Mountaintop.
Zeng Yuchai stood amid the many Zeng Clan cultivators, a trace of joy on her face as she said in a rich voice, "Welcome home, Ancestor..."
"Ha ha ha, little ones, disperse."
With a wave of his hand and a voice like a great bell, Zeng Qingye brought the Zeng Clan's two Dao Foundation cultivators back to his cave dwelling. Only after activating the formation did his expression suddenly relax. His aura swiftly weakened, his Daoist robe fell open, and everything below his chest had turned into ghastly white bones!
No one knew how he could still move as usual with half his body reduced to a skeleton.
"Ancestor?"
The other two Zeng Clan Dao Foundation cultivators were stricken with grief at the sight.
"That Withered-Bone Jade Flame was terribly formidable. Wu Qishen deliberately threw it out before he died, clearly intending to drag someone down with him... Of the three of us, Xuan Lu had the best movement technique and was farther away, so he evaded it. Yuan Bukong was the most unlucky. He cultivated [Well Wood], and the instant that flame touched him, he turned into a skeleton. His immortal foundation dispersed, leaving behind only a length of Scorched-Tail Wood. Not too good, not too bad—it counts as a Dao Foundation spirit item..."
Zeng Qingye looked at his own body and smiled. "This old man's luck was neither good nor bad. Though I did my utmost to avoid it, that jade flame still brushed against me, costing me half my Dharma body... My lifespan has been greatly damaged. I fear the day of my passing is not far off."
"Ancestor..."
The two Dao Foundation cultivators both broke into tears. One of them hesitantly asked, "Then what of that heaven-and-earth spirit flame?"
They cultivated [Turtle Beak Fire] as