Under The Heavens

After deciding that he needed to get battle experience, Edward decided to go to the Windertry Hills. The Windertry Hills was a chain of small mountains that was situated a couple of miles away from Idirie. The Windertry Hills was full of different kind of demonic beasts and fortunate encounters that could help people with cultivation, such as resources and miracle plants, but all these opportunities came with an equal amount of danger, as nothing was truly free in the world. After making this decision, Edward hung his sword around his waist as he was ready to venture out immediately. He didn't want to take any food with him, since his storage bag had limited space, and he could kill demonic beasts there to sustain himself.

A thing that Edward had noticed when he was cultivating earlier, was that his comprehension seemed to have gone up another notch since he awakened his martial spirit. This was the reason behind his enormous growth in martial arts during this period, without this increase, he wasn't confident he would be able to get to the high-grade of achievement in most of the martial arts, except for his sword, which he was confident in.

After leaving his little courtyard, Edward headed to his uncle's residence to let him know he was going to be gone for a while. He didn't want his uncle to worry about him, which he was bound to do if Edward just suddenly disappeared like that. The Stone family residence was actually quite big, and it took a couple of minutes before Edward arrived at his uncle's residence, which was situated further inwards compared to Edward's hut, that was situated at the outer edges of the residency, but then again, an elder had a much more lofty position.

When he arrived at his uncles home, he noticed that it was a pretty decent sized house if you were to compare it to his old worlds standards. But since he had no use for most rooms that one would use in a modern house, the rooms were bigger. His uncle also had a couple of guards who stood and kept watch by the door. When he greeted these guards, he told them his identity and his errands, and they sent a maid to inform Pierre.

After about a minute had passed, Pierre stepped out of the door to his house, and next to him was a young lady, this lady seemed to be the same age as Edward, 14, and she had a beautiful face. Her eyes were a rare purple, and she would be considered a beauty by almost anyone you asked. Her eyebrows were fairly straight, taking after her uncle a little bit, and her complexion was rosy and healthy. Her hair was brown as well, draping over her shoulders. Her face did show a small hint of disdain when she first laid eyes on Edward, but she quickly hid it away, afraid her father would see. That's right, this lady was Pierre's one and only daughter, Cecilia Stone.

"Hahahaha, you never cease to amaze me!"

After seeing his nephews progress in cultivation, Pierre quickly laughed and gave Edward a pat on his shoulder.

"It normally takes longer for a person with a 5th tier human-ranked martial spirit to advance to the middle of the second stage of the body-tempering realm, you were even a bit faster than Cecilia."

"Uncle overpraises me, how could I compare to cousin Cecilia?"

HEaring this praise, Cecilia slightly nodded her head and felt that this cousin of hers wasn't that bad, she had originally felt a little disdain towards him since he was only at the second rank of the body-tempering realm at age 14, but hearing her uncle praise him, and even saying he was a bit faster than her, her disdain quickly went away. And adding on the fact that he was giving her face, Cecilia's impression of Edward was pretty good.

"Uncle, I have something to tell you!"

Edward proceeded to tell his uncle about his trip to the Windertry Hills, which instantly made his uncle worried, but at the same time, Pierre knew this was what was best for him, and that he needed to get some real-life battle experience, lest he ends up a flower in a greenhouse, sheltered from all harm.

"Fine, but make sure to come back in one piece!"

After bidding farewell Edward headed to the stall of the family, where he had a horse that was being cared for. Normally outer members didn't have access to a horse, but Edward's parents had bought one when they were still alive, and so he inherited it after they passed away. After having gotten permission from the family to leave, as well as having taken out his horse, Edward set off for Windertry Hills.

It didn't take more than 2 hours for Edward to arrive at a small city at the foot of the mountain chain, this small city was called Croria and it was a popular stop for the people who ventured into the mountain chain as they could both sell their goods here, as well as buy supplies they needed for either cultivation or hunting. When Edward arrived, he quickly located a stall that could take care of his horse while he was in the mountains, this was because he didn't want to risk taking it with him, as it would both slow him down when he entered areas that were hard to cross, as well as the risk of it dying to some demonic beast. It could also potentially risk his life if he needed to hide, so he decided it was best for it to stay behind after all.

It didn't really cost much for the stall to take good care of his horse for a while, just a couple of silvers, which was next to nothing for a cultivator, unfortunately, Edward was new to the road of cultivation, so this trivial sum wasn't that trivial to him, but he still had some money saved up, so it didn't pose any problems. After his steed was taken care of, he couldn't wait much longer, as he was eager to both earn money and get a chance to fight for real, he wanted to become strong after all. And for that cause, he needed both money and combat experience.

The Windertry Hills was surrounded by a huge forest, that encapsulated all of the mountains within it. And it was in this forest that Edward was seeking to temper himself, as it was filled with dangers and opportunities. And it didn't take long for Edward to find what he was seeking for in this forest, as he could see a grey wolf a bit ahead of him. This made is blood boil, as he could feel his battle intent boiling, he proceeded forward. The wolf also seemed to catch the whiff of a human, and it turned around to face Edward, giving him a sinister grin, as it was ready for a feast.

This grey wolf was called a stone wolf, and it was low-tier rank 1 demonic beast and its strength was usually around the 2nd or 3rd rank of the body-tempering realm, a bottom feeder in this forest. But fortunately, this one only had the strength of the 2nd rank of the body-tempering realm. Edward didn't back off at all when he saw that it noticed him, as he thought that his training would be better this way, and he held absolute confidence in his victory.

The wolf saw that he was confident, and looked around to see if this human in front of it had company, but seeing that he didn't it suddenly charged forward! Seeing the wolf charge straight at him, Edward circulated some of the qi that he had accumulated inside of his body and started to execute Gale Step. As he rushed forward to meet the wolf's charge he generated winds as he moved swiftly. The wolf had a hard time seeing him clearly, but it could see his silhouette, so it just kept charging at him.

When he was just a little bit away from clashing with the wolf, Edward drew his sword from its sheath, generating even more winds in the process. In the next instant, the 2 clashed with one another, switching places with each other, standing with their back directed towards the other. The wolf suddenly let out a short yelp as it collapsed onto the ground. Edward stood calmly and replayed what had just happened inside of his head, trying to analyze what he could have done better. During the instant the two actually clashed with each other, Edward used the winds he generated to confuse the wolf's senses, as he slid between its legs, using the wind to generate even more power as he cut as swiftly as he could into the wolfs underside, this was how the wolf had lost, it didn't even manage to hurt Edward.

But Edward managed to gain even more insight after this fight. But his battle intent only grew stronger as he wanted to face even harder foes, and get even stronger! Looking at the corpse that lay in front of him, Edward felt his martial spirit tremble, but he had no idea why, but since there was no one around, he released it. And when he did so, he could feel a strong suction force emerging from the wolf in front of him, as it stared greedily at the dead body in front of him. And when he got a little closer, he noticed that the suction force grew stronger, so he went and sat down next to the dead wolf, and when he did so, he could see his martial spirit absorb something from the corpse, as it slowly started to wither...