Starting as the heir of a marquis's mansion, I gained access to a summoning system.

Three days after the leaden gray sky above the Red Abyss Volcano dissipated, a ray of sunshine finally broke through.

When that ray of sunlight pierced through the volcanic ash that had lingered for millennia, it looked like a golden sword cutting through the entire black mountain.

The moment Dongfang Weiwo stepped out from the ninth dome, everyone was stunned.

His figure and face remained unchanged, but his entire being seemed to be enveloped in a layer of dark golden light—not an outward radiance, but a qualitative change that emanated from his very bones.

With each step he took, a fine array of patterns appeared on the black stone ground beneath his feet and then disappeared, as if the earth itself was responding to his footsteps.

Yan Kuangtu came up from the eighth floor, looked him up and down several times, and grinned, saying:

"Young master, you look like you've been completely transformed since your trip down there."

"It has indeed been changed."

Dongfang Weiwo raised his right arm and moved his wrist, a faint humming sound emanating from the joints. Five pieces of bone fragments—finger bone, skull fragment, bone ball, spine, and left leg bone—were now arranged in a near-perfect sequence within his body, their resonance forming a flowing array.

His spine was the main purple line, his left leg bone provided support, and three relics from Wanjie Valley filled the connection points between his chest, abdomen, and upper limbs. Although it was not yet complete, one could already feel the stability of a "nascent skeleton".

Xiang Yutian emerged from behind, leaning on his iron staff, and surveyed the aftermath of the crater—Ximen Chuixue and Ye Gucheng were counting the debris left by the gray shadows, Xiong Ba was sitting cross-legged by the lava river, meditating, Guan Yutian was gathering his inner energy, and the True Martial Sect Leader was supporting Qin Lin'an, whose mouth was still bleeding, as he sat on a stone platform—the Old Evil Emperor stroked his chin.

"Kid, your Tianxuan Mansion's team is alright. It's just a bit short-handed."

"That's enough." Dongfang Weiwo knelt down in front of Qin Lin'an and handed him a healing pill. "Are you holding on?"

Qin Lin'an took the pill, popped it into his mouth, and said with a wry smile:

"We held on. When those gray shadows first rammed into us, I thought I was going to die on the first floor, but before I even breathed my last, the brothers from the upper floors came down."

"The bone talisman's call for help was timely."

Dongfang Wei patted him on the shoulder, stood up, and looked at the crowd. "Take stock of the casualties."

A moment later, the True Martial Sect Leader reported the number:

"No one was killed. Young Master Qin was slightly injured. Ximen Chuixue's left arm was corroded by half an inch of gray energy and needed to be removed with a spiritual medicine. The rest was just skin and flesh damage."

There were approximately three hundred gray shadow remains, including seventeen that possessed the aura of the initial stage of creation. All of them dissipated into ash, leaving no usable materials.

"The absence of a corpse means it wasn't a real living being."

Meng Chixing stood with his hands behind his back at the edge of the crater, gazing towards the northern ice plains. "Those things are extensions of some kind of will. Their true form is not in this realm; they merely project a portion of their power through that opening."

Dongfang Weiwo walked up to him and stopped: "You've seen something like this before?"

I've met him once.

"Meng Chixing's tone was as calm as if he were saying that the weather was nice today. "Three hundred years ago, a similar rift appeared briefly for three breaths in the deepest part of the southern border. At that time, I had just entered the Creation Realm and only saw it from afar."

The aura on the other side of the rift was exactly the same as the gray shadow I saw today. Later, the rift closed, and it never appeared again. At the time, I thought I had imagined it.

You read that right.

Dongfang Wei pressed his hand to his chest; the key imprint was still slowly pulsating, and the voice that had come from the gap lingered in his mind—"The lock is loose. You may come in."

His voice deepened, "They've been waiting. Waiting for the chains binding their demonic bloodlines to loosen enough for them to pass through that gate. My process of fusing the remains is the process of loosening those chains. With each bone I take, the seal on the continent weakens a little."

Xiang Yutian abandoned his usual nonchalant attitude, planted his iron staff on the volcanic rock, and frowned as he said:

"Then take it down again, and the seal will be completely broken. Wouldn't that thing on the other side just swagger in?"

"Therefore, I must fuse all the remains before the seal is completely broken."

Dongfang Weiwo turned to face the crowd, his gaze sweeping over every face present. "There are nine bones in total. I currently have five inside my body. The second one is sealed away in a copper bell within the fragments of the Northern Stone Gate. I've already retrieved the sixth, seventh, and eighth bones from the three relics in Wanjie Valley. The ninth one…" He paused.

"The first piece of remains—that purplish-black arm—flew into the depths of the void half a year ago and disappeared along with the Demon God Lü. That piece is not on the Tianxuan Continent."

Yan Kuangtu clicked his tongue: "What if we can't collect them all?"

"All of them are here." Dongfang Weiwo's gaze fell on the gradually closing rift of clear light above the Crimson Abyss Volcano. "When the first arm flew out, I left a key imprint on it."

It's somewhere waiting to be retrieved. Once I've collected all the bones from the continents, I'll go get the arm last—then everything will be clear.

Xiang Yutian and Meng Chixing exchanged a glance. In that instant, these two legendary figures of the Demonic Sect, spanning hundreds of years, exchanged a signal that only they understood.

"Kid."

Xiang Yutian slung the iron staff over his shoulder. "When you summoned me, that seal recognized your bloodline. I, Xiang Yutian, have lived for hundreds of years and owe no favors. Since the seal has recognized you, I will follow you to the end."

Meng Chixing didn't speak, but simply withdrew his gaze from the distance, turned around with his hands behind his back, and walked down the mountain. After taking a few steps, he tossed back a question: "Does Tianxuan Mansion have wine?"

Xiong Ba replied in a deep voice, "There are three hundred jars of Zhongzhou Spirit Wine stored in the cellars of Baidi City."

"That's enough." Meng Chixing waved his hand without turning his head.

On their way back to White Emperor City from the Crimson Abyss in the Northern Desert, the members of Tianxuan Mansion successively broke through their bottlenecks.

Pang Ban was the first to break through to the next level. This Ghost Emperor of the Underworld had been guarding the southern front for months, constantly using the pressure of the Demon Clan's Black Tide as a whetstone.

When Dongfang Weiwo fused his left leg bone in the Crimson Abyss Volcano, the aura of the Key Seal briefly covered the entire Tianxuan Continent. Pang Ban, far away on the southern border defense line, sensed that power fluctuation and went into seclusion for three days. The barrier between the peak of the Celestial Realm and the initial stage of the Creation Realm was crushed.

When he left the pass, he stood at the front of the southern front. The demon scouts saw his figure from afar and retreated three miles on their own.

Following closely behind was Shi Zhixuan. This Wheel King had been secretly overseeing operations in Zhongzhou for several months, mediating between various factions while never ceasing his own cultivation.

The bottleneck of the mid-stage Celestial Realm suddenly loosened when he received the message from Dongfang Weiwo's return—the letter still bore the scent of a key seal, and Shi Zhixuan entered a state of enlightenment the moment he grasped it, breaking through to the late-stage Celestial Realm three days later.

During this period, Li Chenzhou also broke through to the final level of the half-step Celestial Realm.

He was originally the type to accumulate knowledge and experience before unleashing it. During this period, the General Affairs Department of Tianxuan Prefecture honed his character to perfection. He then secluded himself for seven days at the core of the spirit stone at the main altar and officially entered the initial stage of the Celestial Realm.

The leaders of the Azure Dragon Society also reaped considerable rewards. Shangguan Jin Hong and Chai Yu Lian joined forces to suppress the unrest caused by rogue cultivators around the core of spiritual energy on the western front, and in a series of actual battles, they each advanced one step further in their Grandmaster level eight and nine.

Marquis Xiaoyao hunted down the remnant soul of a Creation-level spirit beast that had wandered over from Zhongzhou at the Sanyue Hall, and after refining it, he stepped into the half-step Celestial Realm.

Gongzi Yu's May Hall was originally based on an intelligence network. In the past six months, it has secretly infiltrated seventeen cities on the edge of the Eastern Continent and the Central Continent. From the flood of intelligence, it has comprehended a new mental cultivation method and its cultivation level has steadily increased from the initial stage of the half-step Celestial Realm to the middle stage.

The most surprising one was Lei Sun. Lei Sun, the Hall Master of April, had stayed at the eighth level of the Grandmaster realm for three whole years. At a regular meeting at the White Emperor City headquarters, Dongfang Weiwo casually tossed him a jade talisman formed from the residual aura of the fused remains, asking him to take it and study it.

Lei Sun held the jade talisman for five days and five nights, breaking through from the eighth level of Grandmaster to the initial stage of Celestial Realm. When he emerged from seclusion, he looked ten years older, but his aura had increased several times over.

On the Underworld side, Jue Wushen served as Pang Ban's deputy on the southern front, guarding the front line together. When Pang Ban broke through to the Creation Realm, the aftershocks shook the entire southern camp. Under the impact of that Creation Realm aura, Jue Wushen forcefully pushed his initial Celestial Realm to the middle stage.

Tie Zhongtang and Song Que did not directly break through their realms, but the two of them joined forces to achieve three complete victories at the three passages of the Demon Clan. Their practical experience and mental state have both reached a high level, and they are now infinitely close to the threshold of the mid-stage of the Celestial Realm.

While stationed in the East China Sea, Ouyang Feiying and Yang Dingtian encountered a reconnaissance team from the Nine Nether Ancient Clan that emerged from the abyss.

The two defeated all five opponents single-handedly, and from the magic of the Ancient Sea Abyss Clan, they gleaned a trace of the ancient gods and demons' method of circulating spiritual energy, and each stepped into the half-step Celestial Realm.

When Dongfang Weiwo returned to Baidi City, the entire city's garrison sensed something different—everyone on the city wall stood up straight, their auras were deep and focused, and the efficiency of their spiritual energy cores was several times higher than it had been six months ago.

In the main council hall, Bai Yujing greeted him with a smile, cupping his hands in a respectful gesture: "Young Master, before you returned, I tallied the number of Celestial Beings throughout the entire Tianxuan Prefecture. Including the two seniors you recently brought back and those who have just broken through—"

"How many?"

"There are a total of thirty-seven beings of the Celestial Realm and above."

Bai Yujing's eyes gleamed with barely concealed excitement. "Among them are six at the Creation Realm—Mr. Yan, Mr. Guan, Mr. Xiong, Mr. Xiang, Mr. Meng, and Mr. Pang. There are four above the Half-Step Creation Realm. Seven are at the peak of the Celestial Realm. The rest are present at each level from the initial to the later stages."

Six Creation Realm experts. Looking across the entire Tianxuan Continent, apart from a few reclusive powerhouses like the Lord of the Myriad Tribulations Valley and the Primordial Daoist, no single force can directly contend with such a number of Creation Realm experts.

Dongfang Weiwo sat down in the main seat of the council hall and opened the map of the entire territory presented by Baiyujing.

The four cities of the Western Oasis have been completely controlled by Xiong Ba's iron fist, and the territory of Tianxuan Prefecture has expanded westward to the desert border of Taiyuan Dynasty.

The three demonic passages on the southern route were sealed off by the rotating guard system of Pang Ban and Guan Yutian; three defensive outposts were established around Wanshe Island in the East China Sea; and peaceful trade was maintained in the area where Bailang Plain in the north met the border of Da Zhou.