was to the point where he screamed out in pain, still, he tried holding the position to further his body tempering. However, he didn't last much time, falling on the ground exhausted and muscles aching.
He lay on the ground thinking about how difficult it truly was to cultivate such a technique. Furthermore, he wondered if other people who cultivated similar Refining Methods experienced this pain.
Zhao Feng spent a few minutes on the ground mostly trying to hype himself up. 'Everything is mental, just think about a happy place!' He picked himself up and once more began refining his body after he encouraged himself.
This process lasted for a few hours until finally, it reached a max. He roared in pain but didn't give up. A few minutes later, what felt like an explosion happened in his body displaying that he had reached Body Refining Stage 3.
Zhao Feng stretched his body still feeling the hollow aching pains before sitting on the floor staring intently at the changes in his body. There wasn't much visible but he felt that the amount of force that his body had increased by much.
A normal Body Refining Stage 3 had a strength measuring around 300kg, and he wondered how he measured against the norm.
Each time someone advanced a stage during the Body Refinement Stage, they would gain at least an increase of 100kg at the minimum.
In his mind theoretically, Zhao Feng thought that his strength should be at least 350kg because the "normal" measure uses a Mortal Grade Refining Method while his was Earth Ranked, two whole ranks up.
[Ding, This System declares a Mission for the dear Host]
'Huh, I didn't think that system missions would be common' He thought to himself somewhat giddy.
[Mission: Reach the Body Refining Stage 13, (Good Luck)]
'What????' Zhao Feng questioned himself gathering what he knew, there were only 12 Body Refining Stages which meant that the System wanted him to go further than the norm. He was honestly fine with it but the problem was how exactly was he going to reach that level.
[Rewards: 1 Extraction, a Congrats :) and ??? ]
He judged by the rewards involving congrats and the smiley that the system was being nice to him rather than being rudely sarcastic.
'Enough about that.' Zhao Feng looked back to his new realm and decided to check it out tomorrow in the Training Building.
He continued practicing until he heard a noise coming from the front door. Upon checking on who arrived, he saw one of the two people he looked up to, his mom.
Zhao Ai was greeted by the sight of her son sweating as if he had run a marathon, "What are you doing here all sweaty? Take a shower while I make dinner."
"But you're so tired from all the work? Why can't I make dinner for you?" Zhao Feng questioned his mom. In the memories, his mother never allowed him to make dinner and the lazy old Zhao Feng never questioned it.
She flashed him a small smile, "Honey, I don't want you to make dinner because it wastes time, time that you can use cultivating." She saw how he stayed quiet, "Now go take a shower."
He complied with her orders and made his way to the washroom, before beginning to wash himself.
Jiang City was one of nine different cities around the area and Cultivators above the Body Refining Stage earned Star Dollars which is the currency of all nine cities. Zhao Feng wasn't exactly sure how much they earned but he knew that the stronger he got, the more money he would probably gain. He would continue working hard to complete the promise that he just made.
Finishing washing, he put on some new clean clothing before emerging into the living room where he was met with dinner and his mom already digging in.
"Come on, eat."
They ate without speaking a word to each other because both of them were extremely hungry.
"Ma, I broke through to the Third Stage today." Zhao Feng stated out of nowhere, gazing at his mother expecting a specific expression.
He got what he wished for, his mother's eyes went wide with excitement, and a smile formed on her face as well.
"Congrats! I knew you were talented, honey! Here!" Zhao Ai handed some of her food to him, "Eat some of my food, I know it's normal meat and isn't as filling as Demonic Meat but I heard that Cultivators at your stage need a lot of energy, so eat!"
Zhao Feng glanced at the additional food on his plate and saw his mom giving him an encouraging look. A few silent seconds passed before he said, "Thank you ma" before beginning to eat.
Although he loved his mother's food, right at that moment it tasted bitter. 'I promise you Mom and Dad that I'll make enough money to the point where you won't have to work anymore.' He vowed this promise silently.
The very next day Zhao Feng walked towards his school passing the gate that read, "Jiang City Highschool N.9"
There were 12 Highschools in Jiang City and the N.1 Highschool had the best resources and students while the N.12 had the worst. These high schools were created not later after Jiang City had been created, and the city government distributed resources to each high school according to their achievements in producing genius students every year which eventually created the imbalance.
He walked to Gu Xi's class and sat down in his seat awaiting the teacher to arrive so that he could begin class, not paying attention to the students talking to each other.
As expected class soon began, and Gu Xi entered the class. "Students, today I have come to announce that the Monthly Class Competition will begin in a week. However this time, for 1st place, instead of getting 500 Credits, you will get 1000 Credits doubling the amount. The same applies for 2nd and 3rd."
Credits were exactly that, a currency used to use school facilities or exchange for Cultivation Manuals/Resources. This meant that only the strong would have access to these things. Was it unfair, yes but Jiang City believed that this method would encourage everyone to become stronger.
[Ding, This System has given you a Side Mission!!]
[Reach Top 3 of the Monthly Class Competition]
[Rewards: Top 3: 1 Chance to Cleanse, Top 2: 2 Chances to Cleanse, Top 1: 3 Chances..]
A surprised expression came to Zhao Feng as he saw the mission details. He had a sneaking suspicion that this would allow him to complete the other mission which meant that he had to at least achieve top 3.
"Teacher, why is it doubled?" Liu Yan questioned as this hadn't happened, but he was internally more smug as he was the strongest person in the class which meant that he would win these extra Credits.
Gu Xi sighed before putting on a hardened face, "Demonic Beasts have been getting out of control and recently they have attacked Cui City, not far away from us. Thankfully they were able to win the battle but Governor Yang Xu is afraid that the Demonic Beasts would attack us next."
The teacher stopped talking and most students were confused by what this meant however Zhao Feng had an idea of what he meant. 'So it's an incentive for us to get stronger because they are afraid of not having enough warm bodies to repel the potential attack of the Demonic Beasts.'
"Furthermore, the Governor has ordered all the high schools to give their students a week to improve themselves and I have decided to do it this week to let you students improve before the Monthly Class Competition." Gu Xi further explained before dismissing them and leaving the class.
"What do you think of this?" Zhao Feng turned his head to see the Class Monitor Ling Ya talking with Lui Yan.
"I'm not sure but I have a horrible theory going through my mind and I don't want it to be true at all." Ling Ya continued to say.
Liu Yan was about to speak but was interrupted by a student whom Zhao Feng didn't remember their name. "Are Demonic Beasts going to attack?" Her voice was filled with unprecedented fear.
It was a very haunting thought that could turn out to be true in Zhao Feng's opinion. It well could happen. 'Damn! Not even two days in, and there is a chance for a Demonic Beast Wave.'
He didn't bother to listen to this conversation and directly left for the Training Building because although it costs Credits to use facilities like Gravity Room, or Qi Room. A room to test your strength was free.
When Zhao Feng arrived, he booked a room with a school staff member.
Entering Room N.11, he found the Strength Measure and warmed up his body before punching it. The numbers began to rise until they directly stopped at 453kg which slightly surprised him in a good way.
After receiving his score, he began more tests as he wanted to verify if this test was a fluke and fortunately, it wasn't. His strength hovered around 440-460kg which in itself was astonishing as he was comparable to a Stage 4 Body Tempering individual.
This brought great joy to him but these results didn't make him overconfident as there could be a looming threat.
Zhao Feng headed home into his room to begin cultivating the "Extreme Body Tempering" once more with more vigor than last time.
When taking a break, he couldn't help but question the system. 'Why are you giving me so many missions, I thought they would be rare?'
[Ding! This System has further judged the ????? and realized that Host is in ?????, and it has decided to modify itself to further help Host survive!]
'This world and System may not be as simple as I thought.' Zhao Feng thought to himself but he wasn't satisfied with the answer given especially as the System was self-aware and was making changes to itself according to what it "Sees."
It had seen something, but it didn't want to spill out what it saw.
For the rest of the day, he practiced to increase his level but he wasn't able to achieve a breakthrough, however, he wasn't disappointed as he felt the increase of strength.
At dinner, once more Zhao Feng's father wasn't present, presumably staying for overtime. Again he ate large quantities of food, and his mother again gave him some of her food before she headed to rest while he once more practiced.
The next day he woke up hungry and grabbed some food from the fridge and made himself breakfast. The food was the same quantity as yesterday but it didn't fill him as much as before.
Zhao Feng pointed to the fact that he was cultivating an Earth-ranked Body Refining Method and that he needed more nourishment and energy.
There was a very simple answer to this which was to get Demonic Beast Meat...He grabbed a big bag and some survival/hunting supplies before walking towards one of the entrances of the city.
He could purchase Demonic Beast Meat but his parents didn't have much money and he didn't want to burden any further so he decided to take things into his own hands.
Outside of the city was called the Wilderness because it was exactly that, and anyone was allowed to venture outside. The Government won't stop you at all, why? It was simple, it was Natural Selection, those who ventured outside and survived were strong while those who died were weak.
This was a tradition upheld since the city was created, at the beginning, many died because they were too confident or were simply lacking the IQ to realize how dangerous it was outside. Nowadays however most people that aren't in the military don't dare to venture out.
Arriving at the entrance, Zhao Feng realized that the technology truly was different. There was a huge wall that was coated with some type of forcefield, presumably to strengthen it.
"Sir! What are you doing here?" A soldier who saw the teenager arrive questioned with a somewhat stern expression.
Zhao Feng glanced at the soldier and saluted, "I'm here to go out into the wilderness."
The soldier's face slightly shifted before it went back to the same stern expression, "I see, then follow me to sign a waiver."
He nodded toward the soldier and followed him to a building nearby. He saw the soldier talk to the staff before the latter left and came back with a paper.
It was handed to him and he read the paper, and it stated that Jiang City is not responsible for any injury, pain, or death outside of the city.
Zhao Feng signed his name and he was accompanied by the soldier back to the entrance where he opened the door to Zhao Feng before hurrying him to leave.
'Seesh, you don't have to push me out.' He mused before eyeing the dead plains around him having no signs of life at all. However, from the distance of his eye, there was a forest.
Zhao Feng took a deep breath in, 'Come on you got this.'
He ran for a few kilometers and entered the forest where he heard some chirping that was familiar to him reminding him of birds of his reality giving him a sense of confidence.
'What can go wrong?'
These words were cursed because a Grade One: Sabertooth Wolf came around a nearby tree as soon as he thought of it. It immediately began to salivate when it saw Zhao Feng.
'How could I forget about the curse?' He reflected on himself before immediately running away from the Demonic Beast...
Omake:
Host...Are You Mentally Okay?
[Ding! This System has further judged the ????? and realized that Host is in ?????, and it has decided to modify itself to further help Host survive!]
Zhao Feng looked at the ????? in the screen before telling the system. 'I know what ???? means!'
[What is it?]
'Judging by "I'm in ????," it means that I'm inside an unusual world...If my memories serve me right, then I'm inside a world where the leader of the Demonic Beasts is a beautiful 9-Tailed Fox woman who will eventually become my wife after I defeat her, cucking her husband.'
Extraction System: ....
[Host, are you okay? What kind of novels have you been reading?]
'You don't want to know.....'