Yuan Ming felt a hot sensation on his shoulder, and a stream of heat flowed into his body from Elder Hu Huo’s palm. Then, it uncontrollably spread out to his body surface.
In the next moment, a needle-like pain first came from his cheek. The white ape skin on his face seemed to have thin hairs growing inward, piercing his skin like needles and entering his pores and flesh.
Following that, the sharp pain spread to the skin on the back of his head, neck, and back. The white ape’s hair pierced through his clothes and invaded his flesh. The flesh skin that was tightly attached to his body also began to stick to his body.
Yuan Ming’s vision turned blood red, and his eyesight became blurry. He tried to hold back the scream, but the intense pain was beyond his control.
“Ugh…”
A suppressed low growl came from his throat. The extended animal skin wrapped around his body, and an inexplicable violent emotion rose in his heart.
Yuan Ming didn’t know why, but a strong desire to kill and an uncontrollable thirst for blood emerged in his mind.
“I can endure the pain, but I cannot lose my consciousness.” This was Yuan Ming’s bottom line.
“Roar…”
He stopped suppressing himself, let out a roar, clenched his fists, and subconsciously pounded the ground.
With a loud bang, the ground shook violently.
In the next moment, the blood-red color in Yuan Ming’s vision faded away, and his eyes returned to clarity. Even the bloodshot disappeared completely.
Elder Hu Huo saw this scene and frowned slightly. Speaking to himself, he muttered, “Being able to completely suppress the animal nature for the first time, the soul is not weak.”
After speaking, he didn’t pay much attention and walked towards the fourth person.
…
Soon, beside the giant stone monument, everyone completed their transformation and appeared as seven half-human, half-beast monsters.
“Remember, don’t try to escape. The animal skin on your body now consumes the mana I gave you, and it will be exhausted in three days. Then, the animal skin will start to absorb your blood and energy, and it can suck you dry in less than half a day.” Elder Hu Huo swept everyone with a warning look.
After hearing this, Yuan Ming sighed inwardly. Sure enough, there was a backhand.
“Your only way out is to pass this test and obtain the blood and qi technique. So, don’t do anything stupid.” Elder Hu Huo reminded again.
After speaking, he raised his hand and patted his waist, but this time, he didn’t pat the purple cloth bag. Instead, he patted a green leather bag hanging beside it.
The leather bag flashed with green light, and the mouth of the bag opened by itself. A green light group quickly flew out and landed on the ground not far away.
At the moment the green light fell to the ground, there was a sharp scream, and a huge shadow appeared.
When the light dissipated, a giant eagle with a body length of over ten feet appeared. It was covered in brownish-green feathers, and its sharp beak was as big as a hook. Its eyes were dark gold, and it was extremely domineering.
The green eagle had a sharp gaze and scanned Yuan Ming and the others who had turned into half-beasts. Several wild people retreated, showing their instinctive fear of natural enemies.
Yuan Ming, who maintained his complete humanity, was not as afraid as they were.In fact, by now, Yuan Ming’s initial panic had completely faded away. He calmly accepted the current situation he was in and began to become curious about the Bi Luo Cave, a Southern Sect.
Elder Hu Huo leaped onto the back of a green falcon and gave a light shout, then the falcon spread its wings and flew into the sky.
The sound of the wind howled, and countless sand and dust swept towards Yuan Ming and others, silently announcing the beginning of the test.
On the open space beside the giant stone monument, only a few beast-slave servants who had already transformed remained. They looked at each other with a sense of caution and threat in their eyes.
After a moment of confrontation, the most robust guy, who was half-human and half-tiger, picked up a beast skin bag and walked towards the mountains and forests first, leaving the others with his back.
Then the guy wearing the wild boar beast skin rushed towards another direction.
One by one, the others left and all chose different directions, as if invisibly distinguishing their own hunting territories.
After picking up a skin bag of stored blood and choosing a direction, Yuan Ming walked towards the depths of the mountains, still maintaining an upright posture.
But after just a few steps, he felt his back stiff and uncomfortable. His two thick arms instinctively hung down and supported his body weight in front of him, making him feel a little more comfortable.
“Indeed, I can’t control this body in the same way as before,” Yuan Ming silently thought.
Then he used his arms as support and ran in the mountains like a monkey.
This trial indeed made him much faster.
His legs and arms were strong enough. He just needed to be familiar with the strange running posture and could use this power properly, transforming from a simple run to a jumping leap.
After jumping in the mountains for a while, Yuan Ming’s speed became faster and faster. The wind whistled in his ears, and the trees in the mountains quickly retreated from his side. He accelerated and leaped three zhang away.
When he landed, his feet stomped on the ground, making the ground sink. Both feet sank into the ground.
After stabilizing his body, Yuan Ming pulled a vine from the ground and tied the mouth of the skin bag, making it into a rope and slung it diagonally across his body.
Then, he looked at an old tree nearby, which was as thick as a millstone. He walked quickly to it, raised an arm, made a fist, and gestured a few times on the trunk.
Then, with a crisp sound, Yuan Ming’s huge fist smashed into the trunk, and the top half of the tree fell down.
Looking at the triangle-shaped old tree, Yuan Ming couldn’t help but feel a little happy: “With this kind of power, hunting and taking blood from wild beasts may not be difficult?”
At this moment, his ears suddenly moved, and the bushes not far away shook violently. A black shadow suddenly rushed out from inside, bringing a gust of wind and pounced directly towards him.
Without waiting to see clearly, Yuan Ming quickly dodged behind another tree. But he saw that the black shadow had already caught up. It was a huge black bear, with a body as tall as a zhang.
The black bear swung its huge paw like a fan towards Yuan Ming, and directly hit the big tree in front of him.
The strong wind brought a whistle, and Yuan Ming saw that the situation was not good, so he quickly lowered his body.With a loud “crack”, the tree as thick as a bowl broke and the upper half of the trunk flew out, sticking to Yuan Ming’s scalp and flying out ten meters before falling down.
Yuan Ming was horrified. This black bear was so powerful that his flesh and blood body couldn’t withstand even one blow.
Knowing he was no match, he quickly turned and ran.
The black bear refused to give up and quickly caught up, even faster than before.
Yuan Ming had only run a few breaths when the black bear was already less than ten meters behind him.
Yuan Ming was startled. He couldn’t match the black bear in strength or speed.
He braced himself with his arms and jumped with his legs, trying to widen the distance between him and the black bear, but it was difficult to move fluidly with his new white ape body.
As he crossed a thicket, he stumbled on a vine of a banyan tree that was lying in the grass. He fell forward uncontrollably.
He braced himself with his arms and rolled forward, standing up again, only to find that the black bear had somehow caught up to him and was about to slap him in the head with its paw.
In a critical moment, Yuan Ming stopped his forward momentum, leaned back, and avoided the bear’s paw, but the sharp claws tore three gashes in his chest.
Yuan Ming watched as blood spurted from his chest and didn’t dare to fight back against the black bear. He bore the pain and turned to run in another direction.
He pressed his hand on the wound and wiped it on a nearby tree before using his hands and feet to leap forward.
The black bear, stimulated by the fresh blood, became even more ferocious and roared before chasing after him again.
Yuan Ming saw the black bear getting closer and closer and seized the opportunity to jump onto an old banyan tree with a trunk as thick as three people’s arms. He climbed up the tree with his fingers tightly gripping the cracks in the bark.
The black bear caught up and swung its paw at the trunk.
“Boom!”
The old banyan tree shook violently, and Yuan Ming held on to the trunk tightly. His toes also clung to the trunk, preventing him from falling off.
The black bear continued to strike the tree trunk, making the ancient tree shake and creak.
Yuan Ming had to use all his strength to hold on to the trunk, but luckily, the tree was thick enough to withstand the bear’s blows.
Taking advantage of the bear’s pause, Yuan Ming quickly climbed up to the horizontal branch of the old tree.
But before he could stand still, the trunk shook violently again, and Yuan Ming fell down headfirst.
Just as he was about to fall, he grabbed a tree branch with one foot and hung upside down in mid-air.
“Roar!”
The black bear growled lowly, hugged the old tree with both arms, and shook it even harder, trying to shake Yuan Ming loose.
Yuan Ming hung upside down in mid-air, swaying like a withered leaf in the wind, seemingly about to fall but never actually falling.
His foot was just as strong as his hand, and he struggled to climb up, hooking his palm onto the branch and letting go of his foot, climbing up directly.The black bear, unable to shake Yuan Ming off, bared its teeth and snarled at him before turning around and clumsily climbing away into the distance.
Yuan Ming held onto the tree trunk with both hands, looking back at the fading silhouette of the black bear, and let out a long sigh.
He slowly leaned against the tree and sat down, intending to take a break and calm his pounding heart. Suddenly, he felt the tree trunk slightly tremble again.