Chapter 72: Chapter Seventy: Wild Devouring

No, Wu Tie rubbed his eyes.

Through the hazy mist, he couldn't see very clearly.

Two black skeletons were not standing outside the bone gate; instead, most of their frames were embedded in the bone gate, with only a small half of the front bones exposed. They and this black bone gate were one entity.

The black bone gate was six meters wide and about ten meters high, its frame merging with the cavern wall of the mine.

The cave wall around the frame was also pitch black; at first glance its texture was neither metal nor iron, neither stone nor jade, nor like the black bone texture of the bone gate, and Wu Tie could not tell what material this wall was made of.

However, the feeling given by the cave wall near the frame and the rock layer where the ore vein lay seemed to be that the bone gate came first, then the wall around it, and only gradually did this rare rich ore deposit develop.

Wu Tie even had a bold guess.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this bone gate that, under the influence of some mysterious force, this prosperous mine pit was nurtured?

Wu Tie took a step forward; he was now less than fifty meters from the bone gate.

Around the frame of the bone gate, the previously blank cave wall suddenly rippled with splendid black cloud-pattern light and shadow, countless cloud patterns undulating like water waves, with vast streams of black light continually gushing forth.

Thumb-sized, ancient and heavy, each stroke carrying an unfathomable aura of heaven and earth and an indescribable cosmic mystery, the ancient characters drifted out from the cloud patterns.

These ancient characters burst forth like fireworks, fluttering like fireflies outside the bone gate; in just a few breaths they formed a text of over three thousand runes, hovering silently before the bone gate.

Wu Tie merely glanced at the scripture hovering before the bone gate, and his mind and spirit were shaken.

His very soul seemed about to be sucked into that black scripture; his body trembled slightly, as if he could not help but sit cross-legged to seriously contemplate the scripture.

Even the primordial vigor within his body surged violently, with several strands bursting uncontrollably from his lower abdomen, flowing along his unobstructed meridians and circulating along a strange trajectory.

The foundation Wu Tie laid during his Foundation Establishment was flawless; his innermost meridians were unobstructed, tough and spacious enough to accommodate the violent circulation of primordial vigor. Thus, in just a breath, those few uncontrolled strands of primordial vigor completed a full heavenly circuit.

The trajectory formed a strange rune within Wu Tie's body; cool breezes blew from the surrounding air, and strands of weird primordial energy emanating black chill and piercing cold seeped out of the air like tiny poisonous snakes crawling toward Wu Tie.

Wu Tie was startled.

This scripture is strange.

He merely glanced at it, yet involuntarily began to cultivate.

He didn't even understand what the scripture said, yet his primordial vigor became agitated and began to cultivate along an unknown trajectory.

"You're forcing the good into prostitution..." Wu Tie's body shuddered violently as he instinctively used a phrase he had learned from Lao Tie; regardless of whether the word was appropriate here, his body trembled and he instinctively wanted to step back.

On the cave wall outside the bone gate, patches of cloud patterns rolled silently, and black light like water waves spread outward in all directions.

The black scripture hovered in midair, an invisible soul-attracting force firmly latched onto Wu Tie; he struggled to retreat, but no matter how hard he tried, his body remained utterly immobile.

It was as if he had fallen into the most terrifying nightmare.

Within his body, the primordial vigor spun rapidly, the rune traced by its trajectory growing ever clearer. Wu Tie could feel his temperature slowly dropping, and those few strands of primordial vigor undergoing a strange transformation.

The black scripture hovering before him writhed, and an unfathomable pressure bore down.

Wave after wave of deep, complex information surged toward Wu Tie's mind, seeking to be directly imprinted upon it.

This was the same method Lao Tie used to transmit data—both aimed to use secret arts to directly imprint certain inheritances onto Wu Tie's mind.

Golden light blazed at Wu Tie's brow, his heart convulsed violently, and he sensed a great danger closing in step by step.

The inheritance within this black scripture is not a good path.

Wu Tie bellowed hoarsely, exerting all his strength to stir his blood and qi; the primordial vigor in his lower abdomen erupted explosively like a blazing volcano. He drove his gang energy, slamming it hard against those few strands of unruly primordial vigor.

Those few aberrant strands of primordial vigor exploded into fragments, and the strange rune trajectory just formed within Wu Tie's body was shattered to pieces.

"Between heaven and earth there is righteous qi; it assumes myriad forms—below as rivers and mountains, above as sun and stars……"

Wu Tie's bloodline surged and boiled; his blood dripped away drop by drop, yet as it diminished it became ever more pure and refined.

Countless voices rang in his mind, all loudly reciting an exquisite five-character line; Wu Tie joined in, chanting it aloud as well.

Within his body, vast righteous qi suddenly expanded a hundredfold, filling him completely; pure yang and steadfast, a chill righteous vigor burst forth, and every pore of Wu Tie's body sprayed out pure white flames.

The streams of primordial energy emanating black chill and cold qi, wriggling like poisonous snakes, were struck by the vast righteous qi; accompanied by a piercing shriek, these yin-cold primordial energies shattered explosively, then burst into tiny white flames hovering in the air and burning fiercely.

The scripture of over three thousand characters, suffused with terrifying evil force, invaded Wu Tie's mind, seeking to imprint vast information deep into his soul.

Vast righteous qi surged straight to his brow, mixing with a great amount of blood and qi into a golden light cluster.

Wu Tie's soul suddenly blazed like the sun; the golden light cluster expanded a hundredfold, emitting boundless pure yang golden light that illuminated his mind and blasted the invading external evil force into fragments.

Wu Tie clutched his head and cried out in pain.

The evil force was shattered, yet that information stubbornly remained imprinted in his mind.

"Formless Bone Devil Scripture"

A sinister secret chapter of the Formless Bone Devil Scripture was imprinted upon Wu Tie's mind; he instantly absorbed all its cultivation secrets, and even some of its esoteric techniques were fully inherited.

The Formless Bone Devil Scripture is profoundly mysterious and exquisite, yet compared to the knowledge Lao Tie once imparted to Wu Tie, its total volume differs by countless orders of magnitude; given Wu Tie's current soul strength, he easily inherited the entirety of this scripture.

Strands of sinister yet profoundly wondrous information flowed like a jet-black icy stream, slowly trickling through his heart.

Wu Tie helplessly realized that he had completely absorbed this scripture.

Fortunately he had vast righteous qi protecting his body, fortunately he had activated his bloodline divine ability, fortunately he had earlier awakened his soul power……

Fortunately, he had obtained some inconceivable power from his bloodline.

Thus, though he received the inheritance of this heavily evil scripture, he was not controlled by its technique.

He instinctively turned his head and glanced at the few Elders of the Shi and Lu families lying on the ground, shaking his head with pity.

These poor fellows differed from the weak mutant warriors outside the cave; those mutants were completely corrupted by the evil bone aura emanating from the Formless Bone Devil Scripture, turning into walking corpses akin to mutant bone demons.

But these Elders, having come here, just like Wu Tie, passively accepted the inheritance of the Formless Bone Devil Scripture.

However, they could not withstand the evil force that surged straight into their minds during the scripture's transmission; their consciousness was erased, and they became puppets controlled by this black bone gate.

They lay motionless on the ground, practicing the first level of the Formless Bone Devil Scripture—the Formless Profound Bone Transformation.

"Profound bone" refers generally to black bones.

When the Formless Profound Bone Transformation is perfected, one becomes a black skeleton with half the body embedded in the black bone gate—a three‑meter‑tall bony frame.

If Wu Tie were afflicted, he too would end up prone on the ground like those Elders, absorbing the yin‑cold primordial energy from the air, gradually merging his blood‑and‑flesh essence into his bones, and ultimately becoming a completely black bony skeleton.

"Really damned weird." Wu Tie cursed.

He looked at the over-three-thousand-character Formless Bone Devil Scripture floating before him, he suddenly raised the White Tiger Rend, infusing his whole body's Primordial Gang and Vast Righteous Qi into it. Accompanied by a piercing tearing sound, a white radiance over three feet long spurted from the tip of the White Tiger Rend spear.

Fierce and vast, it was filled with a supreme majesty that made all evil forces retreat.

Wu Tie let out a roar, suddenly stepped forward and thrust his spear straight, striking the scripture floating in the air.

The white radiance shattered with a boom, and waves of majestic Vast Righteous Qi slammed into the scripture. The scripture writhed violently, as strands of evil power continually surged out from it, clashing and annihilating layer upon layer.

In a tremendous roar, a large expanse of Cold Qi spread outward, the scripture shattered with a blast, exploding into countless white sparks that scattered.

On the black Bone Gate, the eye sockets of the two black skeletons about three meters high lit up with oily green flames, two fist-sized green fires burning fiercely in their sockets, the Bone Gate emitted a "ka-ka" sound, and the two black skeletons slowly pulled their bodies out of the Bone Gate.

After a dozen breaths, the two skeletons broke free from the Bone Gate's confinement and hurriedly charged toward Wu Tie.

As the skeletons moved, they left huge black afterimages; before Wu Tie was nothing but swaying black skeletons, two bone swords only a finger wide but nearly two meters long, emitting a piercing screech, traced white traces in the air and continually stabbed at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie had no time to spare; he shook his hand, the armguard formed from the White Tiger Rend flew up, accompanied by a low tiger roar, the White Tiger Rend spear unfolded, which he gripped tightly, the spear sweeping out perfect arcs to block the sky-filling sword light.

His physical strength reached a hundred thousand catties; Wu Tie infused a strand of Primordial Gang into the White Tiger Rend, adjusting its weight to around ten thousand catties.

Wu Tie swung the White Tiger Rend with both arms; the heavy White Tiger Rend tore open the air, a large amount of air flowed into the white tiger head, and a low tiger roar could be heard faintly and continuously.

Hearing this tiger roar, Wu Tie felt his blood surge, his heart filled with boundless fighting courage, his movements suddenly quickened and his strength increased.

If Wu Tie's enemies were living beings, hearing this tiger roar would shock their minds, inexplicably weakening their strength by twenty to thirty percent, slowing their speed, muddling their consciousness, and causing various flaws to involuntarily expose themselves.

The White Tiger Rend is truly a divine weapon for frontal slaughter on the battlefield.

The two black skeletons, however, were unaffected by this tiger roar; they were merely puppets controlled by evil sorcery, lacking any true consciousness. They moved like wind swirling rapidly around Wu Tie, leaving afterimages on all sides, countless sword lights like lightning striking, tightly entwining Wu Tie's body.

Compared to these two black skeletons, Wu Tie's strength, speed, and reactions were completely outmatched.

The White Tiger Rend never managed to clash head-on with the two bone swords; the wailing bone swords, like ghosts, slipped through the White Tiger Rend's defenses and struck Wu Tie repeatedly.

A continuous "hiss-hiss" sound filled his ears; in just a short breath, Wu Tie's body was covered with over a hundred wounds deep to the bone.

Fortunately, the skeletons' sword techniques were odd; they favored thrusting and avoided slashing.

The bone swords thrust easily through Wu Tie's flesh, but each time they struck his bones they emitted a piercing impact, shaking Wu Tie so he lost his footing, while the bone swords rebounded off his bones.

Each sword left faint marks on Wu Tie's bones, but none could truly cripple his bones.

These bone swords were only a finger wide, their tips as thin as a needle, like cicada wings; each puncture through Wu Tie's flesh left only a fine line of blood, with barely any bleeding.

In a single breath he was struck by over a hundred swords, Wu Tie hurt so badly tears sprayed from his eyes.

He swung the White Tiger Rend and shouted, but the White Tiger Rend could not reach the two skeletons dashing like the wind.

As the Formless Bone Devil Scripture said, these two skeletons were truly formless and traceless, swift as ghosts, leaving Wu Tie in despair.

Suddenly, the two skeletons thrust forward, their bone swords simultaneously piercing Wu Tie's scapular groove with great force, the thin bone swords sinking deep into the bone gap.

Wu Tie winced in pain, his right arm jerking up, instantly locking the two bone swords in the scapular bone gap.

Wu Tie's body hung from the two bone swords, being dragged wildly across the ground by the skeletons.

Wu Tie wept profusely from the pain, instinctively trembling his left fingers, he suddenly raised his left hand and slammed a heavy palm onto the two bone swords.

The black bone swords shattered with a boom, turning into a vast torrent of flowing light that Wu Tie's left finger bones swallowed whole.

The two skeletons abruptly halted, standing there blankly, lifting their right hands in a dazed manner to look at the two hilts remaining from the shattered bone swords.

Wu Tie lunged forward without a word, his left hand striking like lightning and slamming hard onto the skeletons' lumbar vertebrae.

With two booming "dong-dong" sounds, the skeletons' lumbar vertebrae snapped, their upper and lower bodies separating instantly as they collapsed to the ground.

Afterwards, the two skeletons inexplicably began to disintegrate entirely, their bones shattering in the high-speed tremors, exploding into countless fragments that turned into streams of light continually swallowed by Wu Tie's left hand.

A dim, dark radiance flowed from Wu Tie's left fingers across his entire body, his bones simultaneously emitting a dim, dark glow.

"Done for... I'm going to die!" Wu Tie exclaimed in fright, his soul flying outward, he widened his eyes and hastily sat cross-legged on the ground.