The Flying Demonic Tiger waited for Ji Tian's reply. Seeing that he remained completely unmoved and only focused on refining a bone, it roared again.
"You wandering spirit, did you hear a word I said or not? You're driving me crazy!" As it spoke, it slapped the boulder in front of it, shattering it into a spray of stone fragments.
The Flying Demonic Tiger beat its wings, sending a gale that scattered the black stone dust.
Ji Tian's heart stirred. The power of wind—the laws of wind. Truly, a tiger brings the wind. It was trying to intimidate him. Was there something it feared, too? What could possibly scare it? Could it be the purple flames? Had it mistaken him for an equal?
Perhaps there was an opening. If he really submitted to it, a shadow might linger in his heart and surely hinder his future cultivation. Even if he died fighting, he couldn't submit.
Ji Tian slowly rose. He still had no nascent soul and remained a mass of black, ghostly mist, but he had vaguely taken on a shape. He advanced step by step toward the Flying Demonic Tiger. He wasn't looking for death; he was testing his suspicion.
Seeing Ji Tian approach instead of submit, the Flying Demonic Tiger sensed his fighting spirit. Could he really have a hidden trump card? Maybe he isn't as helpless as he looks. Without thinking, it began to retreat.
Seeing the Flying Demonic Tiger back away, Ji Tian knew it was feeling timid. This was the best moment to attack.
"Flying Dagger!" Two white bone blades shot out, one aimed at its blurred head, the other at the Flying Demonic Tiger's chest.
The Flying Demonic Tiger barely cared as the two white bone blades flew toward it. It beat its bone wings, sending a gale toward the daggers. They were immediately swept into the air.
"Haha, is that all you've got? Fine, I'll play along. I'll show you how powerful your Tiger Lord is. Following me won't disgrace you."
Though the two daggers had been swept into the air, Ji Tian still controlled them.
"Flying Dagger!" This time, what shot out was the Bone Snake's freshly refined horn.
Seeing a black bone blade fly toward it, the Flying Demonic Tiger teased, "So that's all you can do. I overestimated you. Get lost!" Another gust of wind swept out.
"Flying Dagger!" The two white bone blades flew side by side, aimed straight at the Flying Demonic Tiger's eye sockets.
The Flying Demonic Tiger roared furiously, "Are you ever going to stop?" Just then, an unexpected change occurred.
"Explode!" The black dagger that had been blown into the air looped around and attacked the Flying Demonic Tiger's right wing from behind, then detonated.
The black dagger hadn't been refined at all. Instead, Ji Tian had filled it with Spiritual Power so he could detonate it at the right moment.
The Flying Demonic Tiger let out a pained howl. It inhaled some of the poison contained in the black blade, and its Spiritual Power immediately became sluggish. A white jade bone blade severed one of its wings, while another stabbed into its eye socket. It just missed the Tiger's Soul Flame.
"Roar!" The Flying Demonic Tiger roared in utter fury. Its Spiritual Power surged, reattaching the broken wing and storing it away with its Spiritual Power.
Ji Tian was frustrated. His opponent could reassemble its limbs. Now all he could do was wait to die.
The Flying Demonic Tiger beat its bone wings and shot into the sky. Looking down at Ji Tian, it said, "Brat, I'm going to swallow you whole!"
"Whirlwind!" A spinning gale immediately surrounded Ji Tian and lifted him into the air.
"Rend!" The whirlwind suddenly began to tear at him. The ghostly body he had struggled to stabilize started coming apart, and patches of black mist appeared in the gale.
Ji Tian panicked. What should I do? Right, the Skeleton Race can use Spiritual Power to protect their bones. Can I use Spiritual Power to protect my ghostly body? He hurriedly mobilized his Core Elixir, resisting the tearing force while forming a layer of Spiritual Power around himself.
That's it. As long as my Spiritual Power doesn't run out and its force can't break through my Spiritual Power Shield all at once, I'll be protected.
The Flying Demonic Tiger watched Ji Tian getting tossed about in the whirlwind and laughed with delight. Of course, when a skeleton laughed, the whole world wept.
It simply enjoyed torturing others to death. Maybe it had been tortured in its previous life.
Riding the whirlwind, Ji Tian drifted until he was nearly level with the Flying Demonic Tiger. Ten black bone needles shot toward it. They had been made from a lizard's sharp claws and gave off a faint, eerie glow. Ji Tian didn't know whether they could pierce the Flying Demonic Tiger's defenses.
Seeing ten points of light fly out of the whirlwind, the Flying Demonic Tiger barely cared. It slapped at them, and its palm wind surged like waves, sending the black dots tumbling through the air.
The bone needles were still being refined, and one of them carried a trace of purple flame that flickered on the verge of going out in the wind.
Yet the needle wrapped in purple fire struggled through the biting gale and flew toward the Flying Demonic Tiger's wing.
After piercing the Flying Demonic Tiger's Spiritual Power Shield, the purple fire seemed to have fulfilled its purpose and went out.
The black bone needle lodged directly in a gap between the bones of the Flying Demonic Tiger's wing. Losing the lift of its wing, the Tiger immediately began to plummet.
"Roar!" The Flying Demonic Tiger felt humiliated. A creature that could fly had nearly fallen to its death.
But what was that purple fire? How could it be so powerful, giving an ordinary bone needle such extraordinary penetrating force? The Flying Demonic Tiger squeezed its bony wing, crushing the unusually powerful needle.
"Brat, I didn't expect you to have some skill. I suppose you've earned my recognition."
Ji Tian felt he had overlooked something. The purple flame seemed extraordinary. It wasn't merely a sign of his power—after all, his cultivation was different from everyone else's. Perhaps this was his true trump card.
Besides one destroyed bone needle and two lost in the wind, he still had seven. If he could wrap all of them in flame, wouldn't the Flying Demonic Tiger be in for a terrible time?
"Pop!" Two bone needles exploded right in the purple fire.
It's not that simple. The bone needles can act as a medium, but they can't bear that much flame. The purple fire's scorching power is too great. Once the purple fire left his Core Elixir, he couldn't control its power. Its tendency to burn—and its violent destructive force—immediately showed itself.
"Brat, don't push your luck!"
The Flying Demonic Tiger was ignored again.
"Wind Blade!" The Flying Demonic Tiger spat out crescent-shaped gusts, each wrapped in Spiritual Power and radiating bone-chilling cold. The Wind Blades were like knives, their chill biting to the bone.
Ji Tian struggled to maintain his Spiritual Power Shield. The feeling of being slowly whittled away was unbearable, a kind of torment.
Ji Tian felt a strange energy invade his ghostly body, making him feel as though he were being torn limb from limb. It was the Flying Demonic Tiger's energy rampaging inside him. His Core Elixir also released energy, and the two forces began to clash.
It was a battle between energies, with only devouring and being devoured.
Any other ghostly body, without a steady supply of Spiritual Power from a Core Elixir to resist it, would have been torn apart long ago. But Ji Tian had no idea how to actively dispel the other's Spiritual Power.
If I can't expel it, can I devour it? But if I do, can I refine it?
Could the purple fire refine someone else's Spiritual Power? How would I make it do that?
"Brat, you can actually withstand my Wind Blades. Not bad, not bad." But the Flying Demonic Tiger couldn't know how miserable Ji Tian felt. The energy kept eating away at him, leaving him unable to move or fight back. He was afraid that the slightest mistake would tear him apart.
"Wind Form!" A mass of wind appeared, its clouds shifting and taking the shape of a tiger as it lunged at Ji Tian.
Ji Tian panicked. If that tiger-shaped wind hit him, it would strike like a real tiger. He had no idea whether he'd survive. He might as well risk it.
Ji Tian circulated his Core Elixir's power and drew the energy that was eating away at him into the Core Elixir. His body immediately regained the ability to move, and he narrowly dodged the tiger's shadow. But inside his Core Elixir, the energy rammed around in every direction, refusing to settle.
He sensed the Flying Demonic Tiger's will, as well as the will of the wind. They were the source of that energy's violent, destructive power.
It was a battle of wills. If he had a nascent soul, it would be simple—he could erase them outright.
But now, he could only use his own powerful will to force the other into submission, or destroy it. But then the energy would dissipate.
Inside the Core Elixir, a pressure appeared. Beneath it were a tiger and a mass of wind. That pressure was Ji Tian's will.
"Submit, or be destroyed!" The White Tiger let out a long roar, and the Wind Spirit howled. Neither wanted to submit, since that would mean merging into the other's will.
Ji Tian gathered all the Spiritual Power in his Core Elixir to strengthen his will and roared, "Submit, or be destroyed!"
The White Tiger's legs immediately began to tremble as it slowly gave in. The Wind Spirit held out a little better. It was a product of heaven and earth, but inside Ji Tian's Core Elixir, Ji Tian was heaven.
Ji Tian circulated his Core Elixir to absorb this power.
But then the tiger's shadow lunged at him again, this time sending Wind Blades bursting from its mouth.
Ji Tian wasn't afraid this time. At least he had figured out how to deal with strange energies. He circulated his Core Elixir, forming a black hole that swallowed the tiger's shadow.
The Flying Demonic Tiger was shocked. "You can devour my energy? Roar!" The earth shook as it lunged forward with all its might.
The Flying Demonic Tiger was a powerful skeleton that had cultivated for years. Once it realized its opponent could devour its energy, it knew its abilities wouldn't work. It decided to attack with brute force instead. It still had its sturdy bones.
But Ji Tian was in a bad way, too. The tiger-shaped wind contained a much stronger will than the Wind Blades.
The tiger's shadow wreaked havoc inside his Core Elixir, nearly breaking through its barrier and escaping his body.
Just then, a blaze appeared inside the Core Elixir. It was purple, with a trace of black running through it, and it immediately engulfed the roaring tiger's shadow.
The blaze had appeared at the bottom of the Core Elixir without warning, and Ji Tian couldn't control it.
The blaze burst out of Ji Tian's body and burned toward the Flying Demonic Tiger as it charged at him.
"Ow!" The Flying Demonic Tiger let out a pained cry as its bones immediately caught fire. Only the mass of its Soul Flame remained, its Spiritual Sense radiating unwillingness.
Ji Tian stared at the scene, stunned and unable to believe it. Could I have awakened my potential?
That was right. When he had nearly lost control of the tiger's shadow, Ji Tian had kept mobilizing his will. That will produced a force of Spiritual Sense, causing the Core Elixir to form a mass of Core Fire. It wasn't created by Ji Tian burning Spiritual Power; it had formed deep within the Core Elixir as Spiritual Power continuously condensed.
As he cultivated, liquid Spiritual Power would settle at the bottom of the Core Elixir and solidify. The solid Spiritual Power would then burn into fire. Ji Tian was still nowhere near reaching that stage. In truth, the trace of soul power the Black Remnant Bone had given Ji Tian had produced it. That trace of soul power was a seed of his origin.
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