Scum Of The Demonic Sect

Chapter 45 Spiritual Marrow Tempering

After dealing with the Merit Pearl, Lin Haoming took out the jade slip containing the "Divine Bone Technique." He carefully browsed through it first, then meticulously studied some important chapters.

The "Divine Bone Technique" is a body-refining technique. Lin Haoming had never encountered it before. Having been a shopkeeper for quite some time, he had seen many things, but the sect forbade the private transmission of techniques above the Qi Refining stage, so this was truly the first time he had seen such a thing.

Lin Haoming quickly discovered that fully comprehending it with his current knowledge was quite difficult. This made him curious about how Qian Yuanshu cultivated it.

Remembering he still had a jade slip, Lin Haoming immediately examined it. He discovered it contained an explanation of the cultivation technique and instructions on various techniques, including using marrow-eating worms to devour spiritual marrow. It also mentioned that cultivating the *Divine Bone Technique* required sufficient demonic energy, as the *Divine Bone Technique* itself was a demonic art.

Upon learning the need for demonic energy, Lin Haoming felt a pang of regret. Why had he so quickly used his merit points to unseal the Spirit Gathering Pearl? Fortunately, he still had a small amount of merit left, just enough to unseal the second layer of the Demon Gathering Pearl's seal.

Carefully studying the annotations on the *Divine Bone Technique*, Lin Haoming learned that the author was a Golden Core stage ancestor called the Divine Bone Elder. According to the information he left in the annotations, the Divine Bone Elder himself had only cultivated to the seventh level of the *Divine Bone Technique*, and he couldn't progress any further.

This wasn't just because cultivating the Divine Bone Technique required numerous aids; more importantly, the cultivation process itself brought extraordinary pain to the cultivator. Although success in cultivation could even allow one to contend with someone a minor realm higher, Lin Haoming could tell from the text that even the Divine Bone Elder, after reaching the seventh level, feared the pain inflicted by this technique.

After reading it, Lin Haoming couldn't help but gasp.

This annotation had opened his mind, but the potential pain of continuing the cultivation made Lin Haoming hesitate.

"Should I cultivate it or not?" Lin Haoming pondered.

However, Lin Haoming hesitated only for a moment, his eyes quickly hardening with determination. Now that the cultivation technique was in his hands, and he possessed a treasure like the Demon Gathering Pearl, he had no reason not to cultivate it. The fact that the Divine Bone Elder couldn't withstand the pain didn't mean he couldn't either. Compared to physical pain, being at someone else's mercy was far more unacceptable. Besides, without a powerful cultivation technique, how could he suppress Xie Ruolan in the future? Was he destined to be bullied by her for the rest of his life?

Lin Haoming suddenly realized that what had made him decide was actually Xie Ruolan herself.

Having made up his mind, Lin Haoming didn't hesitate any longer and carefully studied the annotations.

Three days passed in a flash.

Three days later, Lin Haoming felt he had almost mastered the first level of the *Divine Bone Technique*, mainly due to the annotations.

Next, instead of immediately starting to cultivate, he threw out Qian Yuanshu's corpse again.

Lin Haoming placed the corpse directly on the ground before him, then took out a throwing knife and used it as a scalpel to dissect Qian Yuanshu.

Lin Haoming had done this countless times in his past life, and skillfully removed Qian Yuanshu's bones.

From the skeleton, Lin Haoming clearly discovered that after cultivating the *Divine Bone Technique*, Qian Yuanshu's bones had not only become much stronger, but they could also perform movements far beyond what ordinary people could imagine. Like the skeleton before him, although it was split in two, it was clear that each of Qian Yuanshu's ribs was tightly joined together, forming a shield-like structure protecting his chest.

Lin Haoming recalled when he had ambushed him with the Mother-Child Sword; he realized that the opponent must have moved his bones in the same way. Moreover, Qian Yuanshu's cultivation was already extremely strong; his bones were almost as hard as a low-grade magic shield, which was why the Mother-Child Sword couldn't penetrate them.

Seeing this, Lin Haoming's heart burned even hotter.

Next, Lin Haoming cast several spells on the skeleton. With the effect of these spells, each of the jade-like bones began to vibrate slightly, the frequency of which increased with the flow of his magic power.

At this moment, Lin Haoming took out a palm-sized bottle, opened it, and placed it aside, continuously channeling his magic power into his hands.

Sparkling, milky-white light emanated from within the skeleton, and under Lin Haoming's control, the specks of light fell into the bottle.

This process lasted for about half an hour before ending. However, as Lin Haoming finished, the once jade-like skeleton became riddled with holes and shattered on its own.

Lin Haoming casually released a fireball, burning away the bones and flesh. Then, with a flick of his spirit beast pouch, the marrow-eating worms flew out.

Lin Haoming cast several spells at the marrow-eating worms, which then spat out specks of light.

Lin Haoming took out another small bottle and collected these specks of light.

After doing this, Lin Haoming nodded in satisfaction. He then reviewed the cultivation technique again, using his last merit point to unseal the second layer of the Demon Gathering Pearl's seal. Knowing that unsealing the third layer of the Demon Gathering Pearl would require nine merit points, and having none yet, he didn't dwell on it.

After unsealing the second layer of the Demon Gathering Pearl, its effect was similar to the Spirit Gathering Pearl, except that the Demon Gathering Pearl provided demonic energy.

Sensing the demonic energy, Lin Haoming discovered that demonic energy and spiritual energy were actually quite similar and could be used for cultivation. However, because demonic energy and spiritual energy are different, Lin Haoming adapted for three days before officially beginning his cultivation.

He took out a small bottle and poured out a drop of something shimmering like milk into his mouth.

This was the spiritual marrow forced out by the marrow-eating worms. After consuming it, Lin Haoming held the Demon-Gathering Pearl in one hand and supported himself on the ground with the other, standing upside down on one palm. He then began circulating his cultivation technique.

Lin Haoming guided the essence of the spiritual marrow into his dantian, then absorbed a large amount of demonic energy, mixing it with the spiritual marrow. This energy then flowed evenly into his meridians, before gradually seeping into his bones.

The initial process was warm and comfortable, but as the spiritual marrow entered his bones, Lin Haoming felt as if bone spurs were growing in them, causing him considerable pain. Although it wasn't unbearable, this made Lin Haoming understand why the Divine Bone Elder had eventually given up on his cultivation.

Because if this pain continued to intensify, later on, each cultivation session might feel like those youths whose spiritual marrow was devoured by the marrow-eating worms, suffering excruciating pain akin to being plunged into hell.

But now that he had started, Lin Haoming had no reason to stop. He continued to draw out demonic energy and practice his cultivation technique.