"It seems this is the end of my use of the store."
...
The fifth day came to an end very fast.
Ling Xu took the day to recover from the battle as he had been wounded by the mutant whirling ape. Fortunately, the wounds weren't serious as his Bronze Body skill plus his tough skin took most of the impact.
If he didn't possess the Bronze Body skill, which not only hardened his skin and organs but also increased the density of his bones, Ling Xu would have gotten several of his bones broken from that single fist.
Still, to recover faster he applied the high grade wound ointment to every region where his body showed a sign of injury.
Then, he ate the remains of the gorilla for several hours as it took a long time to cook and eat because of its toughness. The rest of its body was cleanly cut and then entered his spatial ring which officially had no space left.
After more than twelve hours of sleeping, he woke up to see the light of the day falling several meters apart from him. The tree was so big and had numerous leaves that it left no room for the light to pass through.
Ling Xu continued the entire day without doing anything noteworthy, he barely left the core layer and entered the inner layer to see how the other participants were doing.
He estimated that they would reach the core layer and arrive at the center on the next day. After they entered the core layer they would go directly to the center as the whirling apes aren't reappearing as other beasts in the outer and inner layer did.
Maybe it was because Ling Xu didn't completely wipe out the beasts in the other habitat, who knows if there was a hidden place where they came from or something.
He observed many of the participants nervous and anxious, after the notice from the system told them the clearance of the core layer, as they were desperately trying to advance.
Several people even died as they had started to push themselves to the point of not choosing the right opponents and ended up killed.
Those who remained in their groups managed to stay calmer and were quite smart as they carefully advanced through the forest.
His companions are a clear example as once they entered the inner layer, their progress through the forest had become very fast once they all entered the fifth stage of blood qi and even Mr. Sun entered the sixth.
After they had gone through the incident where Ren You and his lackeys almost wiped them out, they had realized the importance of having an advantage in cultivation stage.
They couldn't care less about the points of the store until now, having Sun Min in the vanguard, so they now started to hunt for points so they could get high grade equipment or even something from the special items category.
But they didn't know if they were going to get the points on time as the available items had started to decrease faster, leaving only a dozen luminous stones in the store, four random skills and five upgrade skill chances.
The special items had decreased more on the fifth day than adding those from the first to fourth day together.
...
After almost two days of Ling Xu enjoying the Deserted Forest's scenery, it was almost time for the mission to end.
Ling Xu was surprised when he realized that no one had gotten here, but after another thought he soon understood why.
After the announcement that the boss had been killed, the participants realized that they wouldn't gain anything from reaching the center so they started to calm down and scrapped for more points at the inner layer.
Another reason was that they had become afraid of the whirling apes as there had been two circulating the periphery of the core layer, ready to attack anyone who dared to trespass.
They wouldn't dare to confront Ling Xu so they tried their best to avoid him, and he didn't even look at them as he felt it would be nice to have the core layer all for himself.
Apart from Sun Min, who had entered the sixth stage of Blood Qi at the end of the fifth day, there were only a handful of people who had advanced too. There even was someone who had started the refinement of his bones as he had entered the seventh stage, but then his progress came to a halt as he started saving up points just like the rest.
So, after waiting for a few hours the time came to an end.
"That's it? Well, it doesn't matter, it's not like I needed to have some protagonist time for myself."
Said Ling Xu with a face that said another thing. He had been waiting for his dramatic reveal, showing the rest of the survivors in the map that he alone defeated the mutant whirling ape and wiped out the whole core layer.
[Mission ends in 3 seconds.]
[Mission ends in 2 seconds.]
[Mission ends in 1 second.]
...
When Ling Xu opened his eyes again, he found himself in his apartment. This time he didn't have to chat with Mr. Sun so he checked his final rewards right away.
[You have survived the mission.]
[Do you want to receive your rewards based on your performance?]
Ling Xu affirmed to the question from the system with full expectancy.
[You have received 10 Blood Tempering Pills (high-quality 1st grade).]
[You have been given the choice to choose between a Random Skill (high grade) and a Random Technique.]
"That's it?"
He looked at the rewards which seemed almost the same as the ones from the tutorial, with the exception of the increase in grade of the Blood Tempering Pills, so he didn't know how to feel.
On one hand, Ling Xu had gotten a chance to get another technique as he knew the importance of it, having experienced the result of completing Blood Thread Transformation.
On the other hand, he felt that something didn't add up. Ling Xu only felt that after the tutorial mission, the rewards would upgrade after having such an outstanding performance.
"Then I will choose the techni…"
[You have been given a once in a lifetime chance.]
[Do you want to give up your current rewards for this chance?]
[This chance has rarely been given and the number of times can be counted on one hand.]
"You want me to renounce to my rewards without knowing what this chance is?"
Ling Xu felt incredulous as he never expected to not receive even an explanation. He wondered in his mind what this lifetime chance could possibly mean when another message appeared, answering his doubt.
[Enter enlightenment and get the chance to fuse your current skills into a mysterious technique, it can surpass your current cultivation realm.]
"Enlightenment!"
Ling Xu had the look as if a light bulb turned on.
"It should be referring to the clear state of mind I have been entering once a week since I learned the Existence Shadow Will cultivation technique. I can finally know if this ability is the same as enlightenment."
Forgetting about the high grade pills which Ling Xu had already bought eleven times the amount, and the high grade skill or technique, he answered to the system.
[You have accepted the once in a lifetime opportunity to enter enlightenment. Use it after fully knowing which skills you want to fuse.]
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 7th stage of Blood Qi (23%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (12,1%)
[Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (completed)
[Skills]: Enhanced Synapsis (high grade), White Heavy Strike (high grade), Gale Steps (high grade), Bronze Body (high grade), Profound Electric Field (high grade)
"What skills should I fuse? Once I do it I will probably lose them forever, so I need to choose those who can give the best result. Choosing compatible skills should be what determines how strong it becomes, after all they all are of the same grade."
Ling Xu pondered over it for almost half an hour, this wasn't something that could be taken lightly after all. He didn't know if taking more would be beneficial as they wouldn't merge well, so he set his eyes on two skills which had great compatibility and had proven to be useful.
Every one of his skills increased his combat power in different ways, so he couldn't randomly choose any of them.
He calmed his mind until he felt a sense of calmness around his whole body and next he only thought about the pair of skills he had decided to fuse.
"System, use the enlightenment opportunity."
A feeling of connecting with everything came all of a sudden, Ling Xu only felt as if his mind entered a complete sense of calmness. His body moved and his surroundings disappeared.
Ling Xu's mind, guided by the enlightenment induced by the system, was in the process of creating a new technique based on the skills he had chosen.
While in that state, a dozen minutes passed and the skills he had chosen suddenly shined on his status panel.
This process took half an hour as the technique that was being produced was about to be completed.
Ling Xu's mind, guided by the enlightenment, was about to return to his body once again. But all of sudden, an ethereal energy entered his body.
Inside his body, you could see a stream of golden energy swimming and bathing anything it made contact with. Between his eyes, the path had opened once again giving birth to this energy on his body.
This change completely took over Ling Xu's mind as it went back to that complete state of calmness, his mind followed the rhythm of nature and entered into a deeper state than ever before.
Ling Xu couldn't perceive anything as his mind was unprepared to understand what was going on.
On his status panel, another skill name started to shine brightly.
...
A full hour went by before the golden energy disappeared completely from his body and Ling Xu turned back to normal.
"Ufff! Ufff! Ufff!"
He sweated profusely after coming back from this double enlightenment firstly induced by the system and then followed by the ability of his cultivation technique.
"What was that just now?"
[The enlightenment opportunity has ended.]
"What?"
With a look of panic, Ling Xu called for his status panel full of worry. He didn't feel right about the way things were progressing.
[Name]: Ling Xu
[Realm]: 7th stage of Blood Qi (23%)
[Cultivation]: Basic Blood Circulation (perfection), Existence Shadow Will (27,1%)
[Techniques]: Blood Thread Transformation (completed)
[Skills]: White Heavy Strike (high grade), Gale Steps (high grade)
"What happened to my skills?! And why did my Bronze Body skill disappear too? I only decided to fuse Enhanced Synapsis and Profound Electric Field as they were the most compatible ones!"
Seeing three of his high grade skills disappear, Ling Xu's mind entered a state of turmoil. He looked in astonishment as he couldn't comprehend what was going on.
…
Seated in the lotus position, Ling Xu was looking at the other change he found on his status panel as he tried activating the golden shadow energy resting in his abdomen.
After entering enlightenment twice at the same time, his progress in Existence Shadow Will had skyrocketed all the way from 12,1% to 27,1%.
This brought dramatic changes as Ling Xu observed that the small fragment which previously covered a portion of his abdomen now had a range on a third part of his entire body.
He now could be seen freely moving this energy with the sheer use of his will.
"Everything turned out way better than I thought it could."
After calming down from the shock of losing three set of high grade skills, Ling Xu had found out something.
While thinking about the time he entered enlightenment, he managed to scavenge small parts of the technique he was supposed to create by fusing his skills. But after his mind started to see clearer what this technique was about, he felt overwhelmed and started to forget the technique once again.
"It seems that I haven't completely lost the skills for nothing, it's just that the technique created through enlightenment is so complex that I'm currently unable to understand it. Maybe once I advance further in my cultivation realm I will be able to see it with more clarity."