Poison Bone

The poisonous membrane at the entrance silently parted, then quietly sealed shut behind him. The Water-Condensing Pearl's glow was cut off, plunging the interior of the fissure into absolute darkness and silence. Only that ancient, heavy energy pulse, carrying a strange rhythm like the breathing of a sleeping beast, drifted faintly from the depths below.

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

After descending roughly two hundred meters along the twisting path, a faint light finally appeared ahead—a somber, dim glow like solidified purple jade, especially striking within the absolute darkness.

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

The stone cavern was not large. At its center, the source of the dim light was a human skeleton.

The skeleton sat cross-legged against a rock wall. Its clothes had long since decayed away, while its bones were a warm violet-black, like exquisite poison jade. Even after countless years, they had not fully weathered away. Clearly, its owner had possessed tremendous cultivation in life and had been deeply connected to poison.

What drew the eye most was the base of the skeleton's spine—extending from it was a strange bone roughly half a meter long, black as ink and gleaming with a cold luster, shaped like a scorpion's tail! The Scorpion Tail's form was vicious yet fluid, its stinger sharp. Even while lying motionless, it radiated a chilling aura that made one's heart tremble.

The core source of that vast, ancient poisonous energy fluctuation was this Scorpion Tail External Soul Bone!

Jingtian's mind shook. An External Soul Bone! And a Scorpion Tail Soul Bone that clearly contained the origin of potent poison! No wonder such a unique Poison Domain had formed here, drawing his mother here.

But he did not approach immediately. The skeleton and Soul Bone had remained here for who knew how many years. Why had no other creature obtained them? Was it merely because they were hidden?

He observed carefully. Fine violet-black stains spread across the rock around the skeleton. Extremely thin particles of deep-purple poison floated through the air, their concentration high enough to instantly kill ordinary hundred-year soul beasts. Even his body surface prickled faintly.

The Soul Bone itself was silent, like an unusually shaped chunk of violet-black jade. Its dim glow remained steady, showing no hint of active aggression. The dark-purple point of light at the stinger was like an embedded gemstone, frozen and motionless.

It seemed... it truly was just a remnant, not a living thing. Perhaps the long passage of time had worn away most of its spirituality and vitality, leaving only its purest source energy behind.

Jingtian pondered for a moment before deciding to take a risk and test it. He separated an extremely fine strand of non-aggressive perception—not Soul Power—like the softest feather, and slowly brushed it toward the surface of the Scorpion Tail Soul Bone.

There was no response.

The Soul Bone remained in Silence, its dim glow unchanged, as if it were nothing more than a dead object.

Jingtian grew slightly bolder. He released another faint thread of Soul Power containing his own source poison, approaching even more cautiously. He aimed for the side of the Soul Bone rather than its sharp stinger.

The thread of Soul Power lightly touched the Soul Bone's cold, smooth surface.

"Buzz..."

An extraordinarily faint hum sounded, as though a guqin that had slept for millions of years had had one of its strings plucked. The Scorpion Tail Soul Bone trembled ever so slightly, and a nearly invisible ripple spread across its surface glow like a ring on water. The dark-purple point at its stinger flickered for an imperceptible instant before returning to normal.

There was no attack, no poisonous flare—only that faint, instinctive "response." Like the subtle change in a cold stone when warmed by body heat.

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

Jingtian's heart settled. It seemed the most dangerous active counterattack mechanism had indeed failed or gone dormant due to the passage of time or the complete death of its owner. Yet the terrifying poison power contained within the Soul Bone had not vanished. It had simply become ownerless, like a precious bottle filled with peerless venom. Opening it and absorbing it still carried enormous risk, but at least the venom would not automatically spray out and attack the moment he came close.

He slowly swam forward and stopped before the skeleton. At close range, he could better sense the pure, ancient, lofty poisonous pressure emitted by the Soul Bone. This was not an attack, but a display of its very nature.

How should he obtain it?

Devour it directly, as he devoured soul beasts? But this was a Soul Bone, a condensation of energy and laws, different from flesh and blood essence.

Try to fuse with it, like a human Soul Master absorbing a Soul Bone? But he was not human, nor did he possess a human method for fusing Soul Bones.

Perhaps... he could use his own Poison Source as a lure and Soul Power as a bridge, attempting to communicate with and guide its source power little by little?

Jingtian decided to try the final method. He coiled himself opposite the skeleton, adjusted himself to his best state, then slowly released his own source poison power—a dim blue halo rose from his body, carrying traits of nerve paralysis, corrosion, mental disruption, and more. It remained condensed without dispersing, drifting slowly toward the violet-black Scorpion Tail Soul Bone like a signal of invitation.

At the same time, he transformed his Soul Power into the gentlest trickle, carefully touching the Soul Bone's surface. He did not invade it, but instead caressed it lightly, conveying intentions of goodwill and desire.

This time, the Soul Bone's reaction was more obvious.

Its dim glow began brightening and darkening rhythmically, as though it were "breathing." Threads of violet-black energy emitted by the Soul Bone began actively drawing closer to Jingtian's dim blue poison power. The two gently touched and merged 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 source of poison power within the Soul Bone flowing toward him thread by thread through this bridge of energy contact. The flow was incredibly slow and the amount minuscule, yet every strand was pure to the extreme, containing a profound understanding and application of the laws of poison.

He immediately guided this ancient poison power flowing into his body to merge with the core of his Poison Source. The process was not easy; it could even be called painful. The nature of that ancient poison power was of an extremely high level. Even a single thread was like molten iron, burning and transforming his relatively low-level Poison Source. His body trembled faintly, and the color of his dim blue rings began shifting toward a deeper shade tinged with purple.

Yet at the same time, he could clearly feel his poison power undergoing a qualitative leap! It became more condensed, more tyrannical, while his understanding and control of poison rapidly improved. He even vaguely touched upon methods of using poison power he had never considered before—for instance, condensing poison into an invisible Poison Domain to suppress a wide area, or granting poison traits such as "tracking" and "latent eruption."

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

Time slowly passed amid the silent communication and fusion. Like the most patient apprentice, Jingtian gradually absorbed the nourishment left behind by this ancient Soul Bone.

He did not know who the skeleton's owner had been, nor why they had fallen here. But that was unimportant. What mattered was that this legacy now belonged to him.

When the first thread of ancient poison power successfully merged into his Poison Source and stabilized, Jingtian knew he had succeeded. He had found a safe path to absorbing the Soul Bone's power. Though the process would be long and require painstaking effort, the risks were controllable and the rewards immense.

He no longer rushed for quick success. Instead, he maintained this slow, stable state of communication and absorption while dedicating part of his attention to guarding against possible changes outside.

Beyond the nest, the shadow of the human Soul Masters had yet to disperse. But in the depths of this fissure, he had found an opportunity capable of changing his fate.

Dim blue and violet-black light intertwined before the skeleton, illuminating both the living and the dead, as well as an inheritance of poison spanning countless years, quietly continuing anew.