All over the graveyard, there were now thousands upon thousands of gaping holes in the black sand. As many humanoid skeletons were now out in the open fighting for more bones. The more bones they had, the more powerful they were. But it wasn't just about the number of bones on them, they also seemed to have more vitality if that word meant something for creatures like that. Still, Cao Yun was feeling something strange from them. He wasn't absolutely sure of himself, but he thought that they may not use just Evil Qi.
Humans had several so-called treasures allowing their life. Among them, Qi was the life energy bringing life and strength to their entire being, nourishing them. But there was also the mind and the soul which were very close and intimate with each other, oftentimes referred to as the Shen, the spirit. Technically the Shen character that Cao Yun had in his sea of consciousness was only a fraction of the real Shen. Just like the souls, the clear delimitations between all the concepts was always very blurry. Trying to explain and rationalize everything was almost always useless. It was impossible to explain them. They had to be felt. Shen could refer both to the entirety of the mind and the soul or to the specific part that was overseeing everything else, as a general.
And the last treasure was the Jing. Jing was the essence of life, from which Qi was derived. In the human body there were mainly two types of Jing. The most important one was the Prenatal Jing obtained from the parents at birth, very difficult to increase but that could be refined and preserved. The other one was the Postnatal Jing obtained from the environment. Without the Prenatal Jing, any human would die because it was the very foundation of his life and of Qi in his body. Moreover, Jing was clearly associated with Po. Indeed, Po was attached to the Jing at conception and would use it to build the body and then try to keep it alive. It was also the reason why Po could become an instrument of death. If it consumed too much Jing to try and keep the body alive, it would ultimately kill it.
With all this knowledge in head, and what he had felt those last few days, Cao Yun surmised that those skeletons had Death Energy instead of Jing and Evil Qi instead of Qi. Besides, Death Energy was known to be Po and Jing which got degraded and degenerated within the bones after death. And it would also explain why Death Energy seemed to be corrupted with Evil Qi around here. Thanks to the Drop of Wrath, Cao Yun was however able to refine Death Energy into its purest form, which was very close to real Jing.
-
After several hours of running around, pushing away any enemy who tried to block his path, Cao Yun was now halfway out of this graveyard. In the distance he was able to see the desolate roofs of the temples he had only seen from a certain height before. And between that place and his current location, there was only another black sandplain without any bone or any rotten grass. Instead, there were more narrow streams of the yellow water he had already seen and briefly studied.
Apparently, none of those creatures were trying to get close to this yellow water. It made sense because Cao Yun had sent a bone into the yellow water and it got dissolved rather quickly. Apart from the black sand, it seemed to melt everything it got in contact with. Of course, Cao Yun had not tried to put his hands inside, but he had a good feeling that he would lose both his flesh and his bones in there. Most likely, those creatures were also afraid of this yellow water.
Although the creatures acted out some ceremonials and rituals during their duels, Cao Yun felt like they were mostly following their instincts. In a sense, they were closer to animals than even advanced demonic beasts. But they did seem to possess some measure of developed intelligence from his encounter with some of them. Hopefully, they would stick to their instincts and they would not follow him into this black plain crisscrossed with yellow streams. In fact, even Cao Yun was not very reassured by the prospect of going there. Maybe the yellow water would suddenly rise, or there would be an intense yellow rain after the black rain.
But since the temples had endured, no matter what had happened, he could probably guard against the strange weather in them. Of course, he had no idea of what was in those temples...
There was not a single instant without fights between the skeletons. Most of the crows had now left, either because they had been defeated, destroyed or even reduced to dust, or because they had obtained a bone they wanted. Only a handful of them was still pecking at the huge bones protruding from the soil as though giant rib cages. They were often the smallest and thus the weakest. Instead of fighting, they kept to themselves. They were also organized in murders of crows so that they could fend off exterior threats. Even the weakest humanoid skeletons did not try to attack them. Clearly, they would not bring them many benefits.
Yet another earthquake shook the entire plains. Gradually, Cao Yun had failed to notice that the soil had become more and more dry. But when the ground shook, he realized that there were a few small cracks in it, just like before. It was as though all the water inside of it had been siphoned away. Cao Yun's fears became reality. Sadly, it had been obvious after seeing the humanoid skeletons, but it was true. The giant rib cages began to move around. With resounding screeches, all the crows flew away as fast as they could.
Still, some were not fast enough. A giant hand emerged from the ground and caught a dozen of them. They were immediately reduced to dust. Then, the dust spiraled in the air and went back to the ribs they had been pecking at a few instants before.
From the ground, enormous beings got out of the sand. Unlike the humanoid skeletons, they were absolutely white with no trace of black sand. Indeed, the black sand around them had become incredibly dry, drained of all its water and maybe nutrients, if the Death Energy and Evil Qi could be called nutrients. Moreover, the bones had no more cracks in them. In fact, they appeared brand new, and strangely full of life as though someone had polished them.
Contrary to the smaller skeletons, there was some kind of unity in their appearance. Just like them, they were clearly at different stages of completion, but they had mostly the same structure. First of all, their height was between fifty and a hundred chi*. And the taller they were, the more complete they had become. Cao Yun just looked rapidly at the tallest of them before increasing his speed.
That abomination had fours legs attached to a disturbing pelvis full of spikes. It also had eight arms. From its shoulders, two arms were going both behind and in front of it. But lower, there were strange articulations attached to the spine with two more additional arms on either sides. Speaking of its spine, it was curved in very strange ways which did not look convenient, probably under the mass of the creature itself. And enthroned on its spine, there were three skulls which appeared somewhat humans albeit deformed, and with no mandible. Although it had no organs, it had natural weapons all over. First of all, it had huge fangs hanging from its skulls. But overall, each one of its bones had either spikes, claws or literal blades of bones.
However, this wasn't over. The giant abominations, once out of the black sand, plunged their hands into it and got various weapons out.
Those weapons were all made in bones as well. But they were clearly modeled after human weapons. Some had swords, sabers, spears. Others had even bows, whips or clubs. Among these abominations, the ones with more limbs were obviously yielding more weapons. For example, one creature who had five arms and four fully formed hands was holding a bow with two of them while yielding arrows in a third one. And in its last hand, it had a serrated saber.
As they all came out of the black sand, some of the smaller skeletons got either buried under the falling sand or blown away by the movements of the giants. Thankfully Cao Yun was far enough from any rib, so he did not suffer any consequences. But more than a hundred skeletons were destroyed by the mere rise of the giant abominations. Then, all the smaller skeletons mostly stopped fighting to try and run away from the big things. Unfortunately, the giants began by destroying the smaller creatures around them.
Unlike the duels between the humanoids skeletons, the giants completely crushed their opponents. Once they were reduced to dust, a strange power was sucking it in the air. Just like small tornadoes, the dust spiraled in the air and went into the giants' bones. Although it was very subtle, their bones were slowly forming and expanding. Naturally, all that expansion would lead to the full form displayed by the tallest abominations. Strangely, now that the fights between the humanoid skeletons had ceased, the battle had become even more cruel and fierce. They were all trying to get away as fast as possible. Even a few skeletons who came very close to Cao Yun did not try to attack him.
Their natural predators had appeared and they were just thinking about survival now.
As the smaller skeletons were running away, a few of the giants decided to turn against the others. And the same kind of fight that had happened between the small skeletons occurred. However, they were even more ceremonial and ritual. Unlike the small ones, those giants were only ever fighting one on one when it came to their own kind. After cupping their fists and bowing, they exchanged some moves. The fights never lasted very long. As soon as one decided that he could not win, he would bow down and gift a bone of his choosing to his opponent.
Most of the times, the opponent liked the bone enough to accept it. But at other times, he wanted something else. In that case, he literally ripped it away from his submissive opponent and gave back the bone he had received. In a sense, there really seemed to be some kind of code of honor. But it was only among themselves. When it came to lower beings such as the crows or the humanoid skeletons, the giant abominations were merciless. Any who got near them was crushed and absorbed.
Busy running away, Cao Yun was only being mindful of those creatures so far as it helped him stay safe. He had not the luxury of being too curious. But he was still able to determine that they were indeed as powerful as Mortal Warriors. Just from the shockwave produced by the clash of their weapons, the young human was able to assess their strength. The tallest abomination was most likely stronger than a 6th-grade Mortal Warrior. This was the highest grade of a Mortal Warrior. Indeed, the last three grades of the Mortal Warrior realm were in fact tribulations to overcome in order to become a Spirit Warrior.
Because they had to be overcome one after the other, those three grades were very difficult to cross. Some people could stay years, if not decades, at the 6th-grade Mortal Warrior realm. But it also meant that there was a huge gap between a late Mortal Warrior and an early Spirit Warrior. Not only were they two different realms, but they were also three entire small grades apart.
The only good news seemed to be that those giant abominations had no Qi Manifestation of any kind. Or maybe they just didn't use them... But from what Cao Yun could observe, they only fought physically. With his powerful physique, he would probably be able to put up a fight against the weak ones. If he were to use everything, taking into account his more powerful blood and his better control over the Drop of Wrath and thus its intent, Cao Yun could probably develop enough physical strength to fight against a middle Mortal Warrior. Of course, human cultivators also had Qi Manifestation which would completely change a fight.
But against those things, if they truly did not have Qi Manifestation, Cao Yun would probably be able to win. The tallest ones were clearly still out of his league though. Although they seemed to follow some code among themselves, always fighting one on one, Cao Yun had no guarantee that they would not swarm him. As such, the best thing was obviously to keep running. Besides, the humanoid skeletons had stopped attacking him or blocking his path. This was the perfect opportunity.
Unfortunately, the giant abominations did not do as Cao Yun would have wished. Those who had already lost some bouts decided to focus their attention on the running creatures. And it turned out that they did not differentiate between living and dead. A giant with only one arm tried to crush Cao Yun with another skeleton close to him.
Alarmed by the wind pressure on him, Cao Yun could feel that that thing's strength was around twenty thousand dan. Even a 9th-grade Mortal would have been squashed by such an attack. Not only was it strong, it was also extremely fast. Thus, he had no choice. Cao Yun activated 'Dragon's Heart'. He stopped running and raised his spear toward the incoming palm. 'The Pillar Piercing the Sky'.
With his past experience in mind, Cao Yun once again imitated Zhi Yin and sent forth some of his Qi with the attack. Although he could not control it, it got trapped by the wind generated by his spear and flew toward the palm.
A powerful collision shook the air around and the giant stumbled backward. In its palm, there was now a gaping hole. Suddenly, all the giants near the scene stopped what they were doing. All their heads turned toward Cao Yun. One of theirs had been harmed by an insect and they looked like they truly wanted to squash it to death.
For Cao Yun, it felt like an entire battlefield had turned its attention toward him. And all the gazes were full of hatred.
*Approximately 15-30m or 50-100feet