With a loud "thud," the giant snake suddenly crashed to the bottom of the cliff, shrinking immediately. Qin Yi, who was on its back, was thrown off and rolled away quite a distance.
It was just a sudden jolt; after all, the original form of the Night Wing was quite small. A shake like that wouldn’t be too much for it. Qin Yi rolled over, quickly got up, and turned to look. Next to him, a snake over half a meter long was lazily lying on the ground, flapping its wings.
Half a meter isn’t really small, but compared to the huge snake from before, it felt like a massive creature had turned into a little puppy.
“What happened?” Qin Yi walked over, a bit worried, and touched it. “Are you hurt?”
“It shrank… wuu…” The snake made a soft, childish voice.
“Foolish snake,” Qin Yi said with a hint of annoyance. “It only looked big before, not really. Did you trick yourself?”
“Only when it was that big could I feel impressive,” the Night Wing lay on the ground, looking quite sad.
Qin Yi couldn’t reason with it anymore and turned to look at the surroundings.
The fog was thick, visibility was low. Although it wasn’t completely dark, he couldn’t see clearly beyond a few meters. Qin Yi used his wind power to disperse the mist, squinting slightly.
All around were white bones…
Some were human, some were animal.
Qin Yi also saw corroded swords and knives next to the human bones, looking like the curved blades commonly used in the Western Wilderness. This was the territory of the Western Wilderness, and it was likely these were explorers sent here by them, none of whom survived.
On the surface, there were no enemies, not even scavenger vultures, but the bones clearly proved that there must be a great danger nearby; otherwise, how did they die?
Qin Yi cautiously took a few steps forward and crouched down to examine the nearest skeleton.
The skeleton had no clothes, nothing at all, completely clean. Only in the hollow eye sockets was there a faint flicker of phosphorescent light, as if those eyes could still see, which was quite creepy.
Qin Yi stared at those eyes.
Next to him, the Night Wing had returned to its human form, looking horrified at Qin Yi's actions.
It was one thing to look at a stick, but what was he doing staring at a skeleton? Wasn’t he scared?
In fact, the stick was telling Qin Yi to be cautious.
Qin Yi raised the wolf-toothed club.
Almost at the same moment, the skeleton's arm suddenly lunged at Qin Yi's throat.
“Smash!” The wolf-toothed club whistled through the air, shattering the entire skeleton into pieces.
Two points of phosphorescent light scattered on the ground, seemingly never to extinguish. The shattered skeleton slowly began to heal, gradually taking shape again.
Around them came the sound of “creaking,” and all the skeletons stood up.
The Night Wing's teeth were chattering. “What… what is this…”
“A method of raising the dead. Someone is lurking here, and these skeletons are actually his guards,” Qin Yi smiled slightly. “If we die, we’ll become like this too.”
The Night Wing watched a snake skeleton crawling toward her, her teeth chattering, wanting to find a place to hide and not look.
“They’re not that strong; look at how scared you are,” Qin Yi swung his club, smashing the two closest skeletons. “They’re just as strong as they were in life, ordinary soldiers, and they move much slower. There’s nothing to fear.”
The Night Wing said, “But they can heal.”
“Very slowly, not a threat. Even Dong Huazi could run away; how could we not handle this?” Qin Yi swung his club, smashing through, creating a path through the bones.
Seeing Qin Yi's fierce demeanor, like a tiger among sheep, the Night Wing gained a bit of confidence and hurriedly followed him.
“Let’s go forward and see; there’s something to discover inside.” Qin Yi pressed on, suddenly thinking that he should find a way to toughen this foolish snake up. It was clearly a powerful demon, yet it always thought of running away first. It was quite frustrating.
With this kind of mindset, if they really fought, the snake might end up getting knocked out by him.
Thinking about it, he felt pretty impressive himself. In his past life, he would feel uneasy just seeing a skeleton model in a hospital, but now facing real skeletons didn’t bother him at all, and he could smash through them without a second thought.
Was it the courage that came from strength?
He had killed people; how could skeletons be any different?
The terrain at the bottom of the chasm wasn’t flat.
Maybe it was flat when the flowing silk was created, but after tens of thousands of years, some places had risen into hills, some had sunk, some had grown trees, some had become lakes, and some had been affected by spiritual or death energy, leading to even more unique mutations.
This vast valley floor was a world where everything existed.
If someone was lurking, there would likely be buildings or caves in some areas.
Qin Yi could already see a barren hill ahead, bare of trees, and he couldn’t tell how high it was through the mist.
In fact, everywhere he passed was desolate: yellow sand, rocks, and some weeds. It didn’t look like a place with spiritual energy or treasures. Qin Yi understood that this area must be the most barren part of the entire chasm; if it were even slightly fertile, it would surely attract stronger beings, and it wouldn’t be a “relatively safe white zone” anymore.
But as he got closer to the hill, he felt more pressure, and the strength of the sea of skeletons was gradually increasing. What had started as ordinary soldier and beast skeletons was now filled with more strange and bizarre bones, many of which he couldn’t recognize.
He didn’t know all the species in this world, and even if he did, there were probably many extinct creatures here.
Like this one…
A gigantic reptile, like a dinosaur, with three heads, and the middle one looked human while the other two resembled dog or wolf heads. What was this thing?
No matter what it was, being brushed by those massive feet would either kill you or leave you crippled.
Qin Yi didn’t have much curiosity. He crouched down and slipped under the giant beast's claw, smashing heavily at its lower leg bones.
“Crash…” The entire skeleton of the giant beast collapsed.
Qin Yi turned and pulled the Night Wing, darting toward the hill.
Just as they reached the edge of the hill, the sea of skeletons behind them froze. Countless green phosphorescent lights flickered for a moment before all the skeletons lay back down, as if tired and ready to sleep, ignoring them.
The Night Wing scratched her head. “It’s a bit like me…”
Qin Yi couldn’t help but laugh. He wasn’t in the mood to joke with the girl; all his attention was drawn to what was at the foot of the hill.
At the foot of the hill stood a stone tablet, glowing with mysterious inscriptions.
It read “Eternal Bones Technique,” including illustrations. Clearly, this was the spell that created the sea of skeletons.
So this skeleton is considered eternal to you? Qin Yi couldn’t help but roll his eyes and walked up to circle the stone tablet, looking for any other clues.
On the back, there was a phrase: “Behind is the withered bone, ahead is the eternal green.”
This phrase had a strange meaning… it seemed like an explanation of this dark technique, but it could also be understood as a promise of longevity if one moved forward. Qin Yi finally understood how Dong Huazi had the courage to move forward; who wouldn’t want eternal life?
Qin Yi looked up at the barren hill in the mist. How was this any different from a bald man advertising hair growth products?
(End of Chapter)