Li Qingshan forced his weary body up, went to the kitchen, dug a lump of beef out of the fridge, and dropped it into plain boiling water.
The water roiled in the pot, white steam rising.
Li Qingshan stared fixedly at the steam, but his attention was on the Panel.
"Body Forging progress finally went up."
He'd been stuck at [Body Forging 9/100] for over ten days; today he'd finally taken another step.
Of course, the gain wasn't down to one bottle of nutrient fluid alone,
but the fluid's effect was still better than Li Qingshan had expected.
"One bottle of nutrient fluid actually carried me through four sessions."
At noon, he and Yu Lei's group had talked about the fluid's effects too.
By their account, one bottle was only enough for two sessions of theirs.
"So this is what they mean by 'it varies from person to person'?"
Recalling the salesgirl's words at noon, Li Qingshan quickly worked out the reason.
His 《The Starry Sky Beckons》 was at the third stage, while Yu Lei and the others were only at the second — hence the huge gap.
"But with absorption that low, Yu Lei and Hong Qian still keep their Body Forging progress up — they must be drinking nutrient fluid like water."
Li Qingshan clicked his tongue in envy, lost for a moment in daydreams.
"If I could keep up a bottle a day..."
Beep, beep, beep!
The stove's timer cut the flame, and the beef bobbing in the pot pulled Li Qingshan back to reality.
His savings were down to 30,000 star coins; even spent entirely on nutrient fluid, that was only ten more bottles.
And then he wouldn't even be able to make rent!
Li Qingshan's mouth twitched. He fished out the beef, rinsed it under cold water, then cradled it and started gnawing.
Beef finished and a quick shower done, Li Qingshan returned to the bedroom and lay down.
"Short on resources? Make up for it with talent!"
His gaze swept the [Martial Dao Space] line on the Panel,
and with anticipation Li Qingshan closed his eyes and willed himself in.
When he opened them again,
a vast, empty platform met his eyes.
"So this is the Martial Dao Space?" Li Qingshan looked around in curiosity.
Above him there was no sky, only a void.
A dim glow seeped from the emptiness, barely enough to make out the platform's edge some five hundred meters off.
The edge curved — or rather, he stood on a circular platform a thousand meters across.
After a quick look around, Li Qingshan spread his limbs and made ready to cultivate.
Just then,
ROAR!
A low roar came from behind him, closing fast.
"Hm?"
Li Qingshan had barely turned when a reeking gust hit his face and a bloody maw filled his vision.
CHOMP!
The fangs snapped shut, and his head burst like a watermelon.
"Fuck!"
In the bedroom, Li Qingshan jolted upright in bed, drenched in cold sweat.
"Wolfsbane!"
His heart pounded, his eyes full of alarm.
After all, he'd just "died" once.
"What's going on — how did Wolfsbane just appear? I didn't even summon its projection..."
His jumbled thoughts suddenly halted.
Li Qingshan recalled the information that had surfaced when the [Martial Dao Space] first unlocked.
The Martial Dao Space was a mysterious realm for cultivation that automatically recorded projections of every monster that died at his hands.
"Automatically recorded? So the first time one's logged, the monster's projection just appears in the Space?"
At the thought, Li Qingshan wanted to groan — it was a real pain in the ass.
Perhaps, as far as the Panel was concerned, if he could kill it once, he could naturally kill it a second time.
Whether the monster's projection appeared right away made no difference at all.
But for Li Qingshan, the difference was enormous.
After all, the Wolfsbane he'd killed had had all four limbs pinned to an alloy steel plate!
"So this is the payback for taking a shortcut?" Li Qingshan was speechless for a moment.
Strictly speaking, his unlocking the [Martial Dao Space] today really had been a shortcut.
The unlock condition for the [Martial Dao Space] was killing one monster.
Without Wan Keshan's "first lesson of the Martial Dao," he'd have had no chance to get near a Wolfsbane anytime soon, let alone the strength to kill one head-on.
"Strength?"
Li Qingshan murmured to himself, a flash of ferocity in his eyes.
"If I can kill you once, I can kill you a thousand times. I refuse to believe otherwise."
The Wolfsbane projection's presence had upended his plan to raise his technique proficiency.
To cultivate in peace, this Wolfsbane had to die!
Li Qingshan rolled out of bed, walked to the living room, picked up the blade by the wall, and returned to the bedroom.
Gripping the hilt, he drew the long blade, sat cross-legged on the bed, and closed his eyes.
The space shifted.
The instant Li Qingshan opened his eyes he spun around, gripping the hilt tight.
The blade had come in with him; a hundred meters off, a pair of crimson eyes was fixed on him.
"ROAR!"
With a howl, Wolfsbane kicked off its hind legs and sprang.
Its legs blurred, blindingly fast; in a blink it had crossed more than half the hundred meters.
Li Qingshan's eyes tightened. He stepped his left foot back and turned side-on.
The beast's bare skin streaked past his eyes; his right hand swept the blade up and chopped down hard.
The two crossed past each other.
Wolfsbane landed ten meters off with only a trifling wound at its shoulder, while Li Qingshan's wrist was already numb.
Once it landed, the savagery in its eyes deepened; with a leap and a twist, it pounced again.
Ten meters, crossed in an instant.
This time Li Qingshan couldn't dodge; he could only barely raise the blade to guard in front of him.
SLAM!
The clawed paw came down, a terrifying force sweeping over him.
The blade flew from his grip in an instant; the claws bore down on his chest unobstructed, crushing bone and organs...
Li Qingshan shuddered all over, his eyelids snapping open, a flash of fright crossing them.
He'd died again.
Once he'd steadied a little, Li Qingshan carefully replayed the exchange.
Brief as it was — just a few seconds — it was clear that Wolfsbane far outstripped him now in both speed and strength.
"So this is Wolfsbane's true strength?"
Li Qingshan's eyes dimmed slightly; he gripped the hilt and began again.
Giving up was out of the question.
It had blocked his path of cultivation — this Wolfsbane had to die!
In the pitch-dark room, Li Qingshan sat cross-legged on the bed, the blade gripped in his right hand.
Every few seconds his body would twitch, his eyes opening with a start before closing once more.
Time slipped slowly by.
The frequency of his eyes opening barely changed,
but his body no longer twitched, and beneath his lifting eyelids his eyes were calm and still.
BOOM!
A sonic boom thundered, deafening.
"A Sky Patroller?"
Opening his eyes once more, Li Qingshan rose quickly and went to the window.
Sky Patroller mecha were always cruising between the province's cities, but they rarely broke the sound barrier over a city at night.
A sortie like this had to mean some emergency.
The mecha's form had already vanished into the night sky, leaving only rings of shockwave behind.
Li Qingshan looked along the trail of the shockwaves.
"Looks like the direction of Linjiang Road?"
"Could that magenta-haired woman really be an evil-god cultist?"
Starriver Bar was on Linjiang Road.
With his tip-off at noon, the Inspection Bureau would surely have set up surveillance on Starriver Bar.
"Here's hoping!"
Li Qingshan said a small prayer and drew his gaze back.
If his tip-off had really done the trick, the reward wouldn't get away.
His comm-band showed no emergency alerts; clearly everything was under the Bureau's control.
Li Qingshan pinched the bridge of his nose, then sat back down on the bed and began another attempt.