Then can I try it?

"Oh, honored guest, here's the thing. Yunshan and the others brought back quite a haul today, hunting down some formidable giant beasts. I thought this would be a good opportunity to give those little rascals a medicinal bath. They're preparing for it now."

The old chief explained where the village children had gone.

"A medicinal bath?" Di Yi had heard another unfamiliar term and asked curiously, "What is a medicinal bath? Since it's named after medicine, is it a way of cultivating, something like physical training?"

"Yes. Honored guest, you don't know about it?" The old chief was a little puzzled. Someone from beyond the Great Wilderness should have known about this, but he soon found a reasonable explanation for himself. "Could it be that people outside the Great Wilderness no longer use this method?"

"Oh, then may I take a look?" Di Yi shook his head without answering directly. He did indeed come from beyond the Great Wilderness, but not the place the old chief meant.

"If you wish to watch, honored guest, of course you may," the old chief replied. It was only a medicinal bath, nothing that had to be hidden from others. After all, Stone Village was not the only village that used this method.

If anything could be called precious, it would be the five ancient formulas handed down by their ancestors. But the ingredients had already been prepared. At most, Di Yi would see them being placed into the cauldrons, so there was no need to worry about any secrets leaking.

Time passed swiftly, and night fell in the blink of an eye.

Gradually, the work of cutting up those two "mountains" came to a halt as well. There was no helping it; there were simply too many giant beasts and vicious beasts to process in a short time. It would take at least several days.

"Put away what we've finished processing first. Make sure anything meant for food is properly salted," the old chief reminded everyone. For Stone Village, where food was somewhat scarce, wasting such precious beast meat was absolutely unacceptable.

"Old chief, there's no need to go to all that trouble. There are still plenty of giant beasts and vicious beasts left. Let's use this processed meat for tonight's meal. Hmm, just roast it." Di Yi stepped forward. This beast meat might be precious, but he felt no particular attachment to it and thought they might as well eat it tonight.

"Wouldn't that... be a little too extravagant?" The old chief paused in surprise. Eating ordinary wild beast meat or giant beast meat that way would have been acceptable.

But most of what they had processed earlier was vicious beast meat. Every part of a vicious beast was a treasure; even its sinewy meat was deeply nourishing. They could hardly lavish enough care on its preparation, so how could they simply roast it?

"It's fine. Don't we have two whole 'mountains' here? To be honest, I'd also like to taste what roasted vicious beast meat is like," Di Yi said, assuring him there was no need to worry.

"Then we owe this blessing to you, honored guest." Seeing Di Yi's attitude, the old chief could hardly say more. After all, these were his possessions.

Still, he expressed his gratitude. The people of Stone Village would also get to enjoy it, and perhaps their physiques would improve greatly as a result. This was especially true for those little rascals; someone in this generation might even manage to enter the blood moving realm.

Soon, fires were lit at the entrance to Stone Village. Just like the feast held to welcome Di Yi that day, tonight's dinner became a banquet.

"Child, hurry and thank Uncle Di Yi. This is Pixiu meat! Even I've never eaten it before. It's a rare delicacy, so say thank you!"

"You little brat, don't just stuff your face. Hurry and pour Uncle Di Yi a cup of wine. We only get to eat this rare food thanks to him."

Cooking smoke curled upward amid the scattered bonfires. As the village adults expressed their thanks and gratitude to Di Yi, they did not forget to remind their children to mind their manners.

"It's fine, it's fine. Everyone, go ahead and eat." Di Yi felt a little overwhelmed by their enthusiasm. More importantly, he was not good at dealing with children, so he gestured that there was no need for all this.

The bonfires danced, and Stone Village bustled with merriment. In the cruel Great Wilderness, where savage birds and fierce beasts roamed and lives were constantly under threat, any joyous occasion was rare and worth cherishing.

"All right, you little rascals. Now that you've eaten and drunk your fill, go move around a little to help your digestion.

"It'll be time for your medicinal bath soon." As the banquet drew toward its close, the old chief felt it was time to get down to business. "No!"

The moment the little rascals heard this, they panicked. Though they had long been prepared and knew they would have to undergo a medicinal bath tonight, when the moment actually arrived, they simply... ran.

Of course, quite a few quieter children knew this was something they had to face. They did not flee, but waited calmly for the "torment" of the medicinal bath.

"No! Dad, I don't want a medicinal bath!"

"Dad, I don't want to! It's pure torture! Can you really bear to watch your child being boiled?"

"It hurts worse than being scraped with a knife! There's no way I'm doing it a second time! Dad, you can't catch me!"

The most mischievous children resisted fiercely, scattering through the village in search of hiding places.

Unfortunately, all their efforts were futile. The adults knew the village inside out, and besides, how could those little arms and legs outrun strong, sturdy adults?

Before long, they were caught and brought back, drooping like roosters that had lost a fight.

"You really don't know how blessed you are. Those are rare, nourishing medicines. If you keep taking medicinal baths, they'll become your greatest asset for living in the Great Wilderness," the elders said, exasperated by their failure to appreciate the opportunity.

"Why are they so resistant?" Di Yi looked at the little rascals and asked the old chief in puzzlement.

"What else could it be? They can't stand the suffering." The old chief shook his head and explained, "To bring out the full value of the ingredients, such as the blood essence of those big beasts, we have to 'activate the blood.' Honored guest, you must have noticed that once those fierce beasts die and their bodies lose their warmth, their blood almost entirely coagulates."

"So you mean... the medicinal bath needs to be heated, perhaps even boiled?" Di Yi glanced discreetly at the several large bronze cauldrons set out nearby. People were adding firewood beneath them while pouring in large quantities of liquid.

"Yes." The old chief nodded.

"Isn't that the same as boiling people?" Di Yi's eyes widened. He had eaten cauldron-boiled meat in Stone Village, and comparing the two, he found the processes were practically identical.

No wonder those little rascals resisted so fiercely. Even freshly roasted food felt scalding to them on an ordinary day. If they were lowered straight into boiling liquid, wouldn't the heat make them wish they were dead?

"This is for their own good, too. Otherwise, they won't be able to survive in this dangerous Great Wilderness." The old chief also felt for the children, but this was a stage they had to endure. Without it, even survival would be a problem.

After all, if they could not withstand even this much heat, how could they face the giant beasts in the mountains?

In the Great Wilderness, quite a few giant beasts possessed the ability to wield fire, and their flames were far hotter than the liquid inside the cauldrons.

That made confronting giant beasts and vicious beasts, let alone primordial remnants, even more out of the question.

"Are medicinal baths like this very effective?" Di Yi asked.

"Very." The old chief nodded. "A medicinal bath like this not only helps them break through their bodies' limits, but also lets them 'steal' the essence, drawing the strength of those big beasts from the ingredients."

"Then does that mean medicinal baths like this can give them some of those big beasts' abilities?" Di Yi pressed.

"You've misunderstood, honored guest. When I speak of drawing out the big beasts' strength, I mean their physical constitution. It's like eating to grow taller-the 'theft' strengthens their muscles and bones," the old chief replied. "There does seem to be a claim similar to what you described, but it cannot truly be done. After all, the big beasts' bodily functions dissipate after death, and they may even erase their own primordial runes before dying."

"I see. Then does that mean Shi Yunshan and the others obtained that kind of strength in a single arm through this method?"

"In terms of their foundation, yes. But the strength they ultimately achieved, and the toughness that lets them wrestle giant beasts, also came from training and technique. It was the result of condensing runes."

"Then can I try it? I'd like to experience it too."