Molting

Given the current situation, what I could bring out of the instance world was actually the Dao principles, laws, artistic conceptions, and forbidden techniques contained within corresponding ritual artifacts or other objects—but I could not bring out the objects themselves in material form.

The Dao principles, laws, artistic conceptions, and forbidden techniques brought out could be borne by different vessels, with different costs. The most suitable vessels were ritual artifacts refined using the same forbidden techniques, followed by suitable materials and similar ritual artifacts. Among them, the resemblance in a material's appearance and the similarity in a ritual artifact's essence determined the cost involved.

After several more days of research, Yu Chen reached this conclusion. He put away several ritual artifacts and glanced at the sky. The moon was already at its zenith, hanging high in the center of the heavens, scattering clear, crystalline radiance.

With a light leap, mist rose beneath his feet like a soaring serpent in flight. He swiftly arrived at the mountaintop, sat cross-legged on the ground, and silently visualized the bright moon. Strands of lunar essence descended and flowed into Yu Chen's body, circulating through his heavenly cycle before entering the Hand Greater Yin Lung Meridian, the Hand Lesser Yin Heart Meridian, and the Hand Terminal Yin Pericardium Meridian.

In an instant, dense Yin Qi swirled around Yu Chen, making him seem like a vicious ghost, brimming with Sha Qi. At a glance, he gave off the feeling of someone profoundly inauspicious.

At the same time, all manner of illusions arose in Yu Chen's mind: bitterness, spiciness, sourness, sweetness; the seven emotions bewildering the spirit, the six desires beguiling the heart.

Yu Chen paid them no heed. He silently recited the Heart-Calming Incantation, stabilizing his mind as he guided Yin Qi and Sha Qi, merging them with threads of serpent spirit power within his body. They transformed into three serpent shadows coiled upon his three Hand Yin Meridians.

This was the Three-Yin Snake Shadow Saber, a spell he had altered from the Three-Yin Northern Lodges Demon-Slaying Saber. It could gather lunar essence, the Yin baleful energy of the earth veins, and the serpent spirit power within his body, condensing them into three serpent-shadow saber lights within his three Hand Yin Meridians. When unleashed, they could kill a man from several yards away with a mere wave of his hand.

Compared with the original Demon-Slaying Saber, the Snake Shadow Saber's saber lights were inferior in every respect. Its sole commendable trait was that the Yin Qi and mysteries contained within were even more sinister and venomous. Once they struck someone, they clung like a disease embedded in the bone, refusing to rest until death.

The reason Yu Chen chose to recreate the Snake Shadow Saber, whose power and mysteries were both inferior to the Three-Yin Northern Lodges Demon-Slaying Saber, lay in the tales passed down orally among the Southern Barbarian Lands' shamans.

Legend held that gods dwelled within all the stars of the heavens. Aside from the gods within the Lunar Star and the Solar Star, who were supremely sacred and virtuous and treated all things between Heaven and Earth equally, the other celestial star gods held no goodwill toward the shaman lineage.

If Southern Barbarian Lands shamans merely worshipped the stars collectively, it was fine. But if they worshipped one individually, they might trigger the star god's awareness and draw down punishment.

Yu Chen did not know whether this legend was true, nor did he intend to test it. Thus, abandoning the most orthodox cultivation method of the Three-Yin Northern Lodges Demon-Slaying Saber had become inevitable.

After stretching his limbs, Yu Chen sat on the mountaintop for half the night. When the rising sunlight of the next day tore open the curtain of night, wisps of dawn's purple qi followed his breathing as he inhaled and absorbed them.

A faint purple glow flowed beneath Yu Chen's skin. Wherever it passed, his skin dried out slightly.

When the sun had fully risen and the purple qi had begun to age, Yu Chen opened his eyes. A flash of purple radiance flickered through his pupils and vanished. Rising to move his body, he rubbed the exposed skin on his body. Much dead skin fell away, revealing fairer, more crystalline skin beneath.

Mana gathered at his fingertips as he lightly pressed against his skin. Watching pale purple patterns resembling snake scales emerge across it, he thought, With the deathly aura of the Three-Yin Snake Shadow Saber, the life force of dawn's purple qi, and the accumulation from the former Molting Art, the old foundation has been completely replaced by the new method. If I want to improve further, I can only rely on slow, grinding effort.

The Molting Art was a secret technique orally passed down through generations of Snake Tribe snake shamans. By imitating the transformations of a snake shedding its skin, it strengthened one's skin, tendons, and bones. At its peak, one's skin could rival the scales of ordinary serpent fiend beasts. It was one of the greatest safeguards that gave Snake Tribe snake shamans the courage to walk the battlefield.

After Yu Chen's alterations, the Molting Art's defensive power had not improved much, but it had successfully incorporated the methods from the <Supreme Truth Life-Nourishing Information Yin Talisman Treasure Register> for tempering the five viscera and six bowels and inhaling and exhaling purple qi. It could force the deathly aura from within the body and attach it to the outer skin, where it would be shed away during molting, preserving bodily vitality and extending one's years.

After making some simple preparations, Yu Chen was ready to descend the mountain. But the moment his gaze shifted toward its base, he discovered several auras continuously approaching his location.

Focusing his senses, he saw the auras of several shamans mingling with the blood qi of totem warriors, condensing three phantoms in midair. Though the phantoms' appearances were indistinct, Yu Chen made a conclusion through half-guesswork and half-recognition.

The Snake Tribe, the Crow Tribe, and the Wolf Tribe! How did they get together?

Yu Chen's gaze narrowed. He activated the system, looked at the talisman water that was still changing, then glanced at the positions of the three tribes' shamans. The corners of his lips curled up slightly.

Meanwhile, several shamans from the Snake Tribe, Crow Tribe, and Wolf Tribe had gathered together, discussing how to deal with Yu Chen.

"I say, Poison Fang, your Snake Tribe is quite something! You actually drove away your own snake shaman! You even joined forces with us to deal with your former snake shaman! This has never happened among the many tribes of the entire Southern Barbarian Lands!"

The Wolf Tribe's shaman was a capable woman with bronze skin, her entire body brimming with a wild aura.

She sat atop an enormous white wolf. Every hair on the wolf's body was so white that it seemed to shine. For a creature living in the jungle, such fur was both dangerous and a symbol of formidable strength.

Naturally, a witch who possessed such a white wolf could not be ordinary either.

The Snake Tribe shaman named Poison Fang was extremely wary of this witch. No matter how furious he was inside, he did not show it, merely saying in a deep voice, "White Wolf, if you do not know the full story, do not speak nonsense! We never drove that lord away. In truth, so long as that lord was willing to return, he would still be our revered Great Snake Shaman. He simply refused to come back! What could we do?"

"Oh?" The Crow Tribe's representative shaman was an elderly man. There were barely any hairs visible atop his bald head, and his aura was filled with decay and decline. He gave two strange chuckles. "I heard that your Great Snake Shaman betrayed your tribe because he pursued the path of those rebel shamans. It seems that was true!"

"Rebel shamans?" The witch named White Wolf's expression changed slightly. So-called rebel shamans referred to those who chose to abandon the totems they worshipped and sought to seize the authority of those totems.

Such beings were hated by all totems. White Wolf therefore bared her teeth in a ferocious grin. "If that is the case, it does explain why your Snake Tribe chose to cooperate with us! Then let us first settle how the spoils will be divided!"

"White Wolf is right! Your Snake Tribe's rebel Great Snake Shaman naturally suppresses your Snake Tribe, so the Crow Tribe and Wolf Tribe should take the lion's share of the spoils this time. The rebel Great Snake Shaman's soul will belong to us!"

Poison Fang laughed angrily at this. "Bald Crow, has water gotten into your brain? I may have the guts to give it, but do you have the guts to take it?"

"Why would we not? No matter how formidable the rebel Great Snake Shaman is, if we split his soul in two and sacrifice it to our great Lord of the Jungle and the Crow Tribe's totem, could he still turn the heavens upside down?" The witch leaned against her white wolf, her face full of amusement.

Before Poison Fang could finish speaking, a snake pattern emerged between his brows. Then, with an extremely ugly expression, Poison Fang looked at White Wolf of the Wolf Tribe and Bald Crow of the Crow Tribe. "The Lord of Ten Thousand Serpents has agreed to your demands. But the Snake Tribe must reclaim the Great Snake Shaman's memories. You may only take the soul without its memories. Furthermore, all the Great Snake Shaman's belongings will belong to the Snake Tribe."

Corresponding totem marks also appeared on Bald Crow and White Wolf, clearly indicating that they were communicating with their own totems. Afterward, the three of them forged their alliance.