Chapter 197: Skull with a Familiar Face
It was a grotesque skeleton.
Humanoid in shape, but its withered and decayed form was beyond recognition.
An eerie green glow emanated from its bones, a clear sign of a potent poison. Even a casual strike from Chen Yin’s sword caused the toxic energy to dissipate and spread.
Fortunately, his blue spiritual energy neutralized the poison instantly.
The Grand Witch narrowed her eyes and looked around.
“This… is the Poison Nightmare Realm?”
Although she had expected danger, the reality was still unsettling.
The sky was a dark purple, the clouds formed of swirling miasma. The ground was cracked and barren, even the dust seemed to be coated in a toxic film.
Strange, twisted plants grew everywhere, their withered branches covered in tiny, wriggling worms, a sight that made her scalp crawl.
And then there were the humanoid skeletons that had attacked them.
Even the masked man couldn’t help but comment, “This miasma… is potent.”
“It’s a mixture of countless toxins, brewed over millennia.”
The Grand Witch brushed a strand of dark green hair from her face. “Miasma of this level can corrode even metal and spiritual energy. Even Grand Clarity Realm cultivators can’t stay here for long.”
“We need to be quick,” Chen Yin said, his voice low.
He felt a strange unease in this secret realm.
It wasn’t the dizziness caused by the miasma, but a deeper, more visceral sense of dread.
As if something sinister lurked within, something that made his skin crawl.
The Grand Witch nodded and started walking.
The realm was larger than they had expected.
The miasma stretched as far as the eye could see, and poisonous creatures, some even dangerous to them, lurked everywhere.
What unsettled Chen Yin the most were the humanoid skeletons.
Even when shattered into pieces, they would reassemble and attack again, their numbers far greater than they had anticipated.
At first, it was just one or two at a time. Then, groups of three or five, then dozens at once.
Chen Yin’s expression turned serious.
“We can’t kill them all.”
“It’s Gu techniques,” the Grand Witch said, her brow furrowed in thought. “There are records of Gu techniques that can control corpses in the Wu Xuan Cave’s scriptures, but controlling so many…”
“Is there a solution?” the masked man asked calmly.
“If it’s Gu techniques, then there must be a Mother Gu controlling them. We can’t kill all the lesser Gu. We have to find the Mother Gu first—”
The Grand Witch suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
Chen Yin, who was casually dispatching a skeleton with his sword, turned around, noticing her silence.
“What’s wrong?”
The Grand Witch didn’t answer.
Her eyes were wide, fixed on a small skeleton that was slowly approaching her.
It was smaller than the others, about the size of a child, its face a mangled mess, its movements slow and clumsy.
Even a mortal could have dodged it.
But the Grand Witch didn’t move.
For the first time, her usually arrogant and composed expression crumbled, replaced by a look of shock and disbelief.
As the skeleton’s bony fingers reached for her face, she still didn’t react, as if she hadn’t even seen it.
Clang.
The bony hand was stopped by a sword.
Chen Yin stood before her, his sword held casually in one hand. “What did you see?”
The Grand Witch’s lips moved silently, her eyes wide with disbelief.
“Impossible…”
Chen Yin glanced around. More skeletons were closing in. They couldn’t afford to waste time.
He unleashed a flurry of sword strikes, the Eternal Light sword splitting into countless shimmering blades, piercing through the approaching skeletons.
A moment later, only a pile of shattered bones and the swirling miasma remained.
“They’ll regenerate soon.”
Chen Yin turned to her, his voice low. “We can’t stay here for long. The miasma is getting denser.”
The Grand Witch’s eyes flickered, and she bit her lip.
“Did you recognize that skeleton?” the masked man asked, sheathing his sword.
“Yes…”
The Grand Witch crossed her arms, a rare look of sadness and hesitation on her face.
“That child… was one of the children from the Sacred Child trials.”
Chen Yin stopped and stared at her.
The Grand Witch’s eyes were downcast, her long eyelashes trembling slightly.
“Her name was Lingxiang.”
“She was from a neighboring village. We were sent to the Yama’s Valley together. But she couldn’t withstand the miasma and died on the fourth day.”
“I helped her avoid the poisonous creatures for the first two days, and when she started having a fever, I took care of her…”
But in the end…
The girl had died in her arms, her small face pale and lifeless, her lips bitten raw, black blood oozing from her eyes and ears, her screams so chilling that even the insects had fled.
Chen Yin listened silently, watching her.
He saw a flicker of resentment in her eyes.
He suddenly understood.
“Most of the children didn’t survive the first week. Those who did developed some resistance to the miasma, but most of them still died from the poisonous creatures or starvation.”
“Only that woman and I survived.” The Grand Witch’s voice had regained its usual calmness.
Chen Yin frowned. “So these skeletons… are the remains of the children who participated in the Sacred Child trials?”
“Not just children, there are adults too.”
“And their numbers… I can’t even begin to imagine.”
“Why are their bodies here, in this secret realm?” the masked man asked.
“I don’t know.”
The Grand Witch shook her head. “Let’s find the Mother Gu first. I’ll perform a ritual.”
She formed a series of hand seals, her slender fingers moving gracefully, and faint black dots appeared on the shattered bones.
She closed her eyes for a moment, then turned towards a specific direction.
“This way.”
After fighting their way through another wave of skeletons, they finally reached the Mother Gu’s location.
It was a valley.
Standing on the cliff overlooking it, even Chen Yin couldn’t help but feel a chill run down his spine.
The entire valley was teeming with snakes, scorpions, centipedes, and countless other venomous creatures, crawling and writhing among the bones and skulls, their legs clicking and scraping against the ground.
It was a nightmarish sight, enough to induce trypophobia in anyone.
“The Mother Gu is down there?” Chen Yin asked, his brow furrowed in disgust.
“Yes. The lesser Gu are all converging there.”
The Grand Witch looked down at the valley, her eye twitching slightly.
“Good heavens… this is…”
“Banded Scale Snakes, Thousand-Legged Centipedes, Blue-Tailed Scorpions… and many other extinct species.”
“There’s enough poison down there to kill a Grand Clarity Realm cultivator.”
“Is there a way to disperse them?” the masked man asked softly.
“Difficult. Even the Wu Xuan Cave has never seen such a concentration of poisonous creatures.”
The Grand Witch’s expression turned serious. “And the Mother Gu controlling the skeletons is also down there. Even if we disperse the insects, the skeletons will still be a problem.”
“So we have to go in?”
Chen Yin sighed. It seemed he would have to do the dirty work again.
He raised his Eternal Light sword and was about to jump down when—
“Wait!”
To his surprise, it wasn’t the Grand Witch who had stopped him, but the masked man.
“Do you… have a way to deal with those poisonous creatures?” the masked man asked after a moment of hesitation.
Chen Yin smiled faintly.
“Are you afraid I’ll get to the Phantasmal Harmony Ganoderma first?”
“…May the best man win. I can’t handle those creatures. If you can, I’ll concede defeat.”
“Then just watch.”
Chen Yin looked down at the valley and jumped.
The masked man instinctively reached out to stop him,
Then hesitated and withdrew his hand.
Chen Yin landed gracefully at the bottom of the valley.
The moment he landed, countless poisonous creatures swarmed towards him, crawling up his legs and clothes.
But he simply flicked his sleeves, and they scattered,
Creating a clear path before him as he walked, the sea of insects parting before him like the Red Sea.
“Impressive,” the Grand Witch said, her eyes wide with surprise. “To use spiritual energy as a shield without harming or provoking the creatures… his control is incredible. How does he do it?”
The masked man just watched silently. The Grand Witch thought she heard him sigh softly.
“He’s always full of surprises.”
“Huh? Did you say something?”
“…No. You must have misheard.”
Chen Yin continued walking towards the center of the valley, where the concentration of poisonous creatures was the highest.
Although he wasn’t afraid of insects, he was still a normal human being (in his past life, at least).
And any normal person would be creeped out by this nightmarish scene.
He quickened his pace, trying to ignore the writhing mass of creatures around him.
Suddenly, he stopped.
…He heard a voice.
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