"Each person pick a horse first. Tame it, and make it your mount."
The moment Lin Yi said this, everyone's eyes lit up, and they crowded toward the Bluemane Horse herd sprawled haphazardly across the ground.
The men of the Hunting Team rubbed their hands as they picked and chose. One said this horse had a big frame, another said that one had a glossy coat. It was as lively as a market fair.
Lin Yi did not compete with them.
He walked straight toward the lead stallion—the largest, longest-maned, most robust, and most vigorous of the entire Bluemane Horse herd.
He had knocked the fellow unconscious with one punch earlier. It was still lying flat on its back with its limbs spread wide, twitching now and then, clearly not fully awake yet.
Lin Yi crouched down and patted its head.
"Hey, get up. Sleeping isn't allowed here."
Slap, slap, slap. Several neither-light-nor-heavy slaps landed on the horse's face.
The Bluemane Horse's eyelids trembled a few times before it finally opened its eyes groggily.
The instant its amber eyes focused, it saw the smiling human face before it.
"Neigh—!"
The horse jerked, flipped itself upright, and scrambled at the ground with all four hooves, about to bolt.
But the moment it got to its feet, Lin Yi had already vaulted onto its back. His legs clamped tightly around its belly, while his hand gripped the blue mane at its neck.
Pressed down like that, the Bluemane Horse immediately began struggling like mad.
Its forehooves reared high, its hind legs kicked fiercely, and its whole body bounced and twisted in place, trying to throw the baleful star off its back.
That force was easily fifty or sixty thousand jin at the Tidal Surge Realm. Any ordinary hunter in the tribe would likely have been thrown off in a single exchange.
Unfortunately for it, Lin Yi was the one sitting on its back.
"Heh, you've got quite the spirit, don't you?" Lin Yi's legs did not budge, as though nailed to its back. "Wouldn't it be nice to obediently be a mount? Why run?"
The Bluemane Horse could not understand human speech. Instead, it struggled even more fiercely.
Lin Yi grew impatient. Freeing his right hand, he delivered two resounding punches to the side of its head. He controlled his strength so it would not pass out, but it hurt badly enough.
In pain, the Bluemane Horse struggled even more violently.
"Oh, I refuse to believe this." Lin Yi muttered, landing two more resounding punches. "Submit or not? Submit or not?"
The people watching nearby had all stopped what they were doing, staring at the scene with their mouths agape.
Wasn't horse-taming supposed to involve the rider wearing the horse down with endurance until it had no strength left to throw the rider from its back and finally bowed its head in surrender?
It was supposed to be a contest of patience, tenacity, and a tug-of-war between two wills. Even veteran horse tamers from large tribes needed the better part of a day to make a Bluemane Horse submit wholeheartedly.
But what was this Lin Yi was doing?
This was clearly beating it into submission.
Thump, thump. Several more punches followed.
The Bluemane Horse struggled less and less, going from its initial wild bucking to slight twisting, until it finally drooped its head and stood obediently in place on all four hooves.
It snorted rough breaths through its nostrils, its eyes filled with the grievance and resignation of Please stop hitting me.
Lin Yi patted its sleek neck. "That's more like it. Follow me from now on, and you'll have meat to eat."
"...You really are something else, kid."
The village chief's faint voice drifted over from the side. The old man had watched the whole time, his expression shifting from astonishment to speechlessness to helpless amusement, until all that remained was a resigned sigh.
He had lived for over seventy years. He had seen beast taming and forcible taming, but this was the first time he had seen someone punch a Tidal Surge Realm Bluemane Horse into submission.
Lin Yi turned with a grin. "Am I? Hehehe."
"Something else, my foot." The village chief waved his hand irritably, then turned to the others. "Don't learn from him. Injured Bluemane Horses sell for less."
Only then did the people of the Hunting Team come back to their senses and go pick their own horses.
The others each had their own methods. Some soothed their horses slowly, while others used brute force to pin them down and wear out their strength. It was not fast, but it went fairly smoothly.
Lin Yi watched for a while and found it far too tedious.
He flipped down from Xiao Qing's back.
Yes, he had just named the lead stallion Xiao Qing, and it had not objected.
Walking over to the Bluemane Horses that were still struggling, he gave each of them two resounding punches.
Thump. Thump.
"Submitting?"
Thump. Thump.
"Submitting?"
Before long, the remaining dozen or so Bluemane Horses had all lowered their heads and behaved themselves.
The people of the Hunting Team stared dumbfoundedly as those fierce, untamable horses became meek and submissive. The entire process had taken less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
"...Incredible." Mang held it in for a long while before squeezing out just two words.
"Efficiency comes first." Lin Yi clapped his hands, mounted Xiao Qing again, and casually stroked its mane. "We lost a little time, but now that we have horses, we should be able to make it up."
The village chief calculated the time, clearly in a good mood. "We still have enough time for today's journey. With Bluemane Horses for transport, we should be able to reach the next rest stop before nightfall."
"Move out!"
At the command, more than twenty Bluemane Horses sprang forward.
Though most of the men of the Hunting Team were riding horses for the first time, their physiques were there for all to see. Before long, they were riding with decent form.
Hooves thudded against the mountain road, while the wind howled past their ears. They traveled who knew how many times faster than they could on two legs.
People began teasing one another. One said another rode like a lame-legged horse. Laughter mingled with hoofbeats and drifted far along the mountain trail.
Sure enough, in less than two hours, the group reached the second rest stop, which they had originally expected to arrive at only the next day.
When Lin Yi spotted the cave in the distance, he could not help thinking, Having horses really is great.
The rest stop was empty. They were the first group to arrive. Everyone dismounted, expertly built fires, fed the horses, and prepared to rest.
As Mang added firewood to the flames, he said cheerfully, "This is way too fast! Normally, it would take us a whole day to get here, but now we made it in two hours!"
The village chief sat by the fire and took out the dried rations he had brought, passing them around before speaking slowly. "At this pace, if we set out early tomorrow, we'll reach the Trade Gathering site by afternoon. That's two days ahead of schedule."
Lin Yi tied Xiao Qing to a tree trunk at the cave entrance, then returned to sit beside the fire. The village chief glanced at him and suddenly changed his tone.
"Lin boy, since we have time now, let me tell you about the Tribal Exchange Gathering. This is your first time attending, so there are some things you need to know beforehand."
Lin Yi became serious. "Please tell me."
"The Tribal Exchange Gathering is hosted by the Flamewaste Tribe."
"The Flamewaste Tribe is the top large tribe in this region. Its strength is far beyond what an outlying small tribe like ours can compare to. Every year, they hold the gathering at a fixed location. On the surface, they say it is for tribes to exchange supplies and make up for what one another lacks, but in truth..."
The old man paused, his gaze resting on the dancing flames.
"What they truly want is to recruit talent. At every gathering, any outstanding and promising young people will receive an olive branch from the Flamewaste Tribe and an invitation to join them. With this move, they have only grown stronger and stronger."
After saying this, the village chief raised his head and looked steadily at Lin Yi. Firelight reflected in his cloudy old eyes, somehow revealing an unmistakable seriousness.
"Lin boy, if you want to go further, if you want access to deeper knowledge of cultivation, cultivation arts, and martial techniques... joining the Flamewaste Tribe is a shortcut."
Lin Yi fell silent.
He understood the village chief's meaning perfectly.
The Bluestone Tribe was too small—so small that it did not even possess cultivation knowledge beyond the Blood-Qi Realm. The village chief sincerely hoped that he could go farther.
"I see..." Lin Yi murmured, lowering his head to stare at the hand resting on his knee.
He actually knew that more profound cultivation arts and martial techniques were not insurmountable obstacles for him.
Although the Savage Bull Art was only a Blood-Qi Realm cultivation art, after his repeated modifications and the integration of the Inkshadow Leopard Divine Markings, it had already broken free of the original art's framework.
On top of that, the incomplete Divine Markings of the Lava Giant Ape and the two grand diagrams of the Gilded Divine Markings were still stored in his mind. As long as his comprehension continued to rise, deriving a cultivation path beyond the Blood-Qi Realm was no idle dream.
What truly restricted him was systematic cultivation knowledge: foundational theories, realm classifications, experience and tricks for breaking through bottlenecks—knowledge like that. And the Flamewaste Tribe happened to be able to provide it.
Join, or not join?
Lin Yi raised his head and smiled at the village chief. "Village chief, allow me to think it over."
The village chief merely nodded slowly. "No rush. Make your own decision. No matter what you decide, we will support you."
Before you continue