Hao Xuan walked backed to his quarters lost in thought. He knew whatever he saw was very important but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember it.

When he reached the front door there was a small package there with a note on it. Picking it up and there was a note, it said, “For Mr. Hao Xuan, we welcome you to our family and hope to have a long and prosperous relationship, The Den.”

In the package, there was an obsidian ring, completely black in color with a glossy finish. He put a drop of blood on it and peered inside and was amazed. It was more than 50 times bigger than his current ring and the material was extremely sturdy as well. There was also a huge pile of spirit stones inside that had lightning running through them. They looked spectacular.

After putting the ring on the left middle finger he went inside and locked the door. It was time to train. Of his allotted five weeks, about two and a half had already passed. If he didn’t break through to the next realm he would be sent back Yue Fei.

Hao Xuan liked this place, his strange brothers and sisters, he had taken a liking to them as well and didn’t wanna leave.

He sat down in the middle of the room and surrounded himself by a dozen or so normal spirit crystals. The Glaive manual appeared in his mind and Qi started revolving around the body on its own. The spiritual energy from the crystals surged out like a tide and entered the body, almost overwhelming him.

But he soon got everything under control and started converting it to Qi and leading it towards the small meridians in the left arm. One after another they opened up without the slightest resistance and he leveled up continuously. Within a few mins, the spirit crystals were already dried up so he took out a few hundred and went back to cultivation.

The next five days were spent like that, no one bothered him and he didn’t leave, spending all the time just sitting in the room, cultivating. With the help of almost thirteen hundred low-grade spirit stones, he finally broke through the ninth layer of the Elementary realm, standing at the peak. As soon as he understood another type of energy he would be able to break into the Earth realm.

Hao Xuan opened his eyes and saw Zhurong sleeping in his lap without a care in the world. He was making small purring sounds and licking his lips, probably dreaming about food.

He picked the little guy up and put him on the bed and then went to take a shower and a change of clothes. He had spent the last five days sitting in one place after all, his entire body was making noises as he moved.

Clenching his fists, he could feel the Qi coursing through his body. It felt really comfortable whenever he cultivated and never a chore. Most people felt really bored cooped up in one place just cultivating non-stop. It took a lot of willpower to do that, but Hao Xuan loved every bit of it.

After changing he went to the training area to finally cultivate his techniques.

Infernal Rapture was a support technique that increased the power of his other techniques by 40% after each level, going as high as 420% at level eight.

He took out two lightning elemental spirit stones that the Den sent and held one in each hand. Closing his eyes the manual appeared once again.

“Infernal Rapture cannot be cultivated alone. As it is a support technique it must be trained along with another technique or weapon.”

Hao Xuan thought about using the sword to cultivate the but soon gave up the idea. He didn’t want to accidentally learn to use the lightning energy and use it to break into the next realm.

Instead, he focused on Demonic steps which also required some external resources to be trained properly.

He read the manual and it only mentioned how to circulate Qi around his legs and feet. If he used dark energy to cultivate, the result could be something like invisibility in the shadows. If he used wind energy, the result would be silent steps, if he used light energy the result could almost be like teleportation. It all depended on the purity and type of energy used to cultivate.

But Hao Xuan was using lightning elemental crystals so his would be much different and would evolve as he understood better energies.

What he didn’t know was that Demonic Steps was one of the most powerful techniques in existence. Although it was extremely basic and could be seen as ordinary by some, but in the hands of a genius it would show its real potential.

Hao Xuan closed his eyes and focused on absorbing the energy from the crystals. It had a stinging sensation and left his body a bit numb as it circulated.

According to the manual, he cultivated for more than ten hours. Shuffling back and forth and using almost a quarter of the lightning crystals he finally cultivated to the first stage of Infernal Rapture along with learning the most basic Demonic steps.

***

It was about 1 in the morning when he woke from his daze. The night was dark with some fog in the distance and clouds in the sky, it was about to rain. Hao Xuan held his breath and started circulating the Qi for the Demonic steps, ready to see the results of his training, he took a step forward.

*CRACKLE*

A loud crackle of lightning sounded and he appeared about fifteen meters away in a couple of seconds, with sweat pouring down his neck. He really wasn’t ready for that. The air pressure that hit him was almost like a cinderblock to the face.

He turned around and looked back, there was a straight black line on the ground as if actual lightning had hit.

Even though the crackle was loud, it wasn’t enough to wake the others. But if someone was standing next to him, this would definitely give them a good scare.

“Let’s try it with Infernal Rapture this time,” he mumbled and moved back to the original spot. This time he circulated the Qi to cover his entire body and then took another Demonic Step.

*BOOOOOOM*

Thunder boomed like the heavens themselves had broken apart, and he appeared more than twenty meters away.

“What..the…FUCK! Why is it so loud?? My god damn ears almost burst,” screamed Hao Xuan while rubbing his ears.

“How the hell am I supposed to use this technique? It will draw all the attention to ME!! I can’t even use it to run away because everyone would be able to hear it from miles away. How do I have such bad luck with techniques?” he complained, and rightly so. Imagine, in the middle of a battlefield everyone hears the rumbling of thunder and a guy appears, he would instantly become a huge target, sticking out like a sore thumb. His every move would be heard by the enemies.. Not to mention the amount of Qi it needed was ridiculous.