White bones

It was late at night.

Looking at the skeleton before him, gleaming with a gray-white chill, Lin Yun smiled in satisfaction.

"Not bad. To think I really managed to refine an early Foundation Establishment White Bone Divine Demon."

A true White Bone Divine Demon was refined by Demonic Path cultivators through secret arts, using the bones of someone born at a special time, at a prescribed time and place, and harnessing the power of baleful yin energy and resentful souls.

Not only was it as hard as diamond and possessed of boundless strength, it could also spew chilling winds and poisonous mist to corrode vitality, as well as attack cultivators' souls and disrupt their minds.

Most importantly, multiple White Bone Divine Demons belonging to a matched set could form an array, multiplying their power.

For instance, the All-Heaven White Bone Grand Formation formed from the Twelve Birth-Cycle White Bone Divine Demons was said to unleash bone-eroding yin winds from which even a Golden Immortal could not escape.

Though that claim was exaggerated, it still spoke to the power of White Bone Divine Demons.

The White Bone Divine Demon Lin Yun had refined was merely a hastily assembled creation made from a magical artifact refined out of several Foundation Establishment cultivators' skulls and a few resentful souls.

It fell far short of a true White Bone Divine Demon's power, much less a top-tier matched set like the Twelve Birth-Cycle White Bone Divine Demons.

Even so, the Demonic Path abilities of this early Foundation Establishment White Bone Divine Demon could easily catch a late Foundation Establishment cultivator-or even a pseudo-core cultivator-off guard. How could Lin Yun not be satisfied?

Watching the emerald yin flames burning in the White Bone Divine Demon's two empty eye sockets, Lin Yun suddenly clicked his tongue softly and thought, This thing looks so sinister. It hardly resembles an orthodox magical artifact. I'll have to find some way to disguise it.

While Lin Yun was figuring out how to conceal the White Bone Divine Demon's yin energy, something else was happening.

Nangong Wan summoned a Covering Moon Sect disciple who had remained at the Golden Drum Plain Camp.

"Greetings, Martial Aunt Nangong. May I ask why you summoned me?" A curvaceous female disciple of the Covering Moon Sect bowed respectfully.

Reclining against a chaise with a veil over her face, Nangong Wan absentmindedly tossed out a portrait, which floated over to the Covering Moon Sect disciple.

With nothing unusual in her tone, she asked, "You've been at the Golden Drum Plain Camp all this time. Have you ever seen this person?"

Nangong Wan had not fully trusted the information Li Huayuan had given her.

The Covering Moon Sect disciple took the portrait and glanced at it. It seemed to have been drawn recently, and the artist appeared to have been in a foul mood, leaving even the portrait somewhat disordered.

Moreover, the person depicted was a handsome man with sword-like brows and star-bright eyes.

The Covering Moon Sect disciple stole a glance at Nangong Wan, but noticed nothing unusual, so she turned her attention back to the portrait.

After pondering for a moment, she said uncertainly, "This seems to be Junior Martial Brother Lin Yun of the Yellow Maple Valley. But the man in the portrait looks much more assertive than he does."

"Our sect's disciples previously fought alongside disciples of the Yellow Maple Valley. Junior Martial Brother Lin Yun kept an extremely low profile. If he hadn't saved several of our disciples on the battlefield, I might not have remembered him at all."

An unusual gleam flashed through Nangong Wan's eyes. She waved a hand and said, "You may leave."

"Yes. I shall take my leave."

After the Covering Moon Sect disciple departed, anger suddenly surfaced in Nangong Wan's eyes. "Han Li? Lin Yun! Hah! Even his name was false, just as I thought! Damn him!"

Early the next morning.

Lin Yun left the camp bright and early and headed to the battlefront.

He intended to find someone on whom to test the White Bone Divine Demon's power.

Why do I feel as though someone's watching me? Standing on the Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze as he flew through the air, Lin Yun suddenly sensed something amiss.

The moment that thought arose, he released his spiritual sense. His vast spiritual sense, comparable to that of a mid Core Formation cultivator, swept across a fifty-li radius in an instant. Apart from several Spirit Controlling Sect cultivators letting their spirit beasts roam more than forty li ahead, however, he found nothing.

After a moment's consideration, Lin Yun immediately put away the Taiyi Five-Smoke Gauze and summoned the Clearvoid Invisible Sword. Instantly merging with its invisible sword light, he vanished without a trace.

Seventy li away, Nangong Wan watched Lin Yun disappear through her spiritual sense. Her cherry lips twisted beneath her veil as she said angrily, "That wretched brat really is cautious!"

She then turned into a streak of crimson escape light and returned to the Golden Drum Plain Camp. The Demonic Path's Core Formation cultivators had come to provoke them again.

Unaware that Nangong Wan had been watching him, Lin Yun used Formless Sword Escape to travel more than a hundred li before reappearing.

Only when the feeling of being watched had completely vanished did he breathe a sigh of relief. Who exactly was watching me? Anyone who could evade my spiritual sense must be at least a mid Core Formation cultivator. Could someone have discovered that I've been assassinating Ghost Spirit Sect cultivators?

Even after pondering for a long time, Lin Yun could not figure out who had been watching him. He grew still more cautious, keeping the Clearvoid Invisible Sword concealed at his side, ready to flee with Formless Sword Escape at the slightest rustle of wind or grass.

After waiting beside a rocky hill near the battlefront for almost two hours, Lin Yun spotted a mid Foundation Establishment Ghost Spirit Sect disciple flying toward him on a magical artifact.

Before the Ghost Spirit Sect cultivator could land, Lin Yun took the White Bone Divine Demon out of his Storage Bag.

He formed hand seals and silently recited an incantation. A strand of divine will flew out and entered the White Bone Divine Demon's skull, causing the emerald yin flames in its eye sockets to blaze fiercely.

Seeing this, Lin Yun changed his hand seal, and the sinister aura around the White Bone Divine Demon instantly subsided. Although it could not yet move without a sound or trace, it was already much better than before.

"Go!" Lin Yun commanded in a low voice.

The White Bone Divine Demon abruptly transformed into a mass of gray-white yin wind and swept toward the Ghost Spirit Sect cultivator, who was preparing to land.

The Ghost Spirit Sect cultivator had come on orders from the Young Master's personal guards to meet a spy planted among the Seven Sects. Thus, although he had been watching his surroundings, he was not particularly on guard.

When the yin wind formed by the White Bone Divine Demon swept toward him, its familiar aura made him assume his contact had arrived. As a result, he did not take out a magical artifact in time to defend himself.

By the time he realized the yin wind had no intention of stopping, it was already too late.

The yin wind wrapped around the Ghost Spirit Sect cultivator's body, immobilizing him in midair.

A cold, gray-white skull emerged within the yin wind and opened its mouth, sucking toward the Ghost Spirit Sect cultivator. An emerald, chilling radiance instantly fell across his face, and he let out a wail.

His face immediately turned pale. Within moments, his youthful features began aging at an astonishing speed.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the yin wind returned with a Storage Bag wrapped inside it.

All that remained of the Ghost Spirit Sect cultivator's body was a layer of withered skin stretched over a skeleton. It struck the ground with a thud and broke into pieces.

Lin Yun

Only after putting away both the White Bone Divine Demon and the Storage Bag did he fly over to the dried corpse that had fallen to the ground.

Looking at the corpse on the ground, which resembled rotten wood, he could not help furrowing his brows.

"This White Bone Divine Demon truly is terrifying. It devoured almost all the vitality and flesh of a mid Foundation Establishment cultivator in an instant. If I hadn't forbidden it from devouring souls at the outset, this Ghost Spirit Sect cultivator would probably have had his soul scattered immediately, without even a chance to enter the cycle of reincarnation again."

Lin Yun had used Demonic Path arts before and had even refined a Ghost Spirit Sect cultivator into his own puppet.

But this was the first time he had seen, so vividly, the dreadful state of someone killed by a White Bone Divine Demon.

Wariness toward Demonic Path arts immediately arose in his heart.

He immediately resolved, These Demonic Path arts truly violate the harmony of heaven. I'll have to be doubly cautious when using them from now on!