At almost the same moment Lin Cang announced his breakthrough, White Bone Mountain—standing in distant opposition to Black Blood Stockade—received this earth-shaking news capable of reshaping the surrounding political landscape.
The mountain was perpetually shrouded in deathly pale mist. After centuries of cultivation by the White Bone Clan, the entire peak had been transformed to resemble a colossal skeleton.
In the chill wind, countless bone whistles and hidden sentries emitted mournful, wailing sounds—like ten thousand ghosts weeping in unison, enough to make one's hair stand on end.
Inside the great hall, the atmosphere was so oppressive it seemed to solidify into leaden weight.
Hundreds of torches carved from the leg bones of unknown giant beasts burned with flickering green phosphorescent flames, casting everyone's face in the pallid hue of vengeful spirits freshly crawled from their graves.
At the center of the hall, an intelligence scout knelt prostrate on the ground, his body trembling violently from sheer terror. Sweat soaked through the back of his robes, and his voice carried an uncontrollable sob:
"R-Reporting to the Patriarch! The intelligence is confirmed! Lin Cang of Black Blood Stockade... has successfully broken through to Rank 4!"
"He has ordered his forces to prepare for war. He even declared publicly that in three days... in three days he will personally come to our White Bone Stockade to 'pay respects to the mountain' and demand justice!"
BOOM—
These words exploded like thunder from a clear sky, reverberating through the deathly silent hall until everyone's eardrums rang.
The lower-ranking elders' faces drained of color instantly, their eyes unable to hide their terror.
They understood all too well the chasm between Rank 3 and Rank 4—a qualitative leap, the gulf between a mortal and a regional overlord.
Whispered murmurs rose like buzzing flies, laced with poorly concealed panic:
"Rank 4... That brute Lin Cang who only knows how to fight head-on—he actually succeeded?"
Fear spread like a plague. The elders who normally maintained an air of authority now resembled lambs awaiting slaughter.
Yet the old man seated upon the throne of countless skulls at the head of the hall remained motionless as a statue.
The White Bone Patriarch—Li Mang.
His frame was withered, his skin like yellowed parchment stretched tight over bone. But deep within his sunken eye sockets, his pupils gleamed with an unsettling ghostly light, like two ghost-fires that would never be extinguished.
He said nothing. His fingers, thin as chicken claws, merely tapped lightly against the armrest of his throne.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The crisp sound of bone striking bone rang out in steady rhythm. Each tap fell like a hammer blow upon the hearts of all present, silencing the hall's clamor until only the sound of heavy breathing remained.
"Rank 4, is it..."
After a moment of silence, Li Mang finally spoke. His voice was hoarse, like two bones grinding together, betraying no emotion whatsoever.
"This was expected. That old thing Lin Cang may not be the sharpest blade, but his iron bones are genuinely hard."
"As long as the Jia family's Blood Jade Marrow arrived on time, it would be strange if he didn't break through. If he lacked even that much capability, he wouldn't have been worthy of fighting me for all these decades."
He slowly turned his head, his frigid gaze sweeping over the assembled elders before finally locking onto the young master standing below, his face ashen.
Li Huang.
"Fool!"
The thunderous rebuke erupted without warning, accompanied by the oppressive aura of Rank 3 Peak Primeval Essence. Bone dust showered down from the ceiling of the great hall.
"You wanted revenge—I had no objections. Conflict between Gu Masters has always been life or death. But how many times have I taught you? Either don't act at all, or act decisively and completely!"
Li Mang pointed at Li Huang's nose, his voice seething with the fury of disappointed expectations:
"You sent a Rank 2 demonic cultivator to ambush Black Blood Stockade's direct lineage? And during the most sensitive period in our relations?"
"Do you look down on Lin Cang that much, or do you think too highly of yourself?"
"Now look what's happened—you failed to kill anyone and instead handed them a perfect excuse for war! You even left that lowlife Green Snake's evidence at the scene!"
"Is your skull filled with brains or bone ash?! You've handed a blade to your enemy and invited him to cut your own throat!"
Facing his father's thunderous rage, the white-haired youth Li Huang kept his head bowed. His fists clenched until his knuckles cracked, nails digging deep into his palms. Blood trickled between his fingers.
Humiliation!
The injustice burned in his chest like swallowed flies.
As the Young Master of White Bone, Li Huang might be ruthless in his methods, but he had his pride.
He aspired to crush his opponents openly in the Gu fighting arena. Hiring some poison-using Rank 2 rogue cultivator for a sneak attack? Such classless, underhanded tactics were not only degrading but stupid—beneath his dignity entirely!
"Father, I—"
Li Huang was about to explain when, from the shadows behind him, a trusted subordinate who usually excelled at flattery suddenly collapsed to his knees with a thud.
A wet stain spread across the front of his trousers, the acrid smell of urine filling the air.
The truth was now plain to see.
This underling, eager to please his young master, had taken it upon himself to hire the "cost-effective" Green Snake to humiliate Lin Feng—intending to present his master with a "pleasant surprise."
Instead, the surprise had become a shock, and then a catastrophe.
Li Huang shot the man a murderous glare, killing intent boiling in his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to flay this incompetent fool alive on the spot.
But as a superior who had failed to control his subordinates, he had no choice but to shoulder this blame.
"Your son acknowledges his error."
Li Huang ground out the words through clenched teeth as he dropped to one knee.
"I accept whatever punishment Father deems fit. But Black Blood Stockade has pushed us too far."
"If Lin Cang truly dares to come, your son is willing to lead our death warriors and use our mountain-protecting formation to fight him to the death!"
"Fight to the death? With your meager cultivation?" The White Bone Patriarch let out a cold laugh.
The fury in his eyes gradually subsided, replaced by an unfathomable, icy coldness—like a venomous serpent coiled in the depths of an abyss.
He waved his hand dismissively. His voice returned to calm, yet grew even more chilling: "Li Huang stays. The core elders stay. Everyone else—get out."
The lower-ranking elders and guards, who had been scared out of their wits, scrambled and crawled their way out of the great hall, terrified that lingering even a moment longer would make them targets for the Patriarch's wrath.
Soon, only a handful of people remained in the vast hall. The heavy bone doors slammed shut, sealing out all light from the outside world.
Facing only his closest confidants now, Li Mang's demeanor transformed completely. No longer the enraged old lion—now he was a mastermind with everything under control.
"Patriarch, now that Lin Cang has reached Rank 4, if we fight head-on..." one of the core elders began anxiously, his voice still trembling.
"What's there to panic about?"
Li Mang cast him a sidelong glance, a mocking smile curling at the corner of his lips.
"Does that Lin Cang think reaching Rank 4 is enough to crush me? How naive! Does he have any idea how many dead are buried in this White Bone Mountain? How many years I've been cultivating this place?"
"Does he really think I picked up my title as Patriarch from the roadside?"
As he spoke, he slowly withdrew an object from his robes.
It was a fragment of jade bone, no larger than a palm, crystalline and translucent. Ancient dao patterns flowed across its surface—patterns that seemed to contain the fundamental principles of heaven and earth, patterns that made the heart tremble just to behold.
The moment this object appeared, the temperature in the great hall seemed to plummet by dozens of degrees. Even the burning phosphorescent flames dimmed and cowered, as if in the presence of the King of Ten Thousand Bones.
"This is..." The elders' pupils contracted sharply as they felt their very souls shudder.
"The thing we excavated from the mine shaft behind the mountain recently—you only knew half the story."
Li Mang caressed the jade bone fragment, his touch as gentle as if stroking a lover's skin. A light bordering on madness gleamed in his eyes.
"This is no ordinary ancient tomb, nor some beast's lair. This is the incomplete legacy left behind by a Rank 5 powerhouse—the 'Black Bone King'!"
Rank 5!
Those two words struck like a hammer blow to everyone's hearts, leaving them dizzy and reeling.
In this remote corner of the Southern Border, Rank 4 was already enough to dominate as a regional lord.
Rank 5? That was the stuff of legend and myth—a supreme existence capable of founding sects and suppressing the fortunes of an entire region!
"I've already unlocked the outer restrictions and obtained this Bone Spine Staff."
Light flashed in Li Mang's hand, and a deathly pale bone staff materialized, radiating a terrifying aura capable of contending with Rank 4 cultivators.
"With this, combined with our White Bone Mountain's protective formation, even if Lin Cang comes, he'll only be able to glare helplessly from the foot of the mountain!"
"If he dares to attack, I'll shatter every iron tooth in his head!"
But was that all? No.
Li Mang's voice suddenly dropped lower, taking on a seductive quality—like a devil's whisper echoing through the empty hall, striking at the deepest desires buried in every heart:
"Moreover, in the deepest reaches of this legacy, there is more than just Rank 5 power..."
He surveyed his audience, enunciating each word with deliberate weight:
"In that incomplete journal, I even glimpsed... descriptions of Rank 6 Immortals!"
"Immortals! A realm beyond the mundane—eternal life and undying sight! Beings who can reshape heaven and earth, who view all living creatures as mere ants! True 'Gu Immortals'!"
"As long as we can hold this position, as long as we're given time to absorb this legacy... what is a mere Black Blood Stockade?"
"That brute Lin Cang, fresh into Rank 4, is nothing but a stepping stone for our future—raw material for forging bone soldiers!"
BOOM—
The fear and despair born from Lin Cang's breakthrough evaporated in an instant.
In its place rose extreme greed—a fervor that seemed ready to consume everything. Everyone's breathing grew heavy; their eyes blazed with hunger for power and immortality.
Before the tantalizing vision of "becoming Immortal"—a dream capable of driving any Gu Master to madness—the current crisis suddenly seemed insignificant.
Compared to that legendary realm, Lin Cang's threat was merely a shadow before the dawn.