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

As Dongfang Weiwo merged with the fourth fragment, Lin Xiaoman and the gray-robed elder engaged in a private conversation unrelated to the clan rules.

The old man in gray handed her the wooden carving that had been carved for a long time. Lin Xiaoman took the wooden carving and saw the newly engraved iron badge on the bottom, as well as a line of very small characters below the badge: "Lin Huan Gu's grandson, Lin Guyi, the seventh generation steward of Huan Gu Manor".

Lin Xiaoman, the 37th generation guardian of the Lin family, entered the village with old copper coins, as evidenced by the village rules.

This is the rule of the Bone-Changing Manor—those who enter the manor with copper coins are considered members of the Lin family and are protected by the manor's rules; at the same time, the bloodline contract between the branch of the Lin family represented by the copper coin holder and the branch of the Bone-Changing Manor is renewed.

A bloodline that had been severed for three hundred years was reconnected under the witness of this old copper coin.

"Didn't your grandmother tell you why the founder of the Bone Changing Manor was named Lin Huan Gu?"

"The old man in gray asked."

Lin Xiaoman shook her head. Her grandmother had only mentioned that a branch of the family had once rebelled against the main branch; she never went into other details.

"Because he didn't get his own bones replaced, he got someone else's."

The earliest business of Huan Gu Zhuang was not buying and selling bones, but treating people by changing their bones.

The Lin family's ancestral bone-protecting ointment and bone-setting formula can save rogue cultivators whose bones have been shattered on the battlefield.

When Lin Huan Gu left, he took half of the Lin family's medicinal formulas with him. He used these formulas to save dozens of rogue cultivators whose bones had been crushed by swamp beasts on the edge of the Blackwater Swamp.

After those rogue cultivators survived, some stayed by his side to help him, while others gave him the remains of strange beasts they had found as a reward.

Over time, the pharmacy became a bone shop, and the bone shop became a bone-changing clinic.

He is not a traitor; he is another flower that blossomed from the Lin family's medicinal formula in the Blackwater Swamp.

For three hundred years, this flower has been cut off from its original family, but its roots remain in the Lin family's bloodline.

After saying this, he took out an old copper coin, exactly the same as the one in Lin Xiaoman's hand, from his pocket and placed it on his lap.

Two copper coins are placed side by side, with an iron badge on the front and "Lin Duan Gu" and "Lin Huan Gu" engraved on the back respectively—the names of the twin brothers from three hundred years ago are reunited on the lap of their grandchildren.

Lin Xiaoman remained silent for a long time, then took out a jar of freshly brewed bone-protecting ointment from her medicine bag and placed it in front of the gray-robed old man.

"This is the bone-protecting ointment of the 37th generation of the Lin family's guardian. It is not made from ordinary ironwood powder, but from the bone-protecting vine."

This medicine is three times more potent than the ancestral recipe and can ward off evil spirits. Here, take this jar.

It's not a transaction; it's repaying your earlier statement, "Hua Gen is still in the Lin family's bloodline."

The old man in gray looked down at the jar of dark green ointment, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

He used a bone knife to pry open the seal of the medicine jar, smelled the medicinal mist, and for the first time, a glimmer of light appeared in his cloudy old eyes.

"The Bone-Guarding Vine. Something that the Lin family searched for for three hundred years without success, was casually picked by a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl like you at the ferry."

The bloodline of the guardian has indeed not been broken; it has simply slumbered for three hundred years, and it's time for you to awaken.

He carefully put the medicine jar into his pocket, picked up the bone knife again, and continued to carve the unfinished wooden sculpture.

But this time he wasn't shaving Lu Moshen's ulna, but a branch of an iron-tuber tree—each leaf on the branch had dark red spots on the back, just like the Guardian Vine.

The night was deeper.

The nine suns on the ground have all sunk into the depths of the Ember Sea, and the Tianwu Continent has entered the darkest period of the day.

The eerie green phosphorescent flames of the underground market of Huan Gu Zhuang burned quietly in the bone lanterns, and the standoff in the trading hall continued. However, the atmosphere underwent a subtle change after the gray-robed elder and Lin Xiaoman recognized each other as blood relatives. It was no longer purely tense, but had been complicated by an inexplicable family bond.

Although the gray-robed elder could not physically assist Dongfang Weiwo, he could provide all non-military support within the limits permitted by the rules of the manor.

Before dawn, he would stay in the trading hall to ensure that Yin Jiuyou and Wan Renyue would not launch an attack prematurely.

After dawn—he glanced at the green-robed swordsman sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed beside Dongfang Weiwo, and then at the sword mark left by Yan Fei on the stone wall—what happened after dawn was no longer something that Huan Gu Zhuang could control.

But he had a premonition that this young man with the bamboo cane would be able to walk out alive without needing to have his bones replaced.

Chuan Ying opened his eyes half an hour before dawn. He had adjusted.

He stood up, raised the thick-backed sword from his knees, and the dark blade light on the sword, after being restrained to the extreme, became three times brighter than when he had just stepped through the light gate.

He had cleaved open all the strongest supporting points of the laws of the Tianwu Continent, embedding his own sword imprint into them with his sword intent.

Now, his combat power has recovered to its full strength—the peak of the Reincarnation Realm, capable of defeating those of higher levels, even those in the Undying Realm.

"A fully-formed Bone-Eating Beast and an early-stage Reincarnation Realm cultivator have arrived outside, while a peak Life and Death Realm cultivator is blocking the entrance."

The terrain is unsuitable for me to unleash my sword domain; if I were to make a move, the entire underground cavern would collapse.

Chuan Ying held his sword horizontally in front of him, his gaze sweeping over the eerie green phosphorescent stones on the dome of the trading hall, before settling on Dongfang Weiwo.

"My blade domain is different from Yan Fei's sword domain. The sword domain covers space and reshapes the laws; the blade domain only covers a line—the straight line where the blade's edge points."

Along this line, the sword intent can cut through all obstacles, including suppression of realm.

However, once the Blade Domain is activated, the trading hall of the Bone Transformation Manor will collapse within three breaths, and the underground bone mine will be detonated by the Blade Intent, potentially killing many people in the entire market.

Therefore, this strike cannot be made inside the manor.

After daybreak, you take Lin Xiaoman and head towards the Bone Wasteland.

Leave Wan Renyue and the Bone-Eating Beast to me. I'll draw their attention underground, giving you enough time to break through to the surface.

"Yin Jiuyou—" He looked at the cocoon formed by the evil mist at the entrance, a rare solemnity flashing in his eyes.

"I suggest you don't confront him directly yet. It's not uncommon for someone to be at the peak of the Life and Death Realm, but Yin Jiuyou also has a Soul of Reincarnation Realm sealed within him, which was passed down from the successive sect leaders of the Yin Sha Sect."

Once he is unsealed, his combat power will break through to the Reincarnation Realm in a short period of time.

Your divine and demonic skeleton cannot withstand the attacks of a demonic soul at the level of the Reincarnation Realm.

Yan Fei can deal with him after he recovers, but not now. So after dawn, bypass Yin Jiuyou and don't engage him in a direct confrontation.

After Dongfang Weiwo had completely refined the fourth fragment, he stood up and leaned on his bamboo staff.

The fusion rate remained stable at 45%, and the four dark gold patterns within the body flowed continuously in a brand-new network form.

He shielded Lin Xiaoman behind him and nodded to Chuan Ying:

"I'll hold off Yin Jiuyou, you focus on dealing with the Bone-Eating Beast."

Chuan Ying didn't try to persuade him any further. He simply touched the bamboo cane in Dongfang Weiwo's hand with the back of his thick-backed sword as he walked to the other side of the trading hall.

The moment the iron bamboo staff was touched by the back of the blade, a very faint layer of pitch-black blade light appeared on the staff. The blade light did not damage the staff, but left an invisible mark of blade intent on the staff.

Chuan Ying's sword intent imprint and Yan Fei's sword intent imprint were engraved on the iron bamboo staff, one on the left and one on the right, one blue and one black, one light and one heavy.

As the pale sunlight seeped in through the cracks at the entrance to the underground market, the bone lanterns in the withered willow grove automatically went out—a sign that dawn had broken in the Bone Changing Village.

A crack appeared in Yin Jiuyou's cocoon of evil mist, and Wan Renyue opened his eyes. The three beast eyes of the Bone-Eating Beast simultaneously rose up.

The old man in gray stood up from the stone bench, put the two old copper coins into his pocket, tucked the bone knife into his waistband, walked up to Lin Xiaoman, and stuffed a freshly carved bone-guarding vine wood carving into her hand.

"Let's go. Lin Guyi, the seventh-generation deacon of the Lin family of Bone-Changing Manor, declares in the name of the manor's rules—the Dawn Protection Order is officially lifted."

He turned to look at Yin Jiuyou and Wan Renyue, twirling the bone knife in his hand. "Ten steps away, you are responsible for your own life and death."

Dongfang Weiwo, leaning on his bamboo cane, walked towards the edge of the withered willow forest, followed closely by Lin Xiaoman, who carefully put the wooden carving of the Guardian Vine into her medicine pouch.

Chuan Ying, carrying a thick-backed sword, walked at the back. As he exited the market entrance, Wan Renyue's fully-formed Bone-Eating Beast had already opened its massive jaws.

Chuan Ying slowly raised the thick-backed sword, and the jet-black blade gleamed in the gray-white morning light like a black lightning bolt, cleaving through everyone's vision.

The blade domain did not spread—it did not cover a hundred feet, nor did it cover the entire battlefield.

Chuan Ying's blade domain covered only a single line. That line stretched from the edge of his blade to the gaping maw of the Bone-Eating Beast, no wider than a finger's width and no more than a hundred feet long.

But along this line, the sword intent completely emptied the laws of the Tianwu Continent. There was no vital energy, no death energy, no baleful energy, no suppression of realms—only the sword. A pure, unreasonable sword.

Wan Renyue's pupils suddenly contracted when he saw the sword domain.

He was in the early stage of the Reincarnation Realm and had seen countless masters of swordsmanship on the Tianwu Continent. Even the Supreme Sword Emperor, ranked eighteenth in the Supreme Realm, had once struck him with a sword.

But the sword domain of this green-robed swordsman before him was unlike any sword style he had ever seen.

That's not a sword technique from the Tianwu Continent, not the legacy of any sect, and not even a product of this world.

That was a supreme realm of swordsmanship brought from beyond the realm, based on the peak cultivation of the Samsara Realm, with the ultimate goal of shattering the void.

The blade struck from the withered willow grove above the underground market of Huan Gu Zhuang.

A straight, jet-black blade of light extended from the entrance of the market, bisecting the entire willow grove in two along the central passage of the withered willow forest.

Wherever the blade passed, it left a deep, bottomless cut on the ground. The soil on both sides of the cut was melted by the high temperature and then cooled instantly, solidifying into smooth, glass-like crystals.

The corrosive liquid jet spewed out by the fully-formed Bone-Eating Beast collided head-on with the blade's edge. The dark green corrosive liquid was instantly evaporated into green mist upon contact with the blade's edge. The blade's momentum remained undiminished, precisely striking the Bone-Eating Beast's massive maw.

The dozen or so sharp teeth shattered like paper before the blade's edge. The Bone-Eating Beast let out a mournful howl, and all three of its eyes rolled back in its head.

Wan Renyue roared, unleashing all his cultivation at the Reincarnation Realm without reservation. He crossed his arms and blocked the Bone-Eating Beast, using his own energy to withstand the attack.

The blade's edge slashed at his arms, sending him flying back a full thirty feet. His feet carved two deep furrows in the ground of the withered willow forest before he finally came to a stop, crashing into three withered willows.

His sleeves had all turned to ashes, revealing two arms covered in knife scars, the skin of which was cracked inch by inch.

The attack was blocked, but a three-foot-long gash was cleaved open in the jaws of the fully-formed Bone-Eating Beast. Most of its sharp teeth were broken, and it could not close for a short time, let alone spew out corrosive liquid.

Chuan Ying slashed down a man and a beast with a single blow, then sheathed his sword—he had no scabbard, he simply held the sword horizontally in front of him.