Hum!
As Lu Jin's low roar echoed through the ancestral hall, the black memorial tablets on the altar sat still for several breaths before suddenly trembling faintly. Mysterious crimson patterns of light emerged from their surfaces.
The crimson light illuminated the dim ancestral hall, turning it scarlet as blood.
It was as though dense blood Qi filled the hall.
The sudden change left both Lu Qingyan and Lu Jinglei visibly shocked.
"Father, what is this?!"
But Lu Jin had no mind to answer them. He stared blankly at the vast crimson light. Even when Jiang Ling and Zhang Yue had humiliated him, the iron-boned old man had borne it calmly, yet now tears streamed down his aged face.
As the current head of the Lu Clan, he knew better than anyone what this dense crimson light represented.
It was the foundation that generation after generation of Lu Clan ancestors had accumulated bit by bit with their own blood and bones for their descendants to turn the tables, when the Spirit-Sealing Curse had suppressed and ground them down to despair.
And now, he had called upon that foundation.
At this moment, Lu Jin felt an immense weight pressing down on him, for his decision might well reduce the painstaking accumulation of so many Lu Clan ancestors to nothing...
But he believed in his grandson!
Thud!
Lu Jin bowed heavily, smashing cracks into the bluestone tiles with his forehead. His hoarse voice rang out. "Thank you, ancestors!"
Then, without another moment's hesitation, he raised his left palm upright, and a blazing light swept across one finger.
Blood splattered as one of Lu Jin's fingers was severed. It burst apart with a boom, turning into a streak of bloody light that shot toward the "blood mole" between Lu Ming's brows.
The bloody light seemed to become a guiding path.
In the next instant, the dense crimson light flying from the tablets roared along that path, finally settling around the "blood mole" between Lu Ming's brows.
The crimson light formed a ring that seemed to burn with raging flames, trapping the "blood mole" within it.
The ring of crimson flame turned slowly, temporarily sealing within it the strange suction emanating from the "blood mole" that could devour the Divine Ability Bone's mysterious radiance.
With the "blood mole" no longer causing trouble, the light radiating from the Divine Ability Bone in Lu Ming's chest began to recover rapidly. Its silver glow turned golden once more, signifying a high-grade Divine Ability Bone.
"A-Ming's Divine Ability Bone has recovered to high grade!" Lu Qingyan was almost weeping with joy. He knew all too well how important a high-grade Divine Ability Bone was to the Lu Clan's predicament.
Lu Jinglei slumped to the floor, panting and drenched in sweat. The ups and downs had been too extreme, ten times more perilous than the shock Zhang Yue had given them earlier.
The golden light continued to grow stronger, and gradually, another strand of Glazed Heavenly Light formed within it.
This time, no one spoke. They all watched carefully, terrified that something else might go wrong.
Fortunately, everything went smoothly this time.
Strand after strand of Glazed Heavenly Light continued to gather.
Finally, when the fifth strand appeared, everything grew still. The five strands of Glazed Heavenly Light sank into the Divine Ability Bone, turning it a glazed hue.
But the glazed color was not pure; specks of golden light were mixed into it.
"What grade of Divine Ability Bone does five strands of Glazed Heavenly Light make?" Lu Jinglei asked cautiously.
"As long as even one strand of Glazed Heavenly Light appears, the Divine Ability Bone is above high grade. With these five strands, it counts as sub-heaven-grade. If he obtains some rare spiritual medicines that can raise a Divine Ability Bone's grade in the future, he might be able to make up for the flaw and remove the 'sub,'" Lu Jin said thoughtfully.
"A sub-heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone..."
Lu Qingyan looked caught between laughter and tears. For years, the Lu Clan had desperately sought a single high-grade Divine Ability Bone without success. Who could have imagined that a sub-heaven-grade one would appear now?
If Lu Ming had awakened two years earlier, Thunderfire Hall would never have needed to invest so much in that piece of filth Zhang Yue.
Lu Jin looked down at his left hand. Blood was flowing from the severed finger, but he paid it no mind. Instead, a faint smile appeared on his aged face.
Perhaps a tiny flaw had finally appeared today in the vicious curse that had sealed the Lu Clan's bloodline so tightly it was suffocating and despair-inducing.
Lu Jin's expression suddenly changed, and he looked up at Lu Ming. The surging Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi in the ancestral hall was now pouring of its own accord into the Divine Ability Bone in Lu Ming's body. Its powerful momentum was beyond what a normal Divine Ability Practitioner at the Bone Refining Realm could achieve.
"Hiss, the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi is tempering A-Ming's bones! He hasn't even used a Bone-Tempering Pill!" Lu Jinglei could not help exclaiming.
Lu Jin smiled. "Someone with a heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone will draw Primordial Qi from heaven and earth without end to temper his body, even without actively circulating a Qi Refining Art. So from now on, even when A-Ming is asleep, his cultivation won't stop."
"Moreover, any cultivation resource will have a better effect on A-Ming, because a heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone is exceptionally good at withstanding, containing, and channeling it."
"Not to mention that any divine ability technique unleashed through a heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone will gain several tenths in power."
"Many bottlenecks in cultivating divine abilities will no longer be obstacles, either."
Lu Qingyan and Lu Jinglei exchanged glances. A heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone really was monstrous.
The Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi phenomenon Lu Ming had stirred up lasted for an incense stick's worth of time before it gradually dispersed.
When the last wisp of Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi faded, Lu Jin and the other two faintly heard a low sound come from Lu Ming's body, like the roar of a tiger or leopard, and like rolling thunder.
"Tiger and Leopard Thunder Sound! Did he just complete his first round of bone refining?" Lu Qingyan's mouth twitched.
To pass through the Bone Refining Realm, one needed to refine one's bones three times. Back then, even with the aid of his high-grade Divine Ability Bone and Thunderfire Hall's uninterrupted supply of Bone-Tempering Pills, Zhang Yue had taken a month to complete his first round.
But now... within an incense stick's worth of time after his Divine Ability Bone first formed, Lu Ming had already passed the first stage of bone refining without relying on a Bone-Tempering Pill.
That speed...
"Terrifying. Is this what a super heaven's chosen is like?" Lu Jinglei stared, dumbstruck. That cultivation speed left him feeling deeply inferior.
If a sub-heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone was already this monstrous, how terrifying would a true heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone be? Would its bearer skip the Bone Refining Realm altogether, enter the Dharma Mark stage, and become a Great Divine Ability Practitioner?
"Mm..."
While the three were still immersed in their shock at the heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone, Lu Ming opened his eyes, feeling refreshed. He stretched, and his bones immediately crackled all over. An unprecedented sensation of fullness flowed through his limbs and bones.
"That feels good."
Lu Ming felt a little dazed. The whole world seemed different. The Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi that had barely paid him any attention when he cultivated before now came crowding close of its own accord, without him even needing to circulate the Qi Refining Art to draw it over, as though it were desperately sucking up to him.
After enjoying it for a moment, Lu Ming noticed that the atmosphere was a little strange. He looked up to find his grandfather, father, and second uncle staring fixedly at him, their faces full of undisguised envy and affection.
"Huh? Grandpa, what happened to your finger?"
"And what happened to the tablets on the altar?"
Lu Ming spotted Lu Jin's severed finger and the bloodstains all over the floor. The tablets that had once filled the altar had also turned into a tableful of black powder.
Lu Qingyan spoke up and explained everything that had happened earlier in detail.
Lu Ming's expression changed repeatedly as he listened. Clearly, he had not expected so many heart-stopping events to have taken place in the ancestral hall while his bone was awakening.
Most frightening of all, he had almost started out as trash.
After all, if you could start out as a genius, who would want to be trash and get mocked? Wouldn't that be asking for abuse...?
"Grandpa, are you all right?" Lu Ming first asked with concern.
Lu Jin smiled and shook his head.
"Grandpa, what is this Spirit-Sealing Curse? Why does it shackle our Lu Clan's bloodline?" Lu Ming touched the spot between his brows. The strange "blood mole" had vanished, but he could still faintly sense a bizarre power lingering there, making him feel as though thorns were pressing against his back.
Lu Jin was silent for several breaths before saying, "I imagine you've already guessed that our Lu Clan once had a glorious and prosperous past. As for how prosperous, truthfully, I don't know either. To conceal the karmic ties, the Lu Clan's ancestors hid that past away."
"All I know is that, at the height of its prosperity, the Lu Clan obtained an opportunity and was consequently targeted by a major power. There was an exceedingly terrifying existence within that power. Through that being's schemes, the Lu Clan fell apart and was devoured and divided. The surviving clanspeople were forced into exile, fleeing their ancestral land. But that terrifying existence still refused to stop and used an Upper Divine Ability to plant the Spirit-Sealing Curse in our Lu Clan's bloodline. Under this curse, anyone with the Lu Clan's bloodline can never give birth to a high-grade Divine Ability Bone."
"How vicious!"
A chill ran through Lu Ming's entire body. What kind of grudge was this? Destroying the prosperous Lu Clan was not enough; they had even cast a curse to wipe out its bloodline, so that its descendants would never have a chance to rise.
But such a method was far too terrifying. A single curse could even affect the bloodlines of later generations. Such mighty power was utterly beyond even a divine ability grandmaster.
It seemed the Lu Clan really had been glorious back then. Otherwise, how could it have attracted the covetous attention and attack of such an existence?
"This Spirit-Sealing Curse destroyed many of our Lu Clan's heaven's chosen, but the ancestors did not give up. In their desperate plight, they searched tirelessly for a way to protect their descendants, and in the end, they found one."
At this, Lu Jin looked gravely at the tablets on the altar that had turned to black powder. "These ancestors shattered their own Divine Ability Bones and fused them with their flesh and blood to forge these memorial tablets. Through more than a hundred years of accumulation, they secured a sliver of a chance for their descendants to break free of this predicament."
"And earlier... you tried to awaken a heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone and triggered the Spirit-Sealing Curse. So I called upon this foundation formed from the blood and bones of our Lu Clan's ancestors to help you temporarily seal the curse. Only then was your Divine Ability Bone preserved at sub-heaven grade."
"Now that the Lu Clan's foundation has been exhausted, these tablets have naturally vanished like smoke and clouds."
Lu Ming opened his mouth. Looking at the empty altar, he felt an inexplicable weight and admiration. These ancestors truly had been as resilient as cold iron. Even in such despair, they had still accumulated, bit by bit, a sliver of a foundation for their descendants to turn the tables.
Without it, he too would probably have been reduced to a middle-grade Divine Ability Bone. The great path ahead would have been fraught with obstacles, the stars and moon difficult to reach.
Lu Ming knelt on a cushion and respectfully kowtowed three times to the black powder the tablets on the altar had become. Enunciating each word, he said sincerely, "Your descendant Lu Ming bows in thanks to the ancestors for protecting us with their blood and bones. If I achieve anything in my cultivation, I will do everything I can to help the Lu Clan's bloodline escape the clutches of this vicious curse."
A gentle breeze seemed to pass through the ancestral hall, stirring up the black powder on the altar.
"Grandpa, do you know which major power devoured and divided our Lu Clan? I've received the ancestors' kindness. Though I have no ability now, I should at least remember our enemy," Lu Ming asked as he rose.
"It cannot be spoken of or known. Our Lu Clan has extremely deep karmic ties with that place. Once spoken aloud, I fear they might trace it back to us. You haven't yet grown strong, so there's no need to know these things. It would only cause needless fear and worry. When you truly meet someone from there one day, you'll know naturally." Lu Jin shook his head, deeply wary.
Lu Ming fell silent and could only nod. Even with a sub-heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone, he was ultimately just an ordinary Divine Ability Practitioner, utterly incapable of doing anything.
"It seems that even though our Lu Clan has fallen this far, they still don't want to let us go."
"Of course they won't."
Lu Jin laughed softly. "Because the opportunity they plotted to obtain is still with our Lu Clan."
Lu Qingyan and Lu Jinglei were both startled. Evidently, even they had not known this secret.
"Father, the Lu Clan is already in such a miserable state. Whatever this opportunity is, why didn't the ancestors hurry up and use it? Why keep it?" Lu Jinglei asked in puzzlement.
Lu Jin said calmly, "Because opening this opportunity requires a heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone."
"Uh..."
Lu Qingyan looked thoughtful. "In that case, the existence who schemed against our Lu Clan planted the Spirit-Sealing Curse not only to make our clan sink into decline, but also to prevent a heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone from appearing among our descendants and opening this opportunity, right?"
Lu Jin nodded slightly. He moved a cushion aside from in front of the altar, forcibly pried out several bluestone tiles with his fingers, then bit his finger and dripped blood onto one of them.
As the blood fell, the dull gray tile immediately blossomed with light. Rays interwove, faintly forming arcane runes that traced the outline of a jade box.
"A Divine Ability Restriction?"
Lu Qingyan exclaimed in surprise. A Divine Ability Restriction was a restriction constructed using a special kind of divine ability power. The restriction on the jade box before them seemed exceptionally terrifying; even he felt his heart pound at the sight of it.
But Lu Jin clearly knew how to open it. As the blood traced its patterns, the Divine Ability Restriction outside the jade box gradually dimmed, finally fading into nothing.
Only then did Lu Jin open the jade box.
Lu Ming and the other two looked over curiously.
Inside the jade box lay an unremarkable black ring.
Lu Jin picked up the black ring and probed it briefly, but there was still no reaction. He then handed it to Lu Qingyan and Lu Jinglei.
The two of them fiddled with it curiously, but the black ring likewise showed no reaction.
"It seems a heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone really is needed to open it." They handed the black ring to Lu Ming, hope in their eyes.
Lu Ming scratched his head and said a little nervously, "I only have a sub-heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone. That doesn't truly meet the requirement, does it?"
"Try it. You're already our last chance. Besides you, there won't be a second sub-heaven-grade Divine Ability Bone in our Lu Clan now," Lu Jin said.
"If even you can't do it, perhaps this is our Lu Clan's fate."
After all, there was no second reserve of strength to contend with the Spirit-Sealing Curse.
Hearing this, Lu Ming took the black ring and immediately activated his Divine Ability Bone. A wisp of Primordial Qi flowed out and entered the ring.
In the next instant, a dark light flickered on the black ring. Lu Ming immediately staggered and fell backward.
Lu Qingyan hurriedly caught him. When he looked at Lu Ming's eyes again, he found that they had rolled white and his eyelids were gradually drooping.
"A-Ming?! Father, this..." Lu Qingyan hurriedly looked at Lu Jin, only to find that the latter was not alarmed at all. Instead, his face was full of wild joy.
"Little Mingzi's consciousness has entered the black ring."
Lu Jin drew a deep breath, his trembling voice filled with excitement.
Lu Qingyan and Lu Jinglei's bodies shook, and they exchanged a wildly delighted glance.
Had it worked??!
"Where is this?"
At the same time, Lu Ming found that he was no longer in the ancestral hall. Instead, he had appeared in a vast, magnificent square that was somewhat damaged.
The square was empty and deathly silent. In the distance was a darkness with no visible end.
Mist curled across the square.
"Is this the space inside the black ring?"
Lu Ming looked down at his body, only to find it exceedingly illusory. Understanding immediately dawned on him: what had entered the black ring's space was not his physical body, but a form created by his consciousness.
The black ring had drawn his consciousness inside.
Fortunately, he could clearly sense the presence of his physical body and the Divine Ability Bone in his chest.
Reassured, Lu Ming stepped forward. Through the mist, he could faintly make out some broken stone pillars. After an unknown length of time, he stopped.
He looked ahead and saw a stone lotus.
The stone lotus was ancient and mottled, as though it had weathered the passage of ages and witnessed immortality. An indescribable charm radiated from it, filling the entire mysterious space.
Crack.
Just then, the mottled surface of the stone lotus suddenly began to split, and fragments rapidly fell away. In only a moment, as Lu Ming watched in astonishment, raging flames ignited within the stone lotus.
A fire lotus radiating an extraordinary charm slowly bloomed.
Across the Fire Lotus's petals flowed countless pieces of arcane, indecipherable information.
The next moment, the fire lotus turned into a glimmer of light and shot toward Lu Ming. He had no time to dodge and could only watch as it struck his chest and sank into his Divine Ability Bone.
In an instant, a vast amount of information seemed to flow through his mind.
This was a mysterious divine ability.
Lu Ming contemplated the information, then softly recited a line from the divine ability's formula: "Under Buddha's fury, no ghost or phantom survives."
This divine ability seemed to be called...
Buddha's Fury Flame Lotus?