Deep inside the mine, deathly silence reigned.
Damp, putrid air mixed with unsettling pulses of spiritual energy, like venomous snakes lurking in a night wind—cold and vicious.
As Lin Ye stepped into the unknown, the “Reverse‑Scale System” interface floated before his mind’s eye and his aura‑sensing range widened. Caution guided his feet, yet the strange tremor in his heart grew ever stronger.
At last he saw it—
The colossal corpse of a spirit‑tiger lay at the end of a fissure. Most of its flesh had long decayed, but its spine gleamed like jade, translucent and still brimming with vast power, faint light flickering in the dark.
“Devourable spirit‑bone detected. Devour now?”
The system prompt was cold—but exhilarating.
Lin Ye did not hesitate. “Devour.”
In the next instant the jade‑like vertebra seemed to come alive, turning into a streak of light that plunged into his body.
Boom!
Like a volcano, searing energy swept through him. Staggering, he dropped to one knee, eyes wide as though ten thousand blades were carving his bones.
Meridians burned; bones cracked and shifted—as if breaking a cocoon to be reborn.
Nails lengthened, teeth sharpened slightly, sinew and bone swelled; every muscle twitched and mutated—the harbinger of a new strength.
Agony came first; a heady sense of power followed—as though he could tear stone bare‑handed and crush mountains underfoot!
But it was still not enough.
His gaze slid past the tiger’s hollow eye socket to a segment of spine not yet shattered.
It was the densest node of the entire column, glowing milky white, throbbing like a heart.
“I… need more power.”
Muttering, half‑deranged, he lunged forward and swallowed the bone whole.
Gulp—
A moment later, ferocious spiritual energy detonated in his gut, nearly throwing him off his feet.
He roared at the ceiling; fine blood‑red markings crawled over his skin along every vein and muscle, branding him like living flame.
The ground quaked, ore cracked, and the ambient aura flooded into him like a deluge.
His eyes were fully crimson now—a fiend born of legend.
Just as the torrent of power drove him to the brink of collapse—
A strand of something ancient, primordial, awakened within.
It was not system energy, nor the bone’s remnant force, but a wild and oppressive instinct sleeping deep in his blood.
Lin Ye’s body jolted; his gaze sharpened like a blade.
“This… isn’t from the system.”
He felt a curious resonance between that ancient power and the tiger’s spirit‑bone—not merely absorption, but a kind of response.
An absurd thought flashed through his mind:
“My blood… might be linked to the beast clans?”
He remembered no parents, sold as a child into slavery. He had always believed himself the lowest of humans. But now the roaring power seemed to shout—
You are not ordinary.
Energy surged; crimson lines shimmered; his aura was several times stronger than before.
Yet he did not bask in it. He snapped his head up, brows knit tight.
From behind the far wall of the hollow came subtle tremors and a growing roar—
As if… another beast was waking.
The spirit‑tiger’s presence had not fully dispersed?
Or perhaps it… was not truly dead.
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