Level Up

The silhouettes kept getting closer to Huan Wei. The young man could not see well because of his wet eyes. He couldn't even keep his eyes open for more than a second.

He pointed his hand at the silhouettes he could barely see. "Mouth of Flame!"

With the amount of Qi he had spent halved, Huan Wei was able to use this technique one after another. A normal early phase cultivator wouldn't be able to use it so many times. This also increased Huan Wei's power in long battles.

The goblins avoided the explosion by jumping in different directions. Huan Wei dried his eyes once more. His vision was blurred.

He gave a strong kick to one of the creatures that came close. The goblin could not dodge it because it was too aggressive. It was knocked aside by the impact.

Meanwhile, Huan Wei saw one of them attacking his leg and jumped back. But another mushroom exploded, engulfing him once more in purple gas. This time the young man inhaled the gas involuntarily.

A terrible pain shot through his head. He put one hand to the side of his head. His face was ugly from the pain. He hadn't planned to fight several mid-phase monsters at the same time.

"Enough!"

He forced his eyes open despite the pain. He grabbed the running goblin by the throat and thrust his dagger into its eye. The goblin made a miserable sound and died.

[Congratulations, you have reached a new level. You have been awarded 5 stat points.]

"Give it all to the strength!"

Huan Wei felt the power of Qi rising within him. His Qi Pool was now filled with denser energy. He could clearly feel the power flowing through his veins was higher than before. This was the most tangible evidence of surviving 16 years of torment. He was now in the middle phase of the Wanderer Realm.

Giving all the points he had earned to the strength, Huan Wei rushed forward in anger. When he came to a silhouette he could barely see, he grabbed the goblin by the foot as it tried to jump over him. Pulling hard, he quickly slammed it to the ground.

Before the goblin buried in the mud could get up, Huan Wei grabbed its head and turned it 180 degrees in an instant. With the sound of bones breaking, the creature died.

[Swamp Goblin killed. 50 xp gained.]

"Mouth of Flame!" Huan Wei sent a fire wolf towards the last remaining silhouette. He himself started running at the same time.

The goblin, trying to escape the blast, couldn't get far enough away from the enraged Huan Wei. The young man grabbed it by the arm and threw it to the ground, then pressed his foot against its torso.

The goblin struggled and tried to break free. Huan Wei, without taking his reddened eyes off it, pulled with all his might and plucked off its spindly arm.

The goblin screamed in pain as the mushrooms on its back spewed purple gas. Huan Wei immediately gasped and closed his eyes, but did not move. He raised his foot and crushed the goblin's head with all his strength. Then he jumped back and stepped out of the gas.

[Swamp Goblin killed. 50 xp awarded.]

"Damn creature!" Huan Wei shouted angrily as he wiped his eyes. "Fucking swamp freak!"

He quickly closed and opened his eyes. His vision was slowly recovering. In addition to the pain in his head, his lungs were burning. He coughed violently several times.

When his eyes finally stopped getting wet, the vision was clear again. He looked at the goblins he had killed. He kicked one of the bodies hard and threw it back a few meters. His anger was not gone.

He went to the corpse he had kicked and turned it over and looked at the back of its neck. Its crystal should have been there. He took out his dagger and made a deep cut, pulling out a small piece of purple colored crystal.

Taking deep breaths, he took the crystals from the other goblins and finally calmed down.

"Okay," he said to himself. "System panel."

---

[System Panel]

Name: Corrupt Cultivation System

User: Huan Wei

Spendable Points: 0

Strength: 24

Endurance: 15

Agility: 14

Dexterity: 12

Intelligence: 20

Luck: 5

Perception: 12

[Cultivation Realm] Wanderer Realm Middle Phase

Xp Remaining to Next Level: 1820

[Body Tempering Realm] Oak Body

Xp Remaining to Next Level: 2850

---

"Shit, I spent all the points without thinking at that moment."

Huan Wei examined his attributes. Now his strength had almost doubled from his initial state. But he also wanted to upgrade Oozing Soul. He had big plans for that skill. It was not good to spend it so rashly. A fit of rage momentarily interrupted his ability to think.

"I've finally reached the middle phase, and sooner than I thought."

At that moment the young man remembered that the goblins he killed after leveling up gave him few experience points. "Before, they used to give 250. Then they started giving 50. Did the number of experience points decrease because I reached the same phase with them?"

The first goblins he killed had higher power than him. But when he leveled up, his Qi density increased significantly. This made Huan Wei stronger than the goblins. Or was the Swamp Goblin's original experience point 50? Did he only get extra points for killing it when he was weaker than it?

"It seems that each level consists of 2000 experience points. I get a bonus for killing things that are stronger than me. Things that are in the same phase as me don't give me more than their real value. That means I have to hunt late phase creatures now."

Huan Wei thought. It wasn't easy to hunt creatures at the late phase of the Natural Fledgling Realm. They were at the peak of this realm. Moreover, they lived deeper in the forest. One had to risk spending several days in the forest to kill them. It took Huan Wei until noon to get here. It would be evening before he returned home.

"This can wait for now. I have things to take care of in town."

He started counting to himself. "Zhao Yongnian, Zhao Huojin, Ran Wuzou, Huan Quon and so on. It's time to show them all who they're really dealing with."

Huan Wei started to make his way out of the forest. The swampy area was covered in fire scars. The Moist Forest had extinguished itself, yet it couldn't remove the traces. Those who came here would see what had happened.

The young man walked through the forest until the sun set and the moon slowly began to rise. He destroyed every group of monsters he encountered in a single attack. But the monsters in the early phase no longer gave experience points. So he could not make any progress.

The pain in his head still persisted. It clouded his eyes from time to time. When he came out of the trees and reached the town, he went straight to an alchemy shop. This time he was careful not to enter the Golden Fountain.

There were a few customers in the large shop with a variety of potions on the shelves. Huan Wei calmly went to the counter and poured the crystals he had collected in the forest in front of the merchant. There were 5 Cannibal Plant crystals and 5 Swamp Goblin crystals.

The merchant examined the stones. "Natural Fledgling Realm early phase crystals are worth 1 snake coin."

He gave 5 snake coins. Then he looked at the goblin crystals with suspicion. He knew who Huan Wei was. He wondered how someone like him could get 5 of these crystals.

"Where did you get these?"

The young man was tense because of his headache. He looked at him angrily with red eyes. "Are you going to buy them or not?"

The merchant pulled out 2 more wolf coins and 8 snake coins. "The mid phase crystals are worth 10 snake coins. Here is your money."

Huan Wei took the money. "I'm looking for something to cure the Swamp Goblin poison."

"Sure." The merchant immediately brought a small potion bottle. The blue glass bottle was half full. Still, there were no more than three sips of potion in it. "Blue Moonflower Potion. Good for many simple poisons, including the poison of the Swamp Goblin. You can either drink it or drop it in your eye. It is suitable for both uses."

"How much does it cost?"

"One wolf coin."

"I'll take it."

Huan Wei paid and took the potion. He opened it right then and there and dropped some into his eyes. He drank the rest. It felt really good. He could feel that the itching in his eyes was gone. His breathing also became easier and his headache eased.

As he turned to leave the shop, he heard the customers talking.

"Yes, I heard it attacked in the forest, Huan Quon saved her."

"A monster made of pure blood? Does that kind of thing live in the Moist Forest?"

"That's the problem. Even our parents didn't see such things in the Moist Forest. Blood Qi is not something you find in simple places like the Moist Forest. You can only find something like it, or Darkness Qi, in the Corrupted Areas."

"Is the girl okay?"

"She was just scared. The creature tried to strangle her to death. The sword strokes went right through it."

Huan Wei went outside. It seemed that Oozing Soul's fame had begun to spread. People would now be more wary of the blood soul in the Moist Forest.

Moreover, the merchant would probably spread the information that Huan Wei had brought goblin crystals. Fortunately, this would no longer be a problem.

"From tomorrow, the entire younger generation will learn to fear Huan Wei."