The Skeleton That Called Its Friends

With a roar from the Silver Skeleton, a powerful sonic wave, like a raging storm, swept outwards, causing countless silver-white and copper-green skulls to emerge from the ground. The effect extended to an area spanning tens of thousands of kilometers.

The awakened silver-white skeletons roared towards the sky, seemingly calling for reinforcements. In an instant, the area, originally tens of thousands of kilometers wide, began to expand rapidly.

"The third piece of bad news is that some idiot just woke up Ancient Remains buried underground. Now, because of that relic, a large number of other relic have also woken up. It's estimated that it won't be long before the remaining relic with the will to fight also wake up."

After witnessing what had just happened, Sea Emperor warned Gu Ding and the others.

"Ancient Remains? Those guys have been dead for many years, haven't they? Weren't their souls absorbed by the vengeful spirits? How can the remains still have consciousness?" Gu Ding was a little confused, Liliath in the distance also raised a similar question.

"The souls of these remains have indeed dissipated, but their fighting spirit has not. A strong fighting spirit can also drive the body to fight. Moreover, over time, they can even re-condense a new consciousness and possess intelligence."

"It is said that on a battlefield in Ancient Era, a Heavenly Giant Ape, reaching the heavens, single-handedly stormed into the Human Race Camp and slaughtered indiscriminately. The carnage lasted for forty-nine days, annihilating a million powerful humans, before finally being suppressed by a Buddhist Cultivator Expert. People suspected that the giant ape had taken some special potion, so they sent a physician to examine it. They discovered that the Heavenly Giant Ape had already died forty-eight days prior; what sustained it in its continued battle was its powerful fighting will. After being suppressed, the giant ape did not perish but instead spent five hundred years developing a new consciousness, though its strength was greatly diminished, which is why it was banished by the Buddhist Cultivator Expert."

"Why does your strength decrease so drastically after a new consciousness is formed?" Gu Ding asked curiously.

"The birth of a new consciousness comes at the cost of the annihilation of the old, residual consciousness. The moment a new consciousness is born, the old consciousness completely disappears. Therefore, the new consciousness cannot accept the inheritance of the original consciousness, and many techniques and supernatural powers cannot be used. Its strength will naturally be greatly reduced," the Sea Emperor patiently explained.

"If no new consciousness is ever born, will he remain this strong forever?" Gu Ding couldn't help but ask again.

"No, once someone falls, no matter how strong their fighting spirit or how complete their remaining consciousness, it will eventually dissipate. If they don't cultivate a new consciousness, their strength will weaken day by day until one day they become a mere skeleton, serving no purpose other than being dug up and displayed in a museum."

"This is also one of the biggest differences between Body Refinement Cultivator and energy Body Cultivation. Their treatment after death is completely different. Once an energy Body Cultivation perishes, their body will disintegrate into energy fragments, slowly turning into energy particles and returning to the entire Universe Sea. But for Body Refinement Cultivator, if they are not disturbed by the external environment, their bodies will decay very slowly, and their bones can be preserved almost permanently."

The Sea Emperor's explanation finally made Gu Ding understand why these skeletons had the same fighting power as living creatures.

"Judging from the current situation, the number of awakened skeletons will continue to increase, and influenced by their fighting spirit, they will definitely be extremely warlike. If they encounter outsiders, they will certainly kill them without mercy. However, fortunately, only Bronze Level and Silver Level skeletons have awakened so far, so Liliath and the others should be able to handle them."

"I understand. Have Miko and Lily avoid areas where skeletons are buried, especially Miko; she'll be instantly killed if she encounters these guys." Gu Ding wasn't worried about himself. His biggest concern was Miko. He had anticipated the appearance of native monsters, but he hadn't expected them to be so powerful. The weakest of these skeletons had Bronze Level cultivation, their Combat Strength comparable to High-rank God. With Miko n't be able to gain a foothold in these ruins. "Give me the shortest route; I need to get there as soon as possible."

"The closest route will definitely encounter these Skeleton Warriors ..." Sea Emperor hesitated slightly.

"It's alright. Even ancient powerhouses at the Silver Level posed no threat to me when they were alive, let alone after they're dead. Going in circles would be a waste of time," Gu Ding said nonchalantly. He planned to clear a path with brute force and try to find Miko.

"Alright then," knowing Gu Ding's idea, Sea Emperor didn't say much, and pulled up the route and projected it to the side.

Gu Ding glanced at it once, then immediately chose a direction and ran away at top speed.

Before they had gone 500 kilometers, Sea Emperor suddenly spoke up, "There is a group of Skeleton Warrior about 50 kilometers ahead, two Silver Level and twenty-three bronze-level. They have already spotted you."

"The detection range is so large?!" Gu Ding raised an eyebrow.

"That's normal. The spatial stability of the Universe Sea in Ancient Era was much higher than it is now. In the Ancient Battlefield, they were native inhabitants and had long been adapted to the suppression of their detection capabilities by this environment."

Before long, Gu Ding didn't even need his detection abilities to spot these creatures from afar. Their sheer size was striking. There were over twenty bronze skeletons, each thousands of meters tall, like mountains. As for the two enormous, silver-reflecting figures, they exceeded ten thousand meters in size, resembling towering peaks reaching into the clouds.

The two enormous Silver Skeleton had clearly spotted Gu Ding's location. Their empty eye sockets stared at Gu Ding, and with a few strides, they Gu Ding. The remaining twenty-odd Bronze Level skeletons followed suit.

Gu Ding didn't slow down at all. He activated the Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body and Berserk at full power, and entered the Asura World Extinction state at the same time, charging head-on towards the two huge Silver Skeleton.

Two enormous Silver Skeleton charged ahead, almost simultaneously grabbing at Gu Ding's location from two different directions.

Before those two enormous skeletons, Gu Ding was as insignificant as an ant. Black God Source flowed around him, and his sleeves billowed automatically even in the absence of wind. His fists, carrying surging black divine energy, slammed out, but compared to those two mountain-like hands, they were as weak as nothing.

"Boom!" "Boom!"

Two deafening explosions followed in quick succession; it was the sound of Gu Ding's fist colliding with the giant claws of two silver-white skulls.

Gu Ding felt a slight numbness in his arms, and he quickly realized that the two skeletons' finger bones only had minor cracks, far from being shattered. Moreover, his attack had only forced the two Silver Skeleton to take a step back.

At this moment, the group of Bronze Skeleton also surrounded them. Gu Ding withdrew his hand, and the originally black divine source transformed into black Devouring Flame. With a wave of his hand, the Black Flame in the center of his palm surged out wildly, quickly covering the surroundings. The black flames, like living creatures, continuously climbed outwards.

Before the skeletons could pounce, the black fire engulfed all twenty-three bronze-green skeletons with the force of a wildfire.

The skeletons immediately let out a shrill roar and kept pounding their bodies, trying to extinguish the flames. Several of them even rolled on the ground, causing a tremor in the surrounding area.

Hundreds of kilometers away, a young man soon heard the deafening explosion and the subsequent screams. He quickly hid behind a boulder and looked toward the source of the sound, but it was too far away to see anything.

But he couldn't help but mutter to himself, "The only one who could cause such a commotion is probably Gu Ding."

He didn't know that his casual remark had turned out to be the correct answer.

The screams didn't last long before growing weaker and weaker, eventually disappearing completely. The enormous, Bronze-Green Skeleton, under the scorching heat of the Devouring Flame, slowly softened and turned into pools of liquid energy that were quickly absorbed by the Devouring Flame.

Gu Ding suddenly discovered that a strange energy had surged into his body, causing his Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body to automatically enter a state of cultivation.

"What's going on?" Gu Ding wondered.

"Bone marrow is the largest blood-producing factory in the body of flesh and blood life, so the bones also contain a large amount of qi and blood power. Just now, the Devouring Flame directly refined these bones and absorbed all the qi and blood energy." The Sea Emperor explained. The communication between the two consciousnesses is countless times faster than in the Real World, and it does not affect Gu Ding's battle.

Seeing that the Bronze Skeleton were dealt with by the Devouring Fire in just a few seconds, and that his Myriad Manifestations Emperor Body had automatically entered a cultivation state, Gu Ding immediately turned his gaze to the two Silver Skeleton.

The two skeletons seemed to know nothing of fear, and slapped Gu Ding again.

Gu Ding flashed, and black flames erupted again, engulfing the two large creatures in a matter of moments.

"It's no use. These guys' physical strength is above that of a five-star Peak-rank God. With your current flame power, it will take at least seven or eight years to refine these two big guys." The Sea Emperor only glanced at the shallow burn marks left on the two skeletons and calculated the approximate time required for Gu Ding to completely refine them.

Gu Ding naturally didn't doubt what the Sea Emperor said, because he also saw that the two giant skeletons seemed to be unaware of the damage from the Black Flame on their bodies and continued to attack him.

"These two big guys have really thick skin!" Gu Ding couldn't help but curse inwardly. He didn't have any more time to waste, so he immediately slammed his fists down on the two giant claws again.

"Annihilate the Firmament!"

With a low roar, all five energy nodes within Gu Ding's body erupted, and the black divine source surged out even more violently than before, flowing from Gu Ding's fist and slamming into his two palms.

~~~

[Uh, I just realized today is Thanksgiving... Thank you everyone for your support and love, muah~~ Also, there will only be one update today, I'll make up for it tomorrow.]