4: Chapter 4: One punch instantly kills the alien beast! The other trial participants must be going crazy!

Lin Ye could clearly feel the energy contained within that seal.

It was vast and boundless, like a sea of stars.

Just sensing it made him feel as though his consciousness was about to be swallowed by that power!

Lin Ye tried to channel a sliver of the seal's power.

The moment he began to absorb it,

an intense pain exploded!

An agonizing pain erupted simultaneously from the crevices of his bones, from every muscle, and from the depths of every single cell!

It felt as if someone had ignited a volcano inside his body!

Lin Ye turned deathly pale and hastily cut off the absorption.

This wouldn't do!

His body was too weak!

Zhulong's divine sense was too overbearing; even a mere sliver of it was not something his current constitution could withstand.

Forcing the absorption would only lead to one outcome...

Exploding and dying!

Lin Ye panted heavily, cold sweat drenching his entire body.

The pain gradually subsided, but a lingering burning sensation remained.

However...

He looked down at his hands.

His previously delicate hands were now covered in cracks and bloodstains.

Yet beneath those cracks, he could feel an unprecedented power surging.

Lin Ye clenched his fists.

Crack!

He had literally burst the air with his squeeze!

His current strength was at least ten times, if not dozens of times, greater than before!

He felt like he could punch right through a concrete wall!

"Is... is this the effect of just that tiny sliver of divine sense?"

Lin Ye murmured to himself, shock and wild joy flashing in his eyes.

He hadn't expected Venerable God Zhulong to be so generous! Giving away divine sense just like that. Of course, at that level, a strand of divine sense might just be like a human tossing a few breadcrumbs to an interesting ant they happened to come across.

But these very "breadcrumbs" had transformed him from a frail ordinary human into a superhuman!

If he were to fully absorb it...

Lin Ye shook his head, suppressing the thought.

It was too early to think about that now.

The immediate priority was to improve his physical constitution.

The Classic of Mountains and Seas was full of natural treasures, with plenty of things capable of tempering one's constitution.

He needed to find those things and elevate his constitution to bear more of the Zhulong Divine Sense's power.

Thinking of this, Lin Ye bowed deeply once again toward the direction of Zhulong in the darkness.

"Thank you for your generous gift, Great God!"

"This junior shall take his leave!"

He turned and walked toward the distance.

Since this was the Great Wilderness of the Western Mountains, it should be quite easy to find spiritual herbs and medicines like the huai tree and Jigu Grass that could rapidly strengthen his constitution!

Furthermore, now that his zhulong seal was enhanced, hunting some low-tier exotic beasts wouldn't be a problem either.

If he remembered correctly, quite a few of them had highly nourishing flesh.

Such as the Qian sheep, the Feiyi, the Chun bird, the Conglong, and so on...

Finding any of these right now would significantly boost his constitution!

Returning for that so-called trial assessment in seven days?

Heh.

He only hoped those demons and ghosts would still be alive after taking one of his punches!

Lin Ye made his way south along the mountain ridge.

Mount Zhong was Zhulong's territory, spanning countless tens of thousands of miles, so no highly dangerous exotic beasts would appear here.

But the absence of exotic beasts also meant there was no food.

Seven days.

He had to survive amid these natural treasures, otherwise, it would all be for nothing.

After walking for a full half-day, a solitary peak appeared in his field of vision.

There was a natural depression on the mountainside that looked like a hunched old man from afar. The mountain was reddish-yellow with a flat summit, directly facing southeast.

Lin Ye paused in his tracks, his eyes lighting up.

Mount Zhongqu.

Mount Zhongqu, as recorded in the Classic of the Western Mountains, produced huai trees, and eating its fruit would grant great strength!

He quickened his pace and climbed up to the mountainside depression, and sure enough, he found five trees about five meters tall deep within the dense forest.

The trees were shaped like crabapples, with round leaves and red fruit. The fruits were as large as papayas, about the size of a fist, and their skin gleamed with an amber-like luster.

huai fruit!

Lin Ye plucked one and took a large bite.

The flesh melted in his mouth, and the warm juice slid down his throat. A stream of heat exploded from his stomach, spreading along his blood vessels to every part of his body.

It was gentle and mellow, like soaking in a hot spring, and every single cell was being nourished.

He finished one in a few bites and then ate two more.

The heat streams stacked, gradually turning into a roasting sensation, but it never exceeded the limit of what his physical body could endure.

Once the heat dissipated, Lin Ye clenched his fist and threw a punch at the adjacent rock wall.

Boom!

The rock wall exploded, leaving a bowl-sized crater as stone fragments splattered everywhere!

Only a faint white mark was left on his knuckles.

His muscle density, bone hardness, and tendon resilience had all surged by a whole level!

Lin Ye immediately sat cross-legged and sank his consciousness into his sea of consciousness.

The zhulong seal hovered quietly in the depths of his sea of consciousness, its crimson dragon form surrounded by black flames.

He tried to channel it to absorb a sliver of its power.

It was painful.

The intense pain remained, straining his bones and muscles to their limits, and tiny beads of blood seeped out of his skin once again.

But his body did not break down.

That sliver of Zhulong Divine Sense was successfully absorbed by him.

Lin Ye opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air, which carried a faint blackish-red mist.

He stood up, walked over to a half-ton boulder, gathered his strength for a brief moment, and punched it!

With a loud bang,

the boulder shattered into pieces, while his fist remained completely unharmed!

"This is practically a qualitative leap!"

Lin Ye was overjoyed. In just this short amount of time, his physical durability had become almost like a reef. The speed of his improvement could only be described as utterly monstrous.

Just as he was thinking, the sky above him dimmed slightly.

A dark shadow was circling in the sky.

It had a wingspan of about three meters, dark brown feathers, a bird's body, and tiger claws. Four tiger claws hung beneath its belly, their tips gleaming with a cold light.

A pair of golden eyes locked onto him dead-on.

It was a Daying!

It was the transformed shape of Qinpi after he was executed by the Emperor, and its tiger claws naturally carried a malevolent killing aura.

Eating its flesh and drinking its blood could greatly nourish and temper the body, and even allow one to inherit a sliver of that malevolent killing aura!

Without this zhulong seal, Lin Ye would definitely have been scared out of his wits and fled in terror right now.

But having been strengthened by the zhulong seal, he had no reason to be afraid!

The Daying folded its wings and swooped down.

Its sharp beak tore through the air like a crimson spear, and its four tiger claws aimed straight for his throat.

Lin Ye did not dodge.

He bent his legs slightly, lowering his center of gravity, and pulled his right fist back to his waist. Fifty meters, thirty meters, ten meters...

Now!

His right fist exploded upward from below, making the air boom!

His fist collided head-on with the Daying's sharp claws.

A sharp crack of breaking bone rang out!

One of the Daying's tiger claws was snapped clean in half.

The remaining force of the punch surged into its chest and abdomen. The Daying let out a shrill, miserable shriek as its massive body was sent flying backward, slamming heavily into the mountain wall over a dozen meters away, its chest caving in and its feathers shattering.

Before it could even figure out what had happened, Lin Ye had already walked up to it and smashed his fist onto its head.

The Daying stopped moving.

"I was just thinking about how to find some food, and here you are, you beast, delivering yourself right to me."

"Eating the Daying's flesh also allows me to command a portion of the malevolent killing aura! When ordinary small creatures get close, they'll be too terrified to even approach!"

Lin Ye processed the carcass on the spot, plucking the feathers and stripping the skin. Then, using the zhulong seal to start a fire, he roasted half of it.

The zhulong seal did not just improve basic aspects like flesh, blood, and meridians.

It also granted him weakened versions of some of Zhulong's divine abilities.

The aroma of the meat drifted through the air, mingled with the fresh scent of pine and medicinal herbs.

He tore off a bird leg and bit into it. The meat was firm and springy, and the boiling-hot juices slid down his throat, turning into a domineering, scorching current of air that rampaged through him.

Blue veins bulged on his skin.

His bones, muscles, and skin were being frantically reconstructed.

A very faint golden luster surfaced on his bones.

More importantly, a cold, sharp aura was condensing deep within his body.

The malevolent killing aura!

Lin Ye had to restrain his urge to keep eating.

Half was just right. Any more would breed killing intent and make his mind frantic.

He drank the Daying's essence blood to the last drop, and a layer of faint gold faintly emerged deep within his pupils.

The vision of the giant bird of prey was fusing with his own.

He stood up and gazed into the distance; the mountain contours that had been blurry before were now as clear as if they were right before his eyes.

He could see completely through the mist and miasma of the mountain forests, and he could even spot a small beast leaping among the rocks on a distant peak.

His night vision and long-distance sight had skyrocketed!

A very thin but tough, pale-gold protective membrane also formed on the surface of his limbs and bones.

"This protective membrane will give me an extra layer of natural resistance when facing the claws of exotic beasts or bone spur scratches."

Lin Ye sat back down, leaning against the trunk of the huai tree, and closed his eyes to regulate his breathing.

It was only his first day entering the Classic of Mountains and Seas, yet his growth rate was already this miraculous.

If the trial-takers from Blue Star found out about this, they would absolutely lose their minds...