'The south side has some problems. I could also use one of the houses in the south side to use a temporary stay for the mornings. After a week of investigation, if nothing happens, I'll just go back to the sect and report what I know.' Xu Xiong thought and made a plan for himself.
He was going to just move in directly into one of the southern houses and come out and pretend that he was one of them, but villagers recognized each other and will instantly know that he doesn't belong in the village.
Also, considering that the south side is destroyed, he cannot rule out that it was the villagers who destroyed the houses.
If so, this might be a lead he could use for advantage, rather than suffer from it.
Without much to do at the village anymore, Xu Xiong started to scout out the outskirts of the village.
He was mainly looking for any caves or deep holes, as that's where Dead Birds typically reside.
But to his disappointment, he couldn't find any places where Dead Birds could hide. If it wasn't for the fact that he saw some trails coming here, he would've thought they might have all left.
But yet again, he only saw one trail of footprints, which has been bugging him all day.
"Forget it, let's wait till tomorrow. Maybe with a fresh mind I can discover some new clues." Xu Xiong sighed and made his way back to his little base.
Time flashing by, and it was already a new day.
Xu Xiong woke up early and began his daily training for the day, just so he can maximize his system rewards.
Within two hours, a familiar cold distant voice sounded in his head.
[Ding!]
[Host: Xu Xiong]
[Age: 17]
[Yesterdays evaluation: D+]
[Rewards: 50% increase to your spiritual power. 200% increase of yesterday's cultivation insights. 120% improvement of yesterday's cultivation refinements.]
[Reasons: Host has been investigating a strange village and has practised hard while in extreme danger. With extreme caution and intelligence, the host has managed to avoid getting himself killed.]
Xu Xiong pupils shrank reading the system.
For one, this is his second time getting a D+ evaluation! The other time was when he woke up because of the system and saved himself from getting killed.
The second part is spiritual power!
Spiritual power is what your mind and Qi use to stay active.
Since he didn't have any Qi, the only thing spiritual power does is make him smarter and less tired.
But this would allow him to practice an extra hour a day with better results!
Once someone reaches a certain amount of spiritual power, they simply don't need to sleep.
The other rewards are alright, and with his current speed, he would only need two weeks for him to comfortably break through the next realm.
As for the reason for the evaluation, reading it made his heart thump.
'Extreme danger?! How come I don't know?' Xu Xiong screamed in his heart.
Without the system telling him, he'd still be in the dark and think he's currently safe and can explore the village more when they come out.
Now with the system saying "extreme danger," he feels like he should observe the villagers daily routines before trying to question them.
'But what could put me in extreme danger? Could it have something to do with the south of the village?' Xu Xiong thought, and suddenly he felt the space around him was insecure.
It was like that feeling of being watched when you're in an enclosed room, yet that nagging feeling won't stop.
The goosebumps on his body kept tingling, and quickly started to build a better and more private living space.
The rocks here were plentiful, and he built his base in an indent of the cliff.
He also made it hard to find, allowing his heart to calm down slightly.
This feeling of not knowing what's going on and yet knowing he was in danger was terrifying; so much so that his body is still tense.
'Should I go back to the sect?' Xu Xiong thought to himself, feeling a little panic in his heart.
But he quickly shook his head, and decided to toughened up a little.
From what he can tell, there is something completely off with the village, and if he just observed and practised with the system help, he could make a breakthrough to the scarce realm in four days.
Considering it would take him nearly two weeks to break through normally, with the system giving him 100% ish cultivation rewards, four days is very possible.
And when he breaks through the scarce realm, the danger should drop significantly.
Of course another driving factor is that he might get a C grade reward!
The D grade is already so amazing, he wondered what the C grade would be like.
Surely it would be life changing.
Thus, Xu Xiong's daily routine has changed.
For an half an hour he would climb up the cliff and watch the village for an hour, and then climb back down the cliff and start practising for four hours, have dinner, and climb back up and watch for an hour, repeating the same thing over and over again.
Although such life was boring and monotonous, Xu Xiong cultivation has made some huge improvements over the past two days of his new daily training.
In fact, he feels like he could break through tomorrow!
The original four days turned into three because of his new and improved senses.
Such an unlucky day has turned into a gold mine of fortune!
Though Xu Xiong still gets warnings from the system saying that he's in extreme danger, making him afraid of approaching the village.
Currently, on the third day of living under a cliff, Xu Xiong is doing his daily routine and is spying on the village from afar.
'Huh? Is that a person?' Xu Xiong thought, as his eyes focused on what it looked like to be a person.
This was normal, and was exactly as Xu Xiong expected.
'But why is it only one person?' Xu Xiong thought, and his eyes kept watching over him.
It seemed as if this man was observing the village, making sure there wasn't any danger, but Xu Xiong smelt something fishy.
'He doesn't seem to care about any danger? But his actions say otherwise.' Xu Xiong found something off.
It was like he was searching for danger, but this danger had no effect on him.
After watching for a while, Xu Xiong can be certain that this man has no cultivation at all, so why was he so fearless?