Even Dead He’s Helpful

Jinlong... Even though you hadn't known me for long, to me you're my one of the only friends I could rely on right now.

I didn't want to take your spiritual core after fixing it, I just wanted someone, another being to be here for me when I needed it. Someone to help me through my troubles and give me advice or help me think. Not this...

Those damn Namgung clan bastards, now that I think about it, it's a blessing not to me in the Mount Song Sect. Because the future changed me, I thought people were conniving in this time period. But the future was worse, greedy corporations trying to snatch every single penny they could get their hands on.

Many of those greedy bastards came after me and the things I loved, just like that damn Namgung clan bastard. But there was one difference between the future and the past; The Mount Song Sect.

The Mount Song Sect was a tether to my senses, their teachings kept me from murdering people who tried to steal or kill.

But now. Now there's nothing holding me back, no connection to the Mount Song Sect and a dead friend at the hands of the Namgung clan. I'll make them pay for what they've done.

But since when have those Namgung bastards been Unorthodox? In my original life, the Namgung clan was a high-ranking clan within the Orthodox Alliance. Even being called one of the eight major powerhouses of the Orthodox.

If the Namgung have been Unorthodox for the past fifty years like that old man said, that means I wasn't just brought back in time like I thought I was. There have been changes to make things harder for me, did the Other Side change them or was it the work of something else?

"I'd best get to work if I'm going to have any chance of taking down those Namgung bastards."

That old bastard should have done his homework properly, he just left the body of a spiritual beast out in the open for anyone to take advantage of. The body of a spiritual beast is a miracle for the new cultivators of Jianghu; the blood can be used to cleanse impurities from your veins and meridians and increase your internal energy.

And the core of the spiritual beast, regardless of if it's broken on in a near perfect state; a spiritual core mainly gets used to increase one's internal energy exponentially, but the second use for it, mainly because of how minute it is, is rarely ever used. And that is to reconstruct the body by breaking the bones, muscles, ligaments, and nerves and rebuilding them with the help of the beast's energy.

This is the help I needed, without a little help from something or someone else, I would be taking years to properly go through each sub-stage of the Foundation Establishment. But now I have the best method of going through the Foundation Establishment stage with ease.

Having stood up after the old man vanished from the mountain peak, I walked over to Jinlong's dismembered body and placed my hand on the dragon's cold scaley head.

The head itself isn't that useful for my process through the Foundation Establishment stage, but his horns however, I could have a blacksmith make a sword out of it. Though I don't like using swords with my martial arts, I have to admit that having a sword while not being that strong will help me stay alive.

I quickly moved down Jinlong's long serpent like body until I reached the spot the old man had cut open to harvest Jinlong's spiritual core.

The old man had done a shitty job cutting out the core from Jinlong's cold body, but he had still cut the core out entirely, so I couldn't complain much.

I pulled out the deep blue core from Jinlong's body and set it gently on the ground. Despite it being a broken core, it was still twice the size of my head. But now that it was out, I could begin the process.

Sitting down in a puddle of Jinlong's blood and placing my hands on Jinlong's spiritual core. I began directing the energy seeping out through the cracks of the core into my palms and up through my bones.

First, I had to use the pressure of the energy built up and stored in my skeletal system to break all the bones in my body except my spine, ribs, and skull. It would be extremely difficult and painful, but it had to be done.

However, the more and more I poured energy into all the bones in my body, the more and more energy was absorbed by my bones. This body was different from the one I used to have. In my previous life, I didn't have such high metabolism, but this body seemed to have far higher metabolism than even the greatest masters of Jianghu.

But that would be a problem, with such a high metabolism, it would take more than double the energy within Jinlong's core to get through the Bone Tempering Stage.

I guess I don't have a choice then, I didn't think I would have to do this, but there's no other choice if I want to complete the Bone Tempering stage by today.

After absorbing all the energy from Jinlong's broken spiritual core, I began to focus my breathing and bring the purest qi around me into my body.

With different levels of pure qi within my body it might mess up the process of breaking my bones, so I have to be careful about the purity of qi I absorb.

"Hoooo-"

However, despite my expectations, the energy around Mount Song's peak had been muddied. And barely a spec of pure energy was left near the peak.

Was it the work of that old man? Was it because I completed my absolute cleanse last night? Who knows, all I know is that all of the purest qi atop Mount Song had vanished.

I guess that leaves only one option, a rather disgusting option at that.

I'd have to defile Jinlong's dead body.

I stood up off the bloodied earth and climbed into Jinlong's cold corpse. Despite his death being several hours ago, the pure qi that was leaking from his spiritual core into his body remained, if that Namgung clan bastard wasn't so self-absorbed in just the spiritual core, he might've found the pockets of pure qi spread throughout Jinlong's entire body.

I took one last breath before closing the wound from the inside, trapping myself in Jinlong's dead body until I finished the Bone Tempering stage.

"Hoooooo... Here goes nothing."