C2 Cortisol

In the desert, it was hot and dry during the day, but at night, it was freezing cold.

Trembling, Zhang Xiaoyu couldn't stand the cold anymore. He took out a book from his pocket, opened it to the first page, and started to read with the help of the faint starlight.

From the remaining information in Xiao Ma's body, Zhang Xiaoyu knew that they lived in a world called Soaring Cloud Continent. On this continent, almost everyone had the chance to cultivate the elemental energy that could strengthen their physique and even become strong. The elemental energy was similar to the true energy in the Wuxia novels. The only difference was that the cultivation technique practitioners practiced had different attributes, such as hot fire elemental energy and dense earth elemental energy.

One must have the support of a cultivation technique to cultivate elemental energy. The level of one's cultivation technique determined one's cultivation speed, the depth of one's elemental energy, and one's own battle prowess. Soaring Cloud Continent's methods were divided into six levels, from low to high, they were Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Human, Earth and Heaven, and each level was further divided into three levels, which were 'High', 'Medium', and 'High'.

Zhang Xiaoyu was holding an intermediate and inferior thunder attribute cultivation technique: Formless Thunder Force. It was precisely because of this cultivation technique that the body of the owner, Ma Xiao, was hit in the vitals. He couldn't endure the pain and the heat as he fell into the desert.

"Sigh, it's just a low-grade mid-tier cultivation technique. I lost my life just like that." Zhang Xiaoyu shook his head in confusion.

If someone on the side heard these words, they would definitely scold Zhang Xiaoyu to death. Generally speaking, the cultivation techniques practiced by different levels of Soaring Cloud Continent were different, for example, ordinary people or the not too famous Jiang Hu guests practiced low level cultivation techniques, some small families or the slightly famous Jiang Hu guests would have intermediate level techniques, high to the point where only the powerful people or Jiang Hu experts had high level cultivation techniques, and as for earth level techniques and even heaven level cultivation techniques, very few people knew about them.

If one were to sell a low-grade intermediate cultivation technique, it would sell for at least a hundred silver taels. Of course, there were very few people who did that. After all, killing a chicken to get its eggs would only happen if they had no other choice.

Zhang Xiaoyu was quickly captivated by the contents of the book and started to read seriously.

"Thunder Force, a low-grade mid-tier cultivation technique that emphasizes attack power. When mastered, it can increase one's strength through soul force, allowing one to become proficient in it. Attacks contain traces of thunder and lightning energy, when mastered, the user can move their hands and feet like an electric shock."

Damn, Zhang Xiaoyu was shocked by the introduction of the cultivation technique. For the him of his previous life, he would never have thought that one day he would be able to read the legendary martial arts technique and even have the chance to practice it.

Zhang Xiaoyu continued to watch without blinking as he was completely immersed in the world of martial skills.

"The first step of cultivating the Goliath Lightning Force is to sense the Yuan Qi between Heaven and Earth and absorb it into the meridians in the body for a small circulation so as to stimulate the practitioner's attributes."

"Second step, use your Essence to circulate it in twelve cycles to condense Yuan Power within your body …"

"Remember, this is a slightly overbearing cultivation technique. It's best to use it for those who are physically weak."

Zhang Xiaoyu smiled bitterly. His body was indeed weak at the moment, but luckily it only made him use it less, not learn less. As his eyes landed on the practice diagram on the second page, a naked man sat cross-legged on the ground. His body was covered with complicated meridian diagrams, marked with a blue mark.

According to the pattern above, Zhang Xiaoyu tried to focus his mind to sense the energy between heaven and earth.

Perhaps it was because the previous owner of this body had trained his elemental energy before, Zhang Xiaoyu spent some time on sensing it and soon managed to draw in heaven and earth origin energy into his body.

Traces of Heaven and Earth Essence Qi were poured into Zhang Xiaoyu's tiny meridians through his acupuncture points. Then, as Zhang Xiaoyu's control ability became stronger and stronger, it gradually started to circulate through his meridians.

After completing one circulation, Zhang Xiaoyu's body emitted a faint blue glow. The color of his bones and flesh was close to the color of lightning. This should be the situation after triggering the lightning energy in his body as mentioned in the Power of Force Thunder.

Zhang Xiaoyu was slightly happy, so he continued to direct the Yuan Qi in the mini circulation route.

With the passage of time, Zhang Xiaoyu gradually came into contact with Yuan Qi and became adept at training. He also gradually understood that training was a very interesting thing to do.

After the twelve laps had been completed, the small amount of Essence Qi began to flow into the dantian three inches below the navel. Finally, it condensed into a small ball of dense energy that emitted a faint blue light from within.

"This is elemental energy." Zhang Xiaoyu opened his eyes and chuckled.

Feeling that it wasn't that cold anymore, Zhang Xiaoyu rubbed his numb legs and stood up slowly. He walked to the flagpole in front of the restaurant.

After secretly channeling the elemental energy in his Dantian and channeling it through his meridians into his palm, Zhang Xiaoyu found that it was much easier to control his elemental energy. It seemed that his item was the best to use, Zhang Xiaoyu was absolutely right.

Using his power, Zhang Xiaoyu hit the flag pole with his palm.

With a slight sound of impact, a faint handprint that was barely visible appeared on the hard surface of the flagpole.

Zhang Xiaoyu, who didn't have time to be happy, felt his right arm go numb as waves of pain came from the inside. Damn, his physical body was really weak. He couldn't even withstand a single palm.

The night grew darker and the stars dimmed.

He, who hadn't eaten for three days, was almost starving. It was unknown if it was because this body had already died once, or because of Zhang Xiaoyu, who was a foreign soul, no matter how bad the external conditions were, this fragile body was like a grass that stubbornly grew under a rock, and it still maintained a weak vitality.

The restaurant could not be stolen. There was a hunter staying there. Zhang Xiaoyu had a hunch that it was very dangerous, but he wasn't too sure exactly how dangerous it was. Zhang Xiaoyu could only walk towards the town with heavy steps.

The buildings inside Yellowstone Town weren't complicated. A wide road divided the town into two, and dozens of small paths extended from the road into every house.

With Zhang Xiaoyu's experience of climbing over walls when he was young, he easily entered a relatively large family and found the kitchen along a dark corner.

Zhang Xiaoyu ate a jin of dried beast meat and drank a ladle of water from the bucket that didn't have much water. Then, he let out a sigh of relief comfortably.

It was really sad to be in this world. He had to steal food right now, but he didn't know what would happen in the future. Zhang Xiaoyu was determined to train his Goliath well, and of course, his body had to recover as soon as possible.

Then...

After all, he came to another world out of nowhere. Zhang Xiaoyu urgently wanted to know the reason, and the first step of his exploration, he had to thoroughly understand the situation here.