Raiko was a Tiger created in the South of the Eastern Forest. He wasn’t all that special in the beginning. In fact, his innate ability was quite lacking compared to his brothers and sisters which resulted in him being disregarded. Even then, it wasn’t to the point where they outright ignored him or attacked him, they just didn’t care about him either way.
A very average Tiger.
He could have just lived life like that, he didn’t have any lofty goals and he wasn’t in any way deranged like the Crying Ghost, it wouldn’t be a terrible life, just a very mundane one.
Unfortunately, he encountered Drako of the snake clan.
After that near death encounter, Raiko seemed to have become a little wary about leaving his cave, even refusing to go and hunt. He lived in the outskirts of the tiger territory so no one ever looked for him.
But this situation only lasted 3 days before he was actually visited.
With overbearing arrogance he would bully the tiger day after day, finding it amusing that there was actually a predator that didn’t resist a beatdown. It’s what happened the first time which is what got him intrigued and why he followed the tiger here.
In truth, Raiko was just really, really afraid of pain, so he would always just focus on defence when being attacked but if he had the advantage he would shamelessly act like some kind of ferocious predator.
Eventually 8 months passed and yet, each day he was left almost dead and unable to leave when Drako left for the day. If Drako didn’t feed him essence rich herbs and carcasses, he would have long since left this World.
But at this point Raiko was absolutely livid. He hated that fiery looking worm, he hated his resplendent scales, he hated his imposing size. Why couldn’t he, Raiko- stand out like that and bully others?
At the very least, when the essence nourished his body it would automatically target the injuries and in the process, granting endurance to those locations. And since there was no place that hadn’t been assaulted, his entire body was fully remade tougher and tougher each day. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novelꞁire.net
But it was on his 251st torment day and having already suffered his 251st beating and being left to heal by the evil snake that a shocking event that would change his life and the lives of those around him forever took place.
An unfamiliar energy exploded out within him, enhancing the bones, nerves, tissues, organs and flesh all over his body, his muscles were especially upgraded. His body even began to grow, jumping a whole 3 metres in height leaving him at 5 metres tall.
It didn’t even feel uncomfortable, in fact, it felt so good that Raiko let out a dignified roar that actually shook up the surrounding mountains!
A mere Magic Beast roar wasn’t even qualified to shake a bush, talk less of a mountain. But it did sound domineering enough, making all the beasts that heard instinctively have the urge to submit. The shocking thing was that some of them had a higher cultivation and yet they still quivered with fear.
Although they could sense the vibe from the roar only being on the level of a Stage 2 Magic Beast, the feeling they got from it wasn’t inferior to those of the Stage 3 Magic Beasts at all.
This mysterious phenomenon was both inexplicable and terrifying. All they knew about the correlation between cultivation rank and strength was becoming undone and it wasn’t making sense.
But anyone with basic knowledge from another experienced Mid World could easily tell you that what was currently happening with Raiko was…
Entering the first stage of [Anatomy Refinement]!
Anatomy Refinement was another method of cultivating strength, but this had nothing to do with harnessing magical energy, fire elements or lightning laws. Anatomy Refinement was the act of using energy to directly increase the strength of one's physical body.
Anatomy Refinement could actually be simultaneously used with Energy Refinement(Cultivation) but most people didn’t even dare to refine their anatomy talk less of dual cultivating with Energy.
It was just too dangerous and most Enlightened species couldn’t handle it. It was a bit easier for beasts but even then most still withheld from it. This was because it was too dangerous, Magic Herbs weren’t as common as grass like they were in Eridel’s World. They were very rare so how could they continuously use them like Raiko was doing?
Even more, splitting your attention between energy cultivating and anatomy cultivating was counterproductive most of the time. Only the most talented sons and daughters of prestigious families could afford to do so.
But this was Eridel’s World where it was easier to find a World Tree than it was to find a single regular herb so who knows?
After all, that’s exactly what was happening right now to some random Tiger in the wild.
The process of repeatedly destroying and healing your body with essence. The crudest way of Anatomy Refinement but it is what it is. This was what happened to Raiko until he entered stage 1.
But it was not over yet. The benefits of increasing your physical strength wasn’t the only gift Anatomy Refinement had to offer, in fact, it was the second gift that had many people risking their lives to attempt it even if most gave up.
Suddenly, Raiko started to feel an itchiness all over his body that made him choke on his roar and it soon became quite unbearable. He even began rolling and thrashing around in an attempt to alleviate the discomfort that was rapidly becoming pain.
His screams were quite unlike the previous majestic roar, now it was like a squealing pig that was being butchered.
But soon, the culprit of this change of events revealed itself.
A black and viscous liquid began to leak out of the pores all over the Tiger’s body like it was blood which was a horrifying sight to see. Also, the disgusting smell of it didn’t help the situation at all, it had to be one of the most rankest smells in existence.
But to tell the truth, it wasn’t all that unfamiliar. This is what happens to all Enlightened Species in the Body Refinement realm but not on the level it was happening now.
In fact, the stuff would only leave the body during excrement (making it especially smelly), not all over the pores like it was doing now and it would NEVER leave the body at the rate it was doing now, only doing so by small amounts (not even an 1000th of the current visible) in each of the 9 Body Refinement breakthroughs.
It was all disgusting and horrendous but this is what all Cultivators dreamed about.
The removal of impurities.