Among the mountains in the eastern part of Baitou Mountain, one peak pierced straight into the clouds.

At the summit of this peak, a sharp rock jutted out at an angle, shaped like an eagle’s beak. Thus, it was named Eagle Beak Cliff.

As the crimson sun began to rise, an agile figure was making a steady, unhurried ascent up the cliff face below Eagle Beak Cliff.

He held a Steel Awl, long as a nail, and used an axe to hammer it into the hard rock face before using it as a hold to continue his upward climb.

He repeated this process over and over. His pace was slow, but his progress was remarkably steady.

"This is even more thrilling than the extreme sports from my past life."

Zhao Lin muttered, glancing up at the summit that towered into the clouds.

The cliff face was smooth and steep. The slightest misstep would mean a fatal fall from mid-air.

If it weren’t for his goal of unlocking the second slot on the Spirit Beast Scroll, he never would have risked venturing this deep in search of the legendary "rock donkeys."

The main reason Zhao Lin dared to attempt such a feat was the strength in his hands and his immense stamina. He didn’t have to worry about his energy giving out halfway up.

After half a day of climbing, just as he was about to reach the summit, he suddenly heard a commotion.

Zhao Lin looked up to see a dozen or so antelope-like animals with long, black horns appear on the edge above him.

The animals stood on the near-vertical cliff face, their astonishing leaps and precise landings allowing them to move as if in flight. The summit was shrouded in mist, making it seem as if they were treading on the very clouds.

’So these are the rock donkeys?’ Zhao Lin stared, dumbfounded.

By the time he hauled himself onto the summit, the animals had already run off into the distance.

Zhao Lin surveyed his surroundings. The summit was vast and open, covered in rocks, low shrubs, and a few scattered groves of trees.

From a distance, the rock donkeys watched Zhao Lin, seemingly quite curious about this upright, two-legged creature.

The moment Zhao Lin approached, they scattered, their running speed simply incredible.

By now, Zhao Lin could see the "rock donkeys" clearly. They looked a lot like the antelopes he’d seen on television in his previous life. They were larger than sheep but much smaller than donkeys. He had no idea why they were called "rock donkeys." 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

’I’ll just call you Black-horned Antelopes.’

Zhao Lin noticed their two curved horns were a lustrous black and casually gave them the new name.

The weather below the mountain was warm, but a biting wind still blew on the summit. Zhao Lin pulled his clothes tighter, sat on a large rock, and quietly observed the Black-horned Antelopes.

The Black-horned Antelopes leaped with incredible grace. Their small white tails stood erect, their necks stretched long, and their four hooves splayed out. With their heads and rumps pointing as high as possible, their bodies formed an almost perfect reverse arch.

A single, light leap could carry them three meters into the air, completely without effort.

’This is the speed I’ve been looking for.’

Zhao Lin nodded in satisfaction, thinking to himself that all his hard work had not been in vain.

If he absorbed the Essence Soul of a Black-horned Antelope, his speed would definitely reach a new level.

He had already formulated a plan to catch one before he arrived. Chasing them was impossible, and a sneak attack was hopeless. The best method was to set snares in an area they frequented.

Around noon, the Black-horned Antelopes gathered to drink from a small stream in a shady part of the summit. An idea struck Zhao Lin, and he decided to set his snares right by the water.

He took out the rope he had prepared, tied the knots, and secured one end of each rope to a rock or tree trunk. He made over a dozen snares in one go.

He arranged the snares around the small stream. Once he was finished, Zhao Lin moved a good distance away and waited for his prey to fall into the traps.

The mountain wind howled, whipping sand into his face. Zhao Lin hid in a sheltered spot and quietly let the time pass.

At dusk, he heard a violent thrashing sound. He hurried over to his snares and discovered he had caught three Black-horned Antelopes.

A young Black-horned Antelope, a female, and a male.

’Could it be a family of three?’

Zhao Lin untied a knot and released the young Black-horned Antelope first.

Once free, the young Black-horned Antelope immediately ran off, but it didn’t go far. It just stood there, bleating.

Seeing that it seemed reluctant to leave its mother, Zhao Lin released the female Black-horned Antelope as well.

Traveling the mountain path was inconvenient, and he could only carry one kill with him. He might as well do a good deed.

The remaining male Black-horned Antelope wasn’t so lucky. Zhao Lin snapped its neck.

Soon, the Black-horned Antelope’s Essence Soul slowly rose from its corpse, gathering and taking form above it.

The Spirit Beast Scroll stirred once more.

’It reacted, just as I expected!’

Overjoyed, Zhao Lin inhaled sharply, drawing the Black-horned Antelope’s Essence Soul into his body.

The Black-horned Antelope’s Essence Soul was completely different from those of the old yellow ox and the bear he had previously absorbed.

The Essence Souls of the bear and the old yellow ox had primarily strengthened his muscles and bones. In contrast, the Black-horned Antelope’s Essence Soul delved deep into the connections between muscle and bone, repeatedly stimulating his fascia, especially at the joints—his tendons, Achilles tendons, and ligaments.

Zhao Lin felt as if his sinews were being yanked out, stretched like rubber bands, and twisted into knots...

Having already endured the agony of skin refinement, Zhao Lin’s pain tolerance was quite high, but this new experience was still an exquisite, agonizing pleasure.

Since no one was around, he simply started shouting to vent the pain.

After a long while, the pain finally subsided.

Zhao Lin stood up, stretching his arms and moving his feet. He felt a surging power welling up inside him, like a wild horse that had broken its reins, rampaging through his torso.

Run. The urge to run had never been so intense.

Zhao Lin moved away from the stream and spotted a thick, dead tree trunk not far ahead, estimating the distance to be about one hundred meters.

He crouched down, placed his hands on the ground, one leg bent in front and the other kneeling behind, assuming the starting position for a hundred-meter dash.

"Ready... Go!"

After shouting the command to himself, Zhao Lin’s legs exploded with power, and his body shot forward with a WHOOSH.

Wind howled past his ears. Zhao Lin felt his entire body surge with explosive power as his legs pumped furiously.

In the blink of an eye, he was in front of the great tree.

"Holy crap!"

He hastily reined in his momentum, planting one foot and tilting his body to the side, barely avoiding a collision with the tree trunk.

Once he steadied himself, Zhao Lin gasped for breath, his heart pounding with excitement.

’If I could go back to my previous life, I could definitely win two Olympic gold medals: one for weightlifting and one for the hundred-meter dash.’

’If I evolved for a while longer, I could probably bag the events that require both strength and explosive power, like the shot put, discus, and javelin, too.’

’In other words, the Black-horned Antelope’s Essence Soul primarily enhances speed, but it also has a secondary effect on strength.’

He silently contemplated the two completely different changes brought about by the two Essence Souls.

The bear favored absolute strength, while the Black-horned Antelope emphasized explosive power. The former was raw strength in the traditional sense, while the latter was most directly expressed as a great increase in speed and agility.

In short, power and speed.

Zhao Lin took a deep breath. This was the first time since his transmigration that he had felt a sense of security.

Strength gave him confidence, but speed gave him a sense of security.

’With speed, he was in an invincible position. If he couldn’t win a fight, he could always run.’

Just then, Zhao Lin noticed that in his mind’s eye, an icon of a Black-horned Antelope had appeared in the second slot of the Spirit Beast Scroll.

A question suddenly popped into Zhao Lin’s mind: ’Now that I have two Essence Souls, how will the Primordial Qi I absorb be distributed?’

He desperately needed to replenish his energy with a large amount of food, so he immediately sat down, took out the flatbreads and dried meat he was carrying, and ate it all with some water.

A moment later, a white mist began to emerge from both slots simultaneously. The mist in the Black-horned Antelope’s slot was visibly denser than in the bear’s—in fact, there was almost half as much again.

’It seems the Spirit Beast Scroll knows how to distribute the Primordial Qi from food,’ he realized. ’I don’t have to worry at all!’