Techniques?

Lin Yi examined the gray-black stone in his hand, turning it over and over several times.

In his Spirit Eyes vision, he could see the dense clump of spiritual energy inside the stone, but how to use it was another question.

"Just break it open."

Lin Yi weighed the stone in his hand, gripped each end with both hands, and began to exert force.

With the baseline strength of one hundred thousand jin at the Dragonlike Realm, breaking apart a fist-sized stone should not have been difficult. Yet this stone was far harder than he had imagined.

He gradually increased his strength. The muscles in his arms tensed, while blood-gold patterns flickered beneath his skin.

Crack.

The stone finally split in two down the middle, its fractured edges jagged and uneven.

Then Lin Yi froze.

The dense spiritual energy he had seen so clearly scattered from the fracture the instant the stone cracked, like water that had lost its container.

Though invisible to the naked eye, in his Spirit Eyes vision, a milky-white mist was dispersing at a visible speed.

"Fuck!"

His mouth reacted faster than his brain. Spiritual energy! The brain could absorb spiritual energy!

Almost instinctively, he pressed the two halves of the stone against either side of his forehead, their broken faces tight against the skin near his temples.

His brain seemed like a ferocious beast that had caught the scent of blood, suddenly awakening.

A powerful suction force surged from within his skull. The spiritual energy drifting away was violently dragged back, pouring through his temples and into the depths of his brain.

Then he sensed a change that made his heart nearly stop. His usual slow, steady growth in comprehension was now like a sports car with its accelerator floored, its speed suddenly soaring.

The speed of his thoughts, his efficiency in processing information, and the sharpness of his perception were all rapidly climbing.

The process lasted roughly several dozen breaths.

Only after the spiritual energy had been completely drained did that cool sensation slowly fade. Lin Yi lowered his head and looked at the two stone shells in his palms. Their exteriors were still gray-black, but their insides were empty, with only fine powder covering the fractured surfaces.

He silently estimated the total amount of spiritual energy he had just absorbed.

"This one stone... actually equals three days of my natural growth in comprehension?"

Lin Yi stared at the empty shells in his hands, his heartbeat growing faster and faster. Three days.

He did not need to do anything. By merely absorbing one such stone, he could gain three extra days' worth of comprehension growth out of thin air.

If he could find more... Countless images flashed through his mind in an instant. The Lava Divine Marking, the Gilded Divine Markings, the deduction of even higher-level techniques—things that had originally required long years of accumulation to overcome all now had the possibility of being accelerated.

Unfortunately, that young man had said he had picked it up in the Great Wilderness. He probably did not have any more.

For the moment, Lin Yi suppressed the greed in his heart, casually set the empty stone shells aside, closed his eyes, and felt the current state of his brain.

At the normal pace, he would have needed around six more days to completely grasp the Lava Divine Marking. Now, that time had shrunk to four days.

"If I keep at it without sleeping..." Lin Yi calculated quickly in his mind. "Two days. I can finish it in two days."

He abruptly opened his eyes, sprang off the bed, shoved open the door, and rushed outside.

At the entrance of the neighboring wooden hut, the village chief was squatting on the ground, sorting a bundle of beast hides. Hearing the hurried footsteps, he looked up and saw Lin Yi rushing over with a face full of excitement.

"Village Chief, I need to cultivate for a while. Call me when the Trade Gathering officially begins."

The village chief had barely opened his mouth when Lin Yi turned and darted back into his own wooden hut, slamming the door shut with a bang.

The old man stood there with his mouth hanging open for a long while. In the end, he helplessly shook his head, muttered, "That little brat," and continued sorting his beast hides.

Inside the hut, Lin Yi was already seated cross-legged on the bed again, his eyes closed.

The incomplete dark-red diagram of the Lava Divine Marking slowly unfolded in his mind. Nourished by the accelerated spiritual energy, his comprehension was now operating at high speed. The pattern nodes that had previously held him up began to loosen one by one, break apart, and be understood anew.

Time blurred amid his contemplation.

Until the village chief's voice came from the doorway.

"Lin boy, the Trade Gathering has begun."

The village chief did not speak loudly, but his voice passed through the wooden door, just enough to pull Lin Yi out of his deep state of contemplation.

He slowly opened his eyes. The faint white-gold glow in his pupils receded as he let out a long breath of stale air.

"...A day and a half already?"

He looked down at his palm, quickly ran through the Divine Markings diagram in his mind, and found that the incomplete Lava Divine Marking needed only its final fifteen percent before he could fully comprehend it.

Lin Yi stood and stretched his stiff shoulders and back. His bones crackled several times as he called back, "Coming!"

He swept his gaze around the wooden hut and picked up the things he had prepared long ago: several bundles of processed beast hides, dried herbs, and the six long spider legs of the Gloom Spider. He wrapped them all in beast hide, held them in his arms, and pushed open the door.

The village chief was already waiting outside. He looked Lin Yi over from head to toe. "You look all right. Let's go. Everyone else has already gone ahead."

Following the village chief through the camp, Lin Yi arrived at the familiar clearing. The sight before him was completely different from yesterday's.

The place was bustling with voices. Goods filled every wooden shed in every direction. Vendors' cries, haggling arguments, and the footsteps of people squeezing through the crowd blended together, making it so lively that it felt like heaven and earth had changed.

Lin Yi quickly found Mang and the others in the crowd.

The Bluestone Tribe's stall was in a good spot, beneath the third wooden shed on the right after entering. At that moment, its front was packed three layers deep inside and three layers deep outside, with most of the people asking about the Bluemane Horses.

Mang stood beside the herd, shouting himself hoarse as he bargained with people. Several hunting team members helped beside him, all busy enough to sweat profusely.

They had discussed it last night. Each person would keep one horse for personal use, while the remaining sixteen Bluemane Horses would all be brought out for trade.

Judging from the current situation, the market response had far exceeded expectations. An endless stream of people came to ask about prices.

Lin Yi squeezed behind his own stall and dumped all the beast hides, herbs, and spider legs in his arms onto Mang. "Brother Mang, help me sell these too. Set the prices as you see fit. Just don't sell them at a loss."

Mang accepted the bundle of spider legs. "All right. These are good stuff—they'll definitely sell well. Go handle your own business!"

Lin Yi patted Mang on the shoulder, then turned and plunged into the crowd.

Using the same method as before, he slightly activated his Spirit Eyes, dimming the white-gold light on the surface of his eyeballs so as not to attract attention. He followed the flow of the crowd, sweeping his gaze over each stall one by one.

The place had been empty when he came yesterday, but today it was loaded with goods. What if there were more hidden treasures among them?

As he walked, he absentmindedly thought about the Spirit Stone. If he could find more stones like that, then forget the Lava Divine Marking—even the Gilded Divine Markings might be within reach.

Just as he was pondering this, a nearby conversation suddenly drifted into his ears.

"There are techniques being traded over there!"

"Really? Someone's actually putting techniques up for trade?"

"Won't we know if we go look? There's a huge crowd gathered up ahead, all there to see that."

"Come on, come on!"

Several young hunters eagerly squeezed past Lin Yi and hurried toward the other end of the clearing.

Lin Yi halted.

Techniques? Those people sounded so certain, and there were quite a few of them. It did not seem like groundless rumor.

"I have to take a look."