Chapter 6: A Forbidden Hunger

The moment Li Tianming stepped out of the trial grounds, a wave of students surged toward him. Excited voices filled the air as everyone clamored for his attention.

"Tianming, that was incredible!"

"How did you do it?!"

The girls especially swarmed around him, their eyes gleaming with admiration.

"Tianming, want to train together sometime?" one of them asked, smiling sweetly.

"I can help you with cultivation techniques!" another offered eagerly.

But Tianming, utterly unaccustomed to such attention, felt overwhelmed. He had always been overlooked, ranking just within the top thirty of the school—not weak, but certainly not the center of admiration. Now, with all these people looking at him with reverence, he felt out of place.

He muttered a quick excuse and slipped through the crowd.

"Tianming! Wait up!"

Zhou Feng jogged after him, catching up easily. His face was filled with a mix of awe and disbelief. "What the hell was that? You've been acting weird lately, and now you're pulling off something insane like this? Come on, spill your secrets!" He gave Tianming a light punch on the shoulder, grinning.

Tianming forced a chuckle. "I just trained harder, that's all."

Zhou Feng rolled his eyes. "Yeah, sure. And I'm the reincarnation of an ancient war god." He sighed. "Either way, that was amazing, brother. I'm proud of you."

As the school day came to an end, Zhou Feng walked toward their usual route home. "Coming?"

Tianming shook his head. "I have something to do first. I'll see you tomorrow."

Zhou Feng frowned but didn't pry. "Alright, don't stay out too late."

With that, Tianming turned and walked in the opposite direction—toward Xi Wang Marketplace.

Xi Wang Marketplace was a world of its own. Unlike the refined and orderly trade districts of the city, this place was wild, unregulated, and brimming with life.

The streets were packed with merchants yelling over one another, each trying to sell their wares to the highest bidder. A burly blacksmith stood behind a wooden stall, slamming a red-hot blade against an anvil, sparks flying with each strike. "Hand-forged steel! Stronger than a dragon's scales! Buy now before it's gone!"

Nearby, a young girl with dirt-streaked cheeks held up a basket of herbs, desperately trying to get passersby to stop. "Freshly picked spiritual herbs! Good for refining pills! Please take a look!"

The marketplace had everything. Stolen goods, rare artifacts, and even illegal items that could not be found anywhere else.

Tianming walked past street vendors and merchants, rejecting their offers politely. His focus was on something specific.

And then—he found it.

A dimly lit shop, nestled between two towering buildings, its wooden sign carved with three words: "Myriad Beasts Pavilion."

Stepping inside, he was hit with a strange mix of scents—blood, metal, incense, and something ancient. Glass cases lined the walls, displaying preserved materials from various spirit beasts and races—scales from Thunder Serpents, the crystalline eyes of a Moonlight Fox, and even a severed demon's claw, its dark energy still faintly pulsing.

In the center of the shop, laid out on a thick stone slab, were the corpses of spiritual creatures. Some had missing parts, already sold to buyers.

Tianming clenched his fist. He had made up his mind—he would use all the money he and his aunt had saved for the upcoming Dragon Martial Competition to buy one of these corpses. If his theory was correct, then the source of his power came from consuming the flesh and blood of the myriad races.

However, the moment he saw the price tags, his heart sank.

Too expensive.

Even if he spent everything, he wouldn't be able to afford even a low-grade spiritual beast's corpse.

Just as he was about to give up, something caught his eye.

At the very end of the stone slab was a smaller corpse—an Herb Spirit Deer. Unlike the others, this one had a faint, almost ethereal glow.

And the moment Tianming laid eyes on it, a deep, primal urge stirred within him.

His instincts screamed at him to consume it.

Suppressing the strange hunger, he approached the shopkeeper. "How much for the Herb Spirit Deer?"

The shopkeeper, an old man with a thin mustache and sharp eyes, raised a brow. "That one? No one really buys Herb Spirit Deer corpses." He leaned forward slightly, lowering his voice. "You see, while they are talented in alchemy and pill refinement, their bodies naturally dissolve their energy when they die. By the time their corpses are sold, there's nothing left but meat and bones. You'd be better off buying something else."

Tianming hesitated. But deep inside, the strange craving intensified. No… this one is different. I can feel it.

He gritted his teeth. "I'll take it."

The shopkeeper shrugged. "Your money." He took Tianming's silver and handed over the wrapped corpse. "Try not to get sick eating that."

Ignoring the comment, Tianming left the marketplace, heading toward his real destination—the outskirts of Penglai Forest.

The closer he got to Penglai Forest, the quieter the world became.

Towering trees with trunks as thick as houses loomed overhead, their ancient leaves forming a dense canopy that blocked out the sun. Even during the day, it felt as though the forest was bathed in twilight. The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and spiritual energy.

Strange herbs and luminous flowers grew in the shadows, while the distant roars of spiritual beasts echoed through the trees.

Tianming finally stopped at a secluded clearing, placing the wrapped corpse on the ground. He took a deep breath, staring at the Herb Spirit Deer.

His fingers twitched. His heart pounded.

Would this really work?

There was only one way to find out.