Great Accomplishment and Preparation

For the next three days, the Spirit Beast Garden once again fell into a bloody rhythm of hunting.

Yan Kui continued clearing out the rampaging spirit beasts Luo Yue had assigned him. But unlike the previous two weeks, his fighting style had undergone a qualitative transformation. He no longer relied on brute force alone, nor was he merely making preliminary use of his movement technique. Instead, his strength, movement, and physique worked together in perfect harmony.

A Spirit Badger, a beast renowned for its defenses, encountered Yan Kui's Spirit Snake Steps. It was accustomed to enemies attacking head-on, but when Yan Kui's body formed five overlapping afterimages in midair, its defenses became completely useless. Amid the chaos of the afterimages, Yan Kui used the Spirit Snake Silk Hand to bind the Spirit Badger's limbs, then tore it in half with sheer strength.

[Killed Qi Cultivation spirit beasts ×4]

[Origin Power: +8.0]

As the second batch of spirit beasts was being cleared out, Luo Yue came to the Spirit Beast Garden in person.

He no longer hid in the shadows to observe as before. Instead, he stood directly on a stone platform in the Abandoned Zone, watching Yan Kui's every move with an uncanny gaze. His eyes brimmed with greed and excitement, as well as some dangerous calculation.

Yan Kui could feel that gaze. He knew what Luo Yue was evaluating—not his current strength, but his future "value."

Under Luo Yue's watch, Yan Kui continued to complete his task. He dodged a Spirit Eagle with his movement technique, then seized the perfect moment to lock its wings with the Silk Hand. Finally, one punch smashed its skull. He chased a Spirit Snake for dozens of meters before cornering it inside a cave and slamming it against the stone wall until it died.

[Killed Qi Cultivation spirit beasts ×5]

[Origin Power: +8.0]

By the time the sun set, Yan Kui had been in the Spirit Beast Garden for nearly two weeks. Luo Yue had left, but Yan Kui knew that gaze would continue to follow him.

Inside the cave, Yan Kui made his final decision: before this hunting cycle ended, he would advance both the Spirit Snake Steps and Earth Fire Body Tempering to the Great Accomplishment stage.

He felt a certain pressure—not from spirit beasts or enemies, but from the pressure of Luo Yue's greedy gaze. His instincts told him that the next time Luo Yue appeared, it wouldn't be for mere observation.

[Training Spirit Snake Steps, advancing to Great Accomplishment. Origin Power consumed: -8.0]

Boom—

This fusion was far more intense than the transformation at the Minor Accomplishment stage. As Origin Power surged out of his dantian, Yan Kui felt as if his entire body were undergoing some kind of soul-deep remolding.

His muscle fibers began to undergo even finer adjustments. Each fiber was no longer limited to simple "contraction" and "relaxation." Instead, it could coordinate in extraordinarily complex ways—as if his entire body had become something fluid.

His bones reformed under the impact of Origin Power. But this time, the goal wasn't to increase their density; it was to increase their flexibility. Yan Kui's spine began to change in some uncanny way, each vertebra capable of bending far more than before. When he tried to make his spine move in a serpentine wave, his entire body actually managed to do it.

His neural reaction speed reached a new height. Yan Kui felt his brain process visual information several times faster—every detail caught by his eyes was swiftly processed and turned into a physical response.

Fifteen minutes later, the transformation was complete.

Yan Kui rose and performed a simple test inside the cave. He shot out of the entrance, his body changing direction repeatedly in midair, each shift completed in an instant. When he moved across the ground at full speed, his body left five distinct afterimages—not because he was moving too fast to see clearly, but because he could change position at an astonishing frequency.

Even more terrifying, he could perform difficult jumps, turn around, and even hang upside down while sprinting at full speed. It was as if his body had lost all sense of "weight," leaving only pure speed and agility.

[Spirit Snake Steps · Great Accomplishment (Movement speed +30%; can create five afterimages; maximum flexibility greatly increased)]

Next, he advanced Earth Fire Body Tempering.

[Training Earth Fire Body Tempering, advancing to Great Accomplishment. Origin Power consumed: -6.0]

This fusion was more direct than the one for the Spirit Snake Steps. Earth Fire energy surged into Yan Kui's body from the surrounding environment. Although he still couldn't actively absorb Earth Fire from his surroundings, his body could now resonate with this energy.

Origin Power burned through his internal organs. His liver became an organ forged by flame, his lungs became blazing furnaces, and his heart became a kind of everlasting Flame Heart. His bones absorbed a massive amount of Earth Fire energy in the process, each one seeming to become a special mineral.

As his blood flowed through his veins, it had become scorching magma. His skin turned an even deeper, darker red—not merely in color, but with real flames dancing beneath it.

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When the fusion was complete, Yan Kui could feel that his body temperature was high enough to make an ordinary person feel burned from three meters away. His body had become a kind of walking furnace.

[Earth Fire Body Tempering · Great Accomplishment (Physique +0.8; body emits a continuous stream of scorching heat; cannot be extinguished)]

After the fusion was complete, Yan Kui tested himself at the edge of the magma in the Earth Fire Region. He picked up a searing-hot rock from the magma—a stone hot enough to melt ordinary metal in an instant—but as he held it, he felt his skin absorbing its heat.

His body no longer feared fire. On the contrary, flames had become a kind of "nourishment" to him.

That night, Luo Yue appeared in the Spirit Beast Garden once more.

But this time, he didn't watch from the shadows. He appeared directly in front of Yan Kui.

"Your progress is fast." Luo Yue's voice brimmed with a restrained excitement, and his eyes glimmered with an eerie light in the darkness. "I can sense the changes in your aura. The Spirit Snake Steps have reached Great Accomplishment, and you've also gained a preliminary mastery of Earth Fire Body Tempering. Achieving these breakthroughs in just two short weeks... you've certainly exceeded my expectations."

Yan Kui said nothing, simply looking at Luo Yue calmly.

"Interesting. Very interesting." Luo Yue stepped closer, looking Yan Kui up and down with an indescribable gaze. "Your potential for bodily modification is far greater than I imagined. In that case, perhaps... I'll have to make some adjustments to my previous plan."

"What plan?" Yan Kui's tone remained calm, but he had already sensed danger.

A strange smile appeared on Luo Yue's lips. "You don't need to know just yet..."

"Why?"

"Because I want to see how far you'll go under real pressure." Luo Yue's gaze grew even more dangerous. "I have a feeling you're going to give me a very big surprise."

As Luo Yue turned to leave, his dangerous gaze remained fixed on Yan Kui. After the Elder's figure vanished into the darkness, Yan Kui stood silent for a long time.

He went to where the Mysterious Yin Iron Mother lay. The mineral was now giving off a faint blue light, as if resonating with something. Yan Kui's Mysterious Bone Fragment was glowing too—the two lights seemed to answer each other.

He could feel that the conditions for fusion were gradually coming together.

Once he had collected enough Cultivation Techniques, and the pressure had grown strong enough to spur him into the final fusion, the second stage of the Crimson Extreme Golden Body would be born.

He wouldn't obtain it through cultivation, but through fusion.

This time, he would fuse the Crimson Extreme Golden Body, the Spirit Snake Steps, the Spirit Snake Silk Hand, Earth Fire Body Tempering, and the essence of the Cultivation Techniques he had obtained elsewhere. At that moment, he would undergo a true transformation.

Yan Kui looked at the Mysterious Yin Iron Mother in his hand. The mineral was waiting for something. So was the Mysterious Bone Fragment.

They were waiting for the moment of fusion—the moment that would change everything.

``` [Crimson Modifier]

Host: Yan Kui

Origin Power: 46.7 → 48.7 (+16.0 spirit beasts, -8.0 Spirit Snake Steps Great Accomplishment, -6.0 Earth Fire Body Tempering Great Accomplishment)

Strength: 10.5

Agility: 4.0 → 5.0 ↑

Physique: 12.5 → 13.3 ↑ ``