As the transformation continued, the mountains and rivers expanded.
Compared with Wangwu Mountain a thousand years ago, as Yuan Tianzong remembered it, its peaks and ranges were now towering, majestic, and vast. Its sheer size alone had made the mountain a forbidden place for ordinary people.
Vital energy gathered within the mountain, growing denser by the day, while life flourished.
This transformation seemed to grow even more intense after the Divine Smoke of Entering the Dao appeared. In the dead of night, the rumbling of the mountains and earth growing could be heard. It was astonishing.
Atop the mountain, Yuan Tianzong stood facing the wind. Tiny bolts of lightning flashed in his eyes whenever they opened and closed, and lightning constantly flickered around him as well. If he encountered a thunderstorm, he might well draw down heavenly lightning.
The more he absorbed and refined the Divine Smoke, the stronger his connection to the lightning of heaven and earth grew—or, rather, the greater his affinity for it became.
He only had to stand there, and the power of lightning would gather around him, as if he were lightning incarnate, wondrous and extraordinary.
Yuan Tianzong was deeply dissatisfied with this phenomenon. In his eyes, it showed that he couldn't control his own power.
"My mental strength has surged too much in just two days. I need to meditate and consolidate it."
"One thousand and eight strands of Divine Smoke should be about enough."
A hint of weariness appeared on Yuan Tianzong's face. The mental impact of each strand of Divine Smoke was more than ordinary people could endure.
In the two days since the Divine Smoke had appeared, quite a few creatures had accidentally obtained some and been reduced to brain-dead idiots by its effects. The story had spread, and he'd learned about it from people talking as they passed by.
Even a single strand of Divine Smoke was beyond what an ordinary creature's mind could withstand. One could imagine what a thousand and eight strands would do.
Drawing a deep breath, Yuan Tianzong headed home.
Though Wangwu Mountain had grown much larger, it only took Yuan Tianzong a few extra minutes to cross it.
The peaks receded behind him, and the dense forest fell away.
As the moon rose above the willows, he dropped from a great height. He fell at the speed of a meteor, yet made none of the thunderous impact he'd expected when he landed. He touched down lightly. The intense sense of incongruity came from his terrifying control over his body—he could wield great strength with effortless ease.
Come to think of it, ever since he'd slipped out of the Dharma-ending era and into the present, breaking free of the Three Realms, the Shackles in his flesh had vanished, and his body had begun to grow naturally.
With every simple daily act—eating, drinking, relieving himself—his body grew stronger, little by little, day after day.
This phenomenon had made Yuan Tianzong think deeply. He recalled the opening lines of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: "The people of high antiquity lived through a hundred springs and autumns, yet their movements never grew feeble."
During the Dharma-ending era, he'd searched extensively for a way to break through to Grandmaster.
Along the way, he'd uncovered many secret, long-lost manuscripts. Some of the statements in them had been astonishing once deciphered.
One fragmentary text said, "Our ancestors endured three hundred and sixty springs and autumns before coming of age."
Three hundred and sixty springs and autumns—three hundred and sixty years—before they were considered adults?
By contrast, people today were considered long-lived at a hundred. The gulf between them was astonishing.
For a moment, even Yuan Tianzong had thought the account in that book seemed far-fetched, perhaps nothing more than nonsense.
Now that he'd escaped the Shackles in his own unusual way and his body had begun changing and growing on its own, he felt that perhaps the account wasn't entirely baseless after all.
His thoughts raced as a courtyard enclosed by a wooden fence came into view.
This was where his little house had once stood. The changes here were likely connected to Bone.
He'd been away for two days, roaming around and seizing Divine Smoke. He hadn't expected Bone to be so handy that he'd even put up a fence. That was interesting.
As he entered the courtyard, he immediately spotted a pile of rough Jade boxes in the left corner. There were a lot of them—at least fifty or sixty.
The crude boxes looked like they'd been made from jade dug out of the earth not long ago, roughly carved into shape. Calling them boxes was generous.
"Bone."
At the sound of his voice, Bone looked up from where he'd been digging with a shovel, though no one could tell what he was up to. A hint of delight showed on his expressionless face, and he hurried over, his feet pattering.
"Write it down." Yuan Tianzong rubbed his temples. With his mind so tired, he didn't want to bother guessing.
Bone understood. He took the little wooden stick from between his ribs and quickly wrote a line: "Master, I dug up a lot of incense ash!"
Incense ash?
Yuan Tianzong walked over to the Jade boxes and lifted a lid. They were all full of incense ash. He still didn't know what the stuff was good for, so he looked at Bone in confusion, wondering if he had a peculiar habit of collecting incense ash, like some people who collected underwear.
"What are you planning to do with it?"
Bone continued writing: "Incense ash has spiritual properties. It's really valuable!"
Valuable?
Before Yuan Tianzong could say anything else, Bone had already held up his phone. It was playing a video about incense ash. With a quick swipe, he showed Yuan Tianzong nothing but videos on the subject.
Clearly, he hadn't been watching suggestive videos lately. He'd been watching videos about incense ash, which was why the algorithm kept recommending more.
After watching for a while, Yuan Tianzong began to understand. He hadn't expected incense ash to have so many uses.
One supernatural blogger claimed that incense ash could calm the mind. His cousin had been frightened into madness as a child and had spent his days raving, but after wearing a Jade pendant made from incense ash, he'd returned to normal, his spirit restored.
In another video, a burly man said that incense ash contained abundant spiritual energy. Adding it during forging could produce weapons beyond the mortal realm—or perhaps even bring legendary magical treasures back into the world.
"I discovered that incense ash can ward off evil!"
"Guys, you'll never guess what else incense ash can do... Look, these are the vegetables I grew! Amazing, right? It seems to change the soil and turn patches of land into Spiritual Land!"
The moment he saw that video, Yuan Tianzong raised an eyebrow.
Incense ash could create Spiritual Land?
The Dao seed?
Making the connection, Yuan Tianzong immediately acted. He buried the seed, which looked as if it had withered and died, in the incense ash inside one of the Jade boxes.
"Bone, keep an eye on this box of incense ash. If anything happens, tell me at once. I'm tired and need to meditate."
Bone nodded, his feet pattering as he wrote, "All right, Master."
"Mm." Yuan Tianzong nodded and went into the wooden house. He needed to meditate and steady his mind.
Inside the wooden house, Yuan Tianzong lay down and fell asleep at once.
Sleep was one of the best ways to recover, especially for Yuan Tianzong. His body had transformed beyond the ordinary, and his ability to recover on its own far surpassed that of other creatures.
Outside, the people who'd suffered at Bone's hands searched through the night. Even if they had to turn all of Wangwu Mountain upside down, they would find it.
Every time the lump on someone's head throbbed, their resolve to kill grew stronger.
"Where did it go?"
"It probably realized we were looking for it and got scared, so it's hiding!"
"Incense ash is selling for a fortune now. It stole tens of millions, maybe even over a hundred million, from me!" The speaker grew angrier the more he thought about it. So much money had been stolen, and he didn't even know if the police would take his report.
"Incense ash can even be used to forge divine weapons! Good heavens!"
The more they heard about the miraculous uses of incense ash, the louder their groans became, and the deeper their hatred grew.
"Find it! We have to find it!"
Everyone rubbed the lumps on their heads. For once, they all agreed, searching Wangwu Mountain like madmen and digging three feet into the ground.
"Has anyone seen what it looks like?"
"It was too good at hitting people. The force was just right, and one blow knocked me out. I didn't get a look."
"It's a white-bone monster. It showed up outside the Celestial Master Temple and was stealing incense ash too!" As the number of victims grew, so did the information they could share. They told everyone what they knew.
A skeleton?
No wonder, no wonder... No wonder it was so sinister. It was a creature from the underworld!
Before you continue