Chapter 73: White-White-Bone Demon Skin

After the cave abode advanced into a high-grade spirit realm, astonishing changes took place.

The most obvious change was reflected in the cave abode’s size.

Back when it had been a middle-grade spiritual domain, the core area of the cave abode had been about thirty zhang across, while the range Lu Yuan could control with his divine sense covered a radius of one hundred zhang around the cave abode.

But now, the core area had expanded to about two hundred zhang, and the area Lu Yuan’s divine sense could reach stretched out to one thousand zhang!

At the same time, this also meant Lu Yuan’s divine sense had grown stronger.

Originally, he could only directly control the spirit energy within the cave abode. Now, he could control the movement of small spiritual herbs and spirit beasts inside the cave abode.

The spirit energy inside the cave abode had also grown even denser. Lu Yuan felt that even the Spirit-Pardoning Vein-Sealing Art could no longer completely seal the Spiritual Vein, allowing wisps and strands of spirit energy to leak out.

All the spiritual plants and spiritual herbs, nourished by the dense spirit energy, stretched out their branches and leaves one after another.

After the clouds and rain, they became even brighter, more vivid, and more full.

The Peach Blossom Miasma in the peach grove had also strengthened quite a bit. Before, it had always been rather useless, but now it had reached the level where it could affect mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators.

Mm, though it was still useless…

In the pool, the gurgling spiritual spring gave rise to hazy mist, like an immortal realm on earth.

From time to time, the Python-Sparrow Eel leapt out from the depths of the pool, its head and horns growing increasingly fierce and imposing.

Two big-headed strange fish clung tightly to its wings.

The pool was a good spiritual pool, but the things inside were all demons, monsters, ghosts, and oddities. It truly ruined the scenery.

In the Sword Bone Ground where the Sword-Nurturing Gourd was located, the newly buried cultivators’ flying swords had not been there for long. After the advancement into a high-grade spirit realm, the rate at which their sword qi was being consumed had increased quite a bit again.

Several tiny, tender white flower buds had grown on the bluish-green vines. They were brimming with vitality and rich with spirit energy.

Underground within the cave abode, especially inside the stone cave, many ores were slowly yet firmly undergoing certain changes under the stimulation of the dense spirit energy.

It was foreseeable that in the near future, the cave abode would naturally generate all kinds of strange ores.

“The cave abode’s size expanded more than tenfold in one go. It feels like jumping straight from a single room to a huge villa.”

“The space isn’t so bloated anymore. Before, so many spiritual herbs and spiritual medicines were all planted in the core area. Now I can properly plan things out.”

Whether in spirit energy concentration or overall size, a high-grade spirit realm differed enormously from a middle-grade spiritual domain.

“With such a big place, being alone feels a bit lonely.

“Maybe, while preserving my own independence and mystery, I can attract some cultivators to the outskirts of the cave abode?”

The idea of establishing a force on the outskirts of the cave abode arose in Lu Yuan’s mind.

As far as he knew, the entire city of Cangxing City had been built upon a low-grade blessed land.

The core, the inner city, the outer city—each area had cultivators of different identities.

However, advancing from a spirit realm to a blessed land required a qualitative change.

Even without considering anything else, the size alone made that clear.

The entirety of Cangxing City covered an area of several hundred li, while the cave abode could currently only cover a little over ten li.

Aside from having denser and purer spirit energy, a blessed land would also naturally generate all kinds of heavenly materials, earthly treasures, and sacred cultivation grounds.

From the previous collection of miscellaneous notes, Lu Yuan had learned that sects were mostly established upon blessed lands, especially middle-grade and high-grade blessed lands.

If an independent cultivator force was lucky, it might be able to occupy a low-grade blessed land, but anything better than that could only belong to a sect.

Although he was still a hundred and eight thousand li away from a blessed land, Lu Yuan was nevertheless full of ambition and confidence.

As long as cultivators, demonic beasts, and weird entities continued to enter the cave abode in an endless stream, then he would have the possibility of advancing continuously.

At that point, what would a blessed land even amount to?

I myself am the cave heaven!

After advancing into a high-grade spirit realm and witnessing these visible, delightful changes, Lu Yuan inevitably became a little inflated.

He indulged in beautiful fantasies of becoming a cave heaven for a while before finally returning to reality.

Looking at the remaining hundred-plus white light orbs inside the stone cave, his heart filled with anticipation.

Becoming a cave heaven begins with opening light orbs!

Following the size of the light orbs, he gently touched them one by one with his divine sense.

The light orbs either burst apart or vanished, revealing reward after reward within.

Most of them were relatively common cultivation methods, talismans, and spirit pills. A few were even repeats of things he had obtained before.

Lu Yuan did not disdain them in the slightest, instead putting them all away deep inside the stone cave.

After deciding to establish a market or some other force on the outskirts of the cave abode, he had become somewhat careful with his resources.

The old spendthrift was gone forever.

As he was opening rewards one after another, the Little Paper Man suddenly covered its face and floated up to the ceiling of the stone cave.

Since it itself belonged to the cave abode and was a Aberration born from a light orb, it could also see the white light orbs inside the stone cave.

It circled around one enormous light orb again and again, seeming extremely eager.

“Mm? There’s something inside that’s useful to you?”

Lu Yuan asked curiously with his divine sense.

When Lu Yuan was not controlling it, it would not write on its own body. Sensing Lu Yuan’s divine sense, it nodded lightly.

Then, embarrassed, it lowered its head again, the tip of the black leaf covering its face pressing against the Little Paper Man’s chest.

“All right, then we’ll open this one first!”

Lu Yuan shifted targets and gently touched the white light orb the Little Paper Man had taken notice of with his divine sense.

With a soft hiss, all the specks of light from the orb were absorbed by the object inside, revealing an exquisite, pale paper figure.

The pale paper figure was only the size of a palm. Its paper skin was smooth and delicate, and a fine white skeleton protruded from within its body, propping the pale paper figure up.

A cold, sinister aura rapidly spread through the stone cave. The masked Little Paper Man floated back and forth in great delight.

“White-White-Bone Demon Skin. A special material refined from a Aberration. If a cultivator has learned the relevant spells, they can refine it, greatly enhancing the power of those spells.”

Lu Yuan looked at the palm-sized skeletal paper figure and seemed to see a familiar scene from his previous life.

In the past, when a relative passed away, the village paper-crafter would make a huge paper house. Inside the paper house would be paper figures, paper furniture, paper ingots, and other such things.

The paper-crafter would first use thin bamboo strips to build a frame, then use glutinous rice to paste the paper skin onto the bamboo frame. Finally, the entire paper house would be burned clean away.

The White-White-Bone Demon Skin before him was similar to the paper figures he had seen in the past. Only, this one used white bones as its frame, with the skin of a Aberration on the outside.

Lu Yuan controlled it with his divine sense and handed the palm-sized pale paper figure to the masked Little Paper Man.

The Little Paper Man pressed the White-White-Bone Demon Skin against its own body and directly absorbed it.

After the absorption, Lu Yuan sensed that the Little Paper Man’s body had become much more solid. It was no longer as limp and soft as before.

Although its recovery ability was extremely strong, its body had been easy for external objects to pierce through.

From the Little Paper Man, he learned that its abilities had now strengthened considerably. It had advanced from an Aberrant Grade Aberration to a Strange Grade Aberration.

Weird entities were unlike demonic beasts; they did not have an extremely clear division of strength.

The abilities of weird entities were endlessly strange and varied, difficult to trace back to their origins and categorize in detail.

Therefore, the cultivation world divided them into four grades according to their destructive power.

In order, they were Aberrant Grade, Strange Grade, Calamity Grade, and Disaster Grade.

Aberrant referred to possessing strange qualities. Strange referred to being bizarre, inexplicable, and difficult to deal with.

Calamity referred to destructive power that was already capable of bringing disaster to an area. Disaster referred to destructive power capable of creating a disaster-level catastrophe in the cultivation world.

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