It had just been 2 minutes since he started cultivating, but Alex realized that he couldn't fall asleep at all.

"Huh? What's happening?" he thought. Nothing was happening inside him as well. No Qi movement, nothing.

"Damn, did the formation screw up with my body?" Alex wondered. "That can't be. The heat shouldn't have affected my meridians," Alex thought.

"What's going on then?" he wondered and started breathing once more. A few more minutes passed and he realized that it was just not happening.

"Something's wrong," Alex thought. He put Pearl aside and got up. "Is something wrong with me?"

He used his spiritual sense to check everything inside of him. However, he could see that everything was perfectly fine.

"Huh? Is it because I'm hurt?" he wondered. He decided not to wait at all, and brought out a pill from his storage. It was a True rank healing pill that he had made himself and he immediately ate it.

The moment he swallowed the pill, a cool sensation passed through his entire body. The energy rushed through his entire body and soon arrived at his skin.

The cool feeling got rid of the slight heat and pain that he was still feeling and healed the parts where he was hurt. It helped his new skin grow faster and his old skin flaked off of his body.

By the time Alex was done, there was a bunch of old skin on the ground in front of him. He was truly surprised to see such a large amount of skin fall beneath him.

His eyes finally opened and he was a little happy about that. "Sigh, will this help me now?" he thought and sat back on his bed.

He then closed his and slowly breathed in and out. Unfortunately, nothing of what was supposed to happen was happening at all.

"The hell is going on?" he wondered. "Can I not cultivate at all? Is True realm just that—"

He suddenly stopped speaking as a thought occurred in his mind. "Status!" he shouted and a blue panel with his player information appeared in front of him.

His eyes slowly widened as he finally learned what the problem was. "So that's what was happening," he thought.

His eyes fell onto the part on the screen that said that he no longer had a Cultivation method. The Starry Sky cultivation method he had been using all this time was no longer usable at all since he was now in the True Realm.

Now, he had to find a new cultivation method of his own to use. "Damn, where the hell am I supposed to find a cultivation method in this place?" Alex wondered.

Alex sighed seeing no hope and closed the panel in front of him. He then told Pearl that he could cultivate if he wanted to.

Pearl meowed happily and started cultivating. Surprisingly, there seemed to be almost no cut on his skin due to it being way too strong for the cultivation Pearl was in right now.

Still, the inside of his body was in pain. He meditated to keep the pain in check and waited out the cultivation.

Before he knew it, it was early morning and time for breakfast. He logged out and got his breakfast before returning back to the game.

With no way to improve himself, Alex was looking ahead at days that were mundane and monotonous.

* * * * * * *

In the middle of the forest was a massive tree with a hollow trunk. Inside the hollowed-out tree was a girl who was crouched on the floor holding her knees to her chest.

One could see signs of fear in her eyes as she couldn't manage to stop herself from shaking in terror.

The girl looked to be in her mid-20s, and was wearing a lime green robe that was dirty all over.

She jerked in fear when she heard a noise coming from next to her, but felt relieved when she saw that it was the man returning.

The man's age was in the late 20s, or at least that was how he looked physically. With his cultivation base in the True Realm, it wasn't easy to tell exactly what his age was.

He was quite tall and well build, and had a clean-shaven face to make him look younger. He was wearing a red robe with golden embroidery on it.

"Brother Tao, you are back," the girl said with a happy face.

The man looked at her and smiled, but hidden in that smile was a sense of loss.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I just… I just saw a beast kill someone from the Shen family," he said.

The fear in the girl's eyes increased as tears started flowing from it. "I knew it. We are all going to die. We shouldn't have come here at all. We made a mistake," she started crying out loud.

"Sshh, the beasts will hear us," the man said softly.

The girl immediately quietened as much as she physically could. Despite being a cultivator, fear was not something she could easily get rid of.

"Wh-what do we do?" she asked.

"I don't know. But, I think we should try to get away from here for now," he said. "Damn those old foggies. They said it would be a simple adventure, going in and out. They didn't even tell us there were such strong beasts in here."

The girl ignores the complaints. She had them too, but they wouldn't help them live right now. "Where do we even go? I don't even know the way back," the girl said.

"Sigh, me neither. This stupid jungle is way too dense. I can't even see the direction the sun rises up from. Anyway, it isn't wise to stay around here, we need to keep moving so that the beasts won't find us," the man said.

"And do what? There is no place to leave at all," the girl said. "Didn't you listen to the elders? They won't open up the formations until after a full 30 days goes by. There is still nearly half a month left before that happens."

"We will be dead by then," the man said. There was no doubt in his voice. Every single beast they had met until now was not something they could mess around with.

"Come on, there is one hope of survival, and we have to take it," the man said.

The girl wiped away her tears and curiously asked, "What hope do we even have, brother Tao?"

The man took a deep breath and said, "I know the way to open up the formation. If we can get to the platform we entered from, I can get us out."

* * * * * * * *

Deep in a forest, but not a very dense one, there was a cave by the side of a small hill. The cave was well hidden amongst the flora of the surroundings and was easy to miss if you weren't looking for it.

Inside the cave were a few people gathered around. A lantern-lit upon the side of the cave wall, and nearly 3 dozen people were surrounding a lone elderly man.

Every single one of the 3 dozen people wore black robes and had long black hair. At the center of them was an important figure that wore a similar robe and had a cultivation base that was much higher than theirs.

The figure wore a black mask with which only the amber-colored eyes were visible and they were staring directly at the old man the group was surrounding.

The old man wore dirty green robes and had thin gray hairs on his head. He showed no fear of being in the midst of the bandit group at all.

"We've heard a lot about you, bandit killer," the boss said in a hoarse voice. "Have you come here to try and kill us too?"

"Depends on how you respond to my proposal," the old man said.

"Your… proposal?" the boss asked. "You came here to make a proposal? For what?"

"There's something I need in a place protected by many. I need your group to act as a diversion while I get it," the old man said.

The boss didn't say anything and kept listening.

"So?" the old man asked.

"So? So what?" the boss asked in reply. "No way, that was not your proposal right?"

"Of course it was. Now answer me, do you agree?" he asked.

"Are you shitting me, old man? That proposal had almost no information in it. Give us something more," the boss said.

"Little girl, that is the most you will get for now. Accept the proposal and you will obviously learn more about your task," the old man said.

"Little girl?" the boss asked in surprise. "It seems you did not come here without doing some homework."

"It's not that hard to guess that the boss of the Black Venom bandit group is a girl. I would be food if I didn't know that by now. So, do you accept or not?"

The boss turned to look at her men who had no mind of joining with the person that was known to mercilessly kill bandits for the last few months.

"What if we don't accept?" the boss asked. Sounds of weapons being pulled out of their sheaths rang out everywhere.

The old man looked around and saw the many weapons being pointed at him. Sword, saber, spears, bows. Every conceivable spear was being pointed at him right now.

He scoffed at them all with a mocking smile.

"Well, then you will force me to keep my Bandit Killer title for a little longer, I'm afraid," the old man said and started pouring out his cultivation base.

The boss' eyes widened in fear when she realized that the old man in front of her was stronger than her, far stronger.

"You are no easy man to deal with, huh?" she said.

She immediately took off her mask to use her voice on him, but the old man suddenly moved and caught her by the throat, refusing to let her talk.

"You can't use your tricks on me, little girl. Now choose. Do you want to work for me? Or do you want to die?'

The girl felt fear like never before. A single misstep and she would surely die at this place. She put her hand forth to stop her men from attacking. Then, she nodded vigorously to let the man know that she and her bandit group would follow them.

"Great. We will go to work in a week. I want every single one of your men on the job that day."

The old man left as freely as he came, but in his wake, he left his terror all around him.

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