Chapter 507: A Difficult Dilemma
Translator: Pika
“Shining?” Stunned by her remark, he quickly turned to follow her gaze. Sure enough, blue light was suddenly burning in the dark sockets of the skull. It was as if this skeleton had opened its eyes!
Zu An subconsciously took a step back as well. He swallowed with difficulty and said, “Does this world of yours have ghosts?”
Pei Mianman was also in a state of panic. It was already scary enough that this massive pit was filled with skeletons, and the strange light shining within that skull made her even more terrified. She didn’t even notice that he said ‘this world of yours’.
“Ghosts? Are you talking about spirits of the deceased? There are several ancient records of them. In the past, several cultivators sought out unconventional paths, and began to delve into necromancy. Some managed to control corpses and other such things.”
Zu An recalled the zombie troops that he’d seen in the dungeon behind the academy, and Zhang Han as well. These could all be considered undead creatures. He wondered what kind of being his big sis empress was…
But now wasn’t the time to think about these things. He looked at the skeleton, its eyes still flickering with blue light. “I don’t think these are undead creatures. I’ve met them before, and the feeling I get from them is different.”
Back in the old tomb in the Ursae Dungeon, even though those undead creatures had inferior intelligence, he could sense a form of ki fluctuation from their bodies. However, he did not feel anything of that nature from these skeletons, and the light inside of those eye sockets were very different as well.
“Then what kind of thing is this skeleton?” Pei Mianman was still a little scared. She didn’t know if it was because she was weak from her injuries, or if it was because she had Zu An next to her, but she felt much more timid than before.
“It might just be some phosphorescence. Such phenomena tend to happen in cemeteries and other such places. Phosphorus is quite flammable, and it produces blue flames when ignited. Many people don’t know about this and treat them as flames that represent the souls of the departed,” Zu An explained, imparting some scientific knowledge to her.
“Phosphorus? Is it something similar to that oxidized iron that you were talking about earlier?” Pei Mianman asked curiously. She considered herself quite well read, but she had never read anything about these before.
“Something like that. They’re both a type of chemical.” Zu An’s face heated up. He had said earlier that the dirt was red in color because of oxidized iron, yet it turned out that it was actually blood. He really hoped that he wouldn’t embarrass himself again.
As if she had read his mind, Pei Mianman’s fingers began to tremble as she pointed in another direction. “Why are more and more eyes lighting up?”
Zu An quickly looked around. He noticed that the other skulls were beginning to emit blue light as well, one after the other.
There were thousands of skeletons in this mass grave, and blue lights were beginning to light up a large area. The pit, which had been dark earlier on, was now filled with an eerie glow. It was an utterly terrifying sight.
Suddenly, there was a strange rustling, but they didn’t see a single person around them. Things began to feel weirder and weirder.
“Are you… sure that it’s just phosphorous?” Pei Mianman leaned even closer to him. She sounded extremely frightened.
Zu An gulped. This was definitely not phosphorus. If it was, why did they all coincidentally happen to burn only within the eye sockets of those skeletons?
Damn it! Why am I still trying to explain all these things with science? There are many things in this world that can’t even be explained through science to begin with!
The soft, tender touch on Zu An’s arm was about to drive him crazy, but made him braver as well. He said in a low voice, “I’ll go and take a look!” Standing around and thinking about it would only make him more afraid.
“Be careful!” Pei Mianman reminded him.
She followed behind him so that she could look after him by being at his side, and also because staying with him made her feel slightly safer.
Zu An took out his Tai’e Sword. He carefully stopped next to the closest skull, vigilant against any sudden attacks.
The skull on the skeleton hung limply, without showing any sign of change.
Zu An didn’t believe that it was luring him in. After all, undead creatures usually lacked intelligence, and wouldn’t be capable of such tricks.
He squatted down by one of the skeletons. “Excuse me, I’m really sorry for disturbing you. I just want to find out what happened here. This might help you rest in peace as well.”
After saying this, he reached out his hand and slowly removed its skull. He wanted to see what was going on.
However, as soon as he lifted it up, the two cold lights flared brightly, then shot out towards his face.
He immediately identified what those two lights were. They weren’t will-o-the-wisps, nor were they ghosts. They were two strange-looking snakes.
These two snakes weren’t large, only a foot in length. Their bodies were extremely thin as well, but their heads were quite large.
It had a bump on its head, and there was what seemed to be a vertical eye on that bump—which Zu An supposed could be considered its face. It was precisely this eye that was glowing with blue light.
Normal snakes had eyes on the sides of their head, and they were always small and round. However, not only was the snake’s eye oriented vertically, each snake only had one eye, which made them look extremely bizarre.
Its entire body was painted with black and red patterns, and almost every single one of its characteristics suggested that it was poisonous.
Zu An had already prepared himself to deal with any sudden ambushes when he removed the skull. As the snakes lunged at him, his Tai’e Sword flashed, and the two snakes were hacked into four chunks.
However, his eyes immediately narrowed, because the snakes did not seem to lose any forward momentum at all, even after being sliced apart.
He then remembered that snakes could still move after losing their heads. There were many cases of people dying after being bitten by beheaded snakes in his previous world.
“Damn it all!” The two snakes were lightning-quick to begin with, and the two of them were extremely close to him, so there was nothing else that Zu An could do.
He could only pray that his powerful regenerative abilities could ward off the venom that was sure to be in these snakes. However, the snakes were extremely weird, and their poison was sure to be potent.
A burst of black flame flashed past, and the two snakes were instantly burned to a crisp.
It was none other than Pei Mianman, stepping in to help him. Zu An felt cold sweat dripping down his back. He gave her a grateful look. “Big Manman, I would be dead right now if you hadn’t been here with me.”
Pei Mianman smiled. “You’ve already saved me many times as well.”
However, her smile quickly froze. “I think it’s best if we leave this place as soon as possible.”
Zu An turned around. All around them, the blue lights in the skulls had begun to move. The strange snakes wriggled out from those skulls, with many of those skulls harboring two snakes. They blanketed the ground, soon covering everything in sight.
There were thousands of corpses here, and it was easy enough to imagine just how many snakes there were here.
“Let’s get out of here!” Zu An turned and ran, pulling Pei Mianman along with him. The snakes swarmed at them from all directions.
Usually, cultivators like them should be much faster than snakes, but these snakes were something else altogether. They were incredibly fast, and didn’t seem to be falling behind at all.
Zu An ran across the massive pit, doing his best to avoid these snakes. He didn’t want to be surrounded by them. Only when he had to did he use his Tai’e Sword to open up a path.
This time, he had learned from experience, and paid attention to the direction in which the snakes were facing. There was no way he would let himself be ambushed again.
This pit was massive. Zu An estimated that it was the size of seven or eight soccer fields. However, they were cultivators, so they were much faster than ordinary people. Even though this pit was large, it wouldn’t take them much time to fully explore it.
Unfortunately, these strange snakes were everywhere, and did not give up their pursuit of them. As they ran past more of the bleached bones, more and more snakes joined those that were already pursuing them.
There was no way Zu An could just stop. If he stopped running, the sea of snakes would catch up to them. When he hacked through those few snakes that got too close, he noticed that their blood was like acid, burning through the ground. Their blood was definitely highly toxic and corrosive. If he let these snakes overrun them completely, their fate would surely be too horrible to imagine.
However, continuing to run around would only alarm more and more of these snakes. It was hardly a solution to their problem.
The only hope was to find an exit from this pit. Only then would there be a chance for survival.
However, after running around the perimeter of the pit, they were left in despair. Aside from those skeletons and the strange snakes, there was nothing else. There was no way out.