Despite being so careful, sometimes cultivation was still affected. Although the situation where all of his cultivation was abolished never happened again, injuries to the meridians occurred repeatedly. Evan Parker was well prepared, and the acupuncture techniques he had learned from Master came in handy at this time. Over the years, he had practiced that set of acupuncture methods for controlling true energy to repair meridians to perfection.

Master's words were truly accurate—the demonic aura here was even stronger than the murderous aura Evan Parker had developed in the army. Evan Parker himself could only influence those with weak minds when facing them directly, but this demon had never even met him, and from such a distance could still exert such an effect. Even Evan Parker had to admire it.

Yet, along with his admiration, Evan Parker's unyielding spirit was once again provoked. One day, he too would reach such heights. Ever since he had seen that person’s heroic figure in the sky, Evan Parker had found his direction in life. As powerful as that person was, even he had to suffer under the influence of this unknown demon. What Evan Parker wanted was to surpass that person, to surpass this demon.

Strangely, apart from affecting Evan Parker during cultivation, that demon showed no other signs of activity at all. The lives of ordinary people seemed completely unrelated to it. This made Evan Parker somewhat appreciative—after all, a true master should have the dignity of a master. Attacking ordinary people would not add much to one’s reputation, and would only become a laughingstock.

One man, one unknown demon, inexplicably began this kind of training here that could not really be called either a contest or a cooperation. As long as Evan Parker started practicing on the mountaintop, he would inevitably be disturbed—an all-pervasive, mercury-like mental interference, occasionally even affecting the flow of his true energy, causing minor injuries. In the first year, Evan Parker was simply unable to make any progress in his cultivation, suffering only repeated injuries and treatments.

But it was not without any gains. At the very least, after that year, Evan Parker's mental resilience became unparalleled. He believed that even in a hellish slaughterhouse, nothing could disturb his meditation. If one lived in such an environment every day, even if not accustomed to it, one would become numb to it. At first, he could endure for longer and longer periods; later, he simply stopped caring, remaining unaffected at all times.

Another benefit was that, since he suffered minor injuries every day and Master was not by his side, Evan Parker could only find ways to use his own true energy to slowly heal his meridians. Fortunately, his previous injuries had greatly increased the endurance of his meridians, and not only that, even his recovery ability had improved significantly. The minor injuries he suffered at first could quickly heal under the nourishment of his true energy.

It was also fortunate that Evan Parker was carefully controlling his true energy, so the injuries caused each time were not severe. Later on, these minor disruptions of true energy could no longer affect Evan Parker at all. Instead, a bit of true energy would remain around each acupuncture point, and imperceptibly, the amount of true energy stored in his meridians became slightly more than that of ordinary people.

Chapter 3: Recuperation and Recovery (Part 2)

By the time he reached this stage, another half a year had passed. During this period, aside from these gains, his true energy had not recovered at all. If Evan Parker had not known how difficult it would be to overcome these problems and had not been mentally prepared, the mere fact that his internal strength had not improved at all for such a long time would have been enough to make an ordinary person lose heart and give up completely.

Most of this cultivation was done by Evan Parker on the mountaintop. As if sensing Evan Parker's progress, the pressure from the demon in the lake also grew stronger and stronger. Evan Parker could feel the process of the demon in the lake and his own cultivation improving bit by bit. At this distance, the unknown demon in the lake was like a sparring partner, pushing each other to improve. However, up to now, Evan Parker still did not dare to enter the lake again.

Aside from cultivation, Evan Parker spent most of his time in the roadside teahouse, and occasionally went hunting in the mountains and forests. Although his internal strength had been greatly diminished, it was not completely gone, and in these mountains, he had no problem defending himself. Coupled with the archery skills he had mastered in the army, he never returned empty-handed, and the teahouse was never short of fresh game.

When facing the merchants passing by on the official road at the foot of the mountain, Evan Parker always appeared as a simple, honest young man from the mountains. Some merchants did travel with highly skilled bodyguards or lone martial artists, but none of them ever discovered that Evan Parker was a martial artist. Of course, the fact that mountain folk were sturdier was an explanation everyone could accept.

For some reason, every time after being tormented by the demon on the mountaintop, when he went down to the teahouse at the foot of the mountain, Evan Parker always felt that the human world was especially beautiful. Even the traveling merchants and passing travelers seemed particularly friendly to him.