Adamantine Sand and Skeleton Bones

The wind and sand died down, and Zhang Yang could finally see clearly: the enormous black claw that had pierced his chest appeared to be the claw of a serpent flood dragon, reaching out from the small black soup spoon Tang Yuan wore.

"Zhang Yang, what was that tiny pinch of golden sand that flew out from between your brows and helped you defend against my Blood Skeleton Technique Lightning just now?" Tang Yuan asked coolly.

"If I tell you, will you spare my life?" Zhang Yang felt his life slowly slipping away.

"Tell me first." Tang Yuan's face was expressionless.

"It's called Adamantine Sand. It could be considered a high-grade spirit treasure...

"It was gathered from the deep-sea abyss in the far south...

"Adamantine Sand fears neither the five elements nor demons and devils..." Zhang Yang murmured painfully under his breath.

"All right, you can die now." Tang Yuan raised his saber and thrust.

"My father is the master of the Golden Sand Sect. He'll surely be willing to pay ten thousand Spirit Stones for my life..."

Before Zhang Yang could finish, the devil saber in Tang Yuan's hand had pierced his skull...

Tang Yuan had heard of the Golden Sand Sect. It was a middling, reputable orthodox sect on the Purple Mother Continent.

It focused on body cultivation and had enjoyed a glorious age a thousand years ago, but it had gradually fallen into decline.

A centipede dies but never falls stiff.

Though the Golden Sand Sect had no Golden Core True Lords or Heavenly Gate True Persons, it still had a few Foundation Establishment High Persons.

As the son of the Golden Sand Sect's master, Zhang Yang had some treasures in his Storage Bag, though not many.

Tang Yuan took inventory and found the following:

One Cultivation Method Jade Slip, the Golden Sand Treasure Body Scripture, a body cultivation method that led directly to Foundation Establishment;

One artifact-forging Cultivation Method Jade Slip, the Fire Spirit Artifact Forging Instruction, a basic method that used fire veins to forge artifacts;

One formation Jade Slip, the Forbidden: Spirit-Devouring Wind Vortex Formation, a wind-attribute formation.

Two Qi Refining Stage treasured sabers;

Several ordinary pills;

Thirty Spirit Stones.

Tang Yuan searched Zhang Yang's Storage Bag over and over, but he never found an invisibility technique or the Adamantine Sand.

He glumly collected Zhang Yang's soul into the soul-summoning banner, then took out Zhang Yang's severed hand, intending to reattach it.

After all, the corpse of a Middle Stage of Qi Refinement body cultivator could fetch more than a hundred Spirit Stones at the Holy Cardamom Sect.

If it was missing a hand, the price would surely be discounted.

While reattaching the severed hand to Zhang Yang's corpse, Tang Yuan discovered that he was wearing a thin, seven-colored treasure robe.

Tang Yuan put on the robe and understood why Zhang Yang had been able to turn invisible and conceal his cultivation: the robe could make its wearer invisible and hide their cultivation.

According to Zhang Yang, even ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators could not see his actual cultivation.

As for whether it could make him invisible to Foundation Establishment cultivators, that remained to be tested.

"I wonder if this treasure's invisibility is better than the Wall God Robe's." Tang Yuan put the robe away in satisfaction and named it the Seven-Colored Invisibility Robe.

"It really is a pity I didn't get the high-grade spirit treasure, the Adamantine Sand." Tang Yuan pursed his lips and looked at Tang Jia: a skeleton.

Tang Jia was the first duplicate avatar Tang Yuan had spent ten years of his own lifespan to have the Earth Flood Dragon make using Dragon Skeleton Jade Mud.

He had pretended to be injured and spit blood at the Purple Moon Lake Market, and had refrained from summoning his avatar, all so he could catch Zhang Yang off guard and kill him in a single blow.

In a private room at the Purple Moon Lake Market, Tang Yuan had summoned Tang Jia, while his original body hid inside the Mystic Spoon.

The one who had ridden the flying shuttle and fought Zhang Yang just now was Tang Jia.

After all, he was only at Qi Refining First Layer. Fighting a Qi Refining Fourth Layer body cultivator was still very risky.

He had thought to sacrifice Tang Jia and use Blood Skeleton Technique Lightning to take Zhang Yang down with him.

In the end, Tang Jia had died, while Zhang Yang had suffered only minor injuries...

After all, Tang Jia was himself, so it was best to lay him to rest.

When Tang Yuan was about to put Tang Jia's skeleton away, he was suddenly overjoyed: the skeleton sparkled with tiny golden specks.

When Blood Skeleton Technique Lightning exploded, it had failed to consume and burn away Zhang Yang's flesh and blood, but by a twist of fate, it had fused the Adamantine Sand with Tang Jia's skeleton.

To reach Foundation Establishment, one had to cultivate a Dao foundation.

An intangible Dao foundation generally relied on a physical object that could be placed inside the Dantian, known as a life-bound Dao foundation or life-bound Law Treasure.

Life-bound Law Treasures came in all forms: flying swords, sword pills, treasured pearls, gourds, spirit bones, devil eyes, soul-summoning banners, and so on. There were even blood pills, human skin, and soul pills refined from one's own Qi and Blood.

The key was that the life-bound Law Treasure had to establish a fortuitous opportunity and connection with the cultivator, making body and spirit one.

Tang Jia had originally been created by the Earth Flood Dragon from Dragon Skeleton Jade Mud mixed with Tang Yuan's Essence Blood, so he naturally had a life-bound connection to him.

"Maybe my life-bound Law Treasure will be my own skeleton bones someday." The corners of Tang Yuan's mouth lifted slightly as he put away Tang Jia's skeleton, fused with the Adamantine Sand.

After spending another incense stick's worth of time cleaning up the battlefield and confirming that no treasures had been left within ten li, Tang Yuan was just about to board the flying shuttle when an enormous black claw again reached out from the Mystic Spoon around his neck. The Earth Flood Dragon's greedy voice sounded in his ear: "Give me the two souls you just collected..."

Tang Yuan glumly summoned Luo Biao's and Zhang Yang's souls out of the soul-summoning banner. The enormous black claw swiftly grabbed both souls and pulled them into the Mystic Spoon.

Crunch, crunch...

The sound of the Earth Flood Dragon chewing its food came from the small black soup spoon.

Several breaths later, the Earth Flood Dragon's voice sounded in Tang Yuan's ear again:

"People have three hun and seven po. I only eat one hun and seven po. What remains is a ghost.

"I can refine ghosts into ghost spirits.

"Ghost spirits are much harder to deal with than soul spirits.

"Your soul-summoning banner can't hold ghost spirits. You need a specialized ghost-summoning banner for that.

"I can only keep the ghost spirits from dispersing for ten years."

The Holy Cardamom Sect had a specialized Cultivation Method for refining souls into soul spirits that cultivators could command.

A soul-summoning banner could both hold souls and command soul spirits.

As for ghost-summoning banners and ghost spirits, Tang Yuan really had never heard of them.

"Looks like I have to get a ghost-summoning banner within ten years." Tang Yuan frowned slightly and snapped his fingers. "The fight's over, the work's done, time to go home and eat"...

...The northern foothills of the Wanglongbo Desert, Dangwu Village, the Tang residence.

A little black dog lay in the courtyard, gnawing on a bone with a crunch.

Dressed in plain cloth, Tang Yuan held a cup of wine and watched his five children eating delicious dishes, his eyes full of affection:

His twelve-year-old eldest son, Tang Tiansong,

His eleven-year-old second daughter, Tang Tianlan,

His nine-year-old boy-and-girl twins: his third daughter, Tang Tianzi;

His fourth son, Tang Tiandong;

His two-year-old youngest son, Tang Tianya, who was just learning to talk;

"My wife, these past fourteen years,

"I've either been fishing for the Xi Household or hunting in Three Graves Mountain. The heavy burden of raising the children has fallen entirely on your shoulders.

"Thank you for all your hard work. Let me offer you a toast." Tang Yuan gazed lovingly at his mortal wife, Miao.

"Husband, you've worked hard hunting in the mountains and gathering flying squirrel droppings, giving the children and me a comfortable life.

"You're the one who's worked hard." Miao raised her cup and took a sip of wine.

Tang Yuan had never told his wife that he was an immortal cultivator, much less that he was now a disciple of the devil sect, the Holy Cardamom Sect.

Working as a spirit-fishing laborer for the Xi Household in the Western Spirit Ten Thousand Islands Region was easy to explain. As for absorbing the Qi of heaven and earth to cultivate in Three Graves Mountain on the Purple Mother Continent and killing Demon Beasts for their beast cores, Tang Yuan had passed it all off as hunting ordinary birds and beasts.

Whenever he obtained beast cores or gathered herbs used by cultivators, Tang Yuan went back to Huai'an City to sell them for Spirit Stones and pills.

One Spirit Stone could be exchanged for a hundred taels of gold, and one tael of gold was worth a hundred taels of silver.

Now, whenever he returned to Dangwu Village, Tang Yuan gave his wife only a little gold and silver, so that the Tang Household was merely a well-off family that kept a low profile in the village of nearly six hundred households.

"Dad, um...

"I don't plan to follow Second Uncle and learn to gather flying squirrel droppings..." Tang Tiansong mumbled indistinctly, his mouth stuffed with a piece of pork belly.

"Why?" Tang Yuan frowned slightly.

"Flying squirrel droppings are a medicinal ingredient that opens the channels, disperses blood stasis, relieves pain, and counteracts poison.

"Those so-called flying squirrel droppings are the dried feces of red-and-white flying squirrels.

"To put it bluntly, they're rat shit.

"If I gather flying squirrel droppings, wouldn't that make me a dung collector?

"I won't be a dung collector." Tang Tiansong's face was full of disdain.

"If you won't be a dung collector, what do you want to do?

"Let me tell you, when your mother and I grow old, we're counting on you to take care of us.

"Your younger brothers and sisters are counting on you too." Tang Yuan smiled.

"I want to cultivate immortality and become a cultivator.

"When I grow up, I'll fight tyranny and protect the innocent, slay demons and exterminate devils, and be a great hero." Tang Tiansong raised his head.

"You're trying to kill your..." Tang Yuan nearly sprayed out the mouthful of wine.

Your dad is a genuine Devil Cultivator. You're trying to do your own dad in!

"My good eldest son, a mortal can only cultivate immortality if he's an Aperture Opener.

"But fewer than one in a hundred mortals are Aperture Openers. How do you know you're one?" Tang Yuan pursed his lips.

"Although the test says I'm not an Aperture Opener now, I'll know for sure whether I am one by the time I'm eighteen at the latest.

"Even if I'm not an Aperture Opener and can't cultivate immortality, I'll become a mortal martial artist.

"Mortal martial artists can fight tyranny and protect the innocent, slay demons and exterminate devils too.

"I'll definitely kill all the bad people under heaven and become a great hero."

He's determined to do his dad in to the bitter end.

Tang Yuan couldn't be bothered to hash it out with his own son and said seriously, "Tiansong, no matter what you do, your father only hopes that you, your mother, and your younger brothers and sisters can live your whole lives in peace and happiness.

"A person must never forget his roots.

"Gathering flying squirrel droppings is our Tang family's ancestral trade.

"No matter what you do when you grow up, you must learn the craft of gathering them." Tang Yuan smiled meaningfully and touched the small black soup spoon inside his shirt, his mind drifting for a moment...