Chapter 9: Pink Skeletons (1/2)
Chapter 9: Pink Skeletons
Translator: NinetalesEditor: Ninetales
As he ran with the herd of strange beasts, Qin Mu saw that the land ahead of them suddenly sloped downwards into a valley. Ancient, untouched structures were strewn throughout the village, such as ruined palaces, an enormous plaza, and even majestic skyscrapers.
”So there really was remnant of civilization ahead of us!” Qin Mu exclaimed.
At the very front of these decaying ruins was a towering gate that spanned the entrance to the valley. Marble pillars made up the bulk of this gate, dragons sculpted into the marble of each one so that they appeared to coil upward.
The herd of strange beasts turned towards the gate, rushing toward the ruins.
Qin Mu inadvertently glanced upwards, and his scalp went numb. The darkness was flowing down into the valley like a wave of ink!
”It’s here!” he screamed internally.
The darkness would soon reach the gate to the ruins and engulf it!
As if they could sense this as well, the strange beasts running alongside Qin Mu grew frantic. They rushed the gate with even more ferocity than before, ramming into and crushing other more careless beasts to death.
Now definitely wasn’t the time to be calm and orderly—If they couldn’t reach the ruins in front of them before the darkness arrived, they would die horrible deaths!
Sprinting forward madly, Qin Mu grabbed onto a behemoth’s tail. Unaware of the human hitching a ride on it, the behemoth bolted forward like a majestic black mountain, pushing aside and trampling all of the other beasts in its path.
Some of the beasts that the behemoth left in its wake leaped forward and latched onto its tail as well, allowing it to bring them into the ruins.
As he gripped the behemoth’s tail, Qin Mu looked below him and saw that all of the strange beasts that had been ferocious during the day were now trembling in fear. They clung to the behemoth’s tail for their very lives. When he turned to look farther behind them, he also saw the five youths frantically chasing the behemoth, scrambling for the ruins.
Finally, just before the darkness engulfed the gate, the behemoth burst through it, rushing into the ruins like a gust of wind.
At that same exact moment, the five Li River’s disciples rushed in through the gate as well. However, of the five youths, only three of them managed to make it all the way through before the darkness engulfed it. Senior Brother Qu, Senior Sister Qing, and one other youth made it through, but the other two disciples were a hair too late. Between the two, one only managed to get an arm through the gate. The other only got the front half of his body through—the back half had been claimed by the darkness.
As Senior Brother Qu passed through the gate, he immediately tried to grab onto his two junior brothers.
Taking hold of the visible arm, he forcefully pulled it towards him, causing a horrifying white skeleton to emerge from the darkness.
Before Senior Brother Qu could even reach for the other youth, he collapsed to the ground.
The blood of the surviving disciples ran cold. Flesh, blood, and clothing still covered the front half of the youth, but all of the other half of his body had been stripped down to the bone, devoured by some unknown thing in the darkness
”Why does this darkness exist!’ Senior Sister Qing screamed. ”What lurks inside of it!”
Senior Brother Qu struggled to stay composed, then released a trembling breath.
”Death is like a lamp going out. Our two junior brothers were brave and heroic. They died trying to vanquish a devil,” he solemnly said. ”That devil brat purposely came to these ruins at the last possible minute to take advantage of the darkness and use it to kill us!”
”He’s somewhere in these ruins. He won’t be able to escape us with the darkness everywhere,” said the youth who survived. Ruthless fury could be heard in his voice, a clear indication of how much the deaths of his fellow disciples affected him. ”Let’s find him! We’ll avenge our junior brothers by chopping that devil brat into a thousand pieces!”
”He’s over there!” Senior Sister Qing exclaimed, seeing Qin Mu jump from the tail of the behemoth. ”You still have the audacity to try and escape after causing the deaths of two of my junior brothers, little devil?”
Her accusations annoyed Qin Mu.
”You were the ones who chased me for no reason. How are their deaths my fault when it was you who decided to relentlessly chase me until nightfall? I didn’t provoke you in any way, yet you pursued me with the intent of taking my life. Aren’t I the one who’s innocent here?”
Senior Sister Qing gritted her teeth. ”How dare you try to argue with me, you little devil…!”
”You’re the devil!” Qin Mu yelled, flying into a rage. ”Granny and I only killed an elk to make clothing and you called us devils. You guys killed an entire herd of them, yet you still dare to say we’re the devils in this situation?”
A dark expression appeared on Senior Brother Qu’s face and he stepped forwards.
”The little devil is skilled at stirring up the doubt in our hearts. We don’t need to waste time talking… we just need to kill him!”
As soon as he said this, the three of them prepared to attack.
However, the moment they did, a low growl resounded throughout the ruins. They looked around to find out where it came from, and what they saw instilled shock in their hearts. Gathered throughout the ruins were hundreds of thousands of strange beasts. There were even plenty of beasts that were powerful enough to have their own territories. Every single beast looked down at the three remaining disciples maliciously, an ominous glint in all of their eyes.