Chapter 522: Chapter 521: Beyond Common Sense
The grey skeleton seemed extraordinarily robust and slender, with a soothing white glow emanating from it, making the whole cave as bright as day.
Shi Xiaole’s attention was focused on the middle of the skeleton’s spine, where there was a thumb-sized pure white bone fragment. The allure he had sensed earlier was emanating from this piece.
"Demon Bone?"
As he slowly approached, Shi Xiaole clearly felt an unusual connection forming between the Demon Bone within his body and the pure white bone fragment; it was as if the Demon Bone inside him had awakened.
Excitement, agony and such emotions, carried by the pure white bone, rushed into his mind uncontrollably, causing tears to well up in his eyes.
"What is a Demon Bone? I have roamed the world for decades, living guiltlessly under the heavens and on earth. Merely because I was born with the rumored Heaven-devouring Devil Bone, I have been labeled by the Righteous Path as a destroyer, hunted incessantly. Ha-ha-ha, is this their so-called justice?"
"I cannot accept it. You deemed me a demon, killed my virtuous wife, crippled my beloved son. Well then, I shall become a true demon and wipe out all of you hypocritical gentlemen of the Rightous Path!"
"After three years, I finally avenged all my enemies. Not only that, I also eradicated every relative and friend of those who made the first move against me, leaving no one alive!"
"Alas, this eventually brought the three legendary experts of the Rightous Path, who had been in hiding, against me. I fought them fiercely for days, eventually falling to defeat. However, they too were affected by my all or nothing strategy. Ha ha, two of them died and the remaining one was severely injured, I do not believe he will survive much longer."
Rows of small characters were inscribed on the ground in front of the grey skeleton, each revealing a deep resentment against the Righteous Path and a desire to slaughter the world, as well as, a regret of unfulfilled ambition.
Shi Xiaole couldn’t help but wonder, if the Righteous Path hadn’t persecuted the man because of the Demon Bone, would everything after have happened?
His sight hardened, discovering more lines of text on the other side of the skeleton.
"All my meridians have been severed. I sat withered in this cave for three months, condensing all the essence of the Demon Bone within me. If someone comes here in the future, follow my method to fully absorb it."
"However, you must swear to the heavens that after receiving my benefits, you must immediately set course for Tiantai Cliff and take care of the people in the mountain. That is my only bloodline. If you violate this oath, even from the underground, I will become a ghost to take your life!"
After these lines of text were hundreds of hastily written characters, presumably the method left by the skeleton.
It was evident that when he wrote this, his strength was already dwindling, so the handwriting was faint and shallow. After thousands of years, most of it was blurred and unclear.
Any other person would be left empty-handed, despite having the Heaven-devouring Demon Bone right before their eyes.
However, Shi Xiaole was different.
As he approached within three feet of the grey skeleton, the Demon Bone within his body, and the pure white bone shattered fiercely; immediately the entire cave was covered with a layer of white light.
In this instance, if there were any experts in the Devil Path here, they would undoubtedly be startled by this power and have the overwhelming urge to bow and kneel in respect.
Inside the cave, two forces collided violently, like an epic battle of titans, continuously tugging and trying to absorb each other’s essence.
"Not good."
Shi Xiaole’s expression suddenly changed drastically.
Inside his body, the grey-colored Demon Bone was cracking, while strands of pure essence were being drawn by the external pure white bone, continuously draining away.
Shi Xiaole’s heart sank. This kind of loss was not an ordinary loss; it was more akin to a loss of life essence.
Once the power of the grey Demon Bone was fully depeleted, Shi Xiaole feared for his survival!
Hum! Hum!
As time passed, the grey Demon Bone kept trembling. The color of its surface began to change, gradually transitioning from grey to dark grey.
Simultaneously, the Demon Bone’s absorbing power surged, quickly stopping the loss of power. Instead, it began to absorb the power of the pure white bone.
This time, unlike before, the Demon Bone truly absorbed the power, instead of simply using the external power to temper itself.
"Could it be that it disregarded the power I had before?"
Seeing this, Shi Xiaole was filled with a sense of both shock and dread.
Shocked because, the level of the Demon Bone was beyond imagination.
Dread because, Shi Xiaole found that he could not control it and wondered what consequences the future held.
Strands of thick power continued to pour into the Demon Bone, and the luminescence of the pure white bone surface dimmed. In contrast, Shi Xiaole felt his life force continually strengthening, as if he was brimming with unlimited power.
Boom!
A layer of red light, with him at the center, enveloped the entire cave.
That was the Demonic True Intent.
As the Demon Bone continued to strengthen, the long-suppressed Demonic True Intent gushed out uncontrollably, signaling a possible transformation.
Various scenes flashed through Shi Xiaole’s mind.
Sometimes there were screams of agony, sometimes there were corpses strewn all over, sometimes it was an earth-shattering battle that affected thousands of miles around by its sheer intensity.
In the end, everyone else was dead, with only a blood-soaked man left, disheveled as he laughed wildly into the sky, his voice maniacal, lonely, and bleak.
"Was he the owner of the Heaven-devouring Demon Bone?"
In the flow of time, in an instant, Shi Xiaole felt as if he had lived the life of the Heaven-devouring Devil Bone’s owner. He understood the owner’s unresolved grudge of being misunderstood by the world, the anger from the murder of his loved ones, and the loneliness of being a friendless figure in the world.
"I have never wronged people, yet why have people always wronged me? You say I’m a demon, then I’ll become the demon that you fear in your hearts, slaughtering you all!"
The murderous intent from the depths of the marrow erupted from Shi Xiaole’s body, completely merging into the ominous red light that turned into a blood-red hue, and various evil images occasionally surfaced. A mere glance was enough to make people shiver, and their hearts palpitate with fear.
"I didn’t expect to enhance Demonic True Intent up to thirty percent right here."
Slowly constraining the blood-red light, Shi Xiaole opened his eyes.
Generally speaking, there are three types of True Intent, top-notch, first-class, and ordinary. But Shi Xiaole believed that Demonic True Intent does not belong to these three categories but should be regarded as something surpassing the top-notch.
No one could understand better than he did that Demonic True Intent’s horror came from its doctrine of drawing energy from all negative emotions in the world, which was the embodiment of darkness.
Even Shi Xiaole, the creator of it, found it frightening and had no idea how horrifically it might develop in the future.
Swallowing his apprehensions, he stretched out his palm forward, emitting a black palm shadow with a tint of red light, as if it came from Hell.
This was the Demon Jade Hand, reformed by the Elder of Sky Edge Pavilion based on the Devil Sky Hand of the Black Devil’s Divine Monarch.
Boom!
Out in the cave, in the wet, gooey swamp juice, a palm print tunnel hundreds of meters long appeared. It took a whole twenty seconds before it was filled again with the swamp juice.
"The power of the Demon Jade Hand has surpassed the Three-Point Finger of God."
The Demon Jade Hand was merely an upper second-class palm skill, but after being conferred with thirty percent Demonic True Intent, its power immediately reached the level of lower first class palm skills.
At this moment, Shi Xiaole was confident that thirty percent Demonic True Intent was no less powerful than forty percent Wind True Intent, and perhaps even more powerful.
The progress didn’t just end there.
After another quarter of an hour, accompanied by a crackling sound, the pure white bone turned into dust.
While in Shi Xiaole’s body, his Devil Bone had turned from light gray to deep gray. His body was brimming with evil aura, much like a starving wolf that had devoured a sheep. Pleasure of satisfaction emerged surprisingly.
Subconsciously, Shi Xiaole pointed his sword finger, and terrifying sword Qi attacked. Pop! Pop! It instantly created numerous bubbles at the bottom of the swamp, which continued for several hundred breaths before stopping.
"Can I catalyze the power of Devil Bone?"
Shi Xiaole was shocked.
In the Devil Path and in the concept of Martial World, Devil Bone symbolizes an individual’s aptitude for training in Devil Path martial arts, and it does not have attack power in itself. However, Shi Xiaole’s Devil Bone obviously surpassed this standard.
Through multiple attempts, he found that he could extract only a few strands of power from the Devil Bone each time. But even these few strands could increase his attack power nearly by twenty percent!
And the consumed power would be replenished by the Devil Bone which absorbed Shi Xiaole’s Vigorous Air. It functioned like a high-powered transformer, converting the smallest Vigorous Air into the most powerful attacking force.
"If you count the power of Devil Bone and use all the means at hand, I suppose my current strength could be compared to the weakest senior Lord."
The weakest senior Lord refers to an expert at the peak of the Dragon Gate Realm who has fully mastered a lower first-class internal skill and understood seventy percent of top-notch True Intent. It is similar to the Breaking Thunder Lord, who assaulted Shi Xiaole and the Ai Family outside Tianyi City.
Back then, Shi Xiaole was hardly capable of fighting back against Breaking Thunder Lord. Now, even if he couldn’t beat Breaking Thunder, he could at least wrestle with him.
Reminded of the stunning leap in his own strength in less than half a year, Shi Xiaole was filled with joy.
He turned his head toward the gray-white skeleton that had turned into ashes, bowed three times, and said, "Senior, rest assured, after I’m out, I will go to Tiantai Cliff and take care of your progeny."
Without the gray-white skeleton, Devil Bone wouldn’t have been advanced nor would Demonic True Intent have progressed so swiftly. As the saying goes, returning a favor constitutes justice. Even if the other party hadn’t helped him intentionally, Shi Xiaole wouldn’t owe any favors to anyone.
After looking around the cave for a while, not finding anything like secret code or inscription, Shi Xiaole guessed the man might have looked down upon such things.
Once equipped with the power of Devil Bone, one could take whatever one wanted from Martial World. If one still couldn’t make a name for oneself, it would be embarrassing to pass on one’s martial arts. It is better not to pass it on.
Shaking his head with a bitter smile, noticing that in the absence of the pure white bone, the swamp juice outside was flowing into the cave, Shi Xiaole hurriedly cut off a few large stones from the cave wall. He himself started operating the Body-Protection Vigorous Air to prevent the swamp juice from seeping in and stood outside, blocking the cave entrance.
After ensuring there was no danger, he sprang up and quickly emerged from the swamp.
Looking at the primal environment around, Shi Xiaole couldn’t help murmuring to himself, "People often say there are incredible encounters in untamed mountains and great swamps. It seems the ancients really did not deceive me." Without any further delay, he flew away swiftly.
Soon, Shi Xiaole sensed two familiar auras and continued nonchalantly on his way.
"Old Third, it’s that kid."
"Don’t give us away."
Soon, two gray-robed old men discovered him too. Both passed secret messages, and the gray-robed old man with a cut eyebrow took advantage of Shi Xiaole’s inattention and tossed out a formation disk.
The disk flew into the air and covered Shi Xiaole with a rich Array System aura from the mid-air, just in nick of time.
"Haha, success! Let’s see how this kid escapes now!"
Both the old men burst into laughter.
