Skeleton's Golden Armor, Nowhere to Be Found

"Burned out... not a single drop left."

Xu Qing's face turned pale, his lips slightly purple; this was a sensation he had never experienced since awakening his martial soul.

Could soul power actually run dry?

"Hehehe... it is merely compensation, a token of gratitude for these level-six gauntlets."

"Little friend, you truly say one thing while meaning another."

Elder Yi appeared, looking much more spirited than before.

With one hand, he conjured the black gauntlets out of thin air, now adorned with faint golden patterns.

"I have already inscribed a spatial array onto them; it is not large, only about a thousand cubic meters."

"Thanks, brother..."

Xu Qing struggled to grab Elder Yi's hand, pulling himself up before nimbly taking the black gauntlets, which were as thin as cicada wings and light as air.

He then deftly slipped them on.

In truth, calling them gauntlets was a stretch; they were more like gloves.

"Ah~ cool and refreshing. In this sweltering summer, it feels truly delightful."

Thanks to the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm for the Million-Year Insect Skin.

Elder Yi squinted at Xu Qing and said softly:

"Little fellow, do you want to test the effects of this weapon?"

"Oh? Elder Yi, are you planning to duel me?"

Xu Qing had clearly misunderstood, perhaps due to his extreme exhaustion.

"If that's the case, I think you should teach me how to use physical attacks to damage a soul entity."

"Otherwise, if a physical DPS like me goes up against someone immune to physical damage, there's no way I could win, right?"

"..."

Elder Yi's already gray face turned even darker.

What was wrong with this child's train of thought? What was all that gibberish he was spouting?

How did he even jump to the conclusion that he wanted to fight an old man like him!

And here he was, thinking he had praised the boy for his manners earlier—was this how he repaid an elder, by wanting to beat him up?

"Of course not. These past few days, not only have I been absorbing the life energy radiating from the Life Carving Knife, but I have also been nourished by the overflowing mental power from your mental space."

"Therefore, my strength has recovered quite well, and I can barely manage to display a few techniques."

"For instance..."

Elder Yi's tone was mysterious. The gray mist surrounding him slowly turned transparent, merging into the space around them.

The moment his voice fell, a purple ring about two meters in diameter appeared in mid-air, three meters in front of Xu Qing.

A black dot emerged in the center of the ring, and under Xu Qing's thoughtful gaze, it gradually branched into six black lines, growing at a constant speed toward the edges of the circle.

The space itself seemed to be corroding, emitting a sound like water being poured onto a burning fire.

Hiss, hiss—

Summoning the Undead Demi-plane so quickly?

Tsk, this Elder Yi is a bit of a glutton...

No wonder my head hasn't felt that swelling sensation lately; it turns out he's been eating the very things meant to challenge the limits of my mental growth.

Elder Yi: 666. This is the first time I've seen a human call the sensation of their mental sea being pushed to the brink of explosion 'challenging the limits'.

Xu Qing: Old man, do you even know what it means to have an Undying Self? That is called conviction! A headache just means my brain is growing.

"Xu Qing, I actually have many nicknames, but the one I like best is—"

Elder Yi clasped his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on the slowly growing Gate of the Undead as he reminisced:

"Scourge of the Undead."

"Haha... doesn't that sound like it fits the aesthetic of you young people?"

Xu Qing felt a bit strange and frowned at Elder Yi.

The latter seemed to stutter, coughing a few times before continuing:

"Perhaps you don't understand what this implies, hehehe... but you will know soon enough. I believe you will like it."

An incalculable number of undead creatures that are completely immune to physical damage!!

They are the perfect sparring partners for you.

"Stop keeping me in suspense~"

Even if you don't say it, I know—undead creatures, right!

Hehehehe, the skeleton gold-farming service has arrived!

If you're a brother, come to the Undead Demi-plane and hack at me!

Boom—

The disturbance in space finally subsided, emitting a dull, muffled sound.

A thick, pitch-black gate appeared, and eerie cold air seeped out from the cracks, only to be annihilated the moment it emerged by the purple hexagram array on the ground.

Elder Yi saw Xu Qing curling his lips and felt thoroughly satisfied.

Old geezers who have reached a certain age all love to tease little children.

Well... a little child who is eleven years old and six feet tall.

He flicked his sleeves lightly, stepped past Xu Qing, and his figure vanished into the portal, his aged voice echoing across dimensions.

"Come in..."

Undead Demi-plane.

A black sun hung in the zenith like a dead eye, its purple halo dyeing the entire demi-plane in a cold hue between dusk and midnight.

The ground felt like bone ash underfoot. Countless skeletons sensed the aura of a living person and struggled out of the soil one after another, brandishing bone blades as they began to move.

Among them were iron-blue zombies with bloated abdomens, dripping with corrosive fluids, their limbs constantly falling off.

Even headless knights on skeletal horses paced across the hills.

"How is it? Is it an indescribable sight?"

"It is... truly awful."

Xu Qing's soul power surged, not caring in the slightest what kind of ripples it might cause, blowing away the gray dust floating in the air.

"Elder Yi, your aesthetic sense still needs improvement."

"It's way too gloomy here; it doesn't match a sunny boy like me at all."

"Why are those squirming magical creatures all crawling toward this side..."

Elder Yi fell into a few seconds of silence, then summoned his staff and tapped it lightly on Xu Qing's shoulder, leaving behind a purple hexagram.

"Alright, this old man is going back to the spiritual sea to rest. Play around as you like; if you encounter danger or get tired, just touch it with your soul power or spiritual power."

"Then you will be sent out."

Having said that, Elder Yi stepped back, vanished into thin air, and his aura disappeared without a trace.

"Hehehehe..."

Xu Qing shook his arms, twisted his waist, and rotated his hips.

"Do you... also want to dance?"

Whoosh...

A chilling wind answered the question in place of these mindless undead creatures.

The bone dragon that had been circling above the clouds, sensing that the aura of the plane's master had vanished, let out a long roar, pierced through the thick clouds, and dove down!

"ROAR—!!"

Immediately following, those skeletons, as if having received an order, began to slowly swarm toward one location.

A place without heaven or earth—the high tower platform Xu Qing had just condensed using Ultimate Ice.

Thirty meters above the ground, ice pillars intersected and supported one another.

"Rumble—!!!"

Just then, a storm formed from countless grains of sand appeared in the high sky of the demi-plane!

Swimming within the monstrous storm was a bone dragon dozens of meters long, crashing toward the platform Xu Qing had built.

"Hum..."

A faint sound rang out, and behind Xu Qing, his silvery Self Martial Soul suddenly appeared!

Then, Martial Soul Possession!

"Hahahaha!!"

"First Soul Skill..."

A massive, million-year-old golden ring appeared out of thin air, enveloping the surroundings and forming a sharp contrast with the ice-blue beneath his feet.