Ninth Rank Warrior Peak?

Year 9962 of the Jade Tomb Calendar.

Demon Flag Mountain, deep within the jungle.

Awooo! Ancient Tree Devouring Heaven.

Massive tree canopies obscured the sky.

Sunlight could only filter through the cracks like shattered gold, casting mottled patches of light.

Roar!

A bellow shook the birds and beasts within a hundred miles.

An ancient tree that would have taken three people to encircle was snapped in half at the waist.

An enormous black figure burst from the forest and crashed heavily to the ground, smashing out a huge crater.

It stood dozens of meters tall, like a moving hill.

Its pitch-black fur was streaked with eerie purple lines, radiating a chilling dark aura.

Ninth Rank Warrior, Purple-striped Black Bear.

At this moment.

This Purple-striped Black Bear appeared utterly wretched.

Its thick, proud fur had been torn open by a massive wound. Blood gushed out like a spring, dyeing the surrounding grass red.

It roared furiously, struggling to rise, its eyes filled with savagery and unwillingness.

Before it stood.

A young man, bare-chested, stood calmly.

He was lean and well-proportioned, not particularly imposing.

Yet every muscle on his body was as perfect as if carved from stone, brimming with explosive power.

His short black hair was tousled, and his handsome face was calm as water, yet unfathomably deep.

It was Lei Wen.

Two years later.

Eighteen-year-old Lei Wen had shed the immaturity of youth, his brows now carrying a trace of composure and coldness.

He casually shook the heavy axe in his hand, flicking a drop of purple-black beast blood from its blade.

Roar—!

The Purple-striped Black Bear let out another crazed howl.

A dark ball of light gathered in its mouth, swallowing all the surrounding light.

Dark magic of the ninth rank—Dark Explosion!

Lei Wen did not dodge.

He did not even bother to raise a defensive barrier.

He merely stood there.

Just as the black sphere was about to blast into him.

Lei Wen moved.

He became a blur.

In the next instant.

Lei Wen appeared behind the Purple-striped Black Bear.

The heavy axe in his hand moved without any flourish, simply chopping downward.

Yet that seemingly ordinary strike gave off a strange sensation.

It was as though the axe was not a ponderous weapon weighing hundreds of pounds, but a feather drifting with the wind.

Light as a feather.

The hallmark of a Ninth Rank Warrior.

Squelch!

The heavy axe effortlessly cleaved through the Purple-striped Black Bear's massive skull, as easily as slicing through tofu.

The enormous bear body twitched violently before crashing to the ground.

The Dark Explosion it had been gathering vanished in an instant.

Landing, sheathing the axe.

His movements flowed smoothly, without a single excess motion.

"Hah..."

Lei Wen slowly exhaled.

This Purple-striped Black Bear was far stronger than the Swift Dragon he had encountered eight years ago.

But before him now, it was simply not enough.

He skillfully skinned it, drained its blood, and carved it apart.

Half an hour later.

A familiar bonfire rose once more.

Only this time.

What roasted over the fire was the most succulent chest meat of a Ninth Rank Warrior Purple-striped Black Bear.

Lei Wen sat on a boulder, poking the fire with an oak branch.

Firelight flickered across his face.

Without realizing it.

It had already been two years since he entered Demon Flag Mountain.

Those two years might have been nothing to ordinary people, perhaps only an insignificant moment in their lives.

But to Lei Wen, they had been two years carved into his bones.

He looked at the back of his left hand.

The once-blood-red birthmark had now turned dark purple.

That hideous mouth-shaped mark had become increasingly clear, to the point where its densely packed fangs could be seen distinctly.

Lei Wen himself had also undergone tremendous changes.

The body of a Ninth Rank Warrior.

The aura of a Ninth Rank Warrior.

This was the gift the birthmark had bestowed upon Lei Wen.

Every meal was a transformation.

The fragrance of roasted meat slowly spread.

The Purple-striped Black Bear's flesh was rich in energy beyond compare.

Lei Wen tore off a piece of meat and stuffed it into his mouth, chewing heavily.

Juice spilled from the meat.

Its unique texture made Lei Wen narrow his eyes in enjoyment.

As he swallowed.

A huge flow of heat poured into his stomach.

Lei Wen waited.

He waited for that familiar suction, for the birthmark to awaken once again.

However.

A minute passed.

Five minutes passed.

The heat in his stomach was indeed dispersing, the energy from the meat being naturally absorbed.

But that was all.

The hideous birthmark remained motionless.

Lei Wen frowned.

He tore off an even larger piece of meat and wolfed it down.

More.

He kept eating.

Until the entire ten-plus-pound slab of chest meat had been devoured by Lei Wen.

The birthmark still showed no reaction.

Other than the slight fullness in his stomach.

The mark was as though dead, without any response.

Lei Wen clicked his tongue and tossed the bone in his hand into the fire.

"It's stuck."

That feeling was not unfamiliar.

Ever since his body and aura had both reached the peak of Ninth Rank Warrior.

That situation had appeared.

It was like a bottle already filled with water. No matter how much more was poured in, it would only overflow.

No matter how much high-ranking magical beast meat he ate, the birthmark no longer fed him that pure evolutionary energy.

Unless...

Lei Wen lowered his head and glanced at the scar on his arm.

That was where the Purple-striped Black Bear had struck him with a desperate counterattack before dying.

The next second.

The back of his left hand trembled slightly.

A faint warm current flowed from the birthmark, pouring into the scar.

In the blink of an eye.

The scar vanished completely, his skin smooth as before.

"It only moves when I'm injured or severely exhausted."

Lei Wen shook his head helplessly.

He naturally understood what was happening.

A bottleneck.

The bottleneck of the ninth rank.

In this world, if a warrior wanted to step into the holy realm, merely piling up aura and physical strength was not enough.

One had to comprehend "Will."

The Will of heaven and earth.

Only by borrowing the power of heaven and earth could one break through the limits of mortals, gain a limitless lifespan, and fly through the sky.

Otherwise.

Even if Lei Wen ate the entire Demon Beast Mountain Range bare and tempered his body until it was tougher than steel, he would still only be a Ninth Rank Warrior.

But.

"What exactly is Will?"

The word sounded mysterious and profound.

Unlike light as a feather.

His father, Doge Bart, was a Ninth Rank Warrior.

Doge Bart had naturally not comprehended "Will," but he had immersed himself in the realm of "lifting the light as though it were heavy" for many years.

Lei Wen had been influenced by him since childhood.

Combined with the tempering he had endured amid life-and-death struggles over the past eight years.

Lei Wen had mastered "lifting the light as though it were heavy" without much difficulty.

That axe strike was proof.

An axe weighing over a thousand pounds felt as light as a feather in Lei Wen's hands.

This was not merely an increase in strength, but a higher realm of control over power.

But that was still not enough.

Old Doge Bart had been stuck at the peak of Ninth Rank Warrior for more than a decade, and even now he had not touched the threshold of the holy realm.

This proved that one could not force out "Will" through hard work alone.

Lei Wen lay on the boulder, resting his hands beneath his head as he watched the mottled tree shadows.

"Will..."

He muttered to himself.

They said one needed to feel nature and let one's heart merge with heaven and earth.

Easy to say.

For the past eight years, he had spent every day in these deep mountains and ancient forests, fighting magical beasts and vegetation alike, yet he had not felt himself merging with heaven and earth at all.

Instead, his roasting skills had improved tremendously.

"Could it be that I need to become some wandering poet, sighing over mountains and rivers every day and pretending to be profound?"

Lei Wen laughed at himself.

That clearly did not suit him.

His path was one he would eat his way through, one he would kill his way through.

If he could not comprehend it...

Would a noble young master's son simply stop here?

No.

Lei Wen's eyes sharpened.

He had not come to this world to become some useless good-for-nothing.