It was now exactly two weeks later, and currently, Huang Shi was sitting inside of a cave, eating one of his smoked spiritual beast meats with a grunt as he held one of the injuries at his ribs, his face scrunching up in pain.
The injury there was not normal; instead of just looking like a bloodied mess, it also had a sickly green hue, like it was contaminated with something—which, in this case, was right on the money, as he had actually been poisoned.
Ah shit... that damn snake was fucking tough.
The last two weeks of his life had been nothing but fights against all sorts of spiritual beasts, all of them ranging from the 7th level of the Nascent Profound Realm to the 8th.
With all of those fights, he finally felt like he had achieved some semblance of control over his crimson lightning. It was still not on par with his golden flames, which he had been with basically since his reincarnation, but it was at least enough that he could now hold his own even against 8th-level Nascent Profound spiritual beasts, even without his golden flames.
In fact, during this span of time, his Calamity Lightning skin refinement had actually improved by a significant margin. He looked at the progress bar from the corner of his eye:
[CALAMITY SKIN REFINEMENT: 93/100]
A value of 93 basically means that my physical body, and my crimson lightning by extension, is at the cusp of reaching the 9th level of the Nascent Profound Realm in terms of pure strength.
His eyes flashed as he clenched his fist, feeling the power of his fleshly body as hints of crimson lightning appeared beneath his skin.
As for fighting spiritual beasts at the 9th level of the Nascent Profound Realm...
He grit his teeth as the poisoned muscles and broken bones at his ribs ached, making him wince in pain as he remembered one of the toughest fights he had been in thus far.
Fucking snake...
Around two days ago, while walking in this part of the Greenwood Forest, he finally caught a glimpse of his first 9th-level Nascent Profound Beast.
As a spiritual beast that was closest to the True Profound Realm, unless they went even deeper into the forest and walked into the territory of a True Profound beast like an idiot, they could basically do whatever they wanted in the outer parts of the Greenwood Forest.
That's right—even this deep in, he learned that it was still actually the outer parts of the Greenwood Forest.
This was because, from what he learned from the random cultivators he met—whom he beat into submission—the neutral territory of the Greenwood Forest was divided into four parts.
The periphery was home to the weakest of the spiritual beasts, basically just inhabited by a bunch of Elementary Profound beasts ranging from the first level all the way to the ninth; it was where he found those lower-level disciples of the Azure Dragon Sect that were training.
The next area was the outer forest, which was where he was currently located; it was teeming with spiritual beasts from the 1st level of the Nascent Profound Realm all the way to the 9th level of the Nascent Profound Realm.
Finally, the inner forest was home to spiritual beasts that ranged from the 1st level of the True Profound Realm all the way to the 6th level of the True Profound Realm.
This was where the Grand Elders and the more powerful of the core elders of the three great sects of Reshi City trained and got most of their resources for their cultivation.
As for the central forest, it was the deepest part of the Greenwood Forest and was actually teeming with spiritual beasts that were between the 7th level of the True Profound Realm all the way to the 9th, with rumors that even Spirit Profound Realm beasts were found there, ruling like beast kings over the entire Greenwood Forest.
The reason why Huang Shi was very confident in walking around the outer forest and provoking all manner of spiritual beasts was because he knew that the most powerful spiritual beast in this area was of the 9th level of the Nascent Profound Realm, and quite frankly, if he pushed himself hard enough, he thought that he could take any of them on.
At least, that's what he first thought until he fought that damn snake.
The snake he fought was, from what he learned after his fight with it, actually one of the most powerful spiritual beasts in the outer forest.
It was named the Greenwood Sky Snake, and it was one of three 9th-level Nascent Profound Realm spiritual beasts in the outer forest, right at the cusp of breaking through into the True Profound Realm.
Not only that, it was also considered the strongest of the three 9th-level Nascent Profound Realm spiritual beasts in the outer forest because of its special bloodline; it was said that it was the eldest child of the Greenwood Sky Snake King, one of the few confirmed Spirit Profound beasts located in the central forest.
Greenwood Sky Snakes are known for their incredibly venomous nature. The Greenwood Sky Poison was an incredibly lethal poison that, when it goes inside of your body, is known to instantly kill anyone that is below the 9th level of the Nascent Profound Realm.
The problem is that for the venom to actually reach its target, the Greenwood Sky Snake needs to get an actual bite at you for it to work.
It can't spread its venom through the air; unfortunately for him, he had been much too drunk on his successive victories thus far and failed to realize that even within the category of 9th-level Nascent Profound spiritual beasts, there were still differences between weak and strong.
In fact, the only reason why he didn't instantly die is because of the fact that his Golden Sunfyre flames had the natural ability of purification, and so his poisoned wound was constantly being burned off with golden flames to try and control its potency.
Shit... am I really gonna have to use my Scum Points to buy an antidote pill?