Jun Li leaned back, allowing her body to slightly sink into the rough fur of the dead beast beside her. Despite not fighting for very long, Jun Li felt exhausted. 'That wasn't as satisfying as I thought…'

  Looking down, Jun Li saw a stream of blood pouring down from a hole in her gut, the flow strong enough to reach out towards the distant edge of the pillar and spill down. 'I think the knowledge that I can't die of blood loss is actually making me worse at fighting…'

  Lately, experimentation had been the center of Jun Li's fighting doctrine, and that capricious curiosity that led her to think, 'Could I use that technique here?' had gotten her into more than one disadvantageous position, just within the Earth Dragon's Grave.

  'Uncle Zhu said I'd find my identity as a Martialist in combat, but even now I'm not sure how to find it…' The Drifting Ghost Blade, Sparking Thorn, Collapsing Echo Fist, and Ice Lotus Scripture all vied for her attention in combat.

  And, even though she knew they could act in synergy with one another, inexperience and tension caused her to retreat to singular disciplines at the first sign of trouble.

  'What would he do?' Jun Li thought for a moment, thinking of the Immortal that rested inside of her. The thought immediately elicited a reactionary disgust, and she recoiled at the notion of relying on that man and his 'wisdom.'

  A deep sigh elicited sharp pain from the hole in her gut. 'Ah, damn it… even if I can't bleed to death, this still hurts…'

  The sound of another creature landing at the edge of the pillar caused Jun Li's gaze to rise, only for her thoughts to pause with confusion.

  A pure white, snake-like beast crawled over the stone pillar. Lithe, scaled forelimbs carried it forwards, not towards Jun Li, but to the fallen beast by her side.

  When it reached the beast, its claws dug into the fallen beast's hide, cutting away until it had cleared a path to the fleshy insides. Its meal now laid out before it, the snake-like beast opened its mouth to reveal a maw of sharp teeth, supported by a defined jaw unlike that of a mundane snake.

  As the beast continued its meal, Jun Li sat up slightly. "That was quick…" Looking over at Little Yun, who had changed drastically in the past hour or so, she contemplated the 'snake's' changes. 'Clawed forelimbs, more defined teeth, a stronger skull, and…' Her eyes were drawn to the back of Little Yun's head. 'The beginnings of horns?'

  "Hah… looks like neither of us is getting out of this realm quite the same as when we came in…" As Jun Li spoke casually, Little Yun's head turned around, looking back at Jun Li and meeting her gaze with clarity.

  Something about the movement caught her off guard, and she felt a sense of unease. When Little Yun's head returned to its meal, Jun Li furrowed her eyebrows. 'What the heck…?'

  It was an entirely innocuous movement, the sort of thing a bystander wouldn't have questioned for a second. But to Jun Li, who knew Little Yun better than anyone else, it was disturbing to be looked at with such intent. '...Have you ever looked at me like that before now…?'

  Feeling a little bit vulnerable all of a sudden, Jun Li pulled out a needle and thread from her Spatial Ring and began to stitch herself up. 'I can't dwell on it here… There's only about a day and a half until the realm closes. I should be up there on the mountain, waiting for the drop of Earth Dragon Blood to condense…'

  Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

  After a moment, Jun Li stowed her bloodied needle and thread and stood up, moving a few steps before realizing that Little Yun hadn't begun to follow her.

  Quietly, she watched as Little Yun continued to burrow itself deeper into the beast while it ate. 'I guess they need to eat a lot after that rapid change…? Ah well, I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer.'

  … … … … … …

  A great distance away, Gao Feng fell to one knee, sweat beading down his face as he looked up towards his former opponent.

  Just a few steps away, a massive insect laid limp, its body spread out over the grainy sand and stone of the Grave's eastern wastes. Immense gashes spread across its body where Gao Feng's saber had landed, cutting out ravines in the thick chitin of the beast.

  Overhead, the insect's scything talons were half propped up; their incredible weight and sharpness had caused them to dig into the ground and form solid arches when the beast's mass came down, the likes of which arched up a dozen meters before descending to meet the main body.

  It was no basic fodder; that insectile beast was a long-lived and tyrannical ruler of these wastes, and was among the greatest creatures one could find in the Earth Dragon's Grave.

  Across Gao Feng's body, spots of blood could be seen spreading through the fabric of his emerald robe. They were not from his former injuries, nor were they freshly inflicted by the beast opposite him. His robe was untouched, and yet he bled.

  "Incredible…" Emerging from a hiding spot, Qian Ruo looked up at the towering corpse of the insect beast, her steps halting momentarily before she rushed over to Gao Feng's side. "Are you alright?

  Gao Feng spat up blood as his fresh internal injuries took their toll. "Yeah… I underestimated my strength and broke a few bones…" Rising to his feet, he took a deep breath that stretched his broken ribs and caused his lungs to hitch, causing him to cough hard enough to spit up more blood.

  "Damn… that hurts…" Even through the pain, he smiled. "But it's good… some broken bones will make the next step easier…" Understanding the intentions of her 'cousin', Qian Ruo felt horrid. "Ahh… I can't believe I'm helping you ruin your future like this…"

  "Ruin my future?" Gao Feng scoffed. "That's not quite how I see it."

  Looking inward, Gao Feng sensed his muscles. Over the past few hours, he had rushed through the process of Muscle Refining, using what minimal resources he could scrounge together.

  Although the great bulk of his muscles was now of a profoundly different quality than before, that was only one aspect of his body.

  Not only did the strength of his primary muscles outperform and damage his lesser-developed muscles in combat, but his lack of adjustment to this level of strength had also caused some of his bones to fracture and avulse under the straining force of his newly refined musculature.

  It was only due to the hasty method with which he completed Muscle Refining that these risks existed. If he had taken his time and spent another month or two training his less developed muscles, and seeking better resources, the risk of self-inflicted damage would have been minimal, even without strengthening his bones.

  "Rather than 'ruining my future,' it's more like I'm stealing from my future self." Finishing his sentence, Gao Feng finally managed to take the deep breath that had failed a moment ago. "To increase my Cultivation in the short term, I'm sacrificing the Cultivation of my future self."

  Seeing the unconvinced expression on Qian Ruo's face, he continued. "I mean… think about it this way, if my future self can't come back from this sort of setback, I was never going to get very far in the first place."

  "Besides, some things are more important than stuff like 'potential' and 'talent.'" A severe smile spread across his lips. "If I back down now, after the worst insult of my life, what reason would I even have to continue Cultivating? What point is there in this path if I have to lie down and endure being treated like dirt?"

  Feeling his hatred surge once again, Gao Feng stopped before his straining tension broke something else. "Now… onto the other three…!"