Everything that had just happened felt like a dream to Ye Hun. He had no idea what the silver stone was, what those profound runes were, or how they had ended up inside his soul.
All these changes had been caused by that strange stone. Old Village Chief Grandpa had told him that it was already with him when they found him. It might be connected to his parents. Regardless, Ye Hun felt no discomfort whatsoever; on the contrary, he felt his entire body surging with power.
In any case, this was good news for him. Only power could bring vengeance, and only power would allow him to kill his enemies with his own hands!
Judging by his own sensations, he might have already stepped into the Spirit Awakening Realm, though he did not know which stage. The strength in his body was now more than a hundred times greater than before.
Though he wasn't certain, Ye Hun guessed that he was now easily at least at Spirit Awakening Stage 7. He had seen practitioners of Spirit Awakening Stage 7 in the village, and they felt inferior to him—not to mention that he now also possessed an incomparably sharp silver saber.
By this time, Ye Hun also understood that the profound runes in his sea of consciousness must be a cultivation technique. Only when he circulated his energy according to the inscriptions did he feel surges of spiritual power flowing toward him.
He just didn't know what grade it was. His grandfather had told him that cultivation techniques on the Tianling Continent were divided into Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow grades, alongside the most powerful God-tier techniques.
Yet his grandfather had said he had never seen or heard of a God-tier technique, and wondered if they even existed. The outside world only circulated techniques of the Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, and Yellow grades, with each grade further divided into lower, middle, upper, and top tiers.
Martial skills shared the exact same classification!
Ye Hun sank his consciousness inward to take a closer look. At the very top of these runes were a few special ones which, though he had never seen them before, he could somehow understand.
Those special runes read "Chaos Origin". Even though Ye Hun didn't fully understand what it meant, the mere word "Chaos" alone was enough to show how heaven-defying this was.
Ye Hun thought for a moment. To avoid trouble in the future, since that was the case, he would call it the "Chaos Origin Scripture"!
The moment he spoke those words, the entire world seemed to fall dead silent for a fraction of a second before returning to normal.
The runes now had a name, but what about this strange stone?
Ye Hun thought that since this stone could transform at his will and implicitly contained the essence of chaos, he would call it the "Hunyuan Token"!
Ye Hun looked at the animal skin inside the wooden box on the ground, picked it up, and looked closely. This time, he could actually understand the words on it.
Just as his grandfather had said, it was a martial skill manual—and a Heaven-tier Martial Skill at that. He didn't know how precious a Heaven-tier Martial Skill was, but Ye Hun felt not a shred of joy.
Just for a martial skill like this, a thousand lives in Ye Family Village had been sent to their deaths. If he had a choice, he would rather not have it.
The animal skin was gripped tightly in Ye Hun's hand before he finally put it down. No matter what, this was the last thing his grandfather had left him.
"In that case, I will use this martial skill to avenge Grandpa!" Ye Hun muttered to himself.
This martial skill was a spear technique called the *Sky-Shattering Spear Art*, consisting of four forms: Jinglong, Longhong, Podong, and Miejie.
Ye Hun did not plan to practice it right now. He wanted to test his own strength first, see what realm he was currently in, and only then begin cultivation.
With that thought, Ye Hun tidied up, shoved the animal skin inside his shirt against his chest, and instead of heading to Huangyun Town, he walked straight into the dense mountain forests.
He wanted to find fierce beasts to test his own strength. Weaving through the dense woods, he came to a mountain forest he had never visited before, so he was exceptionally cautious and careful.
After pressing forward for half a day, he still hadn't found any fierce beasts. Ye Hun guessed that he was being overly cautious, and eventually dropped his guard, swaggering openly through the forest.
Not long after, a rustling sound came from the woods. Ye Hun stood in place, waiting quietly.
Suddenly!
A pitch-black demonic leopard lunged from behind him, moving with ferocious speed to bite Ye Hun's neck like a flash of black lightning.
During hunting trips in Ye Family Village, demonic leopards were rarely caught. First, their speed was simply too fast to hit—unless a hunter's cultivation was at least two minor stages higher than the leopard's, hunting one was nearly impossible. Second, these beasts were exceptionally skilled at concealment, usually striking with a fatal blow on the very first move.
Therefore, demonic leopards were the absolute last fierce beasts the village hunting teams wanted to encounter.
Ye Hun had been wondering why there were no fierce beasts around, not realizing that he had been targeted by this leopard all along and regarded as its prey.
The demonic leopard had lurked for a long time. Seeing Ye Hun lower his guard, it had charged straight out, launching a fatal strike right from the start!
Ye Hun remained calm and unhurried. The leopard's speed might have seemed blindingly fast, but to Ye Hun's perception, it was excruciatingly slow. He simply took a slight step back, and the leopard lunged into empty air.
Yet it wasn't over. After missing, the leopard used the momentum of its front limbs to whip its hind legs straight toward Ye Hun's abdomen. Because they were extremely close—only a single step apart—and Ye Hun hadn't expected this counter-move, he rushed to block it, but was still kicked back a few paces without sustaining any injuries.
Ye Hun frowned. It seemed he had still been careless; the instincts honed by fierce beasts in life-and-death combat far surpassed the little tricks he had learned in the village.
The demonic leopard turned around, lowering its head to bare two fangs, emitting a low growl from its throat while fixing its eyes squarely on Ye Hun in an attacking stance.
Ye Hun also assumed a stance. Both sides stared intently at each other, neither daring to make a rash move.
After a long while, Ye Hun deliberately exposed an opening. The leopard seized the moment and lunged forward once more, its massive claws slashing toward Ye Hun's chest. This time, Ye Hun did not dodge. The leopard's strength was inferior to his; he couldn't afford to cow before a fight!
Ye Hun raised his fist just the same and punched out with all his might. A horrifying sight unfolded.
When Ye Hun's fist met the leopard's strike, it was like a bullet passing through tofu, tearing straight through the beast with unstoppable force. A rain of blood scattered across the sky, and the demonic leopard died instantly!
Ye Hun withdrew his fist, which was stained with the leopard's blood, wearing a look of sheer disbelief.
This strength was simply too overwhelming! The demonic leopard should have been at Spirit Awakening Stage 6, yet Ye Hun had killed it with a single blow. His true strength was probably already comparable to Spirit Awakening Stage 9!
Ye Hun stared blankly at the dead leopard on the ground, his heart filled with extreme shock. He had only recited the cultivation technique once in his sea of consciousness, yet it had directly propelled him to Spirit Awakening Stage 9!
Such unimaginable cultivation speed completely astounded Ye Hun. He thought back to the past, when he used to worry about failing to break through into the Spirit Awakening realm. Ye Feng had reached Spirit Awakening Stage 1 at sixteen, making him the youngest Spirit Awakening practitioner in the village, while the strongest person in the village was only at Spirit Awakening Stage 7.
Yet in less than a day, he had already reached Spirit Awakening Stage 9. Who would dare believe such a speed?
At this thought, Ye Hun suddenly burst out laughing. With a technique like this, why worry about failing to avenge his deep hatred?
"Grandpa, don't worry. Very soon, I will be able to avenge you," Ye Hun muttered to himself, looking at the bright red blood of the fierce beast on his hands.