But Lou Yi was cold and ruthless, unmoved in the slightest.

He ghostly closed in, delivering a simple punch.

'Poof!'

Liu Yue was hit in the abdomen by a force of five to six thousand pounds, her beautiful eyes widened, her delicate body bent like a bow, flew powerlessly backward.

"Big Sister!" Lou Yi suddenly shouted.

Shi Caifeng understood, her eyes brightened, and she came behind the out-of-control Liu Yue, swinging her Silver Hooks with effort.

'Swish!'

A beautiful head flew high into the air.

Before death, her face still bore an incredulous expression.

As if she couldn't believe someone could ignore her beauty and kill her just like that.

"Ah!"

"Spare me!"

"I beg you, let me go..."

Members of the Hungry Tiger Team, seeing they couldn't escape, knelt on the ground to beg for mercy, including two Small Cycle Martial Artists.

But Lou Yi, Shi Caifeng, and the others acted cold and ruthless, determined to eliminate all traces today.

If it was them, having lost today, the opponents wouldn't spare them either.

In the end, the dense forest was filled with broken limbs, blood, and various pieces of viscera, extraordinarily gory.

Many tigers and leopards already appeared on the periphery, eyeing the corpses covetously.

But with living people around, they dared not rush forward.

"Yiwen, I'm sorry!" Shi Caifeng couldn't help but cry loudly, holding onto the remains of Wang Yiwen, crying incessantly.

Lou Yi sighed, feeling uncomfortable.

A person he had seen daily for the past few days had died in front of him; he hadn't experienced this much.

The only comfort was that the brutal battle had restored his energy to thirty or forty points after it had just been depleted.

He walked to the last untouched corpse, the largest Red-crowned Bird Spirit.

Habitually reaching out to touch the body, a familiar line of semi-transparent small text appeared: 'Energy +5, absorb?'

'Yes.'

'It actually has five energy points?' This thought just flashed through Lou Yi's mind.

Another line of semi-transparent text appeared: ''Spend ten energy points to acquire the talent: Swift. Consume?''

A new talent, finally here!

Lou Yi had waited too long, almost doubting if the first talent was just luck.

He took a deep breath and decisively chose yes.

The next moment, the attribute panel changed:

[Name: Lou Yi]

[Age: 19/62]

[Realm: One Blood Warrior (36/600)]

[Cultivation Techniques: Yellow Extreme Breathing Technique (First Level, Mastery 0/100+seven Heart-Eroding Grass+one Bone-piercing Orchid), Hu Family Breathing Technique (Entry 0/10)]

[Skills: Lou's Axe Skill (Mastery 0/100), Extreme Fist (Proficient 0/30), Stone Throwing (Mastery 0/30), Light Body Technique (Mastery 0/60), Basic Spear Technique (Entry 0/6), Secret Skill: Dragon Piercing Technique - Fragment (One), Qi Locking Technique (Entry 0/3)]

[Innate Abilities: Petrification (Mastery 0/200+10 Stone Spirit+3 Phoenix Blood Stone+1 White Dew Stone), Swift (Entry 0/5)]

[Energy: 29]

Lou Yi stared at Swift for two breaths, and then a segment of introduction automatically appeared on it.

Swift (Passive): The response speed and coordination ability of limbs slowly increase over time.

Swift (Active): Can temporarily optimize the leg muscles to enhance jumping power and walking speed.

'How is it optimized, and how does the enhancement work?'

Lou Yi's heart itched, but now was not a good time to test it.

He refocused his attention on reality.

People in the team had already finished searching the bodies; the spoils of war were as follows:

One pink Spiritual Pearl, over two thousand silver taels, two Red-crowned Bird Spirit corpses;

Two types of Profound Iron Weapons, Sha Hu's tiger claws, and a long sword; a special weapon, Liu Yue's whip; and two cultivation techniques.

The cultivation techniques were one fist technique and one swordsmanship, martial artist level, not top-grade.

"These all belong to Little Tree, do any of you have objections?" Shi Caifeng made a sweeping gesture, directly deciding the ownership of these spoils.

Everyone shook their heads, convinced in both heart and mind.

If Lou Yi hadn't taken action this time, they would have certainly been annihilated.

They were too busy thanking Lou Yi for saving their lives to even think about wanting the spoils?

"No need to give it all to me." Lou Yi thought for a moment and accepted the Spiritual Pearl, silver notes, and cultivation techniques.

He didn't need the weapons, so he handed them back to Shi Caifeng.

As for the cultivation techniques, he already knew a fist technique, didn't need swordsmanship either, and these two techniques they found weren't anything exquisite.

As for the crests of the Red-crowned Birds, they were very useful for breaking through the Great Circulation.

But using them on Lou Yi himself was a waste, since he had no bottlenecks in breaking through stages as long as he had enough energy.

It would be better to give them to the two Small Cycle martial artists in the team.

The team's strength enhancement would make discovering monsters easier, beneficial to himself too.

"Alright, then we'll sell the beast's corpse to the Beast Hunting Bureau, and the contribution and silver coins will be credited to you," Shi Caifeng insisted.

"Alright." This time Lou Yi did not refuse.

Everything settled down.

Everyone cut down branches and made a simple wooden frame, piled a lot of fresh leaves on it, placed Wang Yiwen's body on top, and then returned to the camp.

Lou Yi did not go straight back to the tent but found a secluded spot to study the newly acquired talent.

He spent five points of energy to upgrade the new talent: Swift (Not Initiated 0/5) → Swift (Initiated 0/20+1 Earth Dragon Essence Tendon)

Brand new memories appeared in his mind.

He transformed into a Red-crowned Bird chick.

At birth, he was already larger than his other siblings.

He was ruthless in snatching food, aggressively pushing other birds aside. Only after he was full did his siblings get to eat.

As time passed, he gradually grew bigger, standing out among the Red-crowned Bird flock, his size twice that of an average bird.

Thus, whether it was fighting for wild fruits, mating, or evading predators, he was always ahead.

He eventually became the leader of the Red-crowned Bird flock, enjoying the majority of resources, continuously growing in size.

Quantity finally resulted in a qualitative change.

His bird crown became increasingly crystalline.

His body size exceeded the limits of his kind.

And his legs grew more robust, even sprouting spiral-like strange muscles at the knees...

In reality, an icy cold chilling current appeared inside Lou Yi's body.

It swiftly transformed his back, waist, and legs, making the muscles almost one unit, easier and more explosive when exerting force.

At the same time, his knees were a focal point of transformation.

The knee bones seemed to shatter and reform, making 'crackling' sounds.

These changes completed within a few breaths.

Lou Yi opened his eyes and softly said, "Swift."

In the next moment.

His legs visibly thickened, his waist and back muscles tightened as if a cord was wound up inside.

At his knees, spiral-like new muscles formed, seven or eight rings, like springs.

'Thump!'

Lou Yi suddenly kicked the ground, the springs compressed and released instantly.

The tremendous potential energy launched his entire body skyward, jumping four or five zhang high!

Still, he didn't use his full strength.

Of course, in combat, there's no need to jump so high, as it could make him an easy target.

More importantly, by calibrating the power of the spring legs, his movement speed could be significantly enhanced.

Lou Yi continuously experimented with different strengths, testing and adjusting.

He found his agility and speed improved at least by thirty to forty percent compared to before.

With practice, it could be further optimized.

As the saying goes, all martial arts aim for invincibility, and speed is the key to breaking all defenses.

If he were to face the Great Circulation Martial Artist Sha Hu now.

Lou Yi could toy with the opponent with absolute speed and kill him within ten moves!

With his current strength, defeating an ordinary Great Circulation Martial Artist shouldn't be a problem.

As for peak martial artists, the Full Cycle ones.

Lou Yi recalled the situation on the day of the challenge at the Heavy Sword Sect and thought he should be able to protect himself.

He looked at the Attribute Panel, at the talent section: Swift (Initiated 0/20+1 Earth Dragon Essence Tendon)

The energy for the next upgrade stage was indeed sufficient.

But this Earth Dragon Essence Tendon was likely a rare item requiring some effort to find.

Amidst myriad changes, energy was the core of everything.

As long as there was enough energy, he could enhance Axe Skill, talents, increase strength, or improve Breathing Technique proficiency to speed up realm breakthroughs.

...

When Lou Yi returned to the tent, he found that Shi Caifeng was already gone.

"My sister is going to take Yiwen's body back for a proper burial," Shi Qingde said, "Before she returns, the team relies on you and Brother Jiang."

In the following period, the Cai Feng Squad operated normally.

Lou Yi and Jiang Chenyu led the team, with Gu Yu and Wang Long as scouts, continuing to hunt magical creatures.

In twenty days, Lou Yi accumulated over one hundred energy, an unprecedented surplus.

Shi Caifeng still had not returned, and Jiang Chenyu had to go back due to family matters, while the old Beast Tamer Wu had a recurrence of an old injury.

With so many issues concentrated, the team simply decided to rest for a while before regrouping.

Lou Yi thought it was time to return to the Martial Arts Hall.

Having studied the Breathing Technique, it was close to six months now.

At this time, announcing a breakthrough would not be noticeable, not attracting the attention of the Heavy Sword Sect or its executives.

It was time to master the second stage of the Breathing Technique.

...

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