Chapter 3 (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

A cave could be found at the back of the mountain. Its entrance was not large, just big enough for a person to pass through, while its interior was dim. The soil was fresh and wet because the cave had apparently been hewn out not long ago.

There was a pit at one of the corners, ten feet into the cave. It was filled with spring water, and the pond was crystal clear. Facing the pit was a stone bed, on which sat a teenager. He was bare-chested and rosy-faced, with beads of sweat popping out on his forehead. The teenager was sitting with his legs crossed and rapidly moving his fingers.

He was none other than Wutian.

Ten days had passed since the time he fell off the cliff. Wutian had been staying in the cave without attempting to return to his village. It was not that he did not want to, but Longhe was still searching for him in the mountain and guarding the village entrance at night. Wutian could not do anything else.

“What’s going on? I can’t even divine Grandpa’s fate.”

Blood spilled out of his mouth, and he opened his eyes with slightly knitted brows. Wutian had wanted to ascertain if his grandfather was fine, but an invisible force interrupted him at the critical moment. He had never divined his grandfather’s fortune before. Now that he finally tried it, he received the same result as the time he did it for himself: he could not foresee or calculate anything.

“Longhe probably thinks I’m dead, and he won’t harm Grandpa as long as I don’t return to the village.”

He took out the emblem from his waist and carefully examined it. Nothing stood out. Why was Longhe so excited when he saw this emblem, so much so that he had to kill me? If it hadn’t been for Little Tian, I would have fallen to my death, and my body would have never been found.

He might have survived the fall, but Longhe’s attack had inflicted severe internal injury on him. His internal organs were misaligned, and he fell into a coma for five days before he regained consciousness. Wutian fully recovered only after he consumed the Essence that Little Tian had given to him.

All of that happened because of the emblem.

“This emblem must hold some secrets. I’ve just been living in the village since I was little, so I know nothing about it,” Wutian mumbled to himself as he tucked the emblem away.

He had learned something important over the past ten days. Only part of the Essence he consumed during the recovery process had been used for his treatment; part of it had disappeared. After some searching, he finally found the reason.

It turned out that part of the Essence had converged on his forehead. After it accumulated for two or three days, his forehead swelled and felt sore. The pain was unbearable now as if his skin was about to burst open.

“Caw, Caw!”

Right then, Little Tian scurried back into the cave, carrying a one-meter-long donkey on its back. There was a puncture wound in the donkey’s neck, but it was dry. Apparently, the animal had been dead for a long time.

It was food that Little Tian had found for Wutian.

Little Tian put the dead donkey down and jumped onto Wutian’s shoulder. Using its wet, long tongue, it licked his cheek. The Gobbler’s eyes reeked of eagerness to please, appearing extremely spirited.

“You rascal. What did you get today?”

Wutian got to his feet and drew out a black dagger to cut off the donkey’s leg. He skinned it, rinsed it in the spring water, and ate it raw.

Since Longhe was still looking for him, he dared not make a fire to cook the meat. Hence, the only way was to eat it raw. That was how he survived for the past several days. Luckily for him, there was a mountain spring inside the cave, so he did not have to eat raw meat covered in blood and fur.

Despite its gross taste, Wutian was too hungry to complain. He finished the entire leg in just a few moments. Throwing the bone aside, he went up to drink from the mountain spring before he sat back on the stone bed, waiting for Little Tian to offer its gift today.

“Caw!” Without waiting for any instructions, Little Tian opened its mouth and spat out beads of blood elixirs, which looked like blood-red ambers. They were highly translucent and brilliant. These blood elixirs, full of vim and vigor, filled the space in the cave.

“The Essences of the Blood Lion, Mountain Ape, and Tri-colored Snake… Aah! That’s the Essence of the Anthropophagous Scorpion! Wow, there’s fifteen of them in total. What good hunts you’ve got here.” Wutian was elated as much as he was stunned.

Each of the Essences belonged to a terrifying being that lived in the mountains. They were savage and hegemonic overlords, yet Little Tian had incredibly swallowed them all. Previously, Wutian would run for his life whenever he spotted these monster beasts, unlike now, where he was consuming their Essences and converting them into his strength.

“Caw, caw!”

Little Tian squawked as it stood upright and kicked its front feet, as though showing off its achievement.

Wutian patted it on the head. “Well done. Now, go and eat the donkey. After that, you’ll have to help me refine the emblem’s cold energy. It won’t take long for me to unlock my physique to become a cultivator. The Water Elemental Essence could be useful to me.”

Wutian had discovered a strange phenomenon during the past few days. Whenever he held the Water Elemental Essence in his hand, a draft of energy would rush up his arm and spread throughout his body. There was no rejection from his body. It simply meant that he could absorb the Essence. The absorption might have been slow and minimal, but it was still visible.

Little Tian shook its head. Once it shifted its legs to the back, it stood up straight and walked, appearing agile yet funny.

Having spent ten days with it, Wutian found the little creature adorable, albeit dirty. But it all depended on the person. A woman might not have been willing to touch it, no matter how intelligent it was. But to Wutian, the Gobbler was like family.

Wutian burst into laughter and shook his head. He picked up an Essence and popped it into his mouth. The Essence instantly melted and was absorbed, nourishing every inch of his body like rain to the earth after a long drought. It was refreshing.

Closing his eyes, Wutian calmed his breathing and regulated the Essence to impinge on his Sea of Qi. Once the barrier was breached and the Sea of Qi’s door was opened, he would unlock his physique, as well as potential, and become a cultivator.

He had a hunch that if he consumed all fifteen Essences, he would achieve a breakthrough, entering the Reborn Alpha stage.

The first step of cultivation was the Reborn Alpha stage.

During that stage, a person would break through the embryonic limitation and unlock their physical potential, getting the Essence under control. During the Reborn Beta stage, a person would accumulate his Essence and cleanse his body of imperfections, so that the body would attain purity.

At the Reborn Gamma stage, the Essence could leave the body, enhance physical robustness, and increase the effectiveness of the five senses. Once at the Reborn Omega stage, the Essence could materialize, mimic objects, and fight enemies.

The Reborn period primarily consisted of cleansing the body and forming the Essence. Upon completing the second phase, the Meridian’s Growth period, a person could start stimulating his potential and develop physical strength. Only then could that person open the door to cultivation.

…

A sixty-year-old man was standing at the entrance of Dragon Village. His hair was tied into a pair of twist braids, and he was holding a staff. While making some calculations with his fingers, he set his sights on the mountain’s rear.