I slowly opened my eyes,
Feeling way too light. Everything about me seems different. I looked at my hand's and my naked body—every single part of me is different. It seems like I have grown taller, and my hair… was it this long before? And there is also some kind of foul smell coming from my body. It smells way too bad.
I started observing my surroundings. Everywhere seems to be scorched black. As I was observing the changes that had occurred before my eyes, I seemed to recoil some.
Wait.
My eyes widened—Az'rethul! Is that a dream? No, that can definitely not be a dream. I looked at my hands and boom—there they are, I didn't notice before because I was way too busy checking out my body transformation before: both the storage ring, the furnace, and the auto-geographical map are all still there. So they are all real. But how? I asked myself, trying to make sense of everything that has occurred.
That's when I seemed to notice something and was surprised beyond words. Because right now, I can actually feel my cultivation level—I'm at the twelfth level of Body Tempering. But there's only ten levels, right?
I thought we only had from first to tenth level. And even according to some of the ancient books I have read about cultivation, there are only ten… unless… wait—"The Supreme Body"! Yes, yes, yes! That's it. Because I can actually remember a record of some heavenly-defying prodigies that had achieved the Supreme Body Tempering and actually exceeded the tenth level.
So Az'rethul didn't lie when he said that am now a cultivator.
And I actually skipped levels 1 to 11 and am now at 12—which means I have exceeded the limit of Body Tempering that has ever been recorded. According to the book, there are only ten levels. But exceeding such comes with a huge risk because of the Heaven Tribulation that will surely follow after the tenth—"The Dao Tribulation." And once you pass such, then you are surely among the ones in a million. Now I'm at 12!
Hahaha! I laughed out loud—but this is not the laugh of happiness. I am laughing at myself, because when I did need this power the most, it did not come. And now, it comes when I am planning on revenge. Those that I wanted to protect before are all gone. Then what is the essence of me progressing? The power that was meant for protection will now be used for revenge—and that revenge must be carried out. I will keep progressing. I don't have all the time in this world—the devil's countdown is still ticking. I can feel it in me. I can't place my hand on it, but I can feel it deep within me. Now Az'rethul is also coming for me. According to him, he will hunt me down before the countdown.
What does that even mean? And the metal… he seems so desperate to possess it. I picked up the key from my storage ring—just as he called it and started examining it. For him to call it a key and with the desperation in him proves that it is beyond what I might be taking it for.
Remembering his threat—that he is coming for me—my heart went cold immediately. It is not the cold of weakness, but something in me seems to be burning. I'm feeling irritated. How dare he threaten me? I hate threats. I will wait, I thought coldly. And I will exterminate anything that stands in my way.
Even you, Az'rethul, won't be an exception. What if I scam you?
You wanted to scam me first. I assured myself that I'm not the one at fault here. It is the devil himself that is trying to scam me.
For me to progress, I have to gain knowledge and also get stronger faster, and remove anything like fear from around me.
I will do anything just to progress. I hate putting my life in the hands of others.
As I was busy strategizing, it seems like something I did not notice is occurring within me—my behavior. Is that pride, or what? But I don't think so. I think something within me is bringing up such emotions—something that knows nothing about bowing down to others. But what that is, I do not know. And I don't hate such emotions.
That is when something seems to enter my nose. The foul smell was awkward, and it's coming from my skin layer, because I noticed some black substance that seems to have solidified on top of my skin layer. I need to wash up. And thankfully, there's a stream here. I dived inside and started bathing, fully naked. I started washing every part of my body—my back, face, chest, and other parts. But wait—my chest. What is that?
Looking at my chest, I saw a tattoo that looked like a vein running through my right chest and stretching to the left. It's not too much on the left side, but the right side is too much. The vein seems to be alive, running down to my right hand. On my left chest seems to be a drawing of an animal that I know nothing about—but something about its eyes, which are crimson in color, seems to penetrate the soul when you look at them. It seems so alive. The right is just like a vein that stretches like a root from one point to another. I didn't notice it before because of the black substance that had been covering my body.
While I still kept on bathing, I noticed a lot had changed about me—even my voice seems deeper now, but still pleasant to my ear. I'm even admiring my voice. After making sure that I had washed my body thoroughly, I came out of the water. I'm feeling very hungry right now and It's hitting me hard.
Thankfully, I still have a lot of food inside my storage ring, I said, heading to my ring to collect some reserve meat to eat. I picked it up, then checked inside—and my expression suddenly changed.
All my things are gone.
The only thing still remaining inside my ring is the realm crystalss, my gold coins and my dagger, and drop of blood that I packaged In a treasure box " a beast commanding blood, they are also some other stuffs inside but they are all useless, nothing else. Both the herbs, the spirit stones, the meat—they're all gone. I rushed to my pouch, which I had gotten from the voidscale fish, and it's still the same damn thing—nothing! I cursed. My mood was very bad right now. How can everything I had worked hard for be gone?
Is anything wrong here? But even after that, I still managed to get myself together, knowing that I can't do anything about it. But now I'm back to square one. All the spirit stones that I had acquired—that's a lot of wealth—have just vanished like that. And when I woke up, I remembered that all the surroundings looked like something that had been scorched by fire, but I seemed to be fine—even when I was literally in the affected area.
Does it have anything to do with me? I thought.
But first, I decided to re-enter the cage to check if I could mine more spirit stones. But within just ten minutes of venturing inside, I returned—because everywhere inside was already dark, meaning that all of the spirit stones there are no longer there. Not even one. Which seems like a dream to me. But I'd better find something to eat, because I can't handle the level of hunger that is affecting me now.
With my new storage ring from Az'rethul on my finger, I had already packaged both the furnace, the tools used in entering God's realm, and my mapping treasure in my hand, which is working like magic, my serpent coin in my waist, which I have already form contract with, it is mine forever and the storage ring as well. My map actually recorded some of the powerful animals that I will encounter with each direction well labeled, and there was one color that stood out the most—but it's still really far. Is this forest still this big? I thought, still amazed.
But with the mapping treasure in my hand, I set off, avoiding some places using the map's guidance. But now, I think that I need a mount that will make this journey faster.