The heat exploded.
The instant Ming Hai’s coffin was completely opened, the entire gigantic underground chamber seed to awaken from an eight-hundred-year slumber.
It was not a gradual awakening, it was a violent explosion of energy accumulated over centuries.
The temperature increased several tis over within seconds.
The magma beneath the bridge, which had previously bubbled in a relatively calm manner, erupted violently. Waves of lava ten ters high crashed against the walls of the do, scattering incandescent droplets that shone like falling stars.
The fire Qi beca absurdly dense.
Kyrian felt the air press against his lungs as if he were swallowing living embers. Every breath was agony. Every beat of his heart seed to echo through the suffocating heat.
The air trembled.
The runes spread across the altar glowed intensely in dark red, like veins pulsing within the mountain itself. They vibrated in sync with the magma heart below, creating a symphony of power that Kyrian could feel in his bones.
He imdiately felt his face burning.
The heat in that room had already been absurd before, enough to kill ordinary cultivators within minutes. Now... it felt as though he were standing at the center of a sun.
’It’s too much.’ Kyrian thought, feeling his skin begin to burn even through his fire Qi. I won’t be able to endure this for long.
But then...
A warm energy enveloped his body.
Not aggressive. Not violent. Controlled. Almost gentle.
Kyrian imdiately realized it was the Fire Spirit protecting him. A thin layer of orange Qi covered his skin like a second layer of flesh, nullifying much of the thermal pressure erupting from the coffin.
Kyrian noticed it. But he said nothing.
Because his attention was completely fixed on what lay inside the tomb.
His expression rarely changed.
But now...
His face was filled with pure shock.
"This..." His voice ca out slowly, almost a whisper. His eyes remained fixed on the inside of the coffin without blinking.
"Is that... a Heaven Bone?"
At the center of the tomb was a complete human skeleton.
The bones were arranged in their proper anatomical positions, as though Ming Hai’s body were still intact.
Most of the bones had been partially carbonized by ti and the fire Qi accumulated over centuries within that sealed coffin. They were dark gray, almost black, with fine cracks running across their surfaces like spiderwebs.
But one of them...
Was completely different.
The spine.
It did not look human.
It did not possess the grayish color of the other bones. It was dark red, almost crystalline, like an enormous fragnt of flaming jade carved into the shape of perfect vertebrae. Each vertebra was symtrical, polished, and glowing with an inner light that seed to co from sowhere beyond stone itself.
Golden veins ran through its entire length, as thin as strands of hair, yet shining intensely. They pulsed slowly, like rivers of magma flowing within the bone.
Even without touching it, Kyrian could feel a strange pressure emanating from the spine.
It was not rely Qi. It was not rely power.
It was sothing deeper. More fundantal.
’So this is Ming Hai’s true inheritance...’ Kyrian thought silently, his eyes fixed upon the crystalline spine.
’A Heaven Bone.’
Not techniques. Not treasures. Not pills.
A bone.
The Fire Spirit observed his reaction before responding calmly.
"Yes, child."
"That is a Heaven Bone."
"It seems you know the term."
Kyrian slowly nodded without taking his eyes off the spine.
"Yes, I’ve read a little about them."
"But the information was extrely vague. Fragnted. The scrolls described Heaven Bones as sothing legendary, sothing most scholars considered a myth."
He paused.
"Wasn’t Ming Hai supposed to possess a special physique?"
"Ming Hai never had a special physique." The Spirit interrupted, its voice firr now. Its gigantic translucent figure slowly approached the altar, floating above the magma as lightly as a leaf.
"His true talent was always this bone."
The Spirit’s flaming eyes fixed themselves on the spine.
"The Heavenly Will altered his spine when he was born."
"The Heaven Bone of the fire path."
The Spirit looked at the spine with a strange expression. Almost nostalgic.
"The entire spine was born directly connected to the Law of Fire."
Kyrian listened attentively.
anwhile, his mind recalled the little information he had found within the Blood Library.
Heaven Bones. Extrely rare.
Perhaps as rare as heavenly physiques.
Perhaps even rarer.
The books described Heaven Bones as bones naturally modified by Heaven itself.
But they explained little beyond that.
Kyrian then asked directly, his voice calm yet firm.
"What exactly is a Heaven Bone?"
"And why are they so special?"
The Fire Spirit remained silent for several seconds, organizing its thoughts.
Then it answered.
"Very well."
"It’s better for you to understand before we attempt to implant it."
Its flaming eyes stared at Kyrian with a seriousness that had not been there before.
"Heaven Bones are similar to special physiques."
"Both possess a deep connection to the Heavenly Will. Both are anomalies, exceptions to the rules governing most living beings."
"But Heaven Bones differ in one important aspect."
The Spirit slowly raised one of its gigantic hands, its flaming fingers opening as though offering sothing invisible.
"Every Heaven Bone is deeply connected to a Law."
Kyrian frowned.
"Law?"
The Spirit nodded.
"Laws are the third stage in comprehending a path."
"First cos Intent, the initial recognition of the path, the realization that it exists and can be followed."
"Then cos Aura, the ability to project the path into the outside world, to influence the environnt with your will."
"And then..."
The Spirit paused dramatically.
"The Law."
It looked directly into Kyrian’s eyes.
"You have already comprehended the Aura of Ice."
Kyrian quickly turned his face, his eyes widening slightly.
"What?"
His surprise was genuine. He knew sothing different had happened during the battle against the lizard, that translucent blue power that had erged from his eyes, freezing the draconic breath and transforming the creature into a statue of ice.
But he did not know it had a na. He did not know it was a recognized stage of comprehension.
"You didn’t know?" The Spirit asked.
Its voice carried a trace of disbelief.
"What you used against the Lizard was clearly the Aura of Ice. There is no doubt. I felt it, it was the sa sensation Ming Hai produced when he used his Aura of Fire."
"In fact..."
The Spirit’s flaming eyes narrowed.
"It’s absurd that soone at your level managed to comprehend an Aura."
"Normally, only cultivators of the Spiritual Fusion Realm begin to touch this stage, and even then, most never manage to fully comprehend it."
Kyrian remained silent.
So it really had been sothing different.
Dong Zhen had ntioned Aura during one of their conversations when Kyrian asked about it. But he had never fully explained what it was.
Kyrian had assud it was sothing distant, sothing that would only beco relevant in higher realms.
Now everything made sense.
The absurd strength of that power. The damage to his own body.
The sensation that the ice had beco sothing beyond itself.
The Spirit continued.
"You must have realized the power of Aura."
"It drastically increases control and dominion over a specific path."
"But using that power too early is dangerous."
Its expression beca serious, almost severe.
"Very dangerous."
"Aura is far too powerful for weak bodies. It was ant to be used by cultivators of the Spiritual Fusion Realm, whose bodies are superior."
"The fact that you survived is already surprising."
"If you continue using that power frequently before reaching Spiritual Fusion..."
"Your body may not endure it."
Kyrian absorbed those words silently.
’So that’s what happened.’ He thought.
’If I use Aura again right now, I might end up dying.’
User Comments
0 comments from readers