For the next three days,
the atmosphere in the Red Fire Mine was particularly strange.
The supervisors didn't beat or curse anyone, and they completely ignored the mining quotas. The fifty "lucky" mining slaves, in particular, were treated to good food and drink every day.
Even if you overslept in the morning or failed to meet your mining quota, no one would come at you with a whip.
The daily workload was truly reduced from dawn until dusk to just a few hours in the morning.
For the rest of the time, they were even allowed to move about freely, as long as they stayed away from the residential area for Four Seas Gang members and the heavily guarded high walls.
Under this increasingly lax management,
some of the fifty men gradually grew bolder. They did nothing but eat and sleep, no longer going down into the mines, content to be fattened up without a thought for what might lie behind it all.
Wu Dao watched all of this with a cold, detached gaze.
The better the Four Seas Gang treated the mining slaves, the more convinced he became that some dark scheme was afoot.
Especially during mealtimes.
Meng Qingshuang's greedy eyes, which sized them up like a pen of pigs, filled him with dread.
He knew that the day the pigs were fat enough would be the day the slaughter blade fell.
Because of this,
Wu Dao dared not relax for a single moment. He went down into the mines every day, training desperately within the underground caverns.
Every night, he would hide in the darkness and practice diligently. His physique grew stronger by the day, and his progress with the Essence Devouring Art crept closer and closer to 45%.
40%...
41%...
42%...
The eighth day!
Wu Dao's Potential Release progress reached 43%. He was only 2% away from shattering the limit of the human body for the first time, entering the Beast King Domain physique, and possessing the non-human power of an apex predator!
At this moment,
his physique was no longer lean and restrained as before, but had become domineering and powerful.
His muscles were like blocks of dark marble, and the circumference of his arms alone exceeded fifty centimeters!
Combined with his wild, messy hair, he looked like a lion roaming the savanna. The moment the power in his body erupted, it could send ten thousand beasts into a panic!
Logically, with such a drastic change to his body, even the most unobservant members of the Four Seas Gang should have noticed.
However, the truth was,
he wasn't the only one gradually turning wild and beast-like!
Ever since eating that bowl of medicinal food on the first day, the other forty-nine chosen mining slaves had begun to expand rapidly, as if they'd been fed a bulking agent.
In just eight short days,
Wu Dao looked around and saw nothing but beasts—broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, with terrifying strength, as fat as pigs!
Even more terrifying,
some of them seemed to have lost the ability to speak, unable to form complete sentences.
Their eyes, buried in rolls of fat, were dull and lifeless, yet completely bloodshot. They were like barrels of dynamite ready to explode at any moment—irritable and quick to anger.
All these bizarre changes
reminded Wu Dao of the "anomaly" he had eaten on the first day!
Both the changes in the mining slaves' bodies and their violent tempers were likely caused by that anomaly.
'Ten days!'
'Two days left!'
In the crimson, bloody light of the cavern,
Wu Dao's gaze was dark and profound.
He could clearly feel cracks appearing in the first shackle on his human potential. It would soon be completely shattered!
When that time comes,
if he wanted to leave, no one in the Red Fire Mine could stop him, aside from Meng Qingshuang!
Once he escaped the Red Fire Mine,
the sky would be the limit, and the world his oyster.
With the experience from his previous life,
he could quickly cultivate the Essence Devouring Art to a level sufficient to protect himself in this world!
He would make the Four Seas Gang pay, bit by bit, for the three months of suffering he had endured!
Time flew by like a fleeting shadow; the sun rose and the moon set.
The tenth day!
In the dead of night!
High in the sky, dark clouds pressed down. Dragons of thunder galloped and shattered into branching forks!
Across the vast desert, sand and wind rolled and swirled, their whimpering howls like the wails of ghosts!
A storm was about to break!!
'Check attribute panel.'
In a dark corner of the shack, Wu Dao ignored the three human-shaped fat pigs sleeping soundly in the room, their snores like claps of thunder, and opened his attribute panel.
[Physique: Expert (Limit)]
[Extraordinary: Essence Devouring Art 44%+]
[Teleportation Points: 0.15]
'The last 1%!'
Wu Dao narrowed his eyes. Suppressing his fiercely pounding heart, he adjusted his breathing, took his stance, and began the final sprint.
HUFF—
INHALE—
Amidst the howling wind and crashing thunder, in a dark corner of the small shack, a colossal beast of primordial chaos seemed to be breathing in and out the heavens and the earth, its presence soul-devouring.
Ten minutes later,
the frequency of the vibrations inside and outside Wu Dao's body accelerated. His stamina completely depleted, he entered the limit state!
Fire!
A great fire!
Like crossing the Flame Mountain in the height of summer!
A scorching heat far greater than any before rose from within him. His flesh felt like a piece of iron thrown into magma, rapidly growing hot and turning red!
Muscles, meridians, organs, bones...
Every part of him sent out an intense sensation of being burned and torn apart. The pain was far beyond that of childbirth; it felt as if his entire body was about to explode.
And yet, it was useless!
It couldn't affect Wu Dao in the slightest!
From the moment the Essence Devouring Art unlocked his brain's protective mechanisms, a Heaven Stealer ignored all fear, pain, and pressure, whether physical or psychological!
In this state, you could slash a Heaven Stealer's throat, and they wouldn't even blink.
Unity of Heaven and Man, Subduing the Heart!
Unwavering amidst endless change, the spirit is calm and the qi is still!
This was the most terrifying aspect of the Essence Devouring Art—it treated a person as nothing more than inanimate material to be tempered.
Flesh and spirit are both iron!
A thousand blows forge true steel!
Huff, inhale...
Time slowly trickled by.
An hour later,
Wu Dao's entire body was like a red-hot furnace. His organs felt like they were about to be cooked, his bodily fluids were evaporating, and white steam rose from him. His bulging muscles resembled red-hot coals in a stove.
At this moment,
his body temperature had long surpassed the medically defined fatal limit, yet his eyes remained clear and he stood tall, unwavering.
A single spark of awareness remained in his mind!
Amidst immeasurable suffering, I shall endure!
Another ten minutes or so passed.
Finally,
when the furnace's temperature reached a critical point, when the "craftsman's" hammer no longer fell,
CRACK—
the sound of a shackle shattering echoed from the depths of his soul.
Life Transition, a metamorphosis from the mundane!
The sound wasn't loud, but it resounded through his very soul.
A feeling of great freedom, great joy, and great liberation arose spontaneously.
His entire being seemed to float up to the clouds, where immortals sang his praises from all directions, gods blew their conches, and heaven and earth celebrated in unison.
But Wu Dao, with his complete memories, did not indulge in this euphoria. He knew that this was the most dangerous moment.
Because,
strictly speaking,
after a training that completely surpassed the limits of life,
although the Heaven Stealer had broken the shackle, every part of his body except for his consciousness was already in a state of "death," all life force having been burned away in the blazing fire.
If he were to indulge in that feeling of liberation, relax his consciousness, and stop circulating the Essence Devouring Art, there would be only one consequence—
his consciousness would dissipate, and his brain would die!
Only by calming his spirit and focusing his mind,
waiting for the Healing Fluid to reconstruct his shredded flesh, could he be considered to have truly broken the shackle and ascended through the transition.
Wu Dao did not have to wait long.
A few breaths later,
a spring-like torrent of Healing Fluid was born, surging through his lifeless body.
Like sweet dew falling from heaven, all things were rejuvenated!
Beneath layers of ash and filth, the small blade of grass that had died in the fire of life began to transform. It sprouted, grew branches and leaves, and rapidly became a sky-supporting giant tree!
The human body's transition had begun!
From the inside out, his cells reorganized, organs were reshaped, and his meridians, bones, muscles, and even his skin and hair were all crying out—
"Transition! Transition! Transition!"
Immunity, hematopoiesis, blood circulation, detoxification, nerve response, respiration, digestion, resilience, density...
An all-encompassing evolutionary transition!
There were plenty of changes visible to the naked eye as well.
The old skin all over Wu Dao's body peeled off bit by bit like a cocoon's shell. His new, bronze-colored skin was tougher than layers of the finest cowhide—thick, resilient, and durable, fearing neither sharp blades nor blunt weapons.
His bones also grew stronger, and his height increased again, finally settling at around two meters and thirty or forty centimeters tall.
He was not a lanky beanpole.
Nor was he bloated and swollen.
On the contrary,
the granite-like muscles that had been transformed all over his body were large but not ugly. They were symmetrically arranged, like rows of cannonballs—utterly perfect and pleasing to the eye. His overall form was like a statue of a War God standing in the darkness, enough to put any bodybuilding champion to shame.
RATTLE~
Finally, as the Healing Fluid surged forth, Wu Dao's mouth full of filthy, yellowed teeth, as well as his fingernails and toenails, all fell out and were replaced.
His thirty-two new teeth were no longer flat like door panels, but were sharp, serrated, and triangular, like a shark's!
They interlocked perfectly when he closed his mouth, glinting with a cold light. A single bite could definitely tear a hole in someone, flesh and bone alike.
His fingernails and toenails were the same.
No longer pinkish-white, they were now a dark, rock-like color, forming hooked talons at the ends of his thick fingers and toes. No different from the claws of a fierce beast, they were far better suited for combat.
If Wu Dao were to bare his teeth and claws now, he would undoubtedly remind people of a terrifying, apex predator, not a mere human!
And that is precisely why
the 45% to 64% stage of Potential Release is called the Beast King Domain.
A body stronger than a tiger or bear, teeth and claws sharper than a shark's, speed faster than a cheetah's, reflexes quicker than a wildcat's, and skin difficult to pierce with sharp weapons...
Dominating the food chain, what beast could possibly stand in his way?
The title of Beast King was well-deserved!
"This long-lost power..."
With the transformation complete,
Wu Dao took a deep breath, feeling the vast, latent life force within him, his face filled with exhilaration and joy.
For three whole months!
He had been like a bedbug in a tin can—repressed, suffocated, his fate not his own, bound by layer after layer of constraints, forced to scuttle about in this filthy, turbid world.
Now,
he had finally broken his shackles, emerging reborn from the cocoon. The clouds had parted to reveal a clear sky. The familiar feeling of power made him want to throw his head back and roar, to run wild with abandon.
"However, there is still one last shackle."
Letting out a long breath, Wu Dao's expression returned to one of indifference. His gaze, filled with a feral, bestial wildness, turned toward the two high walls outside the shack district that separated them from the outside world.
BOOM!
CRASH!
Thunder shook the world, and thick clouds roiled!
A brilliant flash of lightning briefly illuminated the vast sea of sand as the long-brewing rain began to pour down.
The world dissolved into a cacophony of noise.
The sound of thunder, wind, rain, and creaking wooden planks...
"Hungry... So hungry!"
A furious, hungry roar!!
BOOM!
Another world-shaking bolt of lightning lit up the darkness.
In the brief flash of light,
within the rows of shacks, forty-nine bloated figures, like hungry beasts, staggered to their feet in the darkness.
Their blood-red eyes had transformed into uniform vertical slits. They stared at the sleeping mining slaves around them, like giant pythons emerging from hibernation to hunt!
WHOOSH!!
Another fierce gust of wind rose.
Mixed into its whistle seemed to be the wails of ten thousand ghosts.
Swarms of strange, locust-like black shadows poured out from the Earth Abyss of Mine No. 1, and under some unknown guidance, they surged toward the shack district.
CREAK...
At the base of the high wall surrounding the shack district, the only gate slammed shut, the seven-to-eight-meter-high wall separating two worlds.
The rain poured down, and lightning flashed amid the thunder.
The members of the Four Seas Gang—guards, supervisors, and managers, along with Meng Qingshuang—stood in the rain under a cluster of black umbrellas, fully armed, waiting quietly.
"The timing is perfect."
Meng Qingshuang's snake-like pupils gazed through the rainy night at the locust-like swarms of humanoid black shadows in the sky, a satisfied smile touching her lips:
"The medicinal food fattens the flesh, the Demon Seeds become parasites, and then the Yang Condensing Grass is used to lure the anomalies into the body. The resulting mutated monsters can not only devour the essence of flesh and blood, but can also absorb souls.
Once they're mature, I'll swallow them in a single gulp!
Tsk, a tonic for the spirit, a tonic for the flesh... what a fine Great Medicine!"
CRACK!!
Another violet serpent of lightning tore across the sky, illuminating Meng Qingshuang's pathologically bloodthirsty smile.