Chapter 11. There is always a bigger rabbit
When Lin Xiang entered the Pocket Hunting Dimension in the late evening, entering it for the 5th time, he already wore the flexible armor he bought underneath his clothes.
This armor was similar to chainmail, except it was soft, flexible and light, with texture similar to silk. Except that the silk strand that it was made of were more durable than steel wires!
After arriving at the grassy plains, Lin Xiang immediately began searching for suitable prey.
The first enemy that he encountered was a pair of a black and white large rabbits. He didn't even hesitate and backed off. He avoided them and continued exploring the plains.
Next he bumped into a single large black rabbit and avoided it as well.
Afterwards, he luckily found a single gray rabbit.
With his increased strength after stepping into Late Strength Training, Lin Xiang easily killed the gray rabbit with a single strike while sustaining no injuries.
One red orb collected!
Unfortunately Lin Xiang's happy days ended at this point, because the gray rabbit's screeches seemed to have attracted the attention of a large black rabbit nearby.
The large black rabbit was rapidly hopping toward Lin Xiang, its red eyes fixated straight on him.
Lin Xiang prepared himself for an inevitable fight.
When the black rabbit neared Lin Xiang and jumped at him, Lin Xiang brought his spear in front of him in a defensive position, holding it close to the middle, and poured true essence into the movement and then swiped with his spear defensively at the rabbit as if he was swinging a baseball bat at a ball plunging toward him.
It proved to be very effective because when the 100 jins heavy iron spear smashed into the black rabbit's body in the air, it stopped its advance and slightly bumped it away thanks to the blunt force of the strike.
At the same time, Lin Xiang was also forced to take a step back to keep his balance. Powerful vibrating force was transmitted to his body through the iron rod, causing his arms and entire upper body to shake and hurt.
But the large black rabbit quickly recovered itself at the ground and jumped at Lin Xiang once again right after, seeming completely unaffected by the blow.
Although Lin Xiang smashed a 60 kilogram rod at the large black rabbit with most of his strength, it still didn't seem to be able to break his bones. That rabbit's body was actually extremely tough!
His heavy iron spear even bent and stayed bent!
Lin Xiang batted the jumping black rabbit away once again, but he saw that it did not work. In turn, he was once again struck by the rebound force and nearly dropped his spear.
Fighting this way only caused Lin Xiang self harm and was exhausting him by batting with all of his strength.
When the large black rabbit jumped once again, Lin Xiang dodged to the side while swiping out strongly with his spear.
Human and rabbit traded wounds, a cut appearing on the rabbit's body, but the rabbit seemed otherwise unaffected.
As for Lin Xiang, the rabbit's claws slashed at his shoulder and ripped apart his clothes, but the flexible armor protected him from drawing any blood. Lin Xiang only experienced a strong blunt attack on his shoulder, and might later form a bruise due to this, but he did not care.
After making that jump, seeing that its attack did not succeed and his opponent's skin completely resisted his claws, even causing his claws to hurt, the black rabbit stopped. It stayed on the ground while looking at Lin Xiang.
At that time the black rabbit thought that this strange animal had an extremely tough hide. Although the energy that it emitted was weak, it might be a difficult opponent.
"Yii! Yii! Yii!" The large black rabbit screamed, letting out high-pitched noises.
Afterwards, the black rabbit did not attack, but waited while carefully looking at Lin Xiang with its red eyes.
Lin Xiang narrowed his eyes. He guessed that the black rabbit might have called over his buddies to help.
He didn't hesitate any longer and plunged at the large rabbit.
As a response, the black rabbit didn't run. It gashed its teeth, revealed its claws and ferociously jumped at Lin Xiang.
The rabbits in this world were extremely intelligent. Whenever they could, they would aim at Lin Xiang's throat.
Although Lin Xiang bought the flexible armor, it did not extend all the way to protect Lin Xiang's neck. Lin Xiang had to keep it in mind as he exchanged the blows with the large black rabbit once again.
As the rabbit jumped, Lin Xiang thrust out his spear while stepping forward and to the side, aiming to avoid his throat being injured.
The black rabbit was still too quickly for Lin Xiang to accurately strike its head, eyes or mouth. He aimed at the head, but he missed and his spear only scratched across the side of the black rabbit's head, drawing some blood as the skin was cut.
Meanwhile the rabbit's claws slashed against Lin Xiang's upper chest, but the flexible armor protected him.
Soon, apart from the large black rabbit, a single white rabbit also appeared in sight.
Lin Xiang's heart felt a chill. He didn't waste time and plunged once again at the black rabbit nearby.
He thrust out his spear.
Once again, he missed the rabbit's head and the spear pierced into the black rabbit's torso instead.
Whether it was because the muscles of the black rabbit were far more durable than those of the gray rabbit, or because Lin Xiang was too weak, but the spear tip only entered a few centimeters deep and stopped, not piercing the white rabbit all the way through.
This thrust was enough to stop the black rabbit's attack.
Lin Xiang pulled out his spear and quickly thrust out again, but the black rabbit dodged his attack.
Lin Xiang managed to protect his throat and the black rabbit's next attack landed on his flexible armor, but soon enough the white rabbit also joined the fight.
With two large rabbits jumping at him from different directions, Lin Xiang was quickly overwhelmed.
A claw landed on one of his hands and instantly shredded it, ripping it apart. Blood flew out and most of his hand bones were ripped out. His hand turned into a bloody mess and the spear automatically dropped out from his non-existent grip.
Lin Xiang growled in pain and soon after he drowned in a flurry of slashes and a sea of suffering as the two large rabbits attacked him together.
He desperately picked up his spear with his remaining left arm and put up a final struggle, but he was unable to accomplish anything against these fast and vicious rabbits.
His throat was ripped out with a claw, then there was a sharp pain on his head and his world went dark.
…
Lin Xiang clutched his head as he returned to his room in the Grand Clarity Pavilion.
He squeezed his skull hard with his hands, still feeling the lingering pain as if his brain was smashed.
Apparently, this time he died from a claw to the head. It was a quick death, but the after effects were not any less painful than before.
Eventually the pain faded.
After collecting himself, Lin Xiang looked into his special dimension and saw a single small faint red orb of light.
Lin Xiang let out a breath, thinking, 'Getting one red orb is still better than nothing. The effects of the orbs are very strong, but even if I don't acquire any orbs my strength is still rising very quickly each passing day. The orbs could be considered a bonus. Compared to Lin Ming in the novel I'm also cultivating with Soul Gathering Pellets and a perfectly cleansed body from the start, so my progress is much faster in the first place.'
When Lin Xiang first entered the Pocket Hunting Dimension he wasn't even able to react to the large rabbit, but now he could trade blows with it and partially dodge its attacks. It would not be too long before he could kill it.
Lin Xiang pulled out an orb and absorbed the rich heaven and earth energy inside. Thanks to this orb he once again made a considerable leap in his Late Strength Training cultivation.
…
Next day Lin Xiang cultivated with Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians for the entire day.
In the evening he entered the Pocket Hunting Dimension once again.
He bumped into and avoided large rabbit's twice.
Afterwards, he ran into a rabbit that was even larger than the white and black ones. It was white and about 1.25 meters tall.
The oversized rabbit detected him from a long distance and then seemingly began to happily hump over toward him.
Seeing the rabbit that was even larger than the large ones Lin Xiang knew that he was screwed.
After making up his mind, Lin Xiang turned tail and ran. Since he was no match for this super-sized rabbit, it would be ideal if he could at least bump into a pack with a single small gray rabbit along the way and hopefully kill it before dying.
Unfortunately, after just several seconds since Lin Xiang broke into a sprint, he felt an impact at the back of his head and then saw the world spinning around him as his head forcefully bent at a weird angle.
A moment later, he passed out.
Soon he was shot out back into his room.
Unbearable lingering pain on his neck and spine remained, but because the attack and his death were so sudden, it fortunately faded soon enough.
Like this, Lin Xiang's 5th visit in the Pocket Hunting Dimension ended without him acquiring any loot.
Lin Xiang let out a breath. For that super sized rabbit he would not even be able to put up any resistance. It was as if he faced the ordinary white rabbit after he first entered all over again.
Lin Xiang has grown stronger, but as the saying goes, there is always a bigger rabbit…
But Lin Xiang accepted this outcome without feeling too much pity. His progress was already great.
Since he didn't have any orbs to absorb, Lin Xiang decided to practice Inscription for some time to exhaust his soul force before sleep.
Although he fused with the memories of the soul fragment, he could not make light of the difficulty of Inscriptions. In order to be able to create actual inscriptions, he had to practice body and mind spiritual coordination in order to fully integrate the soul's memories within his body.
In order to practice, he used true essence and soul force to draw Inscription Lines and Symbols in the air with his finger.
He circulated the energy in his body, and every time it seemed to sync with the memories from the soul fragment, he carved that feeling into his mind.
This was a very tedious and mentally taxing process, but in Lin Xiangs mind he could see tens of thousands of pages flipping one at a time, again and again, as his soul and body gradually acclimated and his movements became smoother.
What Lin Xiang initially wanted to focus on practicing was a single and most basic inscription that he could create for sale, as well as body engraving methods to use on himself.
As for the method of increasing the efficacy of medicines and other compounded drugs, because of the existence of energy orbs, it might prove to be quite useless. He considered practicing it in the future, if only to improve his soul force and inscription skills, but didn't prioritize it for the time being.
It had to be known that there existed certain pills, drugs and herbs in this world that were prohibitively rare and precious. Even if you had any amount of money, you still might not be able to purchase medicine like them!
If the engraving inscriptions for medicine were applied, then the strength of one impossibly rare medicine could become, for example, three! Naturally, it would be simply too wasteful to take this kind of medicine without using the absorption rate enhancement inscription.
As for the bodily engraving inscription, there were two that Lin Xiang could use. One had the effect of enhancing the grade of one's Martial Talent, increasing the speed of practice. For those in the lower realm, it was truly a heaven defying method!
For Lin Xiang, improvement in his cultivation speed that's only useful during the lower realms of cultivation did not seem to be very needed, but the second bodily inscription would directly increase his strength, improving the flow of his true essence into his weapon.
Unfortunately Lin Xiang quickly realized that there was a solid reason why the original Protagonist didn't use the medicinal and body inscriptions before joining the Martial House.
Compared to creating the simple object inscriptions, the medicinal inscriptions were several times more difficult! Furthermore, the ingredients just to create the Lesser Cure Symbol were very expensive for the current him.
As for the body inscriptions, according to the expert's memories, they required absolute knowledge and attainments in Inscription to use. They were even more complicated than medicinal inscriptions.
Thus, Lin Xiang only focused on practicing object inscriptions first over and over again. 80% of his time he focused on the single most basic one he found that he should be able to create - the Overwhelming Symbol.
After tirelessly practicing Inscriptions for two hours, Lin Xiang completely exhausted his soul force. Thanks to feeling exhausted, he quickly fell asleep right after.