75,000 Jin

"I don't care anymore. I'm exhausted today. I'll sleep first and worry about it later."

Lin Yi muttered, closed his eyes, and his consciousness sank like a stone into a deep pool, plunging cleanly into utter darkness.

This sleep was deeper than any he had ever had. Yet the Savage Bull Art maintained its most basic self-circulation at an exceedingly slow rhythm, without anyone directing it.

Those thin traces of blood-qi flowed slowly through his meridians like trickling streams, nourishing his parched body again and again.

When the first ray of morning sunlight seeped through the cracks of the stone house, Lin Yi's eyelids twitched.

Then his stomach let out an earth-shaking protest.

"Grrrrrrr—!"

The sound came abruptly and violently, as though ten Savage Bulls were beating drums in his stomach at once.

Before Lin Yi had even opened his eyes, his own stomach had jolted him awake. He shot upright, clutching his abdomen with both hands, feeling as though his stomach had been vacuumed completely clean from beginning to end.

"So hungry..." He rubbed his stomach as he rolled out of bed, his steps actually a little unsteady.

He swiftly pulled on his outer clothes and pushed open the stone house door. The morning breeze rushed over him, carrying a faint scent of smoke and cooking.

The tribe was already bustling in the morning.

Smelling that smoky scent, Lin Yi's stomach rumbled again. He no longer hesitated and strode toward the village chief's residence.

Before he reached the door, he saw the village chief squatting beside the stove outside the stone house, stirring a large pot with a long wooden ladle.

Steam bubbled from the pot, and the fragrance of meat mixed with the bitter scent of herbs drifted far into the distance, making Lin Yi's saliva begin to flow disgracefully.

The village chief looked up and saw him. He first gave him a once-over, and seeing that his complexion was rosy and his spirits high, he smiled in relief. "You brat, I was just about to call you over for food. Didn't expect you to come on your own."

"Hehehe." Lin Yi gave two foolish chuckles, while his feet had already carried him automatically to the stove.

"Sit, sit. Hurry up." The village chief pulled over a low stool from the side. "I knew you'd be starving when you woke up, so I deliberately cooked double the amount."

Lin Yi did not stand on ceremony. He plopped down and fished out a huge chunk of meat from the pot.

After stewing, the meat had become tender and soft, its surface coated in a layer of dark brown broth that gleamed with oil.

He leaned in and took a huge bite. The instant his teeth sank into the meat, juices burst across his tongue. The tender, springy texture, together with an incredibly rich meaty fragrance, rushed straight to the crown of his head.

Lin Yi's eyes widened abruptly.

He swallowed the meat in his mouth in two or three bites, then lowered his head to look at the still-steaming chunk in his hand. An indescribable expression of shock appeared on his face.

The instant that mouthful of meat slid down his throat, a majestic surge of blood-qi energy erupted from his stomach. It was like a fire had been lit, instantly charging through his meridians toward all four limbs and his hundred bones.

That sense of fullness was far fiercer and more immediate than anything he had experienced from all the Ferocious Beast meat he had eaten before.

"This meat—" He looked up at the village chief, speaking indistinctly with another chunk of meat still stuffed in his mouth.

The village chief watched his expression with a genial smile and explained unhurriedly, "This is meat from the Inkshadow Leopard you hunted.

"The blood-qi contained in an Inkshadow Leopard is more than five times as concentrated as that in the ordinary Savage Bulls and Earth Gnawers we usually eat.

"Eat more. This meat will be of great use in recovering your injuries and improving your cultivation."

After hearing that, Lin Yi did not ask further questions. He lowered his head and tore off another huge bite. The meat was richly fragrant when it entered his mouth, soft yet pleasantly chewy as he chewed. With every bite, endless blood-qi rose from his stomach.

The Savage Bull Art within him was like an engine that had been refueled, beginning to circulate faster and faster.

After he finished an entire chunk of meat, the village chief fished out another piece and placed it in his bowl. Then he sat down on a stone beside him, hesitated, and asked, "By the way, Little Lin, this Inkshadow Leopard meat... take half of it back for yourself later. I'll divide the rest among Biao and the other brothers in the hunting party. What do you think?"

The old man rubbed his hands. "After all, you hunted this Inkshadow Leopard alone. By rights, all of this prey should belong to you. I'm only asking what you think."

As for how the village chief knew that Lin Yi had killed the Inkshadow Leopard—

After Biao received treatment last night, he had awakened for a while. The village chief had asked him about the details of yesterday's hunt. Biao said that Lin Yi had most likely hunted the Inkshadow Leopard alone. After all, he had been unconscious at the time and did not know what had happened exactly.

With his mouth still full of meat, Lin Yi waved a hand. "Of course! I was planning to share it with everyone anyway. The Inkshadow Leopard is so huge that I can't finish it all by myself.

"Brother Biao nearly died in that wolf pack, and the brothers in the hunting party also contributed. We have to share it."

Upon hearing that, the smile lines on the village chief's face deepened, but he did not offer any more polite words. He simply nodded. "All right. I'll arrange it later."

Lin Yi tore off several more bites of meat and swallowed them. Then a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

He tilted his head toward the village chief. "By the way, Village Chief, do you know... other than Ferocious Beasts, can we humans awaken Bloodline Innate Divine Abilities?"

The village chief's movements paused.

He turned to Lin Yi, clear contemplation in his eyes. "Bloodline Innate Divine Abilities... I truly don't know much about that. I've lived in the Great Wilderness for so many years, and I've only heard that the Ferocious Beast race can draw upon the power of bloodline inheritance. As for humans—"

The old man shook his head. "At least within the limits of what I know, I've never heard of humans being able to awaken Bloodline Divine Abilities.

"Perhaps someone in those enormous tribes with inheritances spanning thousands of years knows more, but our Bluestone Tribe only has around a hundred people. We truly have no records related to this."

He paused and glanced at Lin Yi.

A trace of faint understanding flashed through those cloudy old eyes. He could roughly guess why Lin Yi had asked such a question.

The changes on this young man that surpassed all common sense could likely no longer be explained merely by the words "exceptional talent."

But the village chief did not probe further, nor did he pursue the matter. He merely withdrew his gaze and returned it to the churning meat broth in the pot.

Some things did not need to be asked too clearly.

Seeing that he did not press the issue, Lin Yi secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He lowered his head and continued picking at the meat in his bowl, turning thoughts over in his mind as he ate. There's no reason only Ferocious Beasts can awaken bloodline talents.

The Spirit Eyes felt so natural to him, so wholly innate, as though they were something his body should have grown from the very beginning.

Perhaps humans could also awaken abilities similar to those of Ferocious Beasts through some method. It was simply that small tribes on the edge of the Great Wilderness had no access to such advanced knowledge.

"I'll visit a larger tribe if I get the chance in the future." Lin Yi committed the thought to memory and continued burying himself in the meat in his bowl.

The Inkshadow Leopard meat in the pot decreased at a visible rate.

Lin Yi ate every bite quickly and with relish, stuffing one chunk after another into his mouth. The village chief kept waving his hands beside him. "Slow down, slow down. Don't choke. The whole pot is yours. No one's fighting you for it."

By the time he finished gnawing through the final chunk of meat in his arms, the pot had already been scraped clean.

Lin Yi burped with a mouth full of grease, only then belatedly noticing that the village chief had sat beside him and watched him eat from beginning to end without touching a single piece himself.

"...Uh, well, sorry, Village Chief. I accidentally ate it all—"

The village chief smiled and waved a hand. "It was cooked specifically for you in the first place. I'm old now. Meat with blood-qi that vigorous would only make me uncomfortable. It's perfect that you ate it all."

Lin Yi scratched his head and stood up somewhat awkwardly. "Then I'll head back to cultivate first."

"Wait." The village chief went into the inner room and came out carrying a bundle wrapped in broad leaves, which he handed to him. "Inkshadow Leopard meat. Take half back with you."

Lin Yi accepted it. After thinking it over, he did not refuse. He thanked him, then carried the bundle out of the village chief's courtyard.

Along the way, he ran into several tribespeople who had risen early. They all greeted him, each wearing an expression of admiration that said, "We heard about what you did yesterday."

Lin Yi nodded to each of them in response, never slowing his steps as he hurried back to his own stone house.

He closed the door, hung the Inkshadow Leopard meat in a ventilated spot at the corner of the wall, then sat cross-legged on the stone bed.

The instant he closed his eyes, he could clearly feel the Savage Bull Art within him circulating at an unprecedented speed.

The majestic blood-qi supplied by the Inkshadow Leopard meat was released from his stomach like an endless warm current. Swept along by the cultivation art, it surged into his meridians, filling all the losses from yesterday while leaving behind a heavy sense of fullness that was nearly saturated.

He slowly opened his eyes and clenched his fist.

A series of crisp crackles came from his finger bones, and when his palm tightened, the compressed air gave off tiny explosive pops.

That feeling of power brimming within him. Lin Yi silently estimated it. About seventy-five thousand jin.

That was another increase of fifteen thousand jin from yesterday.

"I'll soon break through to Blood-Qi Mountain Sinking..."

He could not help grinning, the corners of his mouth lifting high. "I'm fucking genius. Hehehehe."

After praising himself, he restrained his smile, closed his eyes again, and sank deep into his mind.

The Inkshadow Leopard's ink-black diagram of Divine Markings floated quietly at the center of his consciousness, like an unfurled black painting.

Those fine, dense patterns were evenly distributed across the corresponding regions of the limbs and spine. The nodes connected closely and orderly, forming an exceptionally efficient burst-type structure that perfectly matched the Inkshadow Leopard's characteristic short-range extreme-speed dashes.

"Full and fed. Time to get to work."

Lin Yi's consciousness slowly sank into that ink-black diagram of Divine Markings. Starting from the beginning of the first pattern, he began comprehending the Divine Markings inch by inch.