75,000 Jin

Forget it. I'm exhausted today. I'll sleep first and deal with it later.

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

He slept more deeply than ever before. Yet the Savage Bull Art maintained its most basic self-circulating operation at an exceedingly slow rhythm without any command.

Those thin wisps 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 filtered through the cracks in the stone house, Lin Yi's eyelids twitched.

Then his stomach let out an earth-shaking protest.

"Grrrrrrr—!"

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

Before Lin Yi even opened his eyes, the commotion from his own belly jolted him awake. He sprang upright, clutching his abdomen with both hands, feeling as though his stomach had been vacuumed completely empty from start to finish.

"I'm so hungry..." He rubbed his stomach as he rolled out of bed, his feet even feeling a little unsteady.

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

The tribe was already bustling with activity.

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

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

Steam bubbled up from the pot. The fragrance of meat mixed with the bitter freshness of herbs drifted far away, making Lin Yi's saliva start flowing despite himself.

The village chief looked up and spotted him at once. He first looked him over from head to toe, and seeing his ruddy complexion and vigorous spirit, he could not help revealing a relieved smile. "You brat, I was just about to call you over for breakfast, but you came 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 twice as much."

Lin Yi did not stand on ceremony. He plopped down and fished 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 exploded over his tongue. The tender, springy texture, carrying an incomparably rich meat fragrance, shot straight to the crown of his head.

Lin Yi's eyes widened sharply.

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 powerful surge of blood-qi energy burst forth from his stomach. It was as if a fire had been ignited, rushing through his meridians and into his limbs and bones in an instant.

The sheer intensity and speed of that fullness far surpassed every kind of ferocious beast meat he had eaten before.

"This meat—" He raised his head toward the village chief, speaking unclearly with another chunk of meat still stuffed in his mouth.

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

"The blood-qi concentration within an Inkshadow Leopard is more than five times that of the ordinary Savage Bulls and Earth Gnawers we usually eat.

"Eat more. This meat will be of great use in recovering from your injuries and advancing 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 upon entering his mouth, soft yet pleasantly chewy when chewed. With every bite, an endless stream of blood-qi rose from his stomach.

The Savage Bull Art within him was like an engine refueled anew, beginning to operate 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 nearby stone and hesitated before asking, "By the way, Little Lin, this Inkshadow Leopard meat... take half back for yourself later, and I'll distribute some of the rest to Biao and the other brothers in the hunting team. What do you think?"

The old man rubbed his hands. "After all, you killed this Inkshadow Leopard by yourself. By rights, you should take all of the prey. I'm only asking what you think."

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

After Biao was treated last night, he had awakened for a while. The village chief had asked him about the details of the hunt, and Biao said the Inkshadow Leopard should have been killed by Lin Yi alone. After all, he had passed out at the time and did not know the exact circumstances.

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

"Brother Biao nearly died in the wolf pack, and the brothers in the hunting team put in effort too. We have to share it."

Hearing this, the smile lines on the village chief's face deepened, but he did not offer any more polite words. He merely nodded. "Alright. I'll arrange it in a while."

Lin Yi tore off and swallowed a few more bites of meat when a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.

He turned his head toward the village chief. "By the way, Chief, do you know... apart from ferocious beasts, can humans possibly awaken Bloodline Innate Divine Abilities?"

The village chief's movements paused.

He turned to look at Lin Yi, a clear trace of contemplation in his gaze. "Bloodline Innate Divine Abilities... I truly don't know about that. I've lived in the Great Wilderness for so many years, and I've only heard that the ferocious beast races can rely on bloodline inheritance power. As for humans—"

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

"Perhaps someone in those enormous tribes that have been passed down for thousands of years knows more, but our Bluestone Tribe only has a little over a hundred people. We truly have no records related to this."

He paused and glanced at Lin Yi.

A faint glimmer of understanding flashed through those cloudy old eyes. He could probably guess why Lin Yi was asking this question.

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

But the village chief did not probe further or press the matter. He simply withdrew his gaze and returned it to the churning meat broth in the pot.

Some matters did not need to be asked too clearly.

Seeing that he did not pursue the matter, Lin Yi also breathed a sigh of relief. He lowered his head and continued picking through the meat in his bowl. As he ate, thoughts turned through his mind. There was no reason only ferocious beasts could awaken bloodline talents.

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

Perhaps humans could also awaken Divine Abilities similar to those of ferocious beasts through some method. It was only that small tribes on the edge of the Great Wilderness had no access to such advanced knowledge.

When I get the chance, I'll visit a bigger tribe. Lin Yi committed the thought to memory and continued burying his head in the meat in his bowl.

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

Lin Yi ate every mouthful quickly and with relish, stuffing piece after piece into his mouth. The village chief repeatedly waved his hands beside him. "Slow down, slow down. Don't choke. The whole pot is yours. No one is competing with you."

By the time he gnawed clean the last chunk of meat in his arms, the pot had already been scraped bare.

Lin Yi burped, his mouth gleaming with oil, and only then belatedly noticed that the village chief had been sitting beside him the entire time watching him eat without touching a single piece himself.

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

The village chief smiled and waved his hand. "It was cooked specifically for you in the first place. I'm old; eating meat with blood-qi that vigorous would only make me uncomfortable. It's just right that you ate it all."

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

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

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

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

Lin Yi nodded back to them one by one without slowing his pace, quickly returning to his 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 operating at an unprecedented speed.

The powerful blood-qi provided by the Inkshadow Leopard meat was released from his stomach like an unending warm current. Swept along by the cultivation art, it rushed into his meridians, filling every deficit from yesterday while leaving behind a heavy, almost saturated sense of fullness.

He slowly opened his eyes and clenched his fist.

His knuckles crackled crisply, and when his palm tightened, the compressed air let out a faint explosive pop.

That feeling of strength brimming within him. Lin Yi silently estimated it at roughly 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 reined in his smile, closed his eyes again, and sank into the depths of his mind.

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

Those fine patterns were evenly distributed across the corresponding areas of his limbs and back. The nodes were connected tightly and orderly, forming an extremely efficient burst-type structure that perfectly matched the Inkshadow Leopard's trait of explosive short-range speed.

Fed and watered. Time to get to work.

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