A full year passed within the solitude of the ancient tree, nestled in the heart of the Deep Havoc Wilderness.
The haunting presence that once tested John's sanity had vanished like a nightmare driven off by morning light.
Since that day, no other ghost or beast dared trespass upon the tree's hidden dominion.
It was as though the spirit's destruction had left a scar in the spiritual fabric of the place, a warning to all others.
John took full advantage of the peace.
Days melted into nights, and seasons shifted without fanfare.
He cultivated relentlessly.
He hunted with quiet precision.
The wildness of the forest seeped into his bones, and the flickering light of the system panel guided his every breath, every movement.
Now, after hundreds of nights meditating on cold stone and bear pelts, John sat cross-legged in the center of the hollow tree.
The once-bare interior had changed.
The soft fur of a giant black bear he had hunted months ago now cushioned his body, its thick pelt stretched across the ground like a throne.
Smooth stones surrounded the meditation spot in a loose circle, and hanging from a notch in the trunk was a makeshift lantern, carved from beast bone and glowing faintly with Qi-infused moss.
In this quiet sanctum, John opened his eyes and summoned his system panel.
---
[System Panel]
Name: John Coral
Age: 25
Cultivation: Spirit Seed Realm (800/3200)
Upgrade Slot: Empty
Skills:
• Meditation (Level 6 – Max)
• Breathing (Level 5 – Max)
• Spatial Awareness (Level 5)
• Slow Toad Breathing Skill (Level 10 – Max)
• Double Face Lizard Technique (Level 7 – Max)
---
John stared at the panel, and for the first time in a long while, he smiled, genuinely.
"Not only have I stepped into Spirit Seed Realm… but my Slow Toad Breathing Skill has finally maxed out at Level Ten. And even the Double Face Lizard Technique has reached its peak."
He leaned back against the warm wood of the hollow and let out a long breath.
"The Upgrade Slot is finally free. It's been nearly two years since I last had it open."
So much had changed.
The Slow Toad Breathing Skill, now at Level Ten, gave him inhuman stamina and explosive bursts of speed.
He could run for days without tiring and unleash footwork that could confuse even an experienced Spirit Formation cultivator.
The Double Face Lizard Technique, at its peak, was more than just a disguise.
With it, John could completely rewrite his face, bone structure, voice, and most importantly, his aura.
No one would be able to track him by cultivation fluctuations.
To the world, he would appear as anyone… or no one.
His journey from Bone Refinement to Spirit Seed Realm, the first foundational layer of Spirit Formation, had not been easy.
The leap was massive.
It required the internal condensation of Qi into the first core of spiritual power.
And yet, he had done it, alone, in a haunted tree, deep in monster-infested lands.
He looked around the hollow.
The walls were familiar now.
The strange markings had stopped glowing long ago.
The whispering had ended.
And the tree, once oppressive, now felt like a companion. It had become his fortress, his cave, his temple.
He rose slowly, stretching. His limbs felt light, powerful.
His senses sharper than ever. Every leaf's movement outside, every insect's vibration on the bark, he could feel it all.
"A year of isolation, silence, and hardship. But now… I can return."
He paused, considering.
"I can walk among people again. Not as a fugitive. Not as a prisoner reborn. But as someone new—someone no one can recognize."
John's gaze turned eastward, where the vague outline of civilization lay beyond mountain ridges and twisted woods.
"It's time I stepped back into the world. This time, on my terms."
He walked to the edge of the hollow, the fading light of dusk breaking through the canopy outside.
With one hand, he adjusted the straps on his bag. Inside it his tools, his core pills, his map fragments, and over a thousand spirit stones.
But more importantly, inside him, the power of someone who had died once, crawled through the underworld, and returned armed with patience, fire, and fury.
And now, he had a new face to wear.
John stood at the edge of the hollow tree, sunlight speckling through the thick canopy above, painting the forest floor with dappled light.
The wind whispered softly across the leaves.
The scent of pine, wild herbs, and damp moss filled his lungs.
He took a long breath, absorbing the stillness.
"A year of silence, a year of preparation… it's time to move."
His eyes narrowed, and in the next instant...
His body blurred.
With a sharp burst of Qi from his Level Ten Slow Toad Breathing Skill, his figure vanished into the forest, leaving only a rustle in the undergrowth.
He streaked between trees like a phantom, silent, precise, faster than the eye could follow.
Birds took flight in surprise.
A few lower-rank beasts fled instinctively, sensing the predator that now ruled this section of the wild.
His feet barely touched the ground as he bounded across fallen logs and darted up ridges, using branches for momentum.
The sheer speed was exhilarating. His robes whipped in the wind, and Qi pulsed through his marrow like a current of lightning.
"I've spent too long hunting rabbits, birds… even boars. Today I want a real fight."
His senses sharpened.
Spatial Awareness spread in a twenty-meter radius, detecting every shift of movement, heartbeat, breath, no creature could sneak up on him now.
Suddenly, he halted mid-run, standing atop a slanted boulder.
His eyes flicked toward the east.
A powerful presence pulsed faintly in the distance.
It wasn't overwhelming, but it had the aura of a Spirit Seed beast, wild, primal, and brimming with elemental Qi.
John's lips curved upward.
"Perfect."
He crouched low, channeling more Qi to his legs.
Then, with a crack of movement, he launched himself forward, deeper into the forest, toward the hunt.
John weaved through the thick foliage, his footsteps silent, eyes sharp as blades.
The ground began to shake ever so slightly beneath him.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
He halted atop a ridge, crouching low behind a fallen trunk.
His Spatial Awareness pulsed outward like a sonar wave.
That was when he saw it.
A massive beast, fifteen meters long, coated in dark bronze-colored fur that shimmered faintly with spiritual energy.
It had thick, pillar-like legs that crushed boulders as it walked, tusks as long as trees, and a spiraling horn on its forehead, glowing with condensed Qi.
It let out a bellow that made nearby birds scatter in panic.
Then the beast raised its head, and the horn pulsed.
John's eyes sharpened.
"Spirit Beam incoming."
A second later, a blinding streak of blue light shot from the mammoth's horn and blasted through a massive tree, splintering it like dry twigs.
"That could kill a Blood Refinement cultivator in a single strike," John thought, eyes narrowing.
"But I'm not here to test its power. I'm here to dance around it."
With a burst of Qi-enhanced speed, John launched himself into the clearing.
The mammoth turned with a snort, its ancient eyes narrowing.
It fired another Spirit Beam, but John's body twisted midair like a leaf in the wind, just a blur of robes and movement, and the blast scorched past him.
Before the mammoth could react, John landed on its back, slamming a Qi-infused palm into its thick hide.
A thud echoed, but the beast's skin barely flinched.
"As I thought. Ridiculous defense."
With a roar, the beast buckled and thrashed, trying to shake him off.
John flipped through the air, narrowly avoiding a swipe of its massive tusk, and landed ten meters away.
The mammoth roared and charged, but John sidestepped with fluid grace, leaving only dust in his wake.
He appeared beside its front leg and struck again, his fists glowing with Spirit Refinement Qi, smashing into pressure points, tendons, and joints.
Over and over, he attacked and vanished, like a phantom dancer carving a masterpiece across a mountain.
Each strike chipped away at the beast's resilience.
Small wounds.
Cracks in the skin.
Strained muscle.
Bit by bit
The beast was powerful, its Spirit Beam attacks tearing the forest apart, vaporizing trees, leaving deep craters in the earth, but it could not touch him.
John moved like water, bending, flowing, slipping past its every effort.
Its thunderous roars echoed across the forest.
It stomped, twisted, swung its tusks, fired Qi beams wildly, but John's Level Ten Slow Toad Breathing turned every motion into a blur of reaction.
His Spatial Awareness fed him every movement before it happened.
He saw the beast's weight shift before its horn glowed.
He felt the tremor in the air before its foot moved.
"You're strong… but predictable."
After nearly an hour of unrelenting battle, the mammoth's legs trembled.
Steam rose from its wounds.
Blood, thick and purple, dripped into the grass.
Its once-proud roars became raspy grunts.
John appeared once more, directly beneath its neck.
"Time to end this."
He inhaled deeply, and all his Marrow Qi surged into his limbs.
His bones crackled with power.
His fists shone like tempered steel.
With a powerful upward motion, he slammed his fist into the underside of the beast's jaw, aiming for the joint that connected to its brain.
A shockwave burst out, rippling through the beast's skull.
It froze.
Then, with a groaning sigh, the mammoth collapsed, crashing into the earth like a falling mountain.
Dust billowed into the air.
Birds scattered. The forest quieted.
John stood atop the fallen beast, breathing steady. Not a scratch on him.
"Even mountains can fall if you're fast enough."
He slid down its side and examined the corpse.
A powerful spiritual beast like this would definitely yield a core.
He sliced into the flesh with a recovered bandit blade and after a few careful moments, found it, a lustrous Spirit Core, about the size of a human heart, glowing faintly with energy.
"This could be worth a fortune in the city. Pills, weapons… or maybe something better."
He stored the core in his spatial bag, alongside a few strips of high-grade meat, and looked around the ruined clearing.
"I've proven what I needed to."
He closed his eyes for a moment.
"Next stop... civilization."