Ethan simply planted his feet and raised the plain iron straight sword.

His amethyst eyes flashed. The blade erupted with a brilliant, blinding golden luminescence.

With a smooth, vertical sweep of his arm, Ethan released the accumulated force. A crescent wave of pure, condensed golden energy tore through the azure fog, leaving a vacuum in its wake. It traveled up the rocky incline with absolute, terrifying velocity.

SHUUU-FUNG!

The golden blade of light sliced cleanly through the Troop Leader’s midsection and vanished into the high canopy, cleaving several ancient trees perfectly in half far in the distance.

The colossal alpha’s momentum carried it forward for a few more feet before its upper torso completely detached from its lower body, slamming heavily into the damp moss. Because of its incredible peak-tier vitality and robust lifeforce, the monster didn’t die instantly. It let out a weak, agonizing screech, its blood pooling rapidly into the dirt as it dug its massive, trembling fingers into the ground, desperately trying to drag its remaining upper half away.

Ethan strolled casually up the rocky slope, his cheap iron sword resting loosely in his right hand. He stopped right in front of the crawling alpha, looking down at its trembling, terror-stricken face with a cold, mocking smirk.

"Hey, little chimp," Ethan purred, his voice dripping with smooth, malicious amusement. "Why the big hurry? We haven’t played nearly enough yet."

Looking up at Ethan’s absolute, freezing indifference, the near-human intelligence inside the beast’s skull completely shattered. The pride of the mountain king evaporated. With a weak, bubbling whimper, the alpha frantically extended its massive, hair-covered arms, pressing its palms together in a desperate, pleading gesture. It began violently slamming its heavy forehead into the blood-soaked dirt, begging for mercy.

Ethan casually tilted his head, his amethyst eyes completely unboved by the pathetic display. "If the roles were reversed and I was the one lying broken in the mud, you would have ripped my heart out and devoured it while I was still breathing," Ethan spoke, his voice dangerously smooth and entirely devoid of malice—it was simply a statement of absolute, predatory fact. "So, no hard feelings, little chimp. But your run ends here."

Sensing the absolute lack of mercy in the youth’s voice, the alpha’s pleading expression instantly mutated into a final, suicidal frenzy. It unleashed a raw screech, its remaining arm snapping forward like a whip, its razor-sharp silver claws aiming to tear Ethan’s throat out.

Ethan didn’t even shift his stance.

He was infinitely faster. With a lightning-quick flick of his wrist, his cheap iron blade flashed through the azure fog.

SLICE. SNAP.

In a single, fluid arc, the blade cleanly severed the incoming arm at the shoulder before continuing its trajectory through the alpha’s massive neck. The giant, scarred head popped off into the air, a massive geyser of dark blood erupting from the torso before the heavy skull crashed hollowly into the mud.

The moment the Troop Leader’s head rolled to a stop, a collective, terrified shriek echoed from the high canopy. The hundreds of lesser scouts and remaining warrior monkeys watching from the branches completely lost their minds. Their king was dead. Their commanders were entirely butchered. To their primitive minds, the crimson-clad youth was no longer a human—he was an apex demon. Abandoning all sense of territory, the massive army of primates scattered in all directions, fleeing into the deepest, darkest corners of the inner peaks to get as far away from the monster as possible.

The heavy rustling of leaves gradually faded, leaving the clearing in absolute, suffocating silence, save for the heavy dripping of blood.

The bushes near the edge of the clearing rustled softly, and Mary stepped out. Her face was completely pale, her hands trembling so hard she could barely hold her hunting bow. She stared at the literal mountain of primate corpses, her jaw slightly slack.

"Wow..." Mary breathed, her voice a mere whisper as she looked at Ethan, her eyes filled with an overwhelming mix of awe and profound shock. "Ethan... you are entirely too powerful. To slaughter an entire troop and a peak-stage leader by yourself, with just a standard iron sword... How on earth did you achieve such a level of martial prowess?"

Ethan casually shook the dark blood off his blade with a sharp flick before sliding it back into its leather scabbard. He turned to her with a completely relaxed, carefree smile. "It wasn’t really anything impressive, Sister Mary. These beasts were entirely too reckless and lacked any real combat discipline. They relied purely on numbers, making their movements incredibly predictable. They were quite weak once you disrupted their initial charge."

Mary let out a shaky breath, clearly not entirely convinced by his humble explanation, but she chose not to push further. A youth with such high-tier Sword Intent was naturally a genius from a background she couldn’t fathom. "Well... regardless of how easy it looked to you, you’ve completely cleared the zone. Let’s... let’s begin extracting the tokens before the scent of blood draws out the mountain wolves."

She pulled a sharp, curved skinning knife from her belt and walked toward the nearest warrior monkey corpse. Ethan joined her, kneeling beside a fallen Commander. As he watched her carefully cut into the beast’s jaw to extract the teeth, curiosity flickered in his purple eyes.

"Sister Mary," Ethan asked, using his knife to pry loose a thick, silver fang. "Why does the Heavenly Sword Pavilion specifically require only the bottom-right fang of the regular monkeys for the bounty? Why not the whole jaw or the ears?"

-------------------

From this moment forward, to avoid confusion regarding cultivation ranks, I will include this footer with the current established levels.

Note: These are only the ranks mentioned so far to avoid spoilers.

Body Refinement Realm

Skin Refinement / Bone Refinement / Organ Refinement

Spiritual Gathering Realm

Spiritual Perception / Spiritual Mist / Spiritual Condensation

Spiritual Core Realm

Core Solidification / Core Awakening / Spiritual Collapse (Half-step Spiritual Core)

Spiritual Soul Realm

Spiritual Soul Awakening / Soul Nourishing / Soul-Core Fusion

Golden Core Realm

Prime Fusion / Core Perfection / Core Destruction

Spiritual Sea Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Dao Manifestation Realm

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??

Spiritual Transcendence 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Stage 1 ?? / Stage 2 ?? / Stage 3 ??