31: Chapter 31 Bones on the Bend

April 7th, 12:40 AM.

Underground drainage system, 80 meters north of the second fork.

Yan Zheng leaned against the wall behind the curve, his back pressed against the cold, damp rock, while the massive back of the Stitched Brute blocked almost the entire passage in front of him.

The three Skeleton Soldiers were already in position.

Skeleton Soldier No. 1 and Skeleton Soldier No. 2 were lying in the drainage ditches on either side of the curve, their bodies curled into balls, skeletons pressed tightly against the ditch walls, the light of their phosphorus flames dimmed to the lowest level.

No. 3 Skeleton Soldier served as a Sentinel 20 meters ahead of the curve, crouching behind a broken drainage pipe, its remote perception covering the 30 meters ahead.

Yan Zheng closed his eyes, his consciousness split in two.

One half maintained the perception link with No. 3 Skeleton Soldier, monitoring the passage ahead.

The other half ran through the ambush procedure in his mind three times.

"The ninjas are coming from the south, first passing through No. 3 Skeleton Soldier's perception range."

"No. 3 Skeleton Soldier will not move, only responsible for early warning."

"After passing No. 3 Skeleton Soldier's position, the ninjas will continue forward and enter the curve."

"The view at the curve is obstructed; they cannot see the Brute behind it."

"As soon as the first two turn the corner, Skeleton Soldier No. 1 and Skeleton Soldier No. 2 will lunge out from the drainage ditches and grab their legs."

"The Brute will charge head-on."

"The ninjas behind will be stuck at the curve, unable to provide support in time."

"In this two-meter-wide meat grinder, we will quickly take out the front row and then push through to crush the back row."

Yan Zheng: ( ˊ ꈊ ˋ )

"Simple, efficient, and gives them no room to create distance or unleash their agility."

He opened his eyes and glanced at the time displayed on the system panel.

12:55 AM.

"Five minutes until one o'clock."

Yan Zheng's back slid down the wall by half an inch as he adjusted his posture; the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses showed no reflection in the darkness.

1:03 AM.

A disturbance appeared in No. 3 Skeleton Soldier's perception feed.

Deep in the southern passage, four fuzzy heat signatures were approaching rapidly, evenly spaced, their footsteps silent.

Yan Zheng narrowed his eyes.

"They're here. Four of them."

He issued a silent command in his consciousness, and the phosphorus flames of all his Undead Creations extinguished simultaneously; the two Skeleton Soldiers in the drainage ditches ceased even the slightest tremor of their skeletons, leaving the entire ambush zone in dead silence.

Four black shadows passed the pipe where No. 3 Skeleton Soldier was hiding.

They didn't notice anything.

They continued moving north, passed No. 3 Skeleton Soldier's position, and were 15 meters from the curve.

Ten meters.

Five meters.

The first ninja stepped into the corner of the curve, his thin-soled soft shoes making no sound as they trod on the gravel.

His body began to turn.

His gaze swept over the inner wall of the curve, then continued forward.

Behind the curve, the 2.2-meter-tall Stitched Brute stared directly at him, its dark green phosphorus flames igniting suddenly at that moment.

The ninja's pupils contracted.

"Now."

Yan Zheng: ( ꐦ ≖ ᗜ ≖ )

The two Skeleton Soldiers in the drainage ditches exploded outward simultaneously.

Skeleton Soldier No. 1 lunged from the left toward the first ninja's knee bend, its ten bony fingers locking tightly into the muscles of the opponent's calf.

Skeleton Soldier No. 2 lunged from the right toward the second ninja's waist, wrapping its arms around to pin the opponent's upper body.

The first ninja's reaction was ridiculously fast.

It took only 0.4 seconds from drawing his short blade to swinging it down, the blade glowing with a dark red light as it struck the cervical spine of Skeleton Soldier No. 1.

Crack.

The cervical spine snapped.

The Skeleton Soldier's skull flew off, tumbling twice in the air, its phosphorus flames extinguishing the moment the skull detached from the body.

But the headless Skeleton Soldier did not let go.

Its ten bony fingers remained locked tightly on the ninja's calf, the entire skeleton winding around the opponent's lower body like a snake, showing no signs of loosening even after losing its skull.

Yan Zheng: ( ꈍ ꒳ ꈍ )

The dead don't know how to let go. This is the advantage of the undead.

The second ninja, held by the waist by Skeleton Soldier No. 2, stabbed backhanded three times, each blade precisely piercing the gaps between the Skeleton Soldier's ribs, severing the spine inside section by section.

The Skeleton Soldier's upper and lower body separated, but the arms of the upper body were still gripping the ninja's waist, and the leg bones of the lower body were still wrapped around the ninja's ankles.

Just these two seconds of entanglement.

The Stitched Brute had already charged in front of them.

Its 2.2-meter-tall petrified body barreled through the tunnel, which was less than two meters wide, its shoulders scraping against the walls on both sides, kicking up a cloud of gravel and dust.

Its right fist smashed toward the first ninja.

The ninja tried desperately to retreat, but his lower body was entangled by the headless Skeleton Soldier; his steps faltered, and after taking half a step back, his back was blocked by the wall.

The fist landed on his chest.

A dull thud.

The ninja's body was like a flattened sandbag; from sternum to spine, his entire chest cavity caved in under the heavy blow, a large mouthful of bloody foam sprayed from his mouth, and his eyes bulged outward.

He slammed into the wall, leaving a human-shaped indentation on the surface.

Killed in one blow.

Yan Zheng: ( ꉺ ᗜ ꉺ )

The third and fourth ninjas behind the curve heard the sound; their first reaction was not to retreat, but to accelerate and charge forward.

The third ninja kicked off the wall for leverage, leaping from high above over his fallen comrade, his short blade slashing directly at the Brute's face.

The Brute raised its left arm to block, the short blade striking the scale armor, the blade's light flashing.

A white mark.

Only a white mark.

The scale armor on the left arm, which had been slashed countless times by similar short blades in the previous battle, had completed Adaptive Regeneration, its hardness having increased by at least double.

The same blade, the same force, but this time not even a crack appeared.

A flash of astonishment crossed the eyes behind the ninja's mask.

The Brute's right hand grabbed his ankle while he was suspended in mid-air.

Then it slammed him against the wall.

Then it slammed him against the other wall.

The fourth ninja cut in from the side, throwing out a chain that wrapped around the Brute's right arm, pulling backward with all his might.

No. 3 Skeleton Soldier completed the flanking maneuver from the rear.

It emerged silently from the darkness, its bony claws wrapping around the fourth ninja's neck, both hands exerting force simultaneously to twist in opposite directions.

The ninja stabbed backward with his short blade held in a reverse grip, the tip piercing the Skeleton Soldier's chest cavity, but the Skeleton Soldier did not pause at all.

Crack.

The sound of a cervical spine being dislocated echoed in the narrow passage.

Yan Zheng: ( ✧ ᴗ ✧ )

The ninja's body went limp, and the short blade and chain in his hands dropped into the stagnant water.

The ninja in the Brute's hand, who had been slammed twice, also stopped moving and was tossed onto the ground like a rag.

From the start of the ambush to the end of the battle, no more than forty seconds had passed.

The passage returned to silence, save for the sound of blood slowly diffusing in the stagnant water.

Yan Zheng walked out from behind the curve.

His leather shoes stepped into the stagnant water, splashing up tiny droplets, but his suit remained without a single crease, as if the brief and bloody battle that had just occurred had nothing to do with him.

"Four people, forty seconds."

He squatted down and checked the status of the four ninjas one by one.

All dead.

Then he looked down to assess his own losses.

Skeleton Soldier No. 1, cervical spine severed, skull detached, upper spine shattered, scrapped.

Skeleton Soldier No. 2, spine severed section by section, upper and lower body separated, scrapped.

No. 3 Skeleton Soldier, chest cavity pierced, but the core cervical spine and skull are intact, still repairable.

"Two scrapped, one repairable."

Yan Zheng showed no expression of heartache.

Skeleton Soldiers are just consumables, like disposable gauze on an operating table; once used, you just replace them.

He turned his attention to more valuable things.

"Collect."

Yan Zheng: ( ꈍ ∀ ꈍ )

Dark green black mist enveloped the four ninja corpses one after another; eight seconds later, the ground was clean.

Gold notifications popped up consecutively on the system panel in his field of vision.

Four ninjas, seven portions of materials added to inventory.

But what truly made Yan Zheng's fingers stop was something found on the third ninja.

Before they were collected, Yan Zheng rummaged through the ninja's belt and hidden pockets as usual.

In a hidden pocket at the back of the third ninja's waist were two fist-sized iron containers, sealed extremely well; the sound of tapping them was dull, indicating liquid inside.

Yan Zheng unscrewed the lid, and a strong scent of rust mixed with caramel wafted toward him.

The dark red liquid swayed slightly in the container, its surface shimmering with a very faint fluorescence.

The system panel displayed the scanning results.

[Detected: blood of the black sky (low purity), occult strengthening potion. Can be used as an independent material or directly injected into an existing Undead Creation for strengthening.]

Yan Zheng screwed the lid back on and shoved the two iron containers into his coat's inner pocket.

He stood up and looked at the empty tunnel floor, the lenses of his gold-rimmed glasses reflecting a faint, eerie dark green glow.

"Four strengthened ninjas, seven portions of materials, two bottles of blood of the black sky."

"The cost of losing two Skeleton Soldiers is not even a fraction compared to these gains."

Yan Zheng gently patted the Stitched Brute's arm, his tone as gentle as if he were praising a loyal hound.

"Mr. Brute, well done."

"But tonight's surprises don't end here."

He shook the two containers in his coat's inner pocket, the metal clinking with a dull thud.

"blood of the black sky, something The Hand uses to strengthen living people."

"What would happen if I poured it into the bones of an undead?"

Yan Zheng: ( ꉺ ᗜ ꉺ )

"I'll know once I go back and run an experiment."