Beast!

Shi Yi knew nothing of what was happening inside Martial King Manor. He only knew that he was about to hurt himself to death. His flesh and tendons felt as though someone were pulling them like rubber bands, yanking them back and forth in a nonstop, frenzied tremor.

Although every tremor strengthened his body and visibly increased his power, this method of improvement was far too violent. It was a brute-force elevation, with no gradual progression whatsoever.

Fortunately, Shi Yi had undergone medicinal baths every month over the years, so his physical body was fairly strong. With a swing of one arm, he could exert ninety thousand jin of force. Otherwise, the energy contained within the true blood of a Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beast would have long since burst his body apart.

Shi Yi's current strength of ninety thousand jin with one arm was already very close to the limit of a Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beast cub. He was just one step away from one hundred thousand jin with a single arm.

Humans were ranked high and low despite all being human. Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beasts were no different, so not every Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beast cub possessed ninety thousand jin of strength while young.

Unless they were the strongest cubs among Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beasts, such as the Golden-Winged Great Peng, True Hou, Pixiu, or Kirin, breaking through ninety thousand jin of force with one arm was nearly impossible.

If they were underdeveloped, they might even be weaker than Shi Yi.

The reason Shi Yi had reached this level, with a body comparable to the strongest cubs among Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beasts, was inseparable from Martial King Manor's cultivation.

Over the years.

Martial King Manor had poured practically all its resources into Shi Yi, intending to forge him an unshakable foundation so he could go farther in the future.

Shi Hao was young, and what he used and ate were all scraps. Still, compared to ordinary people, his resources were already extravagant. That was one of the advantages of being Royalty Descendant.

Even if those resources were merely scraps.

They were still things countless people could only dream of obtaining.

Although Ancient Descendant true blood could not compare to the true blood of Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beasts, true blood of this grade was not something ordinary people could casually acquire.

If these portions of Ancient Descendant true blood were placed outside, who knew how many people would fight to the death and use every possible means to seize them.

Only Martial King Manor, with several Venerables capable of ruling the mortal world—such as Shi Zhongtian, Old Fifteenth, Martial King, Old Eighth, Old Thirteenth, Old Eleventh, and Old Ninth—could obtain Ancient Descendant true blood that outsiders did not even dare dream of.

As for true blood from Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beasts, after all these years, Martial King Manor possessed only nine jars. These came from a Flame Kirin killed by the Shi Clan's Old Ancestor in the Battlefield of Hundred Clans long ago and preserved until now. It was one of Martial King Manor's true foundations.

What was the Battlefield of Hundred Clans?

The Battlefield of Hundred Clans was a battleground where different races fought for supremacy. There were Pure-Blooded Lifeforms and Ancient Descendants alike. It had been built by great powers of the Upper Realm, and it existed throughout the Eight Regions of the Lower Realm. It was said that whoever cleared the Battlefield of Hundred Clans could gain the qualification to ascend to the Upper Realm.

But after reaching the Upper Realm.

They would most likely become servants or slaves, perhaps even someone's mount.

What was the Upper Realm?

The Upper Realm was the Nine Heavens Ten Earths, home to the Three Thousand Dao Provinces. The combined size of the Eight Regions of the Lower Realm was no more than a single province. One province was equivalent to ten thousand Azure Blue Planets.

There were three thousand such Dao Provinces in total, yet the Three Thousand Dao Provinces were merely one of the ten boundless continents within the Nine Heavens Ten Earths.

More than ninety percent of the Nine Heavens Ten Earths consisted of Forbidden Grounds. Less than ten percent remained, forming the Three Thousand Dao Provinces where living beings could survive and prosper.

What was the Lower Realm?

The Eight Regions of the Lower Realm were divided into Heaven, Earth, Mystic, Yellow, Cosmos, Universe, Vastness, and Wild.

The Eight Regions of the Lower Realm could, in truth, be considered a part of the Nine Heavens Ten Earths in the Upper Realm.

Yet because of their special nature, the Eight Regions of the Lower Realm did not belong to the Nine Heavens Ten Earths. They were Small Worlds refined by Ancient Great Powers using supreme divine abilities, modeled after the Nine Heavens Ten Earths of the Upper Realm.

The Wild Domain, where Shi Yi and Shi Hao lived, was merely one of those continents.

Shi Yi was not only enduring physical pain. The crisis within his sea of soul was also grave.

Within the azure sea of soul, a hundred-meter-tall Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beast bared its fangs at him. Its savage gaze seemed capable of tearing someone apart out of thin air.

This Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beast was none other than a Flame Kirin cub. It had been killed by the Shi Clan's Old Ancestor in the Battlefield of Hundred Clans when it was young, and its resentment had long since soared beyond the heavens.

To absorb its true blood, Shi Yi first had to endure its resentment. Failure meant his soul would shatter, while his body would become a walking corpse—an empty shell without a soul.

"Roar! Roar!!!" The cry of a kirin rang out.

This Flame Kirin cub, condensed from resentment, looked almost exactly as it had in life: the familiar lion's head, deer antlers, tiger eyes, elk body, dragon scales, ox tail, and blazing flames burning all over its body.

This was a Flame Kirin.

Its car-sized eyes were fixed firmly on Shi Yi. Its powerful limbs wandered unconsciously across the ground, and its massive hundred-meter body made it appear utterly invincible.

Compared to Shi Yi, a human cub barely six years old and less than a meter tall, this Flame Kirin looked as though a single breath might reduce him to ashes.

But strength was not determined by size. Size determined the lower limit, but it could not guarantee the upper limit. The fact that it had been killed proved that it had failed to defeat a far smaller human.

No one knew how long passed.

This Flame Kirin, formed entirely from gathered resentment, finally lost its patience. It raised its enormous forelimb, intending to crush Shi Yi's soul with a single stomp.

There was no need to doubt it. Even as nothing more than a mass of resentment, it possessed the ability to directly erase Shi Yi's soul.

The hundred-meter beast raised its forelimb and brought it down like a collapsing mountain and splitting earth. Even within the sea of soul consciousness, its terrifying might was not weakened in the slightest.

Shi Yi's sea of soul consciousness shook without end, and his soul sensed a fatal threat.

At the critical moment.

Outside, Shi Yi, seated cross-legged within the Great Bronze Cauldron, slowly opened his closed eyes.

In an instant.

The sky darkened.

Across the entire Martial King Manor, even throughout the whole Stone Kingdom, the heavens dimmed. One enormous eye after another, each bearing Double Pupils, replaced the glittering stars that should have appeared after nightfall.

Those eyes with Double Pupils were not lifeless objects. They turned incessantly, as though searching for something.

Anyone who dared look directly at one of those eyes with Double Pupils would feel the horrifying sensation of being no more than an ant.

"Beast!"

Shi Yi calmly uttered two words. In the dark sky, the Double Pupils that seemed to be searching for something all turned toward Martial King Manor in the same instant.

They saw it—the Flame Kirin within Shi Yi's sea of soul consciousness. This Pure-Blooded Ferocious Beast formed from gathered resentment was directly frozen in midair.

Its forelimb was less than a centimeter away from Shi Yi within the sea of soul consciousness. Yet that one centimeter was the difference between heaven and earth.

"Once dead, stay dead. Rest properly."

Shi Yi narrowed his eyes. The next instant, an unimaginable surge of pupil power erupted, instantly annihilating the Flame Kirin formed from gathered resentment.

"Hoo."

Just as Shi Yi gently exhaled, closed the heavenly phenomenon caused by his Double Pupils, and thought everything was over, an enormous flood of memories poured into the depths of his sea of soul consciousness.

Those memories were a chaotic mess. Shi Yi directly blocked out most of the useless ones, such as a certain Flame Kirin pursuing a female kirin, failing to catch her, and choosing to enter the Battlefield of Hundred Clans to temper itself and grow stronger.

After quite a while.

Shi Yi finally found a useful memory.

"Kirin Steps?"