Attempting to Nurture a Soul Bone

"Xiaoyue, do you know why there was such a large clearing around the Lone Bamboo?" Yu Xiaogang asked.

"Maybe the Lone Bamboo's roots were too developed and occupied this entire stretch of land, leaving other plants unable to obtain nutrients and creating this empty area with only a single Lone Bamboo," Li Yue guessed casually.

"That's right. Its excessively developed roots gave it incredibly tenacious vitality. Although it had little offensive power, that tenacious life force had allowed it to survive until now."

"Moreover, the soul rings produced by Lone Bamboo were mostly useless trash soul rings, so few Soul Masters bothered hunting them."

Yu Xiaogang was troubled. How were they supposed to kill this Lone Bamboo? This was truly difficult. Its vitality was simply too tenacious.

"How about burning this Lone Bamboo? There's open ground nearby, so it won't set the other trees in the forest on fire."

Li Yue suggested, "Since this Lone Bamboo has little offensive power, we can clear away the dead branches and fallen leaves around it, pile them beside it, and burn it to death."

"That's a good idea." Yu Xiaogang's eyes lit up as he accepted Li Yue's suggestion.

Li Yue and Tang San worked together to clear away the dead branches and fallen leaves around the Lone Bamboo. As Soul Masters, they had Soul Power and moved swiftly. Before long, they had carried bundle after bundle over and piled them beside the Lone Bamboo.

Meanwhile, Yu Xiaogang selected suitable wood from the nearby forest, choosing dry, dead trees that would burn quickly.

After choosing them, he swung his axe and chopped them into similarly sized pieces of firewood, piling them beside the Lone Bamboo like a wooden fortress.

"That should be enough." Li Yue saw that they had nearly cleared all the surrounding open ground, while the Lone Bamboo was already surrounded by enough firewood to burn it.

There were not only dead branches from the clearing, but also firewood chopped from farther away and dry grass they had cut down.

Dead branches and fallen leaves alone would not be enough to keep the fire going. Clearing them away had merely been to prevent the flames from spreading to the other trees in the forest.

"Xiaoyue, you light it," Yu Xiaogang said, handing him a fire starter. It was an essential item for traveling in the wilderness.

"Alright, Teacher." A trace of anticipation appeared in Li Yue's eyes as he opened the fire starter and blew softly.

A flame immediately rose from it. He used it to ignite the dry grass around the Lone Bamboo, and the flames quickly surged up, soon burning fiercely. The blazing fire surrounded the Lone Bamboo, and waves of heat rushed toward them.

"Now we wait," Yu Xiaogang said. He knew how tenacious the Lone Bamboo's vitality was. It would take at least most of a day to burn it down.

Not wanting to waste the bonfire they had worked so hard to build, he had Tang San take a pot from the Storage Spirit Device and set it over the fire to cook preserved meat. He even spread out a camping cloth and laid out some dry rations.

He said calmly, "Have something to eat first. This will be a long battle. Luo San Pao, stay alert around the area."

"Thank you, Teacher." Tang San picked up some dry rations and began eating. After doing physical labor for most of the day, even with Soul Power aiding him, his small body was somewhat tired.

Li Yue also picked up some dry rations and ate them with the preserved meat soup, quickly finishing his meal.

Seeing that the Lone Bamboo remained full of life even after burning for so long, he released his martial spirit and prepared to fill the surrounding clearing with Blue Silver Grass.

Dense Blue Silver Grass streaked with golden patterns rapidly surged from the earth, spreading in every direction like a tide.

Before long, it covered every patch of open ground around the Lone Bamboo's bonfire. Its roots were like fine, dense needles, plunging deep into the ground as they continued growing and destroyed the Lone Bamboo's enormous root system.

"This is a Blue Silver Grass martial spirit?" Yu Xiaogang stared at Li Yue's actions in astonishment, even forgetting to eat.

He had clearly not yet attached a soul ring, yet it looked as though he were using a soul skill. And those golden patterns, that noble aura—it truly was the emperor among Blue Silver Grass.

He had never expected that even the weakest Blue Silver Grass martial spirit could produce an emperor. This overturned his previous conclusion that Blue Silver Grass martial spirits could not mutate.

Blue Silver Grass could produce an emperor; the probability was simply extremely low.

"That's right. I call my martial spirit the Blue Silver Emperor, the emperor among Blue Silver Grass."

Li Yue pinched a strand of Blue Silver Grass with golden patterns between his left thumb and forefinger, securing it with the Shaoshang acupoint. Using that strand of Blue Silver Grass as a bridge, he drew upon the Bei Ming Hand to absorb the Lone Bamboo's Soul Power.

He did not intend to refine this Soul Power with the Bei Ming Hand. Instead, he planned to use it to temper his hand, employing the hand-training method of the Mysterious Jade Hand to forge the bones in his left hand.

His left hand alternately clenched into a fist and stretched open, constantly shifting through different postures. Every movement was accompanied by surging Soul Power.

He wanted to see whether a soul bone could be artificially created.

In the original story, Tang San had obtained an External Soul Bone after absorbing the soul ring of a three-thousand-year Man Faced Demon Spider.

Li Yue had summarized three key points: the Man Faced Demon Spider possessed the bloodline of a top-tier fierce beast; the soul ring had been absorbed beyond its age limit; and the soul beast had been killed cruelly, leaving it with resentment.

He believed that these three conditions might be the secret to producing a soul bone. A top-tier fierce beast bloodline represented essence, an over-limit soul ring represented qi, and a resentful soul beast represented spirit.

Now that he was burning the Lone Bamboo alive, such a method would certainly leave the soul beast resentful, greatly increasing the chance of producing a soul bone.

However, the Lone Bamboo's age was too low and its bloodline ordinary. Even with resentment, it was almost impossible for it to generate a soul bone.

A soul bone was actually like a relic, a condensation of essence, qi, and spirit.

Killing a soul beast cruelly and leaving it resentful was essentially a demonic method of forcibly elevating its spirit.

The Lone Bamboo's bloodline was ordinary, so its essence was insufficient. Li Yue therefore used the Lone Bamboo's Soul Power to temper the bones of his left hand, allowing the soul bone to be born not within the soul beast's body, but within his own.

Then, by absorbing the soul ring carrying the Lone Bamboo's resentment, he could draw upon that Soul Power containing its immense vitality and resentment to scour the bones in his left hand. Qi and spirit would be infused into them, gathering essence, qi, and spirit together.

Then perhaps a soul bone could be born.

After the Lone Bamboo's roots were destroyed by the Blue Silver Grass, it could no longer draw power from the earth. Under the raging flames, the Lone Bamboo finally could not hold on any longer and slowly toppled over.

As the Lone Bamboo died, a yellow five-hundred-year soul ring slowly rose from its body, radiating a bright yellow glow.

Even among century-level soul rings, different age limits produced subtle differences in appearance. This was also why Yu Xiaogang could determine that the maximum age limit for a first soul ring was precisely four hundred and twenty-three years.

"Xiaoyue, quickly use your Soul Power to draw the soul ring onto yourself. Begin meditating immediately and absorb the soul ring's energy," Yu Xiaogang said urgently. "If you wait too long, the soul ring will dissipate on its own."

"Alright, Teacher." Li Yue took a deep breath.

With a pull of the Bei Ming Hand, he drew the century-level soul ring over, sat down cross-legged, circulated the Xuanxin Gong, and began absorbing it.

The soul ring's Soul Power was quite gentle. Although the Lone Bamboo had been burned alive and harbored resentment, refining it was still extremely easy under the guidance of the Xuanxin Gong.

When the Lone Bamboo's five-hundred-year soul ring entered his body, its gentle Soul Power flowed through his meridians and spread throughout his body. As it met the bones in his left hand, which had previously been tempered with the Lone Bamboo's Soul Power—

Li Yue immediately felt a faint itch in the bones of his left hand, as though ants were crawling over and gnawing at their surface. The Lone Bamboo's Soul Power seeped into the bones and merged with them.

He knew that his bones were undergoing a transformation. A soul bone was being nurtured within them, being born.

The bones of his left hand would be transformed into the Solitary Bamboo Left Palm Bone—not only a precious soul bone, but an External Soul Bone coveted by every Soul Master.