70: Mantis Monster

After the grief of the past few days, Ning felt much better now.

He hadn't fully recovered from the loss, but he wasn't bound by it either.

Once he finished collecting energy at night, he would spend the entire day processing this sense of loss.

So, he was mostly fine now.

Over the next month or so, he stayed there, watching herds of animals pass by; some passed through, while others didn't.

So far, the strongest beast with cultivation he had seen was at the third stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.

However, most of his time was simply spent sleeping.

During this time, he also reviewed the different things he possessed and could improve upon.

After obtaining 880 million energy, he purchased a basic "Omnilingual" knowledge skill.

With this skill, he no longer had to worry about talking to anyone.

Once he was sure he wouldn't be in danger, he took out his human body and entered it.

Ning lowered his body, grabbed his spear, and walked in a random direction.

The forest looked the same everywhere, so he wasn't sure if he was walking in a proper straight line.

Along the way, he encountered some animals, but they either ran away from him immediately or turned and fled.

Ning didn't try to track or kill them, so they escaped safely.

"Ugh... I'm starting to feel hungry now," he thought.

He looked around the forest; although it looked the same as the one on the other island, there were no fruits here, not even berries.

He thought, "Am I walking deeper and deeper?"

He decided to climb a tall tree to see what was going on.

Looking down from the tree, he realized he seemed to be in a valley, so all he could see were lush green peaks.

"Ah, I can't see anything from here. At least going to the other side of the beach should be a good idea, right? I just hope following the beach isn't a bad idea; I really can't stand it," he thought.

He continued walking forward for a few days and finally saw some fruit.

"Ah... finally. I'm about to starve to death," he said dramatically.

Due to his body cultivation and Qi cultivation, he could still survive for another two weeks without food.

As he walked forward to grab the fruit, he saw something moving behind him and immediately dodged, as the attacking monster barely grazed the hair on his head.

"That was quite a coincidence," he breathed a sigh of relief. "What is that?" he thought, looking at the attacker in front of him.

It was a huge green monster with curved arms like sickles.

"A praying mantis?" he thought.

He decided to check its cultivation.

He focused his attention on the mantis and obtained the information effortlessly, feeling almost no pain.

Qi Condensation Third Realm.

"This is a higher realm than mine, but with my body cultivation, this should be a fair fight. The only problem is..." He looked at the two sharp, scythe-like hands, and his thoughts drifted off.

"If it catches me, I'm done for," he thought.

The monster lunged forward again, slashing at him with its two scythes, and Ning took the opportunity to block them with his spear.

Clang! Clang!

Two metallic clashing sounds rang out from the collision between the scythe-like arms and the spear.

Ning was surprised to find that there wasn't a single scratch on the spear. "The system did say this spear was very good," he thought.

Now it was time to attack.

He immediately utilized his Dual-Step movement technique to drastically increase his speed and used a normal thrusting technique on the mantis monster in front of him.

The mantis saw him coming but barely dodged him.

Although its speed was very fast, it wasn't good at quick reactions. Ning could exploit that.

He started jumping around the mantis using his movement technique, always trying to stay out of its line of sight.

"Ah!!" he shouted while attacking the mantis. The mantis took a step back upon hearing his shout, but Ning still managed to cut its back a little.

"...I shouldn't have shouted. I could have killed it on the spot," he thought.

He started moving around again, but the monster wouldn't just stand there anymore.

The mantis understood what he was doing, so it also followed Ning's steps, running around in the vicinity of the fight.

Now, both man and monster were running in circles. "This is pointless," he thought.

Then, he immediately turned around and charged at the mantis following him.

The mantis was caught off guard; it didn't expect the human to turn around and attack it, but it still twisted its body quickly, surviving with just a scratch.

"...How can it be so good?" he wondered.

He had to bring out his trump card now. He used his movement technique to run around again, and the mantis followed him, only it was extra careful.

Ning turned around again, but the mantis had already anticipated this. It tried to dodge again.

Only this time, it was stuck. It tried to move, but its legs simply couldn't move.

Then it looked back at Ning, only to see a small, sharp point right in front of its head.

A True-Life Piercing strike technique.

At the last moment, Ning had used his strongest technique and successfully blew the mantis's head off.

Huff, huff.

"Finally," he thought. "I need to learn more about how to mix and match my different abilities."

He looked at the mantis's corpse, wondering if he should accept it.

"Ugh, at least take the arms. Those look awesome," he thought.

Just then, two mantises arrived at the scene, both looking much larger than the dead one.

He quickly checked their cultivation, shocked and surprised. "Shh."

Both mantises were at the fourth stage of the Qi Condensation Realm.