Chapter Ninety-One: Passing on Power and Departure

When Yi Tian emerged from the underground chamber, he discovered that his secluded cultivation had taken a full year and three months.

This shocked him greatly.

At the same time, he learned that the clan chief and the elder of the great clan had both broken through to the human rank, and three other elders had also advanced. The Yi Clan now possessed five human-rank experts.

With Yi Tian included, there were six.

When Yi Tian returned home, his mother, Xiao Long, and the others, who had all been worrying about him, were overjoyed.

Little Black rushed over with extraordinary enthusiasm.

Over this past year and more, it had waited in painful torment. Ever since it had absorbed a few crystal essences from Yi Tian, it had longed desperately for more to devour.

Yi Tian immediately appeased Little Black with a single crystal essence.

As Yi Tian was joyfully reunited with his family, several members of the Reincarnation Battle Team came after hearing the news.

Once the six members of the Reincarnation Battle Team were gathered together, Yi Tian asked about their cultivation progress.

Over this year and more, Yi Feng, Yi Shan, and the others had not slackened in their practice. Every one of them had reached the peak of the ninth rank, and each had tempered the acupoints related to their respective heavenly arts into spirit acupoints, numbering at least twenty or thirty thousand.

However, they had not rushed to break through.

Yi Tian had told them before entering seclusion that only after every acupoint within their bodies had transformed into spirit acupoints could they climb to a higher level of martial dao.

Yi Tian was quite satisfied with their progress.

After all, they had not gone into seclusion. Their daily affairs were numerous, leaving them unable to devote themselves wholly to cultivation, so their progress was not fast. If not for the assistance of crystal essences, the number of spirit acupoints they had tempered would likely have been far lower.

Within the Reincarnation Battle Team, Yi Tian had been the first to break through to the human rank.

After emerging from seclusion, he taught them the experience of tempering acupoints, as well as some secret acupoint locations and other matters.

Once Yi Feng, Yi Shan, Yi Li, Yi Kuang, and Yi Hong had a clear direction for their breakthroughs, they entered the underground chamber together to begin closed cultivation and advance.

One day, Yi Tian called Xiao Long, Xiao Ting, and the others to his side.

Looking at Xiao Long, who had already grown into a little adult, and Xiao Ting, who had become graceful and poised, Yi Tian saw that although there was still a trace of youthful innocence on their faces, the outlines of their future beauty and handsomeness were already visible.

Xiao Long had grown into a strikingly handsome boy, bright and sunny, clearly destined to become a fine-looking man in the years ahead.

Xiao Ting, meanwhile, was refined and graceful, with a touch of spiritual charm that drew the eye at once, like a piece of fine jade, pleasing to behold.

Compared with them, Yi Tian’s own appearance was much less remarkable.

He was not ugly, nor ordinary, but at most merely clean-featured; he could hardly be called a handsome genius.

“Brother, what do you want with us?” Xiao Ting asked him coquettishly.

Xiao Long was also somewhat puzzled. His elder brother seemed unusually solemn today; could something have happened?

Yi Tian said, “You’re almost fourteen now, so you can begin cultivation. Our Yi Clan now possesses the ancient heavenly art inherited from our forefathers, the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art, as well as the Great Sun Heavenly Art, the Savage Wilderness Heavenly Art, the Tiger Roar Heavenly Art, and the Myriad Forms Heavenly Art...”

Then Yi Tian explained the detailed characteristics of each great heavenly art to Xiao Long, Xiao Ting, and the others.

The Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art could be cultivated together with the other heavenly arts without conflict. Thus Xiao Long and the others could practice the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art, and choose one of the other three to cultivate alongside it.

Xiao Long and Xiao Ting were both astonished and delighted to hear this.

This was the moment they had longed for. In a world filled everywhere with martial artists, growing stronger was the most intense desire in every heart.

After some discussion, Xiao Long chose the Tiger Roar Heavenly Art, while Xiao Ting selected the Myriad Forms Heavenly Art.

After greeting his mother, Yi Tian took Xiao Long, Xiao Ting, and the others out of the tribe. They chose a secluded hill and opened up a cave there.

Once Yi Tian had entered the human rank, opening a cave had become effortless. In less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he had carved out a cave several dozen zhang deep. There, within the cave, he taught Xiao Long and Xiao Ting the techniques.

The Avatar of Star Mud suddenly underwent a transformation. In an instant, a divine statue appeared at the center of the cave.

In essence, this divine statue was exactly the same as the ancestral inheritance statue of the progenitor god Yi in the tribe’s underground chamber, except that Yi Tian had altered its outward appearance slightly, giving it a different look.

“Xiao Long, you go first. This is the circulation path and meridian chart for the Tiger Roar Heavenly Art!”

Yi Tian immediately activated the inheritance statue. One acupoint after another projected outward, forming brilliant points of light. The outline of a human body emerged faintly, and one could clearly see the positions of these acupoints within the body, while a beam of light continuously circulated through them, passing through acupoint after acupoint and forming the image of a white tiger roaring skyward.

Xiao Long soon became utterly absorbed in comprehension.

Even so, it still took him six days to fully grasp the various essentials of the Tiger Roar Heavenly Art, and with Yi Tian’s help he managed to cultivate a trace of its true energy.

In the days that followed, Xiao Ting also comprehended the Myriad Forms Heavenly Art and successfully cultivated it.

This surprised Yi Tian somewhat.

Xiao Long and Xiao Ting’s comprehension and aptitude were, it could be said, much stronger than his own, and even stronger than those of several members of the Reincarnation Battle Team.

One had to know that Xiao Long and the others were not yet fourteen. Even with the help of the inheritance statue, they had understood it in just a few days and successfully cultivated the heavenly art. Such aptitude was truly unmatched within the tribe.

However, Xiao Long and Xiao Ting spent a full twelve days comprehending the Sun-Shooting Heavenly Art.

After Xiao Long and Xiao Ting had successfully cultivated both heavenly arts, Yi Tian handed them a large pile of spirit stones for cultivation.

When Yi Tian brought Xiao Long and the others back, Xiao Long and Xiao Ting had already become first-rank martial artists.

Over those dozens of days, in order to help Xiao Long and the others comprehend the mysteries of the heavenly arts, the Star Mud avatar had spent a full three crystal essences maintaining the inheritance statue.

Together with the more than seventy crystal essences Yi Tian had consumed during his own seclusion and breakthrough, he now had only three hundred and twenty left.

Three hundred and twenty crystal essences was still an enormous fortune.

Even so, Yi Tian soon had the Star Mud avatar devour one hundred of them.

The Star Mud avatar began to change gradually, shifting from a blackish-red hue toward pure black.

Later, Yi Tian gritted his teeth and once again allowed the Star Mud avatar to swallow one hundred crystal essences. At last, Star Mud fully transformed into black, radiating a dazzling black luster.

At the same time, over the following period, Yi Tian also gave Little Black twenty crystal essences in succession.

After devouring those twenty crystal essences, Little Black gradually underwent its own transformation. Its body grew larger, its fur became like black silk, and from time to time it would inadvertently release a trace of terrifying pressure.

The tribe had undergone tremendous changes recently.

With the clan chief, the elder of the great clan, and other elders successively breaking through and becoming human-rank experts, one of the human-rank elders personally went to guard the mine cave.

Great Chief Yi Ke and Vice Chief Yi Zhen were also preparing to break through, while the other high-rank warriors were all cultivating diligently. With a plentiful supply of spirit stones, their progress was very明显.

It was likely that, in the near future, dozens of human-rank experts would emerge one after another within the tribe.

More than three months later, Yi Feng, Yi Shan, and five others from the Reincarnation Battle Team successively broke through and emerged from seclusion, becoming human-rank experts.

Not long after, the annual ancestral sacrifice arrived once more, and this year’s ceremony was said to be exceptionally grand.

For this sacrifice, several human-rank elders personally entered the Mount Subduing Dragon Range and hunted down several middle-grade fierce beasts as offerings, filling the entire tribe with jubilation.

The dawn of the Yi Clan’s rise had already appeared.

After the ancestral sacrifice, Yi Tian handed the Cultivation Origin Art he had deduced to the tribe, allowing every clansman to cultivate it. It was a balanced and gentle technique, best suited for those not engaged in battle or slaughter. It could strengthen the cultivator’s physique and prolong life.

Now that the tribe had several human-rank experts overseeing it, safety was no longer a concern. After breaking through to the human rank, Yi Tian and the others’ desire to go out and see the wider world became even stronger.