Nyx decided not to eat anything and use the hour he had for cultivation. If Spear Saint Mountain was going to take offense and challenge his claim on this measly home, they would do so right after the protected hour.

  The rundown home did not have many amenities. A simple table and some chairs made up the only furniture—aside from a large straw-filled sack that posed as a bed—as well as a "wardrobe," a simple deer antler nailed to the wall next to the doorway. In essence, it was one large room with plenty of space to fight.

  Plunging himself down on the bed, which was far more comfortable than the dirt hole he had spent last night in, Nyx went to work. His afternoon in the library had replenished a large portion of his Qi reserves, which now yearned to be spent so he could recover some more during his slumber.

  Sol thought it was most important to have a strong foundation, which he judged to be both a strong quantity of Qi through refining his intake and a strong quality of Qi, which he deemed to be his efficiency in applying his Qi against outside forces. It did not really matter if the forces were heat or cold, rain or ice, fire or wind, or if they were simply physical in nature.

  Rax’Rathos had shown him how far good control over Qi, in combination with a technique, could go in terms of defense. He was, of course, under no illusion that he could mimic a prestigious family technique of a large clan easily. But he wanted to at least be able to do something similar with a high degree of efficiency—even if it was weaker.

  The third issue was his internal balance of Yin and Yang to regulate his own temperature. If he could shift his internal balance from one to another without losing a lot of energy, this would likely be beneficial in the future as well.

  This practice required a lot of energy, so first, he focused on building up his energy absorption rate. When he had last taken a cultivation pill, it had shown him how his skin took in Qi and that slowly soaking his skin cells with energy had allowed them to expand and handle a stronger intake.

  Nyx took a comfortable lotus position and let his focus drift inwards. It took him a few moments to get his bearings and circulate his Qi outward toward his skin. His senses were less clear compared to when he had been under the influence of the shapeshifting pill, but he could nonetheless feel that he was applying it in the same manner.

  He rhythmically shifted his Qi outward into his skin, let it soak some energy in, and then shifted it inward again, repeating this with his breathing. His aim was not to lose any Qi to the outside by pushing it beyond his skin.

  Then Sol felt his focus activating against his will, a tiny trickle of Qi being siphoned off. His clarity of his Qi flow expanded tremendously; he could see finer details of pathways not yet carved out and felt his own concentration push the Qi along these pathways to form an intricate network of lines that made the Qi not push in and out like breathing, but rather use his breathing rhythm to push the Qi along a spiraling pathway all throughout his body.

  It moved easier, formed solid pathways that had been vague before, and cleared out some impurities along the way. Sol opened his eyes. His heightened concentration still allowed him to maintain the flow as he crawled from the bed toward a corner of the room, where he vomited up a rancid black bile that he eagerly spat from his mouth.

  Immediately, he felt better. His body felt lighter, and every breath felt refreshing and revitalizing.

  Anger flared up in his chest. Why did this focus skill activate?!

  With burning anger, he sat down on the wooden floor next to his expelled bile and turned inwards once more, aggressively cutting his Qi flow to what he thought to be the skill’s usage.

  He had not consciously used it. Therefore, he had no control over it. He did not want it if that was the case. Even if it gave him an advantage!

  Ironically, it was his heightened state of awareness that allowed him to locate the thread of Qi that supplied the skill and cut it mercilessly.

  A wave of sadness spread through his body, and he could feel a soft hand caressing his cheek before the feeling of focus vanished.

  Yet the circulation he had created remained stable. It was perfectly circulating throughout his body, soaking his skin cells with just enough energy while expending seemingly no energy at all. It also seemed to move faster in this intricate pattern than when he had just vaguely directed his Qi in bulk from one area to another.

  Thousands of recurring loops that supplied his skin with just enough energy formed all across his body as if it was the most natural thing. Even after ridding himself of the focus skill, it felt as easy as breathing. It still used more energy than his body could generate from his environment, but Sol had the feeling that this would change rather quickly.

  He opened his eyes again and slowly moved his hand. Then he started counting with his fingers and finally stood up. His control over the Qi flow was not breaking! He could keep it up. It really felt like breathing. In fact, it was odd to pause the flow. It felt wrong to stop now.

  Sol was dumbfounded. This was amazing!

  Immediately, he sought to activate his focus again. Breathing in, trying to contain his excitement and euphoria, he tried to let it go. But the focus skill did not respond to his effort. Even trying to reconnect the Qi thread to where it had seemingly connected earlier was a futile effort. No matter how hard he tried, it refused to activate.

  This was no ordinary skill. If he could regain his memories fully, he might have better insight into how it worked and what it did. Nyx hoped that he had not destroyed the connection entirely.

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  Before he could go any further, his housing arrangement announced to him that the protected hour was about to be over. The lack of windows in this shack was a bit strategically unlucky for him; otherwise, he could have checked how many people the mighty Spear Saint Mountain would bring to his doorstep.

  Either way, each of them would only get one try, so Sol grabbed a chair and the wooden bowl from the table, which was now empty, and waited near the entrance patiently.

  It did not take long before the first person entered stealthily. Their attempt at sneaking through a hurriedly opened doorway was commendable. If Sol had been sleeping, they might have pulled off a decent ambush. Instead, they were immediately confronted with a wooden bowl flying at their head—under which they ducked—only to be rammed by a chair-wielding defender.

  The intruder exited with a loud curse, pushing the door wide open. Outside, Sol could spot four people, including the former owner.

  “Spear Saint Mountain?” he asked them directly while withdrawing his claws to form bone knuckles on his fists.

  “You must be a new arrival. This home has been in our possession for the past four months. I’m afraid I must insist you leave,” a cocky young demon in light gray robes with a spear explained. He had a calm attitude and exuded confidence.

  Sol shrugged. “I just needed a place to sleep.”

  The way they looked at him made him want to tease them, especially since one of them was the previous owner. He scratched the side of his head in mock contemplation when they did not reply. “I can leave?”

  Immediately, their faces lit up.

  “I’m glad you chose to form good relations over short-term gain,” their leader said with a sneering stare. “We can introduce you to our leader on the morrow if you wish.”

  “If you find me a better one.” Sol said, still scratching the side of his head in mock contemplation. “What did you just say? I was not listening.”

  It took less than two seconds for the grin to vanish from his opponent's face. He nodded toward the girl, who quickly approached the door.

  Nyx shrugged and let her enter. The challenge for the home underway, the barrier immediately made it impossible to glean what their leader was doing or saying outside. He gestured toward the table and conjured a teacup for his guest and himself before sitting down.

  She frowned and stared at him. “You look down on women?”

  “Have a seat. Let us talk for a bit,” Sol invited her again to sit, taking a relaxed but ready pose.

  Women were dangerous, his father always said that. And he knew best, so it was always good to be on high alert around women. Come to think of it, he should have taken that advice into account when he had met that green-haired girl. Why had he trusted her so easily?

  The eyes. It was the eyes. She had striking yellow eyes. Contrary to his current conversational partner. Brown eyes. Brown hair. Light green skin.

  “Tell me a bit about the Spear Saint Mountain.”

  She frowned. “I’m not from there. Some of them are.”

  Nyx took a sip from his tea before he rebutted, “That was not what I asked.”

  The tea was still very hot, so he put the cup down. “I asked you to tell me a bit about them.”

  “Fine.” She too took her cup, seemingly contemplating if throwing it would be an effective way of starting the fight. She hesitated for a moment mid-motion, then brought it to her lips and emptied the steaming hot cup in one go.

  “They are controlling the good heat-based cultivation spots. I need them, so I play along. I’m from the north; it beats me who they are.”

  “I see,” Sol mused contemplatively. “Anything else you care to share?”

  She just shrugged. “No. Let’s get to it. Or are you one of those guys? The ones that refuse to hit women?”

  Her eyebrow was raised, disdain on her face.

  She was confident enough to beat other boys regularly, it seemed. Sol put his drink away instead of finishing it and moved toward the middle of the room. He took a ready stance, trying again to enter focus, but the skill was still unresponsive.

  Maybe there was a daily use limit, and cutting it off from his Qi flow was what caused it?

  The girl dashed toward him and threw a strike with a long motion. Sol swayed backward in response, the fist still a few centimeters away from his body. Then he heard a whipping sound, and the force connected with his body anyway.

  Her attack reverberated through his chest just like a normal fist would. A striking technique? At Skin Tempering stage?

  He stepped back quickly, this time sidestepping her attack. The whipping sound, paired with the wind it caused, gave him a good idea of her range. The power was not very high when dodging the attack, but getting hit directly would be far less enjoyable.

  Her technique was far from complete, likely needing higher cultivation steps to fully utilize it. Sol decided to test the power some more, meeting her strike head-on with his bone knuckle-covered fist.

  A stinging sensation immediately snapped through his arm all the way up to his shoulder, while the strike made his opponent slide back slightly. Apparently, there was a bit of a recoil on her end as well, albeit the non-damaging variety.

  Having seen his opponent's technique, he stepped in close, countering her strike with a kick to the side of her legs. She was far less resilient than Rax’Rathos, and each attack he sent her way made her buckle and squirm.

  She was not fast enough to connect with him directly, so it was just a matter of time until her Qi ran out or Sol overpowered her.

  He kept working her legs, heavy, long kicks landing while she tried to connect ever-slower punches. Nyx was slow and methodical. When she buckled on her knee, he saw an opportunity but guessed for a feint and surprise attack. He was right, resulting in her counter being countered instead.

  His kick landed high this time, knocking her shoulder heavily to the ground. He did not waste his opportunity and kicked her in the head when she was about to recover. She rose to her feet with a weary expression, her hands shielding her face when a knee connected with her unprotected side.

  She managed to land one of her exploding strikes on Sol’s knee, but her power had already diminished significantly. Whatever her conditions were to deliver a decisive technique, they were gone now. Sol brought down his bone-knuckled fist on her face as she tried to rise from the ground, knocking her head against the floorboards again, the impact reverberating between his strike and the wood.

  A cut opened on her forehead where he had impacted her.

  Now the only question was how long he could stall this situation to annoy the leader outside even longer. Maybe he could even get some sleep with her being knocked out. How long was it even possible to keep your challenger inside your house with you?

  Sol frowned. She was already moving again. Slowly at first, then her hands found purchase on the floor, and she slowly moved her upper body to raise her head from the ground.

  That’s when Sol’s fist impacted her head again with heavy force, forming a nasty bruise on her face in exchange.

  Her earlier comments truly were uncalled for.

  Yes, Nyx was quite sure.

  He had no problem with hitting women.