Roar!
In the quiet room,
Symbols wriggled incessantly on Yu Lie's body as he sat cross-legged, trembling.
Although he had been maintaining his seated posture, under the flickering candlelight, his shadow cast on the stone wall had already undergone a tremendous transformation.
Yu Lie's shadow kept distorting, swelling, and even sprouting hair and sharp teeth.
Terrifying roars echoed from his mouth.
Apart from the roars, there were also crunching sounds in the quiet room as Yu Lie gnashed his teeth, making his sharp teeth clatter in his mouth, and his ten fingers formed seals, with each fingertip piercing deeply into the palm of his hand.
In this position, Yu Lie had already maintained it for three days and three nights.
During these three days, as the scriptures had foretold, Yu Lie had been in considerable pain.
Moreover, the process of taking the medicine was terrifying. Yu Lie constantly felt like he was surrounded by a pack of wolves, with a thousand green eyes staring at him, wanting to pounce on him, tear him apart, and devour him.
Furthermore, he didn't even have time to think about eating and drinking, especially drinking water, which was a very rare occurrence. Whenever he thought about it during the process of taking the medicine, fear would well up in his heart.
This made Yu Lie wonder repeatedly if there was a problem with his medicine, if he had been poisoned by the wolves?
Although he had previously taken the Fasting Pill, enough to sustain him without food for seven days, and he could stretch his water intake to once every seven days.
Roar!
Once again, a painful and unrestrained howl erupted from Yu Lie's mouth, his teeth grinding, and the shadow on the wall becoming sharper.
A tearing sound rang out.
Yu Lie spread his arms, breaking free from his seated position, hunching over as he stood up from the altar.
Although hunched over, Yu Lie's current form was not short at all; on the contrary, he was extremely large, towering one and a half times the height of a person, making the quiet room feel cramped.
His current appearance was completely different from before he entered the room.
Yu Lie was draped in dark green hair, his eyes crimson, his face twisted into a wolf-like appearance, giving off a fierce and cunning aura at first glance.
With his mouth open, droplets of saliva dripped from his mouth, falling onto the altar, foul-smelling and even slightly corrosive!
Hiss!
In the dim quiet room, a voice sounded:
"Hungry, so hungry..."
This voice was starkly different from Yu Lie's clear voice before, sounding like the clanging of metal, harsh and eerie.
Yu Lie's eyes also took on an inhuman indifference as he looked around, immediately wanting to jump off the altar, break the silence of the room, and search for blood to feed on.
But as soon as he moved, the hemp rope tied around his neck was tugged, restraining him.
The force was extremely weak, the rope was just coarse hemp twisted together, but it immediately stopped Yu Lie's movements, freezing him in place.
A hint of reason emerged from Yu Lie's eyes as he looked down at the old dog rope tied to the iron stake, hesitated for a moment, then silently sat back down.
Following that, low growls echoed in the quiet room:
"Wolf? Human?"
"Wolf! Human?!! Roar..."
The breathing grew heavier, and the narrow room seemed to turn into a wind tunnel, with a chilling wind blowing through.
The wolf power within Yu Lie erupted, his wolf nature also surging, invading his mind, trying to take over his spiritual platform.
The most critical and difficult part of taking the medicine lay here!
To gain the power of a monstrous creature, a person must endure inhuman thoughts and subdue and suppress them, becoming their master. Otherwise, even if the physical transformation is complete, they would only become a monster, not a cultivator.
And subduing it temporarily is not the end; it's akin to catching prey and swallowing it without digesting it. After coming out of seclusion, one must remain vigilant and constantly cleanse themselves. Only when the beastly power and nature within the body are completely eradicated is the transformation truly complete, and the person can proceed to the next transformation.
Howl!
The sound of exhaling grew louder in the quiet room with each passing day.
Yu Lie, seated on the stone altar covered in talismans, felt increasingly restrained with each passing day.
In his eyes, the paper talismans seemed like sharp steel knives threatening him, ready to gut him if he dared to step half a foot away from the altar.
The ritual of taking the medicine continued to take effect, whether it was the dog rope, sandalwood incense, paper talismans, stone altar, or the quiet room itself, all were aiding Yu Lie in containing the growing wolf nature in his mind.
But as time went on, Yu Lie's inner fear and dread also grew.
Because according to the scriptures, the transformation into a "wolf-like tiger" usually only required seven days of seclusion.
Three days were for the body to endure the transformation into a beast, shedding the mortal and transcending, another three days were for subduing the wild thoughts, imprisoning the beastly nature, and the final day was for the young cultivator to prepare beforehand and catch their breath afterward.
However, in the quiet room, after three days of physical transformation, Yu Lie had endured for a full nine days, far exceeding the usual seven-day transformation period.
This not only kept him mentally tense and increasingly fatigued, but also filled him with fear of whether he had already failed... and where the end would be?
This kind of indefinite suffering was the most torturous.
However, Yu Lie was well aware that the reason he encountered this problem was ninety-nine percent due to him choosing a wolf demon at the level of a monster as his medicine.
The gap between a ninth-grade young cultivator and a seventh-grade monster was simply too vast. This was not something that ordinary rituals could assist with; it required more powerful formations, rarer elixirs, stronger mental fortitude, and so on!
It was only because Yu Lie's innate qualities were good, the ritual, though crude, was flawless, and he also had a Spirit-Enhancing Pill. Most importantly, the organs of the wolf demon, soaked in a bronze wine cup for nearly half a day, had their toxicity reduced...
Otherwise, for an ordinary young cultivator, sudden death would be the norm, and even if they didn't die on the spot, the success rate would not exceed ten percent!
Through hardships and difficulties, jade is transformed into a gem!
Once this transformation was complete, the power Yu Lie would gain would undoubtedly be at the pinnacle of the young cultivator realm, serving as a solid foundation for his longevity!
Time passed, the ordeal continued!
Finally, it was the ninth day after taking the medicine.
The breathing in the quiet room was faint, dead silent. Yu Lie sat cross-legged on the altar, his head hanging low, as if he had already died, not moving at all.
At this moment, his figure was no longer huge but extremely emaciated, hunched over, every tendon and bone visible, resembling a skeleton draped in skin and flesh.