Dark Arm

"Breakthrough."

After giving the crippled kid ten fire jades, he refined and absorbed the rest. Li Tianming and the Little Yellow Chick opened another beast vein, both reaching the Fourth Beast Vein Realm at the same time.

In the symbiotic cultivation system, beast vein cultivation relies on the beastmaster and their companion beast complementing each other—the two together form a single cultivation core.

Their beast veins and beast origin are one, so their realms are naturally always the same.

"Honestly, this Eternal Purgatory Beast Origin is scorching and vast, flowing through the beast veins and body like boiling magma. If it weren't for the bloodline transformation into a Primordial Chaos Giant Beast body, I probably couldn't withstand such terrifying beast origin."

"And since the Little Yellow Chick became my companion beast, there must be bloodline shackles. This definitely isn't its complete form. If it can break those shackles, my flesh-and-blood body will grow stronger along with it."

Right now, it was still a chick. Getting it back to the eternal sun-devouring bird from the dream wouldn't be easy.

By then, Li Tianming wouldn't turn into that eternal bird, but he'd definitely have nearly the same physique.

"At that point, I won't eat rocks anymore. I'll wake up and eat a sun for breakfast?"

Just thinking about it felt insane.

"Of course, even with huge potential, the key is to stay grounded. Right now, we're basically 'cubs.'"

No matter how fierce a tiger is, a newborn cub can't take on a wolf.

"Play it safe, stay steady, and don't get cocky—that's the way."

Night deepened. After the breakthrough, the Little Yellow Chick curled up on his chest and snored away. Li Tianming was tired too, so he lay down on the freshly made bed and drifted off.

"What the hell!" In his sleep, a sharp pain shot through his left hand, like some beast was tearing it bloody. Li Tianming jolted upright, and the Little Yellow Chick in his arms tumbled to the floor.

"What's going on!"

In the dim candlelight, Li Tianming didn't see any beast gnawing on his left arm, but terrifyingly, starting from his fingers, the skin on his entire palm turned black!

As he woke, the black spread rapidly upward. In no time, his whole left arm was black—pitch-black like ink!

Even worse, in the moments that followed, a stinging sensation came from the blackened skin. It felt like billions of ants crawling all over his arm.

He gritted his teeth and panted through the pain, afraid of waking his sleeping mother.

"How is this happening!" He watched in shock as the writhing skin sprouted black scales!

These were exquisite, perfectly regular scales, each one a standard hexagon.

Such hexagonal black scales covered his entire left arm, making it eerie and imposing. An unimaginably terrifying aura radiated from this arm.

In that instant, Li Tianming felt like this arm wasn't even his anymore!

How to describe that aura?

It was like something that ruled over all life—under such an aura, any living thing could only prostrate itself, trembling.

And it didn't end there. After the black scales covered his arm, even his fingernails changed, turning into blood-red claw tips. His left hand now looked more like a beast's paw.

The claw tips, formed from his nails, were crimson and razor-sharp, as if they could easily tear through skin, even rip flesh.

"Am I dreaming again?" Li Tianming couldn't help but laugh bitterly.

The pain was gone now. He felt his left arm possessed strength far beyond the rest of his body—a raw, brutal power that words could barely capture in that moment.

It wasn't just stronger; that was only the surface. What he sensed was a fundamental change in his left arm, as if he'd become a different species.

And the unique aura and bloodline of this left arm had already surged through his whole body, though it hadn't manifested elsewhere.

Then Li Tianming saw something even more horrifying!

He opened his hand, now a beast's claw, and a blood-red line split open in the center of his palm. The line widened, revealing a Blood Eye!

When that Blood Eye fixed its gaze on Li Tianming, what did he feel?

He thought he'd be terrified, like some monster had taken up residence in his body. But to his utter surprise, he saw himself in that eye.

Yes, he saw a drowsy youth staring in shock at "himself," and that "himself" was actually this Blood Eye.

The feeling was strange!

On one hand, Li Tianming was looking at the beast claw and the eye.

On the other, Li Tianming was looking at his own startled face. He felt like, for the first time, he saw his original two eyes without a mirror.

"Damn, this eye is mine!" He finally got it.

He now had two perspectives. The eyes on his head gave him his original view, looking at his beast claw, while the eye in his palm was his second perspective, looking back at himself.

These two perspectives merged in a bizarre way, without messing up Li Tianming's overall vision. Aside from a bit of mental confusion, there seemed to be no issue.

He was completely dumbfounded.

A third eye, his own, had grown in his palm—not some monster living inside his body.

He opened his hand, put it behind his back, and sure enough, he could see his own back. Then he slipped it into his pants and clearly saw his leg hair!

"Ah!" Li Tianming took a deep breath. He felt like this wasn't a dream. The black left arm still had a tingling sensation.

"Li Tianming, what are you doing?" A sudden shriek came from in front of him. He looked up and saw the Little Yellow Chick staring at him with a weird expression, grinning slyly.

"Nothing!" Li Tianming said.

"Don't try to hide it. Hand in your pants in the middle of the night, panting like that—what else could it be? Tsk tsk, kid, you need some restraint. If you can't handle it, why not hit up the Jade Pavilion?" the Little Yellow Chick chuckled.

Li Tianming was drenched in sweat.

This little thing was only the size of a palm, so how could it be this perverted?

"Get over here." Li Tianming grabbed it, of course with his right hand.

"Stop right there, I'm not your little chick, don't touch me!" Little Yellow Chick said nervously.

"..."

This little guy—small chicken, big ideas.

"Look, what's this?" In the darkness, Li Tianming directly revealed his left arm.

In the flickering candlelight, Li Tianming's left arm was covered in exquisite hexagonal black scales, and his left hand had already transformed into some kind of beast claw.

At the center of the beast claw's palm, a pair of blood-red eyes stared at Little Yellow Chick with a teasing gaze.

"Ah! A ghost!" Little Yellow Chick was so scared its feathers nearly exploded. It jumped three feet high and almost fainted.

It was genuinely terrified.

Because Li Tianming had realized something: this arm of his now was exactly the same as the dark giant hand from the dream he saw when Little Yellow Chick was first born!

Back then, it was too shocking, and he hadn't noticed whether there were eyes on the palm of that dark giant hand, but he could roughly see that its skin also had these same hexagonal black scales.

This kind of regular hexagonal scale was very similar to the pattern of a honeycomb, so Li Tianming had some impression of it. Just from this point alone, if anyone said his left arm turning into this had nothing to do with that dark giant hand, Li Tianming absolutely wouldn't believe it.

"It's that hand!" Little Yellow Chick finally realized it too. The aura emanating from this dark arm instinctively terrified it.

"I guess so too." Li Tianming looked at his suddenly transformed arm, equally baffled. The only thing he was sure of was that this arm was still under his control.

Aside from feeling like its physical strength had increased, he couldn't see any other changes for now.

"What the hell is going on?" Little Yellow Chick asked seriously.

"I don't know either. It suddenly changed. My guess is, maybe you didn't shake off your enemy, and they've tracked you down?" Li Tianming said.

"Damn!" Little Yellow Chick cursed, still staring blankly at the dark arm. To be honest, neither the human nor the chick seemed to have the conditions to know the full truth right now.

What was the dark giant hand? Why was it hunting it? Why did it come into being alongside Li Tianming? Why did Li Tianming's arm transform into the dark arm? These doubts couldn't be resolved by mere speculation.

Unless, time gave the answer.

"Relax, if I were your enemy, I'd give you a quick end. Like going up the mountain to pick some mushrooms and making a mushroom stewed chicken?" Li Tianming couldn't help laughing when he saw its cowardly expression.

"Heh, and that's your excuse for sticking your hand down your pants in the middle of the night?" Little Yellow Chick said contemptuously.

"That's still better than you 'forcefully mounting' a male Firefeather Bird."

"Shut up!"

Little Yellow Chick flew up, raised its beak, and started pecking at Li Tianming. Don't underestimate this little thing—its beak had tremendous force.

Ding ding ding!

Li Tianming blocked it with his left arm. When the beak collided with the scales, sparks flew.

"Either way, it seems like I came out ahead. At least this arm of mine seems impervious to blades and spears."

Under the candlelight, Li Tianming stared at the hexagonal scales. By clenching his fist, he could indeed feel a terrifying power that transcended his own bloodline.

He first wrapped his left arm in white cloth, then changed clothes to cover the entire arm, and put on a glove to completely hide his left hand.

Otherwise, if anyone saw it, they'd definitely think he was a monster.

Little Yellow Chick also accepted the change. After all, it was pretty lazy too—since they couldn't figure it out anyway, they might as well wait and see.

"Maybe I'm connected to that dark giant hand?" In the dead of night, thinking back to that dark giant hand that had shattered the Eternal Purgatory Phoenix, Li Tianming fell into deep thought.

He stared at this arm for a long time, feeling like he no longer recognized it. He wasn't even sure what kind of power it held, or whether it would slip beyond his control.

"Even though I don't know its origin, maybe it can give me more confidence to participate in the Yanhuang Academy final selection in a few days!"

With the breakthrough in his realm and the appearance of the dark arm, Li Tianming spent the remaining time re-practicing the "Battle Art" he had once learned, entering a combat state.

Having once reached the Spirit Source Realm, he had trained in quite a few Battle Arts.

So-called "Battle Arts," like "Cultivation Methods," were created by predecessors through exploration and experience in countless battles and practices. Cultivation Methods were mainly used for training and improvement, converting beastly essence, while Battle Arts were supreme combat techniques, the crystallization of wisdom from countless beastmasters on the Yanhuang Continent!

A powerful Battle Art could defeat an enemy stronger than oneself.

Battle Arts were divided into two parts: one was "Martial Techniques," performed by the beastmaster, and the other was "Beast Arts," performed by the companion beast.

Martial Techniques and Beast Arts could complement and reinforce each other. Fighting together was the true peak of a Battle Art's power.

As beastmasters and companion beasts advanced in realm, they gained many cooperative combat abilities. The Martial Techniques and Beast Arts within Battle Arts were only part of that.

For example, ferocious beasts could never learn Beast Arts.

It was said that Battle Arts were divided into five levels based on power and complexity, briefly referred to as "Beast, Source, Return, Heaven, Saint."

Among them, "Beast" referred to the most common Beast-level Battle Arts, suitable for beastmasters and companion beasts in the Beast Pulse Realm. Beast-level Battle Arts were further divided into three minor tiers: Low, Middle, and High!

Of course, there were also some extraordinary ones, called Transcendent-level.

Transcendent Beast-level Battle Arts could dominate the entire Beast Pulse Realm.

Going further up, "Source-level Battle Arts" were suitable for beastmasters in the Spirit Source Realm. It was said that some beastmasters in the Beast Pulse Realm could even learn Low Source-level Battle Arts.

Li Tianming had once broken through to the Spirit Source Realm. Though his beast origin was gone, his mastery of combat arts remained sharp—only Little Yellow Chick needed to relearn the Beast Art within those techniques.

But that little guy was freakishly talented. The combat arts that Jin Yu had once spent so much effort practicing with Li Tianming came to it in a flash, without the slightest difficulty.

Such advanced combat methods were crucial for it to leverage its Eternal Purgatory Beast Origin in battle.

Over these days, he and Little Yellow Chick had fully integrated and mastered many of their former combat arts.

Everything now awaited the day of Li Yanfeng's grand wedding!