Seclusion

Lin Yi flipped through the five or six thick volumes of the Ferocious Beast Compendium from beginning to end without so much as a stumble.

With the Super Brain's enhancement, everything his gaze swept over was etched into his mind.

In less than the time it took an incense stick to burn, he closed the corner of the final beast-hide scroll. He had already memorized the common types of Ferocious Beasts found along the edges of the Great Wilderness, along with their habits, weaknesses, and value.

"All right, Great Wilderness Savage Beast Compendium, get."

He stacked the beast-hide scrolls and set them aside, rolled his neck, then took the nine Blood Essence Fruits from his robes.

The plump, round red fruits glowed softly in his palm, their fragrance wafting into his nose.

Lin Yi picked out the largest one, wiped it on his clothes, examined it for two seconds, and popped it straight into his mouth.

Crunch.

The instant he bit through the skin, sweet juice burst across his tongue. The flesh was delicate and soft, sweeter by far than any fruit he had eaten in the modern world.

"Oh, pretty sweet."

Lin Yi chewed a few times and swallowed. Less than three breaths after the fruit entered his stomach, a warm current surged violently upward from within, as though someone had lit a flame inside him. The heat swiftly spread through his limbs and bones, warmly wrapping every inch of flesh and blood.

"Comfortable..."

Lin Yi narrowed his eyes, every pore suffused with a pleasant ease. But he did not indulge in that comfort for long. With a thought, the Savage Bull Art immediately began circulating. The Savage Bull Markings inscribed within his body glimmered under the impetus of his blood-qi, forming a complete cycle that slowly gathered, guided, refined, and channeled the spreading heat into his blood-qi.

He could clearly sense his blood-qi rising at a visible rate.

Wave after wave. The sensation of being constantly filled and solidified welled up from the depths of his Dantian, making Lin Yi clench his fists.

He swiftly calculated in his head. Judging by the increase in blood-qi from refining one Blood Essence Fruit, refining all seven would be enough to push him directly from the Mountain-Sinking Realm to the threshold of the Dragonlike Realm.

In terms of time, at his refining speed, two days. Two days at most.

"Then there's no need to hesitate."

Two days of seclusion, a breakthrough into the Dragonlike Realm—he would have far more confidence when attending the Tribal Exchange Gathering.

He rose, tied up the Ferocious Beast Compendium scrolls one by one, gathered them into his arms, pushed open the stone house door, and headed for the village chief's residence.

When he pushed open the village chief's stone house door, the old man was squatting before a stone stove with his back to the entrance, cooking something. The pot bubbled away, giving off the scent of meat mingled with herbs.

"Village Chief, I've finished reading the Ferocious Beast Compendium. I'm leaving it here."

As familiar with the place as his own home, Lin Yi stacked the beast-hide scrolls on the low stone table in the corner, his tone casual.

The village chief glanced back, his gaze lingering briefly on the stack of beast hides before he casually turned back to stir the soup.

"Fine, leave them there."

He did not ask further. He had long grown used to Lin Yi's exceptional comprehension. The first time, he had been so shocked that his jaw had hung open for ages; now he could remain unruffled.

Lin Yi leaned over to inspect the pot. It was a soup base stewed from brown bear meat, with several herb leaves he could not name floating on top. The aroma was enticing. He sniffed and decided not to leave just yet.

"Oh, right, Village Chief. There's something else."

"Go ahead."

"I'm planning to enter seclusion for two days."

The village chief's ladle paused.

"About two days," Lin Yi said casually, as if discussing what to eat that night. "Once I refine those Blood Essence Fruits, I should be able to break through into the Dragonlike Blood-Qi realm."

Clang.

The ladle in the village chief's hand fell straight back into the pot, splashing several drops of soup onto the stove. The old man turned around, his entire face saying, "Say that again."

"...If I remember correctly, you broke through to the Mountain-Sinking Realm only two days ago, didn't you?"

"Yep."

"Two days?" the village chief repeated, his brows knotting together. "You're breaking through this quickly—can your body withstand it? Will it leave behind any hidden injuries?"

Lin Yi patted his chest and replied with a grin, "Don't worry, Village Chief. My body's strong as a horse. If you don't believe me, feel it. These muscles, this blood-qi—steady as can be."

He extended his arm, but the village chief slapped his hand away irritably.

"Quit fooling around."

Yet the old man still examined him carefully. With his eyesight, he could tell that Lin Yi's blood-qi was indeed condensed and stable, without the slightest trace of instability or looseness.

The village chief fell silent for several breaths before finally relenting. "All right, since you know what you're doing. For the next two days, I won't let anyone disturb you. Stay in your stone house and break through in peace."

"Mm!"

"However..." The village chief turned and took a wooden bowl from beside the stove, ladled two scoops of steaming meat soup into it, and handed it over. "Eat here tonight before you go back. You need a full stomach to have the strength to charge through a bottleneck."

Lin Yi accepted the bowl with a broad grin. "You got it."

That night, he stayed at the village chief's place and mooched a hearty dinner.

The brown bear meat had been stewed until tender, and the several herbs added to the soup nourished blood-qi. After eating, his whole body felt pleasantly warm. Only after night had fully fallen, the bonfire at the village entrance had been lit and gradually dimmed, did Lin Yi stroll back to his own stone house.

The stone house was silent. He shut the wooden door, sat cross-legged in the center of the stone bed, took a deep breath, and pulled all eight remaining Blood Essence Fruits from his robes.

But by his estimate, he only needed seven to break through into the Dragonlike Realm. After thinking it over, Lin Yi simply lined up six of them before himself and put away the final two separately as reserves.

He stared at the six bright-red fruits before him for two seconds, then suddenly laughed.

"Even ancient emperors popping pills probably didn't put on a show like this."

Without another word, he stuffed the seven Blood Essence Fruits into his mouth one after another, chewing them to pieces and swallowing the juice and flesh together.

Boom—

The heat erupted within him almost simultaneously. A vast warm energy flooded into his body like boiling water poured into an icy lake, surging madly through his limbs and bones. Lin Yi burned from the inside out, and even his skin took on a faint reddish hue.

Lin Yi remained completely motionless, forming hand seals as the Savage Bull Art circulated at full force.

The Savage Bull Markings within his body lit up with a blood-gold radiance, like a massive and precise furnace, gathering, tempering, transforming, and settling every stream of incoming heat into his own blood-qi power.

Lin Yi slowly closed his eyes.

The dying embers of the bonfire flickered on and off. The entire Bluestone Tribe had fallen asleep, faint snores drifting from the stone houses. Only insect chirps and the wind occasionally swept through the night sky.

But no one noticed.

On the roof of a stone house at the eastern edge of the tribe, a scarlet figure stood silently beneath the moonlight.

Little Flame.

That Insight Spirit Fox, crimson from head to toe with a silver-white tail tip, had somehow leaped onto the roof of Xiao Hu's stone house.

It stood there, its amber-gold eyes slowly sweeping over the entire tribe before turning toward the pitch-black Great Wilderness Forest in the distance.

A faint, almost imperceptible reluctance surfaced in those eyes.

A layer of faint light suddenly shimmered over Little Flame's crimson fur. Looking closely, one could see exquisite and intricate Divine Markings emerging in sequence from its limbs, spine, and tail root. Their light flickered in the night, as if echoing some unseen thing far away.

The patterns of those Divine Markings were utterly unlike those of any Ferocious Beast Lin Yi had seen, carrying an ancient and profound aura.

Little Flame fixed its gaze on a certain direction deep within the Great Wilderness, the light in its amber-gold eyes flickering.

After a moment, it seemed to have made some decision.

It forcibly suppressed the flickering Divine Markings, and the faint radiance floating over its fur slowly withdrew back into its body.

Little Flame gently flicked its tail, cast one final glance back at the tribe, then silently leaped from the roof and slipped through the door crack back to Xiao Hu's bedside.

Xiao Hu was sleeping soundly, a trace of drool at the corner of his mouth as he mumbled something indistinctly in his dreams.

Little Flame curled itself into a fluffy ball beside Xiao Hu's pillow.