Chapter 17

That night, Yi Tian held a piece of essence stone in his hand, practicing the top-grade technique, the Blazing Fire Technique. A surge of powerful essence energy flowed into his body, circulating through his meridians. After a complete cycle, it passed through each acupoint, being refined into pure Blazing Fire True Qi, which then converged in his dantian.

The Blazing Fire True Qi gathered like a large fireball in the center of the dantian space, burning and emitting endless light.

As he continuously practiced the technique, the Blazing Fire True Qi gradually increased, slowly tearing through the pressure in the dantian space, growing bit by bit. The pressure in the dantian space also gradually increased.

Once the pressure in the dantian space reached its peak, he would reach the peak of the second stage. At that time, he could attempt to break through to the third stage, allowing his dantian to undergo its second transformation.

The Blazing Fire True Qi continuously poured in, and the dantian space underwent changes. This cultivation speed was even faster than when he practiced at noon, with a large amount of essence energy being voraciously absorbed and refined.

At the same time, a significant portion of the Blazing Fire True Qi that flowed into the dantian was integrated into every inch of his flesh, bones, organs, skin, and hair, warming his entire body and slowly transforming it, strengthening his physique.

Another part was absorbed by the star mud clone on his wrist.

The star mud clone seemed like a bottomless pit, capable of absorbing any amount of essence energy.

Yi Tian placed great importance on the star mud clone and had always allocated a portion of his true qi to nurture it.

With the essence stone, it meant that he could maintain a rapid cultivation speed at all times. The Blazing Fire Technique was no longer limited to the daytime, as the cultivation speed at night would drop to an extremely slow pace.

In this way, after practicing the optimized Blazing Fire Technique, although the technique continuously refined his physical body, the progress was slow. However, when combined, his cultivation speed was faster than those who practiced middle-grade human techniques, slightly slower than those who practiced high-grade human techniques.

Now, with the essence stone, his cultivation speed was no less than that of those who practiced high-grade human techniques.

After returning to the Yi tribe, Yi Tian immersed himself in cultivation.

Yi Feng, Yi Shan, and Yi Li, after obtaining six essence stones, also devoted themselves entirely to cultivation.

Even their father, who had been lazy, became diligent during this period.

Five days later, Yi Tian was cultivating as usual.

Suddenly, the essence stone in his hand cracked and silently turned into a small pile of powder.

Yi Tian was somewhat surprised.

A low-grade essence stone could only sustain his cultivation for five days. Moreover, he did not use the essence stone during the daytime when the solar fire energy was most intense, so it only lasted a little over four days before being consumed.

However, Yi Tian's cultivation results were still significant, and his cultivation level had entered the middle stage of the second level.

In the following days, Yi Tian's cultivation level rapidly improved.

When all thirteen essence stones in his possession were consumed, nearly two months had passed.

His cultivation level had clearly advanced to the middle stage of the third level.

Yi Tian was quite satisfied with his cultivation progress. At the nine stages of martial arts, the children of major forces had a large amount of resources and powerful techniques, and breaking through three or four stages in a year was not a problem. His cultivation speed did not seem extraordinary.

However, as one progressed, the amount of true qi required for each breakthrough increased exponentially, and the time needed for each breakthrough would also become longer, or the consumption of resources would skyrocket.

During these two months, Yi Tian also practiced sword techniques in his spare time.

He only practiced the basic sword techniques.

As long as he could master the basic sword techniques to a divine level, he would possess an extremely formidable attack.

Additionally, the Divine Arrow Technique was the most important technique he practiced.

For all the warriors of the Yi tribe, the Divine Arrow Technique was the most powerful combat skill, and they practiced it diligently every day.

Anyone who mastered the Divine Arrow Technique could defeat enemies of higher levels, even crossing two or three levels, making the Yi tribe well-known and feared in the surrounding areas.

"With the help of my clone, I can soon fully grasp the secrets of the Overlapping Waves Technique. However, my Blazing Fire True Qi is still insufficient. I can only perfectly execute the eighth level of the Overlapping Waves Technique. Even though I have comprehended the ninth level, the lack of true qi means that the ninth level does not fully unleash its power, probably less than ten percent. As for the tenth level, it is impossible to execute due to the insufficient strength and quantity of true qi."

Yi Tian pondered in his mind.

If the warriors of the Yi tribe knew that he had mastered the essence of the ninth level of the Overlapping Waves Technique in just a few months, they would find it hard to believe and be shocked.

In the tribe, most warriors took several years or even a decade to gradually master the ninth level of the Overlapping Waves Technique, giving them the ability to defeat enemies one or two levels higher.

"Yi Tian, I have broken through."

One day, Yi Feng came to Yi Tian's house, looking excited.

"To what level have you broken through?"

Yi Tian asked curiously.

In recent days, Yi Feng and the others had been buried in cultivation, so they had almost no contact.

"I am now a mid-stage first-level warrior."

Yi Feng looked very excited, boasting to Yi Tian.

"Good, how many essence stones did you consume?"

Yi Tian was somewhat expected by his cultivation speed and was not surprised. He was more concerned about how many essence stones the other had consumed.

"I have consumed two essence stones during this period. The rest were given to my father, who, with the help of those essence stones, will likely break through to the fourth level soon."

Yi Feng was very excited.

Not only had he become a first-level warrior, but his father would also become a fourth-level warrior, significantly enhancing their status in the tribe, making them one of the top 300 warriors.

In the Yi tribe, nearly half of the warriors were at the third level. Breaking through to the fourth level to become a mid-level martial artist was not easy and required a long time to refine true qi.

Not long after Yi Feng ended his intensive cultivation, Yi Shan and Yi Li also broke through.

Yi Shan also broke through to the mid-stage first level, while Yi Li broke through to the late-stage human level.

"Without essence stones, the cultivation speed is too miserable."

Yi Feng was the first to express his frustration. With essence stones, the cultivation speed was like flying, making him constantly yearn for the days when he could cultivate with essence stones.

Yi Tian, Yi Shan, and Yi Li also agreed.

No wonder essence stones were so sought after, even causing martial artists to fight over them.

Unfortunately, essence stones, though good, were consumed too quickly.

"If we could hunt ferocious beasts, the materials from their bodies are very precious and can be sold for the price of essence stones."

Yi Li was still thinking about essence stones.

If he had an abundance of essence stones, his cultivation level would rapidly advance, and he might even break through to the sixth or seventh level before the age of eighteen.

Yi Shan said, "The interior of the Fulong Mountains is very dangerous. A single ferocious beast could wipe out our entire group. We shouldn't think about hunting them. Only fifth or sixth-level warriors from the tribe can possibly hunt the weakest ferocious beasts."

Hearing this, Yi Tian was somewhat tempted.

Ferocious beasts are very powerful creatures that can absorb the essence energy of heaven and earth to strengthen their bloodlines. The stronger the bloodline, the faster they absorb essence energy, and the more powerful they become at the same level.

According to records, the bloodlines of ferocious beasts are divided into the凡阶 (common level), 王阶 (king level), 皇阶 (emperor level), 帝阶 (imperial level), and the most powerful 神阶 (divine level).

Ferocious beasts are classified by their strength into low-level, mid-level, high-level, and super ferocious beasts.

Once a ferocious beast is killed, its entire blood energy condenses into a ferocious beast essence core, containing a vast amount of energy. A single ordinary low-level common essence core is worth four to five essence stones.

However, ferocious beasts are extremely powerful. In the Fulong Mountains, which are filled with ferocious beasts, even the tribe's hunting teams dare not venture deep. They only attack ferocious beasts that are isolated and have wandered out of the outer regions. Not every attempt results in a successful hunt, and it depends on luck.