Seeking the Dao in the Seemingly Mundane Mortal World

Chapter 60: Eternal Dry Bones

With a thump, the “gigantic” winged snake fell to the bottom of the valley. It immediately shrank in size, throwing Qin Yi off its back, and he rolled on the ground for a long distance.

That was caused by the sudden change of size. After all, Night Wing was actually quite tiny and couldn’t carry even one person. The fall wasn’t all that bad. Qin Yi quickly rose to his feet and when he turned to look, he saw a half-meter snake flapping its wings on the ground.

Half a meter wasn’t all that short, but compared to the giant snake a moment ago, the contrast was too overwhelming.

“What’s wrong?” Qin Yi stroked the snake anxiously. “Are you hurt?”

“I- I shrank. Argh…” The snake spoke in a little girl’s voice.

“Dumb snake,” Qin Yi said grumpily. “You only looked big and it wasn’t real. Did you fool yourself, too?”

“I only feel powerful when I’m that big.” Night Wing wouldn’t get up and looked quite sad.

Qin Yi ignored her and looked around to check the surroundings.

The fog was still very heavy here and he couldn’t see much. Although it wasn’t pitch dark, he couldn’t see beyond a few meters. Qin Yi blew the fog away with some wind, and his pupils contracted.

There were bones everywhere.

They were from both human beings and animals.

He also saw rusty weapons next to some skeletons, and they looked like the type of machetes Xihuang liked to use. Since they were in Xihuang territory, these were probably people sent by Xihuang to explore the rift. Needless to say, no one had survived.

By the looks of it, even the scavenging vultures didn’t come down here, but these bones proved that something very dangerous must be around. Otherwise, how did these people and animals die?

Qin Yi carefully moved closer and crouched down to examine the skeleton closest to him.

Even the clothes were gone not to mention anything else. However, a faint phosphorescent light seemed to shine in the eye sockets, making it look as though the skull could still see. It was quite creepy.

Qin Yi looked into the empty sockets.

Next to him, Night Wing was back to her human form and creeped out by Qin Yi.

After staring at his club, he was staring at a skull now. Wasn’t he afraid?

In fact, the club was telling Qin Yi its thoughts.

Qin Yi raised the spiked club.

At the same time, the skeleton suddenly attacked Qin Yi by the throat with an arm.

“Snap!” The spiked club whooshed down, smashing the entire skeleton into pieces.

The two dots of phosphorescent light fell to the ground but didn’t go out. The shattered skeleton then slowly pieced itself together.

There were crunching sounds all over them, and all skeletons stood up.

Night Wing’s teeth chattered. “W- What’s that…”

“It’s a way to control corpses. This is someone’s territory, and these skeletons are actually their guards.” Qin Yi smiled and said, “If we die here, we’ll become one of them, too.”

Night Wing saw a snake skeleton crawling toward her, and her teeth clattered. All she could think about was looking for a place to hide.

“They’re not all that powerful. Don’t be so scared.” Qin Yi raised the club and easily crushed two approaching skeletons. “They’re as capable as when they were alive. So they’re just normal soldiers who are moving much more slowly. Don’t be afraid.”

Night Wing said, “But they can heal themselves.”

“That happens too slowly to be any threat to us. Even Donghuazi could escape, so why can’t we?” Qin Yi forced himself through the rising skeletons. Wherever he went, bones flew everyone, and he maneuvered through the space in that manner.

Seeing how Qin Yi bravely dove through their enemies, Night Wing gained some confidence and ran after him.

“Come. Let’s take a look over there. The real deal is inside.” As Qin Yi advanced, he suddenly wonderd if he should try to made the dumb snake bolder. She was already a capable demon and much stronger than he was, but whenever she ran into something, her first reaction was to run away. That was incredible.

With that mentality, the dumb snake would probably be killed if she ever had to fight him.

Come to think of it, Qin Yi was amazed by his own courage. In his previous life, even skeletons at the hospital could creep him out, but he didn’t feel a thing now as he was facing real skeletons. He could actually fight his way through them.

His strength must’ve made him bolder.

Once he had killed people, skeletons were nothing.

The bottom of the valley wasn’t all flat.

Maybe it was when Liusu first created it, but after tens of thousands of years, hills rose and the ground caved in. Some places turned into woods and others became lakes. Some went through more special mutations after being affected by immortal or death energy.

This vast valley had everything.

If someone was using it as a dwelling, there should be buildings or caves somewhere.

Qin Yi could already see a bleak hill up ahead. The slopes were bare, and he couldn’t tell how tall it was through the fog.

As a matter of fact, he had only seen bleakness after he landed. There were only sands, rocks, and wild grass, which didn’t suggest immortal energy or treasures of heaven and earth at all. Qin Yi understood why that was. This area had to be the bleakest and most resourceless place in the entire valley. If it were any richer in resources, more powerful beings would have their eyes on it and the place wouldn’t be a “relatively safe white zone” anymore.

He felt more pressure as he moved closer to the hill because the skeletons were growing stronger. They were soldiers and ordinary animals at first, but as he advanced, he ran into skeletons of more peculiar beasts, most of which he didn’t know their names.

He already knew very little about the creatures in this world. Even if he did know them all, a lot of the things down here were already extinct outside.

Such as this one…

It was a reptile the size of a dinosaur but with three heads, and they were all different. The middle one looked human, and the two on either side resembled dogs or wolves. What on earth was that thing?

No matter what it was, that giant paw could kill or at least paralyze him.

Qin Yi wasn’t all that curious. He crouched down, ran under the beast from between its legs, and smashed the club into one of its shins.

The entire giant skeleton collapsed.

Qin Yi took Night Wing’s hand and dashed off toward the hill.

As soon as they reached the foot of the hill, the sea of skeletons stopped moving. The countless dots of phosphorescent light flickered for a moment before they all lay back down, as if they had to go to bed and didn’t care about the intruders.

Night Wing scratched her head. “Why are they acting like me…”

Qin Yi didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry but he wasn’t in the mood of teasing the girl, because his attention was attracted by the thing at the foot of the hill.

A stone tablet stood there, and it glowed in the dark. The flickering characters formed some profound knowledge.

The title said “Eternal Dry Bones”, and an illustration was included. It was obviously the technique that had created this sea of skeletons.

“Is that how you interpret ‘eternal’?” Qin Yi vented his sarcasm inwardly. He then walked around the stone tablet, wondering if there were other hints.

There was a sentence on the back saying, “The dry bones are behind you and eternity is in front.”

That was an interesting sentence which seemed to be an explanation to this evil method, but one could also perceive it as “keep walking and you’ll find the method of achieving immortality.” Qin Yi finally knew why Donghuazi had dared to keep advancing despite his insignificant capabilities. If moving forward would grant one immortality, who wouldn’t keep going?

Qin Yi looked up at the barren hill in the mist. “That’s like hiring a baldy to be the poster boy of a hair growth serum!”