The Fatty Got Beaten Up
"You're back, Mother."
The murderous aura emanating from Chen Fan had long since dissipated. He strode across the threshold, closed the wooden door behind him, took out a vermilion fruit glowing with a warm, reddish light from his pocket, and placed it in his mother's rough palm.
"These sweet berries I picked casually in Sunset Gorge taste pretty good, you should try them."
It was a Sixth Stage Red Spirit Fruit that could prolong life, enough to make Seventh Rank cultivators fight tooth and nail for it in the Black Wilderness.
The woman wiped her hands, carefully placed the fruit on the stone table, pulled Chen Fan to sit on the stone bench, and pushed a full stone bowl of wild venison soup with thick layers of oil in front of him.
"Have some hot soup first. I don't understand the fighting and killing outside. I only hope you'll be safe and sound."
Chen Fan picked up the stone bowl and drank the scalding hot, thick meat soup in large gulps. As he swallowed the rough animal meat, a warm, smoky aroma spread through his stomach.
The gods stand in the heavens, overlooking the eternal Void, yet they are ultimately cold.
Only the hot soup in this rough porcelain bowl and the mother's nagging advice beside me are the true path to living.
The Miniature Universe within Chen Fan's Dantian trembled slightly, and the mountains and rivers within his Divine Kingdom gained a touch of true vitality at that moment.
After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, Chen Fan walked out of the stone house and meticulously handed over the tribe's defenses to several experienced and prudent generals.
Afterwards, he went alone into the Quiet Chamber Stone Cave deep in the back mountain of the old village.
Boom!
The massive stone, weighing tens of thousands of kilograms, crashed down, sealing off the cave entrance.
The Stone Cave is spacious and dry, with the finest resources from Sunset Gorge neatly stacked in the center.
Hundreds of High-Grade Spirit Stones glowing with light, dozens of Peak Seventh Rank beast cores radiating intense and ferocious aura, and several deep red Blood Marrow Lingzhi.
Chen Fan sat cross-legged on the stone platform, closing his eyes and concentrating.
Now that a foothold has been established in the Great Wilderness, one's cultivation must cross that threshold as soon as possible.
"Open."
Chen Fan silently shouted in his heart.
Boom!
A violent shockwave suddenly swept through the tranquil Stone Cave.
The Life-and-Death Millstone Totem on Chen Fan's chest shone brightly, unleashing an incomparably powerful suction force.
The High-Grade Spirit Stones around the stone platform crackled and popped as countless crystalline streams of spiritual energy were forcibly pulled from their surfaces, transforming into visible vortexes that frantically poured into Chen Fan's major acupoints.
The inner cores of those dozens of Seventh Rank ferocious beasts trembled violently, and the violent essence blood contained within them transformed into rolling crimson clouds, surging into his divine body like a river bursting its banks.
Water and fire, Life and Death!
A crimson Fire Crow Totem emerged from behind Chen Fan, its flames raging; a deep Blackwater Totem hovered around him, its turbid waves surging into the sky.
Two extreme forces collided and tore at each other within Chen Fan's body, before being forcibly crushed and reassembled by the Life-and-Death Millstone, transforming into pure and righteous primordial Qi and Blood, which continuously washed over every inch of his bones and meridians.
The Qi and Blood surged through the bone marrow, producing a muffled, thunderous sound.
Chen Fan's body was repeatedly Bone Refinement between extreme heat and extreme cold, and fine impurities seeped from his skin, which were then instantly evaporated into ashes by the raging fire.
Time passed in deathly silence.
One month...
Two months...
Three months have passed in the blink of an eye.
The spirit stones in the Quiet Chamber turned into pale white stone powder, and the Seventh Rank beast cores also completely lost their luster, crumbling into fragments scattered all over the ground.
In the center of the stone platform, Chen Fan's originally thin body is now tall and slender, with an ancient divine radiance flowing beneath his skin, and his Qi and Blood and qi are as refined as ten-thousand-year-old black iron.
Buzz!
Chen Fan suddenly opened his eyes.
Two beams of gray and red light shot out from his eyes, directly blasting two deep craters, each about the thickness of a finger, into the rocky ground in front of him.
Boom!
The surging Qi and Blood within his body completely broke through that invisible barrier.
A vast and powerful shockwave exploded from Chen Fan's body, causing large sections of the thick rock at the top of the cave to break off, and cracks spread upwards along the mountain wall.
Peak Seventh Rank!
Not only has his Divine Soul realm been elevated, but the resilience of his physical body is now comparable to that of the most ferocious Primordial Era alien species cubs in the Great Wilderness.
Chen Fan slowly exhaled a murky stream of air, which struck the stone wall with a crisp hissing sound.
"Phew... at least the framework is solid now."
Chen Fan stood up, stretched his muscles and bones, and his joints cracked and popped like popping beans.
He raised his hand and swept away all the dust on the stone platform.
Counting the days, a full three months have passed outside.
Those guys from Black Wilderness must have behaved themselves by now, and they should have dug out quite a few good things from the Blackstone Mountain veins.
With a satisfied smile on his lips, Chen Fan strode to the Dragon-Slaying Stone and casually pushed it onto the massive boulder.
Boom!
The stone gate rose with a roar, and the long-awaited brilliant sunlight poured in.
Chen Fan stretched in the sunlight, intending to go to the front hall to check on the tribe's situation and settle accounts with Fatty.
However, as soon as he stepped into the bluestone square in front of the old village, a shrill, pig-like scream shattered the tranquility of the valley.
"Ouch... it hurts so much!"
"That damned beast! He's so ruthless! My bones are about to be broken into pieces!"
Chen Fan paused, looking towards the Council Hall in the direction of the sound.
On the spacious hall floor lay seven or eight strong miners from the Fire Crow Tribe, each with bruised and swollen faces, covered in whip marks, and constantly spitting out blood.
In the very center of the hall, the short, stout priest lay sprawled on a fur rug, his body wrapped in thick, bloodstained linen.
His already round face was now swollen like a freshly cooked, rotten watermelon. His left eye socket was dark purple, his nose was crooked to one side, his lips were turned up, and he was missing two front teeth.
"Why are you wailing like that? It sounds awful."
A clear, slightly teasing voice drifted in from the palace entrance.
Everyone in the hall shuddered.
The short, stout priest, who was wailing and sobbing while hugging the stone pillar, shivered and looked toward the gate with his narrow, slit-like eyes.
Upon seeing the tall, composed figure, the fat man let out a howl and scrambled towards Chen Fan.
Because the movement was too violent, it aggravated the broken ribs. The fat man gasped in pain and managed to move to Chen Fan's feet, wiping his snot and tears on Chen Fan's trouser leg.
"Chief! My ancestor! You've finally emerged from seclusion!"
The fat man cried his heart out, tears streaming down his face.
"If you don't come out of seclusion soon, I'll lose my life at Blackstone Mountain!"
Chen Fan reacted quickly, disdainfully raising his foot to block the fat man's chest, preventing his blood- and tear-smeared face from smearing onto his clean robes.
Stop, stop.
Chen Fan looked down at the fat man's miserable appearance, raised his eyebrows slightly, and gently kicked the fat man's belly with his toes.
"How did you get into this state? I sent you to Blackstone Mountain to oversee trade, and you went off to raid a black bear's den?"