After the month was over Naath slowly opened his eyes and looked around. In this month he had killed roughly a hundred magical beasts and had grown rather adept at combat. Naath jumped down from the tree and started to move around, stiff from being still for a period of 24 hours again. The rune in Naath’s soul sea spoke saying “good brat you kept your promise. And with this we can actually call your soul to be at the first stage of the soul opening level. Now I can pass down a basic soul cultivation art and a soul skill to you.

The art I selected for you is actually rather aptly named the empty soul method. This method emphasizes a clear and empty mind as well as purifying the soul while expanding and cultivating this method. The soul skill is called echoing soul, it works similar to sonar in your old world. It sends out a wave of soul energy and as it hits objects and everything in the surrounding it will give you a rough image of what is around you. It’s useful for seeing through illusions as well as extending the range of your soul detection greatly.

At the early stage one can see for about a hundred feet but the image is blurry and unclear only giving a rough image. At the intermediate stage it is capable of seeing for around 500 feet. The image will sharpen and give a better idea of one's surroundings but will still not be of great quality. At the mastery stage one can see for a few miles and the image quality in one's mind will be almost crystal clear.” After the rune finished speaking the information on the cultivation method and soul skill’s use method was released into Naath’s soul sea.

Naath quickly memorised both of the skills and decided to work on training them later. Right now he needed to work on leaving this forest and finishing his task given by his demon of a master. Naath went back into the outer world and looked at Brutus who was standing beside him and asked “well Brutus are you ready to get out of this forest?” Brutus barked in agreement and Naath turned to face north and the two of them began to walk out towards the edge of the forest. After walking for only 50 feet or so Naath came to a halt as he sensed a few beasts fighting up ahead with his soul perception.

Naath decided to wait until they were done and then take out the winner as well, after five minutes Naath had his chance and struck out with full force killing the winner of the battle as well. However as it turned out Naath and Brutus were not the only ones watching. After Naath killed the winner a group of almost 20 beasts who were hiding nearby surrounded Naath and Brutus. Naath swore under his breath as he and Brutus faced opposite directions and got ready to fight their way out.One of the winged pythons was the first to lunge forward after the silent stare-down.The second it charged towards Naath it was as if dynamite went off.

All of the other beasts began to attack as well, almost simultaneously Naath and Brutus both faced with 10 opponents. However Brutus was now peak third level bone hardening and all of the beasts were only at most peak second level bone hardening. The difference in a small stage, in any cultivation minor stage, usually meant a lot. So Brutus began to dispatch these surrounding beasts quickly. After the battle was over Naath gathered all of the corpses into his infinity gourd for later use. In this world magical beasts’ entire bodies were considered treasures. Their bones could be used for weapons. Their skins as solid armour, their blood could be used to refine medicinal pellets.

The flesh could be used by chefs with good talent to become supplementary to a cultivator's progress. After the battle was over Naath and Brutus continued forward again, this process repeated itself a few times. Naath and Brutus would always be ambushed by groups of at least 5 magical beasts. After a full day of constant battle Naath and Brutus once more went into the top of a tree to recover and meditate. Due to the constant battle Naath’s martial energy had started to grow and gather. He felt close to breaking through to the peak second stage of bone hardening soon.

Naath sat down quickly in the tree and ran his true void arts absorbing the nearby natural energies. He even began to absorb the wood energy in the tree he was sitting on to assist him. Several hours later Naath felt his martial energy compressing in his bones as he controlled it to the 50th compression, he was now in the peak stage of second level bone hardening. Naath felt the amount of energy in his bones now and had a feeling of being revitalized even after all of that battle. After this Naath took out some of the rock boar meat he had in his infinity gourd and used some fire energy to roast it in his hands.

After it was done cooking Naath tore half of it off of the bone and tossed it to Brutus who happily devoured it in a single gulp. After that Naath told Brutus to stand guard while he took a quick nap. Naath awoke several hours later completely refreshed and he and Brutus jumped down from the tree and once more began to make progress towards the edge of the forest. This pattern continued for another month before Naath and Brutus hit a wall. The creatures now were starting to be mid and peak stage level three bone hardening.

This meant Naath had to stop and cultivate until he broke through to the early stage third level of bone hardening. Upon realising this Naath realised something else and said aloud “that old fucker! He said there were beasts at muscle strengthening at the edge! That old motherfucker!!!” Inside Naath’s soul sea his rune was rolling with laughter at Naath’s late realisation, if the rune had a body he would be blue in the face from his laughter and keeled over holding his stomach. Naath ground his teeth in rage and then made his way into a tree.

He sat down and began circulating his true void arts at full force, unknown to Naath as he did this and slipped into the singular state of mind for cultivation his absorption rate slowly climbed. Only 24 hours later Naath felt close to the early stage third level bone hardening. However Naath was pulled out of his meditative state by the feeling of falling rapidly. Naath opened his eyes and quickly stretched out his legs landing safely. He looked back up to the branch he was on and was flabbergasted. The spot he had been was gone.

The stump where the branch had been was smooth as if it was cut with a laser and then sanded down to be perfectly smooth and soft. Naath looked down and opened his palms looking at them wondering “was that me?” The rune in Naath’s soul sea said “that's right brat, for whatever reason every time your mind fades your true void arts circulate at an almost terrifying rate! Back in that formation to test you for the raging river sect some months back you did the same thing. However in that formation it was hundreds of times more terrifying than this. It seems your true void arts are more powerful than even you know and you just can't use them fully yet.

You should train that a bit more, after all it is your own personal art, it should be cherished above all else.” Naath nodded his head and went back into cultivation this time on a much thicker tree branch. Naath fell into this routine of constant battle, cultivation, and eating every 24 hours while also switching trees.