Chapter 74

It's possible that the joint search team of the Shi Family and the Lu Family hadn't even approached this gate before the entire force was wiped out.

Wu Tie walked step by step to the black bone gate.

He turned his head to look into the distance, at the Shi Family and Lu Family experts lying on the ground.

Unable to withstand the erosion of the Formless Bone Demon Scripture, their souls were eroded by the evil power within the scripture, and their bodily strength began to cultivate this sinister, chilling technique, transforming them from living flesh-and-blood people into bony puppets.

"I can hold it; there should be no problem inside the gate." Wu Tie placed his confident hands on the black bone gate.

His heart was filled with passion, filled with anticipation.

With a forceful push of both arms, his bones mutated again, and his cultivation broke through to the peak of primordial vigor permeating the body; his pure bodily strength likely exceeded two hundred thousand catties.

He unleashed a force capable of shaking a small hill, yet the bone gate remained unmoved.

Wu Tie stared blankly, instinctively withdrew his hands, and looked at his palms. He then looked at the black bone gate, furrowed his brows, and only then carefully examined this gate set into the rock wall.

The black bone gate, a seamless whole, was entirely set into the rock wall, as if it had completely merged with the surrounding stone.

"This gate..."

A bone-piercing cold qi continuously spewed from the bone gate; when Wu Tie's exhaled breath touched the gate, it turned into tiny ice crystals that bounced back.

The "hiss-hiss" sound of the ice crystals hitting the ground was clearly audible; the temperature of this bone gate was astonishingly low.

"I don't believe it." Wu Tie shouted, assuming the starting stance of the Diamond Subduing Demon Fist; vast righteous qi infused his body, primordial vigor filled his arms, and instantly his fists glowed with a faint golden light, within which threads of vast, magnificent white qi rose.

"Ha, ha, ha," three consecutive punches slammed into the black bone gate.

A faint chanting echoed in Wu Tie's mind; he opened his mouth, and dim golden light sprayed out, within which tiny lotus petals seemed to slowly condense. His heavy punch struck the bone gate, and the black light patterns on its surface surged violently, layer after layer of black light bursting forth.

In the snap of a finger, a ferocious black skull filled the entire bone gate; the skull formed of light opened its maw and let out a silent roar at Wu Tie. A tremendous recoil force surged forward; Wu Tie grunted and staggered backward in retreat.

A thin layer of black ice flakes quickly coated Wu Tie's fists, then spread across his entire body.

The vast righteous qi shuddered, and the spearhead of the Diamond Subduing Demon Fist surged and leapt; the black ice flakes shattered and fell. Wu Tie stepped heavily on the ground, each step leaving a three-inch-deep footprint in the mine tunnel, and he was forced to retreat over a hundred meters.

After finally stabilizing his stance, he shook his slightly numb fists, and Wu Tie looked in horror at the black bone gate.

After a moment's contemplation, Wu Tie unfurled the White Tiger Rend, shouted loudly, leaned forward, and sprinted forward at full speed. The White Tiger Rend spat out a three-foot chilling blade, accompanied by a faint yet earth-shaking tiger's roar, and thrust straight at the black bone gate.

The faster Wu Tie ran, the louder the tiger's roar from the White Tiger Rend became.

Wu Tie's heart brimmed with unstoppable courage; he strode forward and reached the black bone gate, where the White Tiger Rend thrust with all its might.

Countless minuscule points of light flickered across the surface of the White Tiger Rend.

A terrifying killing aura suddenly surged from the White Tiger Rend; the chilling blade flashed, and the enormous black skull on the bone gate flung its mouth wide, letting out a tremendous boom as the black-light-formed skull shattered.

The White Tiger Rend shattered the black-light skull, and its spear thrust into the bone gate.

The spearhead, over two feet long, sank completely into the bone gate, as easily as a steel blade cutting tofu.

Wu Tie gripped the White Tiger Rend with both hands and dealt a fierce downward chop. A sharp tearing sound rang out as the black bone gate was torn open bit by bit by the White Tiger Rend, gradually forming a two-meter-long gash.

Vast amounts of cold qi gushed from the black bone gate, accompanied by strange whistling sounds that continually issued from the crack.

Wu Tie gritted his teeth, heedless of danger, extended his left index finger, poured primordial vigor into the first phalanx, and then slammed it with all his might toward the bone gate.

Countless twisted light patterns appeared on the bone gate, like vortex-like strange markings rapidly spinning, resembling a black hole, possessing a terrifying suction that seemed to want to draw a person's soul out of their flesh and seal it completely within this eerie gate.

Wu Tie's left index finger trembled violently, and a dim glow emerged out of nowhere.

This was because Wu Tie's finger had merged with that bone fragment; it was the first time he truly and actively activated this finger, and the first time he truly and actively used this phalanx to attack something.

Before this, whenever Wu Tie encountered danger, this finger would spontaneously tremble and burst forth, spontaneously crushing his opponents.

He fiercely jabbed his index finger onto the black bone gate.

With a dull thud, large swaths of black light patterns shattered; where Wu Tie's finger struck, the bone gate exploded outward, creating a depression the size of a human head.

The shattered bone gate exploded into countless fine bone powders, and thread after thread of luminous light visible only to Wu Tie sprayed out, being sucked into his phalanx.

Familiar heat surged from his phalanx; this time, Wu Tie's tolerance had greatly increased.

He stood motionless, primordial vigor permeating his bones; his bones trembled, emitting a pleasant "ding-ding" sound as fragments of bone absorbed and exhaled the bone gate's essence, and any excess heat that could not be contained was fed back into Wu Tie's flesh and viscera.

The vast righteous qi was busily occupied.

This small bone-gate fragment the size of a human head contained a hundred times more yin-cold evil impurities than the two three-meter-tall black skeletons just seen; the vast righteous qi continually expelled these yin-cold impurities, and Wu Tie's body quickly became coated with a thin layer of black ice flakes.

The chilling cold qi spread outward in all directions; Wu Tie's surroundings became scorching hot, and sweat continually streamed down his forehead.

The black ice flakes on his body persisted for about a moment, finally evaporating from the heat radiating from within him.

Wu Tie's eyes shone brightly; beholding this massive bone gate, he eagerly brandished the White Tiger Rend and hacked at it wildly, completely shattering the layers of flickering black light patterns on the gate.

This bone gate was also a decent treasure, but it had the misfortune to encounter Yang Jian's personal weapon from years ago, and the gap in quality between them was enormous.

Even the White Tiger Rend, wielded by Wu Tie, a mere novice at the Foundation Establishment stage, possessed lethality that was truly immense.

Some of the bone gate's internal self-defense prohibitions were completely torn apart by the White Tiger Rend, turning it into a clean little lamb that could only be left for Wu Tie to feast upon.

His left index finger kept jabbing the bone gate, with continuous "bang-bang" bursting sounds; the black bone gate kept cracking in pieces, and bone gate essence continually was absorbed by Wu Tie.

Time passed bit by bit, and Wu Tie became immersed in his body's continual strengthening, unable to extricate himself.

When he had finished dismantling and absorbing the entire bone gate, his body once again became astonishingly hot, waves of tremendous heat seeping from his bones, his internal energy brimming, nearly to the point of explosion.

The Foundation Establishment Form, the 1081 forms, slowly unfolded.

Wu Tie began cultivating the 120 forms that follow the Foundation Establishment Form.

As the stance of the 1081 forms opened, a golden light cluster at Wu Tie's brow trembled violently; golden light rained down continuously, swiftly merging into his body.

Wu Tie's mental power permeated his entire body; with his eyes closed, he could faintly "see" the conditions of every part of his physique.

"Inner Vision!"

The first 1080 forms of the Foundation Establishment Form temper the flesh, strengthen blood and primordial vigor, bringing the body to its perfect state.

While the subsequent 120 forms enable the cultivator to thoroughly "know" and "feel" their powerful body—each muscle, each bone, each nerve, each blood vessel…

What they are like, how they operate.

How they relate to primordial vigor, and how they absorb external primal energy.

From the five viscera and six bowels, the brain and spinal cord, down to a single strand of hair, a single fine hair…

The golden light cluster formed from soul power turned into a light rain that slowly merged into his whole body, giving Wu Tie a feeling of lightness and exaltation, as if about to ascend in feathered transcendence.

For an ordinary person, mastering the final 120 forms still requires relying on blood qi to nourish the brain, slowly nurturing a wisp of wandering spiritual power that gradually merges into the whole body; thus it is an extremely long, painstaking effort.

But Wu Tie activated his bloodline talent divine ability.

His soul power had already condensed outward, and the spiritual power manifesting externally from his soul power was already quite strong.

He does not need to temporarily condense spiritual power; as long as he guides the spiritual power to gradually merge with his whole body, repeatedly and slowly tempering his physique, he can smoothly complete the latter 120 forms.

Under the pull of the Foundation Establishment, his whole body's blood qi, primordial vigor, and external primordial energy surged forth together.

The golden light rain tempered his whole body, and the energy of his whole body then nourished the golden light cluster at his brow.

Because of Old Tie's knowledge inheritance, the majority of the golden light cluster began to burn and slowly expand, with strands of golden flow gradually emerging and joyfully merging into the golden light cluster.

The range that Wu Tie's intangible force could cover also began to expand point by point outward.

Wherever the intangible force passed, the sand, pebbles, and fallen ore on the ground silently floated up, hovering several meters above the ground, then slowly swirled around Wu Tie.

While Wu Tie devoured the entire black bone door and immersed himself in cultivation, oblivious to worldly affairs, a cliff at the very top of the Nether Demon Mine suddenly writhed silently and split open a huge mouth.

Shi Meng and Shi Fei brothers poked their heads out from the cave and walked out.

They looked down at the huge Nether Demon Mine shrouded in gray mist; their faces were somewhat grim, showing a mix of anticipation, apprehension, and fear.

Because Wu Tie swallowed the black bone door, large clumps of piercing cold qi mixed with gray mist continually spewed from the door, making the gray mist in the Nether Demon Mine many times thicker than before; one could clearly see dense, abnormal clumps of gray mist rolling up from the pit's bottom, gradually engulfing the entire mine.

"It seems much more terrifying than before." Shi Meng shivered.

"Cut the chatter, this demonic qi I can't block… you have the giant clan's inheritance secret treasure protecting your body, I can't withstand it." Shi Fei struggled to lift his leg; he had intended to kick Shi Meng's butt, but his big belly made lifting his leg difficult, so he could only kick Shi Meng's shin.

Shi Meng nodded, turned around, and carried out a huge crimson cauldron from the cave he had shouted open.

The three-legged, two-eared cauldron radiated dazzling light, fire blazing in all directions; within the surging flames could be faintly seen winged Yingdragons coiling and dancing, the cauldron about a meter tall unusually lively, obviously an extremely rare treasure!

"Using such a fine treasure as fish bait… I hope those old fogies will fall for it." Shi Meng fondled the cauldron, sighing: "Back when we brothers secretly dug the Lu family's ancestral grave… this cauldron… was obtained with great difficulty."

Shi Fei kicked Shi Meng's shin again: "Cut the nonsense, I can barely hold on… digging the Lu family's ancestral grave, you're the culprit; we lack the skill to blast open the rock wall and make a passage—it was you, kid, who led the charge."

Shi Fei gave Shi Meng a sideways glance and scolded: "You're also quite wicked—just because the Lu family girl doesn't like you, you go dig up her ancestors' grave… sigh, sigh, how did I end up with a brother who holds a grudge so fiercely?"

After berating Shi Meng, Shi Fei also fondled the cauldron lovingly.

"Ah, what a fine treasure—using it as fish bait pains me too, but… for the Shi Family." Shi Fei sighed and shook his head.

"For the Shi Family." Shi Meng fiercely hoisted the cauldron; his arms bulged with muscle, accompanied by a sharp 'crack', his arms suddenly lengthened and thickened several times over, two seven- to eight-meter-long arms seized the cauldron and hurled it hard toward the mine's center.

The cauldron traced a line of fire, spewing flames as it plummeted swiftly.

After a while, the cauldron hit the ground with a thunderous boom; vast flames covered about half the mine, then a thick red beam several dozen meters wide shot skyward from the pit's bottom straight to the ceiling above.

The surrounding gray mist was pushed back by the firelight, not a wisp of it able to approach this blaze.

"Go, go, hurry and retreat." Shi Fei's skin was coated with a thin layer of ice chips, his fatty flesh trembling all over as he scrambled back into the stone cave.

Shi Meng strode back to the cave entrance; the rock wall behind him writhed, quickly remerged, leaving no trace.

Outside the empty bone door frame, Wu Tie drew a deep breath, then slowly exhaled a long breath wave; the wave rolled like a dragon, tearing a long crack across the ground, he concluded his Foundation Establishment training and straightened his body.

An apparition appeared; bead-like droplets of visible primordial energy condensed on Wu Tie's skin, spinning 'dri-li-li' like pearls.

Wu Tie inhaled deeply again, and these primordial-energy droplets merged into his skin, vanishing completely.

"The Profound Mystery Realm is drawing nearer." Wu Tie gazed hopefully at the door frame where a faint glimmer leaked out, gripping the White Tiger Split tightly with both hands, and strode inside.

Behind the door was a black square space.

All around was empty; the walls seemed to bear various reliefs, but Wu Tie did not bother to see what they depicted.

His attention was wholly captured by the object at the center of this square space, about a li in length and width.

It was a pitch-black square bone cauldron.

Seeing this cauldron, about two meters tall with sides over four meters long, its name naturally surfaced in Wu Tie's mind.

On the cauldron an intangible force informed Wu Tie that this great cauldron was named the Bone Demon Holy Cauldron.