Chapter Sixty-Three: Whole and Unbroken

In recent days, the joint assault on the Yi tribe by the eight major clans ended in failure. Yi Tian alone intimidated all attackers, and news of this spread instantly, causing a sensation among the myriad powers scattered across the thousands of miles surrounding Black Dragon City. Rumors of Yi Tian’s feats circulated as well—he had slain three formidable experts at the ninth-tier peak single-handedly. Such power surpassed the ninth tier, making him, without dispute, the foremost master of the Black Dragon City lands.

Those greedy forces could only temporarily withdraw, lowering their banners in defeat. Yet the very reputation of Yi Tian as the region’s unrivaled strongest attracted new troubles; he became the focus of attention for organizations such as the Black Dragon Society, the Great River Gang, the Dark Demon Cult, and others.

Meanwhile, Yi Tian was deep within the tribe’s underground chambers, contemplating the Sun-Shooting Divine Art. It took him ten days to gain a preliminary understanding before he began his cultivation in earnest. Of course, Yi Tian did not attempt to cultivate with his true body. Instead, his consciousness descended into his Star Mud avatar, which took on his likeness and commenced training.

Boom!

As soon as Yi Tian circulated his vital energy less than a third of the way, his true energy became abnormal, violently rampaging and tearing his meridians, wounding him in a single instant.

Something was wrong! Yi Tian could not help but frown. He had followed the prescribed path of the Sun-Shooting Divine Art’s energy circulation with not a single error, so why did his true energy suddenly rebel? He couldn’t even complete a full cycle or refine the Sun-Shooting true energy.

Moments later, the injuries on his avatar swiftly healed. To him, such wounds could be repaired with just a bit of energy. He continued to use his avatar to attempt cultivation again and again. Yet the results remained disappointing—failure after failure. Several times, the avatar suffered severe deviation, meridians shattered, grievously wounded; the process was extremely perilous.

Yi Tian did not lose heart. With each attempt, the process unfolded vividly in his avatar’s mind. After dozens of trials, he finally discerned some clues. He noticed several areas where the energy flow seemed smooth, but there was an underlying sense of disharmony. So, he had the avatar simulate and deduce the process repeatedly.

After hundreds, even thousands of simulations and attempts, Yi Tian managed to correct the first discordant point completely. In the following twenty days, he finally perfected the Sun-Shooting Divine Art, amending over a dozen subtle flaws and errors, and his avatar succeeded in achieving entry-level mastery.

When Yi Tian had entirely corrected the Sun-Shooting Divine Art, he could finally breathe easy. The art was infinitely complex, brimming with boundless mysteries. Yet Yi Tian was not creating a new divine art, but rather correcting mistakes within the Sun-Shooting Divine Art itself. Thanks to his miraculous avatar, he performed this task with remarkable ease.

If it had been anyone else, lacking an avatar like Yi Tian’s, they could never have made these corrections. Even so, Yi Tian’s wondrous avatar succumbed to deviation hundreds of times, with true energy straying, meridians damaged thousands upon thousands of times. Even the strongest martial artists would not dare attempt such a process.

Moreover, after cultivating the Sun-Shooting Divine Art, Yi Tian discovered its extraordinary qualities: it was actually an offensive divine art, using the body’s orifices as a foundation to forge and condense the heavenly bow’s acupoints. Tens of thousands of orifices resonated in unison, able to manifest a celestial bow.

In other words, the true energy cultivated by this art was stored within each of those orifices, each acting as a miniature dantian space, eliminating the need to store true energy in the main dantian and avoiding conflict with his Supreme Yang true energy. Otherwise, Yi Tian would have had to abandon one of his divine arts.

When Yi Tian’s true body circulated the Sun-Shooting Divine Art for the first time, the twenty-seven thousand orifices in his body glowed faintly, forming the outline of a bow and emanating a mysterious aura of the Great Dao.

Unfortunately, Yi Tian had only just begun cultivating the Sun-Shooting Divine Art and could not yet unleash its true power.

By the time Yi Tian had achieved entry-level mastery of the Sun-Shooting Divine Art, he had already spent nearly thirty days in the underground chamber—one more day and he could leave.

Yi Tian’s success in cultivating the Sun-Shooting Divine Art left him in high spirits, prompting him to roam the underground chambers. To his surprise, he made several discoveries.

At the edge of the chamber was a pool of water, and the sound of flowing water could be heard—clearly, the pool was connected to an underground river. Besides this, Yi Tian found several ancient, ruined houses, though all were abandoned. It was evident that the ancestors of the Yi tribe had once taken refuge here.

After circling the area a few times, Yi Tian returned to the statue of the Divine Yi Ancestor. His gaze swept across the statue, and in the corner of his eye he suddenly caught a glimpse of something unusual.

That was...

Yi Tian approached the statue, scrutinizing the ten-foot-tall figure. He discovered a faint palm print on the back of the statue’s head—so shallow it was barely visible. If not for the way the light caught it, Yi Tian might never have noticed.

So that’s how it is!

Yi Tian instantly understood. The treasured statue, the sacred relic of the Yi tribe’s lineage, had once been attacked. Though it was not destroyed, a faint palm print remained on its surface. Even such a minor mark could introduce a flaw to the legacy, impeding the ancestral path of the Yi tribe and preventing successive generations from mastering the Sun-Shooting Divine Art.

On this day, the Great Elder descended into the chamber. His expression was anxious yet tinged with hope. He still harbored some expectations for Yi Tian, hoping he would succeed in cultivating the Sun-Shooting Divine Art and pinpoint its errors and flaws. Yet he had little confidence.

Their treasured legacy had been forged by a forebear of great power, a divine statue as indestructible as the legendary supreme artifacts—eternal through the ages.

Yet since the calamity struck, their sacred relic had suffered an assault by a mighty being of the heavenly tier, resulting in slight damage and a disruption in the transmission of the legacy, leaving no one able to cultivate it.

"Yi Tian, how goes your cultivation?" The Great Elder saw Yi Tian unharmed and seemed to relax, for Yi Tian was the tribe’s prodigy, their hope for renewed glory and ancestral revival.

Yi Tian nodded, saying, "It’s done."

"That’s good..." The Great Elder nodded, but in the next moment he froze, then suddenly came to his senses, staring at Yi Tian. "You—you’ve succeeded in cultivating the Sun-Shooting Divine Art?" His voice trembled, incredulous, afraid he had misheard.

Yi Tian replied, "Yes."

After confirming several times, the Great Elder was overwhelmed with emotion, nearly bursting into tears to vent years of pent-up frustration.

When they returned to the ancestral temple aboveground, the news brought boundless joy to the chief, the elders, and all who heard. The Yi tribe’s legacy was finally complete.

Yi Tian then carefully pointed out the dozen or so subtle errors and flaws within the Sun-Shooting Divine Art. Even so, it took him three full days to ensure everyone fully understood the flaws and restored the art’s true form.

After all, Yi Tian’s current cultivation and realm could not fully demonstrate the Sun-Shooting Divine Art without omissions, nor could he transmit it in the manner of the divine statue.

He had attempted to record it on paper, but the Sun-Shooting Divine Art was so complex and profound that the written version differed greatly from the true method.

Indeed, the higher the tier of a technique, the more varied its transmission. For example, a human-tier technique could be written down, but an earth-tier technique was more complex and arcane, difficult to describe, and could only be stored in precious jade. As for heavenly-tier techniques, only treasures like statues or direct impartation could suffice.

If one were to impart it orally as Yi Tian did, a tremendous amount of effort was required. Those lacking in comprehension might never grasp it, or might misunderstand and suffer deviation.

Fortunately, the earth-tier techniques Yi Tian deduced for the tribe were developed step by step, like upgrades, from mid-grade human tier to high-grade, supreme human tier, and finally earth tier. This progression gave the tribe’s warriors a clear path to follow, and oral transmission posed little risk.

If an unfamiliar earth-tier technique appeared all at once, and one had not seen the transmission jade, cultivation would be extremely hazardous.

As for heavenly-tier techniques, without a legacy object, cultivation was impossible.