"Heh, seems you are quite perceptive," Robert said, his face breaking into a sinister grin. "In that case, we'll have to ensure your cooperation."
"With just you five?" Harry mocked. As if by an unspoken agreement, the six of them simultaneously leapt to their feet.
"James, it's in your best interest to not resist!" Robert yelled, then leapt forwards to grab Harry.
'Just treat him like a Magic Beast,' Harry thought, and rushed forward too.
Robert threw out a punch, and then smirked as he saw Harry counter with a punch of his own. His cultivation was higher by a level, and he was confident that he could beat -
Up until their fists collided, and he felt like he smashed his fist into a rock.
"AAAAAARRRGGHHHHH" Robert screamed. He held onto his broken fist as he backed up, and stared at James in fright. Harry also backed up due to the impact, but was uninjured.
"Robert, what happened?" the other disciples rushed over.
"This boy… there's something weird about his hand!"
"Motherfucker, you dare attack disciples of the Ox Ford Sect?"
"Are you retarded? Didn't Robert attack me first?"
"A lowly rogue cultivator like you dares to talk back? It seems we need to teach you a lesson!"
As they spoke, the five of them drew their weapons, not daring to clash with Harry head-on.
"Turns out the Ox Ford Clan is quite weak. You can only fight 5 against 1," Harry taunted.
"Hmph. We'll see how arrogant you can be when we bring you back to the clan."
"We are not going to capture him!" Robert roared, still nursing his hand. "Son of a bitch, I was planning on leaving you alive to have you lure the beasts to us, but I've changed my mind! Since you've wandered into the woods, you can stay here forever! Kill him, and we'll use his corpse to attract Magic Beasts!"
Harry heard enough. He rushed forward, drawing his sword out in a quick motion. It took only a second for him to arrive in front of them. The group didn't expect Harry to actually attack first, so they hesitated. A second later, the flat edge of Harry's blade struck Robert right in the face. He was ruthlessly smashed away, and howled in pain on the ground. He felt like his cheek had been whipped.
The other disciples stared woodenly at their fallen leader. Was the man in front of them really only at the 5th level of the Body Tempering Realm?
If he used the sharp edge of his sword, Robert would be a headless corpse!
The five of them were outer disciples of the Ox Ford Clan, and had been treated with care. None of them ever fought a battle with real stakes, only training matches where serious injuries were forbidden. As such, they were unprepared for an actual fight.
They had seen a weaker person alone in the Wyvern Woods, and thought he would immediately surrender when outnumbered five to one. They never expected Harry to not only put up a fight, but actually be extremely strong.
It was just as the Exalted Cat said all those weeks ago – they had a higher cultivation level, but didn't have the combat experience to use it.
Having no other choice, the remaining four charged together at Harry. Laughing, Harry intercepted them.
CLANG!
His blade smashed into another, sending it flying out of his opponent's grasp. A punch to his head caved the man's nose in, and knocked him out. As he lay on the ground, blood spurted out his face like a geyser.
Beating these cultivators with no fighting experience posed no difficulty to Harry. Even some low-level beasts could put up more of a fight.
He heard another blade slashing towards him, from the left. He simply lifted his arm to block it.
The attacker expected his sword to cleave through Harry's arm, and was about to mock him for being an idiot – until the blade sank two centimeters into his arm and stopped.
"What the – AAAHHHHHHH!"
But he didn't get to finish his sentence, because Harry returned his attack. The difference was that his flesh was ordinary, and his left forearm was cut down into the bone. He roared in pain and dropped his sword, forgetting about the fight and instead trying to staunch the bleeding.
Seeing this, the two remaining disciples backed up, not believing their own eyes. Their companions had been defeated in only one move each!
They knew each other's strength very well. The five of them were more or less equally matched. In their practice fights and training sessions, neither of them had a larger advantage over the others. Yet this man had defeated their companions in just a matter of seconds.
They looked at each other, and seemed to reach an unspoken agreement.
"Fellow cultivator James, all of this was just a misunderstanding," one of them said quickly.
"Right, right," the other chimed in. "This was just a misunderstanding, there is no need to go so far."
"A misunderstanding?" Harry curiously asked.
"Yes, yes, just a misunderstanding," one of them put on a smile.
"So, when Robert said I could stay in the Wyvern Woods forever, are you saying I misunderstood him? When he said he would use my corpse to bait Magic Beasts, what did he mean?"
"Our team leader has a big mouth, and spoke some words in anger. Since you have already taught him a lesson, how about we let this matter go?"
"As they say, from an exchange of blows, friendship grows," the other disciple added.
"Shut the fuck up," Harry snapped. "You wanted to kill me to attract Magic Beasts. You think I'll let you off just because you asked nicely? I think I should use your corpses instead."
The pleading look on the disciple's face changed in an instant, hardening into one of resolve.
"Brat, since you are determined to be ruthless, you leave me no choice. Brown Ox Magic Spirit, condense!"
The air behind his back began shimmering, and the blurry image of an ox appeared. It was a large creature, the size of a fully-grown ox, and gradually become more and more solid.
"I admit you're stronger than I expected, but with my Magic Spirit, you'll still be defeated!"
Intrigued, Harry watched as the spirit condensed. It wasn't his first time seeing one, but it was his first time fighting one. The spirit appearing in front of him was a brown ox, with roughly the power of a middle-level Ordinary Grade beast.
A few seconds later, the ox came to life and snorted, then charged towards Harry. Harry also charged forwards, eager to test his new power.
Strengthening Flesh!
By stimulating the Nameless Seed, it could release great amounts of Wood Qi, and strengthen his flesh by another level. For a short amount of time, he would obtain an enormous amount of defensive power, unable to be injured. The drawback was that the Nameless Seed would need to recharge for a few hours before it could be used again.
Running forward, Harry met the ox with his physical body.
BANG!
It was like two boulders smashing together. The brown ox rammed forward, and knocked Harry back nearly a dozen steps. But despite that, he didn't have any injuries, and managed to stabilize his body.
"H-h-he blocked it? Impossible!" the Ox Ford Sect disciple stammered.
Of all the disciples with him, his Magic Spirit had the strongest power. It was just a common Rank 1 Magic Spirit, but it was large, and had great charging momentum. Anyone who tried to face it head on would be trampled over and stomped into the ground. Even some cultivators at the 7th level of the Body Tempering Realm couldn't meet this attack!
But today, a mere 5th level Body Tempering Realm cultivator had stopped it with his physical body!
Meanwhile, Harry felt like he was trying to push against a wall. The ox was stronger than him, there was no doubt about that. With every step it took, Harry was forced back two. However, he managed to hold his ground, and was resisting with all his strength.
He wanted to test his Strengthening Flesh move, and only use his body strength to fight this Magic Spirit, so he didn't draw his sword. All he did was push against it, and continuously activate Strengthening Flesh. But because of that, he didn't have a single injury on his body. He barely even felt the initial impact.
Harry was immensely pleased. The Nameless Technique was far more powerful than he imagined, and he hadn't even finished Strengthening Flesh yet! When he did, how strong would his defense be?
A few moments later, the ox began to dissipate. Cultivators at the Body Tempering Realm weren't able to maintain their spirit's physical form for long, not even for a minute. After that, the spirit would disappear.
"I-i-impossible," the Ox Ford Clan disciple stuttered. "You – you – monster!"
"Monster?" Harry snorted. "Weren't you going to sacrifice me to Magic Beasts? Who is the monster here?"
"That was just Robert!" the disciple pleaded. "He was in the wrong. Please, forgive us."
Harry drew his sword, at the very least intending on teaching the two of them a painful lesson, but then a voice resounded in his mind.
'Let them go.'
Harry stopped and turned to face the cat, who was staring at him from across the fire. It had clearly been the cat's voice, but how had it spoken into his mind?
It nodded at him, and Harry relented.
"Just get out of my sight," Harry said to the pitiful Ox Ford Clan disciples.
"Thank you, thank you –"
"But hand over all the Beast Cores you've obtained," he demanded.
Not daring to hesitate, the disciples handed over all the cores they had gotten. Since there were five of them, they had managed to kill a decent number of Magic Beasts. There were three high-level cores and 15 middle-level ones, along with a number of low-level cores. He now had more than enough to break through the 6th level.
"You can keep these low-level cores," Harry said while tossing them back. Low-level cores were basically useless for his cultivation by now. "There's no need to thank me."
'Why the fuck would we thank you?' they wanted to yell. But they held their tongues, not daring to curse. Instead, they even forced out a smile. They picked up their fallen comrades, while supporting the one who's arm had nearly been cut through, and staggered out of the clearing, towards Ox Ford City.
It was only after they were long gone when the Exalted Cat spoke up.
"Boy, not bad."
"Thanks, the Nameless Technique is really powerful. And Exalted Cat, how did you do that?"
"You think I'm talking about your strength? Your meager power is nothing in my eyes."
"Then what did you mean by 'not bad'?"
"Naturally, I was referring to how you robbed their Beast Cores. Heh, this Exalted Cat will make a true man out of you."
Harry rolled his eyes. Leave it to this shameless cat to praise his thievery.
"But don't get too happy. The Ox Ford Clan is but a third-rate influence. Their disciples are nothing special, and besides, they are a couple years younger than you, with less fighting experience. The five from before must be among the weakest disciples in their clan. Your victory is nothing to be proud of."
'And also leave it to this cat to discourage him,' Harry mentally added.
"Why did you let them off? Wouldn't they report back to their sect?"
"That's exactly why I let them off."
"But –"
"Right now, you need more enemies so you can grow stronger. If their cultivation is much higher than yours, I'll drive them off for you. But otherwise, you're on your own."
"Fine," Harry muttered, while mentally cursing the cat. Wasn't it deliberately causing trouble for him?
"Should we head back to Slughorn? We have enough Beast Cores now."
"Not yet. Since we are already so deep in the forest, we may as well search for plants rich in the Wood Attribute. And you should practice your Strengthening Flesh move against stronger Magic Beasts. A high-level Body Tempering Realm cultivator could break your defense."
In the morning, Harry and the Exalted Cat journeyed even deeper into the Wyvern Woods. This area was the home of beasts at the high-level Body Tempering Realm. Though there was more danger, there were also more resources. Ordinary Grade trees could be found everywhere Harry looked.
"Boy, do you recognize those trees?" the Exalted Cat gestured towards around forty reddish-brown trees a few meters ahead.
"Redwood Balsa," Harry immediately replied.
"Well? What are you waiting for?"
"Right," Harry said, quickly running over and taking his robe off. An hour later, the Wood Qi of all forty trees were absorbed cleanly into the Nameless Seed. The Redwood Balsa were inferior to the Mulberry Trees, but due to how many there were, he gained a large amount of Wood Qi.
He tried to gauge how much more Wood Qi he needed, but was unable to. The Nameless Seed was like a bottomless pit. Perhaps he was 90% done, and just needed a bit more. Or perhaps he hadn't even completed 1%. There was simply no way to tell.
"You refine too quickly," the Exalted Cat muttered when he was done. "And you require too much Qi. Whether it's you swallowing pills, or the seed swallowing Wood Qi, it's not right. Are you close to finishing Strengthening Flesh yet?"
Harry just shook his head. Slughorn's warning surfaced in his mind – that cultivating this technique may be a mistake. He only had two years to open all his meridians, after all. Besides, Strengthening Flesh was only one of the Five Minor Accomplishments.
"Boy, you better hurry up then. There are some Greybark Cedars over there."
Over the next week, the scene repeated itself over and over. With the cat's guidance, Harry encountered plenty of Ordinary Grade trees, so many that he lost count. He must have hugged well over 100 trees, possibly even 200, every single day, yet, he felt like he was trying to fill a pool with water, one drop at a time.
Besides cultivating the Nameless Technique, he also fought against high-level Magic Beasts. He could only defeat the beasts because of how strong his defense was. Since he didn't need to fear their attacks, his fighting style became more and more reckless, even more than before, but it produced great results.
After he got 5 more high-level Beast Cores, the Exalted Cat was finally satisfied with his strength, and they headed back to Slughorn.
"Welcome back, old cat, Harry. How did things go?"
"He did alright. Boy, hand over the Beast Cores. What are you waiting for?"
"This time, I got 71 middle-level Beast Cores, and 14 high-level cores. Thank you in advance for concocting the pills."
"That's quite a lot, impressive work, Harry. It'll be four or five days until I can convert these all to pills."
"Boy, go rest for a few days, and prepare yourself to open your 6th meridian."
Harry nodded. He knew that opening the 6th meridian would be accompanied by a terrifying pain, and there was a good chance of a backlash occurring if he lost concentration. He had to be in his optimal state to breakthrough.
"Slughorn and I need to have a chat."
After saying that, the two of them entered one of the rooms and shut the door.