A large echoing explosion resounded in the dangerous mountainous region.
The mountainous region had the highest mountains on the continent and the outline could be seen from most parts of the continent.
However, despite the beauty of its landscape, it was recorded as one of the most dangerous regions on the continent and was known for having powerful hidden beasts and despite the beasts, the environment alone was enough to kill anybody brave to attempt to climb them.
Within a collapsing cave, there was a now naked figure that had long back and red hair that went all the way down to the bottom of his back.
His eyes were emotionless and black and his expression was empty and distant.
Suddenly his eyes were engulfed in darkness as he seemingly disappeared and appeared outside of the cave that was caving in because of the explosion his body formed.
The figure summoned clothing out of thin air and put them on as he looked up into the sky with a determined glint within his eyes.
The figure made a blade appear out of thin air and grabbing his long hair he cut most of it off leaving on the ground and tied up the rest of the much shorter black and red hair that now formed a short ponytail.
"Its time to challenge that bastard beast again" he stated as he burst higher up into the mountain from where he stood outside the cave in the centre of the central mountainous region.
Lex had spent an entire 6 months grinding his cultivation and after the massive shock of having his master and all the children in the orphanage slaughtered, was very focused on gaining strength.
With complete focus on gaining strength and having 3 clones cultivating and training with him, Lex's progress was unimaginable and his true potential was beginning to be released.
Lex had technically cultivated and trained 2 years worth of training in 6 months because of him being able to form 3 other clones and therefore could do everything at 4 times the usual capacity.
The weapon guide that his master had left behind to him with all her experience and mastery with all the weapons his master had trained in was completely memorised, understood and embedded into his body through arduous training.
Not only that, the Scarlet Flash Skill that his master had made, was mastered and trained to a peak level where Lex had become very proficient and almost perfect in its use though training with his clones.
Unlike the skills that the system would embed into Lex's mind, skills that are learnt have to be mastered and the level of mastery are split into different stages.
The different stages of mastery of skills are:
Beginner Level that equals to thirty percent of the maximum power of the skill.
Low Level that equals to fifty percent.
High Level that equals to seventy percent.
Peak Level that equals to ninety percent or higher.
Perfection Level that equals to ninety-nine percent and it could be said that it could not get any better.
Lex had reached a peak level of mastery of the scarlet flash skill but was still unsure how to increase his mastery no matter how much he pondered on it and it seemed as though his master had never managed to achieve complete mastery, which then made him realised that his master didn't make the skill and was either given it, stole it or found it.
After leaving the forbidden mist grounds, Lex was desperate to find a place to relieve his frustration and helplessness and did so through continuous battle, training and cultivation.
He was given a recommendation of a region that had a very difficult climate and had equally powerful beasts that were very dangerous.
Instead of being intimidated by the description of the mountainous region, it enticed Lex who was looking for a place to push himself past his limits.
With the extremely cold climates, Lex's body was consistently increasing its resistance and using energy to fortify itself which was increasing his strength. Not only that, the higher altitudes would make it so that the air was scarcer, but the energy was more abundant with hardly any people absorbing energy at such heights and the mountainous region mysteriously having dense energy.
Lex hunted hundreds of beasts through many battles and was noticing the higher he went up the more powerful the beasts were becoming.
After a single month, Lex had broken through being an Earth Mortal and became a Sky Mortal with incredible power.
He made sure that his Internal and External Cultivation stayed at a similar level and after breaking his body past the Earth Mortal Rank, he wanted to test out his power and was itching for a tough battle.
His mind was empty and still like the void, but he was still seething with rage that couldn't be hidden or suppressed despite how much he had cultivated the Mental Void Method.
Climbing up the mountain, Lex knew from the system's warnings that there was an ice leopard beast at the top of the highest mountain and was the most powerful beast in the area and with his Sky Mortal Power he wanted to check whether he could defeat it.
However, after he reached the beast it merely roared at him and released an ice blast from its mouth, that was too quick for him dodge despite seeing it coming, and shot Lex off the mountain.
Lex only managed to survive by jolting his body back onto the mountain with his Spacial Eye and spent a few days recovering his body from almost becoming completely frozen and dying from a single strike from the ice leopard.
Suffering such a humiliating defeat, he decided to take a break from attempting to battle the ice leopard and focus on training his skills.
Spending two months with his 3 clones, that were also training and contemplating the weapon guide and the Scarlet Flash Skill, Lex continued to progress at a rapid speed.
With the 4 figures, all learning and practising all kinds of weapon techniques and the Scarlet Flash Skills then conjoining and fusing the knowledge together to cover the gaps in knowledge, they were able to completely integrate the knowledge into their mind, body and instincts.
Now the Scarlet Flash Skill and the use of all the weapons that his master was proficient in were embedded into his reflex and were at a stage that it was as close to being perfect as it could be with the current knowledge and ability that Lex had.
Lex's mind was so focused on gaining strength, it was the only thing he could think about and he would only stop occasionally to hunt, eat, or ask the system about the safety of Angela.
After he had reached a perfect proficiency in the Scarlet Flask skill and all the weapons left behind in his master's guide, Lex was feeling that his body was lagging behind what his mind was capable of and the techniques and skills that he did know.
He wanted to go and battle the ice leopard, but his instincts told him he still needed more strength before he could attempt to battle the ice leopard that easily served him a crushing defeat.
Realising this he went back into secluded cultivation within a cave after he had hunted enough food for the month that he would continue to eat for his own pleasure and to increase his body's strength through the energy and vitality filled body's of beasts.
While he cultivated, he made sure to strengthen his Soul Pet with him to a level similar or slightly below that of himself after knowing how powerful and valuable Ashura was as a Soul Pet.
After another three months, Lex managed to break into the Heaven Mortal rank both externally and internally with Ashura settling closely behind as a peak Sky Mortal and managed to completely recover and awaken from its dormant state, resurrected by Lex's breakthrough.
It was a wondrous idea that Ashura was killed but because of it being a Soul Pet and had its soul linked to Lex's it managed to be revived after 6 months with Lex's constant improvement and supply of energy.
Over the past 6 months, Lex had managed to accumulate an extreme amount of points saved from all the beasts he had hunted and had thousands of beast bodies in his inventory with most of them still having their beast cores.
"System, how many system points do I have" asked Lex, curious of how much he had accumulated over the past 6 months.
{Ding, the host currently has 143,126} the system announced.
Lex couldn't help but have a wide smile at the amount of points that he had accumulated, but considering the amount of beasts he had killed it still wasn't anything amazing.
{Ding, the host gains points corresponding to the LVL, or percentage completion, of a beast in the same or higher realms, but beasts bellow your cultivation LVL do not give the host any points. However, those at higher cultivation realms will give host double the amount of system points that those within the same realm as the host} the system explained.
Unaffected by what he just heard, Lex had one current goal after his 6 months of training.
To defeat the ice leopard beast before he exited his seclusion and returned to the world.