noffsinger Chapter 105 The Ruins of the Demon Clan
Chapter 105 The Ruins of the Demon Clan
Chapter 105 The Ruins of the Demon Race (Seeking First Subscription)
Lin Jingchu and Song Yu leaped lightly from the top of the giant rock and landed in front of the group of people.
Lin Jingchu stepped forward, subtly shielding Song Yu to his side and rear, and clasped his hands in greeting, saying, "Brother, I am Lin Jingchu, and this is my senior sister, Song Yu. We were unexpectedly swept here by a cloud of black mist. May I ask your name, and where this place is?"
The bald, burly man had three menacing claw scars on his face, which looked even more ferocious under the pale blue electric light.
His gaze swept over Lin Jingchu, lingering on Song Yu for a moment before he said in a deep voice, "Just call me Baron. This is the land of the dead—"
..
Baron gave a brief account of the situation, then changed the subject: "It's extremely dangerous outside. Those Yin beasts are just an appetizer. Once the Yin winds rise, there's no way to survive outside. If you two don't mind, why don't you come back to the village with us for a while and then we can discuss things further?"
Lin Jingchu's mind raced. To leave this place, he had to go to "Storm Mountain." Since he was unfamiliar with the area, it was necessary to go to the local village to inquire about information. He also needed to find out whether Master Lu and the others had been involved.
Lin Jingchu immediately cupped his hands and said, "Since Brother Balong is so kind, we two will be troubling you."
"No problem." Baron's face twitched as he saw the two agree, as if he wanted to force a smile, but it looked somewhat distorted because of the scars. He said no more and waved for his men to continue.
Lin Jingchu and Song Yu followed at the end of the group.
Song Yu said in a very low voice, "Junior brother, these people walk steadily and breathe deeply, as if they have all practiced external martial arts."
Lin Jingchu, without glancing to the side, replied in a low voice, "Just stay vigilant."
As the two conversed in hushed tones, they had already followed the group around the giant rock. Suddenly, Baron and the others ahead all stopped in their tracks.
One of the lean men stepped forward, crouched down, and used his torch to illuminate the six skeletons of giant wolves on the ground. He ran his fingers over the fine, neat gnawing marks on the bones, and gasped, "Hiss—one of them is an Ironscale Beast! The yin energy in the bones has been completely drained! Judging from these marks—it looks like the work of an insect swarm. Ironscale Beasts aren't particularly powerful, but they're fast, and their scales are incredibly tough, impervious to swords and blades. Could it be that this ghostly mist has swept in some formidable demonic insects?"
Upon hearing this, the other hunters' expressions changed. They instinctively gripped their bone weapons and warily looked around at the shadows cast by the rugged stone forest, as if a deadly swarm of insects might emerge from them at any moment.
Baron turned to look at Lin Jingchu and Song Yu, his eyes questioning.
Lin Jingchu remained calm and shook his head, saying, "We two have just arrived here and are already seeing this scene. We don't know what caused it."
Baron stared at him for a few moments, but in the end he didn't ask any more questions. He just said in a deep voice, "This place is not safe to stay for long. Let's go back to the village first." After saying that, he waved his hand and led the group to quicken their pace and turn back the way they came.
Dark blue lightning bolts occasionally struck down from the sky, blasting charred craters into the exposed giant rocks.
Less than fifteen minutes into the journey, the gravel valley came to an end. Just then, a series of low, dense wolf howls echoed from the shadows of the surrounding stone forest.
Immediately afterwards, ten Ironscale Beasts appeared, flanking them from the front and back, their eerie green wolf eyes gleaming fiercely in the dim light.
Lin Jingchu shifted his feet slightly, and he and Song Yu took a half step back in tacit understanding, protecting Baron and the others in front of them.
Baron roared, "Form ranks!" and he and his five shield-wielding companions quickly split into two flanks, raising their shields to meet the attack. The remaining six drew their bows, nocking bone arrows that flew straight at the wolf pack.
Baron, holding a bone shield in one hand and a bone sword in the other, warily watched the approaching pack of wolves. He lowered his voice and said to the people beside him, "Let one go, to test those two's strength."
Upon hearing this, the men around him all nodded almost imperceptibly.
Among the wolf pack, a particularly large alpha wolf growled, and the remaining nine wolves pounced!
Whoosh! Six bone arrows flew from the bowstring, accurately striking the vital points of the charging wolf pack. The Ironscale Beasts were quite agile, twisting and dodging, but two of them were still grazed by the arrows on their brows, provoking angry roars.
Baron and two teammates raised their shields to withstand the attack of the five wolves from the front, the bone shields scraping against the wolf claws with a piercing sound.
A beast with iron scales opened its mouth to spew out eerie fire, but the Baron Bone Sword swiftly thrust forward, forcing it to tilt its head and dodge.
Just then, a man holding a shield on the flank seemed to be losing strength and stumbled, causing his shield to veer slightly.
A shrewd iron-scaled beast seized the fleeting opportunity and darted in crouching low.
The archers in the back row seemed to have been prepared and quickly dodged to the sides. The iron-scaled beast continued its momentum and rushed straight at Lin Jingchu and Song Yu behind them!
Song Yu raised his sword to meet the attack, and whispered, "Watch out!"
But before she could finish speaking, Lin Jingchu had already made his move.
Just as the Ironscale Beast lunged within a zhang (approximately 3.3 meters), he suddenly lunged forward and lowered his body, his dark golden dragon scale sword slicing through the air, treating the hard scales as nothing, precisely piercing the wolf's belly scales, and then slashing upwards with the momentum.
laugh--!
The dull thud of a blade slicing through flesh rang out. The ferocious iron-scaled beast let out a short, mournful howl, its massive body sliding several feet further with the force of its forward charge before crashing heavily to the ground.
A massive gash extending from its abdomen to its neck nearly ripped it open, gushing blood and entrails. It twitched a few times, then fell silent.
All of this happened in the blink of an eye. While Baron and his men were engaged in battle, they kept an eye on their rear out of the corner of their eyes.
Upon seeing this, the pupils of the group all contracted, and their movements slowed down by a fraction, nearly resulting in injury from the wolf's claws.
"Roar!" The alpha wolf roared in anger upon seeing this, and its attack intensified. However, Baron and the others were well-trained and quickly regained their footing. They parried with shields, stabbed with bone swords, and launched sneak attacks with sniper arrows, focusing on the Ironscale Beast's weak points such as its eyes and throat, cooperating seamlessly.
Before long, the wolf pack abandoned the corpses of three of their companions and, led by their alpha wolf, fled into the stone forest.
Several men crouched down and painstakingly dissected the wolf carcass with bone daggers.
Baron strode up to Lin Jingchu, his gaze lingering for a moment on the dark gold longsword in Lin's hand, which remained spotless from blood. He clasped his hands in a fist and said heartily, "Brother Lin, what superb skills! Baron admires you!" This time, his smile was more genuine.
Lin Jingchu returned the greeting: "Brother Baron, you flatter me. It was just a matter of self-preservation in a moment of crisis. Your excellent teamwork and skillful maneuvering are true abilities."
At this moment, one of the men in charge of dissecting the corpse held up a green crystal the size of a fingernail and exclaimed excitedly, "Boss! We've found a Netherworld Beast Crystal!"
Another man joined in, clicking his tongue in amazement: "What incredible luck! They actually managed to extract one from a low-level Yin Beast like the Iron Scale Beast."
Upon hearing this, Baron's face lit up with joy: "With this beast crystal, this trip wasn't in vain. Forget about the wolf bones, let's go."
The group set off again. After this incident, Baron's attitude towards Lin Jingchu and his companion was noticeably warmer, and he introduced more about the area as they walked.
For example, the Yinming Beast Crystal is an important resource in this world. Although it cannot be used for cultivation, it can be used as an energy source to drive certain magic arrays. Their village can resist the Yin winds because of the magic array centered on this crystal.
As you move forward, the surrounding terrain becomes increasingly rugged and bizarre. Huge weathered stone pillars stand like the fangs of giant beasts, and on many ruins, you can still see some rough and strange characters and patterns, which seem to be the relics left by some ancient civilization.
Lin Jingchu and Song Yu immediately became wary, slowed their pace, and gradually fell to the very back of the group.
Baron seemed to sense something and turned around, saying, "There's a shortcut through here. Go around that stone forest ahead, and you'll reach the village." He pointed to a winding path deep within the ruins.
Lin Jingchu nodded to indicate that he understood, but exchanged a glance with Song Yu and continued to follow at the back at a leisurely pace.
However, just as the group rounded a broken stone pillar that required several people to encircle, a huge whooshing sound came from above, and everyone hurriedly scattered.
boom-
The boulder crashed down where everyone had just stood, sending debris flying and dust billowing everywhere.
"Run!" Baron shouted! He and the other hunters, as if they had practiced it a thousand times, suddenly darted into a narrow crevice in the shadows on the left with astonishing speed.
A chill ran through Lin Jingchu's heart, but he and Song Yu immediately sped up to catch up. Without this group of people, they would have to waste a lot of time searching for the village.
The second and third boulders followed one after another, continuously being thrown down from the shadows above, creating a deafening roar.
Baron and his companions were extremely familiar with the terrain. After several sharp turns in the labyrinthine stone forest ruins, they abandoned Lin Jingchu and Song Yu and disappeared without a trace.
boom-!
A massive black shadow, accompanied by a fierce wind, crashed down like a meteorite several feet in front of Lin Jingchu and Song Yu, causing the ground to shatter and dust to billow.
As the smoke and dust dissipated, the true form of the creature was revealed. It was a giant green-haired ape, standing three zhang tall.
It has four arms and two legs, with webbed fingers and toes. Instead of ears, it has gill-like organs covered with fine bony spurs on the sides of its head.
In this desolate and barren land of the underworld, the appearance of such a monster with obvious sea creature characteristics makes its origin self-evident—it must be an "unlucky fellow" like them, who was swept into this place from the outside world.
The giant ape's four eerie green eyes were fixed on the two tiny humans before it. It opened its blood-red maw and let out a deafening roar, sending a wave of foul stench crashing down on them.
It pounded its chest with its four arms, then pounced forward, and a giant hand the size of a millstone, accompanied by a terrifying gust of wind, slammed down on the two of them!
Boom! Dust and debris erupted as the giant hand slammed down!
However, there was no one under his palm. In the split second, Lin Jingchu and Song Yu had already dodged to the sides.
The giant ape struck empty air, and a purple cloud of insects burst forth from the smoke and dust, buzzing as it enveloped the giant ape's head.
The giant ape roared in shock and rage, wildly waving its four arms and smashing hundreds of crystal ants to pieces with its palm strikes.
But such losses were insignificant to the ant colony, which had already clung to its fur. The giant ape's hide was thick and tough, and the ants couldn't bite through it for a while. The ant colony immediately changed its strategy, with most of them rushing into the giant ape's body through the gaps in its gills.
Terrified, the giant ape closed its eyes tightly, covered its mouth and nose with its two giant paws, and thrashed its body wildly with its other two arms.
Lin Jingchu and Song Yu had already hidden behind a boulder, quietly watching the giant ape go berserk. Its massive body roamed wildly through the stone forest ruins like a headless fly, smashing through countless rubble and broken walls, but it could not expel the deadly "devourers" within its body.
After struggling in agony for a moment, the giant ape let out a suppressed wail from its paws, and with a burst of strength from its feet, it leaped to a high point in the ruins, then frantically jumped deeper into the ruins.
The field fell silent, and Baron's group did not return.
The Queen Crystal Ant, perched on Lin Jingchu's shoulder, rapidly vibrated its antennae, signaling the swarm's location to him. Guided by the Queen, Lin Jingchu, along with Song Yu, quickly gave chase.
The blue lightning in the sky became increasingly violent, striking down intermittently and creating craters on the ground.
The two wandered through the ruins of the stone forest, eventually catching up to a huge stone palace. Although much of the stone palace had collapsed, the main structure still remained.
The two carefully stepped into the hall, where they faced a huge doorway.
Just then, the purple cloud of insects buzzed out of the doorway, and one particularly large one was supporting a fist-sized, round bead that shone with a bluish-green light—the giant ape's demon core.
The Heavenly Crystal Ant Queen commanded the ant colony to present the demon core to Lin Jingchu, seeking credit.
"Well done, Xiao Jing," Lin Jingchu praised, then put the demon core into his robes.
The howling wind outside the hall grew increasingly fierce, and the two dared not delay, quickly slipping through the doorway.
Beyond the doorway was a tall stone path, pitch black inside. Lin Jingchu took out an item from the system's settlement panel—the Fire Crystal, a reward from the Fire Dragon Child quest.
The fist-sized red crystal emitted a steady red light and warmth, dispelling the darkness.
Using the light, the two traveled swiftly, quickly passing through the stone path and arriving at a stone hall that was about a hundred feet in diameter.
The giant ape's mangled remains lay in the hall, with many withered bones scattered on the ground. Judging from their shapes, they appeared to be the remains of various evil beasts, indicating that this was clearly its lair.
At the entrance to the stone path behind us, there are many long, rectangular boulders scattered around, which seem to be the stone materials of this ruin, and are several times heavier than ordinary stones.
Lin Jingchu and Song Yu nodded to each other and immediately joined forces to move and stack the huge stones one by one, quickly blocking the entrance that was more than five zhang high.
Although a cold wind still seeped in through the cracks in the rocks, it was no longer very powerful.
After finishing all this, both of them were covered in sweat. Lin Jingchu looked at Song Yu, who was drenched in sweat, and suddenly found it a little funny. He said in a low voice, "Having cultivated immortality for so long, this is the first time I've experienced carrying heavy objects like a mortal."
Song Yu smiled, raised his hand to tidy up the few strands of hair on his forehead that were damp with sweat, and turned around to look at the stone hall.
In addition to the strange characters, there are also a large number of murals carved on the stone walls inside the hall.
The content is roughly as follows: a strangely shaped demon race is preying on various Yin-Yang beasts, and its size gradually increases until it finally disappears into a vortex-shaped pattern.
While Lin Jingchu and Song Yu were studying the murals, Baron and the others had already returned to their village.
Inside a dilapidated wooden hut, the oil lamp cast a dim yellow light.
"Brother, those two seem quite skilled, why didn't you bring them back to the village?" The lean man who had discovered the beast crystal earlier couldn't help but ask curiously.
Baron snorted coldly, the scars on his face appearing particularly grotesque in the flickering lamplight: "Those two are cultivators. If they are brought to the village, they will definitely join the Second Elder's faction."
"According to what the Second Elder and the other cultivators said, that Yu Yuan Beast is a level six demon beast. Even if those two had some backup plans, they are doomed!"
"Once this cold wind passes, we'll go back to the ruins and retrieve those two precious swords. With these two divine weapons, your elder brother might just be able to compete for the title of Third Elder."
Another man, who was wiping his bone knife, grinned and said, "That's right! And it would be best if that young lady surnamed Song could survive by sheer luck."
Upon hearing this, the others all chuckled softly, understanding each other perfectly.
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