Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron
"I really shouldn't hesitate at a time like this."
After a brief silence, Xiluo suddenly stood up on the clay statue, her gaze turning resolute.
"That old thing was right. Perhaps you are the fated person my sister waited a thousand years for."
As Xiluo spoke, she slowly lowered her head and spat something out.
It was a crystalline white disc.
It was no larger than an ordinary coin, yet had the warmth and luster of jade.
When Xiluo spat out the white disc, even the air throughout the mountain god temple seemed to grow much warmer.
The statue of the Goddess of War behind Xiluo, in particular, seemed to come alive, a gleam appearing in its eyes.
"This is the treasure my sister left behind-the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron."
"It's a bone plastron my sister ground down from her own thoracic vertebrae, inscribed with all the maxims she comprehended throughout her life."
"With the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron in hand, anyone can temporarily borrow my sister's Heavenly Mandate Divine Ability."
Seeing the confusion on Li Boyang's and Big Girl's faces, Xiluo decided to demonstrate how to use the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron herself.
"For example, like this: I think it'll rain tomorrow."
With that, Xiluo suddenly tossed the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron into the air, then let it fall freely.
"If the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron lands faceup, it means I guessed correctly. Otherwise, I guessed wrong."
When the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron landed faceup on the ground.
Li Boyang fell silent, while Big Girl scratched her head, still looking confused.
"So... was that right? Or wrong?"
"Is it really going to rain tomorrow?"
When Xiluo heard Big Girl ask this.
Only then did she realize that whether it would rain tomorrow did indeed seem impossible to verify on the spot.
[Let's try another question!]
[Not only is your question impossible to verify on the spot, it isn't precise enough either.]
[You should ask whether it'll rain near Flying Peak during the daytime tomorrow to get a more accurate answer.]
[Big Girl, pick up the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron and ask whether we came to Flying Peak in the morning or at noon.]
Already intrigued, Big Girl immediately picked up the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron from the ground and obediently did as she was told.
"Bone plastron, oh bone plastron!"
"Did Little Brother and I come to Flying Peak in the morning or the afternoon?"
"If we came in the morning, land faceup. If we came at noon, land facedown."
After muttering to herself for a while, Big Girl carefully tossed the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron into the air.
When the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron landed, Big Girl immediately widened her eyes and shouted in delight.
"It's facedown! It really is facedown!"
"This bone plastron really works!"
Seeing that Big Girl intended to keep tossing the bone plastron.
Xiluo immediately leaped down from the clay statue and snatched the bone plastron away in midair.
"It's enough to know it's accurate. Stop tossing it around. This isn't your toy."
After giving Big Girl an irritated glare, Xiluo turned to Li Boyang.
"What we just tested was only the most basic way to use the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron..."
"The Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron was also what told me to bring you to Flying Peak today."
"In fact, the true way to use the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron is far more profound than this."
"As long as you truly master the Nine Chapters on the Secrets of Divination, there will be very little in this world that you don't know."
Pacing over to Li Boyang, Xiluo reluctantly tossed the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron into his arms.
"From this day on, you are the true owner of the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron."
"But you'd better take good care of it. I'll have to take it back after you die!"
Li Boyang promptly rolled his eyes. He had never imagined that, so soon after his birth, someone would already be making plans for his affairs after death.
[Maxims?]
He carefully examined the maxims on the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron.
Li Boyang was somewhat curious whether the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron's ability came from these maxims or was an inherent property of the Huai River witch's thoracic vertebrae.
[But with this Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron, I now know how to resolve the crisis in Black Cloud Marsh.]
Meanwhile, within Black Cloud Marsh.
Billowing black smoke continued to pour from the Pill Furnace, though it was considerably thinner than it had been some days ago.
Near the Pill Furnace, the corrupted beasts eroded by the black mist were lining up and leaping into the Pill Furnace in an unending stream.
The reason the black mist of Black Cloud Marsh had stopped expanding outward.
Li Boyang's and Xiluo's relentless slaughter during this time was certainly one major factor.
But another considerable part of the reason was that the corrupted beasts were becoming fuel for this Pill Furnace.
Whoosh!
After devouring living creatures, the flames already ignited by Sha Qi burned even more fiercely and surged even higher.
Faintly, deep, powerful roars like those of a wild ox seemed to echo from within the Pill Furnace.
"Heaven and earth return to their origin; baleful ghosts become a pill."
He appeared soundlessly directly before the Pill Furnace.
This time, the old man finally made human sounds rather than meaningless ghostly wails and howls.
This meant that the old man had regained his reason and become a ghost king in the truest sense.
"You thought I was a mindless evil ghost, so you dared to disregard me?"
"How does it feel to have your boat capsize in a gutter?"
"Are you furious, in agony, desperate to scatter my soul to the winds?"
"Unfortunately, the more you suffer and struggle now, the more you help me!"
Tilting his head to listen to the roars inside the Pill Furnace, the old man revealed a cold, sinister smile.
With the help of the Earth Sha Fire and the corrupted beasts leaping endlessly into the Pill Furnace, the old man was confident he could completely refine this Ox-Head yin deity into a Ghost God Egg.
When that time came, he would only need to swallow the Ghost God Egg, and he would naturally transform into a true ghost god.
Though ghost king and ghost god differed by only a single word.
The difference in the levels of life they represented was as vast as that between heaven and earth.
In any era, those who could bear the title of "god" were supreme beings.
But that was still far from enough. The old man's ambitions did not stop there.
"If I want to truly return to the living, I'm still missing a body..."
At this thought, the old man suddenly remembered Li Boyang-the golden Sword Pill that had repeatedly thwarted him.
"Since it can house the Divine Firmament Sword's sword soul, your body in this life should be quite suitable for my return to the living!"
"Come to think of it, I have you to thank for getting this far."
"Otherwise, where would I have gained the experience of refining a soul with pill fire, and how could I refine a true Ghost God Egg?"
As he recalled his own death through gritted teeth, the malignant Sha surrounding the old man actually solidified into ferocious flames.
Compared with Ruifu, the God of Ferocious Sha, who had been sealed for a thousand years and remained weakened throughout.
These flames displayed an utterly overwhelming advantage in both ferocity and viciousness.