Chapter 51

The tribe sealed the mountain for a year, supplying a large amount of essence stones to all the warriors, allowing them to fully devote themselves to cultivation.

Yitian and his Reincarnation Squad were also focused on cultivation.

Through his day and night deductions, the grade of the Pure Yang Art gradually improved, and the acupoints in his body were one by one penetrated, forming mysterious runes.

Finally, after nine months, his Pure Yang Art underwent a fundamental transformation. The moment the ninth mysterious rune was born, the runes immediately resonated with each other, forming a complex divine pattern, filled with a scorching, fierce, and destructive aura, as if a small sun had been born within him, emitting boundless light and heat.

At the moment of the Pure Yang Art's transformation, Yitian sensed the power of the rune within his body, akin to that of a real sun.

The faint rune that appeared in his body seemed to be the embodiment of the sun, with threads of solar power flowing through his meridians, scorching and boundless, continuously refining his meridians, acupoints, tendons and bones, skin, and organs.

He clearly felt that this power had an extremely strong refining effect on his physical body.

When all the Pure Yang True Qi in his dantian space was converted into this supreme yang true qi, the capacity was reduced to less than one percent, extremely condensed.

From this supreme yang true qi, Yitian sensed the original power of the sun, as if it were the embodiment of the law, giving him a profound understanding of the entire world.

Especially, his insight and comprehension of fire had made a tremendous leap, reaching a realm of complete mastery.

After months of prolonged deduction, the cultivation technique reached its peak and underwent a transformation, surpassing the Earth Rank level. Its supreme yang power shared the same origin as the sun, cultivating the original power of heaven and earth, truly reaching the Heaven Rank, becoming a legendary Heaven Art.

This was a cultivation technique for solar power, so Yitian named this advanced technique the Great Sun Heaven Art.

The Great Sun Heaven Art contained boundless mysteries, involving 3,650 acupoints in its circulation path. The technique's path was profound and complex, emitting a mysterious aura, forming a great sun that resonated with the sun in the sky.

When Yitian circulated the Great Sun Heaven Art, he immediately sensed the sunlight within dozens of feet around him. The great sun within his body instantly absorbed the surrounding sunlight.

Those who were cooking, such as Suyue, Xiaolong, and Xiaoting, immediately noticed the sky darkening and the temperature dropping sharply.

This made them very suspicious.

Yitian, who was in cultivation, did not notice the abnormality in the surroundings.

He was currently sensing the changes within his body, as threads of solar power and heaven's essence energy flowed into his body, refined into strands of supreme yang true qi, gathering in his dantian.

However, this supreme yang true qi was too condensed. To restore his cultivation to the Seventh Rank, it would take at least several months.

When Yitian used essence stones for cultivation, a vast amount of essence energy was rapidly refined, and in less than half an hour, one essence stone was consumed. The cultivation speed was not much different from when he cultivated the highest-grade Human Rank technique, but it was still more than thirty times faster than when he cultivated without essence stones.

Yitian spent three days and consumed over 8,000 low-grade essence stones to restore his cultivation to the Seventh Rank.

Although he was still a Seventh Rank warrior, he cultivated the Heaven Art, and his combat power was extremely terrifying, more than ten times stronger than before.

After cultivating the Great Sun Heaven Art, Yitian found it much easier to cultivate the Sky Sword Qi. The supreme yang true qi continuously refined the Sky Sword Qi, making it grow and condense, transforming from a vague form to a more substantial one, making the vast sword qi even more terrifying.

Cultivating the Great Sun Heaven Art, Yitian's consumption of essence stones was much greater, dozens of times more than before.

The one-year period passed in the blink of an eye.

On this day, the tribe's mountain-sealed cultivation officially ended.

This year of mountain-sealed cultivation was a year of rapid advancement for the tribe's warriors.

With the help of a large number of essence stones, low-rank warriors all broke through to become mid-rank warriors, and mid-rank warriors broke through one or two minor ranks, greatly enhancing their strength.

As for high-rank warriors, the number increased by three hundred.

The number of high-rank warriors who broke through to the Eighth Rank increased to twenty-one. Previously, only the Great Leader Yike had a cultivation of mid-Eighth Rank. The tribe's sudden emergence of over twenty Eighth Rank warriors meant that the tribe's strength had increased by more than ten times.

The old tribal chief and the great elders also made some breakthroughs in their cultivation.

They were already peak Ninth Rank warriors, just one step away from entering the Human Rank, where true qi would be transformed into true essence.

However, the cultivation techniques they had previously practiced were only ordinary mid-grade Human Rank techniques, and their true qi was not pure or condensed. After decades of cultivation and refinement, they still could not condense true essence.

It could be said that over 99% of Ninth Rank warriors stopped at this level.

However, they recently had a glimmer of hope for breaking through to the Human Rank.

They had a large number of mid-grade essence stones, which could accelerate the refinement of their true qi. Additionally, the cultivation techniques they practiced had been improved by Yitian and reached the lower-grade Earth Rank level, making the efficiency of refining and tempering true qi dozens of times faster than before.

Even so, to break through to the Human Rank, they estimated it would take at least two to three years of secluded cultivation.

After a year of intense cultivation, Yitian broke through to the Eighth Rank.

The five members of the Reincarnation Squad—Yifeng, Yishan, Yili, Yikuang, and Yihong—also broke through to the Eighth Rank, even reaching the late-Eighth Rank and peak-Eighth Rank, almost on par with the Great Leader Yike.

The tribe's strength surged, and the tribal chief and the great elders discussed and decided to send only a small number of warriors to hunt in the mountains in rotation, while the rest would focus on cultivation during the non-hunting periods.

The tribal chief and the great elders sensed that danger could come at any time, and only by racing against time to strengthen themselves could they ensure their survival.

At the same time, the tribal chief and the great elders instructed the Great Leader and the high-rank warriors of the tribe to secretly purchase various cultivation resources, spirit weapons, spirit tools, and various healing and strength-enhancing pills from Black Dragon City and Jingmu County.

The Yi Clan owned a large essence vein mine, which produced a large number of essence stones every day, enough for the entire tribe to use extravagantly.

They needed to enhance the tribe's strength in the shortest time possible.

Otherwise, even if they tried to conceal it and did not use a large number of essence stones, their strength would not increase much. The longer the large essence vein mine remained a secret, the greater the risk of it being discovered by other forces. When that happened, they would truly be at the mercy of others.

Of course, all of this was being done secretly.

Although there was a risk of being discovered by other forces, it was worth it.

Even if other forces discovered something, they would never guess that the Yi Clan had discovered a large essence vein mine. They would at most think that they had found some treasure or a small essence vein mine, facing only the scrutiny of forces near Black Dragon City.

As long as they kept the large essence vein mine a secret, they would gain time to grow.

Black Dragon City, which had nearly been destroyed by the beast tide a year ago, had recovered its prosperity and population over the past year.

At the same time, the major forces in Black Dragon City had also recovered their strength.

The Wu Family suffered heavy casualties among their guards, family members, and elites during the beast tide, severely weakening their strength.

Over the past year, the Wu Family had recovered a significant amount of strength, and Wu Shigong had finally freed himself from the busy reconstruction efforts.

In his spare time, Wu Shigong thought about Yitian, the boy he hated to the core, and was very wary of him. At such a young age, Yitian had such strength, and if he were allowed to grow, the Wu Family would not be able to live in peace.

Thus, he began to send people to investigate the Yi Clan's movements.

However, this investigation left Wu Shigong feeling extremely shocked and puzzled.