Inside the Hill Monster I floated in the stillness of the shimmering pool. Remembering that I still held several Cultivation resources in my Ring and Bracelet, I withdrew a few items. The first cultivation item I retrieved was the bone strengthening powder, and the second was a few strands of silver breath root.
I opened and dispensed the bone strengthening powder into the emerald pool of battle essence, and also consumed the Breath root grass, giving me the ability to breath underwater. As I sank, I circulated my profound vestigium qi, I felt the Bone strengthening powder work its marvelous effects. Every semi-crystal bone in my body began to break!
It started at the extremities first; fingers and toes then shin and tibia. Using the bone strengthening techniques contained within the Bone Moirai Flow had granted my bones an incredible degree of resilience, but there were still more gains to be made. My semi-crystal skeleton cracked and crumbled under the incredible influence of the Bone breaking powder.
The pain was exquisite, and I was forced to circulate the mighty guard technique to maintain my vital organs. Inside the Hill Monster, I sank deeper, the emerald brilliance of the Battle Essence Pond pressing like molten steel on my scales and my sleek crystal exo armor.
The Bone Breaking Powder had done its merciless work. Every single bone of my semi-crystal frame lay in tatters, sharp edges grinding like shattered glass within me.
My skull felt like it had been hammered into fragments, yet my mind refused to go blank. The breath root let me pull air into my lungs even in this drowned abyss, but it could not stop the feeling of my body collapsing in on itself.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
The symphony of breaking bones reverberated through my blood like war drums. Yet I endured. The mighty guard body strengthening skill surged through me, shielding my vital organs from the worst of the collapse.
Qi Shields wrapped around my heart and brain like armor, preserving the seat of my will.
And then—
The second stage began! The Bone Crumbling Powder flared awake. Like molten threads weaving through my marrow, the medicinal intent of the powder began pulling every splinter, every shard, every shattered fragment of bone back together. Not as they had been, but into something stronger.
My body convulsed. I felt my spine pull taut as if being reforged into a single unyielding pillar. My ribs stitched themselves shut like blades being welded, their edges fusing into diamond-hard curves. My fingers spasmed as the fractures were drawn tight, reforged into crystalline instruments of precision and killing. Finally, my skull—cracked, fractured, splintered—knit itself whole.
The lines where it had shattered glowed faintly with intent as the powder's medicine sealed them into a lattice of unbreakable density. What emerged in the aftermath was no longer a semi-crystal skeleton. It was a full crystal skeleton. Every bone in my body gleamed faintly with translucent luminance, as though carved from tempered jade and glass. The pressure of the Battle Essence Pond sank into this new framework, and instead of buckling me—it resonated with me.
The pond recognized my bones as kin to the mountain. My body was agony incarnate, yet there was also a savage ecstasy within the pain. I circulated the Bone Moirai technique, guiding the final fusions. My skeleton thrummed like a forged bell, every vertebra, every joint, every rib singing in harmony with the Battle Essence Pond.
Next I withdrew one Condensed Yin&Yang Spirit Pill, from the 6 remaining. I quickly consumed it. The Condensed Yin & Yang Spirit Pill melted into my core like molten jade, its dual energies spinning into my profound vestigium qi and King level intent. The contrast of cold lunar purity and blazing solar vigor made my foundation feel like tempered steel—dense, balanced, sovereign. For seven days, I absorbed the endless battle essence of the pond, until what once threatened to crush me now flowed into my breath like an extension of myself.
Meanwhile, outside on the Island the top five prodigies had been activating more Beacons. Elyahnas eyes shifted as she looked to the sky at the twelfth inheritance beacon lightening up. Claimed by Yogrex Grimbark. Now only one inheritance monster battle remained. And it was up to her to find it.
The cavern walls hummed with suppressed power, a cocoon of sovereign will that only grew thicker.
Then—
BOOOOM!!!
The world shook. Dust and gravel cascaded from the ceiling. What was left of the pond after my absorption rippled violently, Essence suddenly in turmoil. my eyes snapped open. "...What now?" Outside the hill monster's stone-flesh body, the battlefield had become chaos.
Ninety-five prodigies—Elyahna's icy spears glimmering like frozen suns, Dimitri's psychic fire eye roaring in great curtains of violet flame, and Vaylan's umbral light weaving deadly ribbons—unleashed their full force in a collective barrage! Dozens of lesser prodigies added their strikes, a storm of talismans, ancestral techniques, and weapon arts converging into one devastating bombardment. The air itself screamed under the weight of the combined blow.
The strike landed like a falling star. For a breath, the world seemed to vanish in light and thunder.
When the smoke cleared—
The Hill Monster's titanic eyes snapped open...
Mountains groaned as its body—long disguised as slumbering terrain—shifted and rose. Its stone maw opened in a sound like the rending of continents. A faint glow deep within its throat revealed a core that burned like a miniature sun. Their combined strike had done nothing.
Not even a scratch.
Worse—
they had woken it.
The ground convulsed, trees and boulders flying as the monster's first true roar swept the valley. The prodigies staggered, some vomiting blood just from the sound. Elyahna's expression turned grim. Dimitri's flames flickered with unease. Even Vaylan narrowed his eyes, lips tightening. "This isn't a guardian…" he muttered. "It's something worse." The inheritance beacon above the valley pulsed once, as if in cruel anticipation.
And deep inside the monster's cavernous chest, I rose slowly from the Battle Essence Pond, water cascading from my shoulders, Kingly Intent coiling around me like a storm given form. My lips curled into a sharp grin. "…Guess my vacations over." And outside—
The Hill Monster roared, its awakening shaking the pond around me into tidal waves. The cavern quaked, the water churned, but my body did not falter. The timing was perfect.
As the beast outside fought the prodigies, I was becoming something it had never expected to harbor within.
A man whose very bones were crystal, forged by destruction into indestructibility.