https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-401-Cooking-a-True-Immortal-Part-2-/13451565/
https://novelcool.info/chapter/Chapter-402-Divine-Bones-Dire-Straits-Part-2-/13451567/
Chapter 402: Divine Bones, Dire Straits (Part 1)
Chapter 402: Divine Bones, Dire Straits (8K Monthly Votes) (Part 1)
At the same time, the Middle-aged Warrior had already fought his way into the Cave Mansion of the ancient demon leader.
With the Middle-aged Warrior's eruption, the ancient demon leader quickly found himself in dire straits.
Over the past year, not only had Li Hao made significant progress, but the Middle-aged Warrior's strength had also surged, surpassing his peak and growing even stronger.
"Roar!"
Inside the ancient demon fief, the intrusion of Li Hao and the Middle-aged Warrior had startled the sleeping ancient demons. They roared and quickly gathered, attempting to form an array to resist.
However, this only made it easier for Li Hao to harvest them.
The broken sword moved like a shadow, the speed of his Object Control reaching the level of instantaneous travel. Under Li Hao's control, it moved through space like a fish in water, silent and swift, like the scythe of death.
The gathered ancient demons fell before Li Hao like wheat being cut down.
The Soul Spirit then charged in, even faster. With over three hundred golden veins, the Soul Spirit emitted a faint golden glow, resembling a deity formed from True Energy.
In just a few minutes, the ancient demon fief was littered with corpses.
The ancient demon leader was easily slain by the Middle-aged Warrior, who then turned to fight the second-stage ancient demons to protect Li Hao from harm.
But as Li Hao was slaughtering third-stage ancient demons, he was also massacring the second-stage ancient demons. Now, these second-stage ancient demons posed no threat and were quickly killed before him.
Looking at the ground covered with ancient demon corpses, Li Hao and the Middle-aged Warrior exchanged glances, their eyes filled with joy.
It wasn't just the abundance of ingredients; more importantly, they saw hope in their ability to break through the ancient path.
"Let's rest for a bit. We don't need to rush. Once we've eaten all of these, our strength should improve further."
The Middle-aged Warrior said to Li Hao.
Li Hao agreed.
They stopped the bronze chariot in the ancient demon leader's fief and settled in, feasting on the spoils.
"Next time, let one of them live to get some information about the outside world."
The Middle-aged Warrior smiled as he sat down to rest.
After a year of companionship, and the dangers they faced together with the ancient demons, Li Hao's assistance and their journey had deepened their bond. Unlike their first meeting, when the Middle-aged Warrior saw Li Hao as a junior, they were now both teacher and friend to each other.
He had taught Li Hao his combat techniques, secret arts, and combat experience, holding nothing back.
"Sure."
Li Hao nodded, selected an ancient demon, and cooked it to fill his stomach. Then, he found some stones and used the sharp claw bones of the ancient demons to sculpt.
His Art Dao and Cooking Dao had both reached the Tenth Rank Perfection, and he needed to gain insights to continue advancing.
His Fishing Art was at the Seventh Rank, and his Chess Dao at the Eighth Rank.
Both required certain conditions to accumulate experience.
For the remaining poetry books, music, and sculpture, Li Hao chose sculpture to pass the time and gain experience.
Life on the ancient path battlefield was indeed monotonous, leaving Li Hao with nothing to do each day except eat and sculpt.
This routine allowed his Sculpture experience to accumulate rapidly, especially when sculpting ancient demons, which provided a large amount of experience. Sculpting the Middle-aged Warrior also brought him a significant amount of experience.
Now, his Sculpture Dao had caught up with his Fishing Art and surpassed it, reaching the Eighth Rank.
"Once my sculpting skills improve further, I'll sculpt a massive stone statue for you, standing here as proof of your battles on the ancient path."
Li Hao spoke to the middle-aged warrior.
The middle-aged warrior smiled wryly. "This place has long been desolate. Who would care about standing here? I don’t give a damn about these empty titles."
"Through the long ages, there will always be successors who will know."
Li Hao chuckled. As a veteran who had fought for countless years, the middle-aged warrior wanted to leave his mark here.
The middle-aged warrior understood Li Hao's intentions and didn’t say much more, but his eyes were filled with a longing for the outside world.
Li Hao had given him hope, and hope was like the most potent poison in the world. Once tasted, it created an unbearable, urgent desire to act.
But he was a True Immortal and managed to restrain himself. Although there was now a great hope, a shadow of doubt lingered in his heart, worrying that the ancient demons might be led by a powerful ancient demon.
Time flew by.
In this third fief of ancient demons, there were about three or four hundred ancient demons. Li Hao and the middle-aged warrior spent over half a year to absorb them all.
During this half year, Li Hao’s Sculpture Dao Experience accumulated to the Eighth Perfection.
Moreover, the most significant improvement was in his Soul Spirit.
Initially, he had over three hundred golden veins. After consuming ancient demons for a month, the number increased to 360. Then, it seemed to reach a certain perfection and could no longer increase.
Li Hao continued to consume the flesh of many ancient demons, but there was no further increase. However, he could sense that his Soul Spirit was not yet saturated and was still growing stronger, with a more formidable presence.
Although no new golden veins formed, when Li Hao consumed the leader of the ancient demons, the concentrated soul energy and impact caused his Soul Spirit to undergo a transformation. The golden veins uncontrollably gathered within his Soul Spirit, forming a tiny Divine Bone.
This Divine Bone was about the size of a fingernail, very small, but it resembled a golden relic seed, containing terrifying soul power fluctuations.
The Soul Spirit is a transformed state of the Divine Soul, which is essentially the soul strengthened through cultivation.
Ordinary people have souls, which are extremely fragile and can easily dissipate with death.
When a cultivator reaches the Divine Wanderer Realm, their soul can leave the body and is called a Divine Soul. Even if the physical body dies, the soul can transfer to another human body and can resist some of the demonic arts of demons.
The stronger the Divine Soul, the more clear-headed and energetic the martial artist becomes.
When the Divine Soul reaches its ultimate state and transforms into a Soul Spirit, it is a further evolution of the soul. However, fundamentally, it is still a soul, which is not a physical entity but a form of soul energy.
But now, within Li Hao’s Soul Spirit, the 360 golden veins contracted and gathered. The heavy soul power, under the ultimate transformation, formed a nearly physical Divine Bone!
This Divine Bone was extremely clear, and Li Hao could feel the terrifying power it contained.
Not only did Li Hao undergo such a change, but the middle-aged warrior did as well.
Both of their Soul Spirits transformed and condensed into Divine Bones.
"Legend has it that the ultimate cultivation of the soul is to become a true god!"
When the middle-aged warrior condensed his Divine Bone, he was extremely excited and said to Li Hao, "The end point of the Divine Soul is this. It’s said that only an Immortal Emperor can cultivate to this level, and it’s extremely terrifying. Just a thread of soul pressure is enough to make all things bow and even make Immortal Deities tremble!"
Li Hao had long noticed that when his Soul Spirit developed golden veins, he had already broken through the Ultimate Realm bottleneck, advancing toward the Ultimate Limit of the Divine Soul.
However, it seemed that reaching the Ultimate Limit of the Divine Soul was extremely difficult.
Although he had condensed a Divine Bone, it was formed from the gathering of 360 golden veins.
It was unknown how many Divine Bones needed to be condensed to reach the end of this path.
But regardless, breaking through the Ultimate Realm bottleneck and walking the path to the Ultimate Limit was already a feat that surpassed countless people in the world.
After condensing the first Divine Bone, the ancient demon flesh Li Hao consumed afterward could once again form golden veins.
Once the last ancient demon was consumed, Li Hao and the middle-aged warrior boarded the bronze chariot and set off toward the fourth fief of the ancient demon leader.
Despite their significantly increased strength, both Li Hao and the Middle-aged Warrior remained cautious, stealthily infiltrating the area to assess the situation before launching their assault.
This time, Li Hao left two of the ancient demons alive, and the Middle-aged Warrior didn't kill the leader of the ancient demons. Instead, he suppressed the leader and then proceeded to interrogate them.
To Li Hao's surprise, the ancient demon leader showed remarkable resolve, refusing to divulge any information about the outside world, even under the threat of death.
However, the Middle-aged Warrior clearly had his methods. Seeing that the demon wouldn't talk, he directly used Soul Spirit to forcibly extract and explore the demon's memories.
This method was somewhat cruel but more reliable. He had originally planned to question the demon first and then use Soul Spirit to verify the information.
While memory extraction was effective, it often left the memories fragmented and incomplete, with the extracted information coming in disjointed pieces.
Despite this, the Middle-aged Warrior managed to glean a troubling piece of information from the fragmented memories: there were indeed ancient demon commanders on this ancient path, and not just one but several!
This news left the Middle-aged Warrior feeling disheartened. He had hoped to find information about the True World from the demon's memories, but the fragmented memories mostly contained details of massacres and the great battle of the past. There was no information about the outside world, and it seemed that this ancient demon leader had been sealed here since the end of the great battle and hadn't left since.
The Middle-aged Warrior explained the situation to Li Hao, his expression heavy.
Li Hao, however, was already mentally prepared for this. Although the situation was dire, it was still better than before.
Previously, they had been unable to deal with the ancient demon leaders and had to hide at the canyon's entrance. Now, they could easily massacre these ancient demon leaders.
Li Hao and the Middle-aged Warrior continued to stay in this Fief.
Six months later, they had cleared out all the ancient demons in this Fief and moved on to the next one.
Time flew by.
By the time they had finished with the sixth ancient demon leader's Fief, Li Hao had been in this place for three years.
In his body, the golden veins had once again condensed to 360, and he was now nurturing his second Divine Bone.
In addition, Li Hao's Sculpture Dao had advanced to the Ninth Rank.
His sculptures were no longer simple art pieces but valuable secret treasures.
For example, the small ancient demon sculptures he created could perform soul attacks similar to those of ancient demons. Although not as powerful, they were sufficient to protect against some Divine Soul attacks when carried.
The swords and knives he sculpted were comparable to divine weapons and possessed special power infused with Li Hao's Dao Power.
Li Hao felt that if he could reach the Tenth Rank in Sculpture Dao, he might be able to sculpt a Dao Tribulation Imperial Weapon!
Throughout history, Dao Tribulation Imperial Weapons were nurtured by Heaven and Earth. If Li Hao could sculpt one, he would be a welcome guest among the Sages, even without martial prowess.
"The memory of this ancient demon suggests that they are preparing for battle. There is unrest outside, and the commander could summon them at any time. Once summoned, they will surely notice the unusual situation here", the Middle-aged Warrior said to Li Hao.
This was crucial information obtained from the sixth ancient demon leader's memory.
These ancient demons operated like an army, and they dared not resist those of higher rank. The hierarchy among the ancient demons was extremely strict, and betrayal was unthinkable.
Li Hao's expression grew serious. The ancient demon commander, he learned, was a being that surpassed a first-rank ancient demon and held a high status among the ancient demons, comparable to a true monarch among Immortal Deities!
Such a being was immensely powerful, far beyond what a True Immortal could handle.
Moreover, ancient demons were inherently stronger than Immortal Deities of the same realm, and the more powerful the ancient demon, the more terrifying their innate Secret Arts.
"This is also good news", Li Hao said.
The Middle-aged Warrior couldn't help but look at Li Hao.
Li Hao smiled at him. "Weren't you worried about the outside world? Now we know that there are other Immortal Deities out there, and the True World wasn't completely destroyed in the great battle of the past."
The Middle-aged Warrior was taken aback, but then he came to his senses, his eyes brightening.
Indeed, the fact that the ancient demons were being summoned indicated that there was ongoing conflict outside.
It was unclear whether the Human Race had come to attack or if it was another race.
In the True World, apart from the Human Race, there were many other races. The True World was vast, with ten thousand races standing side by side.
The ancient demons, however, were a common enemy to all ten thousand races.
"Looks like someone still knows about this battlefield", the middle-aged warrior murmured.
As he spoke, his eyes became slightly moist.
Li Hao was taken aback. In the three years they had been together, this was the first time he had seen the other man shed tears.
Fighting and injuring ancient demons didn't even make him blink, yet now his eyes were red.
Li Hao tried to put himself in the other man's shoes and couldn't help but fall silent.
After fighting for countless years, they had lost all hope of the outside world. Now, they had discovered that the outside world hadn't been completely wiped out, and this battlefield hadn't been forgotten.
"Looks like we need to hurry. This is a rare opportunity to escape", Li Hao said.
The middle-aged warrior snapped back to reality, looked at Li Hao, and nodded earnestly, his emotions running high.
After speaking, Li Hao couldn't help but look back at the path they had taken.
His eyes flickered slightly as he gazed for a moment before withdrawing his gaze.
In the days that followed, Li Hao and the middle-aged warrior increased their pace of eating and drinking.
In reality, at their level of strength, they could survive without food or water, living off the energy of heaven and earth. Eating and drinking were merely for enjoyment. Now, besides the enjoyment, it was also to absorb the Soul Power from ancient demon flesh to enhance their strength.
Three months later, Li Hao and the middle-aged warrior struck again.
This time, the middle-aged warrior discovered that there were two ancient demon leaders in the seventh ancient demon fief. He didn't back down but informed Li Hao of the situation and immediately took action.
Compared to the first time, the appearance of two ancient demon leaders almost put them in danger. Fortunately, Li Hao's improvement exceeded the middle-aged warrior's expectations. He killed many ancient demons, giving the middle-aged warrior the chance to turn the tide.
Now, two ancient demon leaders no longer posed a threat to the middle-aged warrior.
As the middle-aged warrior attacked, Li Hao also entered the ancient demon fief.
Facing hundreds of ancient demons, Li Hao showed no fear. Instead, he felt like a wolf among sheep.
He controlled four broken swords, which he had discovered in the cave mansions of other ancient demon leaders along the way, and with his current Soul Spirit Power, he could effortlessly command them to fly in unison at incredible speed.
In an instant, the four swords massacred the ancient demons.
Before they could form an array or receive reinforcements, Li Hao ambushed them from behind, sweeping through the crowd.
As their Soul Spirits separated, Li Hao's Soul Spirit quickly emerged to annihilate them.
The ancient demons were terrified and used their innate secret arts, enveloping the area in a thick black mist.
(End of Chapter)
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