Breakthrough: Dragonlike Blood-Qi

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Morning had arrived at Bluestone Tribe. At this hour on ordinary days, every household would already be busy chopping firewood, training, and preparing food, with sounds ringing out without pause.

But today, the entire tribe was unusually quiet.

Because everyone's attention was fixed on a tightly shut wooden door.

A small group had gathered outside the village chief's stone house. The chief himself stood at the front with his hands behind his back, with seven or eight members of the Hunting Team behind him.

Mang and the other burly men were unusually quiet. Even their breathing had softened as their gazes locked in unison on the door to Lin Yi's stone house.

Someone else sat on a stone stool beside the house: Biao. His left arm was secured in a crude splint, tightly wrapped in animal-hide bandages and hanging against his chest, but the vigor on his dark face was far better than it had been a few days ago.

When he heard that Lin Yi was about to break through, he had insisted on coming. The village chief could not persuade him otherwise and could only let him have his way.

"...Is that for real?" someone muttered quietly in the crowd.

"The chief said it himself. How could it be fake?"

"But it's only been a few days since that kid Lin broke through to the Mountain-Sinking Realm..."

"You want to compare yourself to him? With what?"

Another member of the Hunting Team chimed in, his tone filled with both amazement and conviction. "He's the first Dragonlike Blood-Qi Realm expert in our tribe's history, isn't he?"

"Not just our tribe. Count them—within a hundred li, how many Dragonlike Realm experts are there?"

Everyone spoke in turns, deliberately keeping their voices low. Before speaking, each person would first glance toward the stone house, afraid of disturbing the person inside who was breaking through.

Even Mang, with his booming voice, lowered his volume by more than half when he spoke.

"Enough. Say less." Without turning his head, the village chief gave a quiet rebuke.

Everyone immediately fell silent.

Inside the stone house, the scene was entirely different.

Lin Yi sat cross-legged in the center of the stone bed. His skin glowed a scorching dark red, like a piece of iron that had been heated through and had yet to cool.

The energy from seven Blood Essence Fruits had already been fully refined the night before. His blood qi had climbed step by step, pushing him all the way to the peak of the Mountain-Sinking Realm.

But after reaching that point, his path had been firmly blocked by an invisible towering wall.

For a full hour, he had repeatedly driven the Savage Bull Art to assault that barrier. His blood qi struck it like a hammer battering a gate, thudding again and again, yet it always lacked that final sliver of force.

"...Just a little more!"

Lin Yi's teeth clenched until they creaked. Blood qi surged through his body like a raging tide, but every time it reached the barrier, it was knocked back. Through the repeated impacts, he could feel that the barrier had loosened and even cracked, yet it still lacked that final hammer blow.

No more leaving himself a way out.

He abruptly opened his eyes and pulled out the last two Blood Essence Fruits from his clothes.

He stuffed them all into his mouth and swallowed them in one gulp.

Boom—

The final two torrents of heat surged into his body like floods bursting through a broken dam, merging into the sea of blood qi already saturated to its limit.

The Savage Bull Art revolved at its utmost limit. The blood-gold Savage Bull pattern within him shone so brightly that it nearly pierced through his skin, twisting all that energy into a single force

and smashing it forward with savage force.

"Break for me... BREAK!!!"

His joints cracked and his flesh trembled. Lin Yi felt like a bowstring drawn to its absolute limit, every fiber emitting a hum on the verge of snapping.

Then, crack.

The barrier that had blocked him for an hour finally shattered completely.

In that instant, all the blood qi accumulated within him seemed to break free of its restraints and burst forth.

The Mountain-Sinking Realm blood qi that had once been solid as mountains began to transform violently. Its originally heavy, sturdy nature abruptly became nimble and wild, like a fierce beast imprisoned for years finally smashing apart its cage.

Brand-new blood qi surged like rivers flowing into the sea, circulating madly through his body.

Every wisp of blood qi was purer and more violent than it had been in the Mountain-Sinking Realm.

Most astonishingly, the path of that flowing blood qi gradually took shape. It was as though tiny dragon forms were swimming through his flesh and meridians, while a deep rumble emerged from the depths of his chest, rich and resonant like a dragon's roar.

Dragonlike Blood-Qi.

This was the fourth realm of blood qi.

Lin Yi slowly opened his eyes and drew a long breath.

Outside the stone house, everyone felt the sudden burst of pressure as well.

The atmosphere that had been quiet moments ago was overwhelmed by a deep, blazing impact of blood qi, and everyone's breathing involuntarily paused for a beat.

The pressure was not particularly violent, yet it was so heavy that it tightened their hearts.

"...He did it!" Mang was the first to shout, his booming voice finally unleashed.

"Kid Lin is incredible—!!!" Biao's booming voice exploded right after. In his excitement, he tried to stand, only for pain to shoot through his left arm and make him bare his teeth before sitting back down. Yet the smile on his face could not be hidden at all.

The village chief said nothing. A glimmer of light reflected in his clouded old eyes.

The wooden door was pushed open from within.

Lin Yi stepped over the threshold, with the morning sunlight falling directly onto him.

The blood-gold patterns on the surface of his skin had not yet fully faded.

Around his body, blood qi visibly swirled and drifted, vaguely gathering into the phantom silhouette of a dragon coiled around his shoulders and back.

The lowered dragon head faintly drew toward him. That almost tangible pressure made the members of the Hunting Team unconsciously retreat half a step.

"You little brat." The village chief stepped forward, sweeping his gaze over Lin Yi several times before forcefully patting his shoulder. "You succeeded."

"Hehe, just luck. Luck."

Lin Yi scratched the back of his head. As his mood relaxed, the blood qi dragon shadow around him slowly dispersed.

The sharp edge he had displayed during his breakthrough was withdrawn, but his entire bearing had clearly changed.

"Congratulations, Lin Yi!"

"Now our Bluestone Tribe has a Dragonlike Realm expert too!"

The members of the Hunting Team crowded around him, talking over one another, their dark faces filled with genuine joy.

At some point, Xiao Hu had squeezed to the very front, holding Little Flame's ball of crimson fur in his arms.

The little boy tilted up his head, his eyes sparkling as he looked at Lin Yi with boundless admiration. "Big Brother Lin, you look so cool! You're amazing!"

Being praised as "so cool" to his face by an eight- or nine-year-old child made Lin Yi's ears redden a little. He quickly waved his hands. "Not at all, not at all. You flatter me."

Everyone burst into laughter.

Once the lively commotion settled down, the village chief cleared his throat and brought the conversation back on track.

"Alright, alright. Being happy is one thing, but we cannot delay important business. Lin breaking through to the Dragonlike Realm is a great joy, but we cannot delay the Tribal Exchange Gathering either. Prepare to depart."

He turned and swept his gaze over everyone. "Biao's severe injury has not healed, so he'll stay behind and lead people in guarding the tribe. Half of the Hunting Team will come with me, while the other half will be under Biao's command. Is everything ready?"

"It's been ready for ages," Mang replied.

"Then get yourselves sorted. Gather at the village entrance in a quarter hour."

Everyone dispersed to fetch their own baggage. Lin Yi also returned to his stone house and slung the bundles he had prepared long ago over his shoulder.

He wrapped the Gloom Spider's six slender legs in animal hide and tied them into a bundle. Several fine pelts stripped from brown bears were crammed in alongside them until the load was packed full.

He carried everything to the village entrance and joined the others. Mang and the rest also carried the goods they intended to exchange, fully armed with spears and great blades, with several bundles of animal hides stacked neatly together.

Just then, a crimson blur lightly leaped onto his shoulder.

Lin Yi turned his head and saw Little Flame crouching on his right shoulder, its tail hanging down and its amber-gold eyes half-lidded.

"Huh?" Lin Yi was somewhat surprised.

The village chief noticed it from beside him and explained with a smile, "After Little Flame grew up, it began coming along to the Tribal Exchange Gathering every year.

"It can sense good and evil. It knows perfectly well who harbors malicious intentions and who hides wicked thoughts."

Lin Yi considered this, then nodded in understanding. When traveling outside, all manner of people were mixed together. Having a spirit fox capable of gauging people's hearts at his side was indeed a good thing.

But immediately afterward, another thought surfaced in his mind.

Spirit beasts... had Divine Markings too, didn't they?

Little Flame was an Insight Spirit Fox. It could discern good and evil and sense the depth of one's talent. There was a nine-in-ten chance that such gifts concealed some kind of Divine Markings structure behind them.

He had already inscribed the Divine Markings of the Savage Bull, Inkshadow Leopard, and Shadowmarked Spider, but he had never seen what Divine Markings inside a spirit beast looked like.

Lin Yi instantly felt eager to give it a try.

At that very moment, the village chief's voice rang out. "Depart—!"

Everyone started walking toward the tribe gates. Following the group, Lin Yi could not help taking Little Flame down from his shoulder and gathering it into his arms.

"Hehe, Little Flame, let big brother have a look at your Divine Markings, okay? Just one look!"

His tone was so shamelessly ingratiating that he looked exactly like a creepy old man coaxing a child.

Little Flame's amber-gold eyes stared at him for two seconds. Then its two front paws pressed against his chest and pushed hard, its little head leaning back in unmistakable resistance.

"Come on, come on. Look, I've got jerky."

Lin Yi freed one hand and pulled some jerky from his clothes, holding it out. Little Flame's nose twitched slightly. It stared at the jerky and hesitated again and again, but in the end, it still yielded to the temptation of food. It clamped the jerky in its mouth and began crunching away, no longer struggling.

"That's more like it. Hehehe... just one look!"

Lin Yi grinned shamelessly and activated his Spirit Eyes. A faint platinum-white glow slowly lit up as his vision penetrated Little Flame's fur.