With his hunger satiated, Yi Chen naturally doused the fire and lay down in the tent.

However, sleep seemed to have some grievances with him tonight.

No matter how much he twisted and turned, his mind remained as awake as ever.

"Is it because I slept so much while being unconscious?" Yi Chen muttered with a bitter expression on his face.

Unable to sleep and bored out of his mind, he kept calling and putting away his status panel one after the other.

Hoping that the monotonous action would resemble that of counting sheep in his mind and help him fall asleep quickly.

Nothing of the sort happened.

Instead, he ended up remembering all the data values on the status panel by heart after dozens of such fruitless attempts.

=== Godly Cultivator System ===

Name: Yi Chen

Age: 18 years

Strength: 380 -> 390

Spiritual Sea: 148.67 -> 198.57 [Recovery: 8 hrs of Sleep]

Qi Pool: 820 / 820 (+88!) [Recovery: 40 days]

Cultivation: Eleventh Level of [Meridian Refinement Stage]

Qi Nature: Fire, Dark

Innate Ability: Eye of Truth Lv2 (Active) [Progress: 0 / 1,000,000,000 EXP]

EXP: 165,000 -> 221,000

============================

"Hmm, now that I think about it... Can’t I just explore the forest at night as well?"

He muttered with a thoughtful expression.

Since he could clearly see everything at night, the worry he carried in his heart dissipated significantly.

The possibility of encountering strong beasts in the daytime also wasn’t significantly lower. If his luck was bad, he would still end up encountering them.

However, being confident in his ability to read his enemy’s strength from far and to escape quickly, he was willing to take that risk.

Earlier, he had dissuaded himself from doing the same at night because of the higher risk it carried, particularly because of his inability to see clearly at night.

But with his newly gained vision accounted for, the risk had dissipated substantially.

’Yes, instead of wasting time here waiting to fall asleep, that’s a much better option now. With my improved physique and spiritual sea as an Eleventh Meridian Refinement Stage cultivator, I can go on without sleep for almost a week, if not more.

If I do that, then instead of fifteen days, I’ll be able to reach the Black Rock Kingdom much faster and, as a result, return to Jade City earlier as well!’

With those thoughts, Yi Chen finally managed to convince the side of him that had been resisting the idea.

A second later, he pushed himself up and began packing his tent in the dead of night. Ten minutes later, he was already on the move.

The large number of high-grade spirit stones he possessed ensured that his Qi pool would not be depleted any time soon, as he kept using Bursting Fire Steps, keeping his speed neither too fast to not react on time nor too slow to the point of slowing him significantly.

Naturally, the farther he travelled, the greater the number of beasts he encountered compared to when he was moving in the late afternoon.

However, most of them were grade two beasts, and the few grade-three beasts he did encounter were easily evaded by him because of his prompt judgment.

By the following midnight, he had already fought with forty such beasts, causing his experience points to steadily pile up.

In the following days, he maintained similar numbers as a week passed by, with him traversing the Great Beast Forest.

Yawn~

"I can finally get some sleep now..." Yi Chen muttered and lay inside the tent he had just pitched an hour ago.

’Grade 4 beasts are no joke. I almost ran out of breath while being chased by that giant centipede...’

Just thinking of his experience from a couple of days ago made him convulse in disgust and horror.

’Whatever, the fact remains that I’m much faster than they are and can successfully evade them.’ Yi Chen thought with a smile.

[EXP: 221,000 -> 575,000]

His eyes went to his increased experience points, making him quite elated. These were the fruits of his labour in this past week.

Along with that, he had also collected a great number of beast cores, which by now numbered in the hundreds.

Night slowly passed, and he woke up quite late the next day, feeling completely refreshed. A while later, he freshened up and, after having a quick breakfast, continued on with his journey.

However, this time, things didn’t go as seamlessly as he had expected.

While in the daytime, everything went as usual, but just a couple of hours after midnight, he encountered a grade-three beast.

In a well-practised manner, he evaded its pursuit using his Bursting Fire Steps.

At first, being faster than the beast, he gained quite some distance and, thinking that it had stopped chasing after him, began dealing with the rest of the beasts he encountered along the way.

However, just when he was busying himself with extracting their cores, he heard a noise from behind and saw the towering beast rushing towards him from far away.

"...Persistent bastard!"

Giving up on collecting the cores this time, he increased his pace a lot and busied himself with the other sets of beasts he encountered.

He had just dealt with a group of them and was about to start extracting their cores, but once again, the beast had caught up to him by then.

Gritting his teeth, Yi Chen was once again forced to give up on the cores as he rushed ahead with all his might, only for the same scene to keep repeating itself.

Being constantly chased by a beast wasn’t a good feeling at all.

Even though the beast was unable to catch up to him, the mental agony from feeling that someone was continuously chasing him had made it insufferable for him.

Add to that the heartache he felt after giving up on so many beast cores along the way.

These feelings kept piling up hour after hour, making him feel more and more infuriated.

When it was nearing noon, and the chase had continued for almost twelve hours, he couldn’t take it any longer.

Furiously gritting his teeth, Yi Chen finally decided to take matters into his own hands and confront the beast.

"You want to fight, don’t you? Then let’s fight you, bastard!"

He exclaimed with anger and finally stopped in his tracks.

Turning around, he saw the humongous figure of the beast rushing towards him from afar.

As if sensing that Yi Chen had stopped, its speed increased visibly.

When the beast was just a few meters away, Yi Chen’s eyes involuntarily glanced at the status panel beside its figure.

===== STATUS =====

Name: Mountain Flipping Bear

Nature: Earth

Cultivation: Grade 3 [Between Sixth and Eighth Qi Absorption Stage]

Remark: Is not friendly [Regenerate: 10,000 EXP]

==================

Just like its name, the beast had a towering height that matched that of a two-storeyed building.

Its back was completely covered with an armour made of hardened rock, which also covered a part of its head like a helmet, its claws razor sharp as long as a human’s arm.

GAHHHHH!

The bear growled in glee, having finally caught up to Yi Chen. A subtle grin could be perceived on its face.

Seeing this only further added to Yi Chen’s fury, and the very next moment, a Qi blade darted towards the bear’s bare neck.

TING!

However, before it could land, the bear raised its paws and struck the incoming blade with its claws that glimmered with green Qi.

"This..."

Seeing its attack so easily deflected, Yi Chen couldn’t help but frown before letting out a deep breath.

’Yeah...since its cultivation is much higher than mine, it’s only natural,’ Yi Chen gritted his teeth and launched another strike the second after.

This time, it was a needle-like blade, very difficult to perceive, launched straight toward its eyes.

TUNG!

Just at the last moment, the bear turned its head, and the needle struck the stony helmet successfully deflecting the strike.

After facing two continuous strikes, naturally, the bear finally decided to retaliate.

GRAHHHH!

A thundering growl resonated in the air the next moment as Yi Chen saw the bear’s huge claw swing straight towards his direction.

BURST!

Using the Crimson Fire Arts, he managed to dodge the attack, but seeing the aftermath of the strike, Yi Chen couldn’t help but take in a cold breath.

In the place he had been before, a depression the size of a sinkhole had been formed.

With his blades failing to penetrate its stony armour, the only other way Yi Chen could think of was to engage using the Crimson Fire Arts.

Utilising both his spiritual energy and his innate Qi, he conjured an enormous wave of fire and sent it roaring toward its direction.

"Just Die Already!"

Seeing the incoming attack, the bear no longer took Yi Chen lightly.

Its entire body shone with green light, and the next instant, towering walls of hardened stone surrounded its figure.

CRASH!

The flames crashed onto the walls, causing them to tremble, but still didn’t manage to break through them.

"Goddam-"

Before Yi Chen could even finish cursing, he saw the stone slabs, lifting up in the air, and the next instant darting towards him.

"Shii-!"

Two enormous Qi blades, the size of a longsword, extended from both his arms that very moment.

’Dance of death!’

He exclaimed in his mind and, like a blazing red tornado, unleashed himself onto the incoming stones.

TRIK!

TRIK!

TRIK!

Sparks flew as the incoming stones got shredded into pieces by his moving blades while getting deflected to the sides, covering the entire area in a cloud of dust.

When the dust started to settle, the two warily glared at each other. Clearly understanding that it wasn’t going to be easy to take down their opponent.

’There has to be a weak spot...’ Yi Chen thought to himself while looking at the colossal body of the beast.

Glancing at its status panel, Yi Chen immediately spent his experience points to generate remarks in hopes of finding a clue.

[Remark (2/3): Has a dull peripheral vision. (Regenerate: 25,000 EXP)]

’Ok...a dull peripheral vision. Alright, what’s the next one?’

Seeing that the regenerated remark was slightly useful, he nodded to himself and generated the next one.

[Remark (3/3): Loves to eat fish]

"...Loves to eat fish...Loves to eat fish! What the fuck am I going to do with that information!"

Yi Chen roared out his lungs in fury at the useless remark, which even made the beast that had been devising its own plans flinch in fright.