Lin Yi spat, turned back, and continued on his way, shifting the spider Corpse on his shoulder into a more convenient position as he walked.
By now, the sky overhead had already darkened by more than half.
"So soon, it's dusk." Lin Yi quickened his pace, recalling what Biao had once said: the Great Wilderness was several times more dangerous at night than during the day.
Those creatures that slept by day and emerged by night would gradually awaken once darkness completely descended.
He made his way back to the vicinity of that cave. From a distance, he saw that the rubble and vines piled around the entrance were still exactly as he had left them, without any sign of having been disturbed.
After approaching, he swept the area with his Spirit Eyes once more. The situation inside the cave was clear at a glance. The brown bear's Corpse remained where it had been, and though a faint scent lingered in the air, there were no traces left by intruders.
Lin Yi pushed aside the stones at the entrance and slipped inside. He casually restored the covering outside, then tossed the spider Corpse into a corner.
The brown bear's Corpse lay quietly at the bottom of the cave. It was several degrees cooler inside than outside, carrying a dry, earthy smell.
Lin Yi sat down on a flat stone just inside the entrance, and his stomach promptly let out a loud protest.
"Almost forgot about that. Food first."
His gaze fell upon the brown bear's left forepaw, and the corners of his mouth could not help curving upward.
"Bear paw, here I come."
He rose and walked over, crouching beside the brown bear's Corpse and gripping that thick forelimb with both hands.
Power flowed from his shoulders into his arms. With a low shout, he tore hard. Accompanied by a dull rip of flesh and tendon, the entire bear paw, along with a section of arm bone, was wrenched off intact. Fresh red flesh and white tendons were clearly visible at the break.
Lin Yi carried the bear paw to an open patch near the cave entrance, then casually cut several thick branches and piled them with dry moss into a small campfire.
When the firelight flared up, orange-red light danced across the cave walls a few times, bringing a touch of warmth to the cramped stone cave.
He set the bear paw over the flames and slowly turned it. Grease dripped from the paw into the coals, sizzling into a wisp of bluish smoke carrying the scent of meat.
Lin Yi stared at the bear paw for quite some time, taking several deep sniffs of the charred aroma filling the air. Unable to help himself, he swallowed.
Once the surface was roasted just right, he impatiently tore off a piece and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Mmm—" He chewed twice, and his eyes lit up. "The meat's really fragrant, and tender too." But then he frowned. "Still, there aren't any seasonings. Just roasting it plain feels like something's missing. If only there were some salt, some sauce, or something..."
He looked down at the bear paw in his hand, roasted until it gleamed with oil, then sighed and lowered his head to take huge bites.
Though it lacked seasoning, the flesh of a Dragonlike Realm Ferocious Beast naturally possessed a rich meaty fragrance and abundant vitality. Just the fullness of chewing it was enough to satisfy anyone.
After eating, Lin Yi gathered the remaining bones and ashes together and buried them with dirt.
He scanned the lingering scents in the cave again with his Spirit Eyes. Only after confirming that no overly obvious smell of blood had drifted outside did he sit down again.
"Now, it's time to work."
He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and sank into his mind, beginning to comprehend that gray-black Spider Divine-Mark Diagram.
His progress was even faster than he had expected.
In less than a quarter of an hour, he had completely comprehended the entire Spider Divine-Mark Diagram. Its structure was not complicated; the key lay in distinguishing and assigning its two functions. Once he understood it, everything became clear at a glance.
This Divine-Mark Diagram mainly had two effects.
The first was to strengthen the piercing force at the ends of the limbs—the same kind of stabbing attack that spider had attempted to use in ambushing him. After being enhanced by Divine Markings, the tips of the spider's legs would gain greatly increased hardness and penetrating power.
The second effect was rather special: concealing one's aura. The Divine Markings could interfere with one's vitality from radiating outward, making it difficult for nearby creatures to judge one's location and strength through aura.
However, this concealment effect was limited. It could only weaken one's aura, not erase it completely.
Lin Yi considered it briefly and quickly made a decision.
He planned to handle these two functions separately.
For the piercing Divine Markings, he would not derive them into a martial skill for now. Instead, he would first memorize them and wait for a chance to try inscribing them onto a weapon in the future.
The novels he had read before crossing over often featured things like "rune weapons"—inscribing Divine Markings onto the surface of weapons to grant them additional abilities. Logically, it made perfect sense.
The other Divine Markings were more suitable for his current self. "I'll derive the aura-concealing thing first and put it to use."
As soon as he said it, he did it, immediately sinking into the derivation of the concealment portion of the Divine Markings.
This portion of the Divine Markings was small in scope and structurally independent. Adjusting it was even easier than he had imagined.
He only needed to shift several key concealment nodes from the spider's Divine Markings to the corresponding meridian positions in the human body, then replan the circulation path of vitality. That completed most of the work.
In less than a quarter of an hour, the derivation was finished.
Lin Yi activated his vitality and circulated it once according to the new route. An extremely faint sensation rose from beneath his skin, as though something on the surface of his body had been drawn back in and gathered up.
He lowered his head and sensed the aura around himself. The heavy, oppressive presence unique to the Mountain-Sinking Realm was steadily diminishing, as though something were wrapping layer after layer around the fluctuations of vitality spilling outward, making them no longer so obvious and exposed.
From Mountain-Sinking, it had fallen to First Cry.
He curled his lip, his tone carrying a trace of disdain. "It only dropped by two minor realms? This effect is way too mediocre."
Still, this had only been one part of the Spider Divine-Mark Diagram's function, not its main focus. Achieving this much was already an unexpected gain.
He casually gave this newly derived little technique a name: the Breath-Concealing Art.
"That's what they always call it in novels," he muttered casually. Lin Yi had just been about to take advantage of his still-circulating vitality to further sense the details of the Breath-Concealing Art when a dull sound came from outside the cave.
Boom... boom... boom...
The sound came from extremely far away, like something enormously heavy striking the distant ground in a steady rhythm.
Lin Yi immediately caught this disturbance. His eyes snapped open, and his body, which had just relaxed, tensed up once more.
He quickly moved to the side of the cave entrance, pried open a crack between the stones, and activated his Spirit Eyes with all his strength. His pale golden vision pierced through the twilight and forest, extending toward the source of the sound.
In the open lowland in the distance, enormous shadows were slowly moving.
Those shadows were absurdly tall, their outlines immensely spectacular beneath the dusk light.
Giant apes marched forward in a line. Even the smallest among them stood over thirty meters tall, while several at the front of the procession reached more than fifty meters.
These giant apes had no fur. Their bodies were covered in thick, dark-red armor cracked like stone, its surface filled with ravine-like patterns resembling flowing lava.
With every step they took, the ground beneath them trembled slightly.
When the wind blew past their sides, Lin Yi could even see fine sparks drifting from the gaps between their armor plates, flashing out in the night before vanishing.
A horde of more than thirty giant apes was slowly crossing that lowland, heading deeper into the Great Wilderness.
Watching this scene from behind the crack in the stones, Lin Yi's mouth unconsciously fell open.
A powerful impulse rose from the depths of Lin Yi's heart.
"Should I record the Divine Markings of this horde of Lava Giant Apes..."
Before you continue