Fortune appeared-he would never let go!
After three years, Qingyang Huan once again saw that violet light flowing through the cracks in the stone spear, faint as a thread, yet filling his eyes.
Bang, bang, bang!
Yet the next moment, the stone spear struck down again.
Qingyang Huan's curses mingled with the pounding of the stone spear, but no matter how he struggled, he could not dodge it.
"I'll fight you to the death!"
After all, he was only a thirteen-year-old boy. Being beaten like this by a stone spear sent fury rising in Qingyang Huan's heart, but no sooner had that fury risen than it was extinguished!
Bang, bang, bang!
The stone spear battered his entire body. With every blow, a faint violet light seeped into him, and even the runes formed from the essence of Qiongqi blood and bones were shattered when they manifested.
"Your skin forms no folds, your flesh produces no radiance, your blood holds no rosy glow, and your bones show no patterns. You even let foul blood settle inside your body. An utter failure!"
"Human Race brat, how can you fight when you're so weak!"
By then, lumps had risen beneath Qingyang Huan's beast-hide robe. Every pore on his body had swollen open, and thin, foul blood flowed out, soaking his robe.
He soon noticed the changes in his body: his pores were opening, and foul blood was being expelled.
Wait!
At that moment, Qingyang Huan also came to his senses. He had actually sensed the stone spear's thoughts!
"Stone spear, you're alive!"
Ignoring the throbbing pain throughout his body, Qingyang Huan cried out in astonishment. That fleeting flash of violet light years ago had left an obsession in his heart!
"I knew you were a treasure! Everyone says that wherever purple Qi swirls, fortune is sure to follow!"
Now that his obsession had become reality, could it really be a treasure?
Bang!
Yet the next moment, the stone spear knocked him to the ground again, leaving him with a mouthful of dirt.
As he pushed himself up from the ground, he discovered that his beast-hide robe had stuck to his body. Foul blood streaked with faint traces of fresh blood already coated him from head to toe.
"This is the impure blood inside me!"
Disbelief filled his eyes. As the young lord of Qingyang, no one in any of the tribes and clans, large or small, within ten thousand li could surpass him in potent medicines for Body Casting.
Even the other clans of the Ancient Land of La Mountain, beyond Qingyang's ten-thousand-li territory, were merely on par with him in Body Casting. Only those ancient clans in the Ancient City of La Mountain could surpass him.
By now, he also understood that the stone spear kept striking him to clear his entire body, though its method was far too rough.
One blood-filled lump after another covered his flesh beneath the foul blood, and every pore had swollen open. Though his whole body ached faintly, he felt much less obstructed.
"Um... well..."
After a moment's hesitation, Qingyang Huan looked at the stone spear hovering before him. His throat bobbed several times before he finally spoke.
"You awakened this exalted one, and this exalted one cleared your body of its stagnant impure blood. That makes us even!"
"Ah...!"
The next moment, Qingyang Huan lunged forward and grabbed the stone spear!
"No! Over these three years, you absorbed no fewer than dozens of Body Forging Realm beasts alone. How can that make us even? No, absolutely not!"
Qingyang Huan spoke hastily. Ever since he could remember, the clan elders had told him that some divine weapons in the Great Wilderness possessed the mighty power to strike across heaven and earth, and nurtured Weapon Souls within them. For a weapon to nurture a Weapon Soul, it had to be at least a weapon wielded by a Totem Realm expert!
Totem Realm experts surpassed his father's Spirit Seizing Realm. Such beings existed only in the Ancient Land of La Mountain. The current city lord of the Ancient City of La Mountain was a Totem Realm expert, invested with the title of regional lord of La Mountain to govern its hundreds of thousands of li on behalf of the human race!
Such a weapon was comparable to one hand of a Totem Realm expert. Even his father would be suppressed if he confronted it head-on!
Qingyang Huan clutched the stone spear in a death grip and refused to let go!
A Totem Realm expert-the last time the Qingyang Clan had produced such an expert was a thousand years ago. The more he thought about it, the more certain he became that he could not let go!
Yes, he absolutely could not let go!
The clan elders had said that even the Weapon Soul born within a Totem Realm expert's life-bound weapon possessed only the most rudimentary spirituality. The stone spear before him already possessed what could be called thought, more like a person.
It might well surpass a Totem weapon. He absolutely could not let go. In the entire Ancient Land of La Mountain, experts beyond the Totem Realm were nothing but legends!
To surpass the Totem Realm was not merely to be a legend, but a living epic!
Today might be the day a legend appeared again. He could not let go!
"Besides, I dug you out from deep beneath the earth. Otherwise, you might have stayed buried in the dirt for several thousand more years."
Hum!
Perhaps Qingyang Huan's words had stirred the stone spear. A streak of violet light appeared again and sank straight into his body.
"Huh? This is a skin-tempering method. Why does it feel so similar to our Qingyang Clan's Azure Scale Skin Tempering Method? No, this is our Qingyang Clan's skin-tempering method. How did it become so much more profound?"
A passage of cultivation instructions appeared in his mind, startling Qingyang Huan, but he quickly reacted.
"The True Essence Condensation Method!"
"The Blood Burning Method!"
"The Bone Hammering Method!"
"The Marrow Cleansing Method!"
"These are our Qingyang Clan's Five Body Forging Methods! How do you know them?"
Shock filled Qingyang Huan's eyes. Cultivation methods were the foundation of a clan's inheritance. The Five Body Forging Methods were something all the tribes, large and small, within ten thousand li sought but could not obtain. Yet now the stone spear actually knew them!
Violet light coiled around the stone spear, but it gave no answer. It trembled repeatedly, trying to break free of his grasp. Qingyang Huan understood that this was another opportunity the stone spear had given him in thanks for digging it out of the earth.
In truth, these Five Body Forging Methods were indeed extremely similar to the Qingyang Clan's, yet they were three or four times more profound.
These cultivation methods alone were enough to double the Qingyang Clan's strength. Of course, that would take quite some time-at least ten or twenty years, until the next generation of children grew up. But the Qingyang Clan had existed for thousands of years. What were twenty years?
As the Qingyang Clan's young lord, whom the tribe had spared no effort to nurture, how could he fail to understand the benefits? Yet at that moment, he became all the more determined not to let the stone spear fly away!
Could a stone spear capable of casually comprehending Qingyang Zhu's Five Body Forging Methods be ordinary? By comparison, the Five Body Forging Methods might not even be worth mentioning.
These were merely Body Casting methods. What if it were a Divine Repository method, or even a higher Spirit Seizing method? That would be an immense stroke of fortune not only for him, but for all of Qingyang.
In the thousands of years since the Qingyang Clan had established itself on this land, its strongest expert had only reached the Totem Realm, and that had already become a legend from a thousand years ago.
This was the Qingyang Clan's bottleneck. Thus, even if the entire tribe pooled its strength in the future, his martial path might very well reach no higher than the Totem Realm, and his horizons would extend no farther than La Mountain. Of course, even that was the most optimistic estimate.
The stone spear before him might be the opportunity and fortune that would allow him to step beyond La Mountain. Even exhausting all of Qingyang's resources might not guarantee the nurturing of a single Totem Realm expert. This was the gap in foundations and knowledge.
He could not give up!
"Reforge your body according to these methods, and it will be strong enough to withstand opening five divine treasures in the Divine Treasure Realm without collapsing. With the right opportunities, you may reach the Totem Realm in the future. That is more than enough to repay the blood and bones of the great beasts I absorbed over three years!"
"Five divine treasures!"
Qingyang Huan's eyes lit up. The human body held great treasures; opening those treasures brought fortune.
The Divine Treasure Realm involved opening the body's great treasures. The Qingyang Clan's treasure-opening method could open only three. This was not merely a matter of cultivation methods, but also related to Body Casting. Without a firm foundation, forcibly opening the treasures would only make one's body explode in death.
Even the strongest treasure-opening method in the entire Ancient Land of La Mountain could open only four divine treasures.
Now the stone spear was actually telling him that by reforging his body with the earlier methods and laying a firm foundation, he could open five divine treasures without his body shattering!
This further confirmed his earlier guess. Perhaps the realm he could reach through a lifetime of desperate fighting amounted to nothing to the mysterious stone spear!
"Um... Senior Stone Spear, how about I catch another variant great beast for you to enjoy? If Body Forging Realm beasts aren't to your taste, I'll catch Divine Treasure Realm ones. Once I'm stronger, I'll even catch Spirit Seizing Realm ones and roast them for you."
The stone spear did not react. Even its original faint violet light disappeared.
Seeing that the stone spear gave no response whatsoever, Qingyang Huan steeled his heart. With opportunity before him, he could spare no thought for anything else, and immediately called out.
"Senior Stone Spear, we men of the Great Wilderness speak plainly. Back then, it was precisely because I thought you were an opportunity that I kept hunting fierce beasts to nourish you from the very start of my martial Foundation Establishment. Since you can discern our Qingyang Clan's Five Body Forging Methods, you should also know what I've done over these years."
"Our human race has never lacked geniuses and monstrous talents. Compared to those monstrous talents, what makes you think you deserve fortune!"
Violet light coiled around the stone spear again, making Qingyang Huan tremble. Ever since his birth, the entire Qingyang Clan had heaped praise on him. Yet now, all at once, it seemed he had been disparaged until he had nothing left to rely on.
The Qingyang Clan sheltered ten thousand li of mountains, rivers, and land. Above it stood the Ancient Land of La Mountain, where a regional lord of the human race held sway over hundreds of thousands of li. Even so, the Ancient Land of La Mountain amounted to nothing beside the territory of the entire human race!
The Human Realm was vast. Leaving aside its many other races, what did Qingyang amount to even among the human race alone? As the Qingyang Clan's young lord, he amounted to even less!
"Those Five Body Forging Methods are enough for you."
"Not enough!"
Yet when Qingyang Huan looked toward the stone spear again, his still-youthful face held a streak of stubbornness unique to a young man-youth's towering spirit, refusing to bow before the height of heaven or the breadth of earth.
Hum!
The stone spear hummed softly and struck toward him.
"Kill!"
At that moment, Qingyang Huan gritted his teeth, his blood Qi surging like a tide. An illusory tiger-shaped image emerged from his palm, bursting with killing force as it charged into the stone spear.
Yet the next moment, his vision went black, and his body was whipped into the air. He smashed through several ancient trees in succession, the hovering bloody light shattered, and all the strength he had gathered was scattered.
"Your fighting techniques have no order whatsoever, and your strength is scattered. Your Body Casting is utterly devoid of essence and Qi, and your blood Qi is hollow. Even with a Qiongqi manifestation, you cannot manifest the slightest killing presence of a great beast. Is this your ability? In the Great Wilderness, those at your realm who could slaughter you like an ant are as numerous as the stars!"
"The Five Body Forging Methods are enough for you to roam an ancient land unchallenged."
"Not enough!"
Clenching his teeth, Qingyang Huan's eyes took on a ferocious gleam, like a gray wolf hunting deep in an ancient forest-a ruthlessness that would never rest until it had taken its prey.
Boom!
The next moment, the stone spear tossed him into the air again.
"The five methods are enough for you to protect your clansmen!"
"Not enough!"
Climbing up from the ground again, Qingyang Huan had a thin trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth, yet he still shook his head firmly!
"My father said that I must be a wolf. Once I see prey, I must sink my teeth into it and never let go. Only then will I not starve. We contend with heaven and earth for our lives. Since I've encountered an opportunity, I must seize it in a death grip!"