After the battle with the Lightning Panther, time marched on quietly atop the Monster Mountain Range.
Xiao Ranyu returned to his routine—an endless cycle of brutal training by day and silent pill refinement by night.
He still didn't use traditional cultivation techniques.
No absorbing natural energy. No pills. No cross-legged meditation.
Just relentless movement. Repetition. Precision.
Each strike more refined than the last. Each breath more in sync with his body's flow.
Yet despite that—his strength climbed unnaturally.
From 1-Star… to 2-Star…all the way to 9-Star Dou Grandmaster.
All without ever "cultivating."
> "It doesn't make sense," Huolian thought, crouched on a tree branch above, her tails swaying in disbelief. "He's not even trying to break through."
Her eyes followed him as he threw another precise Molten Tyrant Fist into a boulder, shattering it into dust.
> "He's just… aligning with his original strength?"
Even with her millennia of knowledge and bloodline pride, she was at a loss.
Then, one night—he handed her a newly refined pill, still warm from the flame.
She sniffed it suspiciously, then swallowed it.
Moments later, silver-white light exploded around her.
Her bones creaked. Her Qi howled. Her aura surged—
—and with a brilliant flash, a fourth tail blossomed behind her, elegant and radiant.
She had advanced.
A Rank 4 magical beast.
Equivalent to a Dou Spirit.
> "T-This pill… It wasn't ordinary at all."
She stared at Xiao Ranyu, who was now casually chewing a spirit fruit while roasting meat over a small fire.
He glanced at her glowing form and raised an eyebrow.
> "Oh? You broke through?" he said, voice lazy. "Nice."
> "Nice? NICE?!"
She wanted to bite him again.
But the shock hadn't ended yet.
Just days later, as she continued to observe him, Xiao Ranyu's aura shifted once more.
At first, she thought it was a temporary fluctuation.
But then, that pale yellow flame emerged at his core, gently pulsing in harmony with his breath.
His Dou Qi condensed.
His soul force deepened.
And then—
> BOOM.
A ripple of pressure exploded outward from his body.
Huolian's crimson eyes widened.
> "That's… That's a Dou Spirit's aura?!"
He had broken through again.
From 9-Star Dou Grandmaster to 1-Star Dou Spirit.
Just like that.
She leapt down beside him and sniffed wildly.
Still no sign of cultivation.
Still no pills.
Still sealed.
> "I… what…"
Xiao Ranyu looked at her strange expression and blinked.
"Eh? You look like you saw a ghost."
She kept staring.
He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"…Oh. Right. You're probably wondering how I got to this realm while still not cultivating."
He paused, then added casually:
> "Well, don't be shocked or anything—but my original strength was around 1-Star Dou King."
Huolian's pupils shrank.
> "...He said what?"
> "One-Star… Dou King?!"
> "And he's thirteen…?"
Her heartbeat skipped.
In the Celestial Fox Clan, any child who reached Stage 3 by age thirteen was hailed as a world-shaking genius.
She herself was on of them.
She herself had ascended to Sovereign by a little over 30 years—an achievement that shook the Great Thousand World.
And yet this human…
This lazy, infuriating, meat-roasting, tail-using-as-a-pillow human…
Was once a Stage 5 cultivator before his strength was sealed.
> "This brat is a monster."
> "No. Not just a monster. A monster among monster."
Xiao Ranyu, meanwhile, took a bite of roasted beast jerky and grinned smugly.
"See? I told you it's nothing special."
Huolian just stared at him blankly.
It was, in fact, very special.
So special it shattered the pride of a top-tier genius from the Great Thousand World.
And now, as the moonlight spilled gently onto the cliffside…
She didn't know whether to feel admiration—
—or disbelief
---
Time flowed like the mountain wind—harsh, cold, and relentless.
Unknowingly, ten full months had passed since Xiao Ranyu stepped into the Monster Mountain Range with nothing but a sealed cultivation base and a reckless grin.
Now, that same boy stood at the edge of a cliff—taller, broader, his eyes sharp like forged steel, and his Dou Qi more refined than ever.
In these months, his body had transformed.
What was once a half-starved young master in the first month in the monster mountain became a walking nightmare for magical beasts.
With each passing week, his movements grew more precise.
His palm strikes carved craters into stone.
His steps became silent and controlled.
---
> "To think… ten months ago, I couldn't dodge a level 1 late stage beast."
He smirked bitterly, brushing his hand through his wind-blown crimson hair.
Behind him, a certain snow-white fox lay curled atop a sun-warmed rock, one tail lazily flicking as she watched him.
Except now…
She had four tails.
And her aura had grown dangerously close to Rank 5.
Despite his own monstrous progress, even Xiao Ranyu couldn't help but occasionally glance at Huolian with awe.
A beast of that caliber—especially one who could cook with her claws (although not that good, at least better than him and edible), smash trees for fun, and had better footwork than most human warriors—was terrifying.
Still…
> "You're the one accounting for half my beatdowns," he muttered.
She flicked her tail in protest.
---
In these ten months, Xiao Ranyu had:
Perfected four high earth grade martial arts techniques.
Broken through to 9-Star peak Dou Spirit.
Mastered pill refinement at a speed that would leave elder alchemists crying blood.
Killed a Lightning Panther, two Rank 4 Flame Apes, and—accidentally—a bird-type beast mid nap.
And, to top it all off—
He now used a fox tail as a pillow every single night.
> "Ten months… huh."
He looked up at the dusky sky, eyes calm.
> "Time to make the last breakthrough and move on."
The mountain had honed his mind and body.
But now, his strength—though still sealed below Dou King—had reached the point where even Huolian no longer dared to think of ambushing him for fun.
He stood at the peak of the Dou Spirit realm.
The threshold was near.
The world outside had likely forgotten the Fourth Young Master of the Xiao Clan.
> "Guess it's time to breakthrough."
His system chimed suddenly in his mind:
> [ Ding! Host has survived ten months in Monster Mountain Range and reached Perfect strength below Dou King under sealed cultivation. ]
> [ Achievement: Perfect strength control. ]
> [ Reward: 800,000 System Points ]
---
Huolian's eyes snapped open.
She sensed something…
Something terrifying.
The ground trembled slightly beneath her paws as a pale
yellow pattern pulsed faintly under Xiao Ranyu's skin.
Her heart skipped.
> "He's going to break the seal …"
She sat up, ears stiff, watching as the human she once underestimated stretched calmly like he was preparing for a nap.
> "This guy… what is he planning next?"