Chapter Ninety-Four: The Shattering Treasure

Advancing to level forty-one and with his energy multiplied twenty-fivefold, Cloudsoar Li could summon two more skeletal warriors, bringing his force to fifteen strong, fiercely loyal servants.

He also fed each skeletal warrior a Strength Pill. Their attributes became: body strength 136, soul strength 64.

The Blood Pill increased constitution, and its greatest effect was to alter the arrangement of the minerals in their bones. Their skeletons transformed into some unknown crystalline material, incomparably hard and endowed with tremendous defensive power.

After taking the Strength Pill, their bodily strength did rise further, but the material of their bones did not change. Only the lines of their frames became smoother, and their size increased quite a bit as well.

The skeletal warriors had originally stood around two meters tall. After taking enough Strength Pills, they all grew to roughly two and a half meters.

It was said that Lu Bu, the fiercest general of the Three Kingdoms, had stood only about two point three meters tall.

These fifteen skeletal warriors were, in effect, fifteen peerless war gods like Lu Bu, each capable of unstoppable slaughter, mowing down armies as easily as cutting grass.

Before, a skeletal warrior's bodily strength was roughly equivalent to that of a constitution-type awakened fighter.

Now they were both strength- and constitution-type awakened beings.

If they had been able to condense spiritual consciousness, they would have had to be counted as spirit-type awakened beings as well.

However, their soul power was the same as the qi of martial cultivators, the spiritual force of Daoists, and the true essence of Buddhists: all of it was a kind of power that could be projected outward.

With mastery of all manner of martial arts, plus a full set of top-grade equipment and the support of soul power, their overall combat strength was probably no less than blue-rank. Crushing a green-rank martial expert like Liu Bin would likely be no trouble at all.

...

This dungeon's greatest harvest, aside from the Strength Pills, was a magical treasure dropped by the boss, the corpse-hopping corpse.

At last it was no longer a flying sword, but a delicate, compact recumbent melon hammer, less than a foot long, with a head no larger than a pear, its entire body cast in purple-gold.

Smashing Corpse Spirit Purple-Gold Hammer: the hammer itself naturally contains explosive spiritual power. Controlled by spiritual consciousness, once it strikes a target it can instantly release boundless force, shattering the target to pieces with explosive might.

"Explosive force? Then let me see just how explosive it is."

Cloudsoar Li toyed with it for a moment in high spirits, then used his spiritual consciousness to send the hammer flying. He infused a thread of spiritual power to awaken the strength hidden within it, and then drove it down at the ground with sudden force.

Boom.

A thunderous blast shook heaven and earth. The ground caved in, dirt and debris flew everywhere. The hammer, no bigger than a pear, struck the earth and blasted out a crater nearly two zhang across and three meters deep.

If that had landed on flesh and bone, the result would be unimaginable. It would probably have burst a body into a cloud of blood mist in an instant.

When Cloudsoar Li saw the scene, the first words out of his mouth were a stunned curse, followed immediately by overwhelming delight.

Was this not the legendary Purple-Gold Hammer that could bring down the sky and split the earth?

At last he had obtained a magical treasure of terrifying power that looked utterly harmless.

This corpse-hopping monster had no other notable ability beyond its monstrous strength, yet who could have guessed it would yield such a treasure?

Though the hammer was not as elegant to wield as a flying sword, it had the advantage of being simple to use.

A hammer was made for smashing people.

No need to play any clever tricks; it was all about crushing force, destroying everything in its path. How direct, how clean-cut.

Did not the Investiture of the Gods contain thousands upon thousands of magical treasures, and regardless of shape or material, most of them were meant to be used by simply hurling them at people, with only a small number having special functions?

This treasure suited him perfectly. Reliable.

He immediately sold the Purple-Gold Hammer to the system, obtained 120 grams of spirit stones, then spent 400 grams to buy it back, and even bought two in one go, preparing one for the little fox as well.

The hammer was far too small, belonging to the category of magical treasures rather than conventional weapons.

All in all, it was smaller than the iron hammers workers used to drive nails, and it was not suited to being held in the hand and used as a weapon.

If the hammer had been the normal size of a recumbent melon hammer, he would have equipped the skeletal warriors with it directly.

Unfortunately, the skeletal warriors had no spiritual consciousness. Otherwise, his little skeletal squad would have been a group of humanoid missile launchers.

No, even without spiritual consciousness and without the ability to control it from afar, the skeletal warriors might still be able to use the hammer.

In ancient times, generals, besides their main weapons, sometimes carried flying axes or throwing hammers for medium-range and close-range attacks.

If the skeletal warriors first infused soul power, activated the hammer's internal force, and then hurled it like a throwing hammer, the power would still be formidable.

True, throwing it meant the hit rate could not be guaranteed, but as long as it landed once, the battle could very likely be decided on the spot.

And if they were equipped on a larger scale, even if they were not humanoid missile launchers, they would be more than enough to become humanoid self-propelled artillery.

At that thought, Cloudsoar Li grew excited.

He looked over the waists of the skeletal warriors and saw that their armor had three hooks on each side, exactly made for carrying throwing weapons.

Perfect.

Without another word, Cloudsoar Li spent the equivalent of one and a half years of cultivation resources from Violet Heart, a total of 36,000 grams of spirit stones, and bought a full ninety Purple-Gold Hammers.

Those terrifying treasures were piled on the ground by Cloudsoar Li like worthless junk.

After issuing an order to the skeletal warriors, they stepped forward of their own accord and each picked up six hammers, slotting them into the hooks at their waists.

Looking at the skeletal warriors armed to the teeth with instruments of destruction, Cloudsoar Li at last began to experience the joy of being a legendary Daoist.

He remembered how, when he had first obtained the Bone Spirit Emblem, he had complained that he was a Mount Mao Daoist, not a legendary Daoist. In the end, he still had not escaped the law of irresistible satisfaction.

What Mount Mao nonsense. From today on, he was a legendary Daoist.

With his tanking pets up front, all he needed to do was stand far away, toss talismans, and smash magical treasures.

He swept his gaze across the dungeon space, and with a surge of spiritual consciousness, the coins and various materials scattered over the ground vanished at once, all of them going into the system bag.

Then he recalled the formation materials and the skeletal warriors, and said to Ruby with a smile, "Now it's time for us to pay a visit to Old Yellow and his family."

Ruby curved her seductive eyes and giggled. "A Daoist paying New Year's respects to a weasel can never be up to any good."

"Hahaha..."

Cloudsoar Li laughed heartily. Teasing her, he said, "As if a fox visiting a chicken for New Year's respects would have any good intentions. Aren't you and the weasels all cut from the same cloth?"

"Oh, Master, you're so mean..." Ruby pouted in mock outrage, stamping her little foot. "Why compare me to those ugly creatures? I don't want to be of the same cloth as a weasel! I'm of the same cloth as Master."

Ugly creatures?

Cloudsoar Li could not help laughing. It really was true.

Among the Five Immortals, the fox spirit's transformed form was the most beautiful, with handsome men and lovely women capable of toppling kingdoms.

Next came the willow serpent spirits and the gray rat spirits. Though their bearing fell slightly short of the fox spirits, their looks were by no means inferior.

The white hedgehog spirits usually liked to take the form of benevolent old ladies, and thus were often called White Granny.

Only the yellow weasels, the Yellow Immortals, mostly transformed into crooked, lopsided, grotesque shapes after taking human form, hideous beyond words. Whether that was due to the nature of their species or some other special reason, nobody knew.

Cloudsoar Li patted Ruby's fiery red, silky hair and said repeatedly, "All right, all right, it's my fault. Our Ruby is beautiful, how could those ugly things compare? Come on, let's go beat up the ugly ones."

Only then did Ruby's anger turn to delight. Cloudsoar Li gave the command to leave the dungeon in his mind, and in an instant they returned to the real world.

"Ruby."

"Hm?"

"Your hair is very pretty, but if it's red, people will still find it strange when they see you. Can you change the color?"

"Of course! Then I'll turn black, just like Master!"

"Good, that's perfect. Also, if there are outsiders around, you must not call me Master."

"What should I call you then?"

"Just call me Brother."

"Oh, I know. Master Brother."

"Heh, you little minx."