Chapter 9. Third entry into the Pocket Hunting DImension
Next day Lin Xiang tested his physical strength on an iron tree and confirmed that his strength had increased by about 100 jins after he swallowed the red crystal.
That day he also practiced with the Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians from morning until evening.
Practicing without proper cultivation pills is very wasteful, hence Lin Xiang spent 200 gold taels of his savings, nearly all of his wealth, and purchased a single Soul Gathering Pellet in order to increase the rate at which he could raise his strength.
Before now Lin Xiang had only taken a single Golden Deer Pill in his life and never received or used Soul Gathering Pellets because the cost was simply too high.
Pills and pellets are made from combining medicinal herbs and raw materials from vicious beasts and then refining them. They're many times better than simply using medicinal herbs or vicious beast materials. Moreover, because of the formulas, it was possible to achieve effects which the medicinal herbs or vicious beast materials could not achieve by themselves.
Soul Gathering Pellets' main effect was to increase the absorption rate of true essence and speed up a martial artist's cultivation. Its price was at 200 gold taels for each.
A Soul Gathering Pelletin increased Lin Xiang's cultivation speed by about 40%, yet its effect would remain only for about two days. It was a very costly way of practice!
This kind of pellet was 200 gold also. Even aristocratic families' juniors had to use their savings to buy it.
But Lin Xiang didn't feel any pity. Thanks to the inscription knowledge in his mind he had the potential of making piles of gold in the near future, so he pursued the highest efficiency in his cultivation even if the price was steep!
When the late evening came, Lin Xiang entered the Pocket Hunting Dimension for the third time.
…
Lin Xiang looked around the grassy plain and realized that he didn't arrive at exactly the same spot as last time.
What remained the same though was that he was in a grassy plain without any characteristic landscape points and there were no beasts in sight.
After scanning his surroundings, Lin Xiang gripped his spear harder and began to carefully walk in the direction of the sun while searching for rabbits.
Ideally, he would encounter a single small gray rabbit. If he encounters a large white or black rabbit, then he might also attempt fighting.
However, his lack was kind of bad because what he bumped into was a combo of a black and a gray rabbit. There were two of them.
After noticing these two, Lin Xiang turned away and began to back off.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
The rabbits seemed to be first-level vicious beasts and had senses not inferior to Lin Xiang at all. They already discovered him. Seeing that Lin Xiang was backing off, the two rabbits began hopping toward him.
Lin Xiang sighed and turned back as he readied himself for a desperate fight. His speed had indeed increased since yesterday, but he was still not confident that he could outrun the black rabbit.
In addition, as he ran he would encounter more and more rabbits along the way that might join the chase.
Since he was discovered, his only option was to fight!
Lin Xiang was still not fully confident that he could kill both of these rabbits, so he wanted to at least kill one before dying in order to collect its orbs.
That's because his cultivation was still only at Middle First Stage, while he estimated that the strength and speed of the rabbits should at least be in the Second Stage range.
The black and gray rabbit slowly hopped toward Lin Xiang. Then when the distance was only ten meters, they bashed their teeth and charged straight at him at lightning speed.
Lin Xiang lowered his center of gravity. Using the foundational movement technique, he walked to the side with his spear in front of him. As the rabbits jumped at him, he dodged to the side while decisively thrusting out his spear at the gray rabbit.
With a ripping sound, Lin Xiang's robe was tarn and he groaned as the muscles of his right shoulder were shredded by the black rabbit claw's - he didn't manage to dodge that attack fully.
At the same time there was also a cracking sound as Lin Xiang's iron spear still managed to pierce right into the gray rabbit's head.
The gray rabbit's limbs spasmed, before it became still at the tip of Lin Xiang's spear.
Lin Xiang put down his spear along with the giant rabbit on top of it.
At the same time, the gray rabbit's body dispersed and turned into energy, but Lin Xiang had no time to celebrate his victory because the black rabbit already turned its body after landing and jumped at him for the second time.
Lin Xiang hurriedly made an exaggerated movement and dodged.
But the black rabbit was simply too quick and agile! It twisted its body mid-air and its claws caused three gushing wounds across Lin Xiang's torso.
Lin Xiang groaned in pain.
The black rabbit landed and charged once again.
Lin Xiang gritted his teeth as he raised his spear in front of him. 'I'll take you down with me!'
As the black rabbit jumped at him with claws in front, Lin Xiang lunged forward with his spear and thrust out.
The spear entered the rabbit's body, but the rabbit's claws also slashed at Lin Xiang as it slid along the spear shaft toward him.
Lin Xiang gritted his teeth, squinted his eyes and turned his head to the side.
Still, the claws slashed at the side of his neck, his upper chest and lower chest, rending his flesh. There were cracking sounds as his clavicle and ribs were also broken with that single attack.
Lin Xiang groaned in pain. He wanted to pull out his knife and stab it into the black rabbit's brain through his eye, killing it, but just as he only reached toward his knife, the black rabbit already started madly slashing with its claws and gnawing with its teeth, ripping apart his body.
Lin Xiang shouted in pain. He did not manage to accomplish anything more as the rabbit gnawed and slashed at him in a frenzy.
A moment later, Lin Xiang died.
…
Lin Xiang appeared back in his room, covered in cold sweat and panting. It took him a long while to recover.
These big rabbits were incredibly fast and quick! Killing them as a Body Transformation First Stager was very difficult even during a suicidal attack.
They were simply beyond the capabilities of a Strength Training Martial Artist to handle.
The only saving grace was that during this trip Lin Xiang at least managed to kill one gray rabbit. As he looked into his mind space, sure enough, a single red cherry-sized orb of light was waiting for him right there.
Lin Xiang called out and summoned the orb of light, and swallowed it. With this orb of light, his strength would be increased by at least a little bit before he enters next time.
This time, it only took Lin Xiang a round 40 minutes to fully absorb the energy crystal.
Lin Xiang was a bit startled. Logically, his physical strength should have once again increased by about 100 jins after he consumed the red crystal, so it should be at over 900 jins in total, yet… he still hadn't reached the late Strength Training Stage!
In comparison, once an ordinary martial artist reaches 1000 jins of strength, he would have already broken through to the Second Stage of Body Transformation.
But Lin Xiang's strength reached over 900 jins already and he hadn't yet even stepped into Late First Stage, let alone the Peak First Stage or Second Stage!
It meant that his physical strength at his stage was incredibly high and the tempering of his body was exceedingly solid.
The Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians is a powerful body transformation technique that focuses on physical strength, but according to the memories in the soul fragment, it still doesn't provide this level of strength.
Lin Xiang assumed that his exceptionally strong foundation should be caused by the red energy orbs from the Pocket Hunting Dimension. That's because when he absorbs the energy from the red crystal, he can feel that instead of progressing his cultivation forward, it seeps into the parts of his muscles which were already refined.
Apparently, the energy from the red crystal re-tempers the muscle cells that were already refined, refining them in an even more thorough manner than even the Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians manual could, or re-refining the parts that were missed, thus Lin Xiang's cultivation did not break through to the Late First Stage yet, but his strength had soared by so much.
After thinking about it a bit, Lin Xiang realized that although the Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians manual was a top-tier Body Transformation manual of the Divine Realm, it still would not be perfect. After all, even the Tyrant Manual was said to be much stronger than the Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians.
However, the energy from the red orbs was different. It had the ability to build an ideal foundation!
Lin Xiang let out a breath. Just what levels of strength would he reach when he eventually breaks through to peak Strength Training?