Initial Blood Resonance

Lin Yi walked to the corner of the Bluestone Grounds and bent down to pick up the smallest stone there.

It was grayish-blue, the size of two fists, rough on the surface, and ice-cold to the touch, weighing roughly twenty or thirty catties.

He weighed it in his hand; it would do. At least he wouldn't smash himself over with a tumble on the first hammer blow.

The incantation of the Bluestone Blood-Transporting Method surfaced in his mind. Recalling the positions of the illustrations on the animal skin scroll, Lin Yi aligned the bluestone with an acupoint on the inner side of his arm, then struck down lightly.

Thud.

A muffled sound came from beneath his skin, and a slight aching distension spread along his meridians. It didn't hurt, but it felt a bit strange.

"I need to use some force." Encouraging himself, Lin Yi raised the bluestone again and brought it down with a bit more strength.

This time, the aching distension was more pronounced.

Just as he was cautiously feeling out the rhythm, an overly enthusiastic shout suddenly reached his ears: "Brother Lin, you can't do it like that! Your force is too small, hit harder!"

Lin Yi looked back and saw Xiao Hu standing beside him at some point.

The boy was dragging a bluestone that was a full two circles larger than Lin Yi's, weighing no less than seventy or eighty catties.

Then, right in front of Lin Yi, Xiao Hu hoisted that large bluestone, swung it, and smashed it against the top of his head twice with loud clangs, completely unblinking and even narrowing his eyes with a hint of enjoyment.

"See, you just smash it like this! Thorough and clean!"

The corners of Lin Yi's mouth twitched fiercely.

"Brother Lin, do you want me to help you smash?" Xiao Hu walked over carrying the stone, his eyes bright and sparkling with an eager, let-me-do-it-let-me-do-it expression.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, quite unnecessary!" Lin Yi hurriedly reached out to stop him, so startled that the bluestone in his hand almost slipped away. "I'll do it myself, I can just do it myself."

Xiao Hu pouted, looking somewhat disappointed, and carried that large bluestone back to his own spot to continue smashing his head with loud clangs.

Watching the kid's retreating figure, Lin Yi silently flashed a line of text in his brain: If this were back on Earth, this kid would definitely be the protagonist of a headline news story titled "Shocking! Eight-year-old boy fiercely smashes head with stone yet remains completely unharmed."

He took a deep breath and gripped the bluestone in his hand once more.

Xiao Hu, a kid of eight or nine, could endure it unflinchingly; as an adult, there was no way he could lose to a child, right?

"Damn it, let's do this. He who bears the bitterest of hardships becomes the master of masters."

Lin Yi clenched his teeth, and the bluestone in his hand fell heavily, striking an acupoint beside his scapula.

The dull pain was twice as fierce as before, and an acid-numb wave of heat burst outward from the point of impact, spreading along his meridians.

Enduring the discomfort, he tried hard to recall the description of blood and qi guidance in the cultivation method, attempting to sense the flow of that internal heat wave while pounding away.

One strike. Two strikes. Three strikes.

The first few rounds of pounding were entirely without method. Lin Yi only felt that every time the stone fell, the warmed qi and blood stirred inside him was like a headless fly, darting blindly here and there before quickly scattering completely.

He was clearly following the incantation, yet his blood and qi simply refused to condense.

By the dozen-or-so rounds, however, his brain began to play its part.

The position, angle, and force of every bluestone strike, along with the direction of diffusion and dissipation speed of that heat wave within his body after each blow—this information was automatically gathered, compared, and analyzed by his Super Brain.

He discovered a crucial fact: random pounding could indeed stimulate blood and qi, but it would similarly shatter some tiny blood vessels, causing the blood and qi to leak out through the damaged crevices before it could even condense.

Those minute blood vessel damages were invisible to the naked eye, but the efficiency of blood and qi circulation suffered a massive blow because of it.

So the "striking acupoints with stones" written in the cultivation method didn't mean just any random stone and just any random angle would do.

Lin Yi's eyes lit up.

He began to consciously make adjustments.

The striking angle shifted slightly by two hairs, avoiding the weak nodes of the blood vessels so that the stone face pressed squarely into the center of the acupoint. The force of each falling stone was no longer slammed down recklessly all at once; instead, it was divided into two stages—heavy first, then light. The heavy blow stimulated the resonance of blood and qi, while the light press guided the blood and qi back to their proper place.

He even started exploring breathing coordination: exhaling as the stone fell, and inhaling when lifting it, blending the rhythm of his chest and abdomen with the frequency of the pounding.

Under this series of micro-adjustments, the originally chaotic blood and qi gradually showed signs of gathering.

The feeling was akin to a water flow that had originally meandered wildly all over the mountains, but was now carved with ditches by his hoe, stroke by stroke, beginning to flow slowly along a fixed riverbed.

"This is going to work!" Great joy surged in Lin Yi's heart, and his hands grew even more focused.

On the first day, he repeatedly pounded that fist-sized bluestone over a thousand times. His body was bruised black and blue everywhere, aching so much that tossing and turning on the bed made him bare his teeth.

Early the next morning, he hissed through his teeth as he climbed up to continue. By the third day, the soreness had receded considerably, and the pathway of blood and qi circulation grew increasingly clear. He could clearly sense that after every pounding strike, that warm wave of blood and qi surged along a fixed trajectory.

On the night of the third day, he sat cross-legged on the stone bed, mentally replaying every single detail of his daytime cultivation.

His comprehension had grown somewhat stronger than the previous day; those acupoint locations and blood-and-qi pathways that were still somewhat vague were thoroughly clarified during this night of review.

He even vaguely deduced a blood-and-qi circulation pathway more efficient than the one described in the incantation—although it was merely a tiny micro-adjustment, the very thought of "optimizing the cultivation method" left Lin Yi too excited to sleep well through the middle of the night.

On the fourth morning.

Lin Yi came to the Bluestone Grounds as usual and picked up the grayish-blue stone he had been gripping for three days.

Morning light spilled over the grounds. Taking a deep breath, he brought the bluestone down, striking the Shanzhong acupoint in the center of his chest.

Clang—!

A scalding wave of heat burst forth at the point of impact, completely different from every single strike of the previous three days.

That heat wave no longer darted wildly around like a headless fly; instead, it was like a ignited tide, roaring forward and rushing along the "riverbed" he had dug out over the past few days, scouring through his meridians, muscles, bones, and skin. Every cell along its path trembled, heated up, contracted, and expanded.

Lin Yi's skin flushed red visibly to the naked eye, as if a fire were burning inside his body.

When the bluestone fell again, striking his forearm, it emitted a muffled sound entirely different from before—deeper and heavier, resembling a stone striking a layer of tightly stretched battle drums.

His blood and qi had formed.

He clearly felt that power. It surged and spiraled within him, weighing heavily within his bones and flesh.

Lin Yi gripped the grayish-blue stone in his hand, exerting force with his knuckles, and squeezed fiercely.

Crack.

A subtle, crisp sound came from his palm. On the surface of the bluestone that had stayed with him for three days, a hair-thin crack split open.

Lin Yi was stunned for a moment, then slowly relaxed his hand. Looking at the tiny crack in his palm, a burst of wild joy erupted from his chest.

A mere four days.

To be exact, four days. From scratch all the way to Initial Blood Resonance, possessing twenty thousand catties of physical strength. He had succeeded.

And the true heavyweight benefactor behind all this was that Super Brain which had been continuously evolving ever since he transmigrated.

Without that day-by-day growth in comprehension, it would have been impossible for him to penetrate the detailed flaws of the Bluestone Blood-Transporting Method and self-adjust within a mere three days.

Without those micro-adjustments, he would most likely still be lying flat on his bed, covered in bruises and doubting his life choices.

No one knew that he had quietly refined the minor details of the cultivation method.

"Brother Lin! You've broken through!"

Xiao Hu's shout burst over from nearby, turning shrill with excitement. The kid had wandered over at some point and was currently tilting his head, staring with wide, round eyes at the cracked stone in Lin Yi's palm, his mouth formed into an O shape.

"So awesome, Brother Lin!"

That voice was as loud as a beating gong, causing the others practicing on the Bluestone Grounds to turn their heads and look over.

Some put down the stones in their hands, while others halted their paces of carrying heavy loads.

The gazes of over a dozen people landed squarely on Lin Yi, carrying various emotions—surprise, curiosity, envy, and a hint of pensive thought.

Feeling a bit embarrassed by the staring, Lin Yi scratched the back of his head and cupped his fists toward the crowd.

"Overpraised, overpraised, just good luck, just good luck."

A few rounds of good-natured laughter came from the crowd. Someone remarked, "You can't cultivate blood and qi with just good luck," while another said, "Back in the day, it took me half a year, you brat are truly a monster."

Others simply smiled and shook their heads, returning to lowering their heads and smashing their own stones.

At that moment, an aged figure walked slowly over from not far away. Seeing him, the surrounding clansmen consciously yielded a path.

The village chief did not walk fast, but when those deep-well-like eyes landed on Lin Yi, Lin Yi felt a gentle yet undeniable weight.

Stopping before him, the old man first lowered his head to look at the cracked stone in Lin Yi's palm, then glanced at the tidal red on his skin that had yet to fully recede, and nodded slightly.

"As expected of someone recognized by the Mingdi Spirit Fox Clan." The village chief's voice was neither high nor low, yet it made sure quite a few people around heard him.

"Just a few days of cultivation, and Initial Blood Resonance is achieved. This aptitude is a first for our Bluestone Tribe in all these years."

Just as Lin Yi was about to offer a few humble words, the village chief waved his hand, his tone shifting abruptly.

"However, merely burying yourself in hard practice is not enough."

The old man's gaze moved away from Lin Yi, sweeping toward the contours of the mountain valley covered by forests outside the tribe, his tone turning heavy and slow.

"What is cultivation for? It's to survive in the Great Wilderness. True experts are not forged by shutting themselves behind closed doors to smash stones; they are honed raw right under the claws and fangs of ferocious beasts, between life and death."

He withdrew his gaze and looked back at Lin Yi.

"How about it, interested in going out with a hunting team?"

Lin Yi was taken aback.

A hunting team. Engaging in hand-to-hand combat face-to-face with ferocious beasts, witnessing the true face of this world with his own eyes.

His heartbeat suddenly sped up a bit.

To be honest, during the few days since he transmigrated, what he had seen was merely the daily routine of the tribe—stone houses, the Bluestone Grounds, ferocious beast jerky, and Xiao Hu's fierce head-smashing.

The two words "peril" in this world were things he had only heard about in the village chief's descriptions; they had never truly fallen upon his own head.

Yet he could not cower inside the tribe forever.

"Village chief," Lin Yi raised his head, a trace of determination that even he hadn't noticed carrying in his tone.

"Coincidentally, I also want to go out and take a look."

As if he had long anticipated this reply, the corners of the village chief's mouth curved slightly. "Good. Tomorrow at dawn, at the tribe's entrance, you will set out together with Biao and the others."

"The captain of the hunting team is Biao."

As he spoke, the village chief flicked his chin toward a towering, iron-tower-like figure not far away.

"The team members are all the backbone of the tribe, numbering thirteen in total. Everyone is at least in the Blood Tide Realm, and Biao himself is a major expert of the Mountain-Sinking Realm.

They spend year-round out hunting ferocious beasts and possess rich experience. Following them out for a trip will be more useful than you holing up and bitterly cultivating on your own for ten days."

Lin Yi looked in the direction the village chief indicated.

Biao was currently facing away from them, bending down to lift a millstone-sized bluestone without turning red or panting. After putting it down, he said something to his nearby teammates, and a few of them burst into loud laughter.

Morning light fell upon their broad backs, the crisscrossing scars casting a silent sheen in the sunshine.

Hunting party. Thirteen men. Tide-Chasing Realm at the lowest.

Lin Yi silently noted this information, a strange sensation suddenly rising in his chest—he had only been in this world a few days, yet starting tomorrow he would truly set foot upon that land called the Great Wilderness.

Xiao Hu hopped about in excitement beside him. Lin-ge, Lin-ge! You're going to fight fierce beasts! Bring me back a tail, won't you?

Lin Yi looked down at that eager little face, his mouth twitching. I'll try my best to come back alive.

Xiao Hu laughed out loud. Little Flame had sauntered to his feet at some point, tilting its head up to glance at Lin Yi while a hint of what seemed like approving light flashed within its amber eyes.

Then it sat down, its tail leisurely sweeping across the ground as if setting its mind at ease after passing an inspection.