White Bone Banner

Luo Chen frowned.

Watching the Demon Suppression Bureau captain across from him fall into demonhood step by step, a chill flashed through his eyes.

Golden Scale streaked through the air, and golden-silver gang qi slashed out in an instant.

"No!" Li Tiankui froze.

His eyes were filled with disbelief.

"Gang force? How is that possible? Even if you possess a Martial Bone, you shouldn't be able to do this!"

He roared unwillingly, for once one broke through to the Mysterious Aperture Realm, their Martial Bone could no longer be stripped away.

After that roar came endless fury.

The longsword in his hand whipped up gusts of gang wind. In an instant, sand and stones flew while trees toppled.

The two streams of gang qi collided in midair.

Before Li Tiankui's astonished gaze,

that golden-silver gang force instantly cleaved apart his own gang qi, scattering it without a trace.

The Yin Yang True Gang did not slow, carrying an unstoppable edge as it pierced through Li Tiankui's massive body.

Li Tiankui slowly lowered his head, his body splitting into two.

"You..."

[You killed Li Tiankui of the Mysterious Aperture Realm and plundered 48 years of lifespan!]

"Human martial artists really are lacking in lifespan during the early stages."

Luo Chen looked at the lifespan provided by a Mysterious Aperture Realm martial artist. It was actually less than what a ranked Demonic Beast could provide.

Still, he was not disappointed. He had known that already.

For a moment, he merely felt somewhat emotional.

"What a pity. He entered the one hundred and eight apertures of the Mysterious Aperture Realm at around fifty, becoming a Second-Rank Captain of the Demon Suppression Bureau. He should have had a bright future."

Luo Chen looked at the corpse, a trace of regret in his eyes.

"Come out. Do you want me to chop you again?"

He spoke indifferently to the corpse before him.

The corpse...

Golden Scale rose in Luo Chen's hand once more.

At once,

a panicked, terrified voice rang out from the dense forest.

The body that had been split in two began to slowly mend itself, then staggered to its feet.

"Li Tiankui" was now a Skin Tempering Demon. After it stood up,

it dropped to its knees with a thud.

It wailed.

"My lord, my lord, please spare this Lesser Demon!"

"You know it—I was forced by that bastard too!"

"A young and accomplished, heroic and extraordinary... genius such as yourself is the one I should follow."

"You... cannot kill me..."

At last, the Skin Tempering Demon slowly lowered its head, as though submitting.

Luo Chen smiled, though his smile was somewhat cold.

But he still had questions to ask, so he suppressed his impatience and asked,

"What happened deep within Heavenly Severance Mountain?"

The Skin Tempering Demon rolled its eyes and said tremblingly,

"My lord, that White Bone Great Sage forged a divine weapon, the White Bone Banner! It should have trapped Shangguan Changyue by now.

But Shangguan Changyue is no easy opponent either. The two are still fighting."

The Skin Tempering Demon carefully glanced at Luo Chen. Seeing no reaction from him, it gritted its teeth and continued.

"I heard that White Bone Banner is incredible. It is a true divine weapon, capable of controlling dead souls, demons, and ghosts.

With one weapon in hand, one person becomes an army. It can even use the strength of the myriad ghosts within the banner to empower its wielder."

"Such a divine artifact ought to belong to you, my lord."

The Skin Tempering Demon said fawningly.

A flicker of disgust passed through Luo Chen's eyes. A burly man over two meters tall was kneeling on the ground with a flattering smile on his face.

It truly ruined the scene.

"Is this your true form?"

Luo Chen looked at the kneeling Skin Tempering Demon with a half-smile.

The Skin Tempering Demon's expression changed, and it let out a strange shriek.

Not far away,

the two "Skin Cocoons" lying on the ground instantly broke free, blotting out the sky as they crashed down upon Luo Chen's head.

Using that brief distraction, the Skin Tempering Demon fled at top speed.

Unfortunately.

It had still underestimated Luo Chen's current strength.

The supremely hard, supremely yang gang qi on Golden Scale's blade instantly slashed out. The moment it touched the Demon Skin in the sky, it was engulfed by boundless scorching heat and turned to ash.

"No!"

The Skin Tempering Demon looked back, and its soul nearly flew from its body.

But it was already too late.

The Yin Yang True Gang pierced through it. Within a hundred-meter radius, countless streams of true gang began erasing everything without a blind spot.

Luo Chen looked at the dim Divine Spring Shadows within his body, neither joy nor sorrow in his eyes.

Only when the area ahead, spanning a hundred meters, had been reduced to nothingness did he stop.

[You killed a Skin Tempering Demon of the Mysterious Aperture Realm (twenty-four apertures) and plundered 280 years of lifespan!]

[Lifespan: 17/928.]

"This strike consumed quite a lot!"

Luo Chen looked at the dozens of dim Mysterious Apertures, contemplation in his eyes.

Fortunately, the defining trait of the Great Sun Divine Spring Secret Codex was its unceasing vitality.

Watching the essence qi flowing from the Divine Spring Shadows slowly replenish the dim Mysterious Apertures,

Luo Chen came to the two unconscious Demon Suppression Captains lying nearby.

He reached out and examined them.

"They're not dead, but whether they'll be left with psychological scars is hard to say."

Luo Chen carried the two beneath a tree and laid them down.

His figure had already vanished from the spot.

Half an hour after he left,

a hurried figure finally arrived late.

Yue Wuchang looked at the miserable battlefield, his heart pounding wildly.

One stretch of forest looked as if something had gouged it clean with a single claw, leaving it utterly empty.

When he reached the two unconscious captains,

joy rose in his heart, and he hurried forward to inspect them.

"My lords, are you all right?"

The two unconscious captains slowly woke up. They looked at Yue Wuchang with confusion in their eyes.

Once they sorted out what had happened,

all three wore bewildered, puzzled expressions.

"Perhaps it was a safeguard left behind by the Chief Director."

"The Chief Director is truly wise."

"The Chief Director must have noticed Li Tiankui's betrayal long ago."

The three looked toward the depths of Heavenly Severance Mountain.

There was less worry in their eyes now, replaced mostly by admiration.

At the peak of Heavenly Severance Mountain!

The mountaintop that had once pierced the clouds looked as though half of it had been forcibly cleaved away by a single sword.

In midair,

Shangguan Changyue's beautiful hair fluttered. Her expression was cold as she held a Cold Moon Longsword and looked down upon the giant skeleton seated on the White Bone Throne below.

Upon the throne,

emerald flames flickered in the White Bone Great Sage's eye sockets.

Its jawbone opened and closed, and a deep voice boomed forth.

"White Bone Banner, emerge!"

The flames in the Bronze Treasure Furnace surged, and its lid shot into the sky.

A ghastly white White Bone Banner floated upright in midair.

The sky went dark!

Endless resentment from Demonic Beasts erupted without cease, blotting out the heavens.

The entire Heavenly Severance Mountain was shrouded in Demonic Beast resentment.

Amid cries and wails, pitch-black vengeful souls sprang out one after another from the White Bone Banner.

They were venomous, furious, and despairing... until they became the vengeful souls of Demonic Beasts, bound and refined by the White Bone Banner for others to command!

Shangguan Changyue frowned.

This stretch of heaven and earth seemed to have become the domain of the White Bone Banner. Within this domain, even the gang qi circulating through her body had slowed somewhat.

Yet she still did not move, merely watching the White Bone Great Sage below in silence.

The vengeful souls between heaven and earth only circled her, crying and wailing.

For a time, the oppressive atmosphere between them formed a delicate balance.

Until the White Bone Great Sage could no longer endure it first.

It took one step forward, and the bones all over its body swelled larger.

When its ninth step fell,

a gigantic skeleton fifty meters tall appeared between heaven and earth.

The skeleton no longer resembled human bones, but rather a patchwork assembled from the bones of countless creatures.