Chapter 191: Absorbing a 100,000-Year Soul Bone! Did Liu Yuan Also Obtain an External Soul Bone?
In the open space before the Body Sect's Sect Master's Hall, the silence was absolute; one could hear a single pin drop against the cold stone floor.
Liu Yuan and Long Aotian sat cross-legged facing each other, their bodies completely enveloped by dense, undulating waves of soul power.
Du Busi stood to the side, his hands clasped loosely behind his back. His vivid green, double-pupiled eyes continuously swept over the two youths, carefully tracking the flow of their meridians to ensure the absorption process proceeded without the slightest deviation.
The energy contained within a 100,000-year soul bone was unimaginably vast. Worse, it carried the lingering, violent resentment of the Soul Beast from just before its death.
However, within the top-tier cultivation environment of the Body Sect, and with a supreme powerhouse like Du Busi personally holding the line, the underlying danger of the process was firmly suppressed.
Time trickled by. Two hours later, the radiant golden soul power swirling around Long Aotian suddenly contracted violently, sinking deep into his pores.
He slowly opened his eyes. A razor-sharp light pierced through the air from his pupils.
As he exhaled a long, turbid breath, the soul power surging through his meridians echoed like a torrential river crashing into the sea, producing a clear, thunderous roar that vibrated through the courtyard.
"Master, I have finished." Long Aotian stood up, his posture straight as a spear, and bowed deeply to Du Busi.
Du Busi swept his gaze over the youth, sensing the newly stabilized aura. A rare look of gratification softened his harsh features. "Not bad. Your soul power rank has surged directly to Rank Fifty-Nine."
"The soul power feedback from a 100,000-year soul bone is indeed substantial. You are now only a single step away from the threshold of Rank Sixty."
Just then, a flurry of footsteps echoed from the corridor. Chen Lu, Wang Yanfeng, and a group of other True Disciples of the Body Sect hurried toward the Sect Master's Hall.
They had just heard the rumors at the Martial Arts Arena—the Sect Master had bestowed the top-tier Soul Bones extorted from Shrek Academy upon Long Aotian and Liu Yuan. Unable to suppress their anticipation, they had rushed over to witness the results.
"Aotian, congratulations!" Chen Lu strode forward, clapping a heavy hand onto Long Aotian's shoulder.
"Rank Fifty-Nine... your cultivation speed truly makes the rest of us feel ashamed. Quick, tell us, what skill did that 100,000-year strength-type left arm bone give you?"
Wang Yanfeng also leaned in, his eyes gleaming with intense curiosity. "A 100,000-year soul bone usually grants two Soul Skills. Aotian, let us brothers broaden our horizons a bit."
Long Aotian glanced toward Liu Yuan, who remained seated with his eyes shut tight, still deep in absorption. He lowered his voice, gesturing away from the courtyard. "Liu Yuan is still at a critical juncture. Let's go to the Martial Arts Arena outside the side hall to test it. We shouldn't disturb him here."
The group nodded in immediate agreement, quietly following Long Aotian out to the expansive training grounds adjacent to the hall.
Finding his footing on the reinforced stone tiles, Long Aotian took a deep breath. His left arm suddenly jolted, muscles expanding rapidly.
"First Soul Bone Skill: Strength Augmentation."
With that low shout, his entire left arm was instantly coated in a layer of complex, dark-gold light patterns. The air around him distorted. In an instant, Chen Lu and the others felt Long Aotian's aura become oppressively heavy, as if his single arm now carried the weight of a mountain range.
"This move grants me a one hundred and fifty percent strength augmentation for one minute." Long Aotian didn't waste time explaining further. He simply pulled his left fist back and punched the empty air.
Boom!
The sheer kinetic force of the fist wind tore through the courtyard, generating a sharp, explosive shockwave that directly shattered a massive stone training lock dozens of meters away into fine dust.
"One hundred and fifty percent?" Wang Yanfeng gasped, staring at the pulverized stone. "You're already an assault system soul master. Combined with the Secondary Awakening of your Body Martial Soul, a single punch from that would probably shatter an ordinary six-ring Soul Emperor on the spot!"
Long Aotian didn't relax his stance. A sharp, feral light flashed in his eyes. "It's not over yet. Look at the Second Skill: Arm Hardening."
The flesh and blood of his left arm seemed to undergo a terrifying qualitative change. A layer of forest-white, hyper-dense bony structure grew rapidly from beneath the skin, instantly wrapping his entire arm like the lethal claws of some ancient, primordial beast.
Striding up to a ten-thousand-jin Black Cloud Rock—a material renowned for its extreme durability—Long Aotian swung his left arm in a plain, unremarkable horizontal sweep.
Clang—!
A crisp sound of metal clashing rang out. That incredibly dense Black Cloud Rock was sliced cleanly in half, sliding apart like soft tofu. Yet, upon inspection, not even a faint red mark was left on the forest-white surface of Long Aotian's hardened arm.
"What terrifying hardness." Chen Lu stepped forward, cautiously touching the surface of Long Aotian's arm before the hardening receded. It felt colder and denser than the finest refined gold. "This isn't just an offensive skill; it's an absolute defense. A 100,000-year soul bone truly lives up to its legendary reputation."
While the disciples were still reeling from the shock of Long Aotian's massive improvement, their thoughts simultaneously drifted back to the youth still sitting inside the hall.
"Let's go check on Liu Yuan. Logically, he's absorbing a torso bone, so the time should be about right," Wang Yanfeng suggested, his tone laced with anticipation.
When they quietly re-entered the Sect Master's Hall, they found Du Busi staring fixedly at Liu Yuan, his expression unusually solemn.
A significant amount of time had passed; three full hours had gone by since Long Aotian finished his own absorption. Logically speaking, given that Liu Yuan's mental force far exceeded that of his peers, absorbing a mental-type Soul Bone shouldn't have taken this long.
"Master, is he not done yet?" Long Aotian stepped forward, keeping his voice low. "Is there some kind of problem?"
Du Busi's brow was tightly furrowed, his glowing green double-pupils locked firmly onto the fluctuating aura surrounding Liu Yuan. "Strange. Truly strange."
"His vital signs are extremely stable, and the soul power execution path is smooth and steady. It doesn't look at all like he's struggling against the Soul Beast's lingering resentment."
"But the energy inside his body has been compressing violently, as if something massive is brewing within him."
Long Aotian frowned, a trace of worry flickering in his eyes. "Master, then what should we do?"
Du Busi shook his head slowly. "We wait and see. At least for now, there don't seem to be any negative reactions. It's just highly unusual."
Hearing the Sect Master's verdict, Chen Lu and the others could only hold their breath, standing silently to the side as they watched the motionless youth.
Finally, after another agonizing half hour, Liu Yuan's body suddenly trembled.
A massive mental fluctuation—one so intense it made the onlookers' hearts skip a beat—suddenly expanded outward in a visible ring, using Liu Yuan as the epicenter.
The heavy wooden side tables surrounding him were struck by this invisible mental shockwave, emitting an unbearable, splintering creak as they were pushed back inches across the stone floor.
Liu Yuan's soul power rank began to climb steadily. It leaped from his original Rank Fifty-Seven, effortlessly shattered the Rank Fifty-Eight barrier, and finally came to a steady, heavy stop at Rank Fifty-Nine.
"Rank Fifty-Nine. On par with Aotian." Du Busi let out a long sigh of relief, his tense shoulders dropping slightly. "This kid finally decided to stop making this old man worry."
However, before the relief and joy could fully spread among the disciples, an astonishing scene unfolded.
Crack—
The fabric on the back of Liu Yuan's robes was suddenly shredded by a massive, internal force.
Under everyone's horrified and captivated gaze, two clusters of blinding purple-gold light burst forth from the shoulder blades on both sides of Liu Yuan's back.
It was a skeletal structure that looked as if it had been carefully carved from flawless amethyst, unfolding outward in a fraction of a second. Accompanied by a frantic, swirling infusion of soul power, a pair of giant wings with a wingspan exceeding four meters grew directly out of his flesh.
These wings were crystal clear throughout. Every single feather looked like a razor-sharp, transparent crystal shard, their edges flickering with a grim, chilling light. Along the main skeletal structure of the wings, dense, terrifying mental energy fluctuations swirled like miniature storms.
"This is..." Long Aotian stood frozen in place, his voice slightly distorted by shock. "Wings?"
Wang Yanfeng rubbed his eyes aggressively and cried out, "No! This can't be a mutation in his Martial Soul. That grew directly out of his bones!"
Du Busi's eyes widened to the size of saucers. He suddenly flickered, reappearing directly behind Liu Yuan to feel the aura emanating from those crystalline wings at close range.
That aura shared the exact same origin as the torso bone from earlier, yet it also carried a distinct, elevated sense of divinity that was entirely independent of the torso bone itself.
"An External Soul Bone?"
Du Busi muttered, his voice trembling with a mix of disbelief and wild excitement. "Absorbing a torso bone and unexpectedly obtaining an External Soul Bone as a byproduct? You kid... your luck is truly heaven-defying!"
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