The pill sitting atop his hands rubbed Xuhan the wrong way for some reason . It was a dark blue , standard capsule sized object , and it made no sense to him how this pill could actually make his damaged body recover to nearly 80 percent of its original healthy state . Out of curiosity , he has asked the healer whether there were pills that could directly advance his cultivation base too .

The answer he got was a lengthy, aggressive lecture on how using pills to advance one's cultivation was an absolute taboo . It went directly against everything orthodox cultivation stood for .

In the end , he could only justify the logic with phrases like 'cultivation magic pill' and swallow it down with a gulp of the catalytic solution that the healer had handed him .

The process that took place following that was not as unpleasant as he thought it would be . The healer had used his qi to keep his sensory nerves dulled down to a minimum and guided the pill's reactions inside his body . The only thing Xuhan could feel during that process was that his internal organs were moving around like crazy .

Once the whole ordeal was over , the mirror in the room displayed his old self once more , albeit looking like he had come out of a famine themed painting .

After the slight nausea had worn off , Xuhan asked the healer about the therapy sessions for defense against mental demons .

"The therapy ? That's still a pretty experimental project . Are you sure you want to attend ? I wouldn't honestly recommend it if you aren't desperate ."

Hearing the healer's ambiguous advice , Han Xuhan immediately gave up on therapy sessions for now . The fact that the people who ran the sessions were so uncertain about the project was a red flag , especially in this sect where even the featured cultivation techniques in the archives were half scams . Before he could gather some proper , trustworthy information on the project , Xuhan would definitely do his best to avoid it temporarily .

Thanking the healer for his kind intentions , Xuhan returned to his hut on the Black Sheep Peak .

It had been three days since Xuhan and team had returned to the sect . Setting apart the process of gaining a certain notoriety for what they had managed to accomplish in the mission , life has been relatively peaceful . He had taken care of most of the issues that needed an outsider's help ; for example , getting his dao base examined by the elders , all sorts of anti-tracking spells to avoid the detection of anyone they had encountered during the mission etcetra etcetra . While for normal disciples , this would be an exceedingly difficult feat to manage , Xuhan didn't have to suffer much since...

For the second time since he had entered the Crimson Snow Sect , Xuhan was once more a disciple loaded with spirit stones . The first thing he had done after getting his payment was spending a handful of it to deal with the messy aftermath of their mission .

With a bank balance of 5000+ spirit stones , Xuhan looked forward to where he would end up after draining the whole amount dry .

Sitting down atop his bed , Xuhan entered a meditative state and focused on cycling the qi brimming inside meridians , guiding it into forming the familiar path of the Skeletal Monarch technique .

Roughly eight seconds later , the cycle was completed , a vast improvement compared to his performance in the past . The completion resulted into the familiar red skeleton leaping out of his back , landing smoothly on the ground in a practiced manner .

It had been a hassle to manage Zhanxian initially . But being in the presence of elder Kong had helped immensely . The elder had drawn up some rudimentary equations and modified small portions of his qi cycling diagram to make Zhanxian a bit less unruly , all the while Han Xuhan had done his best to appease the skeletal bastard with bone nourishment treasures .

Xuhan had a sneaky suspicion that only the latter of his actions had actually worked .

"What are we doing today , boss ? Hopefully nothing that involves violence in any form , because in that case this summoning would be pointless ."

"Oh come on , man . You enjoyed scamming those poor idiots outside the portal , didn't you ? Don't deny it ! Your face is totally red , ahahah..."

"Boss , my entire body is red ."

"I know that . why are you telling me something so obvious ?"

". . ."

Zhanxian instantly gave up on trying to win the argument .

"Aha , I knew it ! You were just anticipating our next adventure ! But worry not . I , your boss , am a magnanimous man . Seeing how you're always this afraid of danger , I have decided to entrust you with something absolutely new this time around . Something totally not dangerous and easy to accomplish . Hell , you don't even need to step out of the house to complete the task , so cheer up !"

Hearing Xuhan's righteous speech , Zhanxian suddenly felt a chill travel down his spine . If he had hairs , he was sure they'd all be standing up straight right now .

"O-okay , and the task is ...?"

With a beaming smile , Xuhan took out a stack of papers from the bedside desk and dropped them on Zhanxian's arms .

"This right here," he pointed at the stack and met Zhanxian's eyeless sockets with a smouldering gaze , "is a cultivation technique ! And you gotta cultivate it !"

A pause followed Xuhan's announcement as both man and skeleton of a man stared at each other .

"Boss , you are aware that I don't have meridians , right ? Surely , your knowledge of cultivation is not that shallow..."

"Of course ! Trust me , I'm your boss . I know what I'm talking about . Go for it !"

Zhanxian plopped down on the ground and sighed in defeat . Xuhan followed suit and started to explain the whole manual to the skeleton patiently . Zhanxian had some trouble reading the texts . Apparently , academic achievements were not his strongest suit . Being an undead whose memories had likely been tampered with probably had something to do with that .

But Xuhan persisted , dragging his undead minion through the ordeal cheerfully . It was the same cultivation technique that Qian Yun had given him in the land of laws , a technique which that guy had gotten from martial sister Zhou . Although Xuhan trusted them both to not backstab him for no apparent reason , it was still safer to first observe the effect of the technique on a guinea pig . Zhanxian filled that spot up nicely...ahem .

As the evening approached , dying the sky red , Xuhan and Zhanxian finally took a break and decided to give it a shot for the first time .

"Alright , now it's time for the first step ," Xuhan muttered as he took out a sharp knife from his collection .

"According to the manual , since you do not have meridians , we will need to create artificial paths to enable you in cycling qi according to the diagram ."

Zhanxian knew what to expect by now and stretched out his red , bony arms . Han Xuhan took a deep breath and picked the right arm first , poking its middle finger with the tip of his knife .

Under Zhanxian's expressionless gaze , Xuhan held the arm by its fingertips and started carving out a long groove from the tip of the middle finger .

From phalanxes to carpals and metacarpals, then past the joints in the wrists and to radius , alna and humerus, the right hand took an entire hour of thoughtful carving .

Of course , there were mishaps . Often the groove cut a millimetre too deep and created cracks . Some of the bones were too easy to break and made the grooves disorganized . He also had to avoid the 'tattoos' scribbled on Zhanxian's various body parts . Xuhan had to make sure the grooves wouldn't be in danger of being affected during a physical brawl .

In the end , it took Xuhan the whole day and and night to cut a rudimentary qi path across Zhanxian's body . After connecting the final two grooves that met behind Zhanxian's atlas , Xuhan took a step back to admire his handiwork .

In the light of the rising sun , Zhanxian honestly looked...intimidating .

The skeleton's bones gleamed with a red sheen , violet specks of colour glittering in the joints . Arcane looking tattoos partially covered his four limbs , torso and forehead , many of which were recent additions . Xuhan had used the raw power stored inside the preceding law fragments on Zhanxian's body to create and activate the new ones , thus reducing the risk of Zhanxian exploding upon the activation of one of the early law fragments . The energy trapped within the skeleton's body was now much less concentrated and safe...er to use .

While Xuhan was proud of the fact that he had managed to create such law fragments , he knew very well that his expertise was solely effective due to the raw energy that he had scrapped away from the circle of laws during the mission . Otherwise , his law fragments would just be some creepy looking calligraphy . Impressive to look at , but useless .

Unless one focused intentionally on Zhanxian , they'd miss the tiny grooves spread all over his body , usually in inconspicuous parts of his bones . In retrospect , it made sense that this was a demonic technique . Would a normal human even dare to mutilate themselves like this to cultivate ? Would they even survive ?

Satisfied with the work , Xuhan nodded to himself and took a small cube of frozen qi out of his pocket , holding it in front of Zhanxian's face in one hand .

"Look at it , this is qi ."

"Okay ," Zhanxian answered unenthusiastically.

" Now , due to the absence of natural meridians in your body , you cannot establish any sort of mental control over it . And that's what we are going to remedy now ," Xuhan explained , determination seeping into his tone .

Giving the papers on the ground another glance to make sure he wasn't missing anything , Xuhan directed his thoughts at the qi cube , establishing the mental command over it . Then he willed the qi into a liquified state , from where he directed the floating colourless liquid to slowly drift over toward Zhanxian .

The skeleton stood stock still as qi began to fill up the artificial grooves on its bones , reaching into even the tiniest bones and joints and finally forming a complete passage full of qi .

Beads of sweat crawled down Xuhan's face as he pushed all of his concentration into managing the qi on Zhanxian's body . The amount of qi he was trying to manipulate was nothing to scoff at , almost enough to surpass his own meridian's maximum qi capacity .

"Time for the next step , Zhanxian . You know what to do ," he finally spoke through gritted teeth after applying the finishing touches .

Zhanxian nodded solemnly and took out the spell formation that Xuhan had bought the previous day for his expensive cultivation sessions . It was shaped like very large ring made of terracotta , its edges full of unrecognizable spells . The formation was designed to constantly attract qi from a large surrounding area and trap the qi within its boundaries where only the owner of the formation would be able to use the qi , regardless of their cultivation base .

Most orthodox cultivators looked down on this type of formations . Such gadgets were for children to have fun with qi , not for real cultivation sessions. Wouldn't a cultivator who relied on it become useless in any unexpected situation ? Relying on external help in regular cultivation was almost a taboo of sorts . But Xuhan frequently used gadgets like those...because he didn't really have a choice as a cripple . Having some experience in helping its boss , the skeleton knew how to operate it .

A few seconds later , with a small nudge of qi from Xuhan's own reserves , the formation activated , instantly creating a circular area that encompassed their hut and attracting qi from every direction like a sinkhole .

"Final step ," Xuhan announced grimly as his eyes met Zhanxian's sockets . This was it . The most important part where it would be determined whether the technique was worth their effort .

His back drenched in sweat and veins throbbing in his temple due to the pressure on his mind , Xuhan split half his focus on keeping the qi attached on Zhanxian's body while he directed the rest of his focus on manipulating a significant amount of his own qi into fiddling with the control centre of the formation .

For this moment alone , Xuhan was grateful to Mu Ran and his obnoxious antics . The card game that guy had taught Xuhan , named 'The Immortal Slayer' , was actually pretty useful in training his control over qi , especially while repeatedly playing against someone whose control of qi could be called mechanically precise . The sheer adversity he had faced in those games was enough to give him some pointers on how to be better loser .

Now his control over qi was almost as good as his talented , hardworking peers...almost .

"Get Ready , Zhanxian . Here it comes !"

Half shouting , Han Xuhan used his own qi to wipe off the proof of his ownership from the formation's control centre . Then he turned the default owner search mechanism on and leapt away as far as he could in the next second .

It was a simple mechanism , usually used by new cultivators with low cultivation base . The formation would immediately seek out the closest magical creature around it by following qi signatures . Any creature with the tiniest amount of active qi in its body could become the owner of the formation this way .

The moment the search mechanism located Zhanxian standing next to it , it identified the skeleton as its owner , and subsequent effects took place in the blink of an eye .

Han Xuhan lost control of his own qi , as well as any bit of qi around him since he was within the boundaries of the formation . Instantly , the qi he had glued to Zhanxian's body began to drift away .

But the formation also gave Zhanxian the power to command the qi within its area of effect . And Zhanxian did not waste a second of the precious window of opportunity .

Sitting down in a meditating pose , Zhanxian began to command qi for the first time in his undead life .