Deep within his elixir field, his spiritual energy thickened, edging toward the threshold of Wandering Immortal Realm Level Nine. The giant skeleton bellowed again, frustration sharpening its cry to a storm-blast.
Abandoning pursuit, it stabbed the rusted sword into the floor. Both skeletal hands formed eldritch seals, and the surrounding marked aura boiled like water in a cauldron.
From the black energy, the shattered remains of earlier foes re-knit themselves into dozens of skeleton soldiers, each hefting a bone spear that launched toward Jared in a white barrage.
“Perfect…” Jared muttered, eyes gleaming. Instead of retreating, surged forward, driving the movement technique from the Swordmaster’s Scripture to its limit, sliding between incoming spears as if the world itself slowed around him.
The Dragonslayer Sword rose above his head. Golden light tangled with black energy, knitting into a blade of radiance taller than a man, an attack forged from the tomb of swords’ sword intent and the fury of newly refined marked aura.
“Break!”
The light fell, a lightning bolt cleaving night. Spears turned to powder on contact, and the charging skeleton soldiers dissolved into drifting ash.
The light did not slow, it streaked on, aimed squarely at the giant skeleton’s skull. Roaring, the giant skeleton crossed both arms to block. Black energy slicked over its forearms, turning bare bone the color of wet ink. Metallic thunder rang out when light met bone.
The impact from the light hurled the colossus backward. Spiderweb cracks crawled across its arm-bone armor, and the green ghostfire in its eyes fluttered wildly, signaling a wound that finally mattered.
Using the recoil from that single clash, Jared whirled like a top. In his palm, the Dragonslayer Sword blurred into a spiraling bolt of gold that carved a luminous vortex through the stale, death-stained air.
Shattered threads of marked aura, once scattered by the light, suddenly curved back toward him. They raced along his spinning path and burrowed into his body, not as unwanted invaders but as warriors marshaled to batter the final wall of his cultivation.
A raw cry tore from Jared’s throat. The cry became a triumphant howl as, deep inside, a brittle crack rang out, like an iron shackle giving way.
The barrier of the Wandering Immortal Realm Level Eight collapsed. Pure spiritual energy, braided with the refined marked aura, flooded every vein, lifting cleanly into the Wandering Immortal Realm Level Nine.
“Now!” Jared’s newly tempered gaze sharpened into naked steel, every mote of light reflecting the edge of a sword poised to strike.
With the breakthrough, his command of sword intent felt exquisite, each nuance answering his will like silk threads tugged by an unseen loom.
In that clarity, sensed the towering skeleton’s aura falter, the blast moments earlier had thrown its marked aura into brief, quivering chaos.
“Dragon Soarer!”
But this time, the Dragon Soarer carried more than the dragon’s power. It drank in the murderous intent of the tomb of swords, and the storming malice of the marked aura welded to his own power.
Golden light roared along the Dragonslayer Sword’s edge. From that blaze, a Black Dragon’s illusory shadow uncoiled, forged of sword intent and marked aura, tearing skyward before lunging at the colossal skeleton with world-rending aura.
The giant skeleton iurched backward, instinct screaming, yet every inch of surrounding space froze beneath an unseen sword domain, it found itself trapped inside a cage of invisible edges.
It could only stare while the Black Dragon’s illusory shadow spread its jaws wide and plunged for the brittle crown of its skull.
Pfft!
The Black Dragon’s illusory shadow speared through the cranium, devouring the eerie green ghostfire that had burned within and extinguishing it as effortlessly as a gale snuffs out a candle.
Without that ghostflre to animate it, the giant skeleton stopped mid-motion. Cracks webbed across bone, and in a chorus of brittle snaps, the skeleton crumbled, scattering into pale shards the tomb of swords’ wind soon whisked away.
As the giant skeleton fell, every lesser skeleton around it went slack, toppled, and ground to bonedust like puppets whose strings had been cut.
The once-rampant marked aura quieted, no longer a storm but a gentle brook circling Jared’s body. He inhaled it slowly, refining each wisp into yet more tempered strength. Beyond the sword domain shield, Corin and the others gaped, speechless.
They had watched Jared claw his way from certain death, explode into Wandering immortal Realm Level Nine, then cleave apart a giant skeleton that rivaled a Top Level Earthly immortal Realm. After that, even used the marked aura for Body Cultivation, twisting the tomb of swords’ malice into an unimaginable opportunity.
“T-This brat…” Flaxseed stood with his mouth open, unable to speak for a long while.
