The bull King ran back for about half an hour before the poison fully spread all around its body. It lay weakly on the ground, panting heavily.

Leon sat atop a tree at some distance as he observed the beast below. Due to the enhancement from the Whip Spirit which helped him negate the force from the blows he endured, coupled with the strong defense provided by the Hammer Spirit, although he was wounded, the injuries were just superficial and he was not much affected.

But since he was covered in the blood of the wolves he had killed earlier, it looked as though he was seriously injured and bleeding from head to toe.

Leon did not try to wipe the blood away as he was focused on the bull King. Although it felt as though the big guy was already dead since it was lying motionlessly on the ground, due to Leon’s super sensitivity to vital qi from practicing the Four Spirit Weapon Forging Art, he was well aware that the guy still had life left in him.

So he waited patiently and only came down when he was sure that it was too weak to fight back.

"You should not have chased after me. See, now you are dying so young," Leon said with a sigh and stabbed his sword into the eyes of the bull King, directly into its brain, giving it a swift death.

Without wasting any more time, he stored the carcass in his storage ring and rushed back to where he had killed the Wind Wolves.

Fortunately, their bodies were still there. These carcasses were in high demand in Rose Valley Town, especially the ones at the Iron Realm. Wandering merchants would buy them in bulk to make beast pelts out of their skin, weapons like daggers using their claws, and even their flesh was used for making high grade feed for pet beasts.

There were also the beast cores. All in all, each of these carcasses would fetch Leon no less than 1000 Iron Grade coins.

By the time he had collected all the carcasses, it was already evening. Leon decided to look for a place to bathe before he went back home, but due to his bad luck, the pond at some distance was already occupied by a giant white bear at the 2nd Heaven of the Iron Realm, so he did not step closer.

Even after two hours, the beast did not show any sign of stopping its fishing and coming out of the pond.

In the end, Leon lost his patience and jumped down from the tree and approached the pond. The white bear squinted its large eyes when it saw a human walking towards the pond and let out a few growls as a warning.

But Leon outright ignored the beast and jumped into the pond after throwing away his blood soaked clothes. Seeing that the human was not there to attack it, the bear also ignored him and focused on catching fish to fill its stomach.

Once he washed away the bloodstains, Leon dried himself with a towel he took out from his storage ring and wore a clean set of clothes before he resumed his journey back home.

....

By the time he reached home, it was around 12 o’clock and little Amy was already asleep. Only Grandma Mercy was awake.

When she heard Leon’s voice from outside the door, she opened the door and went to the kitchen to reheat the food, while Leon sat at the dining table and opened the Primordial Law Codex.

[Primordial Law Codex - page no: 1]

[Owner: Leon (human)]

[Body Realm (Mortal): 1st Heaven]

(Life Essence: 8,300/100,000)

[Spirit Realm (Mortal): 1st Heaven]

(Soul Essence: 204/100,000)

[Elemental Grade: ???]

...

[Primordial Law Codex - page no: 3]

[Owner: Leon (human)]

[Bloodline: Abyss Crown Phoenix Bloodline (Emperor)]

[Spirit Essence Points: 8,056]

[Bloodline Skill: Obsidian Crown Flame]

[Skill Grade: God]

[Skill Realm (Mortal): 400/400 (perfection)]

...

[Primordial Law Codex - page no: 4]

[Owner: Leon (human)]

[Spirit Essence Points: 8,056]

[Spirit Spell: The Hand of Thought]

[Technique Grade: 10 Star]

[Technique Realm (Mortal): 0/100 (entry)]

...

Over the week, Leon had collected enough soul essence points. Just yesterday, he cultivated the Obsidian Crown Flame to perfection and recorded the spirit skill, ’The Hand of Thought’ into the Primordial Law Codex.

After the Obsidian Crown Flame reached perfection, he was able to control it more freely and could now devour any type of qi to increase his realm, as long as it did not exceed more than one realm higher than his own.

Just last night, he had used his Obsidian Crown Flame to devour one of the white pills he looted from the head soldier, and his cultivation jumped by 3000 Life Essence overnight. With 149 of those pills still in his possession, Leon was sure he would soon complete the first heaven and step into the second.

Deep in thought, Leon barely noticed as Grandma Mercy came out with steaming food. She set it down in front of him, then spoke with a worried expression. "The village chief visited us after you left today."

Leon paused. "Anything important?"

Grandma Mercy sighed. "It seems the squad leader of Rose Valley Town has set up a team to investigate the sudden disappearance of the head soldier, and they will be visiting our village by tomorrow morning."

Leon asked with a frown, "Are you worried they will target little Amy?"

Grandma Mercy fell silent for a moment and nodded.

"Don’t worry. I will be here tomorrow. Nothing will happen to her," Leon comforted her and resumed eating the food in front of him.

.....

After he returned to his room, Leon had no intention of sleeping. He sat cross legged on his bed, took out eight white pills, four in each hand, and activated the Obsidian Crown Flames.

The next second, dark flames covered both of his palms and thick qi from the pills was devoured by the Obsidian Flames. It entered Leon’s body through his pitch black spirit meridian network before filling up his body in the form of black fog.

This black fog was the Abyss essence, which had no attribute and could be absorbed by any core regardless of its attribute.

Leon used his will to guide the Abyss essence towards his heart and slowly into his vital qi core, which began absorbing the Abyss essence greedily.

At the same time, he gave the Primordial Law Codex the command to push the spirit spell, The Hand of Thought, to perfection.

Immediately after, Leon entered a state of dream like enlightenment where he seemed to have practiced meditation in a Buddhist temple for years.

Day after day, month after month, year after year, there were only Buddhist scriptures and peace around him. Along with the other little monks of the temple, he would sit quietly listening to the preachings of the elders in the morning, and afterwards during the night, he would meditate while focusing on a candle flame.

This became a daily routine for him, and as time passed, this routine became an instinct which later transformed into a strong spirit power that was quite rare even among elder monks.

Seeing the potential displayed by this young monk, the elders of the temple did not show any stinginess and imparted their spirit spells onto him.

The little monk also absorbed all this knowledge and after years of comprehension and analysis, created an entirely new cultivation technique for himself. This technique allowed his spirit power to operate at the speed of his thought.

Time passed again and the monk continued refining the spirit technique he had created, until it was finally able to turn his spirit qi into invisible hands which could act in sync with his thoughts.

"So it’s a telekinesis technique," Leon opened his eyes and muttered to himself in understanding.

He activated the spell, and as though lifted by a ghost, things in the room began floating mid air. Soon they returned to their places with just a thought from him.

"Quite a handy spell," Leon nodded in satisfaction and resumed his cultivation.

The next day, Leon stopped his cultivation by 7 o’clock in the morning and clenched his fist. He could already feel the immense strength coursing through his body. If he had to meet the bull King now, he was sure he would not be at a disadvantage like yesterday. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

[Primordial Law Codex - page no: 1]

[Owner: Leon (human)]

[Body Realm (Mortal): 1st Heaven]

(Life Essence: 32,056/100,000)

[Spirit Realm (Mortal): 1st Heaven]

(Soul Essence: 204/100,000)

[Elemental Grade: ???]

...

"Life Essence increased by 24,000, and my strength is already around the same level as a body cultivator at the third heaven of the Iron Realm. Coupled with my weapon spirits, it will be enough to deal with even a cultivator at the peak of the Iron Realm." Leon let out a sigh of relief.

With this level of strength, he was sure he was at least qualified to stand before the so-called squad leader, who was rumored to be at the 10th heaven of the Iron Realm.

When a cultivator broke through to the Iron Realm, his strength would increase by 10 times. This was the reason why Leon was tossed here and there by the bull King yesterday even though his strength was far beyond the peak of the Mortal Realm at that time.

In simple math, a body cultivator at the first heaven of the Mortal Realm would have 1 unit of strength. This increases linearly by one unit for each minor realm, reaching 10 at the peak of the Mortal Realm.

Once they broke through to the Iron Realm, it would become 100 and would increase by 100 with each minor realm then onwards.

By this estimate, the bull King had 400 units of strength, while Leon possessed 80, which was far above someone at the Mortal Realm, but in front of the bull King, it was still not enough.