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With a sharp whistle, the sword coiled and strengthened, adding to its swing, and penetrated the bird\'s flesh. The sword\'s wriggles inside the flesh added another layer of damage to the bird, making it suffer from Qi deviations in multiple places.

"ARGH!"

The bird still crashed into Ken with high speed and high power, sending him a few dozen meters away. He rolled on the ground a few meters until he hit a tree and came to a stop.

\'You should\'ve seen the other guy.\'

Ken thought to himself as he heard the noise of the large bird hitting the ground and crashing into the trees. He knew the bird wouldn\'t be able to survive his sword strike, so he carefully sat up while ignoring the pain and took out a healing pill to help his bones heal faster.

He sat and meditated for 3 hours straight to replenish his Qi when he felt some third-rank beasts getting closer, enticed by the meat of a higher-ranked beast. He got up and quickly pulled his sword from the bird\'s carcass and left the area.

Although disciples would fight for this carcass to sell it for Qi stones and Contribution Points, he didn\'t have any need for it. Thanks to his perfect memory he still knew where he was despite running hectically in the forest, so he headed home.

"Ken, why did you return home from the forest so late today?"

Mei asked her son worriedly when he came into the house at a late hour. She didn\'t get used to the fact he was strong enough to take care of himself despite being only 5 years old, and worse, he was dirty and seemed tired and ragged.

"I tried hunting some beasts in the forest and met a fourth-rank bird that tried to hunt me."

Mei instantly paled when she heard that.

"What?! But we gave you a map so you can avoid the dangerous beasts! Did you lose the map? Did you get lost? How did you survive the beast\'s attack?"

Mei showered him with questions anxiously while Haoran just looked at him worriedly and waited for his answers.

"I didn\'t lose the map, I just wandered too deep into the forest after seeing that I could kill the third-rank beasts too easily."

"I will not praise you because you\'ve put yourself at risk. There is a huge gap between the third stage and the fourth, it\'s not as simple as the difference between the second and third stages. It\'s impossible to cross the stages even for the best geniuses."

\'Yet I did.\'

"I will be more careful in the future."

"So, how did you survive the beast\'s chase?"

"A student sacrificed himself for me. He wore a blue robe of the sect and his name was Ron, that\'s all I heard him say before he started fending off the bird. But I don\'t know whether he survived or not."

The sect\'s inner disciples wore blue robes while the outer ones wore gray. As for the top 100 in the inner sect, they wore either white or a lighter shade of blue.

"Good thing he was there to help you, but I\'m worried about his condition. I will go and check the forest just in case, although it\'s probably too late to help him if he needed help."

Mei soon got out of the house and vanished toward the forest. Ken just shrugged and wished her good luck finding an eaten corpse in his heart while eating his dinner. Obviously, she didn\'t find his body.

-----------

The next day, Ken stood in front of a large tree in his training area and concentrated.

*Woosh!*

His sword pierced through the wood and left a 5-cm radius hole in the tree. He watched the results with satisfaction as he assessed the damage his sword strike dealt compared to the day before.

\'That\'s the power of leveling up the mastery of my sword art. Its penetration power has at least doubled, and the damage inflicted is much more severe. The \'Advanced\' level is much more powerful than the \'Basic\' one\'.

Ken was satisfied with the results. Yesterday when he fought with the giant bird, he turned angry and full of killing intent, which helped him have enlightenment about how to apply the Snake Thrust better and managed to improve his technique.

\'According to everything I\'ve read, the next cultivation stage will define my future. The Core Formation Stage in which one uses their soul, body, and mind to create their core, will have a huge influence on everything they can achieve.\'

According to the books, the core was taking its shape from everything that defined the human forming it. It meant that cultivators had to master their arts as best as they could before forming the core, or it would have no specialty, making them mediocre in everything they will try to master later.

\'I saw many techniques mix swords techniques with elemental techniques, but it seemed meaningless. The sword\'s only goal is to pierce and cut, adding any other effect is a waste of Qi and misses the point of the sword. However, only mastering the sword and my movement techniques isn\'t enough. I need to add something.\'

Ken wasn\'t satisfied with the normal paths he had seen at the sect\'s library. Of course, he didn\'t forget that his core would also add his proficiency with formations and pill concoctions, but he wanted something for his prowess. He had the ability to practice many things, and it\'d be a waste not to use it.

\'I could use lightning or wind to boost my speed, but it\'s more like a quantitative improvement, I need a qualitative one.\'

He thought about what he had done those past days when he had an idea.

\'Bloodlust, killing intent, and fear. To cultivate those, one needs to kill thousands of others, and maybe even millions. Although many people cultivate it eventually, it\'s not part of their being since they don\'t kill enough before getting to the Core Formation Stage. However, I only need to kill one person, or maybe a few more. Then I just need to keep reliving those moments in my memories repeatedly. With my special memory, it fits me perfectly without needing to become a mass murderer\'

He closed his eyes and started reliving the moment he had killed Ron. He tried to use the memories of him killing the beasts but felt it didn\'t feel quite the same. Human beings were better targets for this purpose.

\'Killing the same person all the time isn\'t that good. I should kill a few more, but unfortunately, there is no village nearby. The sect is too isolated, and I can\'t commit murder inside it.\'

Suddenly, Ken realized he was considering murder too easily after his first kill. He closed his eyes and tried feeling his emotions, only to find them disturbingly calm.

\'I guess I\'ve lost my respect for human lives as I relived my former life repeatedly in my mother\'s womb. Maybe I was simply born as a monster who couldn\'t fit into society.\'

The next day instead of going to his normal spot, he stayed near the main entrance to the forest from the sect and hid between the branches of one of the trees.

"Hey Monica, how about going out for a drink with me when we are back from this mission?"

"Keep dreaming, I only aim for someone in the top 500 like Big Brother Droy."

"Big Brother already has a girl, what\'s the point of rejecting someone who cares about you for someone whom you can\'t date?"

"A girl can dream."

He heard a conversation coming his way and he soon found 5 young disciples wearing blue passing by. The sect would set commissions to bring certain carcasses and herbs from the forest all the time, and the disciples would go fetch them in exchange for Merit Points. This way, the disciples would train in real combat, and the sect replenished its resources.

Ken also understood that their strongest member was that Droy guy, who apparently was a weakling, so he also didn\'t believe they had strong backers. Overall, the group seemed to fit the role of murder victims.

All five of them were in the Soul Strengthening Stage, but none of them reached its peak yet. He nimbly jumped down the tree and followed them into the forest, keeping a safe distance out of their detection range. By using Cloud Running constantly, he also negated most of the noise his steps made as his steps turned much lighter.

The group started jogging inside the forest toward the habitat of their target and Ken followed behind. He took out a large menacing silver mask and wore it on his face as he waited for them to gain enough distance from the sect.

\'The mask loses a lot of its scary look on a kid like me. The oversize is also awkward.\'

He occupied his mind with these types of thoughts until he felt they were far enough. Listening to the group flirting with each other was too cringy for him.

"Okay guys, we\'re getting close. let\'s try to be quiet from now on or the beasts will be alerted, and we will face a much stronger resistance."

The leader of the group, Droy, gave his instruction and everyone obeyed.

"Ok, James, you use the bow so make sure to go to a high spot as soon as the beasts are in your range. Monica, you strike with me while Derek and Laila will support us with their spears."

"Understood."