Chapter 254 - The Bone Scorpion’s Mutation
Liu Ming along with the Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader, Lin Caiyu and a few other Spirit Masters were at the center of a huge boat.
According to the discussion a few days ago, other than having one Spirit Master from each faction remain at the Barbarian Ghost Sect to keep guard, the rest of them were to follow the Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader to support the fellow sects at the border.
As for the Nine Infants Faction, since Liu Ming was needed to control the Ten Thousand Bones Demon, it was naturally Gui Ruquan who remained.
Other than that, the Barbarian Ghost Sect also had hundreds of elite disciples set out with them.
Amongst these disciples, most of them were Middle Spirit Apostles and a smaller amount were Late Spirit Apostles. If the cultivation level was any lower, participating in the war with the Sea Race would be equivalent to seeking one’s own doom.
And this time, it was not only the Barbarian Ghost Sect but also the Heavenly Moon and other sects who sent out all possible manpower.
After all, the sects’ higher-ups knew very well that although the sects normally fought amongst each other within the Da Xuan Country. They needed to work together when facing the Sea Race. Otherwise, if they were not careful, the fellow sects could be directly crushed into pieces by the Sea Race’s immense power and the entire Da Xuan Country could easily fall into their hands.
Not only that, the Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader had mysteriously revealed some information to Liu Ming and the other Spirit Masters at the recent meeting - apparently sects of the other countries within the Yun Chuan Continent were unable to just watch the coastal countries being invaded and were also going to send support for the final battle between the sects of the Da Xuan Country and the Sea Race.
Hearing such good news, Liu Ming and the other Spirit Masters gained a little more confidence for the large battle to come.
Of course, there was also bad news. The sects of two countries out of the several countries the Sea Race were fighting with had been defeated. Those two countries have already partially fallen under the rule of the Sea Race and seemed like their whole territories were soon going to be invaded.
As a result, the two large Sea Race forces that were now freed were to head directly to the Da Xuan Country as well as another kingdom that was also painstakingly persevering on. When the time comes, the Sea Race forces that the Barbarian Ghost Sect and other sects were facing were most likely also going to have a great increase in strength.
This was also why the Crystal Level experts of the several sects at the front line were desperately calling for reinforcement, as well as hastily wanting to declare a final battle of life and death with the Sea Race earlier.
They were planning to defeat the Sea Race in front of them before the Sea Race reinforcements arrived, as that way, there would be hope in another victory against the reinforcements that were left.
Like this, Liu Ming and the rest headed towards the border on the flying boat.
All the regular disciples were meditating, hoping to increase their power by even the tiniest bit before reaching the battlefield.
As a Spirit Master, Liu Ming was allocated an individual room on the bone boat and was calmly meditating there too.
Time slowly passed by.
More than one month later, the group of boats had already flown out of the area ruled by the Barbarian Ghost Sect and into the area ruled by the Heavenly Moon Sect. They encountered no problems while moving through this foreign territory.
However, on this day, Liu Ming was meditating in his room when suddenly the leather pouch at his waist began to move and the sound of the bone scorpion hissing was emitted out.
Stunned, Liu Ming hurriedly made hand seals and used his mental strength to communicate with the bone scorpion inside the pouch.
He was also a little confused at the same time. The bone scorpion had just gone into deep sleep not long ago, why was it that it had already woken up?
A short while later, his expression abruptly changed and he suddenly stood up, walking out the door.
A moment later, he arrived at the end of the bone boat. He took out a formation disc and made a few gestures on it with his fingers. Then, without another word, he leaped off the boat, falling down towards the ground beneath.
This scene frightened the several Barbarian Ghost Sect disciples who were cultivating nearby and one of them hurriedly went to report it to the Sect Leader.
But when the Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader, who was in his room, heard this, he only waved his hands, indicating that he knew already and did not give any other orders.
The disciple who reported it felt at a loss but could only return confused.
At this time, the Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader finally took out a glittering, circular formation disc from his sleeve. There was a faint light sparkling on the surface and the message Liu Ming had sent was impressively floating atop.
“What the hell, what does ‘I have suddenly come across an emergency and need to be by myself for a few days. I will be back soon.’ mean?”
The Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader muttered a few words to himself but revealed a helpless expression and did not really worry about Liu Ming.
After all, Liu Ming, as a Spirit Master, as well as being within the Da Xuan Country, did not need to worry about bumping into any strong folks of the Sea Race. The Barbarian Ghost Sect Leader did not even have to worry about Liu Ming running away either.
Unless Liu Ming did not plan to stay in the Yuan Chuan Continent anymore, escaping before a large battle against another race was enough to make a cultivator unable to find safe haven within the human region of the entire continent.
At this time, Liu Ming was already lightly floating amongst a range of mountains. After sweeping his gaze in all directions, he patted the leather pouch at his waist.
With a ‘pu’, a ball of black mist gushed out and the bone scorpion appeared on the ground.
Liu Ming could not help but be a little stunned after looking at the bone scorpion in front of him.
The cracks on the surface of the bone scorpion’s body had already impressively disappeared, and in place of it, dark red scales with a metallic shine that had appeared out of nowhere dotted the bone. At the same time, a strange black bump appeared on either side of the scorpion’s head.
Liu Ming was surprised and did not have time to react before the bone scorpion, whose appearance had changed drastically, quickly crawled close in front of him. It used its front claw to rub against the bottom of his trousers every now and then and took the initiative to mentally communicate its thirst that was even greater than before.
This caused Liu Ming to bitterly smile inside. He shook his sleeve and took out the empty shell of the red serpent dragon once again. With a flash of cold light, he used his short sword to pry off two scales and tossed it directly to the bone scorpion.
But something unexpected happened.
The bone scorpion did not even look at the scales this time and instead, stared at the empty shell whilst rubbing its claw against Liu Ming’s trousers with an even more hurried manner.
Stunned, Liu Ming looked at the empty shell of the red serpent dragon and then looked at the bone scorpion’s strange actions, and could not help but go into deep thought.
A moment later, he suddenly poured his Fa Li into the short sword in his hand.
With a hum, the Cyan Moon Sword shined a blinding light. A dozen inscriptions appeared on the surface with a flash and then swept back into the sword.
Then Liu Ming shook his wrist and the short sword pierced towards the empty shell.
But this time, he did not touch the scales and instead, cut a small piece of serpent dragon skin that was quite soft from the shell’s abdominal region.
When he tossed the piece of dragon skin on the ground, the bone scorpion immediately clamped onto it with its claws and shoved it into its mouth. It gulped it down quickly with acouple of mouthfuls and then made a sound of joy.
Seeing this, Liu Ming grinned and continued to use the short sword to cut pieces of skin from the empty shell, tossing them down onto the ground.
He aimed for the abdominal region as the soft skin there was the thinnest and weakest in terms of defence. If it were the thickest region on the back, it would probably take him a while using the Cyan Moon Sword at full power to cut even one piece.
Like this, when Liu Ming had almost cut all of the soft skin at the abdominal region of the serpent dragon, the bone scorpion in front of him who had ingested all of the skin finally ceased to emit feelings of thirst and instead, flicked its tail and unexpectedly dug underground.
With a ‘pu’, it disappeared deep into the ground.
Liu Ming was a little surprised but after slight consideration, he made a hand seal with one hand and swept his immense mental strength underground. He instantly found the bone scorpion.
Suddenly, he furrowed his brows and floated up on a grey cloud, heading in one direction.
Over a thousand feet deep underground, the bone scorpion speedily dug in the same direction, as if it were being drawn to something.
As a result, the two, one above and the other underneath, traveled a distance of dozens of miles in the blink of an eye.
In the end, it led Liu Ming to remote and secret place, a marsh where people would practically never be able to find under normal circumstances
The bone scorpion did not move anymore underground upon reaching there.
Liu Ming looked at the muddy ground under him that was emitting a rotten smell. With slight hesitation, he flipped his hand, revealing a glyph and slapped in on himself.
After a muffled noise, the glyph was instantly shattered and countless yellow glyphs disappeared into his body. A layer of yellow light appeared on him.
With a twist of his body, he also penetrated the mud and slowly sunk downwards.
Not long after, Liu Ming found the bone scorpion amidst some rocks that were covered in thick black mist.
It was desperately opening its mouth wide to breathe in the black mist nearby. With every breath in, its body grew a little bigger.
“Miasma, and high purity Miasma at that! This doesn’t seem like a normal mutation, don’t tell me this is…” Liu Ming watched as the bone scorpion’s body multiplied in size in the blink of an eye and finally, with a change of expression, remembered something.
Following that, in order to confirm that the bone scorpion’s situation was really what he was thinking, he flipped his hand right away and took out a jade bottle a few inches tall. He then looked deeply at the bone scorpion who was still breathing in the Miasma and suddenly opened the lid. Urging it with his Fa Li, a glittering black thread slowly appeared.
The bone scorpion that was originally breathing instantly stopped its actions and turned its head, staring straight at the black crystal thread that was floating outside the small bottle.
Liu Ming used that moment to make a seal and communicate with the bone scorpion’s mind once again.
Through the emotions that the ghost transmitted, it was found out that although it really liked whatever it was inside the small bottle, it also feared it and thus it was hesitating.
But just like this, Liu Ming confirmed what he was thinking. With joy, the hand that was holding the small bottle suddenly exerted power and an astonishing power gushed out.
A ‘peng’ sound.
The small bottle was crushed in an instant and hundreds of black crystal threads flew out.