Ling Xu entered without any problem as the bodyguards had already been shown a picture of him, he saw Lu Xie on a table looking the other way.
Trying not to make any sound, Ling Xu sneaked near him and slapped him in his back.
…
"You really surprised me there!" Lu Xie said a few minutes later still feeling his back burn like hell from Ling Xu's friendly play.
"I never thought you were capable of making these jokes, I almost had a heart attack."
"Does it still hurt? I barely used any strength…"
"Do you think I would feel this much pain if you had barely used any strength? How in hell does it make any sense?!"
Ling Xu laughed seeing his friend's reaction as he looked at him curious in how it had gone for him in the tutorial. After meeting him he felt Lu Xie's aura and realized that it wasn't any less than his bodyguards.
From what he has read in the posts, those who reached the second stage of Blood Qi were already very impressive as the majority barely managed to reach the first stage.
"I can't believe how much you have changed."
"What do you mean?"
"Haven't you noticed? Although I don't know why I can't feel your cultivation, I can tell that you have grown a lot. You have grown muscles that you didn't have before and even your eyes have changed a bit."
"My eyes?"
"I always saw a mature man through your eyes, but now I can also sense confidence. I can tell without having entered the tutorial with you that you have gone through a lot."
"I never thought that you looked so carefully into the details. And what about you, I can feel you have entered the second stage. That's very impressive."
"Very impressive? You say it as if it was something cute. By the way, what stage are you in?"
After all, with Ling Xu's current level of mastery over his cultivation technique and his deep control of his blood qi, it was impossible for someone with a lower stage of cultivation to detect his aura.
Ling Xu thought deeply about whether to tell his friend his current realm, before arriving at the restaurant he had already thought about this.
"Lu Xie is my friend and the only person that has been with me ever since my mother died. I don't know if what will happen if I tell him in the future but I should give him a chance and trust in him."
Having decided, he answered to his friend truthfully.
"I have entered the fourth stage after coming out of the tutorial."
"Ah so you were also able to reach the second stage, after all you are my friend… wait, did you say fourth stage?!!"
"You heard correctly."
"How the hell did you manage to reach two stages higher than me? It's not that I am doubting you, but apart from when I had to recover from my injuries I had been fighting the whole time I was in there."
Lu Xie's face showed shock, he never doubted if Ling Xu was lying as he knew his friend's character.
"It's not only about how many beasts you kill."
"What do you mean?"
"After cultivating using the Basic Blood Circulation technique, I realized that if your comprehension of it is high enough it can help you advance in your realm several times faster than killing beasts."
"I have tried it already but it is so difficult to control my blood qi that it took me an hour to feel my connection and then start moving it. And every time I think I'm doing it right it stops and I have to try again to connect with it."
"That's because you are still in the entry level, once your mastery level has reached a certain stage you will be able to move it with ease and refining your body will become faster than killing beasts."
"Then what level of comprehension of the cultivation technique did you reach?"
"I have completed the entry level and I am currently in the small success, once you complete it you will be able to progress faster too."
Ling Xu decided to lie this time, although he wasn't used to lying to his friend this was something that was related to his secret. Telling him his cultivation stage was one thing, but how would he be able to explain that he has already reached the great success level which is three stages above his friend's.
Their time on the tutorial and before they met wouldn't allow for his comprehension to reach this high unless he had something that he was hiding. And Ling Xu knew that if he told him his mastery level his friend wouldn't believe him, after all he already felt the difficulty of improving his control of his blood qi while in the entry level.
…
"Can you believe he tried to kill me after taking the weapon behind the rabbit we killed?"
Ling Xu was still conversing with his friend as he saw his face full of anger while telling him how he had barely survived after killing the person who shared the first floor of the cave with him.
"Fortunately I got this skill called iron fist that enhances the destructive power of my fists and helps me resist attacks coming from sharp weapons."
He showed Ling Xu how his fists suddenly turned red once he activated the skill.
"You got a pretty good skill, my skill helps me enhance my senses and see everything clearer."
Ling Xu tried not to talk about the full extent of his skill as he didn't want to come too overbearing with his friend. After all he had already told Lu Xie that his realm was far above his.
...
They continued their conversation without forgetting to eat everything they could for a few more hours.
Ling Xu walked home in the middle of the night feeling full after eating six dishes of the best on the menu. Lu Xie offered him bringing him home with his family's car but he rejected it as he wanted to feel the breeze of the night.
Lu Xie was worried about his friend's safety after seeing a few alerts from the government about cases of killing on the street and fighting. But he remembered Ling Xu's strength and realized that he didn't need any help to arrive home safely.
He had already fought an adult rabbit while being in the first stage and he knew the big difference in strength between one stage and another.
They also saw a notice from the government that killing humans outside of the tutorial wouldn't drop a skill as there wasn't any current case of someone getting one.
The government was really trying their best to calm the citizens and regain control of their country.
…
The next morning, Ling Xu woke up eager to check the rewards he hadn't seen as he only tried the effect of one of the blood tempering pills before he received Lu Xie's call.
[You have learned White Heavy Strike (high grade).]
Looking at the system's messages he hadn't seen, Ling Xu saw his reward for clearing the third floor with its difficulty raised.
It was a skill made for attack, so Ling Xu fed his spatial ring his blood qi and took out his refined short sword.
He swung down the sword as he activated the skill in his mind.
"White Heavy Strike!"
Suddenly, the weight of the sword increased tremendously and Ling Xu started to panic.
The speed at which the sword moved increased with the help of its increased weight and Ling Xu barely managed to stop it by using all his strength.
He looked to the floor and saw a small cut where the sword was going to fall.
"Amazing, I really needed a skill like this that directly increased my attack power."
He was happy that he had finally gotten a skill made just to increase his as he already had exceptional skills that increased his movement and reaction speed, and even one that increased his defense.
Ling Xu only felt he needed to make his attacks stronger for when he needed to land a decisive blow.
He wouldn't always have the chance to attack the weak spots of his enemies as he did before, striking on the eyes or neck.
Thinking about his reward, Ling Xu remembered that he still had to practice the new technique he got. He opened the manual and started reading it.
"This Blood Thread Transformation technique is a unique method to condense the blood qi in the body through the heart, greatly increasing its purity. To be able to practice I need to reach at least the sixth stage of Blood Qi or my heart won't be strong enough to condense my blood qi."
Ling Xu was impressed at the contents of the technique he had obtained as a reward and was eager to try it, but he remembered its requirement to be at least in the sixth stage of Blood Qi. He then continued as there was more to its introduction.
"But it has a big downside and unless I have a great supply of resources able to help in replenishing my blood qi, the time it will take condensing my blood qi could increase from a few months to years. And the lower my capacity of blood qi the higher the time increases."
His face showed disappointment as he didn't expect this technique to have such a big problem, he was still in the fourth stage of Blood Qi and he knew that it would take him a week or two to enter the sixth stage so he was very shocked when he read the time that would take him condensing his blood qi.
"If only I could enter that state again where the path between my eyes opened and the energy I felt last time helped me in recovering my blood qi. That way I feel like the time it would take me to complete this technique would shorten a lot."
Not knowing if there would be a next time to enter that state again, Ling Xu felt no hope of completing this technique in the near time.
Ling wanted to start practicing immediately the Blood Thread Transformation technique but he couldn't as his realm didn't reach the minimum requirement.
"I will try and comprehend its contents first and then try to reach the sixth stage of Blood Qi to start practicing it and see how hard it is."
…
Night came and Ling Xu ended reading the book completely.
"I can't believe it took me the entire day to completely understand the manual, there were several parts that needed to be understood in detail."
Unless he wanted to have an accident while practicing the technique later, he needed to understand it to the bone to not make any mistake that may put him in danger.
"I'm so hungry, I want to try the taste of the beast's meat."
It took him almost two hours to cook the meat from the sixth grade beast as it was extremely tough and resilient. But the result was better than expected as it now looked and smelled incredible.
"Let's try and see how it tastes."