Chapter 249: White Bone Armor
Stanley's threads spread out like a spider's web. It was called Skynet.
Usually, during the fight, Stanley would try to force his opponent into the net. Once his prey was in the net, he would be shredded by Skynet's gold threads.
It would be a ghastly, bloody scene. So, Stanley hadn't tried this weapon in his previous fights. But now, he was facing a master's personal disciple. This was no time to hold back. He had to move very carefully. One wrong step and Stanley could be the one lying on the ground.
Stanley knew there was still a chance that Jacques would find a way to deal with Skynet. But Jacques seemed overconfident as he didn't even try to dodge it. Stanley's eyes widened when he saw Jacques walking into the net. It was almost impossible to crack Skynet from the inside.
'The fish is on the hook, ' Stanley thought. What choice did he have but to pull the thread thankfully? A cold smile danced on Stanley's lips. Men who had underestimated him paid for their ego with blood. Jacques might be smart and talented, but that wouldn't change the outcome of walking into the net. His ego would be his downfall. Stanley would see to it that Jacques shed more blood for this.
He dragged his thoughts back to the present and pulled his fan lightly. Then one of the gold threads moved, and the other threads moved with it. All the threads weaved in a special way. And now, they were rippling and twisting as they combined into a vast net. When ready, the net pounced in Jacques's direction.
The crowd tensed, and their faces grew grim at the scene.
The gold thread was as thin as a hair but as sharp as a steel sword. It could easily slice through a person's bone!
“My Skynet can cut through a spiritual weapon, let alone fragile flesh and bones of a human body. I know you have spent three years on your refining. But Jacques, you are dreaming if you think you can withstand my Skynet.” As the Skynet inched closer and closer, space left for Jacques dwindled.
At first, Jacques walked over slowly. Then, he stopped and casually glanced at Stanley. To Stanley's surprise, Jacques was smiling.
There were so many emotions in Jacques' smile—scorn, contempt, indifference, and fearlessness.
Suddenly bloody mist exploded from his body. A second later, the mist turned into white bones. Layer upon layer of bones enclosed his arms, knees, and chest. It was a suit of armor made of white bones!
Something cold and sinister lurked inside those sleek white-jade-like bones, from which a dark aura emanated into the field. The sight sent a shiver down Stanley's back. For a short second, he felt like he wasn't facing Jacques but some ancient evil deity.
“Evil skill!” Stanley shouted. His expression changed as he sensed the dark aura from Jacques. He had never expected that Jacques would study evil skills.
“It's true. It's truly an evil skill! He has the smell of blood and death. I can feel it from here. I never thought Jacques would take this path.”
“It is not an easy path. But if you are determined, the rewards are great. Evil refiners are much stronger than normal refiners.”
Only the names of evil skills were handed down from ancient times. All the methods and theories had been devised in recent history. Refiners who studied these skills were very cruel, not only to others but also to themselves.
For example, the infamous evil skill, Blood Devil, would require the refiner to kill hundreds of thousands of creatures and build a pool with their blood. The refiner would then have to soak in the pool and exchange their blood.
Uncountable creatures were killed in the process of building the blood pool. Not only did the creatures suffer, but the refiners were also hurt as they needed to replace their blood with the blood in the pool. Blood exchange was safe when using the same type of blood, like a family member's blood. But inside the pool was a concoction of blood from humans, animals, and supernatural beasts. The exchange was painful. And the pain was the price the refiners had to pay.
Cloud Sect didn't ban evil skills. But killing for practicing evil skills was forbidden in the sect. Of course, some refiners studied evil skills secretly. In the process, if they broke the rules, they kept their actions a secret. The sect just turned a blind eye to such happenings.
The skill Jacques used was called Bleached Bone Distilled Soul. He got it by luck. The year before, Jacques had snuck into a secret area and found the dead body of an elder. The elder had been refining there. It seemed to Jacques that something went wrong with the elder's refining and at last, the elder spiraled into madness and died. Jacques took all his possessions.
Without warning, Jacques had brought this evil skill to light. The crowd was startled. They could not understand why Jacques, an extraordinary refiner, would learn evil skills.
They soon realized the reason.
This evil skill was more powerful than they could possibly imagine.
The white bone armor took form in the blink of an eye. As soon as Jacques's armor was ready, he shot toward Stanley.
“Pa!”
The first gold thread slashed Jacques's elbow and broke at the touch of his armor. The razor-sharp thread didn't leave as much as a scratch on the armor's surface.
“Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!”
Once Jacques put on his armor, he was unstoppable. Soon, half the threads of Skynet broke at his charge. The sound of threads breaking was more like someone plucking at strings.
Stanley took a deep breath of the cool air. How was this possible?
No one knew about Skynet's power better than Stanley. He had tested it himself. It cut right through a medium-grade spiritual weapon and left a deep cut on a top-grade one. Now, it seemed incapable of harming Jacques's armor.
The white bone armor was condensed from life vitality. How could it have the hardness of a fairy weapon?
For a moment, Stanley thought that he was going mad. Automatically, he retreated. No disciple who was in the contest would concede defeat without a proper fight. They didn't come this far to lose. Since their performance decided their ranking, every match mattered.
Stanley had to do more than retreat. When Jacques reached the second-grade of the nature level, he had the power and speed of practitioners at the peak of the nature level. Now, Jacques had entered the Illuminating Soul Realm. To top it all off, Jacques had mastered an evil skill. There was no way Stanley could win this fight head-on.
“Splash!”
More gold threads appeared from his gold fan. At the same time, he leaped and soared in the air.
Only Illuminating Soul Realm experts could fly. But Stanley was only a newcomer in this realm, and he didn't specialize in wind life vitality. Although he wasn't very familiar with flight, Stanley didn't have other options.
“Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!”
As he flew, Stanley hastily laid out more gold threads behind him.
These gold threads were his best weapon. They had brought him so many victories. It seemed to Stanley that Skynet was invincible. But now he felt horribly powerless. It was as though his long-prepared killer weapon was only a child's toy to his enemy.
Jacques wasn't surprised when he saw Stanley flying. Another mass of bloody mist burst out behind Jacques. As the mist dissipated, two bone wings could be seen.
With a flap of his wings, the white-bone-armored Jacques shot up into the sky above the field like a white meteor.
Jacques was also a newcomer to the Illuminating Soul Realm. Normally, Illuminating Soul Realm refiners burned their life vitality to fly. Since newcomers' foundation was still unstable, their flight wasn't exactly fluid. But with his bone wings, Jacques gained a great advantage at speed and flexibility.
The gold threads left behind by Stanley were no challenge to Jacques. He threw himself against them and one by one the threads snapped.
“Don't push me!” Stanley roared at Jacques.
Jacques didn't bother to reply. Instead, he charged toward Stanley at full speed.
So far in the fight, Jacques had fought in a very simple way. He forged on in his white bone armor. But it didn't take a genius to figure out that his evil skill was more than that. Maybe Jacques felt as though he didn't need to take Stanley seriously. Winning would be easy.
In midair, Stanley's eyes turned red as he gripped his gold fan with his left hand. He said through gritted teeth, “Don't blame me now. You have crossed the line.”
If there was one thing that Stanley couldn't bear it was being ignored. If Jacques treated this fight with the utmost seriousness and put all his attention into it from the beginning, Stanley would admit defeat knowing that he had been outmatched. But throughout the fight, it seemed like he was invisible to Jacques. He couldn't bear the shame. Stanley had to teach Jacques a lesson. There was a price to pay for arrogance!
“Gold Flower Fan!”
“Da!”
He pulled out his fan and unfolded it. Then he cast the fan in Jacques's direction. At the same time, the spiritual weapon's skill was activated.
There were numerous spiritual weapons in the Eastern Region, but very few spiritual weapons had skills. Generally speaking, a medium-grade spiritual weapon with skill had value equal to a top-grade spiritual weapon. The same rule applied to top-grade spiritual weapons and fairy weapons.
Why was the Phoenix Crystal and the Emerald Crystal that Zen had acquired so precious? That was because each of them could make a top-grade spiritual weapon comparable to a fairy weapon.
So, the activated Gold Flower Fan wasn't something to be trifled with.
High in the sky, the Gold Flower Fan split into numerous blade shadows. Each of the blade shadows spun frantically and flew toward Jacques. It seemed like these shadows could think. They attacked at the weak joints of the white bone armor like the elbows, head, waist, and knees.
Stanley believed that if he could take advantage of these vulnerable spots, there was no telling who would be the winner of this fight. He might even turn Jacques into a cripple.
A smile touched Jacques's lips. He didn't even dodge. Another bloody mist appeared around him. After the bloody mist dispersed, the white bone armor covered his entire body.
This scene brought a bitter taste to Stanley's mouth. Jacques had every reason to despise him. And there was nothing Stanley could do to deal with this white bone armor. As long as Jacques stayed in his armor, he was unbeatable.
As he thought about this, Jacques slammed into Stanley. In the next instant, everything went black. He knew nothing after that.