226: Lich?

Flying downstream along the canyon for a short while, Su Ling's Divine Sense detected battle fluctuations ahead.

The most obvious was Lu Tao's sharp and peerless Metal-type Qi aura.

The corners of Su Ling's mouth curled slightly as he accelerated forward.

In just a moment, he arrived above the battlefield.

Below, three Bitao Sect Disciples were hiding their presence and observing from a distance, with only Lu Tao fighting in the center.

Five Bone Demons were frantically besieging Lu Tao, who was using the Immortal Golden Body Art.

Bone Demons—one of the Demon Species unique to Shadow Prison Canyon.

Their entire body was nothing but a skeleton, with chain-like bone shackles wrapped around them that served as both restraints and weapons, a characteristic feature of the Soul Prison Cage Plane.

The skeletons of these Bone Demons before him were pitch black and shimmered with a metallic luster.

This was a characteristic of those whose strength had reached the Rank 4 level.

However, to Su Ling's surprise, one of the Bone Demons was wearing a tattered, grayish-white magic robe, using Dark-type magic and Bone-type magic for long-range attacks.

Its strength had actually reached the height of Rank 4 Peak.

"Is this... a Lich?"

Su Ling sized up this Bone Demon; no matter how he looked at it, it resembled a Lich from a certain game in his past life.

The other four Bone Demons were also quite strong: two at the Early Stage, one at the Middle Stage, and one at the Late Stage.

Under the control of this Lich-like Bone Demon, they were actually locked in a stalemate with Lu Tao, who was fighting using only his Physical Body.

The Immortal Eye of Treasure Appraisal quietly activated, and a stream of information quickly surfaced.

[Shadow Prison Bone Witch, Rank 4 Peak. Capable of casting Dark-type and Bone-type magic. A variant king among Shadow Prison Bone Demons.]

"Bone Witch... that's quite fitting."

Su Ling nodded slightly. Shadow Prison Bone Demons were basically melee-type demons with certain innate Dark-type magic, but most of it was applied to their bone chains for attacks.

Among the various Demon Species, they were a race with formidable strength, defense, and speed.

This Bone Witch seemed to have sacrificed its innate strength and speed in exchange for magical talent.

Those bone spears, bone claws, and Dark-type curse spells had indeed caused Lu Tao quite a bit of trouble.

So much so that after fighting for a while, he hadn't managed to smash the four Bone Demons to pieces.

Of course, it was mainly because Lu Tao was having a lot of fun and didn't intend to crush these playthings for the time being.

Otherwise, even without using the Great White Void-Breaking Sword Art, with the Immortal Golden Body Art he had cultivated for many years, he could have slain all five Bone Demons in an instant.

"Haha, refreshing!"

Sensing Su Ling's arrival, Lu Tao laughed heartily in the field.

With a fierce punch, he sent the Rank 4 Late Stage Bone Demon flying; the immense strength granted by the Immortal Golden Body Art directly shattered four or five of its ribs.

He flashed in front of the Rank 4 Middle Stage Bone Demon and slammed it into the bone-littered ground with a single palm strike.

Following that, two consecutive whip kicks snapped the waists of the other two Rank 4 Early Stage Bone Demons.

The sudden display of strength caused the deep blue Soul fire in the Bone Witch's eye sockets to tremble violently.

The Dark-type magic around its body surged abruptly, and a magic array pattern rapidly formed in front of it.

Lu Tao was about to step forward to interrupt it, but was stopped by Su Ling's voice.

"Let me handle this Bone Witch!"

Su Ling smiled slightly and instantly appeared before the Bone Witch. His large hand, shrouded in a faint purple mist, grabbed its skull.

The Soul Capturing Art activated instantly, pulling its Soul fire directly out.

Losing the control of its Soul fire, the Bone Witch's skeletal frame collapsed into a heap on the ground.

Lu Tao folded his hands behind his back and strolled over to Su Ling at his leisure. "You kid, you've finally come out of seclusion."

Because Su Ling had been in seclusion frequently over the past ten years, the two of them had indeed spent more time apart than together; their last meeting was a year ago.

Su Ling sized up the Soul fire in his palm and explained casually, "The Soul-Devouring Bow refinement failed... so I came out for a walk."

Soul fire was actually the Soul core of undead-type Demon Species.

Previously, the Ice Ghosts he had collected with the ten thousand souls banner in the Nether Prison Plane also had Soul fire.

He wasn't surprised by this at all.

However, this Bone Witch gave Su Ling the feeling that it possessed more intelligence than the Rank 4 Early Stage Soul-Devouring Spider Mother.

Though both were Rank 4, while the Soul-Devouring Spider Mother possessed emotions like anger, fear, and greed, it still acted primarily on instinct.

The Bone Witch seemed more humanized; the urgency it felt just now and the array pattern drawn with magic were somewhat different.

This was also why Su Ling had stopped Lu Tao and personally stepped in to suppress it.

As the two spoke, the four Bone Demons were also branded with War Slave seals by the surrounding Bitao Disciples using Soul-Restricting Plaques.

Lu Tao looked at the trembling Soul fire in Su Ling's hand and said casually, "This magic-type Bone Demon is very unusual. Li Yichen said they've never encountered one... I was just playing with them on a whim."

"It is indeed a bit unusual."

Su Ling nodded slightly and asked curiously, "Speaking of which, how did you find it?"

Li Yichen had been stationed here for over a hundred years and had never seen one, which further highlighted the uniqueness of this Bone Witch.

Furthermore, under the frequent patrols of Bitao Disciples, it had managed to advance to Rank 4 Peak and gather four Rank 4 subordinates.

If its mind wasn't sharp enough, how could it have hidden for so long?

"Greetings, Senior Brother Su."

Having dealt with the four Bone Demons, Li Yichen walked over and pointed to a deep pit in the distance, explaining, "Previously, this place could produce a piece of bone tempering jade every ten years..."

Ten years ago, after Yang Tieshan left, the Disciples on rotation came to collect it, only to find that the bone tempering jade that should have formed had disappeared, and the Restriction array was also damaged.

In their confusion, they remained vigilant and set up a new detection array.

They checked frequently during the interval, and the bone tempering jade began to gestate again.

But an hour ago, the detection array was suddenly triggered. Upon inspection, they discovered the appearance of five Rank 4 Bone Demons.

That Disciple immediately informed Li Yichen of the matter.

Lu Tao then immediately brought Li Yichen and two other Junior Brothers over.

They happened to intercept the Rank 4 Bone Witch just as it had broken the array and taken the bone tempering jade.

After saying this, Li Yichen found a milky-white jade piece from the scattered bones of the Bone Witch and handed it to Su Ling.

After his explanation, Su Ling suddenly understood. "So, the reason this fellow wasn't discovered before was likely due to being intimidated by Senior Brother Yang's Nascent Soul Stage Expert aura."

"That should be the case."

Li Yichen nodded in agreement.

Yang Tieshan wasn't as much of a shut-in as Su Ling; he would go out for a patrol every now and then.

Although this would make many Rank 4 monsters afraid to show their heads,

To some extent, it also made it safer for the Sect Disciples when they went out.

Those monsters that had just advanced to Rank 4 and couldn't suppress their own auras would be suppressed on the spot by patrolling Disciples and taken as War Slaves.

With Lu Tao helping to share the tasks, Su Ling basically hadn't stepped foot outside the station.

Moreover, even if his combat power was comparable to a Soul Transformation expert, his aura was certainly not as powerful as a Nascent Soul Stage Expert.

Therefore, the Bitao Disciples who went out over the past ten years had indeed encountered several ambushes.

Fortunately, they only encountered some Rank 4 Early or Middle Stage monsters. For the Bitao Disciples, who were all at the Nascent Soul stage and would only go out in groups of at least three, it wasn't considered dangerous.