109: Chapter 109 The Shadow Line Devours Bones

It was late at night.

In Black Sand Market, at a secluded inn on the edge of the inner city.

Gu Shen pushed open the door to Room Jia. He did not light the lamp.

He closed the wooden door behind him, reached into his sleeve, and pulled out a transparent thread, barely visible to the naked eye. He tied one end to a blind spot on the door latch and connected the other end to a bone needle soaked in deadly poison, hiding it within the gap of the door frame.

Afterward, he sprinkled a layer of colorless and odorless powder on the windowsill and the ventilation opening.

After doing all this, Gu Shen walked over to the hardwood bed and sat down.

"Crab."

The black iron clasp at his collar vibrated slightly.

"Master. The low-power microwave scan has been completed. Within a radius of ten zhang, there is no Divine Sense surveillance and no fluctuation of Formation Spiritual Pressure." Crab's dry, mechanical voice reached his ears.

Gu Shen nodded.

He reached up and wiped his face; the disguise of Thousand Faces faded away like ripples on water, revealing his original cold and resolute features.

The cultivation base he had suppressed for the whole night was quietly released, and the mana of Qi Refining Level 7 flowed slowly through his Meridians.

Gu Shen tapped his Storage Ring.

Bang.

A pile of scrap metal fell onto the wooden bed. It was the blind box of Cultivator Bandit remnants he had bought at the black market tonight for thirty-five Spirit Stones.

He pushed aside a few bottles of waste pills, tossed the broken half of the Flying Sword to the side, and locked his gaze tightly onto the pitch-black iron wooden box.

Thunder light flickered at his fingertips as he forcibly wiped away the remaining Restriction on the surface of the box.

Click.

The box lid popped open.

Whoosh—

A surge of extremely pure Yin Qi rushed out. A layer of white frost instantly formed on the edge of the wooden bed, and the temperature in the room plummeted.

On the Spirit-Sealing soft jade at the bottom of the box lay a cluster of silver, thread-like material that flowed like mercury.

A Magical Artifact remnant embryo.

Gu Shen did not reach out to touch it; instead, he took out the Spirit-Sealing jade box containing the three Nine Nether Silkworms.

He opened the jade box.

The three black-ice colored silkworms, which had been lazily lying at the bottom of the box, became extremely agitated the moment they sensed the aura of the silver remnant embryo in the iron wooden box.

They raised their tiny heads, their mouthparts opening and closing, emitting a silent hiss. It was an extreme desire born of instinct.

Gu Shen pressed his fingers together like a blade and slashed fiercely across his left palm.

Blood gushed out.

He circulated his mana, forcing out three drops of heart blood containing pure Qi and blood, and dripped them precisely onto the backs of the three Nine Nether Silkworms.

The blood was absorbed instantly, and a strange dark red appeared on the surface of the Nine Nether Silkworms.

"Go."

Gu Shen flicked his finger.

The three Nine Nether Silkworms turned into three black lines, shot into the iron wooden box, and fiercely pounced onto the silver Magical Artifact remnant embryo.

Crunch, crunch.

A teeth-grinding chewing sound echoed in the silent room.

The incredibly tough remnant embryo, under the mouthparts of the three Nine Nether Silkworms, actually melted like snow and was swallowed into their bellies bit by bit.

In just half an incense stick of time, that mercury-like cluster of threads completely disappeared.

The bodies of the three Nine Nether Silkworms swelled by a circle, and within their black-ice colored bodies, an extremely striking silver central axis appeared. They rolled painfully in the wooden box, and the Yin cold Qi on their bodies surged exponentially.

A moment later, the Nine Nether Silkworms stopped rolling and raised their heads.

Threads of silver, shimmering with cold metallic light, were slowly spat out from their mouths.

"Now."

Gu Shen formed hand seals with both hands, spread all ten fingers, and hovered them above the iron wooden box.

"Soul-Pulling Threads, activate!"

"Draw threads, refine Meridians!"

From his ten fingertips, ten mana threads shot out, precisely connecting and entangling with the silver threads spat out by the Nine Nether Silkworms.

Boom!

The moment they connected, a terrifyingly extreme Yin cold Qi flowed backward along the threads and poured madly into Gu Shen's ten fingers!

Gu Shen's expression changed drastically.

His ten fingers turned pale, then purple, then black at a speed visible to the naked eye. Black ice crystals condensed on the surface of his skin and flesh, and the cold poison, like bone-eating gangrene, spread wildly toward his wrists, forearms, and heart Meridians!

This backlash force far exceeded the limit that an ordinary Qi Refining Cultivator could withstand.

If it were an ordinary Cultivator, they would have no choice but to cut off their hands to save their lives.

"Suppress!"

Gu Shen gritted his teeth tightly, a low roar escaping his throat.

He did not retreat; instead, he pushed the Bone Refining Art within his body to the limit.

Hum—

Beneath his skin and flesh, his dark golden bones emitted a dull roar.

The dark blue thunder patterns branded on the surface of his bones suddenly lit up! Violent Thunder-Magnetic Force surged out from his bone marrow, slamming fiercely into the invading extreme Yin cold poison.

Crackle!

Gu Shen's arms became a battlefield where thunder and extreme Yin clashed.

His flesh tore repeatedly; blood was frozen before it could flow out, then turned into charred residue by the thunder light.

The pain was intense, piercing into his bone marrow!

Gu Shen did not even frown. He stared fixedly at the Nine Nether Silkworms in the wooden box, his ten fingers as steady as Mount Tai, forcibly guiding and refining the mutated threads spat out by the Nine Nether Silkworms.

Under the suppression of the Thunder Bone, the extreme Yin cold poison was finally forced to stop at his forearms, unable to advance an inch.

Not only that, but the violent power of the thunder was invisibly tempering the mutated threads, shattering and removing the Impurities bit by bit.

Time passed.

The sky outside the window turned fish-belly white.

Inside the iron wooden box, the three Nine Nether Silkworms stopped spinning threads. The silver lines on their bodies dimmed, their bodies shriveled, and they returned to their original, lazy black-ice color, falling into a deep slumber.

"Living Nine Nether Silkworms are rare and hard to find; one must not drain the pond to catch the fish. After resting for a while, if fed with cold Yin spiritual materials in the future, they can continue to produce threads."

Gu Shen closed the jade box and carefully put it away.

At his fingertips, three silver threads, as thin as gossamer and almost completely transparent, were now floating.

If one did not scan with Divine Sense, it would be impossible to detect with the naked eye.

"Soul-Pulling Threads, first layer, complete."

Gu Shen exhaled a breath of turbid air.

Mana circulated, and the wounds on his arms began to slowly scab over.

"Soul-Pulling Threads was originally the core secret technique of Qianji Pavilion for controlling Puppets. Now that these Nine Nether Silkworms have devoured the Magical Artifact remnant embryo, the threads they spit out can not only control corpses, but also possess terrifying cutting power."

Gu Shen's thoughts stirred slightly.

He flicked his fingertips slightly.

Swish!

There was no sound of breaking air.

Three zhang away, the broken half of the Flying Sword that had been thrown on the ground suddenly let out an extremely faint "crack" sound.

Gu Shen raised his hand and used a suction force to draw the broken sword into his palm.

The iron sword body was smoothly sheared from the middle. The cut was as smooth as a mirror.

Silent and soundless. It could cut metal and break jade.

"What a Sharp Weapon."

A cold smile curled the corners of Gu Shen's mouth.

With a thought, the three transparent Yin threads slithered into his skin like snakes, lying dormant on his dark golden finger bones.

His Divine Sense swept over the row of broken Iron Corpses in the corner of his Storage Ring.

Fifteen Late-Stage Qi Refining skeletons, all of which were killing machines with no sense of pain and no fear of toxins.

"Soul-Pulling Threads are complete. Next, I must use the Thousand Mechanisms Spirit Pivot Array Diagram to repair them. In a closed, desperate environment like the Myriad Insect Tomb, these will be the perfect meat shields."

Gu Shen frowned slightly.

"Crab."

"Master, standing by."

"Pull up the basic volume of the Thousand Mechanisms Spirit Pivot Array Diagram and build an Iron Corpse repair model. Use mutated wood marrow as the spiritual fluid and plan the spiritual power circuits."

The iron clasp at his collar flashed blue light rapidly.

Three breaths later.

"Warning. Insufficient computing power."

Crab's mechanical voice carried a hint of stuttering, "Master, there is a large amount of low-frequency Yin resentment magnetic fields from the Cultivation World remaining within the Iron Corpse skeletons, severely interfering with the Formation pattern derivation. Furthermore, the energy purity provided by the Low-Grade Spirit Stone is too low, and the motherboard temperature is too high; it is impossible to complete the precise 3D modeling."

Gu Shen's eyes darkened.

As expected. Technological creations still have shortcomings when facing the metaphysical magnetic fields and Yin Qi of the Cultivation World. The cheat is not omnipotent.

"Since you cannot derive the full diagram, then just provide the basic node positioning. I will draw the rest myself."

Gu Shen took out a broken Iron Corpse from his Storage Ring and laid it flat on the ground.

He pressed his fingers together, and a drop of viscous mutated wood marrow hovered at his fingertips.

There were no shortcuts. Relying on his own understanding of the Incomplete Manual, he had to carve out the miracle of stitching the two worlds together, one stroke at a time, on these fifteen Iron Corpses with his own hands.