Chapter 85: Body Forging to Repair Body!
High above the sprawling landscape that separated the noble estates of Azure Cloud City from the squalor of the outer slums, Lin Yuan cut through the skies like a descending meteor.
His black-and-white Daoist robes whipped violently in the wind. His karmic debts had been thoroughly settled. The Xu Clan was suppressed, the Wang Clan was terrified into submission, and the Bai Clan was effectively neutered. All that remained was to return to his dilapidated home, pack his few belongings, and relocate Bai Qingyue to their magnificent new estate.
But as he soared over the final mountain ridge, a sudden feeling arrested his momentum.
Blargh!
Lin Yuan came to a violent, abrupt stop mid-air, his momentum instantly halting as he violently coughed up a massive mouthful of blood. The blood sprayed across the wind, sizzling as it hit the cold currents.
He clutched his chest, his deep purple eyes widening in shock as a sudden, agonizing wave of pain tore through his entire skeletal structure. His physical body, the Ancient Beast Body (Rank 1), began violently tensing up. The muscles in his arms and back seized with paralyzing cramps, and the bones within his chest cavity groaned audibly, echoing like grinding tectonic plates.
Lin Yuan gritted his teeth, forcibly circulating his Nascent Soul Qi to stabilize his plummeting altitude.
What is happening? his mind raced, instantly running a diagnostic sweep of his internal meridians and bodily foundation.
The answer revealed itself with terrifying clarity. The bodily damage he had suffered earlier near that desolate, jagged cave, where the cavern emanated overwhelming Thunder Origin Energy, had never truly healed.
When he had approached the threshold, the sheer weight of the Origin Qi had caused microscopic fractures to spread through his bones. His rapid application of spiritual energy had merely suppressed the damage, forcing his body back into a temporary state of stability. It had never truly repaired the underlying injury.
The Origin Energy had not merely bruised his flesh or fractured his bones. It had seeped directly into his marrow, destabilizing the Beast-Iron properties he had painstakingly cultivated within his body.
Now, his body was tensing up because it was fundamentally starved of the primordial vitality required to fight off the lingering taint of the Origin Qi. The micro-fractures were reopening.
"Dammit," Lin Yuan cursed through gritted teeth, wiping blood from his chin. "The absolute laws of Origin Energy are not so easily brushed aside by a simple healing spell. If I don’t reinforce my foundation immediately, my bones will permanently warp, and my physical Dao will collapse."
That meant only one thing: he needed to consume more beast marrow. He needed to flood his skeletal structure with the raw vitality of beasts to flush out the lingering origin pressure and solidify his Ancient Beast Body.
Without a second of hesitation, Lin Yuan rapidly changed courses. He abandoned his direct flight path to the outer city. Instead, he banked sharply to the east, his body blurring into a streak of purple lightning as he began heading back toward the absolute fringes of the Zhao Province’s savage territories. He was heading back to that Forest—the very place where he had first begun forging his body upon the brutal path of the Beast Route!
*****
The landscape rapidly shifted beneath him. The structures of Azure Cloud City gave way to dense foliage. Towering trees with leaves stretched toward the heavens, forming an impenetrable canopy that plunged the forest floor into eternal twilight. The air here was thick, humid, and reeked of iron, vegetation, and the territorial musk of apex predators.
As soon as Lin Yuan arrived at the outer boundary of the savage territory, he did not bother masking his presence. Fighting through the agonizing cramps in his limbs, he hovered just above the tree line and immediately spread his divine sense outward like a massive, invisible net.
His consciousness swept through miles of dense jungle, bypassing lesser beasts and low-level critters, aggressively searching for a target possessing enough vitality to serve as a proper marrow source.
Within a few breaths, his divine sense locked onto a powerful signature roughly twenty miles deep into the forest valley.
Through his spiritual perception, Lin Yuan clearly saw a Flame Lion, a terrifying spirit beast. It was the size of a small house, its thick fur glowing with an intense heat, and its mane literally composed of roaring, bright orange fire. The beast was currently feasting ravenously on the freshly killed carcass of a Stone Bear—another formidable spirit beast known for its impenetrable, rock-like hide, which had clearly been melted and torn apart in a brutal fight.
Perfect, Lin Yuan thought, his purple eyes narrowing with lethal intent. A Flame Lion and a Stone Bear. The dual properties of fire-refined vitality and earth-forged marrow will be exactly what I need to stabilize my bones.
Ignoring the searing pain in his chest, Lin Yuan channeled the spatial authority of his Nascent Soul realm. He teleported.
Zzzzt!
Space folded around him. He instantly vanished from the sky above the forest canopy and seamlessly teleported directly into the clearing.
He materialized just ten feet away from the feasting Flame Lion. The ambient temperature was blistering, the heat radiating from the beast’s mane enough to incinerate a normal mortal on the spot.
The Flame Lion, possessing the keen instincts of an apex predator, instantly sensed the spatial distortion. It whipped its massive, blood-soaked maw around, its fiery eyes widening as it locked onto the intruder. It let out a deafening, earth-shattering roar that sent a wave of searing flames expanding outward.
But the lion never even had the chance to lunge.
With a swift motion, Lin Yuan raised his right hand. He then condensed a spear-like bolt of lightning at the tip of his index finger.
"Die."
A sharp streak of crackling purple light pierced the clearing. The lightning strike was so flawlessly precise and overwhelmingly fast that it completely bypassed the lion’s defensive fire aura. It struck the beast directly between the eyes, piercing through its thick skull and instantly obliterating its brain, extinguishing its life force before the sound of the thunder even reached the surrounding trees.
The massive Flame Lion slumped sideways, collapsing onto the half-eaten Stone Bear with a heavy, lifeless thud.
Lin Yuan exhaled a tight breath, stepping forward to begin the process of harvesting the marrow. But the moment his boot crunched against the blood-soaked dirt, the surrounding jungle violently erupted.
ROOAAR!
ROOAAR!
The primary Flame Lion had not been hunting alone. It was the alpha of an entire pride.
From the dense underbrush encircling the clearing, over a dozen pairs of glowing, fiery eyes materialized. The surrounding foliage was instantly incinerated to ash as the rest of the pride stepped out into the open. Fourteen massive Flame Lions, each radiating the terrifying heat of Foundation Establishment-level spirit beasts, completely surrounded Lin Yuan. Seeing their alpha slain so effortlessly, they did not flee in terror; driven by feral, bloodthirsty rage, the entire pride roared in unison and attacked him at once!
Then, a massive wave of orange fire crashed toward Lin Yuan from all directions, threatening to reduce the clearing to a lake of molten glass.
"You wish to court death? Then offer me your bones!" Lin Yuan’s voice boomed, carrying the absolute authority of his might!
Instead of raising a barrier to block the flames, Lin Yuan embraced the physical might of the Beast Route. He violently stomped his foot against the ground, the sheer force of his Ancient Beast Body shattering the earth and generating a shockwave that dispersed the incoming inferno.
He launched himself directly into the encroaching pride, his fists crackling with purple lightning.
The battle that ensued was an absolute display of physical supremacy. A massive lion lunged at him from the left, its jaws opened wide to snap him in half. Lin Yuan did not dodge. He ducked under the beast’s flaming mane, drove his fist upward into its jaw with the force of a siege ram, and shattered its skull into fragments. The beast’s momentum carried it completely over his head, crashing lifelessly into the dirt.
Two more lions flanked him, unleashing concentrated beams of fire from their maws. Lin Yuan twisted his torso, the searing flames washing harmlessly over his indestructible, albeit aching, skin. He reached out with both hands, his fingers forming iron-like claws infused with lightning. He grabbed both beasts by their flaming manes and violently smashed their massive heads together. The sickening crunch of bone echoed through the clearing as both lions dropped dead instantly.
Blood, fire, and purple lightning painted the forest in chaotic hues.
Lin Yuan moved like a phantom of destruction. Every punch, every kick, and every elbow strike carried the absolute weight of his Nascent Soul might combined with the peak physical might of his body. He was a meat grinder, tearing through the pride with terrifying precision. He allowed their claws to scrape against his flesh, using the superficial pain to keep his mind sharp and actively distract from the deep throbbing of the Origin Qi damage.
Within the span of thirty breaths, the deafening roars were completely silenced.
The clearing was a scene of absolute devastation. Fifteen massive Flame Lions and one Stone Bear lay dead, their blood pooling together to form a shallow lake of rich vitality.
Lin Yuan stood at the center of the carnage, his chest heaving, his Daoist robes soaked in a mixture of his own sweat and the beasts’ blood. The chaotic combat had accelerated his heart rate, perfectly preparing his circulatory system for the massive influx of marrrow he was about to digest.
Without wasting another second, Lin Yuan walked to the center of the area and sat down cross-legged in the dirt. He then closed his deep purple eyes, and with a deep exhale, Lin Yuan violently released his aura!