At first glance, there was no difference between fire brutes and ordinary people in terms of appearance.

However, one could distinguish the difference upon a closer look. For example, a fire brute’s hair had a fiery shine that resembled starlight.

Their eyes were rhombus-shaped and sparkled like blood diamonds.

Most importantly, in the center of their chests was a flame-shaped totem rune.

It was a fire rune symbol that they were all born with and could transform into a totem fire armor to protect their heart area in battle.

Somewhere in the training ground, a fire brute descendant was standing in front of Lin Xun.

It was a strong and muscular man with rank 9 Brute Slave strength, which was comparable to the strength of a ninth layer True Martial cultivator.

Boom!

The instant the battle started, the fire brute man violently charged forward and his body released bright blinding flames. Every inch of his muscles was bulging, making him look extremely fierce and berserk.

He aimed a punch at Lin Xun.

Lin Xun drew a deep breath, gathered strength in his palm, and thrust it towards the opponent’s fist.

With a boom, a blast of terrifyingly hot power furiously roared towards Lin Xun like a sea of lava, causing his wrist to tremble and almost rupture.

As I thought, everyone in the Darkness Race has abnormal strength. Cultivators can’t compare to them in terms of physique.

This thought flashed through Lin Xun’s mind but he didn’t slow down his movements. He gathered strength in his arms, leaned forward, and fiercely pounced toward his opponent.

The fire brute man was blasted dozens of feet away with a bang, but he climbed back up like nothing had happened in the blink of an eye.

This was the terror of the Magi Brute Race. Each one of them was born with divine strength and an incredibly strong steel-like physique; they were natural fighters.

As mentioned in Xu Sanqi’s anatomy class, cultivators could only fight Magi Brute Race experts at an equal cultivation level head-on by relying on various aeth tools and rune armaments.

The key reason was that most cultivators possessed less physical strength than Magi Brute experts.

“Hmph! Human beings, without aeth tools and rune armaments as protective shells, you are just a group of trash unable to withstand a single blow!”

The fire brute man charged towards Lin Xun once again, his body shrouded in raging flames and his eyes glinted with a bloodthirsty and berserk light.

Lin Xun frowned and drew a deep breath. He had decided to fight the opponent with pure strength.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

It was a cruel hand-to-hand fight with each strike inflicting significant damage.

Every punch of Lin Xun’s could pulverize rocks and shatter steel but the fire brute man only swayed a little.

On the contrary, every punch of the fire brute man caused Lin Xun’s blood and qi to churn frantically. Fortunately for Lin Xun, his opponent had limited battle experience and simple and unsophisticated combat arts. Lin Xun managed to avoid the majority of his attacks.

Even so, Lin Xun had to admit that he might have lost already if the fire brute man had mastered some combat techniques.

This once again demonstrated that Magi Brute Race experts were indeed born fighters. Their bodies and strength were their greatest weapons!

After a while.

Rumble!

Lin Xun suddenly mobilized his strength. Aeth power rapidly surged out from his body and gathered around his fist. Then, he slammed his fist forward.

The air exploded as his fist blasted forward with terrifying force.

The fire brute man was caught off guard. He had never thought that Lin Xun, who had been using physical strength in the battle, would suddenly change to aeth power.

With a loud boom, the center of the fire brute’s chest caved in. He collapsed, screaming in agony.

“Despicable human!” He roared, but still couldn’t stand back up. He writhed on the ground for a long while and finally lost his life.

“What an idiot. I just wanted to understand more about your strength and techniques so I didn’t attack, but once I understood them, I won’t hold back anymore. Is this despicable? No wonder Instructor Xu said that the greatest weakness of the Magi Brute Race is their stupidity.”

Lin Xun stepped forward, crouched down, and tore off a piece of the opponent’s totem fire armor. He couldn’t help but nod.

As expected, a fire brute would instantly die once its heart area was destroyed.

However, it wasn’t easy to crush its heart, mainly due to the totem fire armor, which was like a natural aeth armor that formed on the chest of every fire brute descendant since birth.

It was also known as the brute totem rune. It was activated in battles and transformed into an inner armor to defend the heart.

In addition to fire brutes, water brutes, gold brutes, wood brutes, earth brutes and other sub-races of the Magi Brute Race all had some sort of brute totem rune.

In other words, the presence of a brute totem rune was the most obvious sign to identify a descendant of the Magi Brute Race.

Lin Xun took out the Sky Breaker Blade and carefully carved out the part of its chest with the brute totem rune.

He was very interested in it.

It was rumored in the empire that, a long time ago, the first rune born in the world was influenced by the brute totem rune and was engraved by a legendary expert!

Although the rumors might not be true, Lin Xun had heard from Mister Lu that the brute totem rune was a type of natural mysterious rune that contained many unfathomable secrets. If Lin Xun could uncover them, he could create unimaginable rune patterns.

However, Lin Xun had no interest in creating rune patterns. He was curious to know what kind of mystery was concealed in the natural brute totem rune.

……

At noon, the practical training was over.

Lin Xun didn’t join the other students in the canteen; instead, he went to Old Mo’s warehouse.

This was a special treatment that only he could enjoy. Everyone in the 39th Campground was aware that a rune master regarded Lin Xun highly and kept him as his assistant.

Although Lin Xun still participated in daily training, he didn’t stay in the campground in his spare time. This aroused many people’s curiosity, but unfortunately for them, Lin Xun had never told anyone what he did in Old Mo’s warehouse.

When Lin Xun arrived, Xiaoman had already prepared a spread of fine dishes while Old Mo was still working on the newly improved aeth engine.

Xiaoman was a sexy beauty with a voluptuous and fiery hot figure and a stunning face. Lin Xun was one of the rare people who got special treatment from her; she was very warm towards him, like an older sister doting on her younger brother.

She would prepare food for Lin Xun every time he came by and then ask about his training in the campground.

Today was no exception. Lin Xun had gotten used to Xiaoman’s friendliness and knew that the sexy and beautiful woman treated him very well. He also felt very warm towards her.

“It’s okay. I should have another breakthrough within two months.” Lin Xun said casually while eating.

Ten days had passed since the monthly assessment. Lin Xun had resumed the intense but fulfilling training sessions. Although it was brutal, he had eventually adapted to the environment. Furthermore, Lin Xun could distinctly feel he was growing stronger every day, which made him feel very satisfied and pleased.

“Don't slack off. While your performance in the previous monthly assessment was pretty good, there is still a gap between you and some of the others.” Xiaoman reminded him.

Lin Xun laughed. “Of course I won’t. If I dare to slack off, big sister, you would be the first to not let me off.”

“The quarterly assessment is in less than two months. It is much more brutal than the monthly assessments. If you can’t reach the True Martial eighth layer by then, you should pack up your stuff and leave Blood Kill Camp.” Xiaoman spat out, her watery eyes glinting at Lin Xun.

Lin Xun raised his eyebrows. “Is the quarterly assessment that difficult?”

Xiaoman said seriously, “You will understand when the time comes. Your opponents are no longer students from other campgrounds but real experts from the Magi Brute Race!”

Lin Xun felt a chill in his heart. He nodded. “I understand.”

Suddenly, Old Mo stopped eating and beamed, “Kid, within two months, the Violet Hero Battleship will undergo a transformation. When it happens, I’ll invite you to test its power and show you what I can do!”

His eyes were glowing with pride.

Before Lin Xun could reply Xiaoman said disdainfully, “Old Mo, I know that the transformation of the Violet Hero Battleship is Lin Xun’s idea. I don’t know why you look so proud.”

Old Mo’s expression suddenly froze and then he snorted and buried his head in the food. But his gaze occasionally swept across Xiaoman’s full chest like he was retaliating.

Xiaoman couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the old pervert and just kicked him away from the table. She grinned charmingly as if she was saying ‘what can you do to me’.

Lin Xun couldn’t help but smile.

One month flew by.

During that month of painstaking training, Lin Xun had successfully illuminated the fourth spirit star in his sea of consciousness, thereby expanding his spirit perception to a radius of forty feet

He was only one step away from reaching the perfect realm of the True Martial seventh layer. His rapid progress was no doubt attributed to the Lengning pills.

During that period, he had consumed twenty Lengning pills every day for aeth power cultivation. One pill was worth ten silver coins, and twenty equaled two hundred silver coins!

The consumption of two hundred silver coins a day would make many cultivators smack their lips. Only a few people could afford such an amount in the long term.

In fact, Lin Xun wouldn’t be able to afford such an expense in the past. Fortunately, he was at Blood Kill Camp and he had Xiaoman’s help. He was able to enjoy such treatment without spending any points.

Otherwise, Lin Xun wouldn’t dare to be so extravagant even if he was beaten to death.

His huge consumption was due to his special physique—the four aeth power vortexes in his four heart acupuncture points, which allowed him to refine and absorb greater amounts of purer aeth power.

Perhaps, this was also an innate talent that only Lin Xun had. He just didn’t know whether it was different from the Grand Abyss Heaven Devourer that he originally had.

In addition to being amazed by his progress, Lin Xun couldn't help but feel a little troubled. He was only at the True Martial seventh layer yet he had to consume Lengning pills that cost two hundred silver coins a day. If he continued to grow stronger, what sort of cultivation resources would he require to support his cultivation?

Ultimately, cultivation progress was indeed inseparable from wealth.

In the past month, the only thing that surprised Lin Xun was that unexpected things had occured in the Omega Secret Realm!