Ultimate Metamorphosis, Ascending to Stone Splitter

The rain continued to fall.

The floodwaters surged like muddy dragons from multiple mountain passes, their massive waves crashing against the mountainsides.

The tribesmen stood on the shore, hoping to replicate the scene of catching the He Luo fish.

Within the tribe, news of the ancestors' miraculous appearances spread through every cave, greatly improving the atmosphere.

From the young boys just beginning to learn the fist techniques to the Stone Splitter Realm martial artists who had trained for decades, everyone was practicing the improved Kui Ox Fist bestowed by the 'ancestors'.

Shen Can was no exception.

Huo Xian had specially granted him permission to leave the ancestral temple and return only after completing the improved fist techniques.

After two days of feigning practice, Shen Can felt his spirit had mostly recovered.

The night was deep, and outside the cave, the heavy rain pattered noisily.

[Continue deducing Kui Ox Thunder Sound.]

At the end of the last deduction, he had been informed that the evolution of the Kui Ox Fist into Thunder Sound held greater mysteries.

Moreover, the high-grade Kui Ox Fist could only mobilize eighty percent of the body's tendons and bones. Shen Can felt he was still far from the ultimate level.

The phantom within the Three-legged Small Cauldron began to move.

[Having practiced the fist techniques 150 times, you have finally opened all seven orifices, no longer completely ignorant.]

[One year later, the Thunder Sound evolved into a double resonance.]

[Thirty years later, the Thunder Sound evolved into a seven-resonance.]

[Twenty more years passed, and the Thunder Sound evolved into an eight-resonance.]

[After the Kui Ox's eight resonances, you felt your skull turn to stone again, unable to find the subsequent path. In the blink of an eye, another twenty years passed, and you transformed into an ox once more.]

[Moo moo moo]

Within the Three-legged Small Cauldron, the phantom continuously mooed, but its hands did not stop moving. The Kui Ox Fist was performed again and again, without pause.

Finally, during a new round of fist technique execution, the Thunder Sound resonated once more: seven, eight, nine...

As the ninth resonance sounded, the phantom performing the fist technique trembled, and a profound mystery surged directly into its spiritual crown.

[Another thirty years passed. Through your stubborn, unceasing cultivation, the ninth resonance of the Kui Ox Thunder Sound was unleashed.]

[Kui Ox Nine Resonances, the pinnacle of Kui Fist, capable of tempering the body's flesh, tendons, bones, and internal organs.]

[Congratulations, stubborn one, for comprehending the auxiliary cultivation divine ability, Myriad Transformations to One.]

On the stone bed, Shen Can's eyes opened.

Sacrificer: Shen Can
Martial Dao Realm: Unranked.
Sacrificial Artifact: Sacrificial Cauldron
Tempering Method: Kui Ox Fist (High-grade)
Witchcraft: Blazing Flame Tribe Witch Doctor Method (Inferior), Witchcraft (None)
Cultivation Technique: None
Martial Dao Divine Ability: Myriad Transformations to One
Lifespan: 15

[Myriad Transformations to One: Allows the Sacrificer to perfectly refine and absorb daily cultivation sustenance, possessing the effects of encompassing all rivers and accumulating small gains.]

One day later, after eating three hearty meals of meat, Shen Can felt the benefits of Myriad Transformations to One.

This divine ability was incredibly useful.

When used to assist in cultivating the Kui Ox Fist, the meat he consumed was perfectly converted into strength for his own improvement.

Not only was there no waste, but Shen Can even found a handful of dry leaves in the tribe and ate them, and they were also converted.

As long as it was a cultivation resource he consumed, he could squeeze out some benefit from it, and what he excreted was merely dry dregs.

Under these circumstances, Shen Can felt that even if he only ate ordinary wild beast meat, he could advance to become a martial artist; it would only be a matter of time.

Catching a toad and squeezing out oil – so that's what 'encompassing all rivers' meant.

The Stone Splitter Realm and Mountain Opening Realm were now completely open to him. The process of soaking in beast blood that his tribesmen required was something he no longer needed at all.

Even the Celestial Meridian Realm no longer seemed so difficult.

The further Myriad Transformations to One progressed, the greater its auxiliary effect would be.

Accumulating small gains to complete higher-level leaps.

The reason the Blazing Flame Tribe only had one Celestial Meridian Realm martial artist was primarily due to the scarcity of third-tier wild beasts.

Second-tier wild beasts, as long as they weren't overly troublesome, could easily be dragged back to the tribe by the concentrated attacks of the tribe's Stone Splitter Realm martial artists.

However, for third-tier wild beasts, the success rate of relying on the concentrated attacks of second-tier Mountain Opening Realm martial artists would decrease significantly.

Hunting third-tier savage beasts in the tribe also depended on luck.

It was just that the Blazing Flame Tribe was too small. Take the Sulfur Tribe as an example; they had several Celestial Meridian Realm martial artists who could spare people to wander around the nearby great wilderness all day, specifically gathering information on third-tier savage beasts.

Savage beasts also had their own territories and would fight amongst themselves.

The purpose of wandering was to find old or injured third-tier savage beasts. Once found, they would organize people to hunt them.

The Blazing Flame Tribe only had Tribe Leader Huo Tang as a Celestial Meridian Realm expert, so they naturally couldn't send people out to wander.

Whether they could hunt a third-tier savage beast depended entirely on luck.

But luck was something that might not even come once in several decades.

Shen Can didn't think the tribe would specifically hunt a third-tier savage beast for him. His ancestors didn't have that much fortune either. Whether he could eat one depended entirely on luck.

Therefore, he couldn't even think about obtaining a third-tier savage beast as a resource.

This was only for third-tier savage beasts. When it came to fourth-tier, fifth-tier... it would become increasingly impossible to hunt them even with large numbers.

But with this divine ability, as long as he could perfectly refine the existing resources, he could rely on the nourishment of second-tier, or even a large number of first-tier savage beasts, to advance to the Celestial Meridian Realm martial artist stage through perfect transformation.

It was a method of gathering many small things to make a large whole.

With the perfect Kui Ox Fist and the auxiliary cultivation divine ability, Shen Can had no other thoughts. He squatted in the ancestral temple, waiting to eat.

Huo Xian served a heaping bowl of beast meat.

Seeing Shen Can, who was still shorter than the other tribesmen despite practicing martial arts every day, Huo Xian patted his shoulder, "Eat more, your body is still a bit frail."

Over the next ten days, there was constant activity in the various caves within the tribe. Shen Can subconsciously forgot about the crackling heavy rain outside.

In the side cave west of the ancestral temple.

Shen Can retracted his fist and stood still.

Feeling the heat flow through his body, Shen Can's eyes lit up.

He had advanced. He was so hungry, and he wanted to eat more.

He looked at his physique again. He had grown taller, but he was still far from the bear-like strong men of the tribe.

"Crack!"

He reached for the Black Yuan Stone placed in the cave, channeling his energy into his right hand.

The part of the Black Yuan Stone he gripped was directly subjected to the miracle of great force.

A corner of the Black Yuan Stone, more than a meter tall, was directly crushed by his grip, and a crack ran through it.

The tribe tested the punching power of Stone Splitter Realm martial artists by smashing directly with their fists.

Shen Can wasn't that violent. There wasn't a clear boundary between the Stone Splitter Realm and the Mountain Opening Realm; both emphasized an increase in personal strength.

Soaking in second-tier beast blood was more like pushing one's strength to the limit, using the beast blood to break through this bottleneck and open up a new upper limit for improvement.

For him, there were no bottlenecks hindering him.

As long as he ate and ate, he could naturally become a Mountain Opening Realm martial artist.

Sacrifice Master: Shen Can

Martial Arts Realm: Stone Splitter Realm (One Wild Beast Strength)

Sacrifice Artifact: Sacrificial Cauldron

Refinement Method: Kui Ox Fist (High Grade)

He had been busy advancing to become a martial artist during this time, and the tribesmen in the tribe had also gotten started with the improved Kui Ox Fist, with pretty good overall results.

Why was Shen Can so clear about this?

Because...

In the east side cave.

Several beast skin scrolls were laid out before him.

One was a beast skin catalog with the improved Kui Ox Fist imprinted on it.

One was a list of tribe members.

Shen Can glanced at it and found that there were only two people with the same name as him on the list; they were both born while warming themselves by the fire at the foot of the mountain.

The list was densely packed with names and corresponding portraits.

The portraits, for the most part, captured each person's distinctive features.

There were a total of one hundred and thirty-three people, with twenty-seven new additions. A'Yu's name was among the new additions.

These were all tribesmen whom the tribe believed had the potential to become Stone Splitter Realm martial artists.

Since the newly improved fist technique appeared, the number had increased by one-fifth in a short period.

Anyone in the tribe who felt they had a chance would register with Huo Xian and then wait in line for beast blood.

"Write down Huo Xun's name. He's over forty. If he can advance to become a martial artist, it would be a blessing from our ancestors."

Huo Xian gave instructions to Shen Can, but the sighs of lamentation continued unabated.

While the spirits of the ancestors manifesting were good, the current scene was truly not a pleasant one.

There was no beast blood.

With the rain pouring down, there were no prey animals anywhere near the tribe.

Once the heavy rain stopped, the wild beasts, driven mad by hunger and able to evade the great floods, would become even more ferocious.

Not to mention that after the heavy rain, plagues of insects were bound to appear, and that was the tribe's true great crisis.

For martial artists, plague insects were a major problem, let alone for the tribe's elderly, weak, women, and children. If the plague insects spread and infected everyone, the entire tribe could potentially become a silent, dead place.

In fact, during his free time these past few days, Shen Can had already been studying witch doctor methods for preventing and treating plague insects.

Plague insects were also a type of great desolate disaster beast; once they spread, they would cover the land like a blanket.

After releasing their plague fluids, people would suffer from swollen bodies and festering sores, followed by the decay of their internal organs, turning them into breeding grounds for the plague insects.

Amidst the crisis, he saw an opportunity.

Plagues treated everyone equally. If they could be well-defended against, it might just be an opportunity for the Blazing Flame Tribe to expand its population.

As long as the tribe's strength increased, the ancestors would be able to eat better.

Respecting the ancestors, that was his most sincere desire.