The moment Jiang Chen stepped into the formation, a blinding light swallowed him. Along with it came a dizzying pressure as the space distorted.
For a brief moment, the ground beneath his feet disappeared. When the light finally vanished, only then did he stumble forward onto solid ground.
There was a moment of silence, then the formation beneath him cracked with a brittle hiss. A heartbeat later, it shattered entirely in a burst of pale radiance, its fragments dissolving like frost beneath the morning sun.
Jiang Chen narrowed his eyes, sweeping his gaze across the surroundings.
Giant trees loomed overhead, their leaves like dark blades. There was no sign of any human presence. Only the faint chirping of insects and the rustle of distant leaves.
His robes still smelled of blood and sweat, yet his heart remained calm.
Jiang Chen crouched low, brushing his fingers over the faint indentations the formation had left upon the earth.
'So... patterns like this could possibly belong to teleportation formations? Interesting. I should copy this down.' He spent an hour examining the shattered array lines, committing every line and stroke to bamboo paper from his storage bag. Even if the formation made little sense now. In the future, knowledge like this could mean life or death.
Once done, he stood up and kicked mud all over the array indentations. Then slowly made his way down the mountain slope.
He moved silently through the mountain forest, heading toward the direction of the Heavenly Tiger Sect.
Two hours passed before he found a resting place that satisfied his caution.
A shallow cave halfway up a hillside, hidden by hanging vines and moss-covered stones. The entrance was narrow and easy to conceal.
Everything looked perfect.
Almost perfect.
Two Silver-furred boars occupied the cave mouth.
One was large and muscular, its silver bristles stiff like iron needles. It dug at the ground with meter-long tusks, snorting as it rooted through the soil. The other was fatter, its belly round and soft. It lay on its back like a fallen log, legs pointing at the sky, snoring so loudly that even the dead might complain.
Jiang Chen crouched in the tall grass. His eyes fixed on the muscular boar as he crept closer without sound. Killing intent slowly surged in his heart.
Ten steps away, the digging boar's snout twitched.
It caught his scent.
Immediately, the ground shook as it rushed him, tusks aimed for his chest.
Jiang Chen stepped forward with no fear.
Spiritual energy surged through him. Golden light erupted around his forearm like a rising flame. A phantom tiger head took shape, fierce and roaring, its jaws open wide. The aura was wild and violent.
A Yellow Rank martial technique.
The Heavenly Tiger Fist.
Jiang Chen punched.
The tiger phantom collided with the tusks. A heavy crack rang out. The boar screamed as it was forced back, hooves carving deep lines in the dirt. Blood spilled from its snout.
The boar roared and charged again, mad with pain.
The noise woke the fat boar.
Its body was awkwardly twisted, legs flailing uselessly. It let out panicked grunts and squeals as it struggled to get up, looking ridiculous and helpless.
Jiang Chen moved again.
Three fists descended in ruthless succession, each punch blooming with the phantom image of a roaring tiger.
The boar's flesh tore open as its ribs collapsed inward. Blood sprayed across grass and leaves, Jiang Chen quickly leapt back several steps as the boar staggered. One tusk showed a clear fracture running through it.
The boar screamed in fury. It lowered its head and charged again, abandoning all defense.
Jiang Chen did not move.
At the last instant, both his arms flared with golden light. Two tiger phantoms formed. He seized the tusks and rolled backward, planting his feet against the boar's shoulders. Using its own momentum, he hurled it into the air.
The massive body flipped once before crashing down. Its tusk stabbed deep into the earth. Its neck took the full force of the impact. The beast struggled fiercely, stuck and disoriented.
Jiang Chen had already turned toward the fat boar.
The fat boar was on the cusp of standing up.
He drew his sword.
The blade slid into its chest without pause. It pierced the heart cleanly. Fresh blood gushed out in thick streams. The boar let out a shrill scream, kicked weakly, then died as a heap of shaking flesh.
The first boar freed itself and staggered upright. Its spine bent unnaturally, blood soaking its silver fur.
But Jiang Chen was already there.
One fist slammed into its spine. The sound was like the crunching of a hundred dry leaves. The beast roared in agony as its legs gave out.
Another strike fell.
Its skull caved in. Blood and brain matter exploded outward in a sickening manner. The body twitched once, then lay motionless.
Silence returned to the forest.
Blood soaked the ground and grass lay flattened in wide arcs. Jiang Chen stood among the corpses, breathing calmly.
The golden light faded from his arms as he brushed the dirt from his robes and made his way toward the cave.
"This will do."
Jiang Chen sealed the entrance with some nearby foliage, then settled into a lotus position.
The moment his mind stilled, a change occurred.
From the depths of his sea of consciousness, ancient characters surfaced soundlessly. Ink-black and obscure, these texts drifted upward like ghosts emerging through water.
The Flesh Devouring God Scripture.
As the scripture unraveled in his mind, Jiang Chen's eyelids trembled slightly. His breathing slowed as he sank deeper into the scripture's content.
'So this is a body cultivation scripture.'
'A body can become a vessel of divine wrath...'
'Using refined beast parts, heavenly materials, and specialized formations...'
'A cultivator may craft their own immortal body, flesh of gold and bone of steel, a treasure of war and resilience...'
His mind swam with the scripture's details, devouring each word with ruthless hunger.
This flesh Devouring God Scripture was a blueprint to forge a body that could contend against the heavens. A physique refined by blood, bone, and flesh, each aspect transformed through intricate refinement.
'Refine the flesh for resilience and transformation. Refine the bones for monstrous might. Refine the blood to inherit their bloodline.'
Jiang Chen's heart pounded like a war drum.
'What a heaven-sent blessing this is! With this, I can reach greater heights! Haha..'
He slowly opened his eyes, dazed and somewhat overwhelmed. The future he had envisioned until now shattered like glass.
He glanced at the small pouch by his waist. It was a bag of holding, commonly known as a storage bag.
Storage bags possessed independent space within them to store items, the size determined by the rank and grade of the treasure.
The one Jiang Chen owned was of the lowest rank, Yellow Rank, and of the lowest grade, refined from the belly skin of a space-devouring camel.
He used his divine sense to look inside.
Three hundred ninety spirit stones.
For someone in his position, this was already a considerable sum. But for the majestic path he envisioned, this meager wealth was an insult.
There was also a small bundle of Shy Shadow Flowers that he had recently collected. If exchanged at the sect's outer office, they could fetch another twenty spirit stones.
Besides that, a single Rank One high-grade Vitality Replenishing Pill. A pair of knives. Three sets of outer disciple robes. A bronze key. His sect identification token. A mission token from the mission hall. Some finely made clothing for important social occasions. Lastly, there was a bundle of bamboo paper, an inkstone, a brush, and a clay bottle of black ink for recording cultivation insights.
Jiang Chen's cultivation had reached the fifth layer of Qi Condensation. Still some distance away from the sixth layer.
Three years had passed since he first stepped onto the path of cultivation.
He was now seventeen.
And his talent was trash.
The lowest grade possible. For someone with such poor aptitude, this level of progress was already astonishing.
Naturally, the young man had worked extremely hard. He cultivated from dawn until midnight, accepted missions without rest. But if this was all he had done, if he had walked the path with an honest heart, he would still be stuck at the third layer.
This cultivation speed, which could match that of a diligent cultivator with mid-grade talent, was built on schemes, careful looting, and silent murders under the moonlight.
Jiang Chen had no master to pass him secret techniques, no powerful parents to clear his obstacles, no hidden treasure to smooth his path.
Every spirit stone, every inch of progress, came at a price. Enemies had been made. Lives had been taken.
But so what?
Only the will to climb, and the cruelty not to care how, made Jiang Chen.
And just as the past scholars say, even a worm so long as it dares to struggle, may one day become a dragon.
His aptitude was trash.
But he, Jiang Chen was no trash.