Song Shuhang’s heart felt somewhat stifled.

The mutation of his illusory core already left him very worried. If his immortal bone was also mutated, then he would have two things to worry about.

In addition, if it really did mutate, would it affect his ascension to the Fifth Stage? The immortal bones were not a joke—if it caused his ascension to the Fifth Stage to become troublesome, he would really cry himself to sleep.

It doesn’t matter if its shape is ugly, or if it doesn’t look like human bones, but please at least have the basic function unaffected. Please don’t switch my immortal bones with demonic bones, Song Shuhang prayed in his heart.

In the end, the immortal bone finally took shape.

The curved immortal bone looked a bit like the bones of a giant whale… just that they were a bit flat.

Fortunately, in its entirety, it was still within the definition of a ‘bone’.

Alright, I will just take it as a whale bone. After all, my illusory core has become a fat whale, so it can’t be too strange that my immortal bone looks like the bones of a whale.

However, looking at its profile, I’m somehow getting the feeling… that it looks a bit like a saber.

I’m probably just seeing things, I’m definitely just seeing things. Its an immortal bone, not a saber bone. How could it possibly look like a saber? Song Shuhang reassured himself.

As this thought appeared his mind, the Sage Seal within his body suddenly flashed, and appeared beside his first ‘immortal bone’.

The Sage Seal slammed itself onto the immortal bone and imprinted a seal on it.

The two words ‘Tyrannical Song’ had been vividly printed on his first immortal bone.

Song Shuhang: “…”

F*ck, don’t do that.

If the bone were a saber, the words ‘Tyrannical Song’ had been imprinted right where its handle was. With this, his immortal bone was even more similar to a saber bone now.

Furthermore, why was my immortal bone branded with a seal?!

The immortal bone being branded by the ‘Sage Seal’ clearly had some effect. After all, the Sage Seal had some special powers. It was the symbol of an Eighth Stage Profound Sage’s status, and it could even help its master strengthen their abilities.

After it imprinted itself on the immortal bone, the Sage Seal could transfer energy through itself to the immortal bone, tempering the immortal bone by doing so.

This method of tempering an immortal bone was the only one of its kind in the entire universe; there was simply nobody else who would be able to achieve such a method.

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After the immortal bone was formed, the next step was to polish it. This process would require some time; he’d have to temper the immortal bone somewhat until it reached a dark golden color.

At that time, a force like a sharp blade would extend from the immortal bone, directly pierce into the illusory core within one’s life dantian, and integrate with the core.

During this process, there was quite a large risk involved.

If one’s control wasn’t up to par, the force akin to a ‘sharp blade’ coming from the immortal bone could directly smash one’s illusory core when it penetrated it. As soon as the illusory core broke, the cultivator would stop at the Fourth Stage as he would no longer be able to go any further.

However, if a cultivator’s illusory core was able to withstand the ‘sharp blade’, the illusory core would be further strengthened through the power of the immortal bone. This would continue until the nine different immortal bones infused their power into the illusory core. The illusory core would be gradually refined with each influx of power until illusory became reality and the cultivator was able to form their golden core.

At this time, Song Shuhang was still standing in the ‘formation center’.

Moreover, there was still some time left until the end of Sage Monarch Melon Eater’s ceremony. This little amount of time should be able to help Song Shuhang save some time on polishing his immortal bone.

Under the secret guidance of the Great Northern Emperor, a large amount of energy poured into Song Shuhang’s body at a gentle pace. This energy was subsequently transformed into innate true yuan by his original dantian, only to go on to temper his immortal bone.

The color of his immortal bone began to grow darker. Its hue changed from white to gold, and from gold to dark gold.

The Great Northern Emperor softly murmured, “The most critical step has arrived.”

Due to the large formation, Song Shuhang’s immortal bone had directly gone from being ‘just condensed’ to ‘dark golden’, which brought with it the risk of breaking the bone due to excessive activity.

Next, it was time for Song Shuhang’s immortal bone to penetrate his illusory core and see if the latter could withstand the impact of the power of the immortal bone.

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Song Shuhang’s face showed a solemn expression.

He used ‘inner sight’ and saw that his first immortal bone formed and quickly matured as if it had been sprinkled with modified fertilizer.

After the immortal bone became dark golden, a sharp force similar to a ‘blade’ extended out, and charged towards his original dantian.

Now, it’s all up to you, fat whale illusory core. You can do it, you must hold on! Song Shuhang said in his heart.

After working so hard and feeding you with such a huge amount of energy, I was finally able to get you to finish forming. You’d better not fail me.

The fat whale illusory core continued to bob up and down within Song Shuhang’s gigantic original dantian.

“Whoosh!”

At this time, the power of his first immortal bone instantly pierced into his life dantian, and penetrated the head of his fat whale illusory core.

However, the expected ‘immortal bone VS fat whale illusory core’ scene did not play out.

The power, which was as sharp as a blade, abruptly changed when it came into contact with the illusory core. At that moment, it began to radiate a kind of intent-like energy.

That energy was just like Song Shuhang’s ‘saber intent armor’.

Suddenly, Song Shuhang’s heart felt stifled.

Sure enough… in the next moment, the power of the immortal bone descended unto the head of the fat whale illusory core, and evolved into a piece of armor. Moreover, this piece of armor was fairly considerate as it even left a large hole above for the ‘blowhole’ of the fat whale illusory core. It looked like it was for future convenience should the illusory core ever need to spray ‘water’.

At this point, the first immortal bone had successfully settled things with the illusory core, and a continuous stream of power was now being transferred from the immortal bone to the illusory core, which further tempered the illusory core.

Song Shuhang raised his head and looked at the sky.

Obviously, this was supposed to be a reason for celebration, but for some reason, at the moment when the power of the immortal bone had suddenly turned into ‘saber intent armor’, his heart became heavy, and he felt especially embarrassed.

The main reason for it was that it confirmed a very cruel fact about him that he didn’t want to accept—his immortal bones could basically be identified as ‘saber bones’.

But generally speaking, this was good news.

If the remaining eight immortal bones were just like the first one, with the power that was supposed to penetrate the illusory core becoming saber armor, that would mean that Song Shuhang faced no danger of his ‘illusory core being smashed by his immortal bones’.

It was tantamount to an entire tribulation less compared to other cultivators.

It was already 9 in the morning on the 14th of September 2019. Song Shuhang had officially become a genuine Fourth Stage cultivator, and condensed his first immortal bone.

The battle between the two Sages of the night before was now a thing of the past.

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Besides Song Shuhang, the one who had the biggest harvest was Su Clan’s Sixteen.

Sixteen originally got her first immortal bone because of the ‘crocodile leg feast’, which allowed her bone to condense and undergo refinement. Now that she got nourished during Sage Monarch Melon Eater’s ‘body abandoning’ ceremony, she was quickly able to finish tempering her immortal bone, and successfully guided the power of the immortal bone to her illusory core.

Sixteen progressed smoothly and stably, without going off track. The immortal bone penetrated her illusory core like a ‘sharp blade’, and her illusory core, which was extremely solid, was naturally able to receive the power of the first immortal bone.

By the time the benefits from Sage Monarch Melon Eater’s ceremony were about to be over, Sixteen had already tempered a total of four immortal bones, with the fifth immortal bone also already being formed. This meant that most of the journey she had on the Fourth Stage had already been completed.

Su Clan’s Sixteen slightly opened her eyes, and nodded in satisfaction.

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Subsequently, the monster bird Little Cai, also opened her eyes. As she was a monster cultivator, the path which her cultivation took before the Fifth Stage was different from that of humans. Nonetheless, her realm had also advanced by leaps and bounds, allowing her to reach the peak of the Third Stage. Although there was still quite some time before her tribulation, it wasn’t distant to the point that it wasn’t in view.

Little Cai had always believed that with her talent, even if she had her teacher’s spring water and got the golden lotus that extended her life by 100 years, it would be difficult for her to break through her current realm.

However, she hadn’t thought that she’d be already able to see herself reaching the peak of the Third Stage Realm simply by being with her teacher for some time.

Little Cai gently patted her wings. She remembered the words of her elder, Dongfang Six—when she accepted Song Shuhang as her teacher and received the daoist name ‘Virtuous Buddhist Sabersman’, she also inherited her teacher’s luck in a certain sense.

And now, merely by following her teacher, she really did gain a share of his bountiful luck and was about to reach the next realm. If things were to continue like this, then even the Fifth Stage was no longer an unreachable dream! At that time, she could transform into a human without resorting to special techniques.

Little Cai’s target was very low. Until now, her target was still set to becoming a ‘Fifth Stage Monster’.

“Virtuous Buddhist Sabersman Little Cai, hehe,” Little Cai said softly. At this moment, she had genuinely accepted this daoist name.

Her aura underwent a subtle change. It was because this time, she believed from the bottom of her heart that she had to match her daoist name. She had to become both a virtuous daoist and a sabersman.

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Shi cutely opened her eyes. Afterwards, she began to count the ‘dantian apertures’ within her own body. She began with the original dantian, and continued upwards to the second dantian [Dragon Tail], the third dantian [Dragon Claw], and the fourth dantian [Dragon Body].

“Oh yeah~ Am I now a little expert of the Second Stage?” Shi murmured.

Could it be that I’m still in a dream, and have yet to wake up?

Otherwise, how could I have cultivated so quickly within the Second Stage Realm?

Normal cultivators would have to practice for over half a year or even over a year for every dantian.

Shi nodded seriously, and said, “Even if it is a dream, this is a beautiful dream. I will just let myself stay in this beautiful dream for a while.”

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The last one was Lady Onion, who discovered something very bad. Her strength sharply rose, and she broke through until the eight dantian, the Dragon Horn Dantian. The true qi in her body began to turn into a river, gushing from the eighth dantian.

Lady Onion exclaimed, “Song Shuhang, not good. I’m going to transcend my tribulation soon!”

The problem arose due to her accepting the strength transfer from Daoist Priest Horizon previously; although she had been working hard, she was lazing around most of the time.

As such, she made no preparations to transcend her tribulation.

After the Great Northern Emperor saw through Lady Onion’s state, the corners of his mouth slightly twitched. He reached out and sent Lady Onion out of the formation and towards Song Shuhang’s side.

“Don’t be afraid, there’s still some time left before you are forced to transcend your tribulation,” Song Shuhang comforted her, smiling. Afterwards, he reached out to catch Lady Onion, and sent her into his Inner World.

At the same time he sent Lady Onion back, the virtuous lamia silently appeared behind Song Shuhang. Although she hadn’t let out a single sound, she must have also benefited immensely.

The Great Northern Emperor said, “Next, you will all have to leave the large formation. The ceremony is about to be completed.”

Calculating the time, it was time to go eat as the ceremony ended.