Refining bone marrow from the numerous amounts of bones resulted in Hui Yue perfecting his refinement of some materials, along with his affinity for the Metal element growing by a noticeable amount.
Unfortunately for Hui Yue there were as many different methods of refining materials as there were stars in the sky. Each raw material had its own quarks when being refined and Hui Yue needed to perfect them all, so without further ado he sat down and stared at the shattered bones, now devoid of all marrow.
Taking a bone in his hand, Hui Yue once more entered his consciousness and arrived at the spiritual energy sea where he summoned the silver flame.
His previous refinement had relied on the cool metal flame to liquidize the bone marrow and then reduce the liquid within the flame until it had excreted and burned all the unneeded particles, leaving behind only the purest essence of the wolf.
Refining bones was quite different from this, however it started the same way. Hui Yue summoned the Metal flame above his hand before he looked at the bone in front of him. Magical beast bones were very durable and tough, and what Hui Yue aimed to refine was this durability.
With the bone in the opposite hand, Hui Yue summoned a few drops of spiritual energy which he then used to enhance his strength. He then proceeded to grind the bone between his fingers, and allowed the bone-dust to enter the Metal flame.
As soon as the dust entered the flame, it grew in size. However, Hui Yue expected this and a great portion of his will was projected into the flame, suppressing the growth of the flame. He was suppressing and sealing the ground bone dust in small jade boxes, not allowing for the flame to consume the energy.
Instead, the grounded bone gathered within the metal flame, where it was refined to the size of a speck of dust.
This speck of dust slowly floated towards the other small specksof dust that had been left behind by the ground bone and eventually they gathered together, making an incredibly fine sand which Hui Yue kept within a small jade case. This dust, when added to materials, would help increasing their toughness and durability by an immense amount.
Satisfaction filled Hui Yue’s body as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, a relieved smile playing on his lips and with unyielding eyes, Hui Yue grabbed another bone.
“Yue!” Deng Wu suddenly called from the back of the chamber where he had been cultivating. His voice was filled with excitement and his eyes shining with happiness.
“The gate has been opened!” The black-haired youth said with frantic happiness. He had not enjoyed the many days within the humid and dark tunnels, constantly hunting down magical beasts and seeing no beautiful women around him.
Hearing the message from Deng Wu, a grin spread on Hui Yue’s face. At the same time The Metal flame within his hand, having broken free of the suppressing will, erupted into the air as it consumed the energy which was gathered within the bone dust, charring it into nothingness instantly.
The yell from Deng Wu reverberated throughout the entire stone chamber and excitement was heard from various locations. Wang Ju Long and Sha Yun had both been training in their respective parts of the stone chamber and both came rushing to Deng Wu. Excitement and relief was evident within their eyes.
The only one who had enjoyed the time within the cave was Hui Yue. The others had waited impatiently, every day hoping that the Dragon Corps would appear and now more than a week had gone by before the message finally arrived. Finally, it was time to move.
Sweeping his hand above the many beast bones, Hui Yue quickly stored them all within his memory stone. He dismissed the metal flame which had been in his hands for hours on end.
“Well then,” Hui Yue said while his teeth shone in the light of the light stone, an excited expression appearing on all their faces as they sat next to each other and started discussing various plans.
“We should ambush them.” Deng Wu stated, “I will allow for a few of my soul shadows to devour them!”
“No, that is a horrible idea,” Sha Yun argued, “We should use Earth to trap them in an earthen prison and kill them one by one!”
“We should let little poppy eat them,” Wang Ju Long argued instead, as she petted the flower by her side affectionately.
Wang Ju Long was the kind of person who found it hard to attach herself to others, however over the past week, the poppy flower had followed her anywhere she went. It would even stay by her side patiently during the night, keeping a vigilant watch of the surroundings.
Having spent every moment of last week together with the plant caused Wang Ju Long to soften up. Now a smile would appear on her face more often, as she affectionately petted the flower by her side. Even her behaviour towards her friends had changed slightly.
Seeing how Wang Ju Long was laughing more openly, Hui Yue felt happiness inside, however he spent no time lingering on that emotion before he looked at the others. Mischievousness was pouring from his eyes as he opened his mouth and said, “I don’t think we need plans like that.”
Hearing what Hui Yue said, the three others looked at him with expectations, leaning in to hear his explanation, none of them wishing to miss out on a single word.
….
Having discussed the plan, the four friends moved towards the part of the tunnel which lead to the entrance. As Hui Yue arrived, he could not help but wonder whether or not they should wait right beside the gate to Cave’s End, or if they should wait a bit further away, ensuring that the ones guarding the gate did not hear what was going on.
Eventually Hui Yue decided to wait further back. The four friends were set and waiting patiently for the Dragon Corps to come their way.
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Hui Yue, being as serious about his cultivation as always, instantly took the chance to sit down and refine more bone powder from the cracked wolf bones.
Looking at the hard working young boy, the other three heaved a heavy sigh of despair before they too started to look into their cultivation or tools.
Wang Ju Long spent her time fiddling with little poppy. She also picked up various types of seeds and used her spiritual energy to catalyze them, only to then feed them to her oversized poppy flower.
Deng Wu quickly looked through his many parchment rolls containing beast shadows. After a while though, he started to make attack inscriptions, only to sigh deeply as he noticed how bored he was.
After the first couple of days, all the magical beasts had learned not to trifle with Hui Yue and the friends. This in turn ensured that the only battle that Deng Wu saw was the battle against his friends when they were sparring.
“When will they arrive here?” Deng Wu asked, while his eyes were absentmindedly observing every nook and cranny of the tunnels they were waiting within.
“I don’t know,” Hui Yue answered through gritted teeth, as he was struggling with keeping the silver flame under control, not allowing it to grow in size by absorbing beast essence.
“How many are there?” Deng Wu continued, not noticing the exasperated look on Hui Yue’s face.
“I do not know,” Hui Yue gritted once more, building up yet another portion of his will which he sent into the flame, gaining a slight upper hand against the flame itself.
Grumbling slightly, Deng Wu looked around once more impatience obvious in his eyes.
“If it is a lot of men do you think we’ll still be able to defeat them with our current plan?” He continued to ask questions about the Dragon Corps which Hui Yue had no way of answering.
Eventually it got too much and after failing to refine four bone fragments right after each other, Hui Yue quickly swept the bones into the storage stone. He glared at Deng Wu, which caused the older boy to flinch slightly, his mouth no longer spewing words out at the speed of a hurricane.
“The reason we are using this plan, like I explained, is because we do not know how many they are,” Hui Yue sighed, as he slowly rose to his feet while patting the dust of his clothes.
Standing next to Deng Wu, Hui Yue looked down the tunnel where the Dragon Corps would arrive whenever they departed Cave’s End.
The biggest problem was that the Dragon Corps had just arrived. Hui Yue nor any of the others knew how long they usually stayed within the city, eating good food and having fine wines, till they left.
While the Dragon Corps was enjoying the hospitality of Cave’s End City, Hui Yue and the others were standing within the pitch-black tunnel, not even daring to lit up their light stones, as they were patiently waiting for the corps to arrive so that they could rescue Sun and bring her back to her family.
The reason Hui Yue decided to fight the Dragon Corps within the tunnel was due to the eerie silence and the many magical beasts.
Killing them within Cave’s End, an area with no dangerous magical beasts and only low ranked cultivators, would instantly make the rest of the corps alert causing the rest of their trip to be filled with uncertainty and danger.
Killing them within the tunnels they could mask the deaths with the blood of the wolves and hopefully leave no traces, which could allow for a water affinity cultivator to be on their trail.
The first day went by painstakingly slow. Now that Hui Yue and the others were no longer within the stone chamber they split into teams of two. Two would cultivate at a time, while the other two would deal with the wayward magical beasts and observe the tunnel in front of them waiting for the Dragon Corps to appear.
Hui Yue had chosen the plan of an ambush, and nobody was allowed to use the light stone, as that would obviously give away their location.
Life within the black tunnel was even worse than life within the stone chamber. Since they did not use light stones, every day felt the same and it was impossible for them to truly understand how long they had been waiting.
Hui Yue had given up on refining more bone dust, as he was constantly busy with meditating and guarding their location. Instead he would continue when they managed to get out of these damnable tunnels. Even the white-haired boy was growing increasingly tired of them.
The only good thing which Hui Yue had noticed was that his ability to hear had improved tremendously after living within the pitch-black tunnel. He no longer needed to enhance them by the use of Qi, they were already at the peak of their abilities.
Thinking about the few benefits he had gotten, Hui Yue felt comforted and he almost drowned within his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
Wang Ju Long gestured towards the tunnel in front of them and upon listening closely, Hui Yue noticed that noises were indeed coming their way.
A grin spread on his face as his hands touched Deng Wu and Sha Yun’s shoulder, waking them from their meditation.
Looking at each other, Hui Yue and the friend’s faces lit up with sinister smiles, as it was finally time for them to fight the Dragon Corps.
None of them made a sound as they stood together, side by side, awaiting the arrival of Sun and her captors. Adrenalin was rushing through their veins at the same time as Qi and spiritual energy was released. It was finally time for them to solve the problem and bring Sun home to where she belonged.
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