Unbeatable! Invincible! Unparalleled!

Whoosh!

Tap!

The both of them reappeared in front of an entrance of what seemed to be a large cave.

'Mystic Art: Shadow binding release!'

"That was quite fast..." thought Duan Li. It appears that what the old man just did was a method of travel that was quite similar to a teleportation ability!

Even when he was at the pinnacle of the first shackle back then, his speed was nowhere as fast as the old man. Curious, he asked, "Lord Guardian, if you don't mind me asking, just what sort of skill arts did you use to travel just now?"

Hearing Duan Li's question, the old man smirked, "Interested? It's a movement skill art I painstakingly created! It's called One Step To Reach!" he laughed out, feeling extremely proud of himself.

Duan Li's eyebrows twitched when he heard the name of the skill.

That name is too.. simple but extremely bold!

"Since you are the kind of brat that liked to court death, I'll impart this secret art to you. Who knows, maybe one day it will help to keep your little life a little bit longer!" the old man then took out a manual book from his sleeves.

"After you mastered the secret art within this book, burn it. You will be the only one that I passed it to." he continued with a serious expression.

Receiving the kind gestures from the old man, Duan Li bowed 90 degrees as a token of respect.

"Thank you, Lord Guardian!"

"En! Now off you go to the cave and remember brat, DO NOT destroy it!" he waved off his sleeve as he turned his back to Duan Li, about to head off.

But then, he recalled something important as he halted his steps and spoke out, "Ah wait! One last piece of advice for when you exit the Eternal maze later on, beware of the Dark sects scattered throughout the Tian continent! They practiced the most profane and devilish arts that enabled them to wrest away at one's potential somehow! You would do best to avoid them!"

Dark sects?

As if the name had became a sort of a key to a lock in his mind, a flash of memories suddenly flooded through Duan Li's vision.

Dark sects, the most mysterious band of people that comprises of rogue cultivators that were either shunned from their empires, or a national wanted criminals!

In his memories, so far he had only encountered a single member of this Dark sect. This person alone, had single- handedly caused wide-spread panic and chaos within the Jiu empire for resurrecting the corpse of titled knights from their grave to do his bidding.

His name, Xang Ji Han!

The old man then casted one quick look onto Duan Li, as he clasped his hands behind his back. His robes fluttered along the gentle blows of the wind, creating an image reminiscent of an old sage that had grown tired of the worldly affairs. The old man sighed mysteriously as he uttered a single sentence before abruptly vanishing.

"Farewell, and goodluck!"

Whoosh!

Seeing the departure of the old man, Duan Li made another bow of respect towards the empty spot where the old man had stood previously. He continued to hold this position for a few breaths before he stood upright.

"Thank you Lord Guardian!"

...

Whoosh!

The old man reappeared above the clouds as he cupped his chin with a wide grin and nodded.

What a suave exit I just did!

He then extended his heavenly sense to watch Duan Li below as a look of worry appeared on his face.

"I hope he doesn't trash the maze too much. Otherwise, it would be difficult for me to explain during the round-table meeting between the rest of the Guardian next month..."

...

Arrff! Arrff!

"Ohh? Are you okay now? Good boy!" said Duan Li as he patted the head of the cub.

He then entered the cave and before long, he found himself to be standing in front a huge iron door that seemed to be ancient and eroded with rust through the countless eras it had stood in this place.

Approaching slowly, Duan Li pushed the door with both of his hands, putting a little bit of strength in his arms as the iron door looked to be extremely heavy while engaging his back muscles.

PENG!

The door was slammed opened with a bang. Thankfully, the door was quite rigid enough to withstand Duan Li's strength. However, some cracks were now apparent by the sides of the door.

Eh?

I thought the door was extremely heavy?

A certain individual above the sky slapped his forehead with a loud 'pa!' when the scene happened.

...

Tap! Tap!

Duan Li entered the cave slowly as the path continued to descend underground. The cave also grew more darker as the temperature rose.

After a while, the surrounding temperature had became so hot to the point that the air could be seen to be vibrating vividly. "It's no wonder why they said I would definitely die here before. Just this scalding temperature alone would be enough to dehydrate me to a withered corpse..."

Thankfully, Duan Li's physical body right now had gone beyond the required level. Thus, he just casually strolled around until he reached a vast opening in the cave.

As he was now in the early stage of the Foundation establishment realm, his senses on spiritual Qi had become much more keener than before. With just a glance over this vast opening, he could detect the fluctuating spiritual Qi leaking out of some living creatures hiding behind the rocks.

"Two.. four.. six! There are six monsters hiding behind the rocks" Duan Li prepared himself as he got into a defensive stance.

Sensing that their prey had noticed their existence, they came out of hiding.

Grrrrr!

"Unenlagia!" exclaimed Duan Li, alarmed.

Because he had a photographic memory, he had already memorized 70 percent of the monster guide book when he flipped through them several times before and could recognize the monster in front of him.

These monsters were extremely agile and ferocious, its tough skin and that long serrated blade-like fan attached between its shoulders and forearm like a small wing, the monster was graded as dangerous within the book.

On top of that, its realm was at the pinnacle stage of the Qi condensation realm!

The Unenlagias started to surround Duan Li as they walked in circles around him. Their eyes are dead intent in watching every movements that Duan Li was about to make.

"Right now my body is at the pinnacle stage of the Foundation establishment realm, but I don't know yet just how resilient my body would be against their attacks..." thought Duan Li.

"But I need to get the upper hand, can't let them think that I'm a pushover now..." Duan Li then punched out a normal fist imbued with his spiritual Qi towards one of the Unenlagia.

BAM!

The force of the punch hit squarely onto the body of the Unenlagia as it flew to the walls with a loud 'crash!' sound.

"..." Unenlagias.

Did I... Just killled it?

The Unenlagias turned mute right now with their jaws wide agaped to the point that their sharp teeth could be seen. They watched at their lifeless companion buried within the crumbled rocks. They then turned their head towards Duan Li, with a deadly gaze.

"Holy moly! They are mad now!" just as Duan Li was about to unleash multiple indiscriminate punches in all direction in a panic, the Unenlagias turned their backs to him.

Whooshh!

The Unenlagias began to ran with their tails between their legs, terrified at the tyrannical strength of the human intruder.

What is with the strength of this human?!

Isn't this cave supposed to send us weaker human beings?

It didn't took them long before they disappeared completely from sight. Duan Li was now standing alone with an awkward pose as his face showed a blank look at what just happened.

Hais!

Why did you guys had to run away like that!

Its not like I killed your friend over there on purpose!

If there is no one to help me to adjust my strength, how will I know which amount of power I should use so as to not kill my enemy?

Please come back!

Let me throw a few more punches!

Duan Li sighed helplessly as he stood upright. He thought in his mind that he would get to see the escapees later on as they ran deeper into the cave. It would only be a matter of time before he finds them.

For now, he turned his attention towards the dead Unenlagia that he killed accidentally. He walked towards it as he crouched down.

'Qi beam!'

Pzzzttt!

Duan Li made a small incision onto its abdomen using his index finger. The Qi beam acted like a hot glowing knife slicing through the meat with extreme ease. He then put his right hand into the incision and grabbed onto something as he pulled it out.

Opening his hand, there was a small crystallized ball the size of an adult's thumb that was ruby in colour.

Fire attribute monster core!

Duan Li then sat cross-legged on the ground to cultivate the monster core.

Woonggg!

Closing his eyes as he looked towards his dantian, there are now four things that floated inside it. His previous 10 Qi pools had merged together to form a single, rotating ball of spiritual Qi that seemed to be a lot more denser than before. The same could be said in his two other dantians as well and thus, altogether he had three Qi balls right now.

Because of this, his strength right now could be said on par with that of a level 3 Foundation establishment realm!

From his knowledge, to advance to the second level would require him to merge another 10 Qi pools to form a second Qi ball. But with his triple dantians, that would amount to 30 Qi pools altogether to form another 3 Qi balls, amounting to a total of 6 Qi balls in his second level. With that, he could rival anyone at the middle stage of the Foundation establishment realm!

And by the time he reached the pinnacle stage in this realm, his actual battle prowess would be quite similar to that of a middle stage Core formation realm!

The rest that were floating inside his lower dantian were that earth attribute monster core which was now quite big and shaped like an egg, the thunder essence from the mother wolf and the small thumb-size, fire attribute monster core.

Opening his eyes, Duan Li nodded, feeling quite satisfied with the rate at which he was improving right now.

Standing up, he continued to walk deeper inside the cave.

Wait for me Unenlagias!

...