Heaven’s Tribulation

The next morning, Ming Long brought 4 other people along with Sheng Tian. Their group consisted of 3 vital tempering experts, 2 mind tempering experts, and Sheng Tian. The village folk mostly have simple names as it is mostly just something they remember to easier communicate. The vital tempering experts go by Feng, Wu, and Shu, while the mind tempering experts aside from Ming Long go by Fang and Yang.

In the outside world, this small group of people alone could be considered a great power that most would have to bow down to. Now their purpose was to escort and protect a single child.

”We plan to feed you large amounts of spirit meat and spirit herbs to temper your foundations as well as training you to fight until the envoy arrives ”

Spirit meat and herbs have a great effect on both mortals and cultivators, though the latter would have more access to these treasures compared to the latter. A mortal can usually consume up to a rank 2 spirit treasure and any more would do more harm than good.

Unlike regular mortals however, Sheng Tian has already consumed rank 3 herbs before and tempered his body to a ridiculous degree, so its safe to say that his limit is not just that.

Ming Long handed him a thin book that read, Elementary Sword Arts. ”Read this while we move ”

They moved quickly through the forest while Sheng Tian read the book.

All sword arts can be taken apart into 2 raw forms. The first, is the slash, a swift cutting movement that can be executed from any angle. The second, is the thrust, a domineering stab of the sword towards an opponent with great power.

There were then pictures of the form one should take while holding a sword and the process of executing a slash or a thrust.

Holding a sword that he picked out of the warehouse earlier, Sheng Tian practiced these forms while on the move. At first, they were the moves of an amateur who just picked up a sword, but an expert of the sword would be able to tell that his movements were slowly refined and emitted faint pressure.

”Theres 2 rank 1 earthen lions ahead. We will make sure you are alive if you can handle it alright? ” said Yang, a middle aged looking man.

Nodding, Sheng Tian dashed forward and cut the first lions neck. The experts concealed themselves and stopped concealing Sheng Tian as he repeatedly cut the lion who couldn do much against the unrelenting offensive.

The other earthen lion finally moved after being stunned by a little boy who appeared out of nowhere and lunged.

Sheng Tian didn need to use Illusory Snake Steps to dodge. His speed surpasses even high level rank 2 beasts, let alone a few rank 1 beasts.

The beast only managed to get tangled up with its companion and Sheng Tian thrusted his blade into the head of one, killing it. The other struggled but was eventually killed as well.

In the trees the experts looked and talked about his performance.

”Not bad for someone who only just held a sword, ” a shadow said.

”Quick and decisive, though lacking in power but thats understandable ” another agreed.

”Hes a child who never cultivated. I expected one kill but not two. He might really get a good evaluation from the envoy in 3 months ” a voice that belonged to Ming Long said.

Most children aren able to achieve what Sheng Tian did. Magical beasts are usually stronger than cultivators at the same level in a one on one battle. The earthen lions were young and did not have experience in combat. Perhaps if they were older then they would not have been stunned by an ambush though thats a bit much to ask for from unintelligent magical beasts.

The village experts couldn think of any other explanation for this except for that he is a once in a lifetime genius, not that he isn though.

Jumping down, the experts joined Sheng Tian. ”Good job, I didn expect for you to kill both of the lions but you did ”

”I was simply faster and more intelligent, ” Sheng Tian humbly replied.

”No matter ” Ming Long said ”lets continue for a few hours ”

They left after they stored the corpses in a spatial pouch and continued to terrorize other magical beasts. They made Sheng Tian fight beasts up to rank 3, which Sheng Tian would feign having trouble killing. He would purposefully suffer a few wounds and call the experts for help.

Ming Long and the others sighed. If he could take care of rank 3 magical beasts as a child then couldn he overturn the Heavens?

They hunted a variety of beasts for 2 hours straight and went back home due to their storage pouches being full.

Once they got back it was almost night. They cut apart the beasts and stored everything before preparing for dinner, only this time and for the next 3 months dinner would be made from magical beast meat and spirit herbs.

”You did great today Tianer. In fact, you greatly surpassed our expectations ” Ming Long later said.

After dinner, Sheng Tian used the excuse that he was going to sleep and sneaked out into the forest once more. He brought with him a spatial pouch that was given to him by one of the elders.

Inside was a 3 by 3 by 3 cubic meter space that can safely store spirit herbs and preserve their essence for up to 5 months. As they were hunting earlier, Sheng Tian secretly stored various spirit herbs inside this pouch using his mental energy.

In his sea of consciousness, he reviewed alchemy techniques that he could use with his current strength. He needs an alchemy fire technique and an alchemy controlling technique.

”Tri-colored Alchemy Flame, forms a 3 colored flame that is easy to control and removes all impurities if mastered. Nine Dragon Alchemy Control, a technique that can suppress even the most violent of herbs in a cauldron. Ill choose these two ” Sheng Tian said to himself.

He pulled out an ordinary cauldron that he took from the warehouse and sighed. He would have to look for better cauldrons in the future.

Thankfully, with his cheat-like knowledge, Sheng Tian would be able to use the 2 alchemy techniques with relative ease.

Laying out the herbs in front of him, he meditated to prepare to concoct a few pills and medical liquids.