The bear struggled to its feet, blood streaming from its mouth, and he felt a vicious satisfaction.
Twenty-three times this bastard had killed him. Twenty-three times he'd felt its claws tear through his flesh.
Now it was bleeding.
It charged again, wounded and desperate.
He sidestepped and grabbed its massive head with both hands, that strange energy surging through him like liquid fire.
The bear's skull cracked under the pressure.
"Twenty-three times," He whispered as its struggles weakened. "I counted every single one."
The great beast shuddered once and went still. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief.
He dropped the corpse and stood there, breathing hard, covered in blood that wasn't his for the first time in weeks.
Alive. Actually, genuinely alive.
That mysterious energy began receding, leaving him feeling drained but exhilarated. Whatever this power was, cultivation? Magic? Or some kind of cheat ability?
He began searching the bear's territory, looking for whatever it had been guarding.
Powerful beasts in cultivation worlds always protected something valuable, right? Isn't that the usual trope? Spirit herbs, treasures, maybe even a cultivation manual!
He found the cave behind a waterfall, exactly like every cultivation novel he ever read. But what waited inside made him forget every cliche.
Spirit stones. Dozens of them, glittering like captured starlight in neat rows. But more importantly, in the center of the chamber was something that made his breath catch.
A cultivation manual. Ancient, stacked within a pile of books, radiating an aura of power that made his heart palpitate.
But as he reached for it, his hand stopped midair.
There, reflected in the surface of a spirit stone, was his face. For just a moment, it looked... wrong. Older. Haggard? Or foreign.
Like something fundamental had been carved away from behind his eyes.
The feeling passed quickly, and he dismissed it as exhaustion and adrenaline. But for that instant, he could have sworn his reflection had been smiling with an expression he didn't remember making.
it was like staring into the mirror, and when you stared long enough, your face moved when you knew you didn't move a slight bit.
This was a little frightening, but he quickly calm himself down with the idea that he can't die. What's the worse that can happen?
He dare not to dwell on this matter for too long.
Then, he grabbed the manual and several spirit stones, shoving them into his leather bag.
Right now, his only goal is to find the way home, and more importantly, to do that, he need survive. For this, he needed power!
As he emerged from the cave, he felt eyes watching him. Human eyes.
In the distance, barely visible through the trees, stood a figure in clothes that definitely weren't from this world. Another transmigrator. Had to be. That or a powerful cultivator beyond his reach with a strangely similar fashion sense to modern earth.
They were too far away to make out clearly, but the superficial detail was enough to infer. Their posture suggested they'd been watching his fight. Observing. Evaluating.
Smart. That's exactly what he would have done.
He raised his hand in a casual wave with some hesitation, whether to greet them or not. In the end, he did, albeit slightly. They also waved back, with some hesitation just like he had.
Strange, but he didn't question it too much.
After all, the way he fought definitely warrant a side eye or two, not that he know what it looked like from an outsider view.
Then they disappeared back into the forest like they'd never been there.
Interesting. So he wasn't alone in this world after all.
He didn't chase after them. After all, their intention is unknown, not to mention, he barely knew the landscape of this never ending forest.
So he put his attention back to the present and looked down at the cultivation manual in his hands, then back toward where the figure had vanished.
This made him think deeply about a certain implication.
If there are other transmigrators, that meant competition. He's not sure if they were granted an ability just like he was, but he had to assume so, after all, he cannot be the only special one in this world.
He's not that naive, or he would like to think he wasn't.
The question is, how special is their ability compare to his?
He later learned the answer to this question. Their ability compare to his is like a rain drop against an ocean.
Of course, he didn't know that yet.
Now that he guess there are others like him, it also meant opportunity. The cultivators of this world might not view them foreigner on friendly term, but surely these fellow transmigrator would be friendly right?
If this was him before the 23rd death, he would have thought so, but he's not so optimist to believe that now. It was better to move with caution and treat them as potential threat.
This will be his mindset moving forward.
After all, the Shi Jing who'd spent three weeks dying in this forest was very different from the office worker who'd been hit by that truck.
These other transmigrators had no idea what he'd become. And he too, do not understand what they have became. But he doubt they experienced what he experienced in that short span of time.
He smiled—the same cold expression he'd seen in his reflection—and began walking deeper into the tunnel and made the iron-clawed bear cave his home.
The first thing he did was moved a few things around to make it more like home, then quickly opened the cultivation manual.
His hand tremble slightly, only to realized one crucial thing.
"Shit. I can't read it."
Then, the system notification appeared for the second time.
[Detected Body Refinement Art: Earth-Grade]
[Detected Sword Art: Heaven-Grade]
[Congratulation on being the first transmigrator to discover Earth and Heaven-Grade Art.]
[Calculating reward…]
[Completing two achievement, merging reward…]
[Reward: Peak Body-Tempering Stage!]