Chapter 72 – Treasure Found, Nightfall Concealment, Demonic Beast and the Appearance of the Sky Demon
Our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/PazjBDkTmW
You can buy coins here to unlock advanced chapters: https://gravitytales.com/coins-purchase-page/
At that moment, a thought flashed through Yu Xian’s mind.
Without hesitation, he drew his Bi-Ling Sword and began slashing away the surrounding brambles and thorns, digging along the path of the leg bone.
As Yu Xian dug deeper, more parts of the skeleton were revealed—ankle, femur, pelvis, spine, ribs, even the skull. An entire skeleton was unearthed.
But Yu Xian wasn’t digging to bury the corpse.
He focused around the skeleton’s waist and hands, searching carefully. After digging a radius of about two meters, his eyes suddenly lit up!
A palm-sized round shield, glowing faintly, was unearthed from the dirt!
Yu Xian was overjoyed and quickly picked it up.
The moment the shield sensed a fresh surge of spiritual energy, its surface—previously dulled and corroded by demonic aura—flared with dazzling light, even showing signs of expanding!
Startled, Yu Xian quickly cut off the flow of spiritual energy. The shield dimmed again.
“What a treasure!”
Judging by its reaction, it was at least on par with his Bi-Ling Sword—definitely a fourth-grade magical artifact!
Only a Golden Core (Jindan) expert could have the power or fortune to own such a thing!
Regardless of its specific abilities, Yu Xian placed the shield into his storage pouch and resumed digging.
A while later, he raised an eyebrow and bent down to pick up a broken saber, its spiritual energy long gone. It had clearly been destroyed in a past fierce battle. He wondered what kind of life-and-death struggle the Golden Core cultivator had endured to end up like this.
Yu Xian continued searching within three meters around the skeleton, even digging nearly two meters deeper—but found nothing more.
“This isn’t right…”
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Yu Xian muttered,
“Where’s his storage pouch?”
A Golden Core expert had to have one. Probably a mid-grade one too. But it was nowhere to be found.
Most likely, someone had already taken it.
They probably didn’t realize the buried shield was still there, otherwise it would’ve been gone too.
“What a pity…”
Shaking his head, Yu Xian collected the skeleton, leapt out of the pit, brushed off the dirt, and disguised himself again before moving on. He still had use for the corpse.
But because of the time spent digging, dusk was fast approaching—no more than half an hour of daylight remained.
After scouting around, Yu Xian eventually found a giant rock joined with the mountainside, forming a natural hollow he could squeeze into.
Although it was exposed and poorly concealed, it was better than nothing.
He gathered a large pile of branches and leaves, stacking them tightly around the entrance. Then, he tossed the Golden Core skeleton about fifty meters away and dove back into the hollow, curling up in the deepest corner.
“For now, this will have to do.”
Through a gap in the leaves, Yu Xian peeked outside. He had no way of knowing whether this meager cover would actually protect him during the night, but he had no other choice.
He could only hope the skeleton’s faint spiritual aura would mislead the dangerous creatures of the night.
As he finished setting up, darkness fell completely.
The glowing sunset faded into grey, then black.
The world became ink-dark.
Ahh!!
Screech!!
ROAR!!
The instant the final light disappeared, horrifying screams, howls, wails, and screeches erupted from the dark sky—loud enough to shake the heavens!
Yu Xian held his breath and suppressed all spiritual aura, cloaking himself in demonic energy, his back pressed tight against the stone wall. Through a small gap, he could still see the faint glow of the skeleton.
The bones now acted as a small light source, but also a terrifying beacon in the pitch-black night.
Fearsome, ominous energy filled the air, so dense it made Yu Xian’s scalp tingle—as if death was a single heartbeat away.
He sat motionless for a whole hour.
Suddenly, a roar echoed out, and a massive beast burst through the darkness, appearing under the faint glow of the skeleton.
It resembled a wild boar, with four glowing red eyes, black spiked bristles covering its body, and terrifying aura—at least on par with the wolf-beast Yu Xian had encountered earlier!
It stomped up to the skeleton, sniffed, snorted, then chomped down on the leg bone.
Crunch! Crunch!
It ground its teeth on the bone for a while but couldn’t even dent it. Spitting it out with a snort, it turned and lumbered away.
Apparently, the beast thought the lingering spiritual aura came from the skeleton and didn’t bother checking its surroundings. Seeing it wasn’t edible, it just left.
Clearly, beasts within Demonic Heaven Valley had very low intelligence.
Outside, a beast with mid-Foundation Establishment power would be cunning and dangerous. But if these beasts were that stupid, then fourth-grade monster cores would be as cheap as cabbage…
“Seems the demonic energy here erodes intelligence.”
Especially creatures born in this valley—they were essentially monsters: violent, bloodthirsty, obsessed with strength and nothing else.
Yu Xian stayed still, his expression cold.
The more dangerous the moment, the calmer he became.
He clutched two Golden Core mid-stage talisman treasures, ready to counter anything that might come next.
Two incense sticks’ worth of time passed.
Another shadow burst through the darkness and slithered toward the skeleton.
Yu Xian’s pupils shrank.
It was a giant insect-like creature—five zhang long, like a lizard fused with a centipede, dozens of clawed legs, and an overwhelming demonic aura—at least as strong as the duck-beaked toad he had previously killed!
It flicked its tongue, licked the skeleton, then tried to swallow it whole.
Crunch! Crunch!
A sickening sound of cracking echoed as the creature suddenly spat out the bone, along with seven or eight broken teeth.
Yu Xian’s gaze turned grim.
“This skeleton… the person must’ve been a late-stage or even peak Golden Core cultivator!”
Only such a person could have bones this hard!
Their body had long been devoured, but Jindan cultivators’ bones—known as Jade Bones—were nearly indestructible by beasts below the Golden Core level.
No wonder some evil cultivators hunt their peers.
If you can overcome the psychological barrier, eating fellow cultivators and using their bones for cultivation is no worse than slaying spirit beasts!
The insect monster shrieked in pain, lost some teeth, and fled.
Only after that did peace return.
The thick scent and pressure it left behind made the area silent for three whole hours—no other beasts dared approach.
Yu Xian watched silently, calculating.
“One more hour and dawn should break.”
BOOM…
But just as he was letting his guard down, a rumbling tremor shook the ground.
Yu Xian’s face tightened.
BOOM… BOOM… BOOM…
A massive beast, twenty zhang tall, like a moving mountain, thundered into view!
Its aura was beyond terrifying—definitely at Golden Core level!
Yu Xian quickly covered his mouth, held his breath, and suppressed his aura to the absolute limit.
It was a two-headed demon beast, body like a bull, but heads like a deer—two massive antlered skulls, both glowing red-eyed.
It walked up to the skeleton and snorted suspiciously, then began scanning its surroundings.
Clearly, it was not fooled by the skeleton’s aura.
Yu Xian’s eyes turned frosty.
This was critical.
And sure enough, after a few seconds, the beast’s four crimson eyes locked onto the hollow Yu Xian was hiding in.
Muscles tensed, Yu Xian clutched his talismans.
He knew there was no escape—but he would fight anyway!
Just as the beast roared and stomped forward—
SCREEEEEE!!!
A horrifying, soul-piercing shriek ripped through the air, sending a chill down Yu Xian’s spine!
A shadow—invisible but distinctly present—descended from nowhere.
It was death incarnate.
Even the massive demon beast froze.
Then it bolted in panic.
Yu Xian, half-terrified, caught a glimpse of a ghostly black shadow, screaming with rage, as it pounced on the fleeing beast.
ROAR!!!
The two-headed beast let out an earth-shaking roar, writhing and blasting black thunderballs in all directions.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
One even landed just five meters from Yu Xian, blasting away his cover—but he was still not discovered.
Moments later, the monster collapsed.
And then, under Yu Xian’s horrified gaze, it withered—rapidly shriveling into a mummified husk in seconds!
The black shadow—silent, horrifying—rose from the corpse and let out another shriek before flying off.
Yu Xian, shaking, knew without a doubt:
That… was a Sky Demon!
