The sky was gloomy in the Dead Spirit World. The chill winds whistled and issued a sound similar to that of ghosts’ crying.

　　This world wasn’t deathly-still even though it was a world of death. And, there was no lack of fighting going-on…

　　Two small groups of undead spirits were fighting with each other under a huge mountain. Both sides had equal number of fighters. The total number of fighters in both the groups was more than one-hundred.

　　A dark water puddle could be seen at a nearby place; it was one-fifteenth of a hectare long. Eleven round blood moons were shining in the sky, and were emitting faint-red waves.

　　Large piles of skeletons of different sizes were scattered around the puddle. The fight seemed to have been going-on for some time.

　　One of the groups consisted of human-skeletons. The leading human-skeleton had a slender body, and was wearing a bone-armor. It was holding a white blade made-up of bones in one of its hands. The soul- flame of deep-green color was glowing in its eyes. A streak of faint-blue color could be seen among the flames in its eyes. The skeleton-warrior was none other than Yan Luo.

　　Yan Luo was fighting with another group that consisted of animal-skeletons such as bone-tigers, bone-snakes, and bone-scorpions.

　　The dead spirits of these animals had made a defense beside the puddle of dark water in order to resist and attack Yan Luo’s group.

　　Yan Luo took the lead and rushed in front. Its figure looked graceful and quick-witted. A layer of white light appeared on the bone-blade in its hand. A blade-light flashed and cut one of the enemies into two halves. No one seemed to be able to match its skills.

　　The soul-flame in its eye-sockets seemed to be much more quick-witted than before. It no longer had any empty feeling to it. It was staring at the dark water puddle in front of it with a rigid expression.

　　‘Roar!’

　　A ten feet tall tiger-skeleton roared, and swooped down. The green soul-flame flickered in its eye-sockets. It didn’t have any flesh on its body. But, its grandeur was mightier than that of a real tiger.

　　The giant bone-tiger looked more powerful than the skeletons in the other group. It issued a roar as it saw several skeleton from its group falling prey to Yan Luo’s blade. Then, it threw itself at Yan Luo in order to grab its skull.

　　Yan Luo raised the bone-blade in its hand without even issuing a glance at the tiger-skeleton. Its blade then got transformed into four or five compressed blade-shadows.

　　Shi Mu would’ve been surprised to discover that Yan Luo had become so good at the Gale Force Blade Art. In fact, Yan Luo had attained a high level in it.

　　A ‘kacha’ sound was heard.

　　The front claw of the bone-tiger got shrouded with the blade-light, and got severed in the blink of an eye.

　　Yan Luo’s figure became fuzzy, and its splitting shadows appeared behind the bone-tiger. It then turned over its hand and dropped the blade.

　　The big head of the bone-tiger was severed from its body. It flew out as its body rolled and tumbled on the ground. Its huge body shook for a while. Then, it became motionless.

　　Yan Luo turned over, and raised its head. It then opened its mouth.

　　Suddenly, an attractive force transmitted out of its mouth. There were several corpses of the dead spirit creatures lying nearby. Several soul-flames began to flow out of the skeletons, and rushed towards Yan Luo. Yan Luo readily swallowed them down.

　　The soul-flame in its eye-sockets fluctuated, and became brighter. Then, a powerful pressure surged-up violently from its body.

　　The animal-skeletons of the other group looked at Yan Luo. Their faces exposed colors of fear. All of them started to recede.

　　Yan Luo’s figure advanced forward. It stuck its gaze at the dark water puddle.

　　Yan Luo cut a skeleton of the other group into two sections with its knife. Previously, both the groups seemed to be equally powerful. But now, the group under Yan Luo’s leadership seemed to be on the winning side.

　　A white light flashed. Yan Luo waved its hand, and dashed forward to attack-and-cleave a bone-eagle into two halves. Then, it arrived before the dark water puddle.

　　The soul-flame in Yan Luo’s eye-sockets brightened-up as it looked towards the puddle that was emitting blood light. Yan Luo no longer paid attention to the ongoing war. Then, it jumped into the dark water puddle.

　　Suddenly, the water surface of the dark water puddle rolled-up. Then, a thick white shadow emerged out of the water, and rushed towards Yan Luo with lightning speed.

　　The soul-flames flashed in Yan Luo’s eyes. But, it didn’t panic. Instead, it waved the bone-blade in its hand, and knocked the white shadow.

　　Yan Luo’s body jolted, and went out flying with a loud noise. It then fell on the shore.

　　A rumbling sound was heard.

　　The dark water puddle rolled-up, and a huge bone-crocodile emerged out of the water.

　　The body of this bone-crocodile was forty-to-fifty feet in length. And, it was vertically as tall as Yan Luo. Its skeleton was emitting a sparkling and translucent luster. It seemed extremely strong.

　　Yan Luo had been struck by the tail of this bone-crocodile a moment ago. The bone-crocodile gently shook its twenty feet long tail; it seemed to be exceptionally flexible.

　　Two dark-green soul-flames were flickering in the place of the bone-crocodile’s eyes. Some blue lights were mixed with the green color of the soul-flames.

　　Yan Luo only had a little trace of blue light in its soul flame, but the bone-crocodile had more blue light in its soul flame in comparison. Moreover, the body of the bone-crocodile was emitting an enormous aura.

　　The other animal-skeletons bowed and nodded to the bone-crocodile as it showed itself. This giant bone-crocodile seemed to be the leader of this group.

　　The soul-flames in the eyes of the bone-crocodile flickered as it looked at the skeleton that was ten times smaller than itself. However, it didn’t attack it immediately.

　　Its intelligence level wasn’t very high, but its intuition told it that this skeleton wasn’t as puny as it looked.

　　Yan Luo looked at the large dead spirit creature in front of it. Suddenly, it released a ray of light from its eyes. Yan Luo’s body emitted a formidable grandeur at the same time.

　　The two auras collided with each other. Suddenly, thin electrical awns appeared out of thin air. Then, a few small dead spirit creatures near them went flying with a jolt. They seemed unable to fight with each other; they rolled and crawled as they ran away into the distance.

　　Yan Luo advanced towards the bone-crocodile.

　　Anger flashed through the eyes of the gigantic bone-crocodile. It then opened it big mouth and exposed two rows of white, thick, and fierce teeth; they looked like the edges of swords. They went down biting towards Yan Luo.

　　It seemed that Yan Luo wouldn’t recover if it was bitten by the bone-crocodile.

　　Suddenly, Yan Luo’s figure flashed and disappeared. So, the bone-crocodile ended-up biting thin air.

　　Then, a shadow flashed on top of its head. Yan Luo’s silhouette appeared before its eyes – like a monster. Yan Luo waved the bone-blade in its hand. It transformed into a half-moon shaped blade-light, and struck the thick bone on the head of the bone-crocodile.

　　“Ka… cha!”

　　The bone on the head of the bone-crocodile issued a crisp sound. Then, a crack appeared on its surface. The crack then extended, and the bone shattered.

　　The bone-crocodile issued a wild roar, and emitted a ray of flickering light from its eyes. It seemed to be extremely angry. It then swung its tail, and issued a sharp whistling sound. Then, it flashed in front of Yan Luo.

　　The soul-flames in Yan Luo’s eyes moved. It turned over the bone-blade in its hand, and forged it towards the tail of the bone-crocodile. Yan Luo’s movements were too fast for the crocodile to see. The tip of the blade struck a point beside the thick bone-tail. Then, Yan Luo’s blade went towards the side at a crooked angle. It then wiped out a chuck of the crocodile’s tail, and sent that severed part flying.

　　Enormous power was transferred from Yan Luo’s body into the tip of the bone-blade. Suddenly, its body jumped-up.

　　Yan Luo held the blade in both hands, and unleashed the power of its body. Then, it chopped down another thick bone on the head of the bone-crocodile with great power.

　　‘Ka… cha!’

　　Two bones of the bone-crocodile had already been chopped down. Suddenly, the head of the bone-crocodile exposed a big hole. Two human-head-sized deep-green soul flames could be clearly seen through the hole in the skull. It issued a wave of sturdy spiritual power.

　　Yan Luo rolled its body high in the air, and landed on the ground near the shore. The soul-flames in its eye-sockets flickered with greed as it looked towards the huge soul-flame in the skull of the bone-crocodile.

　　The bone-crocodile became a little fearful in its heart. But then, its fear was replaced by anger. Its figure started to turn and twist in a crazy manner. Its flexible tail turned, and rushed towards Yan Luo to hit it. It moved its skull to-and-fro at the same time, and opened its mouth to bite Yan Luo.

　　The soul-flames in Yan Luo’s eyes flashed as it faced the double attack. However, it didn’t dodge or resist the attack. Instead, it opened its mouth and issued a suction force. Yan Luo then tried to evacuate the soul-flame of the bone-crocodile from its body.

　　The gale of the dark-green soul-flame in the skull of the bone-crocodile swayed violently.

　　The body of the bone-crocodile immediately became rigid.

　　Yan Luo took advantage of this. Yan Luo’s figure flashed and transformed into a series of after-images. It then appeared on top of the head of the bone-crocodile, and entered into the hole in its skull.

　　The body of the bone-crocodile was jolted. It issued a wild roar. It turned over upside down on the ground. It started to wave its tail and claws in a crazy manner, bombarded them on the ground, and made a huge pit.

　　The bone-crocodile continued to roll for a while. Then, its huge body entered into the dark water puddle. It drowned itself in the puddle with a splash, and took Yan Luo along. Now, its shadow couldn’t be seen anymore; nor could Yan Luo’s…

　　The two dead spirit groups on the shore had been separated from their leaders. Therefore, the skeletons went blank for a while.

　　But then, they recalled their responsibilities, and started to fight once again.

　　The result of the battle gradually became clear. The group headed by the bone-crocodile was killed by Yan Luo’s. They had already beheaded several animal skeletons.

　　The group lead by Yan Luo had taken the lead in the battle. The fight continued for another half-an-hour. The group led by the bone-crocodile was defeated as most of the fighters were killed; the remaining few fled into the distance.

　　The group of the human-skeletons didn’t chase after them. Instead, they all looked towards the direction of the dark water puddle.

　　Suddenly, the dark water rolled-up. Then, a huge silhouette emerged out of it. It was the huge bone-crocodile.

　　But, its eye-sockets were hollow. There wasn’t a slightest amount of soul-flame flickering in them.

　　Yan Luo stood motionless at the bottom of the dark water puddle. It held a human-head-sized dark-green soul-flame in its hand. It revealed happy expressions in its eyes.

　　It then opened its mouth, and swallowed the soul-flame of the bone-crocodile. After that, it blended it into its own soul-flame.

　　The strength and brightness of the dark-green soul-flame in its eye-sockets was doubled. It then started to throb – like a heart.

　　The blue light had strengthened the dark-green soul-flame in its eye-sockets.

　　Suddenly, Yan Luo’s soul-flame shrank. Then, a portion of its spiritual power bubbled out. The color of its soul-flame changed from dark-green to light-blue.

　　After that, a portion of its formidable strength bubbled out from the blue flame, and got submerged in its body.

　　Yan Luo’s body became full of the formidable strength in a flash. It looked upwards, and couldn’t help but issue a noiseless whistle that comprised of its spirit force.

　　The formidable spirit power fluctuated out of its body, and got dispersed in all directions.

　　A circular wave appeared on the surface of the puddle-water in the form of a whirlpool. This whirlpool had a diameter of hundred feet.

　　The soul-flames in the eyes of the other human-skeletons throbbed. Some of them swayed and fell on the ground. A few of them had weak soul flames. Therefore, they had been jolted to their deaths.