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

Then he heard a voice.

It wasn't heard through the ears, but came from the depths of the bone marrow.

It was as if a long-sealed door had been pushed open a crack, and a long sigh came from behind it—the sigh of the Demon God Lü.

The nine bone fragments trembled simultaneously, and a dark golden spot, invisible to the naked eye, lit up deep within the core of each bone.

Nine points of light formed a line in his skeleton, running from his skull to the ulna of his left hand, and through his entire body.

The shape of that line was exactly the same as the dark gold pattern in the palm print left by Lu Moshen on the Bone Gate of Shattered Bone Ridge.

At this moment, the key seal in his dantian stopped rotating, and nine hundred and ninety-nine ancient array patterns surged out from it, rapidly traveling along the dark gold lines in his body.

With each joint, the fusion rate of Tianwu Yuanqi increased dramatically—15%, 20%, 25%, 30%.

It eventually stopped at 30%.

His cultivation level hadn't broken through; he was still in the mid-stage of the Yin-Yang Realm. However, the total amount of Heavenly Martial Qi he could mobilize within his body had more than doubled with the added benefit of a 30% fusion rate.

Dongfang Weiwo raised his right hand.

This time, what materialized was not a three-inch short sword, but a complete dark gold longsword—the blade was three feet and three inches long, and nine ring patterns appeared on the hilt, representing nine pieces of bone.

The longsword solidified in his palm for a full seven breaths before dissipating, nearly twice as long as before.

The old man's bone domain was forced back ten feet the moment the dark gold longsword appeared.

For the first time, a solemn expression appeared in the eyes beneath the blood-stained robe.

He loosened his clenched fingers, and the pressure from the bone domain vanished instantly. It wasn't a withdrawal, but a change of tactics—his other hand emerged from beneath his blood-red robe, holding a bone staff pieced together from countless fragments of bone, with a fist-sized crimson crystal embedded at its tip.

"That's interesting."

His voice was sharp and grating, like the grinding of bone fragments. "The fact that a Yin-Yang Realm expert can withstand my Bone Domain shows that this skeleton is indeed worth the trip I made personally. However—"

The blood-red crystal on the bone staff suddenly lit up, and a scarlet beam of light descended from the sky, heading straight for the entrance of Qingzhu Town.

Wherever the beam of light passed, the air was torn apart, emitting a piercing shriek, and the bluestone slabs on the ground began to melt before they even had a chance to come into contact with the beam.

The old man withered blood used all his strength in this attack.

Bai Wuchen's longsword was already drawn, but he did not make a move—the Valley of Life and Death's stance of remaining neutral was an ironclad rule.

Ya Jiu's black robe suddenly bulged, and just as he was about to make his move, a dark green light shield shone from the depths of Qingzhu Town, rapidly expanding from the Lin family courtyard and enveloping the entire town entrance at the critical moment.

The crimson beam of light slammed into the light shield, creating a devastating shockwave.

The light shield trembled violently, and countless fine cracks appeared on its surface, but it did not break.

The shockwave was reflected by the light shield and spread to both sides, leveling the bamboo forests on both sides of the town entrance and carving out two scorched ravines more than ten feet deep in the ground.

The iron plaque guarding the gate of the Lin family compound shone with an unprecedented brilliance.

The runes on the iron plate were burning—not burning spiritual energy, but burning the iron plate itself.

One by one, the fine ancient runes on the card lit up, then shattered, turning into grayish-white light spots that merged into the light shield.

With each rune that shattered, the light shield solidified a little more, but the iron plate itself was also thinning at a visible rate.

Grandma Lin stood at the gate of the courtyard, her hands gripping the iron plaque tightly, veins bulging on her aged face.

Her white hair stood on end in the glow of the burning iron plaque, and her lips moved silently as she chanted the ancient protective incantation passed down through generations of plaque keepers.

"grandmother!"

Lin Xiaoman rushed out of the kitchen, still clutching the stone pestle for pounding medicine.

When she saw her grandmother's appearance, her eyes instantly reddened. She knew what that iron plaque meant—it was the vessel of the Lin family's bloodline contract, and the day the iron plaque burned out would be the day the Lin family's bloodline contract expired.

Without the iron plaque, the Lin family is just an ordinary small martial arts clan, with no further barriers.

"go back."

Grandma Lin's voice was hoarse but firm. Without turning around, she said, "Open the lid of the cellar in the backyard and take your father and brother down there. There's a secret passage left by our ancestors in the cellar that leads to the depths of the bamboo forest three miles away."

"I'm not leaving!"

"Walk!"

Grandmother Lin shouted sternly, then her tone softened.

"Xiaoman, your grandmother has lived for eighty-seven years, that's enough. This iron plate can last for another quarter of an hour, and that quarter of an hour is enough for you to run ten miles away."

That person—Young Master Dongfang—is a chosen one, just like Lu Moshen thirty years ago. Those chosen by heaven are destined for a long journey; your presence by his side will only be a burden.

Lin Xiaoman bit her lower lip, her nails almost digging into her palm.

She didn't argue anymore. She turned around and rushed back to the kitchen, grabbed the newly made bone-strengthening ointment from the stove and stuffed it into her arms. Then she kicked open the door to her two older brothers' room.

"Stop sharpening your knife! Go to the backyard!"

At the town's entrance, Dongfang Weiwo heard the sound of burning iron plaques coming from the Lin family's courtyard gate.

He didn't turn back. He knew that his grandmother was risking her life to buy him time, and every moment was precious.

The old man, his blood dried up, missed his first strike and raised his bone staff once more.

This time, the crimson crystal on the staff no longer shot out a beam of light, but instead exploded violently, turning into a sky full of blood mist.

The blood mist condensed in the air into hundreds of blood-red bone spears, their tips all pointing at the entrance of Qingzhu Town.

"Broken shield".

With a wave of his hand, the old man with blood depletion unleashed hundreds of bone spears that whistled down simultaneously.

Bai Wuchen finally moved. He drew his sword with incredible speed; the moment the longsword was drawn from its sheath, time within a hundred feet of the town entrance seemed to slow down by half a beat.

It wasn't that time had actually slowed down, but rather that his sword was too fast—so fast that even the air couldn't avoid it, being compressed into a visible white line by the blade.

As the sword flashed, twenty-three bone spears exploded in the air. But his sword could only protect himself for three zhang (approximately 10 meters), unable to shield the entire town from the volley of hundreds of bone spears.

Ya Jiu made his move simultaneously. As his black robe billowed, a massive black ice wall, three feet thick, solidified above the town entrance.

The bone spear struck the ice wall, shattering it into a dense mass of crimson ice shards. The ice wall withstood the initial impact, but cracks had already spread from the bottom to the top.

More bone spears bypassed the ice wall and plunged straight into the dark green light shield above the Lin family courtyard.

The cracks on the light shield were increasing, and with each new crack, Grandma Lin's hands, which were pressing down on the iron plate, would tremble.

Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, not from an external force, but from the bloodline contract draining her life force to maintain the operation of the light shield.

Dongfang Weiwo witnessed this scene.

He took a deep breath and slammed the bamboo cane in his hand into the ground.

The bamboo staff sank three feet into the ground, and a dark golden light flowed along its shaft into the earth, spreading out and creating a strange resonance with the dark green light shield above the Lin family courtyard.

There exists an invisible bond between the divine skeleton and the bloodline contract of the cardholder.

Thirty years ago, when Lu Moshen was recuperating at the Lin family, he used his own blood to strengthen the bloodline contract for the Lin family's ancestors.

The residual blood imprint, which had slumbered for thirty years in the bone marrow of the Lin family's guardians, was now awakened by the complete divine and demonic skeleton.

The dark green light shield intertwined with the dark gold light, forming a brand new protective shield—half dark green, half dark gold, with a strange bronze hue where the two met.

The cracks on the light cover healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the burning speed of the iron plate also slowed down suddenly.

Grandma Lin sensed this power, suddenly looked up, and an expression of disbelief flashed in her old eyes.

She opened her mouth, as if to say something, but only managed to utter two words: "Lu... Demon God..."

The old man's barrage of bone spears was completely blocked by this newly formed protective shield. His expression finally darkened completely.

"The bloodline contract of the guardian... and the blood seal of the Demon God Lü?"

His gaze fell on Dongfang Weiwo, and for the first time, a genuine killing intent appeared in his eyes.

"I can't let you live. Today, I'll use force to peel off this skeleton."

He tossed the bone staff into the air and formed a complex hand seal with his hands.

The bone staff exploded in mid-air, its shaft transforming into a complete blood-red spine, the crystal at its tip becoming an eyeball atop the spine. The eyeball opened—it was a vertical pupil, the iris deep red, with an inextinguishable bone fire burning deep within its pupil.

A full-force attack from the mid-stage of the Life and Death Realm.

The old man withered blood no longer cared about whether it would damage the integrity of the god-demon skeleton.

He wanted to kill Dongfang Weiwo first, and then peel off the part he needed from the incomplete skeleton.

The moment his vertical pupils locked onto Dongfang Weiwo, the nine dark golden light spots on the divine and demonic skeleton within his body simultaneously emitted a violent alarm-like tremor.

His intuition told him that, with his current cultivation level, he couldn't withstand this attack.

Even with a 30% fusion rate, and even with a protective shield, it wouldn't be enough. The gap is too vast. The difference between the Yin-Yang Realm and the Life and Death Realm isn't the quality or quantity of vital energy, but rather the mastery of the laws.

The sign of reaching the realm of life and death is the initial understanding of the laws of "life" and "death".

The Blood-Dried Old Man walks the path of "death"—stripping away life force and strengthening the dead bones. Every strike he strikes contains a judgment at the level of laws; it's not a matter of the magnitude of power, but a collision of the rules of "life" and "death."

Dongfang Weiwo's current cultivation level is not yet capable of reaching this level.

But he did not back down.

He straightened up, leaning on his bamboo cane. In his right hand, the dark gold longsword materialized once more, this time illuminating all nine ring-shaped patterns on its blade.

With his left hand, he took out the new bone-protecting ointment that Lin Xiaoman had given him from his pocket—the dark green ointment had been warmed by his body temperature, and a fine mist of medicine seeped out from the inside of the jar.

He poured all the ointment from the jar onto his left palm, then clasped his hands together, gripping both the dark gold longsword and the bone-protecting ointment.

The ointment seeped into the skin and spread along the bone structure. The dark gold light and the dark green medicinal power converged in the palm of the hand, this time no longer one being primary and the other secondary, but rather merging together equally and without distinction.

The recipe for Shou Gu Xiang contains a key ingredient called "Shou Gu Xiang," which is the most crucial ingredient in the secret recipe passed down through generations of the Lin family.

Lin Xiaoman was unaware while brewing the medicine that the ingredient was called "Guardian Fragrance" not because it could protect bones, but because it was made from bone powder made from the remains of gods and demons.

The Lin family's ancestor, the first guardian of Broken Bone Ridge, once found a small fragment of a god or demon's bone that had fallen from the Tianxuan Continent deep within Broken Bone Ridge. He ground it into powder and used it as the medicinal ingredient for Guardian Bone Incense.

Passed down through generations, the medicinal ingredients became increasingly scarce. By the time of Lin Xiaoman's generation, only half a coin remained.

She used all of that half-coin's worth of medicinal ingredients in this jar of bone-strengthening ointment without telling anyone.

At this moment, the powder containing the remains of gods and demons contained in the Bone-Preserving Incense resonated with the complete skeleton of gods and demons within Dongfang Weiwo's body.