Sure enough, Ye Feipeng found practicing the Wandering Sea Dragon Technique far smoother than the Sea-Calming Divine Sword.
On the second day after switching techniques, he successfully broke through to the middle Qi Condensation stage.
Combined with the medicinal pills the immortal master had given him, which tapped into a sliver of the power of the secret reservoir within his body, his physical strength grew to the point that even Sun Erlang, who was in the late Qi Condensation stage, was no match for him in actual combat.
Having solidified his status as the leader among the island's children, Ye Feipeng finally felt somewhat relieved.
At the same time, he realized a fundamental truth: if he wished to cultivate faster, beyond his own aptitude and hard work, what mattered most was currying favor with the esteemed immortal master.
From offhand remarks made by the immortal master, Ye Feipeng learned that he seemed to place great importance on the progress of refining that Beast God Bead.
Thus, in between his cultivation sessions, Ye Feipeng never forgot to keep the Beast God Bead on his person at all times, diligently seeking to comprehend it.
One day, after falling fast asleep while clutching the Beast God Bead, he seemed to enter a dream.
In the dream, he saw a ferocious, terrifying Nine-Headed Bird suspended high in the heavens.
Its colossal body took up almost the entire sky.
Its nine heads were each devouring something in their beaks.
With Ye Feipeng's current knowledge, he recognized the thrashing, mangled limbs of a dragon, an entire intact mountain range, the thick branches of a dark gray giant tree...
All around were wails of despair and agony, and the entire world was bathed in a sea of blood.
Ye Feipeng's young mind was shaken to its core by this apocalyptic scene.
He stood frozen, unable to move a muscle.
Right then, one of the Nine-Headed Bird's heads up in the sky seemed to notice his presence.
Its eyes shifted slightly, casting down a gaze that regarded him as nothing more than food.
Stared down by this ferocious behemoth, terror instantly seized Ye Feipeng's soul.
Beneath the Nine-Headed Bird's shadow, it felt as though he would be swallowed whole into its maw in the very next instant.
Just then, a clear, resounding cry echoed in Ye Feipeng's ears from afar.
It seemed to come from the deep ocean, yet also seemed to originate high in the sky.
The cry was brimming with defiance and fury.
His eyes turned entirely blood-red, and Ye Feipeng's once-rigid body immediately returned to normal.
Drawn by this inexplicable cry, all nine heads in the sky turned in unison.
Ye Feipeng woke with a start from the nightmare.
Panting heavily, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and recalled the scene he had witnessed in the dream.
'That Nine-Headed Bird must be the strange beast sealed inside the Beast God Bead.'
'But what was that cry I heard afterward?'
Ye Feipeng's young face was filled with bewilderment.
However, he knew very well that whatever could draw the attention of the Nine-Headed Bird was bound to be something extraordinary.
Without mentioning it to anyone else, Ye Feipeng etched the matter deeply into his memory.
In the days that followed, Ye Feipeng discovered that practicing the Creation Furnace Technique had become noticeably more effortless.
The power of the human body's secret reservoir, which he had previously needed to coax out with painstaking care to tap even a fraction, had now become remarkably easy to invoke.
He could even outright disregard side effects such as dizziness or brief surges of turbulent qi and blood.
With his physical strength rising at a pace that even frightened himself, Ye Feipeng felt secretly thrilled, yet could not help harboring some dread toward the unknown.
Consequently, during sparring matches with his peers, he held back his full strength.
Just like the Tianyang puppet, he defeated his opponents by just the barest margin each time.
Time passed like this for a while.
On this day, the immortal master once again arrived at Shenhua Island.
As usual, he inspected everyone's cultivation progress, singling out the exceptionally slack Xiao Heng as an example to severely reprimand and punish for a time.
Afterward, the immortal master brought Ye Feipeng alone into a secret chamber to examine him.
In the prolonged silence, Ye Feipeng felt a little nervous.
Ultimately, he could not hold back and recounted to the immortal master what he had seen in his dream, as well as the recent changes occurring in his body.
After pondering in silence for a moment, the immortal master decided to conduct a comprehensive examination of him.
With that, Ye Feipeng fell into a groggy sleep.
When he awoke, he found himself feeling somewhat weak.
The immortal master considerately handed him another medicinal pill.
After swallowing it, Ye Feipeng immediately felt much more energized.
"You acted with excessive haste and were careless for a moment, becoming tainted by the Nine-Headed Bird's vicious baleful energy," the immortal master said in his chilly voice.
Ye Feipeng was startled, but hearing the immortal master's next words, he felt somewhat reassured.
"Fret not. I have already purged it from your body."
"Thank you, Immortal Master," Ye Feipeng said gratefully.
The immortal master waved his hand. "Though you were rather reckless, a blessing came disguised as misfortune: you awakened a faint trace of ancestral bloodline dormant within you."
"Ancestral bloodline?" Ye Feipeng was both shocked and delighted.
"Indeed. Have you ever heard of the ancient beast, the Kunpeng?" Saying so, the immortal master pointed forward.
The image of a colossal demonic beast, shifting between a bird and a fish, materialized in midair.
After describing the immense might of this Kunpeng beast to Ye Feipeng, the immortal master remarked with some feeling, "I certainly did not expect that you would possess the power of such an ancient ferocious beast within you."
"If you can harness this power, your cultivation speed will likely outstrip those so-called prodigies by quite a margin."
Seeing the expression on Ye Feipeng's face, the immortal master added, "However, everything has its pros and cons. Advancing your strength too quickly will exert a considerable toll on your temperament. If you cannot rein it in, it will likely prove a bane rather than a boon."
Ye Feipeng hurried to promise, "Rest assured, Immortal Master. I will certainly take your teachings to heart, remaining neither arrogant nor rash, taking things step by step, and cultivating diligently."
The immortal master nodded slowly, seemingly quite pleased with his answer.
After being rewarded with a storage ring containing spirit stones and magical artifacts, Ye Feipeng departed in high spirits.
Watching Ye Feipeng's jubilant retreating figure, Li Fan wore a faint, ambiguous smile.
'I didn't expect this kid's Kunpeng bloodline to awaken even faster in this lifetime than I anticipated.'
'A Nine-Headed Divine Bird, is it...'
Li Fan extended his right hand.
A wisp of blood-red baleful energy curled around his fingertips, refusing to dissipate for a long while.
Listening closely, one could faintly hear cries and wails emanating from it.
Li Fan absorbed the red baleful energy, closing his eyes to carefully comprehend it.
After quite a while, he suddenly opened his eyes.
In that instant, an eerie trace of red surfaced in his pupils.
Li Fan looked toward a stone stool in the secret chamber.
In mere moments, under Li Fan's gaze, the hard stone surface turned completely charred black.
'It seems that, stirred by the aura of the Kunpeng bloodline, the Nine-Headed Bird's Beast Soul Bead separated out this unique baleful energy.'
'It appears to stem from the innate divine ability of this Nine-Headed Bird. Unfortunately, the baleful energy was far too faint, so I could only glean this little bit.'
As the sinister red glow faded from his eyes, Li Fan felt a slight pang of regret.
'Although Senior Brother Zhang's Grand Vow Dharma Body prevents the use of demonic beast power,'
'it still has its merits. The divine abilities of demonic beasts are not necessarily unusable by cultivators.'
'All Daos share the same origin, and all paths lead to the same destination.'
'For example, Han Yi's technique for manipulating luck seems to have originated from the Heavenly Destiny Profound Bird,' Li Fan pondered to himself.
Chapter 485