In memory, Lou Yi transformed into a member of a barbarian tribe, stationed in a primitive forest, battling various fierce beasts and wild birds.
In the tribe, some excel at spears, some are skilled with bows and arrows, while others prefer to lay traps in advance.
But Lou Yi's only weapon was an axe.
With this axe, he hunted tigers and leopards, slew bears and bison, chopped down eagles, and even killed many from enemy tribes.
The axe became more and more familiar in his hands, becoming almost a part of his body.
'Axe skill is a killing skill!'
This was the realization he gained from countless battles.
Decades passed, and Lou Yi had become the top warrior in the tribe.
The axe in his hand was also replaced with a giant axe made of special metal.
After a relative was injured, he disregarded the counsel of his subordinates and ventured into a perilous area rumored to contain humanoid giant monsters, intent on picking the Holy Medicine with excellent healing effects.
Unluckily, he encountered the giant monster.
The giant monster had a body over ten feet tall, muscles comparable to rocks, and speed far surpassing that of ordinary people.
Undoubtedly, Lou Yi fell into a bitter battle.
His axe could only create wounds on the surface of the giant monster, a move that enraged it, launching a furious attack on Lou Yi, snapping the surrounding trees one by one.
Lou Yi quickly found himself in a desperate situation.
In his dying moment, many things flashed through his mind.
Being chased by a grey wolf in his childhood, his first hunt of a wild leopard as an adult, the famous battle in which he killed a hostile leader among hundreds of people...
Every chop, every drop of blood spilled, every defiance against adversity.
At this moment, Lou Yi's spirit became extraordinarily focused, and all the energy in his body seemed to pour into the axe in his hand.
At this moment, he unleashed his potential and delivered the strongest strike in history!
The giant monster clutched its neck as blood spurted like a fountain, and it fell powerlessly...
The memory abruptly stopped here.
Lou Yi opened his eyes, feeling a vast energy from the void entering his body.
Unlike the gentle energy before, this energy carried a hint of dominance, recklessly rushing through his limbs, bones, and meridians.
It improved his tendons, muscles, internal organs.
Long strips of muscles on Lou Yi's surface bulged and sank, looking like snakes moving through his body, quite terrifying.
His face flushed blood-red, white steam wafted from his head, and yellowish-black sticky liquid continually oozed from his pores.
No one knew how long it took, the transformation completed, a 'crackling' sound emanated from Lou Yi's body.
"Smells bad..."
On the bed beside, Gou Wa seemed startled by the sound, blinked his eyelashes, and mumbled half-asleep.
Lou Yi opened his eyes, opened the door, and walked outside.
His figure flickered, disappearing in front of the house in an instant. In the blink of an eye, he arrived at the riverbank.
Washing his body with river water, he cleansed away the impurities expelled from his body.
Feeling his revitalized body, Lou Yi clenched his five fingers into the void.
'Pop!'
The sound of air exploding was distinctly heard.
Stunned, Lou Yi walked up to a nearby willow tree and fiercely punched it!
'Bang!'
The center of the willow trunk had a dent several centimeters deep.
Yet, the surface of Lou Yi's fist was only slightly reddened.
'Boom boom boom!'
Lou Yi landed seven or eight punches in quick succession on that dent, not only deepening it but causing cracks to spread around it.
Moments later, the willow tree, as thick as a bowl's edge, broke at the dent, 'plop' falling into the water, splashing large waves.
'This strength, I fear, has exceeded the previous level by more than half, now definitely surpassing the limits of ordinary people.' Lou Yi was confident.
He looked at the Attribute Panel, discovering a small black solid triangle symbol in the lower right corner of Axe Skill, like a dropdown hint in some software from the previous life.
He mentally pressed the inverted triangle symbol, and immediately below Lou's Axe Skill, two lines of small words appeared:
Lou's Axe Skill reached proficiency, gained advanced skill [Mountain Opening].
[Mountain Opening]: Unleashes potential, ignoring a certain degree of negative state, continuously exerting 100% of extreme strength, and performing momentum suppression on the enemy (the stronger the Blood Qi, the stronger the skill duration, the more noticeable the suppression effect, and the shorter the cooldown time)
"This skill is awesome!"
100% extreme strength, something a normal person can only unleash once in a short time. It might not even be 100%, who can say.
If a person throws ten punches in succession, having one punch reaching near extreme strength would be remarkable, the other nine punches would certainly fall short to some extent.
And if the physical condition is poor, it's even more impossible.
But the Mountain Opening skill can ignore a certain degree of negative state.
Lou Yi tried it out on the spot.
Within three breaths, each of his punches could be delivered with 100% strength.
This was terrifying; if he encountered an opponent of similar strength, he could even knock them out within those three breaths.
As for imposing his aura.
Because he hadn't used the Mountain Opening Skill against an enemy, Lou Yi himself was unsure of how effective it would be.
Regarding skill cooldown time, it's about a quarter of an hour.
Lou Yi was excited. With this trump card, Mountain Opening, he was confident he could take on the tiger, almost as a sure bet.
He returned home, lay on the bed, listened to the subtle snoring of the dog, and drifted off to sleep.
The next day, he buried Zhou Erfan, returned the dog to Cheng Sunshi, and didn't climb the mountain. Instead, he stayed home to conserve energy, waiting for nightfall.
Across all the villages within a ten-mile radius, at the moment the sun set, everything instantly entered silent mode.
No babies cried, no dogs barked, and no more sneaky sounds came from the poorly soundproofed dirt houses...
"Roar!"
The tiger's first roar was two miles from Erhe Village; this time it had entered another village's territory.
Lou Yi stepped out of his house and sprinted rapidly toward the location where the tiger's roar originated.
His legs moved swiftly, and his figure was like the wind; past champions in the hundred-meter dash were no match for him.
"Roar!"
Every time before hunting, the tiger needed to display its might, letting humans feel its majesty.
This actually made it convenient for Lou Yi, who finally confirmed its location when the third roar echoed.
It stood blatantly in the village entrance.
This was the first time Lou Yi had gotten a clear view of the tiger.
Its body exceeded five meters in length, as tall as Lou Yi, with alternating orange and black stripes all over. Its eyes were like two massive yellow gems, clearly visible in the night.
Sensing someone approaching, the tiger abruptly turned its head, with a human-like flicker of doubt in its eyes, swiftly replaced by pure malevolence and cruelty.
'It surely has become a monster,' thought Lou Yi.
This physique, this demeanor, wasn't something an ordinary tiger would possess.
Yet now, with enough strength and confidence, Lou Yi didn't see this tiger as a threat.
He pulled out the slingshot from his waist, swiftly loaded an egg-sized stone, and then 'whoosh whoosh whoosh,' spun it rapidly at his side.
'Fizz!'
The next moment, the stone sliced through the air at a speed indistinguishable to the naked eye, fiercely smashing into the tiger's forehead a hundred meters away!
'Whack!'
A visible wound immediately appeared on its forehead, blood flowing profusely!
With Lou Yi's current strength, the momentum of the thrown stone was possibly greater than a rifle, though its penetration power was surely less.
But it had already caused significant damage to the tiger.
"Come chase me, beast," Lou Yi sneered with disdain, then turned and fled.
"Roar!" The tiger emitted a furious roar, its voice resounding for ten miles around!
Its eyes showed intense hatred, desperately pursuing Lou Yi.
However, Lou Yi's current speed far exceeded ordinary humans. Coupled with weaving left and right in an S-shaped curve, and the slingshot's constant assaults, he managed to keep the distance between them safely controlled.
At a certain moment.
Lou Yi vanished from the tiger's view.
"Roar!" The tiger roared in rage.
Its head kept turning, searching for the whereabouts of the annoying human.
Then, it noticed the shared door of the three tightly packed two-story brick houses directly ahead suddenly opened.
'Fizz!'
Another stone flew out from inside, striking the wound on the tiger's forehead.
"Roar!"
Being toyed with repeatedly, the tiger's fury overwhelmed its rationality.
Its enormous body charged ferociously towards the spot, its golden eyes filled with vicious blood streaks, its yellow foamy saliva splattering onto the ground as it ran.
It must bite to death that annoying fellow!
"Ah!"
"Help!"
In an instant, several screams rang out from the brick house, mixed with the tiger's roar, forming a terrifying symphony.
"An eye for an eye."
In the shadow under the wall, someone murmured.
...