Mad Beast Unleashed (Part One)

Wu Dao did not leave Red Fire Mine.

Instead, he found a mine tunnel to serve as his place of evolution. If he did not vent the foul rage that had been bottled up in his chest for three months,

he would not feel at ease even if he went to the End of the World!

"Come on, let me see just how miraculous you really are!"

In the darkness of the mine tunnel.

Wu Dao sat cross-legged on the ground, divine light gleaming in his eyes. He focused his mental will on the Attribute Panel and tapped the + sign behind the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique.

Bzz!

In an instant!

Wu Dao felt his body, inside and out, even his soul and spirit, tremble. It was as though an invisible force had formed a cocoon around him.

A surging liquid, even more concentrated than Myriad Healing Fluid, gushed out from the depths of his body. He seemed to have returned to his mother's womb, yet also seemed to be standing upon the earth in warm spring.

Every cell, organ, even every strand of hair and patch of skin cheered in delight. A tingling numbness spread through him as they transformed into countless tiny mouths, gulping down the warm current.

Empty and ethereal, drifting and floating.

Utter bliss and freedom!

This feeling of Life Evolution was a hundred times more exhilarating than mating!

Wu Dao's face was filled with intoxicated enjoyment. If the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique had not kept him lucid the entire time, he would have wanted to drown in that supreme bliss forever.

Who knew how much time passed.

Perhaps a few minutes, perhaps one or two hours.

Crack—

The invisible cocoon shattered. Wu Dao abruptly opened his deep eyes, their sharp radiance piercing the darkness, wise and majestic, like a god of the Nine Heavens opening his gaze.

Crackle, pop!

He stretched his mighty body, his muscles and bones ringing in unison. Like a giant bear emerging from hibernation, he naturally radiated a savage aura that made all beasts bow and crawl.

Tiger-Bear Strength had become Savage Elephant Strength, while Leopard-Antelope Strength had risen to another level. His short-term explosive power now rivaled that of a diving bird of prey. Compared to before, his strength had increased severalfold at the very least!

This was no empty boast!

Wu Dao had undergone the complete experience of Potential Liberation, so he clearly understood what kind of strength Heaven Stealers at each realm possessed!

As his strength increased.

Wu Dao's body also underwent new changes.

First, his height increased again, reaching two and a half meters!

His back was thick as a tiger's, his waist sturdy as a bear's!

Once he spread his back, the muscles on his front and back bulged, his lats flaring open. From afar, his granite-like muscle groups seemed to form an ancient giant crab, blotting out the sky and seizing the soul!

The hardness of his skin changed once more!

Its previous gelatinous feel transformed into a keratinous one. His entire body seemed to be clad in a tortoise-shell carapace of yellow jade.

Even scraping him with a sharp stone would only leave a white mark. Ordinary blades, fists, and kicks could no longer pose much threat, greatly enhancing his defense.

Then came his muscles.

At this moment, every muscle fiber in every muscle throughout his body was twisted together like countless brass wires, his explosive force making a tremendous leap!

Every large tendon possessed the resilience of a bowstring. Once his entire body tensed and exerted force, he was like a fully drawn greatbow!

His internal organs were also brimming with power like the engine of a monstrous war beast. Standing close enough, one could hear his heartbeats pounding like war drums.

Clang! Clang!

Wu Dao opened and closed his two rows of serrated shark teeth, now carrying a faint black metallic sheen. His powerful chewing muscles clenched, scattering sparks from his mouth.

Screech!

Five hooked nails, black as ink jade, raked across the wall. Sparks flew as five grooves were clawed into it.

Besides that.

Various other subtle bodily tissues had also been strengthened, too many to list one by one.

Finally.

Hoo—

Wu Dao exhaled slowly. The coiling-dragon, crouching-tiger muscles of his right arm tensed and swelled, explosive power beginning to gather.

Bones like a bow's back!

Tendons like bowstrings!

His fist became a great arrow!

Boom!

After an explosive blast of air, a clear fist imprint appeared in the pitch-black rock wall before him. Spiderweb cracks spread endlessly around it, and shattered stones shot out like bullets.

When he withdrew his fist and looked.

The keratinous skin around his knuckles had been mangled, but one more layer still remained before the red flesh beneath was exposed. This showed just how terrifying his defense was.

But that was not what Wu Dao cared about. What concerned him was the pain feedback from his hand bones after striking with full force.

How much force a person could unleash was inseparably related to the hardness of their bones!

If one's bones were not hard enough, blindly using full-force attacks was no different from Seven Injury Fist. After all, external wounds were easy to treat, while bone injuries were difficult to heal.

"A faint pain. It can be ignored."

Wu Dao felt it out and understood. The Attribute Panel's enhancements, like Stealing Heaven's Secret, were comprehensive improvements. There was no watering down in any aspect.

His bones were now crystalline white jade, several times harder than before. He could already perfectly control the power of his transformed body without worrying about injuring himself.

Sitting cross-legged, he inspected the Attribute Panel.

[Physique: Beast King (Major Accomplishment)]

[Transcendent: Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique (55%)+]

[Evolution Points: 9.84]

Ten units of Evolution Points had directly advanced his body's Potential Liberation by an entire stage, straight to Major Accomplishment, saving him knows not how much arduous training!

"So this is what cheating feels like?"

Wu Dao felt somewhat unreal, incredulous, yet also filled with an inexplicable thrill.

At the same time, he noticed that the + sign behind the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique had turned gray again.

The information fed back to him had changed once more. The Evolution Points required for the next enhancement had skyrocketed to 150.

It had risen by so much?

Wu Dao was somewhat surprised, but after a brief moment of thought, he suddenly understood.

Every stage of human Potential Liberation was divided into Minor Accomplishment, Major Accomplishment, and the limit.

For example, from Expert Realm to Beast King.

Twenty-five percent Potential Liberation was Expert Realm Minor Accomplishment, thirty-five percent was Major Accomplishment, and the final thirty-five to forty-four percent was the limit stage.

If he cultivated by himself, he would proceed step by step, liberating every fraction of potential in proper order. But the Attribute Panel's enhancement crossed an entire stage in one go.

In other words.

If he continued using attributes to enhance Stealing Heaven's Secret next.

It would directly cross the limit stage from fifty-five to sixty-four percent, reaching sixty-five percent Potential Liberation and bringing his physique into the next realm.

The sixty-five percent stage of human Potential Liberation.

Belonged to the Heroic Domain.

On the surface, it seemed only one percent higher than the Beast King Realm, but the difference in strength between the two was qualitative.

Every Heaven Stealer in the Heroic Domain possessed strength comparable to those peerless martial arts heroes who roamed freely across a region in wuxia novels.

Heroic Realm Minor Accomplishment!

Near-Sonic Movement, Super Strength, Steel Body, Flesh and Blood Sentience. Their physical bodies ignored light firearms, and they could come and go freely amidst thousands of soldiers and horses. Compared to the Beast King Realm, the gap was not merely tenfold—it was an absolute qualitative leap.

Those hundred Evolution Points seemed to cross ten percent on the surface, but the most important part was actually that final one percent—the true transformation from sixty-four to sixty-five percent!

"If the attribute points needed for each evolution increase tenfold, or even a hundredfold, in the future, how many of those weird things will I have to eat?"

Wu Dao's thoughts returned. Feeling the lingering heat and fullness in his stomach, he opened his mouth and tasted nothing but snake eggs.

Honestly, he truly did not want to become a glutton, especially one who ate inhuman things.

Yet helplessly, neither the Attribute Panel nor the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique could do without the word "eat."

"Heh. The natural food chain has always been you eat me, I eat you. How can you grow without eating? How can you become stronger?" Wu Dao shook his head, finding his earlier disgust laughable.

A beast that picked and chose its food would never have the chance to dominate the forests.

Hoo—

A gust of cold wind poured into the mine tunnel.

The originally dark mine passage gained a trace of light.

Wu Dao looked up. The world outside the mine was hazy, caught at the moment when black gave way to white.

"Dawn at last..."

Wu Dao gave a sinister smile and twisted his slightly stiff neck. Savage killing intent began brewing in his eyes.

Rip!

He tore off the ragged clothes on his upper body, crusted with blood, filth, and mud. Like the Hulk, he was left wearing only a pair of shorts, revealing a towering body forged from steel and iron, his thick black hair drifting around him like a demon god's.

Hoo—

With a tap of his foot, his Tyrannosaur Physique stirred up a howling whirlwind. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from the mine entrance, rushing toward the Shanty District.

The rain.

Had stopped at some unknown time.

The distant horizon was tinged with fish-belly white, while the air carried the earthy stench unique to after rain and a thread of chill.

Red Fire Mine, Shanty District.

On the muddy, filthy ground, rainwater accumulated through the night mixed with bloodwater, gathering into small streams that babbled onward.

The red-and-black streams passed one silent, crude wooden shack after another, occasionally soaking the dried corpses whose faces bore grotesque smiles.

Slap!

Silver-threaded, snake-patterned boots stomped heavily into the bloody water, splashing mud onto the hem of a blue brocade robe.

Click, click!

Two black iron pellets were forcefully rubbed in a pale hand, faint sparks visible between them, revealing their owner's furious agitation.

"Where is my medicine?!"

Meng Qingshuang's originally handsome, effeminate face had darkened and twisted. His snake pupils were blood-red as he roared savagely at the trembling Four Seas Gang stewards around him. Like an Evil Ghost crawling out of hell, he had lost every trace of the refined bearing of a gentleman in a troubled world.

Before him.

An elderly man in black bowed deeply, holding up a brocade box. On the green silk within the box lay twenty-four Green Jade Snake Eggs, quietly stacked together.

But!

That was not the right number!

There should have been fifty!

Only twenty-four remained.

Half had vanished without a trace—or rather, someone had beaten them to the prize!

This meant that the Four Seas Gang's years of planning had become a joke. The vast manpower and resources invested had all gone toward making someone else's wedding dress.

In the south of Guangqing Prefecture, the Four Seas Gang was the sky itself. They had never suffered such a great loss or lost such tremendous face!

As one of the young masters, Meng Qingshuang could already picture his adoptive father's gloomy, disappointed expression, along with the mocking gazes of those other bastards.

How could he not be furious?

He wished he could immediately swallow the one who had intercepted them alive and flay him alive!

But he had not lost his reason.

Red Fire Mine was situated in the vast desert, with no human habitation for hundreds of li around. Only the upper echelons of the Four Seas Gang knew about the Gu Raising Plan; the other lackeys knew only fragments of it.

Therefore.

This could only mean someone within Red Fire Mine had colluded with an outsider!

"Fourth Master, this lowly one truly doesn't know! You saw it with your own eyes, we were all under your watch last night..."

The elderly man in black held up the brocade box, cold sweat pouring down his forehead. Having lived to such an age, he had become shrewd. At this moment, he naturally knew what Meng Qingshuang was thinking.

But this truly had nothing to do with their group of stewards. Even if they had eaten bear hearts and leopard gall, they would not dare provoke the Four Seas Gang, Guangqing Prefecture's vicious tiger.

Slap!

Before he could finish speaking, Meng Qingshuang snatched the brocade box and viciously slapped him across the face.

The old man's face immediately made intimate contact with the muddy ground. Several teeth flew out, yet he dared not speak his anger.

"What I want is not excuses, but facts! The fact is that more than twenty portions of Great Medicine have indeed gone missing!"

Suspicion filled Meng Qingshuang's savage eyes. He swept his gaze over the stewards, overseers, and guards around him, all bowing their heads and trembling like cicadas in winter, just as he was about to speak again.

A man suddenly leaped out from within the Shanty District. He had short hair, a gun strapped to his back, a face as red as a jujube, and an unusually black aquiline nose. After giving a slight cupped-fist salute, he said, "Fourth Master, we found something."