After solidifying his fifth-level Martial King cultivation, Lin Xiao decided to cultivate the Immortal Skeleton Technique. Having just broken through, further advancement was unlikely without more spirit stones or opportunities. Spiritual energy progress was similarly stalled.
Focusing on the Immortal Skeleton Technique was a perfect choice, as mastering it would significantly boost his capabilities.
Scanning the surroundings, Lin Xiao flew to a spot with a cascading waterfall. Diving through it, he found a hidden nook, retrieving Ma Yin’s skeleton from his storage ring.
He’d kept the skeleton—its flesh corroded by his skeletal hand—specifically to practice the Immortal Skeleton Technique.
Initially, he hadn’t planned to cultivate it, but he’d inadvertently mastered the lower volume, while the upper volume remained unlearned.
The two volumes weren’t strictly sequential. The upper volume involved using another’s skeleton to grasp its mysteries, mastering control and infusing it with combat power.
To grant a skeleton fighting ability, one first had to imprint it, embedding power into its bones.
This required a precise imprinting method, following specific patterns, or the skeleton would be useless.
This method was the Immortal Skeleton Technique, crafted by the Immortal Emperor through countless years of effort.
Standing on a boulder, Lin Xiao positioned the skeleton before him. He carefully channeled vital energy, following the technique’s instructions to imprint power onto the skeleton.
Starting with the skull, he infused a faint strand of vital energy, penetrating an inch to carve a “bone pattern,” akin to human meridians but etched into bone, requiring utmost precision.
A single mistake could ruin the skeleton.
“Hiss!”
The faint energy finally entered the skull, imprinting an inch. Lin Xiao continued, slowly extending the pattern downward.
A single pattern needed to run from skull to foot bones, linking head to limbs for power to flow.
The first pattern took an hour of meticulous work, but he succeeded.
Then came the second and third patterns, connecting to arm and finger bones, ensuring every part was imprinted. Only then could power be stored, granting combat ability and flexibility. Even if limbs broke, the skeleton could fight as long as the main patterns remained intact.
Only someone like the Immortal Emperor would pioneer such an unorthodox technique.
Lin Xiao spent ten days imprinting, progressing from novice to proficient, etching hundreds of patterns across the skeleton’s body, mastering their complexity.
The first step—imprinting the patterns—was complete.
His success stemmed partly from mastering the lower volume, imprinting bone patterns in his own body. The volumes were interconnected. Typically, one would imprint another’s skeleton first, then their own.
Lin Xiao had reversed the process, imprinting his bones first, then applying that knowledge to Ma Yin’s skeleton, succeeding in one go.
But this was only the first step.
The second step was infusing power into the bone patterns, similar to when he cultivated the stone force’s “hand sea,” storing power in bones. However, infusing power into a dead skeleton was far harder.
Having successfully imprinted bone patterns in himself, he understood how to integrate power, transforming it into the evil bone pattern force. This gave him a path to follow.
He intensified the power, repeatedly attempting to fuse it into the skeleton’s patterns.
The first pattern took a full day to infuse successfully.
Five more days, and he’d infused power into all patterns.
The third step was imprinting an “attack pattern,” dictating how the hundreds of patterns would activate, akin to human martial techniques. Skeletons, unlike humans, required unique “techniques” incompatible with human martial arts.
The Immortal Skeleton Technique included many attack patterns, but Lin Xiao could only manage the simplest, far from higher levels.
Successfully imprinting the basic attack pattern would be a major achievement.
Once done, he’d have crafted a rudimentary combat skeleton.
Controlling the skeleton’s power required activating the Immortal Skeleton Technique, linking his body’s power to the skeleton’s, issuing attack commands to trigger its stored power per the attack pattern.
In another day, Lin Xiao imprinted the simplest attack pattern.
His first combat skeleton was complete.
To enhance its combat ability, he took a fourth step, imprinting a skeleton-specific “flight technique.”
Skeletons couldn’t form vital energy wings, but a specialized power method enabled flight.
This required the skeleton to have Martial King-level strength, which Lin Xiao’s fifth-level power imprints satisfied.
With prior experience, he imprinted the flight technique in half a day.
The combat skeleton was fully realized!
Crafting it deepened his understanding of the technique, benefiting his future cultivation of the lower volume’s bone pattern power.
Eyeing the skeleton, Lin Xiao’s gaze sparkled with joy. He activated the Immortal Skeleton Technique, initiating its attack mode.
*Crack! Crack!*
As commanded, the skeleton stirred, turning, bending its legs, and leaping from the waterfall, splashing water.
Lin Xiao followed, darting out.
*Bang! Bang! Bang!*
Ahead, the skeleton’s fists and palms struck, shattering rocks. It burrowed seven to eight metres into the mountainside, debris flying.
Lin Xiao quickly halted its attack via the technique, satisfied with its power.
Its mechanical strength matched his own, as he’d imbued it with his power.
But once depleted, he’d need to re-infuse power.
As he used spiritual energy to summon the skeleton back, preparing to store it, a hearty laugh rang out: “Hahaha, Lin Xiao, didn’t expect to find you here!”
Lin Xiao looked up, spotting a figure approaching. Seeing the face, his expression turned to shock.
