Yin Xiu hurried into the clearing to find Hu Meng care-freely eating some hapless spirit beast his tail swaying back and forth happily.
"Hu Meng! Congratulations on advancing to stage two!" The large tiger stopped eating for a moment in surprise when he saw Yin Xiu.
"Thank you, I was starting to get worried about you. Four days is a long time to cultivate when only in the body refining stage."
"There were some unforeseen complications, according to Senior Hu Fang I quite possibly undertook a test from the Heavenly Dao which I was undergoing for quite a long time." Yin Xiu explained his abnormality to Hu Meng.
"The Heavenly Dao itself tested you?!" Hu Meng's eyes opened wide in shock at the implications. "Yin Xiu you might be a bigger deal than I thought, not everyone can be noticed by the Will of the Heavens itself."
Yin Xiu shrugged helplessly in response "I don't know what exactly about me attracted the attention of the Heavenly Dao but I'm hoping it'll be a blessing." Hu Meng nodded in agreement.
"Well what's next for you?" Are you going to go an ahead and finish your bone refinement, and then use those fruits to refine your liver?" Hu Meng asked with a curious expression.
"I honestly think that I'll be fine to use both the fruits to accomplish my bone refinement, and liver refinement in one go. They seem rather high level, and I only have a small amount of bones left to refine. Plus if the venom from the White Dahlia Spider had such miraculous effects on my bone refinement I believe that two equally powerful poisons will give me enough energy to complete both of my objectives smoothly."
Yin Xiu then paused and said "I'll honestly probably take a day to relax though. My last experience took quite a toll on me both physically and mentally."
Hu Meng nodded in understanding "I don't blame you, it would be exhausting to undergo something like that with your level of cultivation… well how about we talk about the upcoming conquest?"
"Oh?" An intrigued expression appeared on Yin Xiu's face as he listened to Hu Meng begin explaining what he had learned while Yin Xiu was unconscious.
"It took roughly a day and a half for me to break through to stage two, the Qi remaining in the ox beast and the White Dahlia Spider, was plenty to push me over that threshold. When I was done, I noticed that you were still cultivating, and I had some questions to ask my mother about my recent breakthrough, so I went up to her and had a conversation. After clearing up some of my doubts, she asked me to investigate the fringes of the enemy territory since my innate abilities had taken another step forward after my breakthrough. Mother mainly wanted me to find out how many enemies there are and their overall strength distribution."
Hu Meng then paused, his expression quite serious, "Overall, they aren't overwhelmingly strong. Their peak stage four patriarch is obviously at the top of the ladder. I didn't see him luckily, as I only explored the outward part of their territory. My mother will take care of him, but the rest of the opponents aren't push-overs either. nThere are two stage two spirit beasts and one stage one. I should be able to eliminate one of the stage two's immediately if I get a good surprise attack off, but I'll be forced to fight head on after that. I'm not sure I'll be able to quickly defeat them however as they are race that excels in defense. The rest of the baboons, are not quite stage one, as they are young and haven't fully matured yet. There are at least five that you'll have to contend with. My best advice is to try and hold on as long as you can before my mother and I are done and they'll be nothing but cannon fodder."
Yin Xiu listened with rapt attention. He nodded with a slightly grim expression at the news that he had five opponents to contend with at once. Asking "Do you have the end spikes left over from the White Dahlia Spider's legs? I'll take them all with me and because there'll be extra, I can use a few of them flexibly, as throwing weapons as well which should prove a lot more beneficial to me."
"Of course I do, I was waiting to give them to you once you woke back up." Hu Meng stood up with a lithe grace as he quickly climbed a nearby tree before bringing down eight leg sections that gleamed white in the sun.
Yin Xiu carefully inspected them, his eyes slightly stinging from the vague pressure exuding from the razor sharp tips, before taking out the shortest pair. "I'll use these to practice my throwing skills. "If I'm not going to refine those fruits today then it's better to just go ahead and get something done instead of wasting my time sitting around." He sighed and turned his attention to the edge of the clearing.
He searched for a few seconds before selecting a relatively wider tree on the edge of the clearing to practice on. He calmed his breathing as he cocked his arm back at an unnatural angle, trying to utilize his flexibility to generate more momentum. As he focused, his grip on the needle-like appendage tightened, the hard exoskeleton leaving a cold feeling in his hands.
When he felt his position felt right he hurled his arm forward in a quick motion, the air thrumming with the sheer force that he had used to throw the needle forward. It lodged itself deep into the tree trunk with a harsh cracking sound. The tree shook from the force dislodging several yellow leaves which drifted slowly towards the ground.
Yin Xiu observed where it had landed critically, noticing that it was slightly off his intended target. Frowning he aimed for a position slightly lower on the tree, repeating the same action before another resounding crack resonated throughout the nearby forest. He once again observed the placement of his throw, finding that the second needle still wasn't exactly where he had wanted it either.
Sighing he went forward, and using a lot of effort to remove the unprocessed needle from the tree. The serrations on them caught onto the inside of the trunk, forcing him to pull with all his strength before finally removing it from the tree. Looking closely he noticed that the sharpness was quite exaggerated compared to the plain iron needle he was using originally. "It really lives up the quality of a Qi refining material." He marveled before resuming his practice.
Quickly returning to his original position, the harsh crack soon continued to break the serenity of the forest. Slowly Yin Xiu's throws became more and more accurate, and his motions became more natural, engraving into his muscles the exact trajectory and force needed to inflict damage. As his precision increased, he began changing the angle the needle was thrown, trying to make it less and less predictable for his opponents where exactly the needle would come from. Across his body, sidearm, underhand, the movements becoming more skilled to the naked eye.
After becoming used to using his right arm to throw the needle accurately from multiple angles, and distances, he changed to using his left hand. Trying to be as deadly with his off-hand as his main. Time flew by as he engrossed himself into practice. When he finally stopped the sun had just risen once again over the horizon.
Yin Xiu looked blankly at the sun as his tired muscles finally got a chance to rest. He glanced around the clearing for a brief moment before a large black mass threw him down violently.
"Hu Meng... I'll admit that I completely forgot we were still doing this." He sighed helplessly while looking at the smug face of his friend.
"I've come to notice that you get too absorbed in your practice Yin Xiu." The tiger chastised, "To be fair the amount of progress you make when you do practice like that is quite honestly frightening. Your talent among humans must be absurdly high."
Yin Xiu shook his head "I honestly have no reference at all Hu Meng. The first cultivator I've ever gotten to know is you, and your weapons are quite literally built into your body." Yin Xiu glanced at Hu Meng's intimidating teeth, and claws before continuing, "I honestly thing it also has something to do with me finding a suitable weapon early on. I'm also just practicing the very basics. This isn't a real skill or anything like that ,which I'm sure will take me a considerable amount of time to truly become proficient. Especially if I have to come up with them myself."
Hu Men's huge paw patted Yin Xiu's back as he consoled him "Making your own weapon skills are honestly a while away from us right now. What we'll really have to focus on is the creation of our Qi cultivation techniques. If we want to truly advance rapidly that is the only way to do it."
Yin Xiu pondered for a moment before asking "Hu Meng can we buy example Qi techniques? not to truly cultivate them, but to have something to get ideas from?"
Hu Meng shrugged "I think we should be able to, the thing is though if we can just buy them in a human market the likelihood of it being anything well-made is highly debatable. I'm sure a good portion of them will be nonsense techniques only used to scam ignorant young cultivators."
"I figured as much... anything will be beneficial though. Currently we have no clue as to what to do. Well, we still have some time before we have to focus all of our attention on this issue." Yin Xiu stretched before he started to make his way back to the foot of the mountain, "Hu Meng I've rested my mind enough I'm going back to try and refine the rest of my bones and my liver."
"Have fun! I'm going to go hunting again." Hu Meng said before rapidly fading away into the distance.
Shaking his head, Yin Xiu quickly returned to the foot of the mountain before sitting down in the blanket of leaves that perpetually existed on the ground. He looked at the shiny green fruits sitting in the jade medicine boxes that gave off a tempting aroma. As if inviting you to take a big bite, before quickly succumbing to death. Yin Xiu, seemingly falling into their temptation raised one up and bit down with a crunch.