The crack was widening faster than Lu Chen had expected.
On the morning of the eighth day, Yun Qingyue entered the tent carrying the bone etched with golden runes.
The bone's color had changed—the tip had turned from gold to dark gold, like copper scorched by fire.
She placed it on the table, and Lu Chen sat up to look at it.
"Has it turned black?"
"No. It's only darkened. But the pace is accelerating. Yesterday, only the tip had changed color. Today, it has spread across a third of it."
Lu Chen dressed and stepped out of the tent. The deathly aura in the western sky was thicker than yesterday.
Two stone statues stood at the edge of the deathly aura. The crack in the chest of the grayish-white one had grown from three feet to five, splitting from its chest all the way down to its waist.
Black deathly aura seeped from the crack like a black snake crawling out.
[Seal Status: Undead Monarch Avatar (Longevity Realm Peak) Seal Integrity: 67%. Estimated to fail completely in ten days.]
Ten days. Twenty fewer than the previous estimate of thirty.
"Zhou Tieshan."
"Your subordinate is here."
"Bring the largest Spirit-Locking Nail. And the Dragon Blood Ointment."
Zhou Tieshan ran down and soon returned carrying a three-foot-long Spirit-Locking Nail. Its shaft was as thick as an arm, its head covered in runes. It was the last large nail Yun Qingyue had forged with her secret art.
Lu Chen took out the Dragon Blood Ointment and smeared on a thick layer. The dark-red paste looked like congealed blood along the nail's shaft.
"I'll reinforce it. Keep watch from the wall. If the deathly aura makes any unusual move, set the oil alight immediately."
"Yes."
Lu Chen walked out through the