387: Chapter 387 Wolf-shaped Skeleton

The beast's roar from deep within the Cauldron Tomb rang out again.

It was louder and closer than the first one.

Chen Rong and Lin Wan moved almost simultaneously.

Chen Rong skirted around two rows of alchemy cauldrons from the left, reaching Su Mingyuan's side in three strides.

Lin Wan caught up from behind and stood to Su Mingyuan's right, frost silently spreading in a circle beneath her feet.

The remaining Fifth-rank Martial Artists were also moving rapidly.

No one needed to give an order; everyone automatically converged toward Su Mingyuan's position, releasing their spiritual power, and lights of various colors lit up among the stone steles of the Cauldron Tomb.

Han Li was pulled back two steps by Zhao Ping and retreated to the middle of the group.

The direction of the roar was in the northwest corner of the Cauldron Tomb.

Su Mingyuan stared in that direction, ears perked up to listen.

The roar didn't sound human, nor did it resemble any sound he had heard from zombies or giants in other worlds.

It was deep, short, and carried a hoarse quality like metal rubbing against metal, as if something was breathing with a rusty throat.

Then he saw it.

From between the dense clusters of alchemy cauldrons, from the gap between two half-collapsed large furnaces, something walked out.

Su Mingyuan's first reaction was that it was a Yao Beast.

It was shaped like a wolf, with a shoulder height reaching an adult's chest, four legs, a long snout, and a tail.

But it wasn't a Yao Beast.

At least, not a living one.

There wasn't a shred of flesh or blood on its entire body.

No fur, no muscles, no internal organs.

It was just a skeleton, clean white bone, where one could even see the gaps between the bones at the joints.

This was a wolf-shaped skeleton.

Its gait was exactly like that of a living wolf—forelimbs stepping alternately, hind limbs following, its spine slightly undulating with each step.

But every step it took landed with a soft sound, its bone claws tapping on the stone slab, da da da da, like someone tapping their fingernails on a tabletop.

Su Mingyuan's gaze landed on its head.

There was also a flame in its cranial cavity, only this flame wasn't green, but red.

Su Mingyuan saw it very clearly.

The dark red flame flickered within the wolf skeleton's cranial cavity, much brighter and much more stable than the green fire of those skeleton men outside.

The green fire was flickering, as if it could be blown out by the wind at any moment, but this red fire burned solidly, almost filling the entire cranial cavity, overflowing from the two hollow eye sockets like two red lanterns.

"Something is wrong," Su Mingyuan said.

He subconsciously looked up at the sky.

A gray-white sky, dim yellow light.

No Blood Moon.

The Blood Moon had only set three hours ago, and there were still nine hours until it would rise again.

"The Blood Moon hasn't risen, so how is this thing moving?"

No one could answer him.

At this moment, that wolf skeleton stopped thirty meters away, red firelight shining out from its eye sockets, facing their group.

It tilted its head.

This action made the hair on Su Mingyuan's body stand on end.

Those skeleton men on the Bone Plains outside would attack indiscriminately after standing up, not even distinguishing between each other; they were purely Puppets driven by instinct.

But the action of this wolf skeleton tilting its head was different.

It seemed to have its own judgment.

"Chen Rong," Su Mingyuan said in a low voice.

"I know." Chen Rong had already half-crouched, lightning arcs crackling on his right hand.

The wolf skeleton didn't give them more time.

Its hind legs kicked off violently, and the entire skeleton catapulted forward.

The speed was more than twice as fast as Su Mingyuan had estimated.

It covered the thirty-meter distance in a single stride.

When its forepaws were raised, they brought a gust of wind, the bone claws slashing through the air; Su Mingyuan could even hear the sound of the finger bones cutting through the air.

Chen Rong met it head-on.

A bolt of lightning struck from his palm, hitting the wolf skeleton's chest squarely.

The lightning exploded, and a few bone fragments splattered.

But the wolf skeleton's movement didn't pause in the slightest.

Its forepaws still swiped down; Chen Rong dodged to the side, the bone claws grazing his shoulder and leaving four deep gouges on the alchemy cauldron behind him.

Chen Rong narrowed his eyes, feeling a lingering fear in his heart.

One had to know that according to Tao Zhe's earlier statement, these alchemy cauldrons were at the very least Materials of the spiritual object level, which meant their hardness was even slightly stronger than skyfall steel.

There was no time to think; the wolf-shaped skeleton charged again.

In his panic, Chen Rong's second bolt of lightning had already been fired.

This time he didn't aim for the chest, but aimed directly at the flame inside the cranial cavity.

The lightning pierced through the wolf skeleton's left eye socket and struck into the cranial cavity.

The red fire shook violently.

Then it returned to its original state.

Chen Rong's third bolt of lightning followed, striking through the right eye socket.

The red fire shook again.

"It's effective."

Chen Rong took a step back and blurted out these three words.

Lin Wan intervened from the side.

She didn't use Ice Seal, but instead condensed an ice spike, as long as a forearm, with a nearly transparent tip.

The ice spike flew from her hand, passing through the gaps between the ribs from the side of the wolf skeleton, and precisely nailed into the cranial cavity.

The moment the ice spike entered the cranial cavity, the red fire was compressed by a fraction.

But it was only compressed.

The ice spike held out in the red fire for about two seconds before shattering from the inside, ice shards spraying out from the eye sockets and nasal cavity.

The red fire expanded back to its original size.

The wolf skeleton shook its head, then turned and pounced toward Lin Wan.

Lin Wan slid back three steps, a sheet of ice spreading beneath her feet; the wolf skeleton's forepaws stepped onto the ice and stumbled, but it steadied itself almost immediately—

The bone claws of its hind legs dug into the ice, anchoring it like nails, and then its front half continued to pounce.

Chen Rong chased up from behind and slammed a fist onto the wolf skeleton's spine.

Lightning arcs spread along the spine to both ends, crackling.

The wolf skeleton's movement paused, and a crack appeared in the middle of its spine.

But at the same time the crack appeared, red light surged from the cranial cavity, flowing along the surface of the bones, and the crack healed at a speed visible to the naked eye wherever the red light passed.

Just like the green-fire skeletons, as long as the fire wasn't extinguished, the bones would automatically repair themselves.

But the repair speed was three or four times faster than the green-fire skeletons.

Chen Rong and Lin Wan attacked from the left and right.

Lightning and ice alternated, striking the wolf skeleton, sending bone fragments flying everywhere.

But every shattered part grew back within a few seconds, the red fire burned steadily in the cranial cavity, and no matter how much they hit it, it wouldn't extinguish.

Su Mingyuan stood ten meters away watching this battle, calculating in his mind.

Chen Rong was in the Foundation Establishment Stage, and so was Lin Wan.

The two of them had joined forces to fight one red-fire skeleton wolf for nearly two minutes, and not only had they not gained the upper hand, they even felt like they were falling behind.

"Team Leader!"

Zhou Jian's voice came from behind, carrying a sense of urgency.

Su Mingyuan turned his head.

Zhou Jian's expression didn't look good.

He was standing next to a row of stone steles on the east side of the Cauldron Tomb, pointing deeper inside.

Su Mingyuan looked in the direction he was pointing.

Another one had come.

From the forest of alchemy cauldrons deep within the Cauldron Tomb, a second skeleton Yao Beast walked out slowly.

And this one was even bigger.

It was even more than a size larger than the wolf skeleton.

Its form was a bear.

Its shoulder height exceeded two meters, its frame was broad and thick, the bone claws on its front paws were as large as a palm, and each finger bone was like a short blade.

It didn't walk fast, but every step it took landed with a dull thud, the stone slabs beneath its feet being pressed into shallow pits by its bone claws.

Inside its cranial cavity, a ball of red fire was burning as well.

Dark red, stable, full, overflowing from its two eye sockets.

It was exactly the same as the red fire of the wolf skeleton.

The bear skeleton walked to a position about eight hundred meters away from them and stopped.

It didn't charge over immediately like the wolf skeleton, but stood in place, its massive skull slightly lowered, the two balls of red fire facing Su Mingyuan's direction.

Su Mingyuan locked eyes with it for two seconds.

He could feel something in that red fire looking at him.

It wasn't the unconscious emptiness of the green-fire skeletons; it was a conscious gaze.

Just like a hunter staring at their prey.