118: Silver Skull

After engaging in consecutive battles with Demonic Path Cultivators, Yang Kai had gained some insights into handling their treacherous Demonic Path tactics. A phantom image of the Morning Sun appeared out of thin air, and the undying skeleton frame instantly faltered.

"Absorbing the Sea of Consciousness of two Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivators is truly a great tonic. My Morning Sun True Intent has completely condensed in one go and can now influence the outside world." Yang Kai felt the changes within his Sea of Consciousness. The Divine Sense of two Late Stage Foundation Establishment Cultivators was equivalent to three years of Yang Kai's bitter cultivation. He now understood why so many were willing to fall into the Demonic Path; the improvement was indeed too fast. He was now certain that the "Great Sun Blazing Sun Divine Record" was absolutely a Demonic Path Cultivation Technique. He just didn't know where Flowing Cloud Zhenren, who had taken him as a Disciple back then, had obtained such an overbearing Demonic Path Cultivation Technique, and why he had taught it to him so easily.

Yang Kai wiped his finger, and the skeleton bone string appeared once again, circling around him. He tried to absorb this object, but it was to no avail.

Seeing the stalemate, Yang Kai had a thought and began to lean down to search through Shi Lei's personal belongings. This skeleton had drained all of Shi Lei's essence, even causing his Physical Body to dissipate completely, which made Yang Kai's search much easier. A Storage Ring, still stained with some mucus on the surface, along with several Storage Pouches, were collected by Yang Kai. Clearly, the truly valuable items were inside this filthy Storage Ring. It seemed it had previously been hidden by Shi Lei somewhere inside his body, so obtaining it now was effortless.

The protection on the Storage Ring was easily broken by Yang Kai. Most of the items did not catch his eye, but a few things made of some kind of bone in the shape of bamboo slips caught his attention. He picked them up to examine them.

"So this is a Bone Sect Legacy secret technique. It's similar to the Heavenly Demon Disintegration Method; both are desperate, life-risking measures. As long as this skeleton escapes back to the Sect, a Bone Sect Elder could retrieve Shi Lei's spiritual consciousness from it. However, it's clear that not just anyone can get a Bone Sect Elder to act; he must have been truly desperate." The inscriptions on these bone slips were few, and Yang Kai finished reading them quickly, already having a plan in mind.

"This skeleton bone string is just the most inferior method of the Bone Sect, usually only refined by Outer Sect Disciples at the Qi Refinement Stage. The Bone Sect has a systematic method for cultivating the Bone Dao. However, these Loose Cultivators don't know where they obtained the refining method for this skeleton bone string, but they lack the subsequent methods for advanced refining, leading them to only refine skeleton skulls endlessly, which is actually walking down the wrong path." Yang Kai now knew the origin of this skeleton bone string. He then used his Morning Sun True Intent to stabilize the chaotic consciousness within the skeleton frame and began to re-refine the skeleton bone string.

This was the first time Yang Kai had truly refined a Magic Treasure, and he hadn't expected it to be a Demonic Path Magic Treasure. His technique was unfamiliar, but fortunately, these skeleton skulls had previously absorbed a large amount of resentful spirit power. Thus, even if the refining failed, it would only cost some spiritual power and wouldn't damage his foundation. However, if he failed too many times, it could still lead to the destruction of the skeleton skulls and the bone string.

Yang Kai was clearly very talented at this. Apart from some minor mishaps at the beginning of the refining, he gradually got into the groove. The thirteen skeleton skulls had all been refined into a pool of silver liquid, spreading above Yang Kai's head like a galaxy.

"Condense!" Seeing that it had reached a critical juncture, Yang Kai poured his internal magic power into it rapidly as if it were worthless. He once again took out that Top-Grade Spirit Stone to supply the spiritual power needed for the refining.

As the silver liquid slowly gathered in one place, a dark silver skeleton frame was refined. Two balls of ghastly green ghost fire ignited in its eye sockets. It was connected to Yang Kai, the refiner, in mind and spirit. Yang Kai could directly control this object, just like a resentful spirit.

Yang Kai drove the silver skeleton to experiment, and it was exactly as recorded in the bone slips. Yang Kai knew it had been successfully refined. It was so smooth, firstly because Gu Ya had refined these skeleton skulls very well, and secondly, it had absorbed a large amount of the resentful spirits' spiritual power, which serendipitously allowed it to bypass the most difficult step of this refining method, leading to success in one go, as easily as mercury flowing onto the ground.

"Now I can deal with the trouble left behind by Shi Lei." Yang Kai cast his gaze towards the distant, motionless, pure white skeleton. The silver skeleton then dashed over and began to devour this skeleton.

The originally quiet white skeleton became frantic upon being attacked and fought with the silver skeleton. The silver skeleton had just been successfully refined and was far from being a match for this white skeleton, which had been refined after receiving the sacrifice of all of Shi Lei's flesh, blood, and cultivation essence. Its silver bones were beaten until they cracked and shattered. Yang Kai decisively joined the battle, and under their combined attack, the white skeleton gradually faltered and fell into a disadvantage.

"Is this Blood-Stained Skeleton method truly a life-saving measure? If this thing fell into the hands of other Disciples, it could save them decades of hard work in refining. To refine this skeleton from silver to this flawless white Realm, besides bitter refining, one would have to use that vicious refining method, perhaps at the cost of a great price and time. Perhaps this method is just meant to squeeze out the last bit of value from Bone Sect Disciples." Yang Kai felt a slight chill in his heart. Compared to these things, the Flowing Cloud Sect's ten-year elimination and lifelong service as a deacon Disciple for the Flowing Cloud Sect seemed much more harmonious.

Although Yang Kai probed his surroundings with his Divine Sense and did not find any unusual movements, he still resisted the urge to use his Physical Body cultivation to end the battle quickly. Everything he was doing now was undoubtedly Demonic Path behavior. The "Ninefold Mixed Origin Body Refining Art" was clearly not a Demonic Path technique. If he were to cast a few Immortal Path Spells, wouldn't he give himself away?

"Boom!" With the combined efforts of Yang Kai and the silver skeleton, the white skeleton was repeatedly scattered until it finally could not recover and fell apart all over the ground. The silver skeleton then directly picked up the fragments and devoured them. As it devoured more and more fragments, its skeleton body gradually became dyed with a pure white light, and the terrifying injuries it had previously sustained were completely recovered.

"This Shi Lei only had the method to refine the skeleton to the pure white skeleton Realm. To get the subsequent methods, I'm afraid I would have to find trouble with Bone Sect Disciples who are close to Core Formation. This pure white skeleton is so difficult to deal with even without anyone controlling it. If it were controlled by someone and combined with the Bone Sect's Demonic Path Spells, the power would truly not be to be underestimated. No wonder these Demonic Path scoundrels have the guts to sneak up to our door." Yang Kai thought to himself, only now did he have some understanding of the true strength of the Four Demonic Sects.

But he had no intention of retreating. He just made up his mind to only use Demonic Path methods to deal with enemies, and must not reveal any flaws. Yang Kai cleaned up the scene, erased the traces of his presence, and then returned along the original path to continue exploring deeper.

"This is already the county seat of Wusong County. This eerie fog has become even thicker. Not a single person can be seen on the street. It seems the civilians here have all been killed by these Demonic Cultivators." Thinking of this, Yang Kai's fist hidden in his sleeve quietly clenched, thinking that sooner or later, he would make these Demonic Path scoundrels pay the price.