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

After the nine suns sank, there was no moon on the Tianwu Continent.

This was the first time Dongfang Weiza had stepped out of the Lin family's backyard at night since he had been recuperating in Qingzhu Town for three days.

Looking up, he saw no familiar stars or moon in the sky, only a thick, almost tangible darkness, as if someone had crushed a piece of black jade and scattered it evenly across the heavens.

The only source of light came from the earth—towards the distant Ember Sea, where a thin layer of eerie blue light floated on the horizon, as if something underground was slowly burning, burning for millennia without ever going out.

The Lin family had already eaten dinner. Lin Tieshan carried a shoulder pole to keep watch at the town entrance, while his two older brothers sharpened knives in a side room. The sound of the blades scraping against the whetstone was intermittent, its rhythm tinged with unease.

Although Eagle Fortress's three hundred armored cavalry have temporarily retreated to Ironfeather City, the Eagle Fortress Grand Commander will not let the loss of face at the entrance to Shattered Bone Ridge go unpunished.

Dongfang Weiwo sat cross-legged on a blue stone by the bamboo forest, his eyes slightly closed, looking inward at himself.

The skeletons of the gods and demons have completely changed.

After the nine bones were put back in place, the seams between each bone disappeared completely, as if they had never been broken.

A very faint pattern emerged on the dark gold background. Upon closer inspection, it was not an engraving, but rather the skeleton itself breathing. The pattern moved slowly with the flow of the Heavenly Martial Qi in his body, and each movement would bring a trace of external spiritual energy into the depths of his bone marrow.

The fusion rate of vital energy is increasing. When we emerged from Shattered Bone Ridge, it was just over 10%, but now it's close to 15%.

But that's not the biggest change.

The biggest change was in the Qi Sea. The key seal, which had been dormant for three days, awakened the moment the ulna returned to its place.

At this moment, it slowly rotated in the dantian, so slowly that it was almost imperceptible, but with each rotation, it left a dark golden ripple in the center of the dantian. The ripple spread out and eventually disappeared on the outer wall of the dantian, and then it rippled again in the next rotation.

He had tried to conjure a short sword in his palm—he could do it, but it would only last for three breaths before dissipating on its own.

The short sword's form was more solid than before, and the nine hundred and ninety-nine ancient array patterns on its blade were also clearer by a third, but it still hadn't returned to the level of freedom it had when it locked the gates of the Tianxuan Continent.

"What's missing?"

He opened his eyes and took out the bone fragment he had retrieved from under the stone platform at Shattered Bone Ridge.

Lu Moshen's handwriting glowed faintly in the darkness—"The Hall of Immortality, the seventh bone pillar beneath the Bridge of Oblivion."

The Undying Hall. The hall master ranks ninth among the Supreme Realm cultivators. Thirty years ago, he pursued the Demon God Lü for something and broke the latter's left arm.

That thing isn't inside the ulna, nor in the jade slip; it's hidden elsewhere. Only a complete divine or demonic skeleton can sense its location.

Dongfang Weiwo held the bone fragment close to his palm and channeled a wisp of dark gold energy into it.

The bone fragment trembled slightly. Below a line of writing, a very faint pattern appeared—not a map, but some kind of sensory imprint.

He immersed his consciousness into the mark and vaguely sensed a pulling force pointing northwest. The distance was extremely far, and the pulling force was as weak as a candle flickering in the wind. But the direction was clear.

"northwest……"

He put away the bone fragments and was about to continue his meditation when a series of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the bamboo forest.

It wasn't Lin Xiaoman—her footsteps were light and rhythmic, like silver bells. This footstep was heavy and disordered, crushing the withered bamboo leaves scattered on the ground.

Lin Tieshan, carrying a shoulder pole, rushed into the backyard, his face ashen.

"Young Master Dongfang, two people have arrived at the town entrance."

He was panting heavily, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

"They're not from Eagle Hold. One is wearing a white robe, the other a black robe, and they're not riding Fire Crystal Scale Beasts, they're riding Windhorse. They specifically asked for you."

Windhorse. Dongfang Weiwo had never seen one, but he had heard of it from Lin Xiaoman—a warhorse native to the bitterly cold northwest of the Tianwu Continent, with a single horn on its head that cuts through the wind when it runs, allowing it to travel three thousand miles a day.

Only major sects can afford to raise such horses; ordinary rogue cultivators might not even see one in their entire lives.

"Did they state their origins?"

"I've reported it."

Lin Tieshan swallowed hard, his facial muscles twitching. "The one in white robes said he came from the Valley of Life and Death. The one in black robes said he came from the Hall of Reincarnation."

The bamboo curtain rustled suddenly. Grandma Lin, leaning on her cane, walked out of the main room, her wrinkles deep and etched in the dim blue light.

She walked up to Dongfang Weiwo, her aged voice carrying a sense of vigilance that seemed to have been unearthed from the depths of time: "The Valley of Life and Death takes in the living, while the Hall of Reincarnation takes in the dead."

The rules in the two places are different, but one thing is the same—they won't appear at the same time without a reason.

She paused, her cloudy old eyes fixed on Dongfang Weiwo.

"The things you brought out from Broken Bone Ridge have attracted people you shouldn't have."

At the entrance of Qingzhu Town, two Windhorse horses stand side by side.

The horse was tall and jet black, with a single horn on its head that gleamed with a cold, metallic sheen in the pale blue light.

Two people, one in white and one in black, sat on horseback, as if someone had simultaneously pressed day and night onto the entrance to Qingzhu Town.

The man in the white robe looked to be in his early thirties, with delicate features and a faint smile always playing at the corners of his mouth.

His white robe was not made of cloth, but rather a condensation of some kind of radiance, which remained motionless in the night wind, as if it were cut from solidified moonlight.

A long sword hung at his waist, its scabbard snow-white, and three small characters engraved on the hilt: Valley of Life and Death.

The man in the black robe was of an unknown age.

A black robe covered him from head to toe, revealing only a pair of withered hands, their fingers interlaced and resting on the front of the saddle.

The skin on his hands clung tightly to the bone, the bluish-gray veins bulging like earthworms, and his fingernails were as black as ink. The air within three feet of him was colder than elsewhere, and a thin layer of white frost covered the bluestone slabs on the ground.

When Dongfang Weiwo reached the town entrance leaning on his bamboo cane, the man in white robes dismounted first.

He dismounted very lightly, his boots landing on the bluestone without making a sound, as if he were weightless.

"Only I exist in the East?"

The man in white smiled slightly, his tone polite to the point of being gentle, "I have long admired you. I am Bai Wuchen, a steward of the Outer Valley of Life and Death. I apologize for my intrusion in visiting you."

As he spoke, the man in black robes behind him dismounted.

The black-robed man's movements were equally silent, but not light; rather, they were hollow. It was like a garment slipping off a horse's back, the body inside already standing when it landed.

"The Palace of Reincarnation, Crow Nine."

The voice of the man in the black robe came from deep within the hood, dry, low, and devoid of any emotion, like two withered leaves rubbing against each other: "I have been ordered to come and retrieve an old item."

Dongfang Wei did not move. He stood under the crooked locust tree at the entrance of town, leaning on his bamboo cane, his gaze sweeping from Bai Wuchen to Ya Jiu, and then back to Bai Wuchen.

"What old stuff?"

Ya Jiu did not answer. He raised his right hand, his withered index finger pointing to Dongfang Weiwo's chest—or more precisely, to the location of the bone fragment in his arms.

"The aura of the Undying Palace."

Bai Wuchen took over the conversation, his tone still gentle, but his smile had faded a bit. "Young Master Dongfang, you may not know, but there is an unwritten rule in the Tianwu Continent."

The top thirty experts in the Supreme Realm will all set up sensing restrictions within their own sphere of influence.

The range of the Undying Palace Master's restriction is particularly wide—within a radius of ten thousand miles, if anyone appears carrying the aura of his death seal, the restriction will be automatically triggered.

He took out a snow-white jade talisman from his sleeve. A faint green light was flashing rapidly on the talisman.

"We sensed it in Iron Feather City, which is 700 miles away."

Not only us, but all the major powers within a radius of ten thousand miles that have set up sensing barriers should have received the same signal by now. We are just among the first to arrive.

Dongfang Weiwo felt a slight unease in his heart.

Inside the Broken Bone Ridge stone chamber, the power he unleashed when he dispersed the remnants of the Death Seal broke through the thirty-year-old seal of the Demon God Lü, which was equivalent to lighting a signal light in the Undying Palace Master's sensory network.

Broken Bone Ridge is 700 li away from Green Bamboo Town. For a powerful steward riding a Windhorse, 700 li is only a short distance of half an hour.

"So you've come to retrieve the Death Seal for the Undying Hall?"

"No."

Bai Wuchen shook his head, a subtle look flashing in his eyes. "The aura of the Death Seal only led us to you, but the reason we came to find you is not the Death Seal."

He paused for a moment, his gaze falling on the hand of Dongfang Weiwo, who was leaning on a bamboo cane.

Faint dark gold patterns were faintly visible beneath the skin of that hand, almost invisible in the darkness, but clear enough for a cultivator like Bai Wuchen.

"The skeleton of a god or demon." Bai Wuchen said slowly and deliberately, "The remains of a god or demon from the Tianxuan Continent, a complete skeleton with all eight bones back in place. Thirty years ago, the Demon God Lü brought a half-finished skeleton to Tianwu, which already stirred up the entire continent's landscape."

Even the Lord of the Undying Hall himself couldn't remove the skeleton from him back then. Now that a complete version has appeared, do you think the various factions will sit idly by?

The bamboo cane tapped lightly on the bluestone slab.

Dongfang Weiwo finally spoke, his voice so calm that a hint of surprise flashed in Bai Wuchen's eyes:

"You want the skeleton?"

"No, no, no."

Bai Wuchen laughed, but there was a hint of genuine helplessness in his smile. "The cultivation method I practiced in the Valley of Life and Death is completely incompatible with my skeletal structure, so removing it would be useless."

The situation in the Samsara Palace is similar—their cultivation methods are cold and sinister, while their skeletal structures possess a dark metal element that is masculine and violent; forcibly fusing with them would be tantamount to suicide.

"We've come to you to make a deal before you're torn apart by others."

"trade?"

"right."

Bai Wuchen took out a jade slip from his sleeve and handed it over with both hands.

"Three days from now, there will be an underground auction hosted by the Black Scale Merchant Guild in Iron Feather City."

This auction was originally none of our business, but just yesterday, the Blackscale Merchant Guild suddenly added an item to the auction.

He lowered his voice.

"Half a picture. Thirty years ago, before his left arm was broken, Lu Moshen went to the Wangchuan Bridge."

He brought something out and hid it somewhere. He drew a map of the hiding place himself, then tore it in half. He kept one half on himself and gave the other half to—”

"Whom was it given to?"

"I am the only one in the East," Dongfang Weiwo asked in a deep voice.