Breakthrough: Dragonlike Blood-Qi

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

Morning came to Bluestone Tribe. At this hour on ordinary days, every household would already have been busy chopping wood, training, preparing food, with sounds rising without end.

But today, the entire tribe was unusually quiet.

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

A small crowd 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 hunting team members behind him.

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

Someone else sat on a stone stool beside the house: Biao. His left arm was held in a simple splint, tightly wrapped in beast-hide bandages and hung before 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 chief could not dissuade him and could only let him have his way.

"...Is it true?"

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

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

"You want to compare yourself to him? What do you have to compare with?"

Another hunting team member chimed in, his tone filled with both awe and admiration. "This should be the first Dragonlike Blood-Qi Realm expert in our tribe's history, right?"

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

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

Even someone as loud as Mang lowered his voice by half when he spoke.

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

Everyone immediately fell silent.

Inside the stone house, the scene was entirely different.

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

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

But once it had pushed him there, an invisible high wall had firmly blocked his path.

For an entire hour, he had driven the Savage Bull Art again and again to strike at that barrier. His blood-qi hammered against it like a battering ram against a gate, booming without end, yet always lacking that final sliver of force.

"...Just that little bit!"

Lin Yi's teeth ground together. The blood-qi within him surged like a tide, yet every time it reached the barrier, it was thrown back. Through repeated collisions, he could feel that the barrier had loosened and even cracked, but it was still short of that one final hammer blow.

No more leaving himself a way out.

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

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

"Boom—"

The last two streams of heat poured into his body like floods bursting through a broken dam, merging into the great tide of blood-qi already saturated to its limit.

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

It smashed upward with all its might.

"Break for me...!!!"

His joints cracked and his flesh quivered. Lin Yi felt like a bowstring drawn to its absolute limit, every fiber giving off the hum of imminent rupture.

Then, crack.

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

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

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

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

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

Most wondrous of all, the paths along which the blood-qi flowed gradually took shape. It was as though tiny dragon forms were swimming through his flesh and meridians, while a low rumble emerged from the depths of his chest, deep and powerful as a dragon's roar.

Dragonlike Blood-Qi.

This was the fourth realm of blood-qi.

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

The people outside the stone house felt that suddenly erupting pressure as well.

The atmosphere that had just been silent was overwhelmed by a surge of deep, blazing blood-qi, and everyone's breathing involuntarily paused for a beat.

The pressure was not especially violent, yet it was so heavy that it made their hearts tighten.

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

"Lin, you're incredible—!!!" Biao's loud voice exploded after his. Excited, he tried to rise, but pain shot through his left arm and made him bare his teeth before sitting back down. Still, he could not hide the smile on his face.

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

The wooden door was pushed open from within.

Lin Yi stepped over the threshold and emerged, morning light falling directly over him.

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

Around him, blood-qi swirled visibly in the air, faintly condensing into the phantom silhouette of a dragon coiled between his shoulders and back.

The lowered dragon head subtly drew toward him. That pressure, nearly solid enough to touch, made the hunting team members instinctively retreat half a step.

"You little brat." The chief walked forward, looking Lin Yi up and down several times before giving his shoulder a firm pat. "You succeeded."

"Hehe, I just got lucky. Lucky."

Lin Yi scratched the back of his head, and the blood-qi dragon shadow around him slowly dispersed as he relaxed.

The sharp edge he had possessed during his breakthrough was drawn back in, but his entire bearing had clearly changed.

"Congratulations, Lin Yi!"

"From now on, Bluestone Tribe has a Dragonlike Realm expert too!"

The hunting team members crowded around him, talking over one another. Every dark face was filled with genuine joy.

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

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

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

Everyone burst into laughter.

Once the excitement settled, the chief cleared his throat and brought the conversation back on track.

"Alright, alright. Be happy if you want, but we cannot delay serious 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 across the crowd. "Biao's serious injuries have not healed this time, so he'll stay behind and lead people in guarding the tribe. Half the hunting team will come with me, while the other half will be under Biao's command. Is everything ready?"

"Ready long ago," Mang answered.

"Then get yourselves in order. Gather at the village entrance in a quarter of an hour."

Everyone dispersed to retrieve their luggage. Lin Yi also returned to his stone house and hoisted the bags he had prepared long ago onto his shoulder.

The six slender legs of the Gloom Spider had been wrapped in beast hide and tied into a bundle. Several fine pelts skinned from the brown bear were stuffed in along with various odds and ends until the bags were packed full.

He carried everything to the village entrance and met up with the others. Mang and the rest also carried their own trade goods, fully armed with spears and large blades, while bundles of beast hides were stacked neatly.

Just then, a crimson shadow 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.

Seeing this, the chief smiled and explained, "After Little Flame grew up, it started accompanying us to the Tribal Exchange Gathering every year.

"It can sense good and evil. Whoever harbors malicious intent, whoever hides wicked thoughts—it knows perfectly well."

Lin Yi thought about it, then nodded in understanding. When traveling outside, all kinds of fish and dragons mingled together. Having a spirit fox that could gauge people's hearts at his side was indeed a good thing.

But immediately afterward, another thought surfaced in his mind.

Spirit beasts... should have Divine Markings too, right?

Little Flame was an Insight Spirit Fox. It could discern good and evil and sense the depth of a person's talent. Behind such an ability, there was most likely some kind of Divine Markings structure hidden away.

He had already engraved 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 moment, the chief's voice rang out. "Depart—!"

Everyone set off toward the tribe's gates. Following the group, Lin Yi could not resist lifting Little Flame from his shoulder and gathering it into his arms.

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

His tone was shamelessly ingratiating, just like a sleazy old uncle coaxing a child.

Little Flame stared at him with its amber-gold eyes for two seconds, then planted both front paws against his chest and pushed hard. Its little head tilted back, making its resistance crystal clear.

"Come on, don't be like that. Look, I've got jerky."

Lin Yi freed one hand, took out a strip of jerky from his clothes, and offered it over. Little Flame's nose twitched slightly. It stared at the jerky and hesitated again and again, but in the end, it still fell to the temptation of food. It clamped the jerky in its mouth and began chewing with loud crunches, no longer struggling.

"That's more like it, hehe... Just one look!"

With a shameless grin, Lin Yi activated his Spirit Eyes. A faint platinum glow slowly lit up, and his vision penetrated Little Flame's fur.