Chapter Seventy-Six: The Three Celestial Arts

Yi Tian had no idea that the true master behind Canglang, the controller of the Dark Demon Sect, was the Barbaric-Head Demon, who had been trapped underground by the Demon-Transforming Dragon Vine for tens of thousands of years, and was now burning its own bloodline essence in a desperate bid to break free in the near future.

He could not have imagined that the fully grown Barbaric-Head Demon was lying in wait beneath a corner of Black Dragon City. When the demon emerged, the entire city would be plunged into a terrible calamity.

After Little Black devoured Canglang, controller of the Dark Demon Sect, the immediate crisis was finally resolved. All the tribe members halted their retreat into the underground space and returned home.

Meanwhile, the chieftain, the various elders, and the warriors of the tribe were all deeply shaken. For the first time, they had witnessed Little Black's overwhelming power: two heads, and with a single bite, it swallowed the legendary human-demon. From then on, everyone in the tribe regarded Little Black with awe and respect.

Only his mother, Xiao Ting, and a few others treated Little Black as they always had, without reverence or fear.

This time, the disaster that the human-demon might have unleashed was quashed before it could even take root. None in Black Dragon City sensed the lurking catastrophe; unwittingly, they had all been spared.

As the various factions and the surviving martial artists made their way back to Black Dragon City, news spread of the appearance of a peerless treasure—the Dragon Pearl—sending shockwaves throughout the region.

But that was not the only astonishing news. It was also revealed that the controller of the Dark Demon Sect was actually a human-demon who had betrayed his kind and joined the Demon Clan.

Upon his return to the Black Dragon Society’s stronghold, the leader quickly relayed these developments—including the whereabouts of the Dragon Pearl—back to the imperial capital through reliable channels.

Black Dragon City was a den of hidden powers, with spies from every major faction lurking in its shadows. The news of the Dragon Pearl’s emergence and the appearance of the human-demon spread like wildfire, reaching Jingmu Prefecture, the imperial capital, and the other prefectures, shaking the entire Heavenly Wind Empire.

In the days that followed, the first to arrive were forces from Jingmu Prefecture, each one arrogant, looking down on Black Dragon City as a backwater and its warriors as insignificant.

Soon after, powerhouses from the imperial capital and other prefectures also converged on the city.

For a time, clouds gathered and winds roared in Black Dragon City.

All the great powers of the Heavenly Wind Empire launched a massive search across the city and its surroundings.

They did not know that the human-demon had already been devoured by Little Black. In their minds, the Dragon Pearl had most likely fallen into the hands of the Dark Demon Sect’s controller. Even though there were rumors that a little snake had swallowed the Dragon Pearl, almost no one believed such nonsense.

What a joke—a common little snake swallowing the Dragon Pearl! That was simply absurd.

After all, even a mighty beast could not swallow the Dragon Pearl whole. The terrifying energy within it would cause any ordinary creature to explode and perish, leaving not even a corpse behind.

While the outside world was in turmoil, the Yi Tribe remained calm and unperturbed.

During these days, every member of the Reincarnation Squad focused intently on breaking through to the ninth tier.

Finally, the first to succeed was Yi Li.

Next, Yi Hong, Yi Shan, Yi Kuang, and Yi Feng each achieved their breakthroughs one after another, rapidly increasing their strength.

Yi Tian was the last to break through, taking a full half a month.

The entire Reincarnation Squad reached the ninth tier, astonishing the whole tribe. The speed at which Yi Tian and his companions cultivated was simply unheard of—within a few short years, they had all reached the ninth tier.

Even the Great Chief, Yi Ke, would need at least several more months to achieve such a breakthrough, given his age of over forty. For the tribe’s other high-ranking warriors, reaching the ninth tier would require one to two years of effort, or even four or five years of steady cultivation.

During this period, the Astral Clay Avatar finally finished devouring the Dragon Pearl, completing its transformation: from crimson to scarlet, then to black-red, and finally, to jet black.

Upon this new form, countless stars gleamed like black holes.

When Yi Tian once again used the Astral Clay Avatar to derive the Great Sun Divine Art, he found the process far smoother; the bottleneck vanished, and he could deduce even deeper mysteries.

At this point, Yi Tian began a profound optimization and deduction of three techniques: the Wild Ox Mountain-Shattering Art, the Gale Dominating Tiger Art, and the Storm and Thunder Technique.

After its transformation to black, the Astral Clay’s ability to deduce and optimize techniques had grown astonishingly powerful. Techniques that had originally been of lower Earth rank steadily improved under Yi Tian’s continuous refinement.

Earth middle-grade, then upper-grade, and finally, peak Earth rank…

Yi Tian realized that after this transformation, the black Astral Clay Avatar’s ability to optimize and deduce was simply terrifying. It made the evolution of these Earth-ranked arts natural and inevitable.

Even so, it took Yi Tian nearly a month and a half to elevate all three techniques to the Heaven rank.

Looking over these three Heaven-ranked techniques, Yi Tian thought to himself, “Names like Wild Ox Mountain-Shattering Art no longer suit them. From now on, these three Heaven-ranked arts shall be named the Wild Desolation Divine Art, the Tiger Roar Divine Art, and the Myriad Phenomena Divine Art!”

Though they originated from the previous techniques, after repeated deductions and transformations, they had transcended their sources, pointing directly to the secrets of Heaven and Earth’s primordial powers.

The Wild Desolation Divine Art became a body-refining technique; once mastered, it would grant a physique to rival that of the most savage beasts, limitless in strength, and able to continually unlock the body’s potential.

The Tiger Roar Divine Art, as deduced by Yi Tian, became a fearsome sonic technique—one roar could shatter mountains and rivers.

The Myriad Phenomena Divine Art was an art that could command the powers of Heaven and Earth—it could become wind, summon rain, unleash thunder, or conjure frost, channeling the might of all creation.

Yet trouble arose.

Though Yi Tian had successfully deduced these three Heaven-ranked arts, with his current strength and means, he could not fully manifest their mysteries to allow Yi Feng and the other members of the Reincarnation Squad to comprehend and cultivate them.

Heaven-ranked arts were incredibly profound and complex. Even if Yi Tian taught them personally, without a way to reveal all the intricacies, it would be impossible for Yi Feng, Yi Shan, and the others to master them.

To fully manifest the mysteries of a Heaven-ranked art required extraordinary means—crafting divine statues or legacy treasures to carry the inheritance.

Even if Yi Tian were to hand over the middle or upper Earth-ranked versions of the Wild Ox Mountain-Shattering Art, it would still be extremely difficult for the tribe to master them without a legacy jade, making it hard to grasp their true essence.

These higher-level arts contained mysteries far beyond the lower Earth-ranked techniques Yi Tian had previously deduced. The warriors could readily learn the lower Earth-ranked arts because they were closely related to the human-level arts they already knew, making the transition seamless.

But once they reached the middle Earth rank, the complexity multiplied, making complete understanding nearly impossible.

With his current ninth-tier cultivation, Yi Tian found it difficult even to craft a legacy jade, let alone a Heaven-ranked legacy treasure.

However, Yi Tian soon found a solution, though it was a difficult choice that involved his Astral Clay Avatar.

His Astral Clay Avatar had only transformed to black by absorbing all the essence of a Dragon Pearl, allowing him to continue deducing the Great Sun Divine Art.

This time, using this method would greatly deplete his Astral Clay Avatar, and it might even revert to its crimson state.

After weighing his options, Yi Tian made his decision.

He would use this method nonetheless. Only by doing so could the five members of the Reincarnation Squad truly cultivate the Heaven-ranked arts and achieve even greater heights in the future, becoming his most powerful allies.

Besides, there would be opportunities for the Astral Clay to transform again in the future.

Having made up his mind, Yi Tian requested permission from the chieftain and led the five members of the Reincarnation Squad into the underground space.