Chapter 1043: Deception

Chu Feng stood on a tall mountain tens of miles away, gazing at the sinkhole. Besides a rising black ominous mist and spine-chilling cries of shadowy crows, there were no other unusual changes. After a moment, it returned to tranquility.

He waited for a long time before going to deal with the aftermath, clearing away the divine magnetic stones and other items.

Next, he visited Thunderstruck Mountain to erase his tracks, then returned to the tribe.

“Lesser Yin, Lesser Yang, which is weaker, which is stronger? Yin and Yang complementing each other, reigning supreme in the heavens!”

In the temple, Chu Feng was absorbed in thought. Two days had passed since his return from the sinkhole, and he had been continuously studying the Sun Sacrificing Body Art, contemplating the strange boxing scripture, and attempting to blend Yin and Yang.

As a result, he had set himself ablaze again, his internal organs burning. This wasn't a one-time occurrence; he had transformed into a fiery man several times.

Fortunately, he had the Small Fish Fist. After practicing it, Chu Feng managed to quell the solar flames. He now estimated that the Small Fish Fist could probably be called the Lesser Yin Fist.

“Is this Sun Sacrificing Body Art, given to me by that Nine Nether creature, merely a harmful technique? Yet, it can instantly unlock one's potential, which is truly extraordinary.”

Chu Feng pondered, but even after such a long period of study, he still had no breakthrough.

The so-called Lesser Yin and Lesser Yang, which he wished to merge into one, was merely his wishful thinking and almost led to his demise.

Furthermore, the so-called Lesser Yang Fist, or Sun Sacrificing Body Art, couldn't be practiced alone; each attempt was fraught with danger.

“Hmm, something’s different!”

It wasn’t until four days later that Chu Feng noticed the anomaly. Each time he burned himself, once he recovered, his body felt warm. After several consecutive days, his energy became incredibly abundant.

Instantly, Chu Feng's frown disappeared. His young face became radiant, and he smiled like a fox that had stolen a chicken.

“Second Brother, you truly are a scoundrel. You tried to harm me then, but you never imagined I’d discover its wonders. So, this is your lineage’s secret scripture!”

Chu Feng was certain that this item was useful, immensely so; its value was beyond measure.

Imagine, it could unearth the body’s mysteries, open the human treasure trove, gradually unveil seals, and release potential. How astonishing was that?

Evolution inherently meant breaking physical shackles and continually achieving leaps in life's hierarchy.

The Sun Sacrificing Body Art was exceptionally effective!

An uninformed person who rashly practiced this method might endanger themselves, but if one could persevere, they would gain immense benefits.

Some of what the Nine Nether creature said was true: the longer one persevered with this method, the greater the benefits to oneself.

Especially since Chu Feng had mastered the Lesser Yin Boxing Scripture, he could forcibly extinguish the flames when necessary, ensuring the Sun Sacrificing Body Art wouldn't cripple him.

“Second Brother, thank you for this generous gift. No wonder you looked utterly miserable, as if you’d just swallowed something truly vile, after learning I practiced the Lesser Yin Fist. So that’s why.”

The ultimate breathing technique was fundamental, while this miraculous art served as a short shortcut and aid on the path of cultivation, its existence inevitable.

“The prehistoric era, its evolutionary civilization was truly unique and brilliant. I still wish to acquire a few more similar arts.”

Chu Feng was delighted; his efforts had not been in vain, yielding substantial gains.

From then on, he would set himself alight daily, tempering the potential within every cell of his body, allowing wisps of it to naturally flow out.

Of course, the breathing technique was fundamental, the ultimate path to evolution!

With Wintergreen no longer by his side, Chu Feng no longer needed to practice covertly. From the Stealth Induction to the Great Thunder Sound, each session would last a long time.

This young body, beginning to practice the breathing technique from scratch, was perfectly suited, accompanied by the vigorous aura of a nascent life.

Chu Feng felt that now, practicing Stealth Induction, this ultimate breathing technique was increasingly compatible with him, producing astonishing results.

Having been adopted by the tribe for over two months, he could now run like the wind, agile and robust, daring to leap across cliffs like a nimble mountain ape.

At this time, when he threw a punch, his small body surprisingly emitted the sound of wind and thunder. Anyone witnessing this would be astonished; for such a young child to possess such ability was truly remarkable.

Over the next month, in addition to practicing the breathing technique and boxing every morning, Chu Feng also analyzed the minerals left by Wintergreen.

During this period, he frequently ventured into the mountains, carefully cross-referencing and searching for something.

As a field researcher, his understanding of mountains and rivers far surpassed others. Through his painstaking search and deciphering, he managed to restore dozens of minerals, finding more than half of them.

He now dared to venture into the mountains, primarily because he carried a jade token engraved with a black small fish. Wintergreen had said it belonged to that young lady and possessed considerable power.

Chu Feng had tested it: once activated, the black runes it unleashed could be used by him, sufficient for self-defense against ferocious birds and beasts.

However, to his dismay, in the mountains, apart from a few rabbits with sharp teeth that tried to eat him, a fifteen-meter-tall golden-backed lone wolf he encountered on the path completely ignored him.

Chu Feng thought about it and felt relieved. Such fierce beasts had opened their intelligence; he figured that in their eyes, he was too small to even be a snack, akin to a beetle.

Suddenly, Chu Feng heard a terrifying lion’s roar, shaking heaven and earth, emanating from the distant forest, accompanied by human shouts of fury.

Chu Feng was startled. The voice sounded familiar. He quickly ran towards that section of the forest.

From afar, he recognized him: it was Sixth Granduncle, who liked to wear flamboyant beast-skin clothes. Last time, he had a twilight rendezvous, though Chu Feng didn’t know which confidante he was meeting.

Ordinarily, clan elders like him didn’t participate much in hunting. Only when exceptionally fierce monsters appeared in the mountains would someone like him venture in alone to hunt them down and resolve the problem.

It could be said that every clan elder was a treasure, a master who had survived battles from their youth, deeply respected within the tribe.

But now, what did Chu Feng see? Sixth Granduncle had a leg torn off by a strange gray lion, and another claw had gouged a bloody hole in his abdomen. His life was in grave danger.

Chu Feng, clutching the jade token in one hand, dashed through the forest like a cannonball, colliding with the gray lion.

In that instant, he saw that the gray lion was in an abnormal state: its eyes were blood red and incredibly frenzied. Although a fierce beast with wild instincts, its consciousness was definitely impaired.

This was a lion at the Golden Body level, the same realm as Sixth Granduncle, but in its frenzied state, it was even more powerful.

Before the lion’s claw could finish off Sixth Granduncle, Chu Feng crashed into the lion. It roared, flew backward, and slammed into a massive rock, shattering trees and rocks everywhere.

In this desolate frontier, even Golden Body level evolvers could not fly, demonstrating the perfection of the natural laws and their severe suppressive effect.

The gray lion was only three meters long and looked quite ordinary, but in its fit of ferocity, it scrambled to its feet, ready to pounce and kill Chu Feng.

But just as it leaped, the blood-red light in its eyes receded, and it suddenly plummeted to the ground as if its strength had given out, dying unexpectedly.

It had some wounds on its body, left by Sixth Granduncle.

“Its internal organs are dissolving?!” Chu Feng, opening his Fiery Golden Eyes, saw what appeared to be fatal injuries caused by Sixth Granduncle’s palm prints.

But he now understood that it wasn't the case at all; this was the depletion of life itself, its own internal organs dissolving.

Something was strange. It seemed to have been manipulated, tampered with, yet no traces were left!

Chu Feng had no time to ponder further. Saving a life was urgent. Without a word, he poured out a black giant pill, as large as a human head, from the spatial jade bottle Wintergreen had given him.

“Sixth Granduncle, hold on!” Chu Feng shouted, crushing the large pill to apply it as medicine.

Sixth Granduncle was too severely injured: one leg was torn off, his abdomen was pierced, and there was a dreadful wound on his neck, almost completely severing it, his head nearly falling off.

Chu Feng anxiously applied medicine and bandaged him. If he had arrived even a moment later, the old man would surely have died a miserable death, beyond saving.

“The Lei Clan... it must be the Lei Clan!” Sixth Granduncle’s eyes dimmed, almost at his last breath, continually spitting foamy blood from his mouth, repeating those words.

Undoubtedly, he also recognized that something was wrong with the gray lion.

When Chu Feng brought Sixth Granduncle back to the tribe, the entire clan was shaken. Sixth Granduncle, Ji Haishan, and others represented the strongest individuals in the Ji Clan, and today, one of them had nearly died.

Fortunately, Chu Feng hadn't discarded the minerals he usually steamed and boiled for himself. He had made them into giant pills, which were extremely effective. Sixth Granduncle had recovered some of his vitality.

“Last year, Fourth Brother perished with a white hedgehog, his body completely impaled with spear-like white spikes. Even then, I felt something was wrong, something strange,” Sixth Granduncle gasped heavily. As he spoke with emotion, his wounds tore open, bleeding continuously, and the leg that had just been reattached almost broke off again.

Chu Feng was surprised. In this Yang Realm, the laws of heaven and earth were complete and suppressed evolvers severely. Golden Body level beings, if they had limbs severed and not treated promptly, would struggle to regenerate, and decapitation would certainly lead to death.

Sixth Granduncle’s face was ashen, filled with immense grief and indignation. He said, “After experiencing this firsthand today, I am even more certain that both this lion and that Golden Body level white hedgehog from back then were tampered with and controlled, driven mad and given a significant boost in power, all for the purpose of assassinating us.”

Ji Haishan said, “The Lei Clan, it must be them. For over a hundred years, they have been overtly and covertly contending with us, and in recent years, they have become increasingly domineering.”

“Their malevolence is truly growing. Aren’t they afraid of the agreements between the tribes taking effect? Such actions will trigger sanctions!” another clan elder frowned.

“They haven't attacked directly. We only suspect they tampered with and controlled fierce beasts to harm people, but we have no evidence.”

“It seems the news we received is true: someone in their clan has obtained a fragmented volume of the Myriad Beasts Scripture!”

The more the tribesmen spoke, the angrier they became, wishing they could march on the Lei Clan.

“I heard a Ji Clan elder has fallen. My condolences,” a Lei Clan member said with a faint smile as he passed in front of the tribe.

“Can you speak like a human?! You are the murderers, aren’t you? Otherwise, how would you know someone in our clan had an accident?!” a strong middle-aged man from the Ji Clan shouted, unable to bear it any longer.

The Lei Clan member gave a fake smile and said, “Oh, didn’t you just carry an old man inside? There was blood all over the ground. I just figured something happened on your end.”

Then, he walked away, chin held high.

Chu Feng secretly exhaled. He decided that before leaving, he would help the tribe deal with some of these dangers and troubles. This was simply too much bullying!

He estimated that he would soon be leaving this place to enter the Dragon’s Nest deep within the desolate frontier.