Chapter 294

Chapter 293

The bone boat glided downstream, with skeletons crawling out of the river along the way, filling the entire riverbed with their ghastly white bones.

Fortunately, the skeletons in the river were not too powerful, and the defensive array on the bone boat could withstand their attacks, preventing them from being overwhelmed.

The skeletons persisted in their attacks, and Ning Yuzhou had to reinforce the defensive array from time to time.

After traveling for several hours, the boat finally stopped at a dock.

The full moon still hung high in the sky, showing no signs of setting.

By the moonlight, they saw that the dock was a simple structure made of bones, with a few skeleton soldiers holding bone spears standing guard. They stood silently, their eye sockets dark and lifeless, like mere bone frames.

The four people leaped off the bone boat, and Ning Yuzhou casually put it away.

As they stepped onto the dock, the black eye sockets of the skeleton soldiers lit up with a blood-red glow, and they immediately moved, pointing their bone spears at them in unison. Their teeth clicked together, as if trying to communicate.

Unfortunately, no one present could understand what they were saying.

The four remained silent, making no sudden moves.

Soon, the skeleton soldiers lowered their bone spears and returned to their posts, the red glow in their eye sockets quickly fading, turning them back into lifeless bone frames.

Though puzzled, the four realized that these skeleton soldiers had no intention of attacking them.

Could the skeletons in the river be different from those on land?

Thinking this, they turned to look at the river and noticed that the skeletons in the water had disappeared, seemingly sinking to the bottom, leaving the river surface calm, with only the pale moon reflected upon it.

Wen Qiao took a tentative step forward, and when the skeleton soldiers showed no reaction, they passed by them and left.

Nothing happened as they left the dock, and the skeleton soldiers did not try to stop them.

"What's going on?" Pei Qiyu whispered. "Their behavior just now must have been a routine check, right?"

It seemed as if there was a ruler here, and these skeleton soldiers were stationed at the dock to inspect anyone who came ashore. If everything was fine, they would let them leave.

Ning Yuzhou looked ahead and suddenly said, "Look, there's a bone carriage over there."

The others turned to look and saw a road paved with white bones not far from the dock, with a carriage parked by the roadside.

The carriage had a distinctive Bone Town design, also made of bones, and the creature pulling it was a demonic beast—nothing but a skeletal frame.

A ghastly white skeleton sat on the carriage pole, its eyes glowing red as they approached, its teeth clicking as if asking if they wanted to board.

Without further ado, the four climbed into the carriage.

The sound of hooves echoed as the bone carriage sped down the bone road.

On either side of the bone road lay desolate hills, the undulating terrain a dull gray-brown, with occasional fragments of bones half-buried in the soil. Most of these bones were already half-decayed, looking very brittle, as if they would turn to powder at the slightest breeze.

Looking ahead, the bone road wound through the hills, stretching endlessly.

"Where is it taking us?" Su Molan asked, somewhat worried.

"It's a shame we can't understand what they're saying," Wen Qiao lamented. If they could communicate with the skeletons, it would save them a lot of trouble.

Pei Qiyu found Wen Qiao's words utterly unrealistic. How could a human communicate with a skeleton? After all, these skeletons were another form of life, clearly dead humans who had somehow survived as skeletons.

Su Xing and Wen Guangun clung tightly to Wen Qiao, finding this place too eerie, both the beast and the artifact feeling afraid.

Su Xing trembled and said, "Sister Wen, will it take us somewhere with many skeletons? Will those skeletons attack us like the ones in the river?"

Before he finished speaking, the skeleton driving the carriage turned to look at them, the red glow in its eyes flickering, its teeth clicking.

The four fell silent simultaneously.

Su Xing became even more frightened, "D-does it understand what we're saying?"

This reaction clearly indicated that it understood and was responding to them, likely defending itself.

The four did not answer Su Xing, only watching the skeleton. Its teeth clicked for a moment before it turned back to continue driving.

Su Xing, due to its reaction, dared not speak much, cautiously observing the surroundings, his timid appearance making everyone somewhat speechless.

Pei Qiyu said, "You're a divine artifact, why are you afraid?"

"Who says a divine artifact shouldn't be afraid?" Su Xing retorted, unusually righteous, "Artifacts have emotions too, and they can fear death. This place is so strange and eerie; it's normal for me to be afraid."

Su Molan hurriedly said, "Don't worry, don't worry. We're all together, there's nothing to fear."

Su Xing huffed at Pei Qiyu and flew to Su Molan, hugging her shoulder and saying, "Lanlan is the best, the demon seed is no good..."

Pei Qiyu sneered, his worth did not need to be judged by a young artifact.

As they spoke, the bone carriage slowed down.

Everyone looked up and saw a city at the end of the bone road. The city walls were extremely high, also built of white bones, with three prominent blood-red characters: Dugu Mansion.

Though the characters were incomprehensible, seeing them made their meaning clear.

Pei Qiyu reacted quickly, "Dugu Mansion? Could it be that the Thirteen Palaces of Dry Bones means this place is composed of thirteen prefectures?"

So, they had stumbled upon Dugu Mansion, one of the Thirteen Palaces of Dry Bones.

The bone carriage stopped at the city gate, and the skeleton driver jumped down from the pole, gesturing for them to get off.

The four disembarked in order, and just as they were about to walk toward the city gate, the skeleton extended its ghastly white bone hand to block their path, its teeth moving rapidly, emitting a series of clicks.

The four were initially puzzled but quickly understood its meaning.

It was asking for a fare.

"Can spirit stones work?" Su Molan asked hesitantly, they hadn't expected to have to pay a fare here.

Pei Qiyu took out a spirit stone and handed it to the skeleton, but it waved its hand, indicating it wouldn't accept this, and cackled at them.

Then Pei Qiyu tried spirit pills, spirit artifacts, talismans, and other items that cultivators found valuable, but the skeleton refused all of them with a shake of its head.

Pei Qiyu frowned, "If you don't want these, what do you accept?" He realized he had just asked a foolish question as soon as he finished speaking.

Perhaps thinking they intended to ride without paying, the skeleton pointed at them with one hand and placed the other on its hip, scolding them with a continuous cackle.

Though they couldn't understand the words, being scolded in such a manner still made them feel quite uncomfortable.

Especially when many skeletons preparing to enter the city stopped to watch them, the scene was truly embarrassing.

Wen Qiao quickly reached out to stop it, indicating they weren't trying to ride for free but were looking for something suitable as a fare.

She rummaged through her storage bag and pulled out a food box, offering it, "Will this work as a fare?"

The skeleton took it, opened the box, and upon seeing the wine and food inside, finally seemed satisfied. It put the box away and drove off.

Su Molan and Pei Qiyu were somewhat dazed and couldn't help but ask Wen Qiao, "These skeletons aren't human, why would they need wine and food?"

"The wine and food are from Bone Town, the leftovers we packed from the tavern last time," Wen Qiao replied. "Since this place is closely related to Bone Town, I thought things from Bone Town might be useful here, so I gave it a try."

It turned out that things from Bone Town really did work.

Ning Yuzhou looked at the departing bone carriage thoughtfully and said, "Auntie Hua told us not to eat any food from Bone Town; it seems there's a connection here."

"Could eating it tie us to the Thirteen Palaces of Dry Bones?" Su Xing asked softly, looking very worried.

"It's possible," Pei Qiyu replied with a malicious look, "I have another box of wine and food from Bone Town, do you want to try some?"

Su Xing glared at him, finding this demon seed truly detestable, always trying to trick it!

After resolving the fare issue, they turned their attention to Dugu Mansion.

"Do we have to pay an entry fee to enter the city too?" Su Molan asked hesitantly, "Should we use the wine and food from Bone Town again?"

The amount of wine and food was limited; they had ordered it casually while gathering information at the tavern and, influenced by Wen Qiao, hadn't thrown it away but packed it up and stored it in their bags.

Ning Yuzhou said, "Look at the skeletons entering the city."

Everyone turned to watch the skeletons queuing to enter. These skeletons behaved like ordinary citizens, lining up orderly.

Outside the city gate, tall and large skeleton soldiers guarded the entrance, each holding a bone spear. The blood-red glow in their eye sockets was more intense than that of the surrounding skeletons, indicating greater strength.

Upon arriving here, they vaguely understood that the skeletons' strength was related to the blood-red glow in their eyes; the brighter the glow, the stronger the skeleton. Without a doubt, the blood-red glow in the eyes of the guards was the strongest among the skeletons they had encountered, suggesting they were also the strongest.

Each skeleton in the queue would pull out a bone from its body and hand it over to the guard, sometimes a little finger bone, a toe bone, or a rib...

Wen Qiao and the others watched in a daze.

"Husband, we won't have to tear out a bone to enter the city, will we?" Wen Qiao frowned.

Su Molan and Pei Qiyu felt extremely uneasy. They weren't skeletons, whose flesh had vanished, leaving only bones. Tearing out a bone would be no small matter. Moreover, they really didn't want to tear out their own bones as an entry fee; it was too bizarre.

Ning Yuzhou said, "Why don't we try using other bones first?" As he spoke, he produced several bones in his hand.

Wen Qiao and the others recognized them as demon bones, leftovers from when he crafted the bone boat.

"Alright, I'll give it a try."

Without hesitation, Pei Qiyu took out a bone and joined the queue.

Su Molan was worried the skeleton soldiers might stop him and watched intently.

As the skeleton in front of Pei Qiyu moved forward, Su Molan and Wen Qiao almost held their breath, ready to fight if necessary.

Pei Qiyu handed the demon bone to the skeleton soldier.

The soldier picked up the bone, its eyes glowing red as it looked at Pei Qiyu, its teeth clacking.

Pei Qiyu remained calm, indifferent to their scrutiny.

The clacking continued for a while before the soldier accepted the demon bone and let Pei Qiyu pass.

"Oh, it worked," Su Molan said happily.

Realizing demon bones could be used, Ning Yuzhou and the others each took a bone and joined the queue. When it was their turn, the skeleton soldiers' teeth clacked again, making Wen Qiao feel exhausted just listening.

Fortunately, they passed smoothly.

The four entered Dugu Mansion, but instead of a city, they saw an endless range of bone mountains. The white, ghastly bones formed a vast expanse, as if they were in a world made entirely of various bones.

The four stood there, stunned.

Then they saw several skeleton soldiers carrying the entry fees—bones—into the city. The soldiers ignored them and walked to a bone mountain, dumping the bones with a thud. Afterward, one of the soldiers bent down, picked up some bones, and threw them further away from the bone mountain.

The four keenly noticed that among those bones were the four demon bones they had just paid as entry fees.

There was a strange feeling of being rejected by the skeletons.

"See, the quality of these bones isn't good, so they can't become part of the bone mountain," Pei Qiyu said with a pretense of knowledge.

Su Molan looked at him, wanting to say something but held back.

Wen Qiao agreed, "Young Master Pei is right. Look at those bones in the distance; their quality indeed isn’t very good." The demon bones they had just submitted were actually from fifth or sixth-tier demon beasts, and the quality was indeed not top-notch.

Su Molan was speechless. How did these two determine that the bones were of poor quality? They were all bones, after all.

Ning Yuzhou’s eyes twinkled as he said, "Let’s go inside. There should be what we need within Dugu Mansion."

What they needed, of course, were immortal artifacts!

The group immediately perked up, their gazes once again fixed on the mountain of bones, while also paying attention to the skeletons entering Dugu Mansion.

They saw some skeletons climbing directly onto the bone mountain, trekking into the distance, while others entered some caves within the bone mountain. However, what caught their attention most was the tall bone mountain closest to the city gate. Inside the mountain was a cave several dozen feet high, and many skeletons were heading there.

"Let’s go check it out," Ning Yuzhou suggested.

The others naturally had no objections and started walking toward the cave.

Standing before the cave entrance, Wen Qiao glanced inside and found it quite dark, probably because the moonlight couldn’t reach inside. There were many skeletons in the cave, but it wasn’t crowded due to the vast space.

The four of them followed the surrounding skeletons deeper into the cave.

As they walked, the light grew dimmer, but it didn’t significantly affect them. Besides the fact that cultivators could see in the dark, the blood-red glow in the eye sockets of the bone demons around them provided a faint light source, making the area slightly illuminated.

After walking for a while, they finally understood what this cave was.

This place was essentially a city for skeletons, with numerous bone houses. These bone houses looked extremely similar to those in Bone Town; to normal people, they were all houses made of bones, with no significant difference.

The skeletons lived here like ordinary humans, resting, living, and even fighting over trivial matters, sometimes breaking apart and needing time to reassemble their skeletal frames. Wen Qiao and the others noticed that as long as the blood-red glow in the skeletons’ eyes didn’t fade, they wouldn’t die, and their broken bones could re-form.

Walking among these skeletons, they felt like part of the community. The distinction between the living and the dead was blurred, and no skeleton treated them as outsiders—Wen Qiao suspected that the skeletons’ senses had degenerated, and they hadn’t noticed any difference between the group and themselves.

This was quite convenient.

The four of them didn’t waste time. After gaining a basic understanding of the situation, they quickened their pace.

They passed through the long bone cave, and when the moonlight reappeared, they had already emerged from the tunnel-like cave, with the bone mountain still ahead.

The four of them summoned their flying swords and flew over the bone mountain.