Lin Shu's body was screaming in pain, but he didn't stop. His bone armor struggled to reform as his Qi dwindled, leaving the wounds on his chest partially exposed. Blood trickled from the deep gash left by the boy's battle skill, his chest heaving from exertion.
Lin Shu clenched his fists, his bone claws still intact on his gauntlet. His blades were gone, and he didn't have enough Qi left to restore them, so this would be settled with raw strength. He could feel the energy within his body, the terrifying force granted by his Ivory Dominion technique—the one advantage he still had.
The boy gritted his teeth, trying to steady his stance, but Lin Shu was already moving.
He lunged forward, aiming low, forcing the boy to react. As expected, the boy swung his sword down in a desperate attempt to keep him at bay. Lin Shu, predicting the move, twisted his body mid-step and slammed his shoulder into the boy's side. The impact sent the boy stumbling back, his balance momentarily broken.
Lin Shu didn't let up. His bone-clawed gauntlet tore through the air, aiming straight for the boy's exposed ribs. The boy barely managed to raise his sword in time, deflecting the attack, but Lin Shu had anticipated that as well. The moment their weapons clashed, Lin Shu shifted his weight and drove his knee into the boy's stomach.
A gasp of pain escaped the boy's lips as he staggered back, his grip on his sword faltering. Lin Shu pressed forward with relentless aggression, swiping again with his clawed gauntlet. The boy blocked once more, but he was weakening. Each clash of metal and bone sent vibrations through his body, shaking his arms, draining what little strength he had left.
Finally, Lin Shu saw his opening.
The boy had backed himself against a tree without realizing it. Lin Shu surged forward, feinting a slash with his gauntlet. The boy instinctively raised his sword to block, but Lin Shu shifted at the last second, driving his knee into the boy's stomach once more. The boy coughed violently, his body doubling over from the blow.
Before he could recover, Lin Shu grabbed him by the throat.
The boy's eyes widened in pure terror as Lin Shu lifted him off the ground with his monstrous strength. He struggled, kicking and clawing at Lin Shu's grip, but it was useless. Lin Shu tightened his hold, feeling the rapid heartbeat against his fingers, the final moments of resistance.
The boy tried to raise his sword for one last desperate attack, but Lin Shu moved first.
With a savage twist, he slammed the boy's head into the tree behind him. A sickening crack echoed through the forest. The boy's body convulsed once, then went limp. His sword slipped from his grasp, clattering to the dirt below.
Lin Shu held him there for a moment longer, ensuring there was no sign of life left. Then, he let go, letting the corpse slump to the ground.
Breathing heavily, he took a step back, blood dripping from his chest wound. His gauntlet was stained red, the sharp claws glistening in the sunlight filtering through the trees. His mask, though partially broken,still hid most of his face,but beneath the mask His expression was as cold as ever.
The fight had been brutal, but he won at the end.
Lin Shu didn't linger. He crouched down, rifling through the boy's belongings. A small pouch of gold, a few dried rations, and—most importantly—the boys sword and a few pills in his bag. He smirked. This was his true prize.
Without wasting another second, he stood and walked away, disappearing into the depths of the forest.
He needed to recover. There were still many more battles ahead.
Lin Shu dragged the boy's corpse away from the battlefield, not bothering to erase the traces of their fight. He was too exhausted for that, and his chest wound still bled sluggishly. Though not fatal, it would slow him down if he encountered another enemy too soon. His Qi was drained, and his bone armor had shattered in several places. Right now, he needed rest.
Fortunately, the body refinement aspect of Ivory Dominion worked in his favor. Comparable to a rank 1 low-tier body refinement technique, it significantly boosted his recovery speed. A wound like this, while painful, wouldn't take long to close. In about an hour or so, his body would mend itself, allowing him to move as if nothing had happened.
Still, the pain was real, and fatigue weighed down on him. He glanced at his spoils—53 gold coins, some silver, the boy's bag filled with pills and food, and the sword that had wounded him. A decent haul. The boy had probably hidden anything more valuable elsewhere, but this was still enough.
With that, Lin Shu moved deeper into the forest, seeking a secure place to recover.
After finding a secure place to hide, Lin Shu sat down and took stock of his belongings.
The most valuable thing he looted was the sword—he didn't know its exact worth, but it was clearly better than the crude weapons he had encountered so far. Alongside it, he now had 86 gold coins and a handful of silver and copper, which would be useful for food and clothing. His shirt had been torn apart during the battle, leaving his well-defined muscles and the deep wound on his chest exposed.
Unfortunately, he had found no battle skills among the boy's belongings. Looking back, he realized he had been too focused on killing—his first fight against a cultivator had consumed all his attention. If he had thought ahead, he could have incapacitated the boy and forced him to reveal his skills before finishing him off. A mistake, one he wouldn't make again.
Still, there was some good news. He now knew he wasn't the weakest. His raw strength and speed, even without Qi, had been enough to give him an advantage against his opponent. If an ordinary small-town institute accepted anyone at early-stage Rank 1, then he at least had a realistic chance. And if there were rewards for those who performed well, it could be his chance to obtain a proper battle skill.
Right now, he only had one real technique—Ivory Dominion. While its body-refining aspect had made him far stronger than most early-stage Rank 1 cultivators, it had its limits. According to the manual, the technique only granted the benefits of a rank 1 low-tier body refinement method. That meant he had reached its peak, and if he wanted to grow stronger, he would need more than just cultivation—he needed better skills.
The boy he fought had at least two battle skills—one that temporarily increased his strength and another that wounded Lin Shu despite his bone armor. At the start of the fight, the boy's physical power was at least equal to, if not slightly stronger than Lin Shu's, but that advantage faded over time. That confirmed something crucial—the boy wasn't a body refiner. His strength came from a temporary boost, likely a battle skill fueled by Qi. And once his Qi ran out, he lost the ability to fight back.
Lin Shu gritted his teeth. This was his biggest disadvantage. Without Qi, he could still fight. But without Qi, a cultivator relying solely on battle skills was nothing.
He had power, but it wasn't enough. He needed more techniques, more skills—more ways to kill.
But first, he needed to heal.
Lin Shu continued his training while keeping a sharp eye out for prey. Killing that boy had confirmed one thing—his strength was enough to take on other early-stage cultivators, but he needed more resources to get stronger.
He didn't just wait blindly—he made several plans to maximize his chances of a safe kill. One of his best ideas was to use blood beasts to do part of the work for him.
His strategy was simple: find a cultivator traveling in a carriage, lure a blood beast toward them, then escape and wait for them to weaken each other. Once the fight was over, he would return to finish off the survivors and take everything for himself.
To execute this, he studied the blood beasts in this area, figuring out what attracted them and how they reacted to intruders. He decided to target a Rank 1 mid-tier blood beast—strong enough to give cultivators trouble but not too fast so that he could outrun it if things went wrong.
The reason he specifically targeted cultivators in carriages was simple—they couldn't run away as easily as others. Unlike lone cultivators, who could abandon their belongings and flee, those traveling with carriages had to protect whatever they were transporting. Whether it was valuable cargo or an important person, they couldn't afford to simply escape.
That meant they would be forced to fight. And once they were either dead or exhausted—Lin Shu would strike.