Alsis gathered all of the strength in his body and waited for the fist to fall.
He swung his head to the right and barely dodged the fist. Alsis grabbed the skeleton's arm and raised his hips upward with the power of his legs.
He flipped the skeleton to the side and mounted on top of him.
"Haha!"
Alsis laughed victoriously. He gripped the skeleton tightly with his legs and brought his fist down like a meteor.
The skeleton struggled as it panicked. Alas, without any brain to think, the skeleton doesn't know how to imitate what Alsis did earlier.
*BOOM!*
Alsis' punch cracked the skeleton's skull, and it stopped struggling. He peeled off the cracked skull and grabbed the soul fire.
"F*ck you! I won't let myself die from my nemesis again!" Alsis shouted in anger before he swallowed the soul fire.
The soul fire merged with his own, and he felt a qualitative change in his bones. His bones became darker and darker before they stopped at a dark gray color.
"I'm… a Peak Bone Nourishing stage cultivator!" Alsis rejoiced.
He skipped the High Bone Nourishing stage because of the powerful soul fire that the skeleton had.
"Ahhh… That feels good."
That soul fire made him feel better than the previous ones he consumed.
Alsis looked up at the sky and felt lonely. He was becoming strong, but it was starting to dawn on him that he wouldn't be able to socialize anymore. All of the other skeletons that he met were brainless.
He wondered if he would be able to find an undead creature that had intelligence in this dark world.
"Maybe… Maybe there is also someone that experienced the same luck I did," Alsis muttered.
He roamed farther and farther. Each skeleton he met would be met with his fist. In total, he swallowed 20 skeleton soul fires, but there was still no sign of him advancing in cultivation.
The difference was that his bones were becoming darker and darker. He doesn't know if it's related to the increase of his strength.
The sky slowly darkened, and it turned into nighttime.
"Huh… There is nighttime here?" Alsis wondered to himself.
A fog slowly started to cover the lands. Alsis was not able to see farther than his arms' reach.
He decided not to travel at this time. He would just get lost due to the fog. Who knows, there might be other undead that would be waiting for him in ambush.
*Whoosh*
Alsis suddenly heard something swish past him.
"Who's there!?"
Alsis became alert and looked around him.
*Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh*
This time, many unknown entities swished around him. No one answered him, but Alsis was sure that there were some things around him.
*Fwoosh*
Suddenly, a red ghost shot out from the fog and attacked Alsis' head. Due to its speed and element of surprise, Alsis wasn't able to dodge.
The red ghost seeped into his empty eye sockets and into his skull.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!" Alsis screamed loudly.
Pain filled his being. It wasn't physical pain but a pain that came from his soul.
He saw murder, death, and blood. It was as if he was reliving someone's horrible last moments.
"G-Get out of my head!"
Alsis opened his jaw and clawed the red ghost out of his head. It felt like a slimy jelly, and he struggled to pull it out.
Alsis kneeled on the ground in pain. He endured the pain and grabbed at the red ghost harder.
"Ahh!"
Finally, a sense of relief washed over Alsis.
He looked at the struggling ghost in his hand. There was a woman's face on it that was constantly weeping.
*SHRIEEEEKKK*
The woman shrieked at him.
Alsis sneered and mushed the ghost in his fingers. He hated this ghost that made him feel so much pain. It reminded him of his nemesis that was like a pain in his ass.
Nothing happened to it. The ghost didn't feel any pain. It only continued shrieking. Alsis didn't know what to do with it. It seemed immune to physical attacks, but he wasn't an Energy Cultivator yet.
When he finished Body Cultivation, he would become an Energy Cultivator. At that stage, he would be able to wield elemental energy. And with it, he should be able to destroy this ghost.
"Why can't I absorb this?"
Alsis stared at the red ghost blankly. It should have a soul, but instead of merging with his soul fire, it caused him pain and suffering.
"I will call you… Malevolent Ghost!"
Alsis had no idea this ghost was called, so he made one up on the spot.
"What if I tear you apart?"
Alsis tore the ghost into two like a piece of paper. Suddenly, the torn-off ends started burning with a blue flame.
"Aha! I knew it."
The ghost slowly emitted red mist and turned into two pieces of soul fire.
Alsis swallowed and munched on them like a snack.
"Mmm… It tastes sweeter," Alsis muttered.
*Thud*
A wave spread from Alsis' skull. It changed the color of his bones to black.
"Woah!"
Alsis felt a significant change in his strength. If he met that skeleton from before, he would be able to easily smash its skull to pieces.
"What cultivation stage am I on?" Alsis wondered to himself.
It was hard to tell as he doesn't know how skeletons cultivated here.
*SHRIIIEKKK*
Another Malevolent Ghost shot from the fog and attacked Alsis.
Seeing dinner arrive on his lap, Alsis grabbed it with a quick movement.
This time, the face on the ghost's face was an old man. He wondered how this old man died.
If the previous ghost was brutally murdered, this old man must have died similarly.
Alsis tore it apart, and it turned to soul fire, which he immediately ate.
Throughout the night, Alsis ate the Malevolent Ghosts that attacked him. They didn't stand a chance.
He even saw the face of a baby once. He remembered how cruel people could be in his previous world when he saw that. This world was a place where all the victims of evil had gathered.