Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

Liam gritted his teeth as he glared angrily at the snake slithering toward him. His rage was that he was falling in front of this last opponent, unable to move to dodge or defend himself.

He felt like he was facing death, seeing the attack that would end his long and difficult journey. But he didn't scream or close his eyes in the face of the enemy's attack. He stood his ground, looking directly at the enemy, who flicked, like a blur, until he felt like he was about to be bitten in the jugular.

Just as Liam expected the enemy to rip his jugular, the sound of exploding runes rang out from the direction of the last standing puppet. Instantly, the semi-transparent creature attacking Liam exploded and vanished just as its mouth wrapped around its target's neck.

Liam's eyes widened as he felt this, escaping certain death for a split second!

'This puppet's runes have finally collapsed!'

He let out a sigh of relief as his body relaxed and he fell backwards onto the black earth terrain of this part of the forest.

A broad smile broke out on Liam's face.

He was alive!

He had won!

After almost a minute of experiencing the sensation of arriving at the precipice of death, looking at it, and then escaping the fall, Liam slowly came to his senses.

'Who did this? Who sent these two puppets?'

He looked at the two wooden creatures and found no symbol on them that could connect them to the mastermind of this assassination attempt.

But Liam was sure that it couldn't be the Emerald Owls, the Crimson Rebels, or the Abyss Matriarchs. All of those groups would be finished after today, with no one important left in City Thirteen.

These groups simply couldn't afford to send artifacts as valuable as Spirit Puppets against him!

'A new enemy?'

Liam frowned, not liking this at all.

As he thought about the possibilities, he struggled to consume a restorative potion.

He struggled to get the medicine bottle into his mouth, but as soon as he consumed its special contents, his strength changed. His apathetic appearance melted away, and a warm expression returned to his face. His tired eyes lifted, while his wounds quickly healed.

Within moments, he felt strong enough to stand up and collect his dead companion's resources before stopping next to the Spirit Puppets.

They were damaged, but it would be enough for Liam to reach the Third Class of his profession and he could try to repair them.

Spirit Puppets were precious. Even damaged puppets would help him save a lot of resources!

As soon as he felt his mana had returned to 50% of what he had, Liam set off from there towards City Thirteen, using the shadows of the surroundings to hide his movements, while taking advantage of the Silver-Winged Leopard's inherent speed to fly home quickly.

He was without his Spirits and still in the middle of the forest. All he needed was a bit of bad luck, and he'd be surrounded by enemies again.

Liam didn't want that and flew as far as he could, soon covering a distance that would have taken 4 hours to walk in just 1 hour of flying.

Having wings was awesome!

The only downside to having wings was drawing too much attention to yourself while flying!

Liam realized this when he landed not far from the entrance to the city, where the guards in the area looked at him strangely before his wings disintegrated.

Liam walked a few hundred meters to the entrance of the city, with a 9-Star Spirit Lord Realm cultivation.

He had no problem with the Officers watching him there. After showing his ID, he retrieved his exit permit and made his way to the Records Hall.

...

After entering the Records Hall to regularize his return to the city, Liam took advantage of the start of the new month to collect his wage.

But considering what he now had in his spatial ring—items from over 30 cultivators, including more than 10 Spirit Earth cultivators—the wage he collected was insignificant.

Now, Liam had nearly 10,000 gold coins and nearly 18,000 silver coins in his spatial ring, and over 300 items, including weapons, enchanted items, cultivation resources, and materials, both Second and Third Class items.

He had enough to form his own faction and raise a group of at least 15 Spirit Masters for a few months!

As he stood in front of the Records Hall, pondering his situation, Liam felt the early morning breeze as he gazed at the dark but very starry sky.

'What do I do now?'

He asked himself, thinking more about the mysterious enemy that had appeared than the fact that he had got rid of three groups of enemies in just over 24 hours.

'Spirit Puppets are expensive and scarce. If the one who attacked me isn't an inner member of the sect, there's few people with the ability to send two of them against me in this city.'

He estimated as he thought about it more calmly, now in a safer place.

'That would lead me to the top 10 of the arena. But 4 members of the top 10 died tonight, and a fifth is Grace, who wouldn't send puppets against me. That brings me to the leader of the rank, William.'

Liam's eyes narrowed. There were four other names in the top ten, but they were people who were at the lower end of the top ten, with 3-Star to 4-Star cultivations from the Spirit Earth Realm. William, on the other hand, was a 6-Star Spirit Earth cultivator who had the most resources and ability to act in this city.

'It was probably him. But why? What would he gain by acting against me?

' Liam asked himself.

He had never been against William and as far as he knew, the man would leave City Thirteen soon. Not even the other players in the city cared about competing against him now that he was leaving.

'Did he, by any chance, do what he did because of my potential to join the inner wing of the sect soon?

' Liam opened his eyes as he stood with his arms crossed over his chest, still facing the Records Hall.

This was the only way to explain what had happened, assuming, of course, that William was really to blame for everything.

'Shit! I didn't think the competition from the inner wing would get to me while I am still an outer member!'

He walked towards his dormitory on Street Thirty-Seven.

Whatever was behind the last enemy in his path that night, he needed to rest. More importantly, he had to prepare to face William!

'No one was watching my return to the city tonight. I probably have a few hours before the remnants of the four factions realize what happened, and that I was the only one to return.

I must use this time to rest and gain some merit points. In the meantime, I will focus on recovering the incubus and Thal'Korr!'