Martial Peak

Chapter 2806, Understand One Thing and You Will Understand Everything

Translator: Silavin & Tia

Translation Checker: PewPewLazerGun

Editor and Proofreader: Leo of Zion Mountain & Dhael Ligerkeys

"Village Chief! How are you doing?" Inside a dilapidated log house, Yang Kai met with the only Shaman in the village. The Village Chief woke up rather early even though he was getting on in his years and at this moment, he was holding a bowl containing a sticky porridge and eating it with relish.

Upon hearing Yang Kai's voice, he glanced over, but only put down his bowl when he finished eating and said, "Oh, it's Ah Niu. What's the matter?"

"I wanted to ask you for some Barbarian Sacred Wine!" Yang Kai got straight to the point.

"The Barbarian Sacred Wine…" The Village Chief was stunned for a moment before he got up with the help of his cane and asked, "Why do you want the Barbarian Sacred Wine?"

"It was tasty, so I wanted to drink it again!" Yang Kai replied.

The corners of the Village Chief's mouth twitched; however, he soon seemed to notice something and carefully looked Yang Kai up and down. An astonished light shone from his turbid eyes as he asked in a shaky voice, "Did you… Did you unlock the Shaman Strength?"

"What?" Yang Kai was taken aback. The Village Chief had changed the topic so quickly that he couldn't keep up with what he was thinking.

"Give me your hand!" The Village Chief excitedly stretched out his hand and grabbed Yang Kai's.

Despite being dubious about it, Yang Kai did not refuse, allowing the large and aged hand to grab his wrist. In the next moment, he felt a weak force invading his meridians and continuing upward along his wrist.

Following that, the Village Chief began trembling even more strongly. His aged face turned red as if he had gotten several decades younger in an instant and he exclaimed with pleasant surprise, "It's really the Shaman Strength! The Blue South Village will finally have a successor!"

"Are you talking about this?" Yang Kai's brow twitched as he activated the meagre amount of Emperor Qi in his body and produced a small burst of light at the tips of his fingers.

The Village Chief stared at Yang Kai fiercely and nodded repeatedly, "This is the Shaman Strength!" While speaking, he walked out of the log house and fell to his knees. He had a pious look on his face as he clasped his hands together in prayer, "Thank you for your gift, O' Barbarian Gods! Thank you for your protection!"

Yang Kai frowned slightly. He stepped forward and helped the Village Chief up, lest the Village Chief keel over suddenly because he was overly excited. Subsequently, the Village Chief took a deep breath and patted Yang Kai on the shoulder, "Ah Niu, from now on, you are a Shaman too! I'm very happy!"

Yang Kai said, "Yeah… But, I am very confused!"

The Village Chief chuckled, "Don't be confused. The Barbarian Gods will guide you in the right direction. You came looking for me because you felt this power, right? That's why you wanted more Barbarian Sacred Wine.

"En!" Yang Kai nodded. He stuck his head into the house and looked around. Despite being the Village Chief, this log house barely had anything in it. Everything inside was clear at a glance, so Yang Kai couldn't find any traces of the Barbarian Sacred Wine anywhere.

"I don't have any more of the Barbarian Sacred Wine. That bowl yesterday was all that remained in this village." The old Village Chief seemed to have seen through Yang Kai's intentions and explained, "The Barbarian Sacred Wine was originally brewed to unlock Shaman Strength in our Ancient Barbarian Race. It requires many ingredients and the brewing method is extremely complicated. That bowl was all that remained after the ceremony two years ago."

"Ceremony?" Yang Kai furrowed his brow.

The Village Chief continued, "Did you forget? Two years ago, you, Ah Hu, and all the other young people in the village participated in the ceremony. It was a ceremony to check if any of you had the aptitude to become a Shaman! It's a pity none of you passed at the time."

Yang Kai had a vague understanding of what the Village Chief was talking about.

"I can't believe you suddenly acquired the Shaman Strength though!" The Village Chief was so relieved that he looked like he wouldn't have any regrets even if he died at this moment.

"Is there really no more Barbarian Sacred Wine?" Yang Kai asked again, refusing to give up. He wanted to verify if he could use the Barbarian Sacred Wine to restore part of his strength, but it seemed he was faltering at this first step.

Yang Kai had experimented a little before this, and using his Secret Art here did not increase his power in any way. It seemed as though the World Energy in this era was vastly different from the World Energy in the era he came from, making it incompatible with the arts he had learned.

The Village Chief shook his head in response, "No, there's no more. Besides, the Barbarian Sacred Wine will have no more effect on you since you have already unlocked your Shaman Strength."

[I will only know if it has any effect on me once I try it out!] Yang Kai retorted in his heart.

All of a sudden, the Village Chief smiled brightly and looked at Yang Kai before asking in a bewitching tone, "Ah Niu, do you want to obtain greater power? Do you want to become a stronger Shaman?"

Yang Kai immediately nodded his head so vigorously that he looked like a chicken pecking greedily at rice.

The Village Chief chuckled at the sight. [This young man is promising; he is worth teaching.] Waving Yang Kai inside, he said, "Come in!"

The two of them then entered the house, one after the other, and immediately following that, the Village Chief scoured through his cabinets and dug out something that looked like a tortoiseshell from some random corner of the room. He handed the shell to Yang Kai and said, "Follow the teachings written on it to cultivate. In time, you will become a Shaman Warrior, a Shaman Master, and even a Shaman Grandmaster! I'm getting old, but you're still young! I will leave the village to you in the future!"

Yang Kai took the tortoiseshell from the Village Chief with a solemn expression. It felt like he was being entrusted with a mission at a critical and difficult moment where the fate of the entire world rested on his shoulders. Moreover, his stature abruptly became much greater than before.

Then, Yang Kai scratched his head and asked, "Village Chief, what is this?"

The Village Chief looked at him in bewilderment and explained, "This is a Shaman's cultivation method."

"What?!" Yang Kai was shocked. He looked at the Tortoise Shell in his hand and exclaimed in surprise, "This is the Ancient Barbarian Shaman's cultivation method?!"

"What are you going on about being Ancient or whatnot?" The Village Chief shook his head, "As long as you cultivate according to the teachings written on that, you will soon become much stronger."

"But… I can't read this…" Yang Kai glanced at the Village Chief helplessly.

Small, dense words were scrawled across the Tortoise Shell. Unfortunately, the characters written on it were completely different from the characters that Yang Kai was familiar with, so he could not read a single word.

The Village Chief's mouth fell open in surprise. A long while later, he sighed and said, "It looks like we should start by teaching you how to read."

Yang Kai stayed in the Village Chief's house for the entire day. It wasn't until evening rolled around that he stepped out of the house.

The Village Chief taught Yang Kai about the Ancient Barbarian Shaman's cultivation methods recorded on the Tortoise Shell in one day. Then, he taught Yang Kai many ancient characters. Initially, Yang Kai had not been willing to learn how to read as it was enough as long as the Village Chief explained the Secret Art recorded on the Tortoise Shell to him.

However, one sentence from the Village Chief was enough to change his mind, "When you become stronger one day, you will have more choices to make when it comes to cultivation methods. How are you going to cultivate those methods if you can't read?"

Yang Kai felt that those words were reasonable, and in any case, there was no loss to learning something extra. Thus, he calmed down and focused on studying.

Yang Kai's comprehension ability was so high that the Village Chief was practically beside himself, beaming with joy. The Village Chief himself had taken three years to completely understand the cultivation methods recorded on the tortoiseshell while Yang Kai had already gotten a rudimentary understanding of it in just a single day. Although it was partly thanks to the chief's guidance, there was no doubt that this child named Ah Niu had an unprecedented ability to comprehend the teachings.

That was only to be expected though as Yang Kai was an Emperor Realm Master. He had been exposed to various Secret Arts and Secret Techniques throughout his life, so he could almost understand everything about this technique after reading it just once. Besides, the Ancient Barbarian Shaman's cultivation methods were not that advanced or difficult. Yang Kai easily learned everything and in fact, he would not have needed the Village Chief's guidance if not for the fact that he couldn't read the ancient characters.

Yang Kai's stomach rumbled the moment he returned to his log house. He was utterly famished. This feeling of hunger was very nostalgic and he had no choice but to cut some beast meat, boil it in a pot, and wolf it down.

After filling his stomach, he began to cultivate using the Ancient Barbarian Shaman's cultivation method and was overjoyed when the Secret Arts began to activate. World Energy that he couldn't absorb no matter how hard he tried last night now began to flood into his body. With the help of the Ancient Barbarian Shaman's cultivation method, he turned this World Energy into his own power, bit by bit.

At the same time, he clearly felt an energy source forming in his abdomen. Inexplicable energy gradually spread out from his lower belly and began filling his meridians. This energy source was formed from something he was not used to as it seemed all energy became the same under the transformation of the Ancient Barbarian Shaman's cultivation method.

[It's the essence of the Monster Beast's flesh and blood!] Yang Kai instantly understood the truth of the matter. What he had eaten before was the flesh of a Monster Beast, and at this moment, the essence from that Monster Beast's flesh was being turned into his own power under the guidance of the Ancient Barbarian Shaman's cultivation method.

This way of refining a Monster Beast's flesh and blood was much more convenient and rapid than slowly cultivating with ambient World Energy. In just a quarter of an hour, a gurgling sound came from his abdomen again as he completely digested the meat.

[I can't believe I'm hungry again.] Yang Kai frowned. The sudden drop in the cultivation efficiency made him quite unhappy. Thus, he quickly got up and cooked another pot of beast meat, swiftly filled his belly, and continued cultivating.

…….

At midnight, Yang Kai finished off an entire Monster Beast, leaving only the skeleton behind. It was such a terrifying way of eating that if the rest of the villagers learned about it, they would surely be shocked. The meat of a Monster Beast was not something that could be consumed so easily as one's mind would surely be affected by the hidden Monster Qi without a strong force suppressing it. Fortunately, Yang Kai now had the Ancient Barbarian Shaman's cultivation method so forget about a trivial and weak Monster Beast, Yang Kai would have no trouble consuming a Twelfth-Order Monster Beast.

After cultivating for some time, he deeply experienced the simplicity and crudeness of the Ancient Barbarian Shaman's cultivation method. It was just like a Monster Beast's method. Monster Beasts had no Secret Arts as there was a far easier way to become stronger, eating. They ate to become stronger, thus the more they ate, the stronger they became.

To some extent, the Ancient Barbarian Shaman cultivation methods harmonized with the way of survival of the Monster Beasts. It later underwent countless generations of improvement and evolution to create modern Secret Arts.

Having finished eating the meat of the Monster Beast, Yang Kai had another flash of inspiration. He took out a round Monster Core from the head of his bed. [If the flesh and blood of the Monster Beast can be eaten, then the Monster Core should be okay too, right?]

His current body was enough to safely digest a trivial and weak Monster Beast Core; however, anybody else would have had to weigh their options carefully if they were to do the same thing. Otherwise, the Village Chief wouldn't have told him to consume the Monster Core by soaking it in wine. Even so, Yang Kai simply opened his mouth and swallowed the Monster Core directly.

As his Secret Arts began to activate, Yang Kai soon felt a burst of energy in his lower abdomen. It was a hundred times fiercer than before as the Monster Core of a Monster Beast was the very essence of its strength. It was the most valuable part of a Monster Beast's body, and even a Shaman Apprentice like the Village Chief would most likely explode and die if he were to consume it directly.

As for Yang Kai, all he felt was a little heat coming from his abdomen at most. Then… there was nothing else after that.