Besides the Undying Bone, Xu Qing also had three other types of transformations, which these four ancestral zombies did not possess.
The North Sea Immortal Bone conceals true essence, and with this bit of true essence, no matter who examines his pulses in the future, they will never find any crucial connection between Xu Qing and a zombie.
At most, they would just see him as someone with declining kidney yang and an empty marrow sea, nothing more.
Came to the entrance of the burial chamber, Xu Qing did not see the figure of the Golden Simurgh, and the thousand-stone rice bags placed at the entrance were almost depleted.
"How long have I been in seclusion, to the extent that this rice-averse chicken ate a thousand stones of rice grain?"
Xu Qing was inexplicably horrified, the feeling was like realizing you overslept and missed the exam on the day of the imperial examination, while the travel funds to go for the exam were painstakingly gathered by the whole village...
He is indeed a zombie, if he were a living person, he might have already broken out in a cold sweat at this moment.
Xu Qing used the mysterious divination technique to calculate the days, and when the heavenly stems and earthly branches were revealed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"One year, it was much faster than refining the Pillar of Heaven."
Xu Qing could roughly guess why the efficiency of refining the North Sea Bone was higher this time; previously, he cultivated in the mass grave of the Dayong Army, where the concentration of evil qi was far less than in this ghost cave.
Moreover, when refining the North Sea Sacral Bone, he had already refined another main bone, also his cultivation accumulated this time surpassed the past, naturally speeding up the process.
But the problem was, how did the thousand stone rice grain at the entrance get consumed in just a year's time?
This Golden Chicken even breaking the shackles shouldn't be able to eat so much, let alone that its crop still contained many Gu grain.
"Something's not right."
Xu Qing looked up and sensed around, but did not find the figure of the Golden Simurgh.
Walking out of the ghost cave, even in the Bone Temple, he could not see the figure of the Demon Exorcism True Monarch.
This True Monarch comes and goes without a trace, probably off plotting his plan to slay ghosts.
Xu Qing took off his shoe, retrieved a golden feather from the Mountain and River Map, inserted it into the shoe, then used the Shoe Throwing Inquiry Technique, throwing the shoe out.
The shoe flipped several times in the air, finally landing shoehead down, heel up, just standing on the ground.
Xu Qing was puzzled, was this chicken really still in the ghost cave?
But he just patrolled both the southeastern and southwestern corridors and did not find any traces of the Golden Simurgh...
"..."
Suddenly, Xu Qing's expression changed, the current situation had only one possible explanation—that this foolish chicken had entered the northern corridor.
"Xuantan True Monarch Temple!"
Xu Qing jumped down into the ghost cave, gazing at the corridor filled with blade and weapon-based evil qi.
He did not know how the Golden Simurgh had dodged the blade and weapon-based evil qi, but he knew there was a violently aura'ed demon beast lurking in that underground temple.
Focusing his mind, Xu Qing used the ghostly power of the Pillar of Heaven, connecting with the surrounding earth's veins. When the earth qi surged, he once again saw the scene at the end of the corridor through the layers of earth veins.
Before the temple door where the blade and weapon evil qi were spewing out, there was a Golden Chicken lying on the temple door. Underneath the door, a pitch-black as ink fierce-eyed giant tiger was coiled!
Just as Xu Qing saw the black tiger, the great tiger suddenly turned its head, revealing its sharp fangs!
Across the corridors spanning several li, the golden pupils of the black tiger reflected the figure of Xu Qing.
The tiger raised its head high, and a roar that could intimidate all beasts in the woods resounded abruptly!
The tiger's throat carried the blade and weapon-based evil qi from the corridor, rolling straight toward Xu Qing who stood at the corridor entrance!
"..."
Xu Qing suddenly raised his head, the corners of his mouth stretched to an inconceivable angle, he too opened his corpse mouth, the embedded flames in his chest paired with the Corpse Roar Skill, directly confronting the blade and sword shadows blowing towards the corridor entrance!
On one side, an aged evil tiger displayed its ferocity, with a mighty gale eroding iron and rock;
On the other side, an undead Corpse King spewed anger, wave-like flames scorching the yin and yang!
The clash of both malevolent energies filled the entire corridor with the sound of thunderous explosions.
Weapons, instruments of killing, are inherently metallic.
Xu Qing, unintentional yet intentional, spewed forth inferno that happened to counteract the murderous air before him!
These days, who doesn't know how to breathe fire?
Taking advantage of the black tiger's momentary defeat, Xu Qing urgently called the Golden Simurgh's name.
The newly awakened Golden Chicken looked bewildered, but upon hearing Xu Qing's voice, the chicken excitedly jumped down from the temple door, running all the way towards the corridor entrance!
The black tiger saw the Golden Simurgh enter the corridor, then ceased its roaring; instead, the surrounding blade and weapon evil qi, upon meeting the Golden Simurgh, automatically veered to the sides, seemingly unwilling to touch the Golden Simurgh's body.
Watching the Golden Chicken disappear into the corridor, the black tiger unwillingly growled low, then cut its tail, turned, leaping onto the temple door, and with a couple of bounds, vanished into the depths of the temple.
Outside the ghost cave, Xu Qing was confronting the Golden Chicken in front of him.
The tone of the reprimand was like when parents caught their mischievous child playing with unknown ruffians at the village entrance, then came home to a meal of bamboo stick stir-fry and verbal criticism. If encountering slightly less resilient parents, perhaps they would scold and beat while crying with the child.
Xu Qing neither beat nor cried, just plucked the Golden Simurgh's feathers while cursing vehemently.
When adding to the previous stock, accumulating almost enough for a feather duster, Xu Qing stopped his hand.
"You're a chicken, it's a tiger; fortunately, that Tiger Demon wasn't hungry, otherwise, do you think you could have come out whole?"
The Golden Simurgh guiltily explained, saying that the black tiger doesn't eat meat, it eats rice!
Tiger eats rice?
Xu Qing thought of the rice bags that disappeared at the entrance of the burial chamber, speaking with a dangerous tone, "You haven't perhaps thrown the rice elsewhere, using this excuse to fool me, have you?"
Xu Qing previously told the Golden Simurgh that once the rice was finished, he would take it back to the Jin Sect.
Considering how much this chicken missed home, it might indeed do such a thing!