Everything happening inside the Martial King Residence was completely unknown to Shi Yi. All he knew was that he was in unbearable pain. His flesh and tendons felt like they were being stretched by rubber bands, violently quivering back and forth without end.
Though each jolt enhanced his physical body and visibly increased his strength, this method of advancement was too brutal—completely forceful, with no gradual process at all.
Fortunately, thanks to years of monthly medicinal baths, Shi Yi's body had reached a considerable level of strength. A single arm swing already carried a force of ninety thousand catties. Without this foundation, the energy contained in the pure-blooded vicious beast's essence blood would have long since torn his body apart.
Now, with a single arm swing carrying ninety thousand catties of force, Shi Yi was already approaching the upper limit of even the strongest pure-blooded vicious beast cubs. He was only a step away from the legendary one-hundred-thousand-catties mark.
Though they are all pure-blooded beasts, just like humans, there are differences in strength among them. Not every pure-blooded vicious beast cub possesses ninety thousand catties of strength at a young age.
Unless it's a top-tier beast such as a Golden-Winged Peng, a True Hou, a Pixiu, or a Qilin, even most pure-blooded cubs find it nearly impossible to break past ninety thousand catties.
In fact, underdeveloped ones might not even be as strong as Shi Yi.
The reason Shi Yi had reached this level—his body rivaling the strongest pure-blooded cubs—was inseparable from the intense nurturing of the Martial King Residence.
Over the years…
The Martial King Residence had poured nearly all its resources into Shi Yi, intending to forge an unbreakable foundation for him, enabling him to walk even further in the future.
On the other hand, young Shi Hao was only given leftover scraps—though compared to ordinary people, those resources were still considered extravagant. That was the benefit of being born into nobility.
Even scraps in this place were out of reach for most.
Though the essence blood of ancient remnant species couldn't compare to that of pure-blooded vicious beasts, it still wasn't something ordinary people could get their hands on.
In the outside world, just a drop of such blood would drive countless people into a frenzy, fighting to the death for it.
Only the Martial King Residence, with its many honored experts—Shi Zhongtian (Old Fifteen), the Martial King (Old Eight), Old Thirteen, Old Eleven, Old Nine—could gather these legendary resources others wouldn't even dare dream of.
As for pure-blooded vicious beast essence blood, even after all these years, the Martial King Residence only had nine jars. These were obtained by the Stone Clan ancestor, who once killed a Fire Qilin on the Battlefield of a Hundred Clans. They had been preserved until now and were part of the clan's deepest foundation.
What is the Battlefield of a Hundred Clans?
It is a battleground where various races fight for dominance. There are pure-blooded beings and ancient remnant species alike. Constructed by supreme beings from the Upper Realm, this battleground exists in all eight regions of the Lower Realm. It's said that anyone who manages to pass through it can gain the right to ascend to the Upper Realm.
However, upon ascension…
One might end up as a slave or servant, or even as someone else's mount.
What is the Upper Realm?
The Upper Realm consists of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths and holds three thousand Dao Provinces. The combined size of the eight Lower Realms is equivalent to just one Dao Province, and one Dao Province alone equals ten thousand blue planets in size.
With three thousand such Dao Provinces, they still only constitute one of the ten boundless continents of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
More than ninety percent of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths are forbidden lands, and only the remaining less-than-ten-percent—those three thousand Dao Provinces—are viable for life and cultivation.
What is the Lower Realm?
The eight regions of the Lower Realm are Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, Yellow, Universe, Cosmos, Flood, and Desolation.
These eight regions are technically part of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, but due to their unique construction, they don't belong directly to them. They were forged into small worlds by ancient supreme beings using unmatched divine power, modeled after the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
The Desolate Domain, where Shi Yi and Shi Hao resided, was merely one small continent among them.
Shi Yi wasn't only enduring physical torment—his soul sea was also in grave danger.
In the vast blue soul sea, a towering pure-blooded vicious beast over a hundred meters tall was glaring at him with ferocious eyes, its presence enough to tear someone apart with a glance.
This beast was none other than a young Fire Qilin. When it was still a cub, it was slain by the Stone Clan's ancestor on the Battlefield of a Hundred Clans. Its hatred had long pierced the heavens.
To absorb its essence blood, one had to endure its wrathful resentment. Failure meant complete soul annihilation, leaving the body a soulless husk.
"ROAR!!!" came the Qilin's bellow.
Formed entirely from resentment, the Fire Qilin cub looked exactly as it had in life: lion's head, deer antlers, tiger eyes, elk body, dragon scales, ox tail, and its entire form engulfed in roaring flames.
It was a Fire Qilin.
Its car-sized eyes stared down at Shi Yi. Its massive body walked subconsciously upon the ground. At over a hundred meters tall, it appeared invincible.
Compared to six-year-old Shi Yi, who wasn't even a meter tall, this beast looked like it could blow him into dust with a single breath.
But strength wasn't dictated by size alone. Size determined the lower limit, not the upper one. The fact that it was slain proved it couldn't defeat a smaller human back then.
Who knows how much time passed...
This Fire Qilin formed from pure resentment could no longer hold back. It lifted its massive forelimb, intending to crush Shi Yi's soul beneath it.
Make no mistake—this was entirely possible. Even as a being made of resentment, it had enough power to obliterate his soul.
The colossal beast raised its limb high and slammed it down with a force that seemed to shake the heavens and earth. Even within the soul sea, this momentum remained undiminished.
Shi Yi's soul sea trembled violently. His soul sensed mortal danger.
At that critical moment…
Outside, in the large bronze cauldron, Shi Yi slowly opened his tightly shut eyes.
In an instant—
The sky turned black.
The entire Martial King Residence, even the whole Stone Nation, plunged into darkness. Enormous eyes with dual pupils replaced the stars in the sky, glowing with mysterious light.
These dual-pupiled eyes were not lifeless—they constantly rotated, as if searching for something.
Anyone who dared look directly into those eyes felt like an insignificant ant, crushed by an immense pressure.
"Wretched beast!"
Shi Yi coldly uttered two words. Instantly, all the dual-pupiled eyes in the sky turned toward the Martial King Residence.
They had seen it.
They saw the Fire Qilin in Shi Yi's soul sea—this pure-blooded vicious beast born from resentment was immediately frozen in mid-air.
Its massive forelimb was less than a centimeter from Shi Yi's soul body, but that minuscule gap became an insurmountable gulf.
"Dead is dead. The dead should rest in peace."
Shi Yi narrowed his eyes. The next moment, an unimaginable force of eye power burst forth, instantly eradicating the Fire Qilin formed from resentment.
"Huuu…"
Shi Yi let out a gentle breath, withdrew the heaven-and-earth anomaly triggered by his dual pupils, and thought everything was finally over.
But at that moment, a massive wave of memories surged into the depths of his soul sea.
These memories were chaotic. Shi Yi quickly filtered out most of the useless parts—like how the Fire Qilin had once pursued a female Qilin, failed, and entered the Battlefield of a Hundred Clans to toughen itself in frustration.
After quite some time...
Shi Yi finally found something useful.
"Qilin Step?"
(End of Chapter)
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