Dao Chapter 70: Drastic Changes

"Ho ho, Shiao Chen my brother, you're awake. You must have suffered a lot while refining that devil skeleton for me this time." Yu Ji giggled inside of him, but this time she sounded more sincere.

Shiao Chen was taken aback but he couldn't help but smile slightly as he could feel her care about him, saying, "My Taoist friend, you treat me so sincerely and I would definitely repay your kindness as much as I can."

"Then why are you still calling me your Taoist friend? That sounds so distant. I always call you Shiao Chen my little brother, so you have to call me your sister from now on. Or I won't let you go!" Yu Ji suddenly acted so intimately and that confused Shiao Chen. Yet he couldn't refuse and said yes with a bitter smile.

"Alright, I will. Are you happy now, sister?" Shiao Chen said in a resigned tone.

"Hehee, good boy. Since you call me sister, I will never let you down... Hmmm, but I don't really have any gifts now, so I will give you one later." Yu Ji sounded a little bit embarrassed.

Shiao Chen smiled slightly and said, "You don't have to be so serious, sister. It is definitely destiny that we met, so why should we be so attached to those objects. All that matters is the relationship, right?"

"You're right, my little brother. I was stuck in the past." Yu Ji felt more satisfied with her little brother Shiao Chen, "But I can still help you in some way. The skeleton you collected in the sealed land was a fantastic magic weapon of the Ghost Taoism back in ancient times. Yet the old woman didn't know how to use it so she just left it to the dust. Now I will teach you how to use it and if you can put it into good use, it will help you a lot."

After that, Shiao Chen felt that there were words written in his soul. When he took a closer look at it, he realized that it was methods of mastering, refining and controlling the skeleton.

This skeleton was a famous and horrible magic weapon of the Ghost Taoism back in ancient times, and it was called the "Asura Skeleton". It was cultivated by cultivator's skeleton and many other magic weapons of the Ghost Taoism. It aims to attack souls and magic weapons. The skeleton's power would increase and evolve by the killing, so it could be really powerful in its later stage.

Shiao Chen was very glad. With this magic weapon, he could deal a lot of damage if he caught his enemy by surprise.

Half a month passed by very fast. After refining the magic weapon, Shiao Chen continued to take pills and meditate. He also concocted pills during this time and made a lot of pills from magic herbs. After all, he could finally save his own life on this trip owing greatly to those pills. 

One day, Shiao Chen opened eyes slowly while sitting on that futon, and a string of green light flashed through his eyes as he spat out a dirty breath. He had already recovered to his best condition and both his spiritual power and spiritual sense had become purer.

"It's already been half a month and I have to attend the Core Formation Ceremony of the Lord. My current cultivation is almost same as later stages of the Foundation Establishment, so maybe the Chief Master and the master won't notice." Shiao Chen felt a bit relieved. Also, he was quite confident about the method of Soul Muddling Scripture on how to control his Qi.

Those spiritual herbs in the valley had grown very well as he left the garden. Shiao Chen nodded with satisfaction and opened the valley's seal. He headed for the hall in the major peak of the sect.

The level of cultivation of the Beihua State was very low, so Gold Core stage could be considered a top achievement.

Therefore, since the Alchemy Taoist from the Luoyun Valley had successfully refined his Core, the power of the whole Luoyun Valley improved. Now it was obvious that it held the Core Formation Ceremony to show all of the Taoist cultivators its power. Two Gold Cores in one sect -this level of power was indeed outstanding in the Beihua State. The interests and scope of influence among those sects should definitely be reshaped.

All of those invited sects were quite serious about it, so they brought their most outstanding members to the ceremony. At that time, the whole cultivation world in the Beihua State started to move.

Meanwhile, 300 miles away from the south of Luoyun Valley, there was a group of people standing against the wind on the back of a peculiar blue snake, almost ten feet long with a pair of wings on its back.

"Disciple brother, since the Alchemy Taoist has refined his Core, Luoyun Valley's power has increased a lot. I'm afraid the spiritual mine in the Fengling Mountain will be taken away by them." There were two elders standing in the front, and the one with scarlet hair and beard said in distress.

"Disciple brother, you don't have to be like this. We always respect the strongest power in our cultivation world. Since the Luoyun Valley has got this power, it deserves more cultivation resources. You and I have been cultivating for almost 200 years, how come you still can't see it? How can you refine the Gold Core successfully like this?" The ruddy old man standing next to him in a gown was the master of another famous sect in the Beihua State, Xuanqing Taoist.

"You are right, my disciple brother. I will follow your instructions." The old man with scarlet hair blushed a bit and then bowed.

Xuanqing Taoist sighed in his heart as he knew that his younger disciple brother had a good spiritual root, and his cultivation had already achieved the Fake Core stage. Yet he had never reached a pure mind so he failed to refine his core. Or he wouldn't have been beaten by Luoyun Valley and lost that spiritual mine they just found.

There was a giant centipede flying from 600 miles away from the southwest, and it was more than 20 feet long with thousands of feet on its body and a strong odor seeped from its mouth. Its spiritual pressure was equal to the later stage of Foundation Establishment, which meant that it was a supreme second level monster.

There were more than 10 people sitting on that monster with their legs crossed, and on the front was a gloomy old man in black.

"Now the Luoyun Valley has got another Gold Core, it's power has increased greatly. We shall not lose face for our Black Evil Sect. This thousand-feet centipede is extremely poisonous with a giant body and enormous strength, and it can fight Gold Core cultivators. We could use it to prevent Luoyun Valley from extorting us with excessive requests."

Thousands of miles away from the north, three giant ugly toads were flying in the cloud, two big and one small. They occasionally groaned, which sounded like a thunder.

Above the three toads, more than 10 people sat with their legs crossed on each toad, and they were all led by three old people sitting in the front. The three of them were all in black and looked all the same because they were triplets.

"The sect leader is the chief master."

"This time, only the three of us were sent with people."

"I wonder if Luoyun Valley will pick on us."

The three of them each spoke in turn as if they were doing it for a long time.

"If the chief master wins, we follow the original plan."

"But if there is an accident, we step back and never mention the sect competition."

"Absolutely."

The three looked at each other and cast a spell at the same time. And the giant toads under them roared altogether as they flew even faster. Only a few moments later, they disappeared into the sky.

Luoyun Valley, Immortal-welcoming Arena.

A huge bluestone hundreds of cubic meters big was floating in the air, glittering. It impressed people with a great pressure that you might feel awe-struck just seeing it.

Outstanding members of the Luoyun Valley were in charge of welcoming people from each sect. And among them were even some masters in the Foundation Establishment stage.

"Chief Master of the Xiaoshan Sect, present"

"Chief Master of the Mingyue Sect, present!"

"Chief Master of the Houtu Sect, present!"

There were strings of spiritual lights shining from time to time, and a Luoyun Valley member would go up to check their identities. Then he would report it so that someone would be sent out to receive them according to their status.

At that moment, there was a flying snake descending rapidly far from the sky. It had two wings on and was 10 feet long. Although it didn't come that close, the looming power and pressure were strong enough to make everyone panic.

On the Immortal-welcoming Arena, many masters in Foundation Establishment of Luoyun Valley became quite alarmed and went up with their light shields.

"Which Taoist friend is coming? I, Chiwei from the Luoyun Valley, welcome you with my three disciple brothers."

That flying snake was so fast that it came to the four in a moment. Then it stopped immediately and opened its big mouth to scream. Suddenly, a dreadful breath chilled Chiwei and the others all at the same time.

"Ho ho, this monster has got a bad temper. It gets grumpy when it serves as my vehicle. Please forgive it for its rudeness." At the moment, a gentle voice came from the flying snake and Xuanqing Taoist, the chief master of the Earth Spirit Sect showed up in front of them with his spiritual shield.

There were also many shadows following him at a fast speed. They were all quite young but with strong power, so they were definitely outstanding members of their sect.

"Greetings to Xuanqing. Our chief master is now helping our disciple uncle consolidate his cultivation, so he couldn't greet you, please forgive him. Everyone, this way please." Chiwei said modestly. Although the Luoyun Valley had got two Gold Cores now, Xuanqing was still in the Gold Core stage, so he dared not act disrespectfully.

"Alright, but the flying snake with me is really grumpy, so you should be careful when taking care of it and don't get hurt." Xuanqing nodded with a smile as if he didn't care about it at all. Yet he didn't believe in the consolidation of cultivation, because it had been almost 10 days after the Alchemy Taoist reached the Gold Core stage and his cultivation would have already been consolidated.

At the moment, there was an upheaval in the southwest of it and bursts of ferocious air were rolling. So far, most of the small sects were here, then it must be a big sect in the Beihua State showing up right now.

There were again many shield lights that darted away from the Immortal-welcoming Arena and went directly to those people.

"I am the master Moli from the Luoyun Valley. Which Taoist friend is coming here?"

Moli's cultivation had achieved later stage of Foundation Establishment and he was not even 100 years old, so he still have a chance to reach Gold Core. Aside from the chief master and the Alchemy Taoist, he was pretty much the top in the Luoyun Valley. But he could feel something threatening from this giant centipede which was more than 20 feet long with thousands of feet. Obviously, this monster was as powerful as he.

"The Black Devil Sect sends our greetings!" On the head of the centipede, the old man in black opened his eyes and said.

"It is you, master Mingsha. Our chief master and senior uncle Alchemy Taoist are still in seclusion, please forgive us for greeting you." Moli was surprised. This Mingsha Taoist's cultivation had already reached middle stage of Gold Core and he was very peculiar and moody, so he didn't dare show any disrespect.

Chapter end