Chapter 141: Remnant Soul of the White Bones

Jiang Min saw from afar that Yao Sheng and his companion produced a radiant, glowing treasure pouch, carefully plucking the primordial infant spirit heart and placing it inside.

The mission was accomplished.

Her attention no longer lingered on the primordial infant spirit heart. Her gaze shifted deeply toward the base of the ancient tree, landing upon the upright, cross-legged skeleton.

The skeleton gleamed like jade and treasures. Even in death, a powerful aura still lingered among the bones, preventing a single blade of grass from growing within its vicinity.

Its hands were crossed, the palms holding aloft a lump of slowly burning extreme-yang spiritual marrow, radiating an intensely scorching wave that distorted the surrounding air.

A single drop of extreme-yang spiritual marrow possessed miraculous effects, containing a terrifyingly immense amount of extreme-yang energy that would drive countless foundation-establishment cultivators into a frenzy of contention, and even stir the hearts of golden-core cultivators.

Let alone an entire lump resting in the skeleton's palms.

There were at least a hundred drops of extreme-yang spiritual marrow!

With only three people remaining now, how should it be divided...

However, as Jiang Min stared at that lump of extreme-yang spiritual marrow, her brows narrowed slightly and her eyes constricted. Then, she raised her wrist. A section of peach branch disguised as a wooden bracelet on her wrist unfurled, merging with the invisible veil that swept out from her sleeves, melting into the surrounding air and disappearing.

Beneath the enormous canopy of the primordial infant spirit tree.

Yao Sheng and Dong Kaiyuan had successfully harvested the primordial infant spirit heart. Piloting their flying magic treasures, they descended and hovered a distance away in front of the skeleton. Seeing such a vast quantity of extreme-yang spiritual marrow, a greedy, feverish gleam flashed deep within both of their eyes.

Dong Kaiyuan could not help but speak up, saying, "The True Monarch only wants one primordial infant spirit heart. All other fortuitous encounters within this grotto-heaven world belong to us. Brother Yao, what do your thoughts say?"

The two of them had their backs to Jiang Min at this moment.

Dong Kaiyuan turned his head and signaled to Yao Sheng with a glance.

No matter what, Jiang Min was an outsider. They two had served the Old Man of Ghost Mountain for many years, making them true insiders.

"Let us take it first, and then discuss slowly. In any case, once we leave, we must first hand the primordial infant spirit heart over to the True Monarch." Yao Sheng also looked at Dong Kaiyuan, his eyes flickering as he spoke.

Dong Kaiyuan immediately understood his meaning.

With the Old Man of Ghost Mountain backing them after all, Jiang Min would not dare to make a move against them.

"I will go retrieve the extreme-yang spiritual marrow," Dong Kaiyuan said.

"Very well."

Yao Sheng nodded, cautioning, "Be careful. The skeletons left behind by these seniors are most prone to complications, especially the stronger their cultivation was, the easier it is for remnant souls to linger or wandering spirits to inhabit them."

"I understand. I will use my spiritual power to form a rope and hook that extreme-yang spiritual marrow out."

As Dong Kaiyuan spoke, his expression also grew grave. He raised his hands, his ten fingers shifting skillfully and fluidly weaving several spell arts. Instantly, multiple ropes of spiritual power manifested, snaking out from afar to wrap around the extreme-yang spiritual marrow in the skeleton's palms.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Across a distance of more than ten zhang, the spiritual power ropes darted forward, successfully making contact with the extreme-yang spiritual marrow. They wove themselves into a net, enveloping the extreme-yang spiritual marrow and dragging it toward Dong Kaiyuan's direction.

It went surprisingly smoothly.

Yet Dong Kaiyuan did not dare to lower his guard. After acquiring the extreme-yang spiritual marrow, he and Yao Sheng retreated several dozen zhang, hovering in mid-air, before reeling the spiritual power ropes back until the extreme-yang spiritual marrow was suspended right in front of them.

Up close.

The scorching temperature of the extreme-yang spiritual marrow rushed over them. This was a baking sensation unlike ordinary fire; instead, it carried light, warmth, and an indescribable, profound feeling—the very aura of rich and abundant yang energy.

Dong Kaiyuan played it safe by extending his divine sense, letting it fall upon the extreme-yang spiritual marrow to carefully inspect it before finally confirming, "It is indeed the extreme-yang spiritual marrow."

He finally set his heart at ease, an involuntary surge of excited laughter escaping him. With a wave of his hand, he drew the extreme-yang spiritual marrow into his palm while Yao Sheng looked on expectantly.

However, at that very moment.

A sudden change occurred.

The extreme-yang spiritual marrow that had fallen into his palm abruptly shifted its form. The extreme-yang spiritual qi vanished, transforming into a streak of light that shot directly toward the center of Dong Kaiyuan's brow with unstoppable speed!

"Ugh..."

Dong Kaiyuan's pupils instantly shrank to the size of needlepoints. Before he could dodge, he let out a muffled grunt. Immediately afterward, his eyes dimmed, not even giving him a chance to struggle. Yao Sheng's expression altered drastically. At the sound of Dong Kaiyuan's muffled grunt, he hurriedly drove his flying magic treasure and fled toward Jiang Min's direction.

The dim-eyed Dong Kaiyuan suddenly erupted with a bone-chilling, terrifying aura. The next moment, his eyes regained their luster, radiating a proud and haughty disdain. Shifting his gaze to the fleeing Yao Sheng, he flicked his finger. A streak of light, faster than thunder by countless folds, shot forth, almost instantaneously catching up to Yao Sheng and piercing straight through his brow. It caused Yao Sheng's gaze to freeze as he plummeted from the sky, his corpse splashing heavily into the Ancient Spirit Lake.

Having effortlessly slain Yao Sheng.

"Dong Kaiyuan" turned his gaze toward Jiang Min on the shore.

The moment the "extreme-yang spiritual marrow" attempted possession, Jiang Min had felt a sense of "just as expected." Driving the power of wind and thunder, she turned and fled. Seeing her run, "Dong Kaiyuan" shifted his form, turning into a blinding streak of light that pursued her at a speed countless times faster than hers. In the blink of an eye, he crossed hundreds of zhang, about to catch up to her.

Thud!

The figure of "Dong Kaiyuan" suddenly stiffened, abruptly slowing down. He halted his pursuit, lowering his head to look at his chest, where some unseen object seemed to have pierced him. The tactile sensation... felt like a tree branch.

"Hmph! Inseam tricks."

A supremely hoarse voice rang from the throat of "Dong Kaiyuan," sounding like a rusted blade scraping against a whetstone. He reached out to grab the invisible tree branch embedded in his chest, never expecting that a tremendously powerful devouring force would suddenly erupt, engulfing both Dong Kaiyuan's physical vitality and his soul in a tyrannical consumption.

"What is this?! No—"

"Dong Kaiyuan's" expression shifted drastically. The haughty and disdainful posture he had worn toward others moments before was now replaced entirely by terror and shock. His face distorted in extreme agony as he clutched the invisible tree branch pierced into his chest, trying desperately to yank it out. However, countless tree roots were rapidly growing and spreading within his body, and the devouring force transformed into a vortex that forcefully sucked his soul into its depths.

"Ah! Ah!"

"Dong Kaiyuan's" resistance failed. His skin rapidly withered and grew wrinkled, his body deflating until he looked like a dried corpse. Meanwhile, the remnant soul of the skeleton that had transformed into the extreme-yang spiritual marrow was thoroughly devoured by the peach branch, leaving not a single trace behind.

Jiang Min, who had been fleeing, turned back and arrived just in time to see Dong Kaiyuan's corpse plummeting from the air.

She raised her hand. Amidst a ripple in the air, two streaks of light materialized out of thin air and swept back into her sleeve.

One was the light of the invisible veil.
The other was the peach branch hidden within the invisible veil.

"So weak. As it turns out, it was only a remnant soul..."

Jiang Min narrowed her eyes.

"If you were a Nascent Soul spirit, I would have no choice but to flee. But since you are merely a remnant soul, I am more than capable of devouring you."

The peach branch hovered in her palm. Having reluctantly devoured a powerful soul, its stem continued to swell and bulge, twitching like a writhing insect.

After digesting for a long while.

The peach branch gradually grew still.

A surge of pure divine sense power was transmitted back through the blood-linked peach branch, as mighty and rushing as a surging river. Jiang Min pondered for a moment, confirming that this divine sense power was completely harmless, before refining it to expand her sea of consciousness.

Rumble!

Within the vast sea of consciousness, mountains, rivers, sun, moon, and stars suddenly stirred as gale winds swept through. Streams of divine sense power melted into them, continuously expanding and making the myriad phenomena of the world within her mind clearer, brighter, and profoundly wondrous. Jiang Min's eyes lit up, and her boundless divine sense spread outward once more, instantly grasping everything within a radius of half a li.

Her divine sense power had grown much stronger once again!

"In the past, when I devoured souls, no divine sense power was ever transmitted back. Why was it possible when devouring this remnant soul?"

Jiang Min withdrew her divine sense.

She felt somewhat perplexed.

Following that, fragmented memories of the remnant soul were transmitted back. Because this was merely a wisp of a fragmented soul that had been worn down by thousands of years of erosion, it was nearly exhausted, leaving its memories from life extremely shattered and sparse.

Jiang Min could only glean that this was a Nascent Soul early-stage cultivator who had accidentally strayed into the grotto-heaven world several thousand years ago, holding the Dao title of Nansheng. At that time, the fruits of the primordial infant spirit tree had not yet matured, so this cultivator practiced and waited beneath the tree. However, after a century of cultivation, he grew somewhat impatient and consumed the premature primordial infant spirit heart, causing him to suffer a deviation in his cultivation and perish in meditation right here.

After his death, his Nascent Soul gradually dissipated into heaven and earth as well, leaving behind only a wisp of a remnant soul that somehow managed to persist, harbored within his remains due to the primordial infant spirit heart he had ingested.

Yet.

Thousands of years passed.

The remnant soul was eventually worn down to the point of imminent dispersion.

At that moment, a powerful cultivator suddenly appeared, arriving at the Ancient Spirit Lake to harvest the now-matured primordial infant spirit heart. Because that cultivator possessed Divine Transformation cultivation, the remnant soul had feigned death, not daring to leak even a shred of its aura for fear of being obliterated by the Divine Transformation expert.

When Jiang Min viewed the appearance of that Divine Transformation cultivator through the remnant soul's memories, her heart received a severe shock.

It was pale yellow robes again!

"A few years ago, within the lingering projections of the Myriad Sword Sect's ancient battlefield, I saw cultivators from one of the ancient factions wearing these exact pale yellow robes."

"In the Soul Burying Gorge, among the memories of those lingering grievances, the garments of the slaughterers were identical as well."

Jiang Min's brows flickered, her mood turning heavy.

"Although the style of this Divine Transformation cultivator's robes differed from those of antiquity, the patterns on the garments and the pale yellow hue were still the exact same as those ancient cultivators..."

"He and those ancient cultivators belong to the very same lineage!"