After both the Ye couple turned into marks on his shoulder, Max stood there in the sky not knowing what to do.

“Um, what? At least tell me how to get out of here before both of you leave. Okay, So according to Teacher Mao, this is my spirit space. So this is probably somewhere inside me?”

Max closed his eyes and imagined himself leaving this place. Suddenly, it felt like he was being pulled back at incredible speed. The feeling only lasted a couple of seconds, when he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on the floor of the cave and Ma Erk trying to wake him by licking his face.

It was disorientating to be floating in the sky one second, being pulled backward the next, and then end up laying on the ground. Closing his eyes again, Max took in the feel of the ground and how steady it was under him.

Taking a deep breath in and out, he said to the little wolf, “It’s okay. I’m okay now.”

Hearing that, Ma Erk stopped his licking.

“Boss, what happened?”

Max didn’t know how to answer it. Could he just tell him, that two mysterious cultivators invaded his spirit space and one of them became his teacher? No… Even in this cultivation world, that sounds ridiculous.

“Nothing, everything is fine now. There was just something in the chest that did something unexpected and surprised me.”

“Hmm, okay. Boss. Call you need.”

After saying that, Ma Erk went back outside presumingly to eat or nap.

“Hm” Max was expecting there to be some more questions, but he was fine if there also weren’t.

Laying there on the ground, Max realized that it had been some time since his breakfast. He had spent over two hours on the booby trap and probably another three or so hours with the chest. He could feel his stomach starting to protest. But before he went to make the fire, he used Analyze on the items again. This time, his Analyze filled in the descriptions with the information Ye Zhong had provided.

Analyzing…

Item: Ye Zhong’s Novelty Cultivator’s Robes

Crafted by the esteemed Blacksmith Ye Zhong, these robes can be resized to the wearer’s dimensions. They are also self-cleaning, self-repairing, and tear-resistant. While it is not a defensive item, it does provide protection against most mortal and mundane weapons.

‘Wow, just wow. These are most definitely the coolest clothes I have ever owned. Who cares if they are kinda ugly, if they could self-clean that means I would never have to do laundry ever again.’

Max tugged on his shirt a bit, it stretched as any shirt would, but when he put some extra force into it, it didn’t feel like it was going to give. In his next test, he pulled out the bone dagger. He didn’t want to cut it, but it was better to know how strong it is now than have to find out mid-fight. It was supposed to be able to self-repair any way. A small incision was made near his sleeve. It was tough, much tougher than it looked. It was probably as resilient as the hawk’s skin.

After the cut was made, he could feel the fabric slowly knitting itself back together.

“Woah, that is pretty cool.”

Max was satisfied that he had a baseline understanding of how tough the robes were. Next, his attention fell on the bracers. He had never worn bracers before, but he had worn protective arm guards when he did archery with his friends and these were kind of similar.

Analyzing…

Item: Ye Zhong’s Novelty Space-Attributed Bracers

Crafted by the esteemed Blacksmith Ye Zhong, these bracers are a growth-type artifact. When worn, the user gains the following stats:

+4 Constitution

+3 Endurance

+2 Vitality

+1 Strength

Prerequisites not met, additional features locked.

Note from Ye Zhong - You’ll find out when you reach Chi Condensation. That’s what you get for making me look bad in front of my wifey. 😈

“Damn, that old geezer. I guess he did get me in the end.” Max wondered how Teacher Mao put up with him. But remembering that Ye Zhong had said that Teacher Mao would also go along with his pranks, he was now curious if there was anything peculiar in the information that Teacher Mao had left him.

“Well, no matter. These stats are still pretty sweet. And from the looks of it, I can’t even use those ‘features’ yet anyways.”

Max put on the bracers, and as he had anticipated, the bracers resized themselves to his dimensions. The second they have situated themselves, he could feel a new power made available to him. It was an odd feeling, it resembled what he had felt when he increased his cultivation stage, but it felt like it didn’t belong to him. That was the best way he could describe it.

Opening up his character sheet:

Name:

Max Oxford

Level:

6

Cultivation:

Body Tempering 4th Stage

Age:

23

Progress:

37/145

Progress:

1/200

Status:

Greater Enhance Regeneration

Titles:

System Pioneer

Realm Walker

Cultivator

Traits:

Quick Learner

Cultivation Body

Skills:

Analyze

Common Tongue

HP:

76/76

SP:

81/81

CHI:

NA

HP Regen:

115/hr

SP Regen:

130/hr

CHI Regen:

NA

Stats (Multiplier:1.3x)

Strength:

15+1

Perception:

18

Constitution:

26+4

Agility:

16

Dexterity:

16

Intelligence:

22

Endurance

18+3

Spirit:

1

Vitality:

14+2

Free Stat Points:

3

‘Hmm, the stats from the bracer didn’t get the System Pioneer and the Cultivator bonuses.’

However, it did look like his Health, Stamina and their respective regens got the boost from the bracers.

Looking over them, he was fairly happy with them. He already had a weapon, the bone dagger, now he also had something to defend himself with. Max was glad it wasn’t a shield or something like that, it would look very awkward for him to be using a shield and a small dagger unless the shield was also small.

After giving it some more thought, he concluded that the bracers were convenient and had quite a few benefits. He didn’t have to take it off, even when he was sleeping. They weren’t that heavy, likely around three pounds each. It kept his hands free to use weapons.

“Hm, I gotta say, they are a lot handier than I had initially thought.”

Before checking out the last item, Max took off the bracers and rolled up his sleeve, and then put the bracers back on. He also noticed that the small cut on the sleeve had disappeared. When he rolled down his sleeve, he could barely tell anything was underneath.

Looking at the last item, his Analyze returns the following:

Analyzing…

Item: Spatial Bottle

A bottle with larger internal storage space. Holds up to three hu of liquid.

‘Hm, this must be for the Midnight Dew, but how much is hu? I’ll see how much water it can hold next time I go to the stream.’

Max decided to forego the fire this time and planned on eating his lunch cold because he was pretty hungry from everything he did in the morning. Taking a look at the timer on Greater Enhance Regeneration, it had been around three hours since he started opening the chest and before then, he was also building the booby trap.

…

Outside the cave, Ma Erk lay next to his food, the little guy had brought it out of the cave at some point. There wasn’t much left, likely enough for one more meal.

“Ma Erk, what’s your cultivation now?”

“Boss, almost 2nd stage!”

Hearing that, Max felt a bit jealous. He had been working so hard to progress his cultivation, but this little guy only ate and slept all day and was already almost at the next stage. And at the rate the young wolf was eating, they will be out of food much sooner than his initial estimate.

‘I guess we just have to go hunting sooner than expected. We’ll really put that nose of his to work.’

After finishing his meal, the pair began making their way to the stream. Max wanted to test the Spatial Bottle that Ye Zhong had left him. How much liquid could it hold? Once they reached the stream, the bottle was submerged. As soon as the lip of the bottle was below the water level, it started drinking up the water. A small whirlpool formed. After a minute there was no sign of stopping. The pair was amazed at how much water could fit into this little bottle.

The small whirlpool that formed created a current of its own and pulled over a few of the fishes in the stream. This was a great opportunity for him to eat something besides wolf meat. He used his free hand to grab the fish. It tried to swim away, but the drag that came from the new whirlpool slowed it down.

“Ahh, you’re going to be our dinner tonight” This fish wasn’t that big, around the size of his palm, but it was always good to get some variety in his meals.

After the fish was caught, the bottle was also filled up. Having achieved their goal and a bit more, the duo was able to leave when they heard a screech in the distance. It came from upstream. The screech sounded familiar, it was almost the same one that Max heard before the hawk attack. The difference this time was it was a lot further away.

“Isn’t that the direction of your old pack?” Hearing his pack leader's question Ma Erk looked over to where the screech came from and nodded.

“Do you know if there is another hawk in this area?”

Ma Erk shook his head in the negative. “No boss, don’t know.”

It wasn’t hard to come up with a theory to the screech. It had come from the direction of Ma Erk’s old pack and that was where the Hawk’s body was. The screech had sounded sad like someone was mourning. Putting two and two together, Max thought he roughly had some idea of what might have happened. The question now was whether or not this new hawk was stronger than the one that was killed by him. Soon after the screech, multiple howls sounded out. That was their cue to get back to the cave. Packing up the bottle and fish, they left the stream.

It sounded like a fight was going to break out between Ma Erk’s old pack and this new hawk. Max was undoubtedly much stronger than when he fought that first hawk, but he got extremely lucky plus it was injured. He wasn’t confident about fighting this hawk.

The pair reach the clearing in record time. It only took them a couple of more minutes to get back to the ledge. On their way back, there had been consistent screeches and howls.

‘The hawk must be really strong to be able to fight off so many wolves at the same time.‘

Over the course of the day, battle cries in the distance never ended. If anything, it intensified. It sounded like the hawk had reinforcements. The first time he had heard the hawk at the stream there was only one, but now there were screeches overlapping each other. At the same time, the number of distinctive howls also increased. It sounded like not only was Ma Erk’s old pack were fighting but also the surrounding wolf packs as well.

While all this was happening, the culprit that started all this hid inside his cave. His original plan was to work out on the ledge while watching the sunset, but now with everything that was going on, he rather turtled inside the cave. Before entering the cave, Max did notice the columns of smoke in the distance in the direction of the town he saw the day prior. This reinforced his conviction to go in that direction.