Ourobouros woke up. Stretching, he slid from the cave's mouth.
He pressed onward, weaving deeper into the expanse. The further he went, the more the forest revealed its treasures with a lot of demonic beasts. Each one fell to his fangs having their life force swallowed and refined.
Then, without warning he sensed danger;
His muscles coiled and snapped to the right just as a black blur sliced through the air where he had been.
A predator emerged from the darkness, three meters long with pale stripes on its fur, each one marking a level of cultivation. Ourobouros counted them.
Nine stripes.
A Shadow Leopard.
He knew the species from his inherited memories, they are masters of stealth. They moved without sound. This one was an adult one at the Ninth Level of Qi Refining.
Ourobouros's tongue flicked. He was two minor realms lower than it. Victory was uncertain and failure would be death.
He turned and fled.
The leopard did not follow, the snake looked weaker than him but gave a strong sense of danger.
Coiled in the cave, Ourobouros reviewed the encounter. He has been careless because everything was going smoothly, In this forest, arrogance would only kill him faster.
It was better to crush the weak before challenging the strong. he still liked being at a higher realm than his opponent.
The next day, he returned to the forest's outer perimeter. A Fifth Level Qi Refining sparrow fell to his strike. Dragging it home, he began to feed. The warmth of its essence filled him.
A shiver ran through his body because the moment had come.
He coiled tightly guiding the Heaven-Swallowing Sutra to its peak.
The Eighth Level of Qi Refining.
Sleep took him soon after.
A week passed in this rhythm of hunting and growing.
By the seventh day, the serpent that had once been small enough to hide in a hollow was now ten meters long from head to tail. He had reached the limit of the Qi Refining Realm.
And he could go no further. The essence of weaker beasts was no longer enough to impact the bottleneck.
But he knew a target.
At a lake not far from his cave lived an ancient turtle, a hundred years old, with cultivation at the Ninth Level of Qi Refining. A peaceful creature that had never fighted with anyone.
Peace, however, was a luxury Ourobouros could no longer afford.
The journey was fast. The lake lay still, in the shallows, a five-meter-long turtle floated with mist and clouds floating from its nostrils.
The turtle saw him approach, and its calm eyes got angry. A deep roar came from its throat.
The lake stirred.
From the depths, three more turtles emerged, each nearly three meters in length. Their aura was at the Seventh Level Qi Refining.
Ourobouros's tongue flicked.
Perhaps it was time he considered getting some little brothers.
The surface of the lake rippled again. The ancient turtle lowered its head, and the younger ones rushed out.
The air grew tense.
The battle was about to begin.