[You found it amusing. Shi Huang-picking through scraps?
You then asked Shi Huang what exactly had happened, and why a descendant of a branch lineage like him had been abandoned in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
With tears streaming down his face and his fists clenched, Shi Huang told you everything.
As it turned out, the Stone Clan, a long-established Emperor Clan, would often select many people to compete. The winner would receive all its resources, staking everything on that sliver of a chance to become a Dou Di.
Shi Huang's branch lineage descended from one of those competitors.
Unfortunately, the Stone Clan's current Dou Di was petty and held grudges. He had simply wiped out everyone who had competed against him back then, along with their descendants.
Shi Huang had only managed to escape to the Ten Thousand Great Mountains under his parents' protection.
Your fate bore some resemblance to Shi Huang's. Both of you were unfortunate souls.
After some hesitation, you asked Shi Huang whether he was willing to follow you.
Shi Huang nodded repeatedly.
From then on, you and Shi Huang became companions, both teacher and student, and friends.
Drawing on the cultivation methods in your memories, you began teaching Shi Huang to cultivate.
Shi Huang was exceptionally gifted. Although he was only eight, he had already reached the Dou Zhe level.
He understood the Dou Techniques you taught him as soon as he heard them, learned them as soon as he tried them, and mastered them as soon as he practiced.]
[Year 44: Eleven-year-old Shi Huang broke through to Da Dou Shi without using any precious resources. One could well imagine how formidable his talent was.
Of course, you were no slouch either. After devouring who knew how many magical beasts, you were already on the verge of becoming a fifth-rank magical beast.
Over these years together, you and Shi Huang had grown increasingly close.
Both without parents, both hunted by top-tier clans, you shared the same suffering and the same refusal to admit defeat. You were naturally a perfect match.
One day, seemingly feeling that you had grown close enough, Shi Huang watched you kill and devour a magical beast, then asked whether he could take a look at the secret art you used to devour magical beasts.
You asked him what he wanted to do, and he answered that he wanted to help you improve the secret art.
He had noticed that when you devoured magical beasts, you often wasted a large portion of their energy, absorbing only a tiny fraction for your own use. Otherwise, you would have grown even faster.
After a moment's hesitation, you shared the secret art you had created with Shi Huang.
Shi Huang went into seclusion and did not emerge for a long time.]
[Year 46: Relying on the tremendous speed of your Heavenly Phoenix bloodline and your innate beast flame, you killed a half-step sixth-rank magical beast that had been severely injured in a territorial struggle. You devoured it completely.
Your physique was strengthened enormously, and you successfully broke through to become a fifth-rank magical beast. You now counted as a mid-tier expert even in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
At the same time, Shi Huang emerged from seclusion. The boy really was a genius, in every respect.
He handed your improved secret art back to you. After looking through it, you caught a fourth-order magical beast to test it. Your digestion speed had doubled! The energy conversion rate had also improved somewhat!
Astonished by Shi Huang's talent, you blurted out, "My son Shi Huang has the makings of an emperor."
Shi Huang froze. Only after a good while did he say that he regarded you as an elder brother, and asked whether he could refrain from calling you Dad.
You immediately changed your tune and simply proposed becoming sworn brothers with Shi Huang.
You would be the elder brother, and he the younger. One beast and one human established a true bond.
After you became sworn brothers, Shi Huang told you that he had harbored a small selfish intention. While upgrading your secret art, he had also studied its devouring technique himself and created his own cultivation method.
You said you did not mind, and that he could consider it payment for upgrading the cultivation method.
Shi Huang took your kindness to heart.]
[Year 47: Shi Huang's speed at digesting resources increased considerably, and likewise, his strength improved much faster.]
[Year 50: Shi Huang broke through to Dou Ling. He went out with you to gather resources, and thus the most terrifying hunting duo on the outskirts of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains appeared.
Wherever the two of you passed, not a blade of grass remained.
Shi Huang swept up every natural treasure, while you devoured all the local magical beasts, leaving not even their bones behind.]
[Year 52: After devouring a sixth-rank magical beast, you successfully advanced to become a sixth-rank magical beast yourself. Your intelligence blossomed, and your mind felt much clearer.
Your growth was terrifyingly fast. It had taken you only six years to advance from the fifth rank to the sixth.
But Shi Huang was even more terrifying. It had taken him only two years to break through from Dou Ling to Dou Wang.
That alone showed just how brazenly you had behaved on the outskirts of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
Precisely because of your excessive plundering, some magical beast families took notice of you.
The Heavenly Eagle Phoenix Clan, a subordinate clan of the Heavenly Phoenix Clan, decided to move against you.
Of course, their main target was you, because the Heavenly Eagle Clan discovered that you seemed to be the hybrid of two clans whom the Heavenly Phoenix Clan had placed a bounty on. They wanted to exchange you for the reward.
The Heavenly Eagle Clan dispatched large numbers of experts, the weakest of whom had reached the sixth rank, and began encircling and hunting you both throughout the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
Relying on the tremendous speed granted by your Heavenly Phoenix bloodline, you narrowly escaped several times.
As for Shi Huang, his self-created Breath-Concealing Technique could completely withdraw his aura until it was almost nonexistent. It was a miraculous life-saving technique. You wanted to learn it, but only humans could learn this secret art, so you could not. At the very least, you would have to assume human form before you could learn it.
You and Shi Huang began discussing a counterattack.
After concealing his aura, Shi Huang went to scout out the situation. Once he located a sixth-rank magical beast, he informed you, and you struck to capture and kill it. After succeeding, you fled at tremendous speed, giving the Heavenly Eagle Clan no time to react.
This repeated more than a dozen times. You hunted down a full thirteen sixth-rank Heavenly Eagles and severely wounded three seventh-rank Heavenly Eagles.
After that, the Heavenly Eagle Clan stopped dispatching elders.
But you knew that the Heavenly Eagle Clan would never let the matter rest.]
[Year 53: You and Shi Huang decided to enter seclusion and digest the resources you had acquired the previous year. No matter what happened outside, you would not leave.]
[Year 55: You and Shi Huang exhausted all your resources. You were only a step away from becoming a seventh-rank magical beast.
Shi Huang, meanwhile, had already broken through to the Dou Emperor level.
You both emerged from seclusion again.
Shi Huang felt that there was no longer any activity outside and wanted to return to your old ways, continuing to hunt magical beasts for resources.
But your caution led you to a decision: leave your comfort zone!
Taking a somewhat reluctant Shi Huang with you, you quietly left the Ten Thousand Great Mountains and departed the Beast Region.]
[Year 60: You and Shi Huang emerged from a secret realm. With the resources inside, you had broken through to the seventh-rank magical beast level, while Shi Huang had broken through to Dou Zong.
Your path of growth was not the fastest, but it was very steady.
That same year, news came from the Ten Thousand Great Mountains. You learned that the Heavenly Eagle Clan's chief had actually been lying in wait for your next move all along, preparing to kill you both in a single strike.
Shi Huang shuddered at the thought, grateful that he had listened to you back then.]
[Year 77: Shi Huang had broken through to Dou Zun long ago and was now a first-revolution Dou Zun, thriving like a fish in water in the Central Plains. You, however, had left the Ten Thousand Great Mountains and no longer had enough magical beasts to devour, so your progress had slowed considerably. Even now, you had yet to become an eighth-rank magical beast.
In the second half of the year, a piece of news reached your ears that filled you with excitement.
A Dragon Phoenix Origin Fruit was suspected to have formed in a secret realm in the Beast Region.]
Before you continue