“**Thousand Apparitions Hand**!” Spiritual energy surged, and silver-white light flickered between Renault's ten fingers. The **Thousand Apparitions Hand** required the activation of spiritual energy in the hands, making the fingers move with supernatural speed. When executed properly, the technique's power was boundless.

Renault’s hands were filled with bamboo splinters, deeply embedded in his flesh due to the sheer force. His health was dropping, but fortunately, the bamboo was also preventing his wounds from bleeding profusely. He was losing health from the injuries but not at the rate caused by continuous bleeding.

Given the severe damage, Renault’s arms and legs weren’t in great shape.

Even though his health was nearly restored before the last attack, this fresh injury caused another drop. Renault dared not throw away the bamboo shards lodged in his hands. Removing them too soon would cause severe blood loss, further jeopardizing his life.

Renault, an expert in calculating health points from his gaming days, knew how to precisely manage his survival. In intense quests with time limits and insufficient health potions, tracking health regen and damage was crucial, sometimes down to the exact second of automatic health regeneration.

His mouth full of healing pills, Renault waited for the cooldown to pass. Once his health had stabilized, he crushed the pills, replenishing his health. Only then did he discard the bamboo shards from his hands.

Confident that his calculations were correct and his health drop wouldn’t be fatal, he proceeded carefully.

In the game, conditions like continuous health loss would automatically cease after a certain period. Renault’s body, having the same traits as a game character, allowed his wounds to scab over naturally, stopping the health reduction effect after some time.

After waiting for the bleeding effects to stop and replenishing his health, Renault began removing the bamboo shards from his arms. Each removal caused his health to drop slightly, but the injuries were manageable.

Removing the bamboo was a painstaking process, and by the time Renault finished, night had already fallen, with the sky showing hints of dawn.

Thankfully, the corpse of the Centipede Beast was lying nearby, scaring off other creatures. This was the territory of the Centipede Beasts, and no other spirit beasts dared venture into it.

Renault had survived the long recovery period, narrowly escaping death.

Despite the life-threatening danger, Renault felt a sense of accomplishment. With only an **Opening the Spiritual Path** cultivation level, he had managed to kill a **Spirit Gathering** level beast. This was an impressive feat, and he had even acquired the coveted level 11 horn of the Centipede Beast.

He sighed in relief. This battle was a stark reminder that this world was far more dangerous than any game. In this world, you only had one life. Death meant real, irreversible death—there were no respawns or second chances.

Suddenly, a system notification rang in Renault’s mind:

**"Congratulations, Player Renault, for defeating a Spirit Gathering level boss beyond your cultivation level. You have earned 100 reputation points and the skill orb ‘Abyssal Roar.’"**

Renault couldn’t help but grin. It seemed the system was working well, even categorizing bosses. While the 100 reputation points were a nice bonus, he wasn’t sure what use they had in this world. In the game, reputation was essential for building guilds or starting shops, but here, it seemed less relevant.

Still, Renault knew that the system wouldn’t offer anything useless. If reputation points existed, they would undoubtedly have a purpose later.

What excited Renault the most was the **Abyssal Roar** skill orb. This was a powerful item that could be a lifesaver in a critical moment.

Now that the danger had passed and his task was complete, Renault rested for a while, allowing his strength to return before heading back to the **Tianji Stone Chamber**.

Completing this spiritual cultivation task would finally allow him to level up. Renault was filled with hope and anticipation. If he couldn’t break through his current cultivation level, his character wouldn’t progress, and many skills would remain locked. The cultivation bottleneck was essentially the same as a player’s level cap.

However, Renault had a massive advantage—his system allowed him to gain levels through quest completion, a privilege thousands of times more efficient than regular cultivators. The quests he received were tailored to his progress, meaning some were relatively simple. Of course, harder challenges would require more effort, but even those were scaled to his abilities.

Upon returning to the **Tianji Stone Chamber**, Renault called out, “Master, are you there?” But there was no response.

Renault called out repeatedly, “Master… Master… Master…” but still received no reply. It seemed his master wasn’t available at the moment.

The stone disk had the ability to record voices. If his master was at the other end of the communication channel, he could listen to Renault’s messages later through spiritual sense.

Renault sat beside the stone disk, waiting for his master to arrive. 

After an unknown amount of time, the stone disk suddenly began to vibrate, jolting Renault awake from his slumber. He thought his master was about to speak, but instead, the disk began to rotate rapidly.

The disk lifted high into the air, spinning faster and faster until it became a blur, leaving only a shadow behind.

The room filled with swirling winds, and streaks of energy cut through the air, even slicing into the ground. Startled, Renault quickly retreated, holding a pill in his mouth in case of emergency. He had no idea what was happening.

As the stone disk spun, it distorted the space around it. Suddenly, from within the swirling black void, a young man in a flowing robe stepped out.

This young man, with his sharp, handsome features, radiated an aura of authority and strength despite his gentle appearance. His eyes gleamed with a combination of wisdom and power.

Seeing Renault’s shocked expression, the man smiled and said, "Disciple, why do you look so surprised? Have you never seen your master before?"

Renault was stunned—this man was his master? He had expected an old man, but then he remembered this was a world of cultivation, where one could reverse aging. His master’s youthful appearance made perfect sense now.