Chapter 11: The Dragon's Hoard
The fissure in the rock was tight, jagged, and suffocatingly hot.
Lin Yun crawled on his belly, his elbows and knees scraping against obsidian shards that would have sliced ordinary flesh to ribbons. Here, deep beneath the earth's crust, the air was toxic, filled with sulfur and ash.
"Are you sure about this?" Lin Yun coughed, shielding his mouth with a scrap of beast hide. "The heat is increasing. Even with the Spirit Fire, my skin feels like it's drying out."
"Keep moving," Long Xi's voice was uncharacteristically soft, tinged with a melancholic vibration. "I can hear it singing. A song of my kin."
Lin Yun pushed forward. He dragged his cracked Bone Greatblade behind him, the heavy weapon carving a groove in the stone.
After an hour of claustrophobic crawling, the tunnel suddenly widened. A cool, damp breeze brushed against Lin Yun's face, a shocking contrast to the magma tunnels behind him.
He pulled himself out of the fissure and dropped ten feet onto a smooth, crystal floor.
He stood up and looked around. His breath hitched.
He was in a colossal geode. The walls were lined with massive purple crystals that pulsed with a soft, rhythmic light. But it wasn't the crystals that drew the eye.
In the center of the cavern lay a skeleton.
It was serpentine, easily a hundred meters long, coiled around a central stalagmite. It wasn't a True Dragon like Long Xi. It lacked the wings and the majestic horns, but it was undeniably draconic. A Flood Dragon.
Even in death, the bones radiated a terrifying pressure. A faint, crimson mist hovered over the skeleton.
"A Scarlet Flood Dragon," Long Xi murmured, appearing from the token as a spectral projection. She floated toward the massive skull, which was the size of a small house. "A servant race. In the ancient war, they were the foot soldiers of my court."
She touched the bone snout gently. "It seems this one crawled down here to die after the war, hiding from the humans who hunted us for parts."
Lin Yun approached cautiously. "The pressure... it's heavier than the Golem. Is the soul still here?"
"Only echoes," Long Xi said. She turned to Lin Yun, her golden eyes blazing. "But for you, this is a treasury greater than anything the Spirit Beast Sect possesses."
She pointed to a small, natural basin beneath the dragon's skull.
Drip.
Drip.
Over thousands of years, condensation had gathered on the bones, mixed with the residual marrow, and dripped into the pool. The liquid inside was thick, crimson, and smelled of iron and ozone.
"Dragon Marrow Fluid," Long Xi announced. "It is diluted, mixed with the blood of a lesser dragon, but for a mortal like you? It is liquid gold."
Lin Yun walked to the edge of the pool. The energy radiating from it made his Silver Bones hum in resonance.
"If I drink this..."
"You don't drink it, you fool. You'll explode," Long Xi rolled her eyes. "You bathe in it. And you bathe your weapon in it."
Lin Yun looked at the Bone Greatblade on his back. The fight with the Golem had left a deep hairline fracture down the center. It was on the verge of shattering.
"The Obsidian Bear jaw is strong, but it is mortal bone," Long Xi explained. "If you soak it in this fluid, the Flood Dragon's essence will calcify the cracks and transform the material. It will become a quasi Spirit Artifact."
Lin Yun unstrapped the massive blade and gently lowered it into the crimson pool.
HISS.
The liquid boiled around the bone. The white jawbone began to turn a deep, blood red color. The fracture hissed as it knit itself back together, looking like a scar healing in real time.
"Now, you," Long Xi commanded. "Get in. The Nine Prison Ruins will close in less than twelve hours. You must absorb this before we leave."
Lin Yun stripped and stepped into the pool.
It didn't burn like the cauldron. It felt heavy. It felt like he was sinking into quicksand made of mercury.
As he submerged to his neck, the crimson fluid began to bore into his pores.
"Argh!" Lin Yun grunted, his jaw clenching.
It felt as though thousands of tiny red worms were burrowing into his flesh, seeking out his bones.
"The Silver Bones are strong," Long Xi coached him. "But they are brittle. The Flood Dragon is known for its flexibility and regeneration. Absorb its nature! Make your bones not just hard, but resilient!"
Lin Yun closed his eyes, entering a meditative trance.
Inside his body, the silver coating on his bones began to shift. The crimson energy wove through the silver, creating a pattern that looked like red lightning trapped in metal.
His marrow churned, producing blood that was darker, richer, and far more potent.
[System Integration: Flood Dragon Essence]
[Sovereign Body Upgrade: Silver Bones (Mid Stage)]
[Regeneration Factor: Increased]
Time lost its meaning. Lin Yun floated in the void of pain and power.
When he finally opened his eyes, the pool was clear water. The crimson essence was gone.
He stood up, water sluicing off his skin. His muscles looked denser, more defined. His skin had lost the metallic bronze tint and returned to a more natural tone, but with a faint, imperceptible shimmer of silver underneath.
He reached for his weapon.
The Greatblade had changed. It was no longer white bone. It was blood red, with a texture like polished coral. It felt heavier, easily 4,000 pounds on its own, but in Lin Yun's new hands, it felt balanced.
He swung it.
VOOM.
A faint red afterimage trailed behind the blade.
"Blood Bone Greatblade," Lin Yun named it. "It feels... hungry."
"It is," Long Xi said, retreating into the token. "It will drink the blood of your enemies to repair itself. A fitting weapon for a Sovereign."
Suddenly, the ground shook violently. Dust fell from the crystal ceiling.
"The Ruins are destabilizing," Long Xi warned. "The gate is closing. We need to leave. Now."
"The magma tunnel is blocked," Lin Yun said, dressing quickly in his python armor. "I sealed it with the Golem."
"There," Long Xi pointed to the far end of the cavern, where a subterranean river flowed into darkness. "That water flows out to the surface. It will dump you into the lake at the base of the mountain."
Lin Yun strapped the Blood Bone Greatblade to his back. He looked at the massive skeleton one last time and bowed slightly.
"Rest now. Your essence will not go to waste."
He dove into the underground river.
Two Hours Later. The Spirit Beast Sect.
The atmosphere at the sect was chaotic. The Nine Prison Gate was rumbling, preparing to shut. Disciples were pouring out, some cheering with their loot, others carrying wounded comrades.
On the viewing platform, the Elders waited anxiously.
"Where is the elite team?" Elder Mo paced back and forth. "Wang Meng? Liu Xue? They should have been the first out!"
"Look! Someone is coming!"
A single figure stumbled out of the gate just as the massive doors began to groan shut.
It was Liu Xue.
She was a mess. Her pink robes were scorched and torn. Her hair was wild, and her skin was covered in soot. She was dragging herself forward, her eyes wide with trauma.
"Xue'er!" An Elder rushed forward, catching her before she collapsed. "What happened? Where are the others? Where is the Earth Essence?"
Liu Xue grabbed the Elder's robes, her knuckles white.
"Dead..." she rasped, her voice trembling with genuine terror. "All... crippled... or dead."
"Who?!" The Elder roared, his aura flaring. "Who dared to attack the Spirit Beast Sect's elites? Was it the Blood Fire Sect?"
Liu Xue shook her head frantically. Tears streamed down her face, tears of fear, not sadness.
"A monster..." she whispered, loud enough for the surrounding disciples to hear. "A ghost... with a bone mask... he crushed Wang Meng like an insect... he ate the fire... he sealed the mountain..."
"A Ghost?" The Elder frowned. "Nonsense! Who is he?"
Liu Xue looked up, her eyes hauntingly empty.
"He said... to tell Master Gu Cang..."
The entire platform went silent.
"Tell him what?"
"Tell him... the Ghost is coming."
Meanwhile, at the Cloud Severing Cliff.
Miles away from the commotion of the ruins, at the base of the waterfall where Lin Yun had originally "died," the water surface broke.
SPLASH!
Lin Yun pulled himself onto the mossy bank. He was drenched, shivering slightly from the underground chill, but his eyes were burning with vitality.
He stood up and looked at the towering cliff above him. The mist hid the peak, but he knew exactly where the Spirit Beast Sect was.
He gripped the hilt of the red Greatblade on his back.
He had entered the ruins as a fugitive. He had left as a catastrophe waiting to happen.
"Silver Bones. Mid Stage," Lin Yun clenched his fist, feeling the raw power of 25,000 Jin coursing through him. "I can crush an Earth Spirit cultivator's skull."
"Gu Cang," he whispered the name like a curse.
"I'm home."