Mortal Bones

Chapter 37: Repelling the Heavenly Demon, A Tiger’s Roar Shakes Qingfeng Gorge

“Hmph.”

Chu Lingyue let out a cold sneer.

With just that single sound, the pitch-black hand reaching through the window suddenly stiffened.

Keeping her hand locked in a seal, Chu Lingyue pointed a glacial finger at the monstrous hand and spoke:

“All that is received, and all that continues, when extinguished, is rendered shadowless; this is known as silent extinction.”

Following her imperious gesture, a terrifying aura of pure destruction—reeking of sudden rot and decaying corpses—surged toward the black hand like a tidal wave.

Boom!

A muffled detonation of displaced air instantly followed. The enormous hand, wreathed in suffocating black mist, abruptly recoiled. Faint sparks of karmic fire flickered across its fingertips.

“Choose: taste the flames of Shadowless Extinction, or crawl back to your demonic realm.”

Chu Lingyue’s voice was absolute frost.

The black fingers curled inward, slowly clenching into a tight fist, visibly hesitating.

“Roar!..”

At that precise moment, a resonant dragon’s cry suddenly shattered the deathly silence of the world, followed by an ancient voice roaring in fury:

“What foul demon dares trespass upon my Qingxuan!”

Hearing this, the black hand formed by the Outer Realm Heavenly Demon ceased its hesitation. It violently retracted through the window and vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.

The roaring thunder, howling wind, and torrential rain abruptly crashed back into the world.

“That little black dragon guarding the Qingxuan Sect’s mountain gate could actually sense an Outer Realm Heavenly Demon? I underestimated the beast. But from the sound of it, he only sensed a disturbance; he hasn’t truly located it.”

Chu Lingyue, her figure now dangerously translucent, cast a brief glance toward the mountain gate. A faint smile touched the corner of her lips as she turned back to Xu Taiping, who remained immersed in deep meditation, and murmured to herself:

“I owe that beast a favor today. Without its roar, I truly would have had to unleash the Extinguishing Karmic Flame spell. Had that happened, it would be at least thirty years before I could see this little fellow again.”

Although thirty years was but a fleeting snap of the fingers to her, after their time together, she felt a genuine reluctance to part with the boy.

“I originally planned to help the little fellow deal with that tiger demon. Now, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. If I do not return to slumber within the Earth Fruit soon, this wisp of remnant soul will dissipate. So be it. I will leave him a letter detailing the circulation method for the Ice Breath Technique. With that technique and his monstrous comprehension, he will undoubtedly be able to slay the beast.”

Muttering softly, Chu Lingyue extended her divine sense, lifting a writing brush from the table and pressing it against a blank sheet of paper.

A mortal brush was one of the very few physical objects her fading remnant soul could still manipulate.

“Big sister will slumber for a month at the least, and half a year at the most. Little Taiping, take care of yourself. If you encounter anything amusing, engrave it in your memory so you can tell me when I awaken.”

Upon writing the final character, Chu Lingyue’s spiritual reserves were utterly drained. She dissolved into a wisp of ethereal smoke, drifting out of the room to bury herself deep within the withered Earth Fruit branch in the medicinal garden.

..

At that exact moment.

Xu Taiping finally drove his Remnant Glow True Qi to shatter the invisible barricade encasing his Dantian.

He had successfully broken through to the Door Opening Realm.

“Is this the Sea of Qi?”

The instant he crossed the threshold into the Door Opening Realm, Xu Taiping unlocked the ability of internal sight. With a mere shift of his thoughts, he gazed upon the vast “Sea of Qi” that lay beyond his shattered Dantian.

Submerging his vision into the Sea of Qi felt like stepping into a boundless, primordial gray expanse. Occasionally, he could spot condensed clouds of True Qi drifting through the void.

Even from this rudimentary observation, he could intuitively grasp the chasm of difference between a mortal Dantian and a cultivator’s Sea of Qi.

“No wonder Daoist Ziyang spoke those words, and no wonder the technique jade slip stated that Daoist arts could only be practiced after reaching the Door Opening Realm. A tiny Dantian simply cannot contain the immense True Qi required to manifest Daoist magic.”

Overwhelmed with awe, Xu Taiping sighed in his heart.

“Right, I must hurry and tell Sister Lingyue.”

Recalling Fairy Lingyue guarding his bedside, he instantly withdrew his consciousness and opened his eyes.

“Huh?”

To his bewilderment, the room was empty. The window had been blown wide open, and the air was thick with a residual aura that made his heart palpitate with inexplicable dread, as if an entity of unimaginable danger had just stood within these very walls.

“Sister Lingyue?”

A knot of unease tightening in his chest, Xu Taiping rolled out of bed and called toward the open doorway.

Silence was his only answer.

Just as he prepared to run outside and check the medicinal garden, the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of a letter resting on the table, pinned down by a wooden ruler.

He rushed forward and picked it up.

“Little Taiping, by the time you read this, your big sister will have already returned to slumber within the withered Earth Fruit branch. I leave this letter to instruct you on a few matters.”

The handwriting that greeted him was fluid and unrestrained.

The characters mirrored her very nature; there was no doubt Fairy Lingyue had penned this.

Yet, as Xu Taiping read on, the thrill of his breakthrough was instantly extinguished like a snuffed candle.

“During your breakthrough just now, you attracted an Outer Realm Heavenly Demon. This is highly likely tied to your innate soul aptitude.”

“Outer Realm Heavenly Demon?”

Never in his wildest dreams did Xu Taiping imagine that a terrifying entity only mentioned in the deepest legends and ancient texts of the Qingxuan Sect would manifest right beside him.

..

A moment later.

Xu Taiping finished reading the letter in its entirety.

Although he did not fully comprehend concepts like the “Transparent Dao Heart” or the specifics of an “Outer Realm Heavenly Demon,” he clearly understood the reason behind Sister Lingyue’s sudden, forced hibernation.

“Right as I celebrated my successful breakthrough, Sister Lingyue was risking total dissipation to drive away that Outer Realm Heavenly Demon for me.”

At this realization, he folded the letter. The lingering traces of joy and wonder vanished from his eyes, receding like a low tide.

He sealed the window shut and reverently placed the letter into the wooden box his grandfather had given him. Wordlessly, he returned to his bed, assuming a lotus position to circulate his Qi.

The harrowing events of this night had afforded the young Xu Taiping a brutal glimpse into the true perils of the cultivation path.

“Without Sister Lingyue, even if I broke into the Door Opening Realm, the Heavenly Demon would have already devoured my soul. The Dao is long and treacherous. I cannot endlessly rely on her protection. Now that I hold the qualifications to cultivate, I must sweat a hundred times more and bleed a hundred times more than the rest! I will force this mortal body onto the path to heaven! If that tiger demon blocks my Dao, I will slaughter it. If a Heavenly Demon blocks my Dao, I will execute the heavens!”

Xu Taiping silently carved this bloody oath into his heart.

Perhaps even Fairy Lingyue had failed to realize that Xu Taiping’s greatest reliance on the path of cultivation was not the fabled Transparent Dao Heart. It was the unyielding, iron-forged will tempered into his bones by his grandfather since childhood.

..

On this very same night.

Deep within the tiger demon’s lair in Qingfeng Gorge.

“Roar!..”

Standing upon the jagged peak of the gorge, the tiger demon unleashed a heaven-shaking roar. The sheer physical force of its voice rippled outward from the summit, terrorizing the fierce beasts of the surrounding mountains into trembling prostration.

“My injuries are finally knitting together. Give me but one more month, and my vitality shall be perfectly restored!”

The tiger demon barked a sinister laugh, raising a massive paw to trace the gruesome scar across its face. A ferocious, bloodthirsty glint flared in its eyes as it glared out at the red maple forest beyond the cavern.

“Mo Jun of the Fifth Peak, you dare demand this king serve as your beast of burden? You are courting death! Once I am restored, should you ever set foot in Qingfeng Gorge again, I will force you to taste the wrath of my Shuo Feng Tiger Clan’s secret treasure, the Cloud-Devouring Pearl!”

As it spat these words, it plunged a claw into its maw, extracting a pulsing, silvery-white pearl.

Boom!

The instant the Cloud-Devouring Pearl met the air, torrential gales erupted throughout the red maple forest. Countless ancient maples, trunks thick enough to require two men to encircle, were cleanly severed at their waists by invisible blades of wind.

Admiring the absolute devastation raging outside, the tiger demon swallowed the Cloud-Devouring Pearl with a look of immense satisfaction. Its cruel smile slowly vanished as it shifted its predatory gaze toward the Green Bamboo Residence. Its voice dropped to an icy, murderous growl:

“And you, little brat of the Green Bamboo Residence… you dared to cripple my Chang Ghost. I shall tear your soul out, refine you into a new Chang Ghost, and subject you to an eternity of this king’s torment!”