The demon ape roared in fury, leaping after Qin Mu. It charged forward a few steps, but its massive body was far slower than Qin Mu. Enraged, the giant ape tore up several large trees. With one sweep of its hand, it stripped branches and leaves clean, turning the trunk into an enormous spear, which it hurled with a violent shake of its arm.
"Brat—die!"
The throw carried immense force—fierce, overwhelming, incredibly fast—yet its aim was lacking. The tree-spear shot past more than ten yards behind Qin Mu.
The ape grew even more furious. It yanked up another tree and prepared to strike again, but Qin Mu had already run far into the distance. The ape pounded its chest in frustration.
Senior Brother Qu murmured, "That little demon brat's cultivation is far below ours. His injuries must be worse than mine. He won't get far."
He forced himself upright, only to grunt in pain—his chest hurt terribly; several ribs were likely cracked from the ape's slap. But since even a little demon like Qin Mu could withstand the ape's blow, he reasoned he could endure it as well.
What he didn't realize was that Qin Mu wasn't weak at all. His cultivation was not low—his vital qi simply lacked an attribute, preventing him from displaying true power.
In terms of cultivation alone, Qin Mu—young as he was—was not inferior to any of them. In fact, he surpassed Senior Brother Qu himself.
The five circled around the ape's territory and soon found Qin Mu's trail again. As Senior Brother Qu had predicted, Qin Mu had been injured by the ape—badly. After escaping the ape's territory, his speed had slowed, giving them a chance to catch up.
But as they continued pursuing him, they noticed something strange: Qin Mu's speed was steadily rising, as though his injuries were healing with every step he took.
"This little demon brat must have some powerful healing medicine!"
All five felt a sinking feeling in their hearts. Senior Brother Qu had already taken his sect's own injury medicine, but its effect was far inferior to whatever Qin Mu was using. Judging by how quickly Qin Mu's speed was increasing, his wounds were healing visibly fast!
Such medicine stirred burning envy in all of them.
"Our sect's injury pills aren't top-grade. If we can get the formula for the superior medicine this brat has, Master will surely be delighted—and reward us generously!"
At that moment, however, Qin Mu was not taking any medicine as they suspected. Instead, he ran while breathing in and out, circulating what the Village Chief called the Overlord Body Three Elixirs Skill—which was actually just the most basic guiding technique, though he did not know it.
Running for his life while activating the Overlord Body Three Elixirs Skill gave Qin Mu a new discovery: his vital energy grew more active and circulated faster when he ran!
This contradicted what the Village Chief had taught him. The Village Chief had always instructed him to practice the skill while sitting quietly, regulating his breath, breathing slowly, nurturing his vital energy, guiding it through his body, and using it to nourish his flesh.
For more than ten years, Qin Mu had practiced the Overlord Body Three Elixirs Skill exactly as the Village Chief had said. Only now did he realize that practicing it while running might be far more effective.
When sprinting at full speed, the Overlord Body Three Elixirs Skill circulated faster, nurturing his vital energy more quickly and nourishing his body at a greatly accelerated rate!
What was more, waves of vital energy washed over his internal organs, limbs, bones, and even the fascia between his muscles and bones—over and over again.
The fiend ape's slap had injured his internal organs and bones, but under the washing of his vital energy, the cracks in his organs and bones were steadily healing.
Senior Brother Qu and the others thought he relied on superior medicine, never imagining it was the seemingly unreliable Overlord Body Three Elixirs Skill.
Gradually, Qin Mu noticed a spot in his body where his vital energy could not reach: the fascia between the bones and skin of his brow—an area no wider than a finger between his two eyebrows.
His vital energy could wash beneath his scalp to strengthen his skull, but whenever it reached his brow, it met a massive obstruction, as if an invisible wall blocked its path.
When he urged his vital energy to 冲击 that invisible wall, something even stranger happened: he heard a mysterious voice.
The voice seemed to come from beyond the nine heavens—high, distant, rising and falling in tone, melodious and sacred, like a high god proclaiming an edict.
And whenever the voice sounded, his vital energy would uncontrollably retreat like a tide, bypassing his brow.
"Could this be the Spirit Embryo Barrier?"
Qin Mu was confused. The Village Chief, Granny Si, and others had mentioned "barriers" and "breaking barriers" to him. Barriers were seals on the treasure troves within the human body; breaking a barrier meant opening the seal to claim the treasure.
However, none of them had told him where the Spirit Embryo Barrier was located in the body, nor how to break it.
What Qin Mu did not know was that it was not that they refused to tell him—it was that there was no cultivation method or way to break the Spirit Embryo Barrier in the entire world!
Ordinary people and spirit beings were two entirely different classes—two castes.
As spirit beings, their Spirit Embryo Barriers were naturally open, making them inherently superior. Ordinary people's Spirit Embryo Barriers were closed, rendering them inferior. The lofty spirit beings rarely cared about the needs of ordinary people.
There were few martial artists among ordinary people, and the Village Chief, Granny Si, and others had never even heard of an ordinary person who had opened the Spirit Embryo Barrier—so of course, they had no idea how to break it.
Qin Mu ran while urging his vital energy to charge at the invisible wall between his eyebrows again and again. The mysterious voice kept sounding, forcing his vital energy to retreat. Though he failed to break the barrier each time, he was patient, convinced he would succeed sooner or later.
He had no intention of telling the Village Chief and the others about his discovery regarding the Overlord Body Three Elixirs Skill. He planned to surprise them only after he had broken the barrier.
Whether that surprise would bring more joy or shock to the Village Chief and the others, however, was hard to say.
Senior Brother Qu and the other four grew increasingly anxious as they chased. The "little demon spawn" ahead was not just healing—his speed had actually increased compared to before!
This was terrifying. It meant Qin Mu's cultivation was improving even as he fled!
The improvement was slow, but it was already shocking enough!
Everyone cultivated step by step. Even after breaking a barrier, one's cultivation improved gradually; no one could become strong overnight. Who did not spend tens of days, months, or even years practicing persistently to make progress in cultivation?
Yet this "little demon spawn" was clearly improving in cultivation while running away—that was truly terrifying!
Fortunately, Qin Mu had originally been inferior to them, and even with his improvement, there was still a gap.
But catching up to him was no easy task. After learning his lesson once, Qin Mu had become much more cautious, avoiding the territories of other exotic beasts as he ran.
When the Pharmacist had taken him out to gather herbs, he had told Qin Mu that the exotic beasts of the Great Wastes were highly intelligent and each had their own domains. These beasts left marks: trees with stripped bark, white bones stuck in the ground, animal heads hanging on stakes, urine stains, and so on. One only needed to spot these unusual signs and avoid them.
Earlier, there had been fist prints on the cliff beside the fiend ape's territory, marking it as the ape's domain—but Qin Mu had failed to see them and strayed in. Now that he was more cautious, he would not make the same mistake with other beasts' territories.
Even so, many exotic beasts left their territories to hunt, making the entire Great Wastes dangerous.
As Qin Mu ran through a swamp, he stumbled upon a battle between two lord-level exotic beasts: a Snow Roc with a cockscomb and snake neck, and a Swamp Poison Dragon Python. One colossal creature pounced from the sky, its wings stirring violent winds; the other coiled in the swamp, summoning storms and waves, their clash shaking the mountains and splitting the earth.
Qin Mu hadn't even reached the marsh before the gale stirred up by the two giants blew him off course. When he landed, he crashed into a herd of terrified wild oxen and was nearly trampled to death.
"I'm getting farther and farther from the village…"
Qin Mu's heart sank. The five pursuers showed no sign of giving up, making it impossible for him to return. Even worse—
The sun was setting!
He and Granny Si had left the village in the afternoon; now the sun was sinking in the west, and darkness was about to arrive. If he couldn't reach the village before nightfall, he feared he would face unimaginable danger.
"Senior Brother Qu, it's getting dark!"
Behind him, Senior Brother Qu and the others also noticed the fading light. The youth whom Qin Mu had kicked earlier looked uneasy."Master told us the Great Wilderness is a cursed land. After nightfall, it becomes a forbidden zone—we must return to a village protected by stone statues, or we'll die!"
Senior Brother Qu shook his head."It's already too late to turn back. We're too far from the village; we can't make it before dark. The darkness is dangerous for us—but it will be just as dangerous for that demon brat's descendant. There's only one option left: find out where he's hiding!"