John brought out the Five Step Movement Technique book, opened it to the first page, and read the book over and over for several hours.
"It says to guide Qi from my dantian in five stages through my meridians towards my legs. The first stage targets the feet acupoints, allowing for a short but quick speed burst. Each successive wave of Qi is sent higher and higher up the leg, eventually leading to the upper leg acupoints. Each successive wave also builds off the momentum and energy of the previous wave, resulting in an ever increasing speed and distance covered by each step."
John practiced sending his Qi through the pathways depicted in the technique. Half a day later, John finally managed to successfully guide the Qi for the first step.
"Ah!"
John shot directly forward, not ready for the sudden increase in speed. He tripped over his own feet and came crashing to the ground.
"Ouch! This is a lot harder than it looks."
John rubbed his sore head and once again assumed the correct stance and started guiding his Qi through his legs. Based on his recent success, John was able to correctly guide his Qi once more.
In a second, John dashed forward a dozen yards and managed to keep his balance this time.
"Wow, that's fast! And that's only the first step. Lets try the second step."
John once again prepared to use the technique, and guided his Qi through his leg meridians. As soon as his Qi exploded out of his feet, John found himself propelled forward. Focusing on the second step, John followed that up by guiding his Qi depicted in the second stage.
"Ahh!"
Unable to correctly guide the Qi in time, John came to a crashing halt as he stumbled over himself.
"This is pretty damn hard. Not only do I have to get the first stage right, the second stage is harder to guide and also has to be done quicker than the first stage. This is going to take a while to master!"
John kept practicing the Five Step Movement technique for the next two days. After two days of non-stop practice, John was able to successfully implement the first two steps. However, the Qi requirement for both quantity and control was too much for him to execute the third through fifth step yet. Additionally, executing the second step took up a decent amount of his Qi reserves.
"The first two steps are already this fast. I can't wait to perform the remaining steps. Who knows how fast I'll be able to move at that time" thought John as he took out a piece of meat and bit into it. After eating his fill, John stored all his belongings into the palace storage area.
"I think it's time to head out. I've been in this cave for almost a week. Compared to when I entered this cave, it's like I've become a completely different person."
When John entered the cave, he was still just at the Blood Refinement realm. Now, not only was John a Mist Creation realm cultivator, but he had two dantians at that realm as well as a bevy of techniques that had been learned.
John decided to leave the Mist Essence Sunflower behind. Although it was quite rare and valuable, it was only useful to him at the Blood Refinement realm. If he plucked it, it would lose most of its value anyways, and so there wasn't much reason to do so.
"Thank you for your help," said John to the flower before turning to exit the cave. A few minutes later, John exited the cave and took in a large breath of fresh air.
"It feels good to be back outside" exclaimed John as he looked around.
"I suppose with my power increase, I can start to venture a bit deeper into the Skycleave Forest. So far this journey has been amazing for my strength. I can only imagine what else is awaiting me" said John with a smile on his face.
He looked around for a bit before picking a direction and walking forwards.
"This direction should lead to the area where Mist Creation level beasts are more numerous. I can't wait to test out my newfound strength."
A few days passed by.
John was venturing deeper and deeper into the Skycleave Forest. He had fought with several Blood Refinement level beasts, but hadn't seen any Mist Condensation level beasts yet.
"Boom!"
A loud boom echoed throughout the forest.
"What's that noise?"
John started speeding towards the sound of the loud boom.
"Boom!" "Boom!"
Several more loud booms echoed out before John eventually found his way to the sound of the noise.
"Two of them!"
A few hundred yards in front of John were two early Mist Creation level beasts staring at each other. Dozens of nearby trees were felled, a testament to the power of the battle.
"A Titan Ape and a Night Wolf! Seems like the Titan Ape is winning. What's a Night Wolf doing outside during the day anyways?"
Looking at the battle, John could clearly see several deep wounds on the Night Wolf. The Titan Ape on the other hand was relatively unscathed.
Roaring loudly, the Titan Ape charged towards the Night Wolf. The ground shook beneath its power as it lashed out at the Night Wolf. Utilizing its superior speed, the Night Wolf dashed to the side of the ape and bit down on its arm.
"Roar!"
The ape roared in pain, but quickly recovered and used its other arm to reach over and grab the wolf. The Night Wolf was a hair too slow to retreat as its neck was caught by the ape.
"Crunch!"
A loud snapping sound rang out as the ape violently smashed the wolf to the ground, breaking its neck.
"What a battle!" exclaimed John. "This Titan Ape managed to kill the Night Wolf relatively easily."
Slightly tired from the battle, the Titan Ape sat down by the wolf's corpse and tore off a leg and started munching on it. John stared at the Titan Ape for a bit while it ate. It was over ten feet tall and had bulging muscles on all its limbs. After a while, John hopped of the tree branch.
"Sorry to interrupt your meal!"
The Titan Ape was enjoying the spoils of its battle when it heard something behind it. It turned around and saw a small human approaching it.
"Roar!"
The Titan Ape was absolutely furious that its meal would be interrupted, even more so by a small human. It quickly turned around and charged towards John, the ground shaking beneath every step.
"This is my first battle in the Mist Creation realm, please don't disappoint me" shouted John to the Titan Ape as he dashed forward as well before punching out.
"Gah!"
John was sent flying back dozens of yards after his and the apes fists collided. After rolling for some distance, John quickly got up and wiped the dirt off his face. His arm was shaking in pain from the force of the collision.
"I suppose I'm thinking too highly of myself if I think I can fight a Titan Ape barehanded just yet."
Although John had started to cultivate the Immortal Asura Body art, he had just started and was barely even considered a body cultivator.
Standing steadily, John took out his blue greatsword.
"Let's see how strong you really are!" shouted John as he dashed towards the charging beast. Having won the previous exchange, the Titan Ape became overconfident and charged John with no hesitation before punching out.
Right as the first was about to connect with his body, John slid on his knees under the attack and slashed out with his sword.
"Slice!"
A wound opened up on the Titan Apes right leg as John slid past it. The ape cried out in pain as it quickly turned around and sent a fist flying straight towards John.
Sword and fist collided as John was knocked back a few feet. Another wound had opened up on the apes fist from where the sword had collided. The ape now realized that the foe in front of it posed lethal danger to it.
"I need to get used to utilizing Qi effectively in battle. I'll use this Titan Ape as a whetstone" thought John as he once again dashed towards the ape.
The battle raged on for almost an hour before the Titan Ape eventually collapsed.
"Guess it's about time to end this!" said John while panting heavily before he dashed forward. As expected, the ape sent out one last desperate attack as John approached. Learning from his mistake last time, John was fully prepared and dodged the fist before jumping towards the apes head.
The sound of a head hitting the ground sounded out as John landed back on the ground. Panting heavily from his lengthy battle, John walked over to the apes body and stored it away before sitting on the ground.
"Phew! That was quite the battle. The ape actually forced me to use the Mountain Crushing Sword several times."
John sat on the ground and caught his breath after a few minutes.
"At least I know now that I can fight against beasts in the same realm as me, and even suppress them! I wonder if father would be shocked if he found out."
It was quite common knowledge that within the same realm, beasts were normally more powerful than humans. Most cultivators would flee if they saw a beast in the same realm. Although they might be able to beat the beast, the risk of dying was too high to justify the cost. Only a battle fanatic like John would eagerly seek out an enemy like he just had.
A little while later, John got up and walked further into the forest. He set up camp when night fell, making sure to activate the perimeter warning disk. Having set everything up, John took out the head of the Titan Ape.
He sliced open between its eyes and extracted its blood essence before guiding the blood into and through him according to the principles of the Immortal Aura Body. The blood essence entered the sphere, at which point a portion of the energy was sent back out as nourishing Qi. John guided this energy through the various meridians depicted in the diagram, allowing it to infuse into the various parts of his body.
The process continued for several minutes before John opened his eyes. He clenched his fist, feeling the slightly greater strength than before. After John was done absorbing the Titan Ape Blood Essence, he took out the Celestial Lightning Script jade piece and studied it for several hours. He did the same for the Mountain Crushing Sword and Five Step Movement Technique, making sure that no aspect of his cultivation was lacking.
The night was late before John was done with his cultivation. Putting everything away, John ate some of his left over meat before falling asleep.