Wild!

As the faint glow appeared, Su Ming clearly felt a vast warm current surge explosively from his chest, racing through his body and spreading throughout him in the blink of an eye. At the same time, it seemed to merge with the coolness of the Black Dragon Saliva, both seeping into his blood vessels.

A crisp boom suddenly rang out from within Su Ming's body. As his cross-legged form trembled violently, a fourth blood line condensed into being.

At the same time, large amounts of black filth seeped from every pore on Su Ming's body, accompanied by a foul stench. However, once the mountain wind blew through, it gradually dispersed.

With three blood lines, one could step into the first level of the Blood Condensation Realm. Su Ming had now successfully become a Barbarian Warrior of the first level of the Blood Condensation Realm!

Yet his eyes remained shut, showing no sign of waking. As time passed, the blood lines on Su Ming's body gradually settled, ultimately stopping at four.

It was not until the following morning, when Little Monkey came running over from afar, sniffing its right paw with a smug expression, that it saw Su Ming covered head to toe in black grime. It froze for a moment, scratched its head, and circled Su Ming several times.

Though it had gained intelligence, it had no idea what had happened. Filled with curiosity, it cautiously drew closer, reaching out with its paw to give him a pat and see what was going on.

But just as its paw was about to touch Su Ming, the faint glow on Su Ming's body flared violently once more. In the blink of an eye, it seemed to reach its peak, flooding Su Ming's entire body with dim light. Before Little Monkey's stunned eyes, Su Ming's body vanished in an instant.

To Little Monkey, it looked as though Su Ming had been swallowed by that faint glow. The sight made its eyes fly wide open as it let out a piercing shriek. A red shadow flashed, and it rushed to where Su Ming had disappeared, searching like mad. In the end, it found nothing. It simply stood there, motionless.

Su Ming had no idea where he was. He looked around in confusion. The place was shrouded in white mist, and he could not see far. He could only vaguely make out what seemed to be a mountain peak ahead.

He had only just awakened. He remembered being on Wulong Mountain before, yet no matter how he thought about it, he could not understand why he had appeared here.

Wariness slowly gathered in his eyes. He first lowered his head to look at his chest, and his heart immediately skipped a beat. The strange black fragment was gone from his chest.

"Gone..." Su Ming's expression shifted uncertainly. He looked around once more before slowly rising to his feet. His face darkened as he cautiously walked toward the mountain peak concealed by the mist.

The peak was not far away. Before long, Su Ming stood at its foot. When he looked up, he sucked in a cold breath.

It was indeed a mountain peak, but there were no trees or grass upon it. It stood bare and smooth, as though it had been ground flat. Countless totems were carved upon it: mountains and rivers, strange beasts, the heavens... and even writing Su Ming had never seen before. Everything carried a primal air, like something out of an ancient barbaric myth.

The instant Su Ming saw the carvings on the mountain, a thunderous rumble echoed out. A crack suddenly appeared down the middle of the mountain, as though an invisible force had cleaved it open.

The crevice was narrow, and its end could not be seen. It lay directly at Su Ming's feet.

Su Ming hesitated. After wavering for a while, he gritted his teeth. Since he had come here and had no idea how to leave—not even knowing what this place was—there was only one thing he could do with a path before him: walk on.

Deep down, he vaguely felt that this place was connected to the black fragment, because he clearly remembered the immense warm current it had released earlier.

Following the narrow crevice into the mountain, Su Ming felt as though he had walked for a very, very long time. The path ahead gradually widened. Strange carvings also covered the surrounding walls. Su Ming could not understand them. Some depicted medicinal herbs, while others showed bare-bodied, wild-haired people working herbs inside an even stranger massive pot.

He studied the carvings until, at the end of his gaze, a door appeared. Su Ming stopped before it.

The door was covered in carvings as well. Five medicinal herbs were depicted upon it. Uneven threads of light, radiating a faint glow familiar to Su Ming, wound around the five herb patterns in a circle and blanketed the door.

At the very center of the door were fifteen small recessed holes, as though something could be placed inside them. They too were arranged in a circle.

Su Ming frowned and carefully examined the door several times. After looking around, he focused on the five herbs carved upon it.

"This is... Iron Core Stamen. Yes, it's definitely Iron Core Stamen."

"This one... looks like Joy Leaf, but it also resembles Ziling Grass..."

"And this is Night-Shining Branch! I gather this often."

"What is this one... It looks familiar..."

"As for this last one, I've never seen it before..." Su Ming identified them for quite some time, then hesitated, unsure whether he should step forward and try pushing the door open.

But just as he hesitated, the circular lines surrounding the five herbs on the stone door suddenly began to rotate. Their faint glow flickered fiercely. While Su Ming stood stunned, the dim light emerged from the door and shot straight toward him.

The faint glow was too fast for Su Ming to dodge. With a flash of dim light, he was enveloped within it.

At the same time, a vast number of memories that did not belong to him suddenly appeared in Su Ming's mind. The memories were like images, forcibly pouring in from the faint glow and making his head throb with discomfort.

Within those images was an illusory figure, doing something much like the scenes in the carvings. The figure tossed medicinal herbs into a strange massive pot, every movement incomparably practiced. Each time it threw in an herb, it would first bring it to its nose and smell it, its expression grave. At times, it would lift its right hand and wave, and flames would appear out of thin air, enveloping the pot.

The process was incredibly complex. Even the strength of the flames was carefully controlled. Su Ming had never seen anything like it. In the tribe, no one would go to such trouble. Most simply swallowed medicinal herbs whole, or at most mashed them into juice and mixed them with other herbs to enhance their effects.

Without realizing it, he became immersed in the memories playing through his mind. After a long while, the illusory figure slapped the massive pot with its right hand.

The flames around the pot immediately dispersed. The figure opened the strange lid, and Su Ming instantly saw three round green objects inside, each the size of a fingernail.

Though they were merely memory-images that had appeared in his mind, Su Ming vaguely felt as though a medicinal fragrance had rushed toward him. As he stared at those three round objects, he felt as though thunder had struck him, leaving him completely dumbfounded.

He had refined medicinal herbs since childhood and could judge their quality at a glance. Yet in his eyes, these round objects, which he had never seen before, were beyond imagining.

The faint glow surrounding his body now dispersed and returned to the door, where it calmed once more. The countless circular lines on the door also came to a halt.

The instant the faint glow left, Su Ming's vision blurred. It was as though some strange force had shifted his entire body. When his vision cleared, a red shadow rushed toward him with cries of delighted joy.

That red shadow was Little Monkey. It leaped up and down all over Su Ming. Su Ming's earlier disappearance had terrified it, and now that it saw him return, it was instantly overjoyed.

Su Ming froze, then immediately looked around. When he discovered that he had returned to the stone platform on Wulong Mountain, he abruptly lowered his head and saw that the fragment that had vanished earlier was still on his chest.

"This must be connected to this thing. Perhaps when I reached the first level of the Blood Condensation Realm, I triggered it, and that caused what happened before... Judging by Xiao Hong's reaction, it was not a dream. My entire body truly entered that place... What exactly is this thing... Why did it appear here..." As Su Ming pondered, he could not help recalling the memories that had appeared in his mind.

"The Quenching Dispersion Method... Medicine Stone..." After a long time, Su Ming murmured the names described in those newly acquired memories, names for the methods of refining he had witnessed.

"Dust-Clearing Powder..." That was the name of the Medicine Stone, and it too was contained in the memories now residing in Su Ming's mind.

As Su Ming murmured, the carvings on that door surfaced in his thoughts. Gradually, a bright light appeared in his eyes. Though he did not know exactly what that place was, the so-called Powder Refining had clearly stirred an immense interest within him.

In his view, the cultivation of a Barbarian Warrior could not be separated from medicinal herbs that replenished blood and vitality. One had to consume large quantities to grow stronger and stronger. Perhaps this so-called Powder Refining could be of great help to his cultivation.

"I've never seen such round Medicine Stones in the tribe. Even Grandpa doesn't have any, or I would surely have seen them... Still, these round Medicine Stones look quite good. I just don't know what their effects would be after they were truly refined."

"Then the next step is to find those five herbs... Xiao Hong, see whether you've seen these two herbs before." Having made up his mind, Su Ming immediately called Xiao Hong over. He picked up a stone and began drawing on the ground before it. After drawing the two herbs he could not identify, he looked at Xiao Hong expectantly.

Xiao Hong bared its teeth as it stared for a long time, then nodded.

Su Ming's spirits lifted. He paced several circles around the stone platform, his mind turning rapidly.

"The herbs can be found, but refining Medicine Stones like this is extremely complicated... It even requires fire... cooking them as though making a meal... Interesting." After thinking it over carefully, Su Ming frowned.

He remembered that the massive pot was highly unusual, unlike the pots used for cooking in the tribe. As he searched through the memories in his mind, he learned that the pot used for Powder Refining had a strange name: the Wild Cauldron.

"The tribe's pots probably won't work... And I need fire too..." As Su Ming muttered, he suddenly raised his head. A bright gleam appeared in his eyes as he looked toward one of the more distant peaks among Wulong Mountain's five peaks.

That mountain peak was entirely brown, and thick smoke occasionally rolled out from it.

Seeking pats, seeking all kinds of pats~~~

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