Poison Bone

The poisonous membrane at the entrance parted soundlessly, then quietly closed behind him. The Water-Condensing Pearl's light was cut off, plunging the fissure into absolute darkness and silence. Only that ancient, weighty energy fluctuation, carrying a strange pulse like the breathing of a slumbering giant beast, drifted faintly up from the depths below.

Jingtian heightened his perception to its limit. His tentacles clung to the cold, rough rock walls as he slowly slid downward with the supple body of a thousand-year soul beast. The passage was narrower and more winding than he had expected. In some places, he had to compress his body to its limit to squeeze through. The deeper he went, the clearer that energy pulse and the essence of "poison" within it became, even stirring a resonance in his own poison source.

After descending roughly two hundred meters along the winding passage, he finally saw a faint light ahead—a somber glow like solidified purple jade, strikingly conspicuous in the absolute darkness.

Jingtian stopped at the mouth of the passage and cautiously extended his perception.

The grotto was small. At its center, the source of that eerie glow was a human skeleton.

The skeleton sat cross-legged against a rock. Its clothing had long since rotted away, and its bones had a lustrous purplish-black hue, like fine poison jade. They had not completely weathered away despite the long years. Clearly, their owner had possessed extremely high cultivation in life and had been closely bound to poison.

Most striking of all was the skeleton's tailbone—from it extended a strange, scorpion-tail-shaped bone about half a meter long, black as ink and gleaming coldly! The Scorpion Tail's form was both fearsome and sleek, its stinger razor-sharp. Even lying motionless, it radiated a chill that made the heart tremble.

The true source of that vast, ancient fluctuation of toxic energy was this Scorpion Tail external soul bone!

Jingtian's mind reeled. An external soul bone! And a Scorpion Tail Soul Bone that clearly contained the origin of a deadly poison! No wonder such a unique Poison Domain had formed here, drawing his mother to this place.

But he did not immediately approach. The skeleton and Soul Bone had lain here for who knew how many years. Why had no other creature claimed them? Simply because they were well hidden?

He studied them carefully. Fine purplish-black stains traced the rock around the skeleton. Extremely sparse particles of deep-purple poison floated in the air, yet their concentration was enough to instantly kill an ordinary hundred-year soul beast. Even he felt a faint prickling across his skin.

The Soul Bone itself remained silent, like a strangely shaped piece of purplish-black jade. Its eerie glow shone steadily, without any active aggression. The dark-purple point of light at its stinger likewise remained still, like an inlaid gemstone.

It seemed... it really was only a relic, not a living thing. Perhaps the long years had worn away most of its spirituality and vitality, leaving only the purest origin energy settled within.

Jingtian pondered for a moment, then decided to risk a probe. He separated an exceedingly fine strand of perception—not soul power—with no aggression whatsoever. Like the softest feather, it slowly brushed toward the surface of the Scorpion Tail Soul Bone.

There was no reaction.

The Soul Bone remained dormant, its eerie glow unchanged, as though it were nothing more than a lifeless object.

A little bolder now, Jingtian released a faint thread of soul power containing his own origin poison power. He brought it closer with even greater care, aiming for the side of the Soul Bone rather than its sharp stinger.

The thread of soul power gently touched the Soul Bone's cold, smooth surface.

"Humm..."

An exceedingly faint hum sounded, as though a single string had been plucked on an ancient zither that had slept for countless millennia. The Scorpion Tail Soul Bone gave the slightest tremor, and an almost invisible ripple spread through the eerie glow on its surface like a wave across water. The dark-purple point at its stinger flickered for one imperceptible instant, then returned to normal.

There was no attack, no venomous flare, only this faint, seemingly instinctive "response." It was like the minute change in a cold stone warmed by body heat.

The ancient toxic energy within the Soul Bone remained vast and weighty, but its "vitality," or rather its "aggression," truly seemed to have fallen dormant over the long years. It had become something closer to a "heavenly treasure," waiting for a destined recipient—or, more precisely, a suitable poison-aligned creature—to communicate with it, awaken it, and inherit it in the proper way.

Jingtian felt reassured. It seemed the most dangerous mechanism, its active retaliation, might indeed have failed or fallen dormant with the passage of time or its owner's complete demise. Yet the terrifying poison power contained within the Soul Bone had not vanished. It had merely become "ownerless," like a precious vessel filled with peerless venom. Opening it and absorbing its contents still carried enormous risk, but at least the venom would not automatically spray out and attack the moment he approached.

He slowly swam closer and stopped before the skeleton. At this distance, he could feel the pure, ancient, lofty pressure of the Soul Bone's poison even more clearly. This was not an attack, but a manifestation of its very nature.

How could he obtain it?

Devour it directly? As he would devour a soul beast? But this was a Soul Bone, a crystallization of energy and laws, unlike the essence of flesh and blood.

Try to fuse with it? As human soul masters absorbed Soul Bones? But he was not human, nor did he possess a human method for Soul Bone fusion.

Perhaps... he could use his own poison source as a guide and his soul power as a bridge, trying to communicate with and channel its origin power, working at it gradually?

Jingtian decided to try the last method. He settled opposite the skeleton and brought himself into peak condition, then slowly released his own origin poison power. A deep-blue halo rose from his body, carrying properties such as neural paralysis, corrosion, and Mental Interference. It held together without dispersing and slowly drifted toward the purplish-black Scorpion Tail Soul Bone like a signal of invitation.

At the same time, he turned his soul power into the gentlest trickle and carefully touched the Soul Bone's surface. Rather than intruding, he caressed it lightly, conveying goodwill and longing.

This time, the Soul Bone's response was a little more pronounced.

Its eerie glow began to brighten and dim in a regular rhythm, as though it were "breathing." Threads of purplish-black energy emanating from the Soul Bone began moving toward Jingtian's deep-blue poison power of their own accord. The two gently touched and mingled in the seawater before the skeleton.

There was no violent clash. It was more like a slow, tentative "handshake."

Jingtian could feel the vast, ancient origin of poison power within the Soul Bone flowing toward him, strand by strand, wisp by wisp, along the bridge formed by their contact. The flow was extremely slow and the quantity tiny, but every strand was pure to the utmost, containing a profound understanding and application of the laws of "poison."

He immediately guided the ancient poison power entering his body to merge with the core of his own poison source. The process was far from easy; it could even be called agonizing. The ancient poison power was of an exceptionally high order. Even a single strand was like molten iron glowing red-hot, scorching and reshaping his comparatively "low-grade" origin poison source. His body trembled slightly, and the deep-blue rings on it began darkening, taking on a purple tint.

Yet at the same time, he could clearly feel his own poison power undergoing a qualitative leap! It became more concentrated and more domineering, while his understanding and control of poison advanced at tremendous speed. He even began to faintly grasp applications of poison power he had never considered before—for instance, condensing poison into an invisible "Poison Domain" to suppress a wide area, or granting venom properties such as "tracking" and "lying dormant before erupting."

This was not merely an infusion of energy, but the enlightenment of an inheritance.

Time passed slowly amid their silent communication and fusion. Like the most patient apprentice, Jingtian drew nourishment little by little from the legacy of this ancient Soul Bone.

He did not know who the skeleton's owner had been or why they had perished here. But that did not matter. What mattered was that this legacy now belonged to him.

Once the first strand of ancient poison power successfully merged into his own poison source and stabilized, Jingtian knew he had succeeded. He had found a way to safely absorb the Soul Bone's power. Though the process would be lengthy and require the patient work of water wearing down stone, the risks were manageable and the rewards immense.

He no longer rushed for results. Instead, he maintained this slow, steady state of communication and absorption while devoting part of his attention to guarding against possible changes outside.

Beyond the nest, the shadow of the human soul masters had yet to lift. Here in the depths of the fissure, however, he had found an opportunity capable of changing his fate.

Deep-blue and purplish-black light intertwined before the skeleton, illuminating the living and the dead alike—and a poison inheritance spanning long ages, whose next chapter was quietly being written.