A deep burning sensation penetrated Li Jun's stomach. The sensation ran throughout his veins, seemingly trying to find a way out of his body.
Li Jun grunted as he crouched to the floor and panted. It felt just like what had happened when he touched the golden scroll he had gotten from the silver ring. But a scroll couldn't be a beast core, right?
Li Jun closed his eyes as he heard rustling run around his head. A vision of a rabbit dashing through thick grass came to mind, and a set of words seemed to float within the darkness of his eyelids.
Beast Soul, movement technique: Spring Dash.
Suddenly, a feeling of familiarity appeared in his mind as his brain began to understand how to use the technique. The burning sensation soon vanished, leaving him drenched in cold sweat.
'I thought I was going to pass out again.' Li Jun thought to himself as a chill ran along his entire body. It seemed as if every fiber of his body wanted to run. Without even thinking about it Li Juns legs exploded with incredible power and he shot horizontally across the ground.
He stumbled to a halt almost ten meters away from where he was standing and turned around to see the trunk of a tree crumble and fall.
Li Jun's eyes shot wide open. In the spot he was previously standing a large bear was standing over the corpse of the rabbit he had just killed, its eyes glowed with a dim red light and a white strip of fur ran down its entire body.
"A mutant bear!" He exclaimed. The scent of blood after he gutted the rabbit must have helped the bear pinpoint his location. With a lack of wild animals in the forest it must have been starving. Without hesitating it scooped up the corpse of the rabbit into its mouth and swallowed it whole.
Li Jun had seen bears before, it was common to see them near rivers and places abundant with food. They would even occasionally steal livestock. However this bear was by far the largest creature he had ever seen. It was almost three times the size of a regular bear and the spiritual energy that fluctuated from its gargantuan body was almost the same as his own.
'Its as strong as someone at the first stage of body refining.' Li Jun thought to himself and hesitantly raised his knife in front of his face as he adopted a defensive stance. He wasn't sure if he could kill it.
But as he tried to come up with a plan, the mutant bear's eyes locked on Li Jun. It let out a primal roar as it sized him up, then it dashed towards him.
It moved fast; if he had not been prepared to fight, he wouldn't have been able to react in time. But Li Jun took a quick step to the right using phantom steps and vanished from the beast's line of sight.
He appeared by its shoulder and quickly stabbed the knife into its strong muscle. The skin was tough, but the blade sliced through it like butter. Then, it stopped as it ripped into the strong muscles beneath. The bear continued running. It was too large to come to a stop immediately. It felt pain in its shoulder and stumbled slightly, bumping into a tree as it rolled through the forest.
Dozens of trees collapsed under the force of the mutant bear slamming into them. As the bear turned around it let out a roar and Li Jun's heart sank.
He looked down at the knife and realized that the blade had snapped in half. The other half was shimmering with blood, stuck firmly into the bear's shoulder.
Although it was a beast, after experiencing pain, it looked at Li Jun who was standing defensively once again and thought twice about charging again. Without attacking again it turned around and ran away. It had realized that Li Jun was stronger then he looked and wasn't sure that it could kill him.
The bear's cautious behavior came as a surprise since he figured that mutant beasts weren't very smart. But it seemed as it evolved through spiritual energy its instincts also improved. It could be that fighting Li Jun wasn't worth the risk.
'You can't run away after stealing my rabbit!' Li Jun wanted to yell but as the bear disappeared between the dense trees he realized that even if he chased after it there was a good chance he wouldn't find it. This was the bear's home after all, and it would take Li Jun a long time to learn how to navigate the forest efficiently.
With his knife rendered useless, Li Jun let out a long sigh.
'I need a better weapon.' He thought to himself but he currently didn't have the money to buy one. He thought about the gold coins in his ring. Although he didn't know where the coins came from the gold should still be worth something to a jeweler right?
Li Jun made his way back to the city with a defeated look on his face. He threw away the knife now that he had no use for it. He first went home to summon a handful of the gold coins before heading out deeper into the city.
He reached a place known as the Gold District, where expensive clothing, jewelry, and weapons were made. Only noble families could afford to shop in this part of the city, so it was relatively small; it stretched just one street in total, but the architecture alone was enough to see how much money each business earned.
Li Jun felt the eyes of judgment burn into his soul as minor nobles wondered what the abandoned child of the Li family was doing in such a place. There was no way he had enough money to shop in the same stores they did.
The news of Li Jun becoming a martial artist hadn't spread very far. The stares would have been very different if it had.
Although he didn't care much. He was used to the judgment. He quickly found the store he was looking for. A small jewelry store that sat on the outskirts of the gold district. It's appearance was much more humble than others but he knew its name. His mother shopped there before they were kicked out of the family estate.
Li Jun opened the door and stepped inside. A small bell rang out, alerting the owner that there was a customer.
"Welcome. How can I help you?" An old man asked from behind the counter.