An hour later, the waiter entered with the plates of food.
"Are you still not going to tell me what you did for us to get this room?"
"Look for yourself."
"What?"
The waiter opened the lid from the plate as an intense fragrance took Lu Xie's attention completely.
"What is this? Is this beast meat?"
He looked at Ling Xu and connected the dots immediately.
"I went to the chef and he agreed to give us the room and cook the beast's meat I gave him with the condition that he could take what was left."
"Ling Xu, thank you so much, I swear I won't waste anything and eat it all."
"We've been friends for so long, it is only normal for friends to share some benefits."
…
"Huff! Huff! Huff!!"
Half an hour later, Lu Xie looked struggling as he ended his plate, having eaten all the food that remained from the plate.
Ling Xu ate less, having already experienced the taste of this meat several times. Although its flavor was amazing as it was prepared by a top famous chef, he was already very familiar with it.
Seeing his friend like this, he laughed as he couldn't believe his friend who had travelled around the world become like this.
Lu Xie laughed too as he was surprised by his own attitude.
"Ling Xu, what are you going to do now?"
Ling Xu became serious, not knowing if the tutorial was just a one time thing or if it was just the beginning. After being almost a month out of thee tutorial, they didn't get any news regarding what would happen next.
[Humans from Earth, now that the tutorial has been completed you will be sent to your second mission.]
[Mission starts in 2 days 23 hours.]
"There is going to be another mission!"
They looked at each other as they realized the urgency of the situation.
"Ling Xu, I need to go and talk with my father."
"I know."
"Don't worry, I will use this chance you gave me to enter the fourth stage before the mission comes."
Thanks to his father's influence, Lu Xie had already surpassed more than 50% of the progress in the third stage of Blood Qi as he had eaten several times first and second stage beast meat.
With the effect of the beast meat he just ate, he knew that it was more than enough to help him advance to the fourth stage before the mission starts.
…
Ling Xu didn't stay idle as he went back to his apartment ready to continue progressing in the third stage of the Blood Thread Transformation technique.
Two days later, Ling Xu had barely advanced to 5% of the technique. He remained calm, knowing that being anxious wouldn't help at all.
This day was the end of the fourth week after he came out of the tutorial.
While Ling Xu was focused on merging his rotating dual threads, a small grin could be seen as he felt the path between his eyes open.
He was about to stop merging them, needing to recover his blood qi for a while, when he felt his mind become extremely clear and his body was bathed by the pure and golden energy.
The rotating dual threads continued flowing through the whole body as they were merged once they passed through the heart.
Thanks to the fast recovery of his blood qi, the process didn't even take an hour as Ling Xu came back from the state.
Embracing the feeling of having his dual threads merged, Ling Xu felt his aura increase as even the ground below him started to shake from the pressure.
Ling Xu's eyes suddenly turned red as the condensation of blood qi had completely changed his whole body.
After realizing that his control over blood qi had increased with the completion of his Blood Thread Transformation technique, he slowed down its circulation speed to what it was before he started to practice the technique.
Ling Xu's blood qi started to slow down as the pressure on the ground decreased and the color in his eyes returned to normal.
Still, with the current density of his blood qi, it was as strong as when he had completed the second stage.
All of this happened in less than a minute and Ling Xu's mind was taken back to the state of clarity after the movement had ended.
He thought about refining his bones next as it was the only thing he could do now, but less than a minute after he started refining it, the path between his eyes had a reaction.
It started vibrating uncontrollably as a very subtle drop of energy entered his body. It looked very different to the stream of energy that normally came out of the path between his eyes, it looked like a shadow.
Once it entered, Ling Xu didn't notice anything more than the path calming once again.
The drop of energy moved to his abdomen and slowly merged with Ling Xu's body as it didn't show any change in it.
Half an hour later, his mind went back to normal and he decided to open his status panel and see what had changed.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 7th stage of Blood Qi (13%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (10%)
[Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (completed)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Swift Steps (middle grade), Copper Skin Iron Bones (middle grade)
"It seems I have completed the Blood Thread Transformation technique, now I can only advance on my realm and wait to see how to increase the progress on…"
He was surprised all of a sudden, seeing the progress of Existence Shadow Will reach 10%.
"But was that all? I thought there might be a change. Forget it, let's first observe my body and feel the new changes after condensing my blood qi."
He started feeling his body as he focused one part at a time.
Once his mind observed the center of his abdomen, something moved.
"What is this?"
Opening his eyes, Ling Xu observed a very delicate golden shadow covering a small fragment of his abdomen. Looking at it, he felt a very intimate connection as his mind moved and the golden shadow moved to his hand, covering less than a third of it.
"What is this energy, it can actually follow my will."
Ling Xu took out his refined short sword and tried to cut the part of his hand that had the golden shadow. Pressing with all his strength, he was surprised to see that his sword couldn't penetrate through his skin.
He then released the speed of his condensed blood qi slowly, as his strength increased the faster it went.
After barely releasing its speed 10% in, Ling Xu saw as his refined short sword made a small cut.
"If it can already withstand this much pressure after it has barely been formed, I wonder how much stronger it will get once the progress of the Existence Shadow Will technique reaches 100%."
...
The rest of the day Ling Xu relaxed as it passed very fast and he woke up the next morning.
He received a call from Lu Xie where he told him that he had broken through to the fourth stage and he was very thankful to him.
Nothing particular happened as time continued ticking until less than a minute remained.
Ling Xu made a small grin, excited about what he would encounter and what kinds of rewards he would get. His whole body shivered in excitement as the time reached the end.
[Mission starts in 3 seconds.]
[Mission starts in 2 seconds.]
[Mission starts in 1 second.]
...
[Welcome to the Lonely Forest.]
Ling Xu opened his eyes as he noticed he was standing on an old platform hidden by the moving sand. He realized right away that he was in a desert.
Next, he observed that there were four people besides him on the platform.
"Little Xu we can finally meet here!"
Hearing Mr. Sun's voice, Ling Xu realized what was going on.
"Is he the last person from the tutorial?"
"Yes, he is my neighbor Ling Xu. He was alone in the tutorial and couldn't meet with us."
Ling Xu looked at the person who asked about him. He looked just a few years older than him.
"He must have been on the first floor the whole time, I wonder if he has even reached the first stage. I hope he doesn't become a burden to us, after all he couldn't even pass through the first floor."
Ling Xu heard the rude guy talk and didn't respond, he couldn't care less what he said.
The reason they didn't meet him wasn't because he didn't descend to the first floor at all, but because he descended to the third floor before they could even bump into him after exiting the left path on the second floor.
"Ling Xu, you still don't know their names let me present them to you. They are Xie Tan, the petty man who just talked is his cousin Xie and the last member and only woman is Xu Min."
"Nice to meet you."
"Ling Xu, let's work well together!"
"It's a pleasure Ling Xu, let's do our best!"
Xie Tan and Xu Min answered with a cheerful attitude as they didn't feel great about Xie Lin's previous attitude.
Having ended the introduction between themselves, they all called for the mission panel.
[Map]: Lonely Forest
[Mission]: Survive 1 week
[Participants]: 1000/1000
[Progress]: 0 days, 0 hours
"What? How can we be a thousand people, isn't that too much?"
"The number of participants has increased a hundred times, I wonder if will increase again if go through a third mission."
Xie Tan and Xu Min said as they were surprised by the sudden increase in participants.
After Ling Xu read through the details while looking carefully at his surroundings. He observed the desert which looked to be endless, seeing nothing more than sand.
"Uh?"
He managed to see something different in the distance but he couldn't see what it was. Fortunately he activated his Enhanced Synapsis or else he wouldn't have noticed the change.
"Is it okay if we go that way?"
He was the first to speak as he knew that he would need the approval of the rest if he wanted to go together.
"Why should we, choosing a random direction won't help us at all."
"Xie Lin stop ruining the mood."
"Tsk!"
"Ling Xu, is there a reason why you want to go that way?"
Xie Tan asked as he was way more patient than his cousin who jumped every time Ling Xu talked.
"I can't see what, but if we go that way there is something else apart from this desert."
"How can you tell when not even us can see it?"
"It's okay guys, Ling Xu wouldn't lie about such a thing I trust him."
"Ling Xu, please forgive my cousin's behavior. But I'm also curious, how are you able to see from here when we can't?"
"I can see further than all of you because I have a skill that enhances my vision."
Xie Lin frustrated gritted his teeth as he didn't like someone weak leading the group. But he couldn't do anything as it made sense.
"Let's go then!"
Xu Min said with enthusiasm as they moved in the direction Ling Xu gave.