Nio watched curiously, the snake trying to free itself from the chakra strings.
"It doesn't seem that strong, is it really a beast? Wasn't it supposed to be something like an animal cultivator?
"Well, whatever, let's finish you off, shall we?"
Nio concentrated. Although he could make and control several chakra strings to use them as a combat weapon, what he was about to do demanded a little more from him.
The strings thinned even more, becoming sharper. What Nio was doing was compressing the strings and softly change its shape.
Soon, he tightened the grip of the altered strings and the body of the snake was cut multiple times.
With that, the skin and flesh of the snake was cut into bits, shredding the snake. However, Nio's strings were met resistance at some point, making him pause.
Dismissing the light blue strings, Nio approached the corpse of the snake.
There were only bones. They had resisted the sharpness of his chakra strings, only receiving some marks.
Nio's eyes narrowed.
"System, for the night, I want you to give me a notification with the details of my victims."
[Affirmative. Do you wish to receive the details of your last victim?]
"Yes."
[Congratulations! You have killed an Emerald Snake of the Body Tempering Stage 1 : Bone Tempering]
Nio's eyes widened.
As someone from the Stygian clan, he had been educated about cultivation so he recognized the cultivation level of the snake.
When starting cultivation, one must first temper their body, linking it directly with their cultivation. Each stage of the body tempering represented one part of the body that was or was being tempered.
Stage 1 was dedicated to bone tempering. In this stage, the cultivator has a better bone structure. Although this did not increase their overall strength, it boosted their endurance, since with this it would be rarer to break one's bones.
Stage 2 was dedicated to organ tempering. At this point, one would temper every single organ inside their body. Heart, blood, eyes, lungs and intestines.
Stage 3 was the muscle tempering stage. This where the power jump was most visible and the most recognizable.
Stage 4 was the skin tempering stage. This is where one tempered their skin and although not mentioned their hair as well.
Stage 5 was dedicated to mind tempering. This was a stage both physical and spiritual. One would temper their brain and nervous system as well as being introduced to mental practice such as meditation.
Stage 6 was the meridian tempering stage. This where one would entangle the mess that was the dormant meridians or even directly forming them. The gains were not really apparent as this is more of a preparing stage.
Stage 7 was the Dantian Forming stage. Dedicated to once more refining their whole body like the other stages and then forge their dantian and connect it to one's meridians.
The Body tempering stages were mostly meant to link the body with the cultivation itself.
The stages and realms of cultivation weren't just levels that existed to describe the steps to grow in power. They were an actual barrier that need to be surpassed. Tempering one's body is meant not only to prepare one to start cultivating, but also allows their body to grow stronger the further they reach in cultivation.
Beast like this snake were the same, since they were like any cultivator, they just followed different paths.
"That explains some things."
The reason why the bones were able to resist the sharpness of the chakra strings was because they had been strengthened by Qi and were naturally stronger than normal.
Nio reached forward and grabbed one of the bones in his hands and tried to snap it in half.
Without reinforcement, it was impossible. Although he had a stronger body than a normal 7-year-old, due to his intensive training and his heritage, he was still a child.
Making both Chakra and Cursed Energy run through his muscles, he tried again.
This time the bone was successfully snapped in half, albeit with some effort.
"It was harder than I though, but not that hard. I wonder how I would fare without my strings?"
He didn't need to wait much, as he heard the rustling of leaves in some nearby bushes.
Four snakes slithered into the open, revealing themselves.
They were of the same green color and looked at Nio with killing intent.
"I guess, it's time to find that out, huh?"
Reinforcing his body with both chakra and cursed energy, Nio entered a defensive stance. When learning martial arts, it isn't the norm to fight beasts instead of humans, so during one of his classes Markus had pointed out.
"When fighting beasts one should enter a defensive stance, however, do not use the counterattacks that are taught, they will nor work, instead, let the beast charge at you and create their own openings."
That's what he did, planting his feet firmly in the ground, he waited for the snakes to pounce at him.
Due to the difference in height, the snakes decided to charge to his legs. Coiling themselves, they charged forward at great speeds, aiming for his legs.
Nio didn't overreact. Simply raising his chakra-charged foot, he stomped one of them into the ground. After some pressure, a resounding crack was heard, signaling that the snake's bones had been broken.
However, there was no time to rest, after all, at the same time that the dead snake had attacked, another had also jumped in his direction.
Using the force of his strike, he planted his foot firmly in the ground, stabilizing his control and allowing him to launch a powerful kick in the snake's direction.
Once the two bodies collided, the snake was knocked out, but it was not over. Due to his lack of control over cursed energy, at this moment, his flow of cursed energy was slightly delayed, striking a second time, killing the snake.
This did not go unnoticed by Nio.
'That was Divergent Fist! Huh, Kick? Anyway, Yuji's technique!'
Yuji's divergent fist was a known technique, not only for its simplicity but also its uses. Thanks to Yuji's great physical strength something like a delayed flow of cursed energy could be seen as a second hit, and although Nio didn't possess Yuji's physique he could reinforce himself with chakra to achieve the same effect.
'That his worth noting.'
Although this time it had been accidental, that did not mean that he couldn't do it now.
He decided to practice that later.
For now, he had other things to worry about.
Two more snakes decided to attack him. The reason they took so much time being that they had used the trees to gain a higher ground, removing the disadvantage of size.
Without delay, they jumped in his direction.
Reacting quickly, Nio prepared himself to dodge the snakes. As soon as the first one went past his head, he caught by the tail and swung it in the other snake's direction.
The impact was not enough to kill them, but it was enough to stop their advances and dropping them into the ground where they were defenceless and couldn't protect themselves of the foot that was now closing in.
Stomp
Crack
They were dead.
Nio ran a hand through his hair, although he had reacted well and made solid decisions, he had still be on edge.
[Congratulations on killing four Emerald Snakes of the Bone Tempering Stage!]
Nio looked around, searching if there were more snakes to deal. Only one remained, it was still, looking at him silently.
And then in a sudden movement it was upon him, ready to bite his head off.
'Fuck!'
In a repentine surge of instinct, Nio dodged by millimeters, the snake bypassing his head at incredible speeds.
'It was so fast! Even if I was completely on guard, I don't know if I would be able to see its movements.'
But, now that Nio was on guard, he wasn't going to lose sight of it again.
Making sure that he was facing the snake, he positioned himself to receive the attack of the stronger than normal snake.
'Why is it much stronger than the others? Did it reach a higher stage of cultivation?'
The snake didn't bother giving him time to keep thinking about its strength and lunged forth, trying once again to bite at him.
This time, Nio was not caught of guard and aimed for the place where the snake's head would be in a few milliseconds.
Bam
His strike reached its destiny, clashing with the snake and stopping its momentum and sending it to the ground, rolling. Nio didn't let it rest as he lunged forward, aiming to step on its head to crush his skull and turned its brain to mush.
Almost unbothered, the snake seemed to be unaffected by the powerful punch that it had received on the head and with clarity on its beastly mind, it coiled itself again a launched itself towards the tree, where it started to calmly spectating Nio.
"This will be a bother."