Breakthrough: Blood-Qi Mountain Sinking

Lin Yi looked up at the sky. The sun hung slightly west of directly overhead—not too early, not too late, just in time for lunch.

His stomach promptly answered with a loud growl, as if urging him to get moving.

"Mm... time to eat. Hahaha, only when I'm full will I have the strength to train."

He rubbed his hands together, and his feet unconsciously carried him toward Biao's home.

After taking a few steps, he paused and muttered inwardly, I'm not mooching a meal. I'm properly paying Big Brother Biao a visit. Having a bite while I'm there is perfectly reasonable.

With his excuse in place, his steps immediately became righteous and confident.

Before long, Biao's stone house came into view.

"Big Brother Biao—I've come to see you!"

He called out from outside. Before long, the door was pulled open from within.

Xiao Hu poked his head through the crack. The moment he saw Lin Yi, his round eyes lit up. "Big Brother Lin! Come in, quick! My dad's inside!"

Lin Yi entered the inner room and saw Biao leaning against the wall at the head of the bed, his left arm tightly bound with wooden splints and strips of hemp cloth.

His complexion was far better than when he had been carried back that day. Though several claw marks on his face had scabbed over, the usual spirit had returned to his eyes.

When Biao saw Lin Yi come in, he broke into a broad grin, his white teeth as bright as ever.

"You're here, Lin."

"Big Brother Biao, how are you feeling?" Lin Yi sat on a low stool beside the bed and gave him a careful once-over. His Spirit Eyes swept over him without a trace; the bones in his left arm were aligned neatly, the break had begun healing, and the blood qi in his meridians flowed normally.

"The rest are all flesh wounds. They'll heal up in a few days. It's just this left arm." Biao lowered his head and shook the arm bundled up like a rice dumpling. "The village chief said I'll need to rest for at least a month before the splints can come off."

After saying that, he laughed heartily a few times. "But it's no big deal! The two of us made it back alive—that's already Heaven showing us mercy. What's a month or so? It's a good chance to rest!"

Lin Yi laughed along with him, but his gaze lingered on Biao's face for a moment longer.

Biao laughed loudly, but Lin Yi saw the faint worry beneath his eyes as clearly as day.

The two chatted a little longer about the hunting party and the tribe's recent affairs. Then footsteps sounded outside, and Xiao Hu came in with his mother, carrying a large clay pot between them.

The instant the lid was lifted, the fragrance of meat mingled with the bitter freshness of medicinal herbs rushed toward them. A layer of golden oil floated on the soup, while large chunks of meat rolled within it.

"Good timing, Little Lin. You're eating here at noon, and no being polite about it!" Biao's wife set the clay pot down on the table with a thud, then turned to fetch bowls.

"Thank you, Sister-in-law." Lin Yi spoke politely enough, but the way he accepted the bowl was particularly honest.

The meal was lively and warm.

Though Biao could not move his left arm, his right hand was anything but clumsy. He stuffed meat into his mouth while chattering to Lin Yi about old tales from the hunting grounds.

Xiao Hu chimed in from time to time, making everyone at the table laugh.

While Lin Yi ate with his head lowered, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Biao's hand paused unconsciously several times as he picked at the dishes. His gaze drifted toward the doorway, then toward the mountain forest beyond the tribe.

That unconscious look into the distance, heavy with concern, formed a subtle contrast with the "good chance to rest" he had spoken of.

Lin Yi did not expose him.

After the meal, he helped clear the dishes. Standing at the doorway, he turned back to Biao, who was still propped up in bed, and said one thing.

"Big Brother Biao, you only have one thing to do now: recover properly. I'll handle everything else."

Biao froze for a moment and looked up at Lin Yi. He opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he merely nodded slowly.

The way he looked at Lin Yi was different from before. Before, he had looked at a newcomer who needed his guidance, at a junior with monstrous talent.

But now, there was something more in his gaze—steadiness, and someone he could rely on.

Lin Yi said nothing more. He waved to him and turned to leave the courtyard.

He returned to his own room and shut the door.

Lin Yi sat cross-legged on the stone bed, adjusted his breathing, and activated the Savage Bull Art once more.

This time, he was doing more than cultivating. In his mind, he broke down the fragments concerning blood-qi tempering within the Inkshadow Leopard Divine Markings piece by piece, making subtle adjustments and fusing them into the Savage Bull Art's existing circulation framework.

After one circulation cycle, the new version of the Savage Bull Art had taken shape. Its efficiency had increased by around thirty percent; the changes were minor, but remarkably effective.

When Lin Yi opened his eyes again, it was already dark outside. Rather than going elsewhere to mooch a meal, he took down the half of an Inkshadow Leopard hind leg hanging in the corner and lit a small fire outside.

He slowly turned the entire hind leg over the flames. Sitting alone by the fire, he ate the whole leg, feeling the surging blood qi in the Inkshadow Leopard meat rise from his stomach and wash through his limbs and bones, leaving him warm all over.

After eating, he smothered the fire with dirt and returned to the stone bed, closing his eyes and sinking back into cultivation.

The night passed without incident. When he opened his eyes again, dawn had just begun to brighten the sky outside.

He lowered his head and looked at his chest. The pain from his cracked ribs had basically vanished, leaving only a little soreness. The fullness of the blood qi within his body had also grown markedly stronger than yesterday.

"Probably a little over two thousand jin. Half the blood qi I cultivated went toward nourishing my injuries. Once I'm fully healed, the pace will be even faster."

He rose and stretched his limbs, feeling thoroughly refreshed.

There was still some Inkshadow Leopard meat left in the corner, so he simply carried all of it outside and roasted it in two batches.

He gnawed through one meal at noon, then had another in the evening.

When he finished the last bite of meat, dusk was spreading inch by inch from the distant mountain ridge. He put out the fire, wiped his hands, and sat down on the stone bed again.

The morning of the third day.

Lin Yi's breathing grew heavier and steadier in the darkness.

The blood qi within him was like a rising tide, layer pressing upon layer, wave driving wave, surging continuously upward.

The self-circulation of the Savage Bull Art accelerated as well. The blood qi supplied by the Inkshadow Leopard meat was completely digested and merged into that rushing tide.

When that tide climbed to a certain critical point, the aura around his body suddenly sank sharply.

The blood qi that had been churning within him seemed to find a deeper riverbed. In one great rush, it explored downward, sinking into his bones, his tendons and fascia, and the deepest foundations of his flesh—then, like a mountain finally taking root, it settled there, firm and steady.

He slowly opened his eyes. A heavy, solid pressure spread from around his seated body.

Even the air inside the stone house seemed denser than before.

Lin Yi lowered his head and looked at his palm, then loosely clenched it. A crisp sound of compressed air rang out from within his hand.

His heartbeat was steady and powerful. Every beat pushed more blood qi outward, while the density of his bones and muscles clearly rose to a new level.

Blood-Qi Mountain Sinking. Eighty thousand jin.

He gently exhaled a breath of turbid air, the corners of his mouth lifting. Eighty thousand jin of strength, plus the amplification of the Savage Bull Diagram—at least one hundred and sixty thousand jin of explosive force.

The village chief's surprised voice suddenly came from outside. "You broke through, boy?"

Lin Yi pulled open the door. The village chief stood outside with one hand still raised to knock, his eyes sweeping up and down Lin Yi's entire body.

He was silent for a moment, then slowly shook his head and laughed.

"Less than a month. From nothing to Sinking Mountain Realm. I've lived for decades, and this is the first time I've seen something like this with my own eyes."

Lin Yi scratched his head and chuckled. "I haven't reached the Dragonlike Realm yet. No rush."

The village chief looked at him for a while, laughed, and cursed at him. Then he stuffed a parcel wrapped in leaves into Lin Yi's arms.

"Bone soup. Drink it while it's hot. You've been doing nothing but gnawing meat these past few days, haven't you? You should have some soup too."

Lin Yi accepted the bundle and lowered his head to smell it. A rich fragrance of meat and medicinal herbs filled his nose.

Cradling the parcel, he untied the leaves and took the still-hot bowl of bone soup, lowering his head to drink a large mouthful. Warmth slid down his throat into his stomach, smoothing over his whole body until he felt utterly comfortable.

He finished the last mouthful, set the empty bowl on the stone platform beside him, rose to his feet, and gave a huge stretch.

His joints cracked in a rapid series of pops.

"Village Chief, I want to go hunting alone."