CH 40

In the Giant’s camp, the crucible boiling with the green-brown liquid was still bubbling. Qi Leren, driven by curiosity, looked up and was instantly smoked black. This was no longer the category of dark cuisine. It’s absolutely a murder weapon. Giants live on it? The living conditions were a little hard…

Qi Leren looked around again. The ghastly corpse had lost all human form, leaving only scattered skeletons and flesh after being eaten by hungry wolves. The rest was mostly in the pot. Qi Leren sighed, and he didn’t know whether it was an NPC or a player who died here, but now it’s meaningless to tangle with this.

Standing outside the cave, Qi Leren looked inside. It was a dark place, faintly reflecting the light of water. Probably because the cave was low, a lot of water accumulated in it after the rain.

The feeling of being watched had returned.

After equipping with “Collect Clothes in Rainy Days” skill, Qi Leren’s original keen intuition became more sensitive. He glanced at the system prompt. The “current remaining induction times” on the skill card showed 2/3. The one time was deducted when he just felt the wolf approaching. Now it was no longer deducted. So there should be no danger of death now?

Would it be Lu Youxin? No, it seemed a little different from that time…

If he went in now, he might be attacked in the darkness. It would be safer to wait outside during the cooling time of SL Powerful Skill.

Determined, Qi Leren simply sat down at the entrance of the cave, restored his strength while eating, and waited until night came. When his skills cooled down, he carefully entered the underground cave.

The cave was bigger than he had ever imagined. Qi Leren lit the lights he had bought in his Eventide and the underground cave finally became bright. The water at the depth of the wrist reflected the light, making the dark cave even deeper and more eerie.

Something dangerous was coming out of it, Qi Leren thought.

Faced with this unknown dangerous environment, he was unavoidably a little afraid and uneasy, but thinking that the goddess was also in it, he felt a lot more at ease. No, was he reduced to count on a girl? But he had actually rely on the girl several times! What a shame!

The empty underground cave was huge. Qi Leren had crossed through the shallow water area and stood on dry land surrounded by karst stalagmites. The light was dim and it was difficult to distinguish directions. He continued to move forward and felt that the whole cave extended infinitely downward.

How deep was the cave? Where was the Cave Tower hidden?

The further Qi Leren went, the more frightened he felt. He was alone in the endless darkness with the lamp burning. In the dark corner, those shadowy things watched him stealthily, as if they were plotting some malicious plot in a low voice.

“Crack–” Qi Leren lowered his head and found that he had broken a piece of white bone. Over time, the weathered bone had become loose and fragile, so he easily broke it with one step.

Was this the skeleton of an animal or…

Qi Leren lifted the light and tried to shine farther.

With the light, he squinted deeper into the darkness and then suddenly opened his eyes wide.——

In the vast darkness ahead, he could vaguely see the layers of bones piled up in the underground cave, like an ocean of white bones, boundless… In the darkness, the scattering green ghost fires were floating like the fluorescent jellyfish in the deep sea. The weak light not only could not illuminate the darkness, but also added some horrible color to it.

How many creatures were buried here? This was a graveyard full of dead bodies!

Qi Leren was thrilled.

The cold wind came from the bottom of the earth, with a rotten smell.

Qi Leren shivered, and there was goose bumps on his arms and thighs. He could not help but wrap up the jacket that did not belong to him and unconsciously touched the dagger Su He had sent. But he remembered that the slot was not enough. He had just put the dagger’s cards back into the package. Now he could only use the ordinary dagger.

The deeper he went, the more white bones he saw. Some were like the bones of wild animals, while others were hard to recognize. Qi Leren even saw tusks as long as his arms. He couldn’t imagine what animal’s teeth were they. They did not look like living things on earth at all… Yeah, now he was not on Earth. In this nightmare world, there might be certain terrible unknown creatures, such as the giant outside the cave.

Despite his psychological preparation, Qi Leren was shocked when he saw what appeared to be a large skeleton of a dragon.

The skeleton of the dragon was more than a dozen meters long. Only the skull was bigger than his whole body, not to mention its two rugged wings. He couldn’t even imagine how majestic it was in his lifetime. But at the moment, its white bones were half buried in the sand lifelessly with innumerable unknown corpses, waiting for people to imagine what it once looked like.

What awakened Qi Leren from his fantasy was the peeping sight. He pretended to be attracted by the skeleton of the dragon. He turned sideways to check it, and then looked at the entrance where he came with the afterglow of his eyes — Sure enough, a white shadow flashed behind the stalactite. Someone followed him all the way and then quietly hid there.

Qi Leren’s heart was racing because he knew that an unknown enemy was following him quietly. He could not judge whether she was kind or malicious, but he did not want to bet his luck.

He must not be careless. He must find a way to preempt others.

Qi Leren thought for a moment, pretended calmly that he hadn’t found out, and went on.

Qi Leren picked out one of the winding fork roads ahead and went in. Then, as he passed a corner, he put out the lights and pasted them on the wall, waiting quietly for the followers.

It was dark all around, and only the faint fluorescence of moss on the rock walls brought a little light, so that people did not think they had lost sight.

In the silence there was only the sound of his own low breathing, and the dripping sound of water on the top of the damp cave, ticking, ticking.

A light footstep approached, and the visitor walked slowly, cautiously, and the faint light made her a little difficult. Qi Leren heard her stumble over the stones on the ground. It seemed that she had little night vision ability.

In that case… Qi Leren thought of a safer way.

He held the dagger in one hand and the light switch in the other. When the footsteps sounded right beside him, he switched on the light and threw it at the corner where she came.——

In a sudden and dazzling light, the visitor whispered and was suddenly knocked down by Qi Leren. The cold sharp dagger hit her throat, almost pressing a bloodline.

Qi Leren opened his narrowed eyes and looked at the girl on the ground in astonishment, “Anna?”

He was followed by the NPC Anna, who was in the same carriage with him.

Anna recovered from the brief blindness caused by the strong light and cried in horror, “Are you going to kill me, too? I don’t want to die. Wu Wu. I just want to go home… Please don’t kill me!”

“Why were you following me secretly?” Qi Leren frowned.

“I… I’m afraid… Someone wants to kill me. I’m afraid you want to kill me too. I don’t want to die… But I don’t know where to go…” Anna cried miserably. She looked frightened. Her green eyes were wet with tears.

“Where’s Elle?” Qi Leren asked again.

“I don’t know… We were apart when we fled…” Anna shrank and looked at the dagger around her neck in horror.

Qi Leren finally was relieved. He drew back the dagger and said, “It’s not safe inside. You’d better go outside. The forest is very big and it’s not easy to meet other people.”

“I see. I’ll go right away.” Anna got up from the ground shivering and trembling, and walked out of the cave in fear.

Qi Leren looked at Anna’s departure and suddenly felt strange. He just felt that something would happen if Anna left alone.

“Wait a minute. I’ll take you out. It’s dark here.” Qi Leren said, picking up the light on the ground, and followed up. He decided to watch her leave.

Anna’s pale face showed a grateful and pleasant smile, “Thank you, you are so kind…”

They walked out of the winding tunnel path side by side and returned to the huge white-bone cemetery. There was still silence around them. To resist the pressure of the emptiness, Qi Leren talked with Anna and said, “How did you get selected for the sacrifice?”

As soon as Anna heard the sad news, her tears fell down again. “I don’t know… One day the totem appeared in my hand and I was taken to be locked up… Later, someone fled, but I dared not run away, so… Here I am.”

Elle did say that six people had escaped, and two of them were supposed to be the source of the totem on his hand and on the back of the hand of the goddess.

“There will be a sacrifice every three years. Are there that many young women in the nearby villages?” Qi Leren asked.

Anna froze for a moment but said, “There are also some people tied up from other places… Aren’t you like that?”

From the setting, these six players were supposed to be tied up to participate in the sacrifice. So that’s right.

Qi Leren mumbled and was about to continue asking questions when the system suddenly prompted him that the current remaining induction times of [Collect Clothes in Rainy Days] was 1/3.

No!

In an instant, Qi Leren burst out with amazing reactivity. He threw away the light and rolled on the ground in spite of the broken bones. A sharp wind almost brushed his body, but failed to cut him in two.

Qi Leren writhed on the skeleton all over with pain. He struggled to support his body. The blood from his broken forehead slid into his eyes, leaving a pale blush in front of him.

Anna, with a long knife in hand, sighed with regret and said in a solemn tone, “Oh, you’re much more alert than I thought.”

Qi Leren finally knew where the strange feeling of Anna came from. From the very beginning, this person was a player pretending to be an NPC!!