You had buried yourself in rigorous Kui Ox Fist training for fifteen years, never slacking day or night, to the point of nearly going astray. So you stopped training and racked your brains for a more flexible approach.
In the seventeenth year, inspiration suddenly struck. Though the Kui Ox Fist was a punching technique, its training required moving the entire body. The kui ox was one of the Great Desolation's Disaster Beasts, standing on one leg, moving like thunderbolts. Gradually, you understood.
In the twenty-first year, you finally grasped from the Kui ox's pose of standing on one foot to hold up the sky the essence of standing on the left foot, sending force through the right fist, twisting the waist and turning the hips, and striking like a charging kui ox.
In the twenty-fifth year, it seemed you had truly found enlightenment. You further comprehended the mystery of the kui ox stepping to gather force, its fists moving with its steps.
Over the following eight years, you tried to delve further into the kui ox's essence, but your head became like a boulder once more.
After consuming thirty-three years of lifespan, you successfully elevated the inferior Kui Ox Fist to the low-grade tier. During training, it could drive thirty percent of your sinews, bones, and flesh into motion.
Inside the dwelling beneath the night curtain, Shen Can's body twitched and jerked as though he were dreaming.
After about half an hour, he suddenly opened his eyes, revealing a trace of weariness.
"A grand dream of thirty-three years. It felt quite real."
All the memories of practicing the fist technique were now in his mind, as though he had truly undergone bitter cultivation within some sealed space.
"The low-grade Kui Ox Fist."
"Could I be a genius?"
After sitting up from the stone bed, Shen Can suddenly had that thought.
The Blazing Flame Tribe's Kui Ox Fist had been passed down since the tribe's founding. It was not as though no one had tried to improve it over the years, yet none had managed an improvement like his.
He had completed a transformative improvement in just over thirty years.
It could drive thirty percent of the body's blood, bones, and flesh into motion. Though he did not know how much it had driven when it was inferior-grade, it certainly looked rather impressive now.
If that did not make him a genius, what did?
With that thought, he got down from the stone bed and assumed the opening stance of the Kui Ox Fist he had comprehended in his "dream."
The Kui Ox Fist had three moves in total: Kui Ox Splits the Mountain, Kui Shakes the Four Directions, and Kui Ox Thunderclap.
He had merely improved the first two moves, yet the technique's quality had risen by an entire tier.
The moment Shen Can opened his stance, he felt powerful pulling sensations arise in the muscles and tendons of his arms and legs. The bones of his arms and legs, along with his spine, also moved noticeably.
He had never experienced this while training the Kui Ox Fist in his memories.
The tribe's tempering method focused on eating beast meat and soaking in beast blood, then refining that energy into the body.
Naturally, the more sinews, bones, and flesh the body could drive into motion, the more energy could be refined into it.
After several movements, he felt heat rise within his body, growing stronger and stronger.
In less than half an hour, Shen Can suddenly staggered.
After going through the Kui Ox Fist's movements, he abruptly felt a little hungry.
"It's working."
Feeling hungry, Shen Can was not alarmed but delighted.
Hunger meant there had been consumption within his body. This showed that the improved Kui Ox Fist's efficiency had indeed increased considerably.
Although improving refining efficiency did not mean reducing the danger of breakthroughs, the dangers of breakthroughs could certainly be lowered through the improved Kui Ox Fist.
Once the Kui Ox Fist's refining rate increased, he might not even need to soak in beast blood. So long as he could perfectly absorb the essence of the beast meat he ate each day, he might be able to meet the Stone Splitter Realm's standard.
As for how one determined whether they had advanced to the first-tier Stone Splitter Realm, it depended on whether they could shatter Black Yuan Stone, a common type of stone in the Great Desolation.
An ordinary adult wild beast generally possessed enough strength to smash Black Yuan Stone.
The human race's Martial Dao had developed from wild beasts, which was why Stone Splitter had been chosen as the name of Martial Dao cultivation's first realm.
In other words, possessing one Desolate Power made one a Stone Splitter Realm martial artist.
To Shen Can, this division of levels was truly rather crude. It would be easy for different martial artists to possess differing amounts of Desolate Power.
Of course, that was not what he needed to worry about right now. What concerned him most was how to steal his ancestors' offering meat.
If not for this torrential rain, the tribe would head out hunting every few days. Each time they returned, they would bring back a live wild beast whenever possible, allowing him to continue plundering wild beasts' lifespans.
By then, he might well be able to deduce the Kui Ox Fist to the middle-grade tier, perhaps even the high-grade tier.
But now, this damned rain.
"I have a method of deduction. I should not focus only on what lies before my eyes. There will be offerings."
After calming himself, Shen Can glanced outside the cave entrance, then walked out of the ear cave.
"Master said taking a little of the offerings doesn't count as stealing."
Just as he emerged, Huo Xian also lifted the curtain and stepped out from East Ear Cave.
Seeing that Huo Xian was up so early as well, Shen Can knew stealing was out of the question. He might as well take it openly.
Seeing Shen Can already cleaned up and out of the cave, Huo Xian nodded, evidently satisfied.
If nothing else, his attitude was excellent.
Shen Can then followed behind Huo Xian and began cleaning inside and outside the ancestral temple, including wiping the spirit tablets and offering tables, sweeping, sprinkling water, and clearing away dust.
At last, Huo Xian took down a piece of the offerings from the offering table.
"We'll cook this piece. Divide the rest among the tribe's little ones."
Meat offered after a sacrifice was called Zuò meat, also known as Fú meat, symbolizing the ancestors' blessings.
The day after each hunting party returned, the children of the tribe would come seeking the ancestors' blessing. When Shen Can was little, he too had come to the ancestral temple to ask for it, hoping to receive the ancestors' blessing and become a true martial artist.
Put bluntly, it was merely a spiritual comfort.
"Thud, thud!"
Before long, a jumble of footsteps sounded outside the ancestral temple, and one child after another knelt at the cave entrance.
"Go distribute the meat to everyone."
Huo Xian had long been used to it. He had always handled this matter before.
Shen Can carried the Zuò meat toward the children at the cave entrance.
"Brother Can, you really became the temple keeper? Then you won't go hunting anymore?"
Seeing Shen Can emerge, the dozen or so children at the ancestral temple entrance all raised their heads in unison. Huo Yuan, kneeling on the ground and using his knees as legs, crawled toward Shen Can.
"Quiet down around the ancestral temple."
Shen Can immediately told Huo Yuan to shut up. Once this little fellow started chattering, the other children would surely start chattering too.
Then they might ask him why he dissolved in water, which would be rather awkward.
"Come, one piece each. A blessing from the ancestors."
Huo Yuan wanted some and stared at Shen Can with eager eyes, but he did not rush forward to snatch any. Instead, he obediently waited in line.
Shen Can placed the last piece of Zuò meat, from the left shoulder, into Huo Yuan's hands.
"Brother Can, won't you live at home anymore?"
Shen Can rubbed the head of the little child who lived nearby.
"From now on, whenever you come to collect Zuò meat, you'll see me."
"Go home. Finish the Zuò meat bestowed by the ancestors, and someday you'll become powerful martial artists."
"Brother Can, don't secretly cry. Once I become a powerful martial artist, I'll hunt a Mountain-Cleaving Kui and let Brother Can preside over the ancestral sacrifice."
Huo Yuan hugged the Zuò meat and ran home, howling all the way.
Shen Can snorted disdainfully at the words of a child with hair hanging in tufts.
Would he cry?
Right now, he only wanted to be a good temple keeper and guard the tribe's ancestors well.
So long as the weather cleared and the tribe resumed its normal activities, his lifespan would come.
He refused to believe this rain could keep falling for two and a half years.
After coaxing the children away, Shen Can caught the scent of roasting meat. Huo Xian was already grilling it. If the children had not been present, he would have been so hungry that he would have wanted to gnaw the Zuò meat raw.
Coming before the spirit tablets, he saw that the three-legged cauldron-shaped blood vessel was still more than half full of beast blood.
Seeing Huo Xian had not come over, he bowed toward the spirit tablets, then carefully reached for the blood vessel.
The Zuo Commentary recorded: "On the day after the sacrifice, the Zuò meat was distributed among the dukes and ministers."
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