Chapter 1256: Tempered Bone Arts
As Feng Xi swept his gaze past the scene, an icy chill froze over his heart.
Be it another attack from Han Li or the dozen Six-winged Frost Centipedes surrounding him, he wouldn’t be able to deal with any of them.
Having come to a decision, Feng Xi grasped his hand in an incantation gesture and a crimson red bloomed from his upper body. Blood loudly splurt out from his flesh, hiding his body in a cloud of blood.
Meanwhile, the demon’s wings absorbed the blood in an instant and turned scarlet.
He took a deep breath and waved his wings, intending on fleeing using a secret technique. But at that moment, he heard a beautiful scripture being uttered and a huge attractive force weighing down on his body.
The demon felt his body tensed as he was kept in place, the magic power in his body frozen.
At that moment, Feng Xi discovered a foot large silver lotus below him in his terror. It was slowly blooming, keeping him trapped in seven-colored Buddhist light.
The demon panicked, immediately casting techniques in an attempt to escape.
However, the dozen centipedes surrounding him used this opportunity to spit glacial Qi onto him.
The icy white Qi enveloped him, containing the blood cloud completely. Feng Xi’s miserable screams sounded from within it.
A distance away, Han Li fiddle with the Eight Spirit Ruler in his hand with a calm expression, not even taking a glance in Feng Xi’s direction.
Everything was completely under his control.
At that moment, the Golden Wyrm King’s void came to a sudden stop.
This caused Han Li to cause his brow and take a look upward.
A world-shaking explosion suddenly sounded from within the sea of flames, and the flames scattered in an instant. A gust blew out, followed by something flying at immense speed.
Han Li’s expression sank and thunder rang out from his back. He vanished.
In the next moment, the thing that escaped came to a sudden stop. Above it, azure and white lightning flashed, followed by Han Li’s sudden appearance.
Han Li looked down and only saw the skeleton of a miniature wyrm. It was only a foot large and glistened with golden light as if it were created from pure gold.
The flood dragon was holding onto a thumb-sized golden core in its mouth.
Wails sounded from behind it, and five ghost heads charged out from the sea of flames with miserable faces. Their faces were ashen as if they were injured.
The golden bone wyrm stirred upon seeing the cinque devils and immediately flew off in a golden streak, soon vanishing from sight.
Above, Han Li coldly snorted. Black light flashed from his brow, following the appearance of a third black eye. It released a streak of black light that disappeared as soon as it appeared.
As a result, a muffled explosion sounded. Golden and black light intertwined and the bone wyrm toppled out from the explosion, flipping several times.
The bone wyrm knew things were far from good. It immediately thought to regain its bearings and continue its escape, but it was already too late.
Azure light suddenly flashed from nearby, following the appearance of an azure net that appeared seemingly out of nowhere. The bone wyrm was caught and was unable to move.
Meanwhile, a three-meter-long golden light flew out from the sky. Golden light flashed and the bone wyrm was cleaved into two.
A green flame flew out from the bone wyrm yet again in a desperate escape.
However, Han Li was already prepared. He reached out with a single hand, creating a large azure hand and grabbing ahold of the green flame.
Following that, Han Li flashed forward and took out a small green bottle with a shake of his sleeve.
He flipped the bottle, and it released a black mist.
The azure hand relaxed its grip, allowing the mist to sweep past the green flame and draw it back into the bottle.
After that was done, Han Li raised the bottle and swept his spiritual sense inside of it, wearing a satisfied expression from what he saw.
The soul of a grade-ten demon beast was an incredibly rare material.
Once the small bottle was placed away. He took a look at the golden pearl and the remnants of the bone wyrm and collected them without a thought.
The pearl was clearly his main objective, the metal-attribute wyrm core.
As for the golden skeleton, he was rather interested in it.
Back in the sea of flames, he saw the wyrm king unable to escape the shackles of his flame threads and the jaws of the cinque devil. But through some unknown technique, he detonated his flesh and broke free, scattering his constraints and controlling his miniaturized skeleton with his soul.
In this manner, the wyrm king seemed to have two bodies. He would be able to catch his opponent off guard in this inconceivable turn of events, shedding off his flesh and fleeing with his bones.
The wyrm king was a grade ten demon cultivator and a famous one at that. It would be odd if he were killed off so easily.
Han Li possessed two spirit treasures, and the cinque devils. Ordinary late-Nascent Soul cultivators couldn't hope to compare.
The wyrm king was already far stronger than ordinary demon beasts, but the Eight Spirit Ruler had miraculous defensive abilities and he naturally wasn't able to break through in a short amount of time. And with the capture by the renown fire spirit threads and the flesh-eating cinque devils suppressing him, Han Li was able to subdue him without any further abilities
Han Li curiously examined the golden skeleton and hesitated before placing it in his storage pouch as well.
At that moment, Feng Xi remained trapped within the white glacial mist to no surprise. The frost Qi of the dozen centipedes had already sealed it into ice.
Han Li glanced at the enemy he once feared long ago and shook his head. His thoughts stirred and he had his flying swords streak around the block of ice.
Suddenly, the ice split into chunks and a green demon soul rushed out from it, fleeing off in a panic. But it ran into a centipede headfirst and was swallowed with hardly any resistance, becoming mere insect food.
With the two demons were killed, Han Li decided to examine the storage pouches they left behind.
Han Li found a pleasant surprise.
From Feng Xi’s storage pouch, he acquired an ancient jade slip detailing several demon cultivator techniques as well as information on the Dragon Scale Fruit. It also detailed methods to uproot and transplant different kinds of spirit trees. It should prove greatly useful.
From the storage pouch of wyrm king, he found an interesting technique called the Tempered Bone Arts. It would allow humans and demons to cultivate their skeleton to the point of becoming a magic treasure, and in the process, it would turn one’s flesh unreasonably powerful. It was a pity that it took much time to cultivate this technique. He was too busy to cultivate this technique was of current, but he collected it into his storage pouch nonetheless.
After he collected all of the cinque devils and centipedes, he immediately flew off in an azure streak and flew into the nearby seas. Since the Dragon Scale Fruit had such miraculous effects, he couldn't let it go.
As a result, Han Li eliminated several restrictions he found in a cave underneath the sea and eventually found the tree.
Fortunately, Feng Xi packed all the materials he needed to uproot the spirit tree. Han Li naturally put them to good use and shrunk the tree for temporary storage in his pouch.
In the time it took to finish a meal, an azure streak brushed through the seas and disappeared off the horizon.
When Han Li returned to the Inner Star Seas and the Heavenly South, almost another year had passed.
When he returned to the Dreamcloud Mountains travel-worn, Nangong Wan, his disciples, and several sect elders gathered together with him for a secret discussion.
After most of a day passed, they all left.
Their expressions were all grave as if the topic had been of great importance.
Not long after, the Drifting Cloud Sect’s disciples discovered that the sect had begun to gather together large quantities of obscure spirit medicines no matter what the cost. At that same time, cultivators in higher positions of the sect repeatedly gathered together for discussions.
Not long after, a piece of information was made known throughout the Heavenly South.
Han Li, the Grand Elder of the Drifting Cloud Sect, in his last journey acquired a secret technique that would aid in breaking through to Deity Transformation.
However, the secret technique was quite peculiar and required a special area to cultivate. As such, the greatest cultivator in the Heavenly South planned on departing from the Drifting Cloud Sect for several hundred years in secluded cultivation. Apart from life or death situations for the sect or until he fails in cultivating this technique, he will not easily emerge from this place.
When this information was made known, the higher echelons of the large sects had different attitudes spanning from excitement, happiness, worry, and fear that great events will shake the Heavenly South once more.
After a year passed, not only did Han Li disappear, but his Dao companion Nangong Wan, Mu Peiling, and his other personal disciples also disappeared.
But Liu Yu did remain at the sect.
The Drifting Cloud Sect ceased their attitude of expansion and began to consolidate their existing power. Although the other sects eyed the resources of the Drifting Cloud Sect with greed, Han Li’s fearsome reputation kept them at bay.
A year, ten, and a hundred passed by. The greatest cultivator of the Heavenly South had completely disappeared and had yet to make another appearance.
In the Drifting Cloud Sect, the Dreamcloud Mountains, and even the Heavenly South, Han Li’s reputation began to fade with time and fewer people mentioned him. After an unknown amount of time, the grand elder of the Drifting Cloud Sect turned into a legend and his position remained empty for over a thousand years before a new grand elder was selected for the sect.
But after nearly a thousand years, a golden era appeared yet again for the Drifting Cloud Sect. Nascent Soul cultivators sprouted up in large numbers, elevating the sect to becoming a superpower in the Heavenly South. Its prosperity remained for thousands of years to come.