“Ahhh” John screamed out as he woke up, hastily sitting up in his bed while panting.

John took a few seconds to analyze his surroundings before he realized he was still in his bed at home. “That was just a dream? It felt so lifelike though, like what I was dreaming about was actually happening.”

John sat there for a few minutes replaying the dream he just had. “Well, it must have been a dream. There’s no way an explosion like that could ever exist. It seemed as if the entire universe would be destroyed by something like that” thought John as he climbed out of bed.

John went and washed himself clean before walking to his wardrobe, donning his favorite black robe.

“Good thing I had mother get me a bunch of these black robes, otherwise I would run out pretty quickly” thought John as he put the robe on.

After getting ready to tackle the day, John walked downstairs and had breakfast with his family. “What are you going to do today John?” asked Rachel Fenix while looking at her son devouring his food, a slight smile on her face.

John swallowed the food that was in his mouth before replying, “I’ll probably just go to the library again today and maybe the training area. I just got some new weapons so I need to go test them out.”

“Oh is that so? Well do be careful while sparing. Also remember that tonight is the night the clan is throwing your celebration party. Do be home before dark so you can freshen up and make it to the party on time.” replied Rachel Fenix before taking a sip of water.

John had completely forgotten about it with all that was going on, but he did now remember that tonight was the night of the celebration.

John finished his breakfast and thanked his mother before heading out the front door. After walking for a few minutes towards the martial training area, John looked over his shoulder for a few seconds. Seeing that no one was following him, John turned around and headed towards the clan gate.

After walking for some time, John arrived at the Fenix Clan front gate. He greeted the two guards that were stationed at the gate before walking through.

“More forest hunting today John?” asked one of the guards.

“Yep.Don’t tell anyone though” replied John with a coy smile before passing through the clan gate and walking down the wide road leading away from it.

The Skycleave mountain range spanned for thousands of miles, with the Skycleave forest at the base of the mountain range spanning for thousands of miles in each direction itself. The Fenix Clan was situated at the base of one of the Skycleave mountains, and had cleared out quite an expanse around the clan grounds.

The road leading out from the Fenix Clan eventually branched off in multiple directions leading to different clans and kingdoms. However, each road cut through the Skycleave forest, making it quite a dangerous journey to undertake without appropriate protection.

John kept walking for about an hour before he came to a branch in the road. By this point, John was quite deep in the Skycleave forest, with Body Refinement level beasts visible everywhere.

“This is around the same spot as last time,” John thought to himself as he turned off the road and started to walk deeper into the forest on the side of the road. John walked for several minutes before hearing a loud howl.

“Awoooo!”

A mighty wolf’s howl echoed throughout the forest, at which point many similar howls were heard responding to the first howl. A smile crept upon John’s face as he started walking towards the source of the howls.

A few minutes later, John walked through the treeline and into an open clearing in the forest, at which point he saw around a dozen Earth Wolves laying around lazily in the hot sun.

“I hope you guys haven’t missed me too much. Our meeting last time got interrupted, but this time it’ll be just you and me” John called out as he started walking towards the pack.

Surprised by the sudden intruder, the wolves hastily stood up before growling at the newcomer. Although the wolves recognized the boy as the one they were hunting not long ago, there was a different air about him that made them feel danger.

John took out his Body Refinement grade greatsword from his storage ring and held it at his side. He stared at the wolves for a few seconds before pushing off the ground and dashing forward as fast as he could.

Before the wolves could react, John was in front of one of them, his greatsword slashing down. The wolf raised its giant paw to parry the sword, but was unable to stop the sword as it cut directly through the paw before continuing down towards the wolf’s head.

“Bang!”

The sound of metal meeting bone rang out as John’s sword passed straight through the skull of the wolf. John quickly steadied himself and spun around, his sword whistling sideways as he struck out with all his power to the three wolves attacking him from behind.

The sound of metal cutting through flesh and bone continuously rang out as John bisected all three wolves with a single attack. The wolves could hardly believe what happened before they collapsed to the ground, dead.

The other eight wolves had been getting into position to follow up on the attacks of the previous three, but completely abandoned the thought as they saw their three members felled with one attack. The wolves hesitated for only an instant before turning around and fleeing as fast as they could.

“Oh no you don’t” John shouted out loud as he started to give chase. It took quite some time before John caught up to the first one, bringing his sword down on the wolf and piercing its skull. This momentary attack was all the other wolves needed to put some distance between John and themselves.

John hastily removed his sword from the dead wolf before continuing his chase. Weaving between trees and jumping over boulders, John chased after the remaining wolves, traveling deeper and deeper into the Skycleave forest. Despite running with all his might, John was only able to slightly close the cap after several minutes of running. After John kept up his chase for almost fifteen minutes, he suddenly stopped in his tracks and watched the wolves run off into the distance.

In front of him, John could see dozens of trees to either side of him painted with red markings. These markings were painted by the Fenix Clan elders, and signified that beyond this point was the area that Mist Creation level beasts started to appear. Although John might manage to avoid running into Mist Creation level beasts, he knew the risk was not worth it.

“Well, I guess that’s where today’s hunt of the Earth Wolves ends. I did manage to bring down five of the wolves, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time. I should look around the area for more powerful Body Refinement level beasts to fully test my strength, as those wolves were only comparable to Tendon Refinement cultivators at best.”

John stored his sword in his storage ring and turned around. He walked away for a few minutes from the red painted trees, before stopping and looking around the area. Not seeing any beasts in the area, John turned to his side and started walking in parallel with the red lined trees, although quite a distance away from them.

After walking for several minutes, John came to a halt as he squinted his eyes.

One hundred feet before him on top of a massive felled tree slept a large lizard.

“An Ironhide Lizard!’ John quietly muttered as he observed the beast. The lizard was eight feet from head to tail, and stood about four feet tall. It had a dark brown hide with small spikes jutting out of its spine.

As their name might suggest, Ironhide lizards were known for their strong hides. Among all Body Refinement level beasts, Ironhide Lizards boasted one of the strongest defenses, while having powerful attacks comparable to that of a Blood Refinement cultivator. They were a beast that almost all Body Refinement cultivators avoided.

John took out his greatsword from his storage ring and observed the lizard for some time, before quietly moving closer to the lizard. When John was about fifteen feet away from the Ironhide Lizard, the beast slowly opened its eyes and spotted John.

“Hiss!”

The Lizard screeched out as it saw John rapidly approaching it. John swung his greatsword out with all his might before the lizard could fully react, leaving a deep but non-fatal wound on its back.

“Wow, it’s hide is even stronger than I expected. No wonder most Body Refinement cultivators avoid fighting this beast” thought John as he quickly dashed backwards, narrowly avoiding the lizard’s tail as it whipped it towards him.

John dashed back towards the lizard, slashing out with his sword when he could find openings and blocking the fast tail attacks of the lizard.

The speed of the lizard’s tail surprised John. He made a mental note of the speed and trajectory of the tail before his next attack. The two faced each other for a brief moment before either of them moved. John moved towards the beast with his sword at a low ready position in front of him, prepared to block any tail or claw attacks.

Knowing that he would need to create an opening to deal a fatal blow to the creature, John planned to evade or parry the next attack from the beast in order to find an opportunity to strike where the defenses of the lizard were the weakest. The lizard shifted to the left away from the fallen tree and slammed its tail on the ground, throwing up the dirt and grass. John’s visibility was cut in half, he could clearly see the lizard in front of him but could no longer see its tail. He knew this was when the creature would strike. John immediately swung his sword overhead towards the lizard’s eyes.

The lizard reacted exactly how John intended; the beast raised its left claw in an attempt to block the overhead attack. At the same time, it whipped its tail around towards John. John’s attack was a feint however. Once he saw the lizard react, he let the handle of the sword go for half a second so that the blade would continue its arc and be facing downwards with the handle upwards. He grasped the handle and quickly plunged his sword into the ground beneath him with the edge facing the direction of the tail.

The tail came flying towards John from beyond his vision and struck the sword that John had placed in the ground cutting off part of the tail. The lizard shrieked in pain pulling its tail back behind its body, leaving a trail of thick blood behind it.

The fight kept on going for a while before both John and the lizard separated. John was breathing heavily as he tried to catch his breath, but other than fatigue, John was unscathed. The lizard on the other hand was covered with dozens of deep wounds, blood dyeing its brown scales red.

“Time to finish this” said John as he quickly dashed towards the Ironhide Lizard. Although wounded, the Lizard turned around and whipped its tail towards John. However, the lizard had clearly forgotten that half its tail was missing. Its attack fell short of John, at which point he dashed forward and plunged his sword straight into the eye of the lizard.

“Spurt!”

John’s greatsword plunged deeply into the eye of the lizard, before eventually coming to a stop when all but the hilt and handle of the sword was visible. The lizard twitched for a few moments before lifelessly slumping to the ground.

“Whew” John exhaled as he struggled to catch his breath. “That was quite a fight. This beast definitely deserved its reputation. I can see why most Blood Refinement cultivators would avoid fighting it. Without my weapon skills, that would have been quite a hard fight.”

Smiling happily at the scene of his victory, John placed the lizard carcass in his storage ring before muttering “This lizard just barely fits in this ring’s spatial dimension. I’ll need to get a better ring if I’m to start doing this more often.”

John looked up at the sky before noticing it was starting to get darker, at which point he turned around and walked back towards the main road. “I should head home since it’s going to be dark soon. Don’t want to be caught out in this forest at night”

After walking for a few minutes, an uneasy feeling assaulted John’s senses. At first he thought it was his imagination, but as he kept walking, the feeling of unease grew stronger and stronger. Trusting his instincts, John stopped and quickly turned around, his face turning white as he stared ahead.