**Rotten Valley**
Lu Shimming sat cross-legged, the Qi around him swirling in a vortex at the center of his Spirit Sea. For the longest time, he had been too preoccupied to notice the drastic changes within his body, but now the reality of it hit him full force. The Qi being absorbed by his body was rapidly converting into Spiritual Qi, causing his Spirit Sea to expand and his Spiritual Prowess to grow stronger.
But something was wrong.
The path of Spiritual Cultivation was supposed to be an auxiliary one, typically accessible only at the Inner Sea Stage. Yet here he was, trying to force Qi into his veins, only to be met with unbearable pain, as if his very soul were being torn apart. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he gasped for breath, unable to endure it any longer.
"Sh*t..."
He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as the realization struck him.
"I'm dead!"
It wasn't a metaphor.
He was actually dead.
The reason he couldn't circulate Qi through his veins was because they had closed off. His heart wasn't beating any longer. Essentially, he had turned into an undead—a corpse!
"No wonder I didn't die. No wonder my body felt colder than usual..." Lu Shimming muttered to himself, still grappling with the shocking revelation. But it all made sense when he thought about it logically. An undead wouldn't die in the usual way unless their head, which housed the Spirit Sea, was destroyed. That was their main source of life... ironic as it sounded.
As his body finally relaxed and the pain subsided, Lu Shimming began to think ahead. He couldn't cultivate like a normal person anymore, not in this state. What options did that leave him with?
Just then, the sound of footsteps reached his ears, and he looked up to see an undead skeleton approaching him.
"Did you find anything, Bai?" he asked the white skeleton. He had sent it to search the surroundings, hoping to find some clue or lead. And yes, he had decided to name it Bai—there wasn't much meaning behind the name; it was just because the skeleton was white.
Bai raised a bony finger and pointed toward the east.
"Did you find something?" Lu Shimming's eyes lit up with anticipation. And as if understanding his words, Bai nodded.
"Let's go, lead the way..." Lu Shimming immediately got up, grabbing the makeshift club he had fashioned from the large bone of some animal's corpse, and followed Bai.
They hadn't even walked a few hundred meters when Lu Shimming suddenly stopped, prompting Bai to halt as well, seemingly attuned to his thoughts.
"Do we need to go in there?" Lu Shimming asked, pointing at the ominous black miasma ahead. Bai's dark hollow eyes stared back at him in silence. "I assume that's a yes..."
His spiritual senses, though no longer the same, still registered the chills emanating from the miasma. There were undoubtedly many more undead on the other side.
Lu Shimming looked up toward the sky, but the edge of the cliff from where he had fallen was still nowhere in sight. He had no idea how much time had passed, but being stranded here wasn't helping him at all.
Tightening his grip on the bone club, he firmed his resolve.
"Let's go..."
As the two of them entered the miasma, a sharp screech echoed through the area.
An undead skeleton appeared right off the bat.
But before Lu Shimming could react, a white figure moved in front of him.
Bai raised its palm and grabbed the undead skeleton by the throat. With an effortless movement, it lifted the creature and slammed it into the rugged terrain.
"Crack!"
The skull of the undead skeleton shattered instantly from the impact, and it lay there, unmoving.
"..."
"Holy sh*t..." Lu Shimming stood there, his mouth slightly agape. He hadn't expected that. This skeleton seemed... cool, for some reason. It even turned its head slightly toward him as if making sure Lu Shimming had seen its impressive display.
Feeling less helpless, Lu Shimming suddenly felt a surge of optimism about his situation.
The duo pressed on, encountering more undead skeletons along the way. But unlike before, Bai didn't finish them off in one move. Lu Shimming had realized that maintaining Bai consumed his Spiritual Prowess, so he didn't want to overexert it unnecessarily.
Instead, the two of them formed a formidable team—Lu Shimming, using the bone club, became the primary damage dealer while Bai tanked the undead skeletons. With each battle, Lu Shimming's fear subsided, and he became increasingly adept at dealing with the undead.
It was, after all, his first time facing such creatures. But as a former genius, he had to show his adaptability.
...
A few days later...
"Hmmm..." Lu Shimming clenched his fist several times, feeling a growing suspicion.
Was it just his imagination, or did he feel stronger than before?
He had no idea how much time had passed, but it definitely felt like he had been fighting for a good while now. Initially, it had just been undead skeletons whose strength ranged up to the 3rd layer of Qi Refinement, but their power had been steadily increasing. Finally, they had encountered a Skeleton Soldier, and it wasn't alone. There had been a whole legion of them.
Those guys were as strong as the 7th layer of Qi Refinement, wielding weapons and swinging them around with brute force.
Lu Shimming glanced at his broken shoulder, which was slowly healing, and then at the crack on Bai's skull. They had been trampled all over, but thankfully, Bai had managed to drag him away from the onslaught.
If they had been trapped in that horde of Skeleton Soldiers, he had no idea what would have happened to them. Besides, it was common knowledge that a group of similar-level creatures was usually led by a higher one. Thank the heavens he hadn't been unlucky enough to encounter it.
The one capable of leading a legion of Skeleton Soldiers...
A Skeleton Knight.
The mere thought of it made his face twitch.
Thankfully, they were far from that lair. He looked at Bai, his savior, and realized he had underestimated the white skeleton. Initially, he had dismissed it as a mere undead, but time and time again, it had proved him wrong. Bai was an intelligent being, possibly more than just a simple skeleton.
'Don't tell me he was some war general when alive?' The thought no longer seemed ridiculous to him.