"They even know how to utilize long-range weaponry systems?" Di Tian had a feeling things were about to go south.
He did a quick side-step and narrowly dodged the attack.
But it seemed this reaction was already anticipated as more rock daggers flew his way in that direction.
"Damnit," Di Tian glanced in the direction of the wild monkeys and saw that they were all holding rocks and sharpening them on the spot.
Several meters away, the group of golden-furred monkeys noticed Di Tian looking at them hatefully and made victorious noises.
Di Tian could only grit his teeth and dodge to the direction that had the least number of rock daggers, maybe three or four.
His body performed a clumsy acrobatic manoeuvre as he attempted to dodge as many of them as possible.
Hiss!
Most of the rock daggers ended up missing him, with only one of them impaling his left arm. Almost immediately, Di Tian used his right hand to yank it out of his body.
The extra blood loss only contributed to the aggravation of the giddiness he was feeling.
To make things worse, he saw more rock daggers flying his way.
"Screw it," Di Tian thought and grabbed one of the unknown herbs in his backpack from the Giant Muntjac's territory, stuffing it in his mouth.
Actually, the real reason Di Tian had refrained from consuming any other Spirit Plant aside from Spirit Ginsengs so far was because of a cultivation novel he had once read. In it, the protagonist had eaten a Spirit Herb early on, only to later discover that it was an immortal-grade herb that permanently castrated him. Fiction or not, Di Tian had no idea what his reaction would be if this happened to him, and he had no interest in finding out.
While this thought was running through his mind, his body automatically began to extract the energy from the Spirit Herb to heal his injuries.
A strong sense of danger alerted Di Tian and he quickly dodged the incoming attacks, leaping in the direction of the wild monkeys to get closer.
His radar field gave him the confidence to dodge their attacks from reaching his vital spots, and thanks to his regenerative ability, he did not have to worry about other injuries. This gave him the capital to throw caution to the winds and pursue payback. If he could not defeat this group of monkeys under this condition, wouldn't it be a shame?
The situation abruptly reversed. One minute, the monkeys were cheering happily as the human suffered under their assault. The next, the human was making towards them aggressively as if he had no regard for his life despite their deadly projectiles.
Di Tian grabbed one of the monkeys that was slightly slower than his mates' by the tail and beheaded it in one clean strike. A fountain of blood erupted from its neck, some splashing on Di Tian.
But Di Tian who was normally a neat freak did not mind. As a matter of fact, he felt excited.
Impulsively, he grabbed three more Spirit Herbs of the same type from his backpack and stuffed it in his mouth, chewing and swallowing without paying heed to the bitter taste. At the same time, a portion of his mind started to visualize the meditative tea ceremony.
His heart started to pound fiercely as a circulation function was activated. Di Tian was multitasking; cultivating and healing his injuries at the same time.
The retreating monkeys were incensed upon seeing one of theirs get murdered and threw themselves at Di Tian.
There were fourteen of them and only one of him. Their claws were just as deadly as sharp knives, and although they preferred the safer long-range attack tease, they were not scared of close combat, particularly as Di Tian's form was not humongous or ferocious looking.
But they soon regretted their decision. Di Tian fought like a beast, refining his combat sense by using them as involuntary practice targets.
Di Tian started to hone his punches, reflexes and weak-spot identification skills. Before he knew it, he entered a special combat state.
In that particular territory on Mount Wuling, a human and several beasts traded injury for injury. The difference was, one of them had his fighting skills improving tremendously by the minute while the others had their ranks decreased.
It didn't take long for Di Tian to finish them all but one.
The final monkey was the leader of the pack and the strongest. But Di Tian did not fear and grinned, pouncing on him with his makeshift blade in hand.
A minute later, when Di Tian made the final beheading strike, the circulation in his body seemed to be sublimated as his Heart Refinement was completed. At the same time, a special stream of energy rushed out of his heart chambers to merge with a third of his meridian network, which began to glow faintly.
This was a natal energy portion usually stored in the heart since birth. Only after completing Heart Refinement would it usually be released to unblock a third of the blocked meridians in the human body.
But as Di Tian's meridian network was already cleared in advance, the energy acted to nourish his meridians instead, improving the quality.
Di Tian subconsciously got into a meditative pose during the process, quietly observing the changes as they occurred within the body.
Already, he could sense that completing Heart Refinement granted him the ability to activate the flight-or-fight response at will. This allowed him to actively control his breathing, regulate his heart rate and blood flow, as well as influence sensory stimulation and nervous suppression.
These physiological regulation perks were no joke. In combat, it could allow Di Tian exert up to 120% of his physical body's peak capabilities.
As a matter of fact, upon completing Heart Refinement, the subsequent levels of Body Tempering would also grant a subtle qualitative increase in these functions, breaking the limitations of the human body.
After a while, Di Tian opened his eyes.
The first level of Body Tempering, Heart Refinement, was done.
Now, he could proceed to the next two levels of the Blood Power Cultivation Substage, Bond Marrow Refinement and Spleen Refinement.
"With Heart Refinement increasing my physical stats by this much, I wonder how much more the next levels would," Di Tian was beyond thrilled. Was this the feeling of cultivating strength? It felt really nice and addictive.
But the next moment, his expression changed as he felt a burning heat arising from the organ between his legs.
Automatically, his mind jumped to the story of that unfortunate protagonist, replacing the character with himself eating the unknown herbs earlier.
"Shit!" Di Tian cried.