Chapter 9: Weird Antics.

It has been half a month since Aurelius and Alyssa left the clan, leaving Ignis alone with Solace. Cultivation was the only thought in his mind as he spends the time doing nothing other than cultivation. Even though Aurelius told him to ask his uncle for help, he had simply stayed in his house and cultivated. The only time he didn’t cultivates was to get food from the clan’s storage so that he wouldn’t starve to death. Other than that, he just takes a short rest before continuing the cultivation.

After a half month time, his body had been strengthened through experiencing excruciating pain and had entered the next stage. Before cultivation, his punches could barely equal to 1 bull. However, at the current moment, his power has increased to 5 bull. This occasion is worth celebrating, since it meant that his body has fulfilled one of the conditions for Ignis to reach the Apprentice stage, for body cultivators that is.

To reach the Apprentice stage, each one of other type of the cultivators would have a different requirement. For example, the bloodline cultivators would need to purify their blood past the 1st stage, and activates one of their bloodline characteristic. Another example would be the Symbol Cultivators, as they must meet the requirement to be able to read a symbol belonging to the Foundation stage.

Cultivating the body would be more painful in the later stages however it could also be seen as a simpler type of cultivation. Anyone can achieve success in cultivating their body as long as they can endure the pain and put in the hard work. However, to cultivate either a Bloodline or Symbol, they must meet that specialised requirement that belongs to the cultivation. For example, to cultivate the way of Symbols, a cultivator would require to have Mental Energy to be able to cultivate. If they weren’t born with this energy, then the only way to cultivate it is by artificially gaining it through the uses of rare treasures and resources.

The day begins for Ignis as he wakes up on his courtyard with Solace besides him. “Good morning, Solace. Let’s have another good day.”

Ignis yawns as he carries Solace who was half-asleep into their house to prepare for the day.

…

Within the Crimson clan, there is a house that looks like it has been neglected for decades. The whole house is covered in dust and cobweb. This house that looks like it has been abandoned belonged to Reynold, cousin of the current clan leader. Only the door of the house looks a bit cleaner, simply because there would be people assigned to take care of Reynold’s food. This is so that he wouldn’t be disturbed while in secluded cultivation.

Slowly, the doors start to move like an ancient tomb opening its entrance and coming out from the house is a coughing man that looks like he is in his 40s. It is no other than Reynold who just walked out of his home.

“Gah-?! Why does my house look so dirty?” Reynold said, speechless as he sees the unbelievable spectacle of his neglected house. Reynold scratches the back of his head as he faces towards the entrance to his courtyard and left the place like nothing happen.

Even after 30 minutes, Reynold was still walking. He made a turn to the right, left, left and left again. His turns became even more sporadic, and after an hour of walking, he was right back in his courtyard.

Reynold’s eyes twitches as he realises that he returned to his home and unknowingly sighs.

“I suppose, I should have asked uncle where to find Ignis.”

Reaching the Absorption Realm doesn’t make Reynold a genius; far from it. Reaching this realm doesn’t change a person’s power. Instead, it amplifies their strength. Reynold never had a sense for direction; when he wants to go north he goes south, when he wanted to visit a friend’s house he ended up at his grandparent’s home, and when he wanted to travel to Country of Wind he ended up arriving in the Country of Earth instead. Not only that, he even has a severe memory, combining the fact that he had secluded himself in his house for 10 years, it wouldn’t be surprising that he forgot his way around the clan.

All Reynold could do for now is to wait until Ignis decides to visit him. After taking a deep breath, Reynold decides to go back inside his house to cultivate once again.

However, even before taking another step, Reynold immediately changes his mind with a thought that abruptly appearing. “Hmm, I’ve been cooped up in the house for 10 years now. I should go to the Ivern forest so that I can test out my strength.” Reynold’s eyes brightened and once again left his house.

On that afternoon, a miracle appeared as if god gave his blessing to this uncle. Reynold somehow managed to arrive at the Ivern forest without getting lost on his way there. Reynold breath in relief and with no hint of hesitation he goes into the forest, even though he didn’t prepare anything beforehand.

The instant Reynold entered the forest, a four-legged beast appears. Black stripes that resembles lightning strikes ran down the beast’s white coat. Once Reynold spots the beast, he immediately figures what race species it is as he laughs in delight.

“Oh ho-ho, so the beast I first encounter after coming out of my hibernation is a Volt Tiger. Yes, you would make a perfect present for Ignis, with your skin be used to create lightning resistant armor, not to mention your Demonic Core,” Reynold said, admiring the beast’s valuable assets, immediately afterward the smirk on his face vanishes and a serious expression appears as he concentrates.

Reynold took his stance as he crouches down and his two hands spreads out. It was like he prepares to catch the beast if it decides to run away from the battle.

The Volt Tiger let out a ear-splitting roar and rushed forward like it had no intention in preserving its life. Even though the Demonic Beasts are smarter than a normal forest animal, if their rank wasn’t high enough, then their intelligence is still limited.

Take this Volt Tiger for example. it is currently only at a the Basic Rank. It’s hunting strategy is quite simple; rush into attack and if injured severely, it will retreat and flee. Only after it advances its ranks would its intelligence gradually increase according to the level. This is completely the opposite of human cultivator as Demonic Beast would overcome their weak points with each breakthrough, making them more balanced in a whole while human cultivators would simply sharpen their strengths.

Every step the Volt Tiger took, it left a deep footprint to showcase the power it’s using. It lunges at Reynold with its claw ready to tear him into pieces. Even though this is what it hope to do, nothing ever goes according to plan.

As soon as the Volt Tiger leaped into air, Reynold lifts his feet and swiftly kicks the belly of the beast. Due the force of the kick, the Volt Tiger flew backward and would have slams onto a tree however shortly after it been kicked, Reynold’s hands grasps hold of the tiger’s belly. This caused the tiger to feel the effect of a whiplash on its neck while its belly is being grabbed hold by a stranger.

However, that should be the least of its worries because, as soon as Reynold held the tiger in mid air with his left hand, his right-hand contracts and Qi begins to be concentrated around his fist. Despite the desert like temperature, the air around Reynolds abruptly became cold and ice starts to surround his fist, almost like a gauntlet made out of ice.

Once the gauntlet was formed without a delay, Reynold unleashes his fist straight to the Volt Tiger’s head. If Reynold uses any more power, then it would have completely pulverised the head, but Reynold held back. Upon receiving that punch, the Volt Tiger, without anything holding it in place, flew backward once again, only this time it crashes against a tree and wrecked by the impact, the tree fell down.

After receiving the punch to the head and crashing onto the tree, the Volt Tiger twitched so slightly on the ground. As its brain was crushed and its life force slowly slipped through its body until it no longer twitched, leaving this world and entering into the afterlife.

Reynold’s cold eyes sees that the Volt Tiger had stopped twitching, making a smirk form on his face as he laughed.

“Hmm, I still got it. Haha,” he said before walking towards the corpse of the Volt Tiger.

What Aurelius didn’t notice is that, even though with a decade of close door cultivation, Reynold’s rank didn’t increase. He went through a qualitative change as he tempered his foundation and solidifying it. During this time, he managed to survive through the haunting of his inner-demon, despite it is still there in his heart and mind, but he has managed to control it, and it no longer bothers him.

Reynold operates his Qi into a ring that is on his hand and the Volt Tiger corpse suddenly vanished into nothingness. What happened was the Volt Tiger got absorbed into a Dimension ring and is currently being stored there.

“Yes. This would be the perfect gift for Ignis. Haha.”

After having this short battle, Reynold decides to leave, feeling satisfied with the result of his trip. However, his luck ran short since he got lost. He dryly laughed while scratching the back of his head in confusion. While he managed to reach the Crimson clan, he has somehow managed to get lost.

“Sigh... I suppose I’ll just ask someone for directions.”

With that decided, Reynold goes to a house near him and then he spots someone.