Crouching quietly in the under growth of the forest, Hartley was looking straight at the black bear... He was trying to gauge its strength, He felt a tinge of disappointment because the Bear standing in front of him, the one that had motivated him so much, was only at the 8th realm of Houtian. Little did he know that the Black Bear was one of the only Fierce Beast that could fight above its sub-realm.. The Giant Boar it just slaughtered was half step xiantian, meaning if it had understanding like humans it would have likely stepped in the xiantian realm time ago...

Hartley stood up and carelessly swaggered his way down towards the black bear, How could he lose? He was at the peak of the Houtian realm, this was bound to be quick and easy.. On this day he was about a to learn a lesson that would preserve his life in the future..."There are always people or beast that can fight above their realms or sub-realms"... Realms and sub-realms are not the be all and end all of a battle, skills and application of skills are more important... He learnt this the hard way...

Five minutes later Hartley was sent crashing through a tree...he puked a mouth-full of blood with eyes wide as saucers and sweat pouring off his forehead, he could not believe what had happened....He had pushed off leaving several after images in his wake and appeared behind the Black Bear and nonchalantly applied his 3rd level Star fist..His fist collided with what could only be described as a sheet of reinforced steel, his whole right arm went numb, he tried to quickly retreat but before he took the 4th step backwards, the bear had swiftly and skillfully closed in on him...His mind froze with disbelief, before he could make his next move he had already been sent flying releasing a scream like a virgin girl being molested.

The Black Bear was sending shrubbery and stones flying from beneath its legs as it thundered its way towards Hartley, every time its thundering legs stomped onto the ground, it made a thumping sound which produced small vibrations through the earth, shaking leaves loose from the surrounding trees . Hartley stood up, his body was aching but no serious injuries or internal injuries were there, if anything his pride had been ripped to shreds.. He hadn't put the Bear in his eyes but now the only thing in his eyes was the sight of the Brutal Bear's silhouette increasing in size as its hefty legs plowed into the earth, sending dirt flying as it steamed towards him. He applied 10x gravity pushing down on the Bear which slowed down its speed, in the meanwhile he backed up 15 meters which was the maximum distance from which his gravity field would still affect the bear...

The Bear roared and struggled, it was scared out of its wits, you have to understand that the reason this bear could be rampant in this area of the forest was because it had absolute defense in the Houtian realm...Only xantian level creatures could injure it, but now there was this tiny insect using some abnormal technique from 15 meters away and making it actually feel pain.. The Bear wasn't the only one scared, Hartley was sweating bullets as well, he had used his Star fist 3rd level to turn boulders as big as 10 meters into dust and debris but couldn't even leave a scratch on the bear using the same technique.

Hartley with gritted teeth rushed forward again and started going blow for blow head on with the bear, it was slowly getting used to the extra gravity pushing down on it s huge body while Hartley was pushing his own body to the limit, if he couldn't kill the bear, he was going to use it as a practice partner to temper and improve his techniques.. The more they fought the more he improved, to the point where his punches could move the bear 2 steps back, sweat dripped off his body as he exerted his full power with 10x gravity pushing down on both their bodies. (he is not immune to his own gravity field)

Hartley had absolute speed advantage but the bear had absolute defense.. Now he was pushing his star-feet movement technique to its absolute limit while under the stress of 10x gravity and fighting what seems like an undefeatable entity. His eyes started to glow brighter, somehow he had started to feel similar to his first encounter with the fragment of the Blue Star....