Chapter 213 - Time Flies

Okay, so maybe I made a little mistake. Those guys weren't gray monkeys, they were apes. They had no tail. A small difference I didn't notice at the time. It didn't change anything, but I had to mentally correct myself.I sat beside the massive stone ape, meditating in its shadow. Its powerful Soul was slowly getting absorbed and my Cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds, though I didn't consume it in its entirety. A small piece I kept for an important purpose.I could feel my consciousness expanding without end. Everything was so clear. Compared to my lowly Mortal life, I was like a god. Yet compared to a real god, I was still but a speck of dust. How funny was that?I needed another two or three similar-sized Souls to that of the giant stone ape and I would reach the Eighth Layer. But there was plenty of time for that. First I had to eat the entire mountain of meat. It was the size of a small blue whale but weighed a lot more. Even if I gorged myself it would still take me…[Actually, how long would it take?] I murmured to myself.I transformed, growing to five meters in height, and took the first bite. The meat was tough and chewy, but it was nowhere near what it was when the creature was still alive. Without the protection of Spirit Qi, it became significantly weaker.The taste was great though. I could literally taste the Essence in the meat and it was delicious. I even tried adding a little bit of fruit for flavor. It was alright, not good or bad, just a little bit different.As I basically took over the clearing as I sat on the platform, eating, the other animals didn't dare approach so I didn't have much issue there. I just rested and ate. For a long time.***Two months. It took me over two months to finish it all. And that was by gorging myself the entire time, eating from dawn till dusk. Only for a short time through the night, I did other stuff, and that often consisted of guiding all the Essence I ingested throughout the day to strengthen my body, mostly my bones.I could feel the process was mostly complete. The black onyx on my chest already spread out through my entire skeleton, turning my bones into obsidian-glass-like material. The small difference was that my bones were indestructible. And I mean literally indestructible. I even tried to crush my own pinky to test it.I expelled all Qi out of it, used Disruption on it to clear out any residual strengthening there might be going on, and then blasted it with the strongest attack I could reasonably muster. I think I used about 40% of all my energy and… nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not a scratch. The world around me was not that lucky, however. Even the incredibly tough bones of my fallen foe splintered into a thousand pieces just by the resulting shockwave, yet my bone was completely fine.I mean, it better be. I stuffed hundreds, maybe even thousands of Spirit Realm Cultivator's Essence worth into it. It damn better be indestructible.With that, the Dragon Tyrant Forging Obsidian Bones technique was complete. I felt no further improvement could be made by continuing on the same path. My bones were as strong as they could possibly be for my Realm and the rest of my body was not far behind.By the time I reached the Spirit Realm, my Body Cultivation should be complete. Then with the help of Spirit Qi, I would get a fresh start. More room for improvement. I could hardly wait.After the meat was finally gone, I gathered all the broken bones and extracted what Essence I could from them by turning them into pure Essence Orbs. I ate those too and enhanced my muscles and organs with it.Ironclad Golden-Jade Dragon-Body, a technique evolved from the Ironclad Jade Fortress and Dragon bloodline, still had room to grow.My Dantian also took some of the precious energy and I noticed it had expanded another bit from last time. Same with my Meridians. Dragon Veins. I felt the smoothness in the flow of my Qi, and it was amazing. I always thought it couldn't get better, yet every time I was shocked at how much smoother and faster my energy flowed through improved channels. It was incredible.***I took another week off, just laying around, relaxing, thinking…With the powerful beast core in my hand, I finally decided it was time to upgrade Tiny. The big boy was falling behind. I regretted not using him more, but I was just growing too fast.Anyway, he deserved some love, and I had plenty of new cores for him, so…I took the beast core of the big stone ape and used it as a foundation. They were similar in more ways than one, so it was the perfect as the new main core. The tiny piece of its Soul I saved was already prepared. Memories were wiped, consciousness cleared, it was blank and ready for integration.I carved the core and prepared it as I should, before bringing out Tiny and taking his main core.The artificial Soul inside, though at Golden Core Realm, had been already significantly upgraded from the first time. I just had to stuff it into the new shell.I was so glad Soul manipulation was my specialty. The process seemed to be extremely delicate and focus-intensive, but I just basically took the old Soul, and stuffed it into the new one, by transferring everything there was into the new, blank mind.If anything went awry in the process, the old Tiny's Soul would be destroyed as the transfer was a one-way street. But, of course, everything went fine, and with a mental nudge, Tiny awoke. Same body, improved mind.He looked, almost intelligently, and waited for my orders. Spirit Qi infused the stones that made his body, taking over the controls and connecting to the old energy cores.He became an amalgamation of energies. The main part of his body was Spirit Qi, the great majority of energy stores came from Golden Cores containing Golden Qi, and lastly, the Base Qi shimmered on the surface of his stone skin, giving him minor passive buffs to defense.I wondered what Elder Li would think about my creation. He who was so thorough in the creation of his golems, would probably cry seeing the Frankenstein monster I created.Well, I liked it. That's all that mattered.[That's it, I guess. How do you like your new mind, Tiny?] I asked in jest.The golem just turned his head slightly and didn't respond.[Yeah… I'll take your silence as approval. Good job, buddy!] I gave him a thumbs up.***The misty valleys had many caves and crevices. The many pillars had countless small holes inside them that various birds used for their nests, but a few of them were large enough for larger beasts to take refuge inside.One of those holes was not like the others. It was larger, found in a particularly thick stone pillar that reached the sky, and was more than a hundred meters across. The entrance was nearly three meters wide and opened right at the edge of a cliff. However, what attracted my gaze were wisps of energy escaping from that place.I flew up and landed on the lip of the cave where I noticed inscriptions carved into the stone. A closer inspection revealed they were supposed to be a part of a cloaking array, but parts of the stone containing the main runes were broken off, possibly even as a result of my battle against the giant stone ape. The shockwaves of my attacks showed their effects far and wide.Anyway, after discovering the broken array, I had to explore. Finally finding a sign of human activity after months of solitude filled me with curiosity and excitement.The cave was not long, just a dozen meters or so. After turning the bend, I was met with an interesting surprise. A corpse. Mummified remains of a Cultivator.[Oh...]I stepped closer, examining the shriveled corpse of a man. I was careful to probe him with my energy first as I had just recently mistaken a sleeping giant for a stone statue. But no, the man was really dead. His robe was already crumbling at the edges, and a thin layer of dust settled on it.As one should, I patted the guy over and found his storage rings. Well, one of them. There appeared to have been others, but I just found broken remains. Curiously, the ground was also covered with empty Spirit Stones, their shells cracked and devoid of Qi.Some broken glass littered the floor and I could have sworn someone also tore up a whole bunch of paper and sprinkled it around.The ring was similarly desolated. Only trash remained inside it. A bunch of broken weapons, tools, clothes, and obviously-empty pill vials. There was also a book, the only thing that might have had some worth.I took it out and sighed. It was a diary. I was hoping for a powerful technique or something, but my luck was not to be.I stuffed the diary in my pocket and examined the corpse up close. The guy didn't appear to have been mortally wounded, nor did he look particularly old. His hair still had a black color, even if it was somewhat faded. Also, judging by the remnant Essence inside his flesh, he was definitely a Spirit Realm Cultivator. What Level, I could not tell.Obviously, I was not going to eat the guy, relax! He was way too decayed for that. The Essence his body contained after a century of isolation was miniscule. In short, it was not worth the trouble.I did cut him open though. Hey, I was curious what happened. It clearly wasn't a natural death, considering all the used-up treasures lying around him. I was glad I did that because what I discovered left me speechless. The mummified remains and the dry flesh were beyond normal.His bones, however… Oh boy, did they look… weird.