164: Weird and strange mummies

“Brother Lin, do you know the origin of this rift?” Li Xiangyun thought for a moment, then asked Lin Ye, who was in front of him.

Lin Ye shook his head and said, “I don’t know.”

“My understanding of the Abyss is not very deep, but one thing is certain: this rift does not belong to the Abyss.”

“It doesn’t belong to the Abyss?” Li Xiangyun’s pupils contracted slightly as he murmured to himself.

A certain conjecture vaguely surfaced in his mind, but a layer of mist always obscured the path ahead, preventing him from seeing through it.

Just then, Lin Ye continued, “Don’t think too much. The most pressing matter is to pass through this rift first!”

“I don’t know why, but I always feel uneasy.”

With that, Lin Ye began to quicken his pace.

Li Xiangyun heard this and followed closely behind him, but the doubts in his heart never disappeared.

The bridge was very narrow, so narrow that only one person could pass at a time. The hemp ropes on both sides had long since faded and become brittle, with several broken sections barely held together by dry grass.

Chen Qinghai was a Golden Core Peak Cultivator from the Tianquan Star. For some reason, he was walking at the very back of the group.

And in a place invisible to everyone, a gas, like countless extremely fine ink-colored threads twisted together, wriggled along the decaying marks of the bridge planks, its tip trembling slightly, as if probing.

Chen Qinghai was looking down at a newly cracked fissure on the bridge plank, walking quickly, when he suddenly felt a chill run up the back of his neck, more biting than Nine Nether Qi.

He thought it was the wind blowing into his collar and raised his hand to adjust it, but his fingertips grasped at empty air.

It was then that the black Qi crawled up from the abyss. It didn't float like smoke; instead, it resembled a slick, slimy snake, slithering along the shadows of the bridge planks, winding its way up his trouser leg that hung by his side.

There was no sound, not even any weight. By the time Chen Qinghai realized something was wrong, the black Qi had already drilled into the back of his neck, like a cold needle. The moment it pierced his flesh, all the hairs on his body stood on end.

“Ugh...” A muffled groan escaped his throat. He instinctively tried to grab something, but his hand froze in mid-air.

The bridge planks before his eyes suddenly began to twist, and the figures of the people ahead became blurry, as if seen through frosted glass.

The sound of the wind in his ears changed pitch. The fragmented whimpers that drilled into his ears turned into low whispers, speaking strange syllables he couldn't understand, yet they ignited a sudden, inexplicable irritation in his heart.

He looked down at his hands; the skin at his knuckles had, at some point, turned bluish-black, as if steeped in ink.

The color was still slowly creeping upwards, following the lines of his blood vessels, wrapping around his forearm like a vine.

Chen Qinghai wanted to call out to the people ahead, but his mouth felt as if something was blocking it, only allowing guttural gasps to escape.

Then, the black Qi began to spread within his body.

It traveled along his blood vessels. Wherever it passed, the veins beneath his skin subtly turned bluish-black, like ink dripping into clear water, slowly spreading.

His temples throbbed violently, the bridge planks before him began to spin, and the figures of the people ahead became distorted, as if seen through rippling water.

The skin behind his ears suddenly grew hot, then instantly cold. These two extreme sensations intertwined, causing all the muscles in his body to begin twitching uncontrollably.

The most bizarre thing was that this power was like a seed falling into the soil.

It took root and sprouted in his chest, crawling up his trachea, drilling into his throat, and then wrapping around his heart.

His heart suddenly constricted, beating faster and heavier, as if trying to break free from the confines of his ribs.

He looked down at his hands; wisps of black Qi were actually seeping from between his fingers, swirling like smoke, yet disappearing the moment they touched the air.

“Qinghai, keep up!” The person ahead called out, his tone urgent.

Chen Qinghai abruptly looked up, and the confusion in his eyes was instantly covered by a layer of inky blackness.

“Co... ming...” He tugged at the corners of his mouth, trying to make his usual gentle expression, but his lips uncontrollably stretched upwards, revealing a stiff and eerie smile.

The black Qi had already condensed into two small, bottomless vortices in his eyes, reflecting neither the light of the sky nor the shadows of the people ahead.

Subsequently, Chen Qinghai lifted his foot and caught up with the group. His steps were much steadier than before, yet they carried a stiffness that was not his own.

Beneath the skin of his neck, the black Qi had completely merged into his Bloodline, as if nothing had happened.

Li Xiangyun was unaware of this. At this moment, he and Lin Ye had successively walked off the wooden bridge, then waited for the others.

Once everyone else had come down and the headcount was confirmed to be normal, they continued to move forward.

The group walked quickly. It had to be said that the spherical object in Lin Ye’s hand was indeed bright, like a large light bulb, emitting a dazzling and dreamlike glow.

This made Li Xiangyun inevitably a little curious.

However, before he could ask, Lin Ye took the initiative to start a conversation, saying, “Brother Li, the Soul Lamp in your hand looks quite extraordinary!”

This was true. Although the light of the nether soul guiding lamp was not as bright as the spherical object in Lin Ye’s hand, it was sufficiently resilient; any black mist that approached it would be instantly dispelled by its flame.

“Brother Lin, you’re the one. Your Magic Treasure is much brighter than my Soul Lamp,” Li Xiangyun replied with a smile.

Hearing this, Lin Ye said with a hint of pride, “To be honest, Brother Li, this Star Bead in my hand was refined from an entire planet, so it is naturally powerful.”

Li Xiangyun was somewhat shocked. No wonder one of them was comparable to the four magical seals of the Four Symbols Star Region; so that was why.

Lin Ye seemed quite pleased with Li Xiangyun’s shock, and in his joy, he introduced him to a lot of knowledge about the Big Dipper Star Region.

The two led the team forward, and before they knew it, they arrived before a desolate, dilapidated building.

They saw that the black mist ahead suddenly thinned a little. The light of the Star Bead pierced through the dense fog, illuminating a scene of scattered, uneven ruins.

The walls were dark grey, as if built from solidified blood paste, their surfaces covered with twisted carvings that, upon closer inspection, resembled countless struggling human faces.

More than half of the roof had already collapsed, revealing dark, hollow beams, with several broken pieces of wood suspended in mid-air, like fractured bones.

“What... is this place?” Someone in the team asked, their voice trembling, as they looked at the scene.

The light of the nether soul guiding lamp swept over a broken stone pillar. The carved beast head on the pillar’s capital had long since been smoothed by the years, leaving only two empty eye sockets, staring directly in their direction.

Everyone stopped, their gaze falling in unison on a nearby spot. There stood a leaning stone stake, and propped against it was a dried corpse.

It was called a dried corpse, yet it was far more eerie than an ordinary corpse. Its skin was like dried leather, tightly adhering to the bones, outlining the shape of a grotesque skeleton.

Its limbs were twisted in an unnatural posture, its right hand raised high, as if it had been grasping something before death, its finger bones gaunt and gleaming with a dull yellow luster.

What made one’s scalp crawl the most was its face; where its eyes should have been were only two black holes, but its jaw was split open, as if it were smiling, or perhaps screaming.