Chapter Twenty-One: The Art of Soaring Feathers

Upon returning to the tribe, Yi Tian and his companions finally tallied their gains. It was not long before they divided the spoils, each receiving over eighteen hundred pounds of Dragonblood Lizard meat. The pelts and hides of other fierce beasts were stored in Yi Tian’s home, to be sold the next time they ventured into the city.

Yi Feng and Yi Shan showed little interest in the short sword taken from the Slaughter of Men, so Yi Tian handed it to Yi Li, who accepted it without hesitation, admiring it fondly.

From the Slaughter of Men’s belongings, they discovered a manual containing a secret technique: the Featherflight Art. This art was a low-grade human-tier speed technique, utilizing true energy along specialized meridians and acupoints to enhance speed. With it, one could leave no trace upon snow, a great advantage for long-distance travel or escaping danger.

However, now was not the time to study this method. Each took their share and returned home. Yi Tian joined his family for a fragrant and sumptuous dinner. The Dragonblood Lizard meat was exquisitely delicious and brimming with energy. Even his mother and young siblings, with little cultivation, felt full after just a few pieces.

The meat profoundly benefitted their bodies, constantly improving their constitution. That night, Yi Tian carefully studied the Featherflight Art. The technique was a unique method of channeling true energy and did not interfere with his Blazing Fire Resolve.

Yi Tian used his Star Clay avatar to practice the Featherflight Art. The manual stated that mastery would make one as light as a feather, increasing speed severalfold, and even leaping from a cliff would leave one unharmed. Of course, perfect mastery was only theoretical; even its creator had not achieved it. Otherwise, it would not be merely a low-grade human-tier technique.

The Star Clay transformed into Yi Tian’s likeness and began cultivating the art. Soon, the avatar revealed the true energy pathways within his mind. As expected, following the manual’s instructions, Yi Tian noticed many flaws in the technique—subtle differences from the original art. Practicing the manual as written would yield inferior results.

Those of lesser aptitude might not even manage to cultivate it. Thanks to his extraordinary avatar, Yi Tian systematically refined the Featherflight Art, gradually perfecting it.

With his experience in optimizing techniques, Yi Tian took only an hour to eliminate all its flaws. The improved Featherflight Art now ranked as a mid-grade human-tier speed technique.

Speed-enhancing arts are far rarer and more precious than common cultivation methods; this optimized mid-grade human-tier technique rivaled even high-grade counterparts. Though Yi Tian had perfected it, this was not its limit. Continued refinement would raise its rank further.

While flaws could be easily fixed, true optimization required extensive real-world testing. If a mistake occurred during true energy circulation, the avatar would suffer damage. Normally, such injuries would cause energy turbulence and ruptured meridians—a cultivator’s nightmare—but for Yi Tian, this posed no real threat, allowing him to repeatedly improve his arts with confidence.

Even if Yi Tian refined the Featherflight Art to the highest human-tier, Yi Feng, Yi Shan, and Yi Li could not cultivate it as it was tailored to his unique physical condition. They would not reap its full benefits. Thus, Yi Tian stopped optimizing their arts at the high-grade human-tier level.

Yi Tian set aside the mid-grade Featherflight Art, knowing it would take a few more days to reach high-grade. He was in no hurry. He continued using his avatar to optimize the Blazing Fire Resolve. After several months of refinement, during which his avatar suffered countless injuries, the Blazing Fire Resolve had attained the highest human-tier rank. Yet Yi Tian sensed it still had room for improvement, though progress was slow—perhaps only a tiny bit every ten days or so.

He did not stop. A premonition told him that continued refinement would bring great surprises.

Without primordial stones, Yi Tian’s nighttime cultivation slowed. He spent his time projecting his consciousness to his avatar, ceaselessly cultivating and refining his techniques.

Since the joint slaying of the Slaughter of Men, over the next half month, Yi Feng, Yi Shan, and Yi Li all received Yi Tian’s guidance and learned the basics of the Featherflight Art. When fully activated, their speed tripled; even third-tier warriors could not catch them. If they mastered the high-grade human-tier Featherflight Art, even advanced warriors would fall behind, greatly enhancing their survival.

Yi Tian himself cultivated the high-grade Featherflight Art to mastery: light as a swallow, able to leap seventy or eighty feet in a single bound, and immune to fatal falls from hundreds of feet. He spent his days optimizing the technique, aiming to elevate it to the legendary highest human-tier.

Yi Tian practiced diligently within the tribe. Meanwhile, a shocking news spread throughout Black Dragon City and its neighboring powers and clans: the Slaughter of Men had perished at the edge of the Dragon Subduing Mountains.

The news was brought by an adventuring party returning from the mountains. Passing by the scene, they discovered the corpse. The Slaughter of Men’s appearance was well-known throughout Black Dragon City’s vicinity, and several veterans in the party confirmed the identity.

A rumor quickly followed: the murderer was likely a master from the Yi Tribe. The reason was simple—the cause of death was an arrow through the skull. Only the Yi Tribe near Black Dragon City cultivated archery to such a formidable degree. Moreover, the site of death was near the Yi Tribe. These two facts led people to speculate that the Slaughter of Men had almost certainly been killed by a Yi Tribe expert.

The tribe’s leaders heard the rumor. Though they knew they had not slain the Slaughter of Men, they made no effort to clarify. No one imagined that the killer was indeed from the Yi Tribe—not the archery masters, but merely a few young warriors of lesser rank.

The death enraged the Two Demons of Heaven and Earth, who threatened to retaliate against the Yi Tribe. Yet their threats were empty; the Yi Tribe was a major force near Black Dragon City, not something two high-ranking warriors could contend with.

Three years passed, and Yi Tian turned seventeen. Yi Xiaolong had begun attending classes at the ancestral temple three years prior, learning the fundamentals of martial arts. Xiao Ting, however, was unhappy. Being a girl, she could not study at the temple, nor was she allowed to learn the tribe’s secret arts. Since Xiaolong spent most of his time at the temple, Xiao Ting became increasingly despondent.

Within the tribe, girls were expected to marry out when grown, so the secret arts were not taught to them. However, girls like Xiao Ting could cultivate the most widespread and basic technique in this world: the Nourishing Essence Resolve.

The Nourishing Essence Resolve was the lowest rung of the low-grade human-tier arts; even after a hundred years of practice, one would not break through to the first tier. It merely strengthened the body—much like the fitness routines of Yi Tian’s previous life.

Yi Tian comforted Xiao Ting, promising her a powerful technique in the future, even stronger than Xiaolong’s, so she could one day defeat him. This brought a smile through her tears.

Xiao Ting believed him absolutely.

Afterwards, Yi Tian spent two months optimizing the Nourishing Essence Resolve into a high-grade human-tier technique. He passed it to his mother, Su Yue’e, encouraging her to practice regularly for great health benefits and even longevity.