CH 67.2

If Dijia asked, he would say that he was forced to go down and it was not of his own accord.

Liang Xi groaned and rolled several times on the steps before falling heavily to the ground.

Unlike him, Bai Lixin ran down in brisk small steps, and when he was about to reach the ground, he felt something pull at his body and he managed to stand firmly on the ground.

The surroundings were quiet except Liang Xi’s slightly pained groans.

Bai Lixin took out the flashlight from his backpack, and the darkness was immediately dispelled by the light.

Liang Xi’s knee was injured, and Bai Lixin, who was worried that there was no place raise The Mermaid Heart’s proficiency, immediately activated it. There was a white light flash, Liang Xi’s wound was restored to normal and Bai Lixin heard the proficiency go from 10/100 to 15/100.

Liang Xi then stood up and observed the scene in front of him. He also took out a flashlight from his backpack, and he took in a deep breath when he saw the scene in front of him.

The entrance was small when viewed from the outside.

Back then, the live feed went black for a while and by the time Zhou Guang and the rest came out, they already had the secret treasure of the undead in their possession.

Looking at it from the outside, he thought it was just a tunnel, and he was now shocked when he saw what it really was.

Inside was yet another palace.

The palace outside was built on the ground, while this one was built underground.

In front of him was a huge hall, surrounded by marble and it looked very sturdy. There were many torches hanging from the walls for lighting.

As the flashlight swept over every corner of the palace, Liang Xi suddenly tensed up and tugged at Bai Lixin beside him.

Bai Lixin followed the light of Liang Xi’s flashlight and he saw several skeletal bodies lying in one corner of the palace.

They were lying crookedly, with no fire in their eyes, so it was unclear as to whether they were asleep or they were just ordinary skeletons and not Undead.

Bai Lixin patted Liang Xi’s shoulder reassuringly as the flashlight fell to the front of the palace.

Directly in front of the palace was a solid marble wall.

The palace was empty and there wasn’t a single seat. This palace was obviously decorated to royal specifications so there should be a throne symbolizing power. If there was no royal throne in this hall, then it must be somewhere else and that there was another floor below.

Bai Lixin made a gesture towards Liang Xi and walked towards the of skeletons. Liang Xi’s heart was now pounding. The mysterious third shadow, the omnipresent darkness and the frightening skeletons were all eating away at his heart and fortitude.

He swallowed hard and quickly followed Bai Lixin’s steps.

The two men approached and the flashlight fell among the skeletons.

It was a group of very irregularly placed skeletons. There were three layers of skeletons inside and three layers outside, all were densely put together to form a semi-circular ball.

Bai Lixin shone his torch on them and Liang Xi folded his hands and recited a few words, “The dead deserve rest, we mean no disrespect to you all, we really are just trying to clear the copy. Please don’t blame us!”

He boldly looked over as the light passed through the gaps and Bai Lixin saw a step that extended downwards.

Not only Bai Lixin saw it, but Liang Xi did too.

These skeletons were placed over a passage leading to the floor below.

That meant ……

The hairs on Liang Xi’s body suddenly stood up.

They had to move these skeletons in order to go down?

There was still some difference between these skeletons and those undead who were all wearing clothes.

Whether they were skeleton mages or guards, they had covered their bodies with clothes.

In addition, the undead race had fire in place of their eyes.

But these skeletons were different; they were just plain skeletons.

These must have been ordinary human bones, right?

Liang Xi’s flashlight fell on the empty walls around him and he slowly gulped, “God Xin, should we move these skeletons to look underneath?”

Bai Lixin: “Good idea, you’re so clever.”

Liang Xi: “……”

God Xin, I suspect that you are mocking me, but I have no proof.

Bai Lixin did not rush to move the skeletons, but looked around the circle formed by the skeletons.

The circle looked randomly formed but each skeleton was very cleverly connected to the other.

Since the skeletons were placed here like that, it meant they couldn’t be moved by brute force.

Just as Bai Lixin was calculating where the breakthrough point was, Liang Xi placed his hands on the bones.

The moment his hands were placed on the skeletons, he felt as if millions of ants were crawling over his body. A sweat broke out all over his body and every his scalp started to tingle.

Liang Xi gripped the flashlight with his teeth and shone it on the skeletons in front of him.

Since he couldn’t help God Xin intellectually, he could at least help lighten the other side’s load physically.

He could still sell his strength!

The skeleton he was holding looked as if it was simply laying on top but both of its arms were inserted into the deepest part of the circle and each tug lifted up the other skeletons inside.

Bai Lixin was still thinking of a way to break the circle when Liang Xi started pulling at the skeletons.

The circle of skeletons shook for a moment, and even with all his strength, Liang Xi only made them shake a little. He didn’t lift any of the skeletons at all.

Liang Xi helplessly let go of the skeleton and took the torch out of his mouth. He weakly leaned on the skeletons and looked at Bai Lixin with some shame, “Sorry, God Xin, I wanted to help a bit, but I didn’t do anything.”

Bai Lixin shook his head, “No, you did a good job of showing me what was hidden inside.”

The moment Liang Xi moved the skeleton earlier, he was able to look through the gap and see the connected structure inside that he couldn’t see earlier.

He began to reconstruct the skeleton circle in his mind, looking for that one most important connection.

Liang Xi was panting, but he was very pleased to hear this: “Do you want me to lift it up again?”

The skeleton would not budge, but even though he a bit scared, he could do it again.

Liang Xi’s hand, which was propping him against the skeletons, was suddenly scratched by something cold.

His body suddenly tensed up, his pupils contracted, and cold sweat seeped out from his back.

In the next moment, his wrist was gripped by something cold!

Fuck fuck fuck fuck!

What the hell!

Liang Xi’s frightened eyes looked at his hand, only to see that his wrist was being held by a bloodless and fleshless white skeletal hand.

The hand was sticking out from inside the circle and it was tugging at Liang Xi, as if trying to drag him in.

Liang Xi screamed, and resistance was written all over his body.

He sat on the ground in panic, and he tried to pull it back using his other hand and legs.

When this skeletal hand moved, the circle of skeletons, which had been lifeless just a moment ago, suddenly all stirred up.

Countless hands began to stretch outwards, some skeletons raised their heads and some began to stomp their legs.

The scene was unusually eerie.

Liang Xi was dumbfounded. Seeing the skeleton’s grip on the wrist become even tighter, Bai Lixin’s hand penetrated into the centre of the skeleton circle and directly grabbed the neck of one skeleton, pulling it out from inside.

The circle of skeletons, which were held together like a knot, instantly toppled like dominoes that had been pushed over.

The skeletons that were still stirring madly stopped moving in an instant, and they all fell on the ground lifelessly.

Feeling his wrist freed, Liang Xi hurriedly cried out and scrambled back.

That was too scary.

God Xin, I’ll start calling you dad!

————————

In the live broadcast room.

[So exciting. Sure enough, it’s exciting to watch God Xin’s live at night.]

[Healing for people with trypophobia. jpg.]

[As a person with low IQ, I need an explanation.]

[ This skeleton circle should be something similar to a door lock, only by finding the key can you open the lock. If you find the wrong one, you will trigger the mechanism, just like Liang Xi just did.]

[ Ohh, so that’s how it is. God Xin’s face value is never-receding. He looked so heroic with a skeleton in his hand!]

[Did you guys just notice that they was an extra shadow in the hallway? It was so creepy to watch…there was only a shadow on the wall but no physical presence… Was it a ghost?]

[Maybe it’s magic? Isn’t this a magical world?]

[You are right!]

[Brothers and sisters, I just went to the dining hall to take a look and those six players were actually still eating.]

[Still eating? Won’t they die from over eating?]

[Not at all, they have eaten so much but their stomachs are like a bottomless pit, their bellies hadn’t changed at all.]

[God Xin must have said something to them in the bedroom just now. The wicked shielding system made us miss the chance to know the truth in advance. I strongly request the system to remove the bathroom and bedroom shield, what is there that us honorable players can’t see?]

[Haha, no, it’s quite exciting to watch things like this. Things will remain a mystery until the end. ]

————————

On the second basement level, Bai Lixin finally saw the throne, the symbol of power.

Behind that throne was a huge sword carved out of gold, and on the hilt of the sword was a huge ruby.

Liang Xi’s eyes widened the moment he saw the ruby, “That’s it!”

He pointed at the splendid ruby, “That is the secret treasure of the Undead race. Zhou Guang came out holding this in his hand.”

“God Xin, should I take it down?”

Bai Lixin didn’t rush over, “There’s no rush.”

The flashlight swept across this floor of the palace. It was even more luxurious than the first floor earlier, even more luxurious than the palace they had been in during the day today. There were eight huge pillars carved with totems of beasts, each one heaped with gold.

The flashlight shone on one wall and Bai Lixin noticed something carved on the marble wall.

He stepped forward and discovered that some paintings.

The first painting was of a tall man on a steed and wearing armour.

The sword his hand was held to the sky and his mouth was open in a roar. Behind him was an army of a thousand horses and their momentum looks unstoppable.

The second painting showed the same man, but the scene had changed from a battlefield to a city.

The man was triumphant, followed by his warriors. The people around were offering them melons and flowers, telling them of their gratitude and admiration.

The third painting showed the man kneeling in the palace and being crowned.

Bai Lixin’s flashlight fell on the panel after the third painting but found it was empty.

This was a way of conveying a message in the form of a picture, and in it was the most effective ancient civilizations kept history alive before the birth of writing.

Only, this story doesn’t seem to be finished.

The focus in these paintings was clearly the man at the head of the group.

Generally speaking, palaces are heavily vested. The portraits on the walls would not be records on some strange man or for no reason. The man depicted so intensely on this wall was most likely the owner of this palace.

No clue in the copy would be useless; perhaps he could find the rest of the paintings elsewhere, and when that time came, the paintings would convey more information to him.

The flashlight moved away from the wall and moved around.

Behind the throne were six stone statues where the sword hang.

They were six statues of humans in armour, each of them different and lifelike. They stood around the throne like guardians to the sword.

There was an underground palace in the world of the undead.

What was even more interesting was that the owner of the underground palace was human.

If this was all, it would not be enough to arouse Bai Lixin’s curiosity. But not only had this place become a forbidden area for the Undead, but the ruby, which was the Undead race’s secret treasure, was also placed here.

This palace must be inextricably linked to the undead race.

A jumble of knotted threads appeared in Bai Lixin’s mind, and it was a tangled mess that he would slowly unravel.

He did not rush to take the ruby, but returned with Liang Xi the way they had come. As soon as they left the stairway that led to the second level, the skeletons that were scattered on the floor stood up one by one as if they had come to life, and slowly walked up to the entrance.

They lay on top of the other and were soon forming the circle of skeletons they had just seen.

Liang Xi stood at a distance and cocked his head out to look inside the circle, “God Xin, which one did you pull just now?”

Bai Lixin walked around the circle “There is no need to remember which one, the arrangement has changed. The lock is supposed to be used once and the mechanism is rearranged when you close it again.”

Liang Xi “tsked”, “This anti-theft technology would be awesome if applied to the real world. It’s not just burglar proof, even the owner wouldn’t be able to get into the house.”

Bai Lixin: “……”

————–

When the two returned to the surface, the shadow reappeared.

Liang Xi finally couldn’t resist and looked back once again.

Behind them was empty. There was only one more shadow on the wall and Liang Xi felt the blood in his body coalesce for a few seconds.

Something that could be seen, even though frightening, would at least give him a tangible presentation without the need to think wildly.

On the contrary, something without form was sometimes more terrifying. You wouldn’t know exactly where it is, whether it was huge or small, or if it had left or not. It may not have left but was just quietly spying on you.

Every second of every day, your spirit would be in a state of tension.

That’s why the Invisible Man was so frightening.

The two men went out for two hours and when they returned, the group in the dining hall was just finishing up.

These people’s faces and bodies were even covered in oil after feasting.

Bai Lixin and Liang Xi returned to their room ahead of them. Before the players returned, the three left Bai Lixin’s room, with Liang Xi returning the cloak to Bai Lixin before he left.

After making sure the three were safely back in their room, Bai Lixin sat down at his desk, drew out his quill and opened the beginner’s magic book.