Yan Guang quickly left the confines of his room to eat. As expected, breakthroughs also came with an intense hunger. His cells needed to recoup the energy spent transforming.
While eating, Yan Guang tried something he had always wished to do but always forgot to.
He simply willed the status window to open.
[Opening Status Screen]
[User: Yan Guang
Race: Human (homo sapien)
Talents: Inferior cultivation talent, inferior martial physique, inferior comprehension, semi-eidetic memory
Stage: 3rd-Rate Martial Artist
STR: 23.6
VIT: 24.0
AGI: 23.4
INT: 1.43
SPR: 20
Attribute Points: 0]
So it does work. Also, damn, that's a big stat improvement, Yan Guang thought to himself.
After finishing his meal and paying yet more silvers, Yan Guang noticed that his pouch was feeling rather... light.
All of the extra meals had put a dent in his savings, and there was no hiding from it now; he had to go questing yet again.
Exiting the inn, Yan Guang immediately felt the change when he began using his Flowing River Steps.
By infusing his internal force into his martial arts, they instantly became several times more potent.
For instance, he could now cover a distance of several meters with a single step, although his step was more like a leap from a mortal perspective.
Yan Guang found himself at the guild much earlier than expected. The internal force was indeed a boon to all his abilities.
Looking at the quest board, he now felt that he was more than qualified to take on the difficult apprentice-level quests.
If he fought the tri-horned rhinoceros now, for example, he would probably be able to defeat it with no injuries and in a quarter of the time.
Any breakthrough in martial arts was not to be underestimated.
Looking around, three quests caught his eye.
There was a den subjugation quest that involved fighting multiple savage beasts to completely eradicate a beast den.
There was also another resource-gathering quest that involved collecting the sap of certain trees in the deep forest.
Finally, there was a civil quest, which was a quest that came directly from the municipal government. One had to go into the sewers that ran underneath the city to clear blockages and fix faulty pipes.
After thinking for a few seconds, Yan Guang immediately crossed the third one out. He wasn't that desperate for silver.
The second quest was quite profitable, but sap collection was a long and convoluted process that required the environment and trees to be in the right condition. If he had more time, he would be willing to go through this process, but right now he simply didn't.
Therefore, there was only one option remaining, the den subjugation quest.
Yan Guang quite liked this option. It would increase his combat experience as well as give him more beast blood all while making him some quick silver. He quickly tore the quest page off the wall and brought it to the receptionist, who quickly ushered him into another room.
He looked at the details of the quest as he sat down in the comfy chairs before him, noticing that the den he was going to subjugate was the home of a wolf colony.
Moreover, a den subjugation quest wasn't an individual quest like all the others he had completed till now. It was instead a group quest that required the collaboration of multiple adventurers.
While Yan Guang felt this was quite inconvenient, he did still want to go through with the quest.
In the room was another adventurer who had taken the quest, and they were waiting for two more to form a group of four.
Four was the minimum required to take on the quest, so they could do nothing till two other adventurers signed up.
As the clock ticked, Yan Guang found himself talking to the other adventurer.
His name was Lin Yuan, and he was one of the heirs of an aristocratic family that resided in Guming town.
Lin Yuan was a 3rd-rate martial artist and the son of the brother of the clan leader, which made him quite influential in his clan.
However, his rather mediocre martial arts and cultivation made him the worst out of his brothers, leading him to take up adventuring as a side job to make more silver.
As they talked, Yan Guang grew more and more shocked about the strength of the aristocratic families. Some heirs were already 2nd-rate martial artists and had learned yellow-rank medium-tier martial arts.
Unlike the common folk, heirs were expected to begin cultivating at the tender age of 6. It was only natural that they had greater accomplishments than others.
With the context that he had probably been cultivating for a decade, Lin Yuan's realm did fall a little short of expectations.
The more interested Yan Guang seemed the more Lin Yuan blabbered on about the greatness of his Lin family.
Apparently, the son of the Lin clan leader was already a 2nd-rate martial artist and had fully mastered a yellow-rank medium-tier martial art.
While many heirs learned yellow-rank medium-tier arts, few mastered them. When it came to martial arts, saying that one had mastered something was leagues above simply learning it.
This made Yan Guang feel all the more pressure for the upcoming martial exams. These heirs and other unexpected warriors had had years of training, while he had had barely a month.
Still, he assured himself that being the best was not necessary, he simply had to be better than most.
Eventually, the third and fourth members of their party arrived, both also third-rate martial artists.
Finally, they were ready to set off on their quest.
As they left the adventurer's guild together, Yan Guang realized that this was probably the first time he had ever talked to and collaborated with fellow adventurers. He was probably an oddity in this category, as everyone in towns such as Guming knew everyone else.
Besides, Yan Guang wasn't exactly what one would call social. Nobody with extroverted tendencies could lock themselves in a room for five days to meditate. In fact, most sane people couldn't do that.
As he and his group traveled, Yan Guang realized that their speed was far too inferior to his. Most of them didn't even have a movement technique, on top of the fact that their stats were likely lower than his.
Naturally, to keep up with them, Yan Guang had to give up the use of his movement technique.
Although it was inefficient, he felt he would be alienating himself from the rest of the party if he went full speed and rushed his way over to the dungeon.
Despite going at what felt like a snail's pace to Yan Guang, the party did eventually reach the den.
Rather than calling it a den, it was more appropriate to call it a bunch of dens. In this craggy landscape that jutted out from the natural greenery of the forest surrounding it, Yan Guang could notice multiple small holes as well as a large cave with a savage aura surrounding it.
It seemed that becoming a martial artist also enhanced his intuition, as he could now vaguely feel whether there were beasts nearby or not.
Right now, he could tell that they were surrounded.
There were likely wolves, or at least wolf pups, in every nook and cranny of this place.
"Be careful, everyone!", shouted Lin Xuan.
Stating the obvious, much? remarked Yan Guang internally.
All four party members cautiously approached the largest cave.
Yan Guang spoke, "You three, stay back. I'll go in, and you cover me from behind."
The three silently nodded as Yan Guang disappeared into the dark depths of the cave.
It didn't take long for Yan Guang to discover the end of the cave. As he ran through it, it gradually widened until he eventually reached a large dome-shaped room.
There lay his opponent, a wolf with an aura greater than any he had faced before.
It had sensed him as he had sensed it, and its mouth slowly took on the form of a snarl.
Perhaps it was wondering how exactly to enjoy its next meal.
Yan Guang was also smiling, as he wondered how exactly to extract its blood later.
Both opponents' bloodlust was on full display.
In this dark cavern which only a few slits of sunlight managed to reach, Yan Guang's battle began.
First, he dashed towards the beast. Every step of his was brimming with power thanks to his newfound internal force.
Fierce, explosive, and rigid... Combine that with internal force and you become a Raging Tiger!
A hint of blue could be seen on Yan Guang's fist as it smashed into the wolf's head. His knuckleduster left a deep gash on its face which began to drip blood.
If Yan Guang could describe the noise made at the moment of impact, he would probably say it was akin to that of a sandbag being hit by a boxing champion.
The wolf's snarl was knocked off its face as it sunk into a state of confusion. After a head injury like that, it would be surprising if it wasn't concussed in some way.
This gave Yan Guang the time to launch another attack, a kick.
Imbued with the same principles of the Raging Tiger Fists, his kick was perhaps even stronger than his punches.
A blue glint could once again be seen, illuminating the cave briefly before disappearing as his attack landed.
As the wolf attempted its counterattack, Yan Guang sidestepped out of the way, landing yet another kick to its side.
Due to the lack of proper vision, Yan Guang could only rely on his Qi sense and natural intuition. Although Qi sense was unable to show where physical objects were, he could guess.
The wolf had a greater concentration of qi motes than its surroundings, and it would also subtly influence the movement of its surrounding qi motes as it moved.
As for physical objects such as rock, he simply couldn't sense any qi motes in them. Whether this was because of the weakness of his Qi sense or simply the lack of any Qi in solid objects was unknown to him.
Therefore, even without vision, he still knew what to dodge and where to land. His understanding of Flowing River Steps also naturally increased, as it was a movement skill that detailed how Qi flowed and manipulated it to increase speed.
Floating Leaf was teaching me to move following Qi motes, so what does the next level teach me?
Then, the answer came to him. The next level was teaching him the opposite, how to flow against the qi motes.
Immediately, Yan Guang began to emit a thin layer of internal force.
As it surrounded him, he felt that he was now able to move much faster.
Observing through his Qi sense, he saw that any Qi motes in front of him were pushed away by his internal force, allowing him to move through with less drag.
At this point, his battle with the wolf was practically a footnote. His raw power meant he could've easily defeated it a while ago, but he was simply using it as a sparring partner.
Yes, the beast was his sparring partner, helping him train his Flowing River Steps. Since he didn't have any real sparring partners, he would simply create one himself.
Not good enough... he remarked to himself.
Simply covering his body wasn't the best use of internal force. If that was the case, then any random martial artist could reach this level.
If lowering drag was what helped him, then he simply had to streamline this barrier of his.
Yan Guang began to experiment, slowly extending and contracting his barrier in different areas till he reached a more efficient configuration of internal force.
He could already feel his speed further increasing. Dodging the wolf now felt effortless to him.
Eventually, he reached a final configuration that he felt was as perfect as he could possibly make it at this time.
Looking at his creation, he discovered that it quite resembled... a fish. Thinking about it, it made a lot of sense. Fish were the result of millions of years of evolution, and their shape was purposefully made to reduce the drag of water. In essence, Yan Guang had just stumbled upon convergent evolution, the process of different paths reaching the same endpoint.
Then, he remembered. In the manual, they often called this level 'Swimming Fish'. Now, he understood why.
Finally, he had reached the second level of the Flowing River Steps.
Yan Guang now understood why he hadn't been making any progress, it was impossible to reach the second level without any internal force.
He wondered if there was a similar requirement for the third level.
Unfortunately for the wolf, this meant that it was now useless. It was so slow there was no point in even training with it anymore.
After a few exchanges, it collapsed, its heart no longer beating.
Yan Guang simply cut off the head of the beast and took it with him. They needed to submit some proof that they had done the quest, after all.
Exiting the cave, he noticed his teammates were in quite a dire situation.
Lin Yuan suddenly yelled out, "See, I told you he was alive after all!"
Unsurprisingly, the rest of the party thought he was already dead. He had been fighting with the beast for almost half an hour, so either he was dead or the two were locked in a stalemate. Of course, his teammates were unaware of the third option, training.
With his further improved speed, Yan Guang burst onto the scene.
For dealing with unrated savage beasts like these wolves that were attacking his party, a single attack would suffice.
It was like slaughtering chickens for him.
BAAM!
A single kick from Yan Guang detached a random wolf's head from its body. It probably didn't even know what struck it before it died.
His massacre continued, with each wolf dying from a single attack. Whether it was to the head or the body, all his strikes were lethal.
The rest of his party members were speechless. No 3rd-rate martial artist could display this kind of power.
Lin Xuan nervously asked, "Yan Guang, are you perhaps 2nd-rate?"
Yan Guang shook his head, "No, I'm 3rd-rate, just like all of you."
Looking at the bloodshed he had caused, the rest of the party members couldn't help but yell mentally, How are you like all of us? No, you're clearly a monster yourself! A savage beast in human form!
Despite the damage done to the beasts, one of the adventurers volunteered to skin all the wolves while another collected the wolf pups.
While the wolves had no option other than to be killed, wolf pups could still be domesticated.
If they happened to grow into a 3rd-rate savage beast, then that would be the owner's fortune.
Yan Guang also collected quite a bit of blood from the corpses. The rest of the adventurers were quite puzzled as to why. Perhaps beast blood was the secret to his abnormal strength?
After packing up, they set off for town again. Everyone was deeply looking forward to the reward, as den subjugation quests gave more silver than any other type due to the danger associated with them.
Furthermore, they could trade in wolf pups and the materials they gathered for even more silver.
When they reached the guild, the employee in charge of the quest was quite surprised. They had completed a quest that often took multiple days and much planning in a little more than an hour. This was practically impossible, at least with the strength of an average apprentice adventurer.
However, there were only a few days remaining till the martial school entrance exams. Many hidden dragons and crouching tigers were revealing themselves among the populace, striving to be accepted into a prestigious institution.
Trading in all of their items and finishing the quest gave the party a total of 160 silver. After splitting it between the four of them, Yan Guang was actually left with 70 silver. As thanks for helping them finish the quest quicker, the rest had negotiated and given him more silver.
Lin Yuan attempted to make small talk with him, likely trying to build up his connections. Yan Guang was absurdly powerful for a 3rd-rate, after all.
However, Yan Guang really didn't have the time for this. Making up the excuse that he had some business, he quickly left to return to his inn. He had to make a few purchases.
To his surprise, the moment he stepped in the room, a system notification rang in his head
[New function unlocked]