The Post Sky Tipping Era
Chapter 89 - 74 Incomplete Fresco (Alliance Leader Bonus: Yin Kunlun)

Chapter 89: Chapter 74 Incomplete Fresco (Alliance Leader Bonus: Yin Kunlun)

The investigators who had disappeared inside this building weren’t dead after all; instead, like Li Yi, they had turned into skeletons trapped in this illusion, and if no way out was found, once all the flesh on their bodies had vanished, they could only wait for death to come.

Fortunately, these people had not been trapped for a long time, and most of them were still alive.

However, their condition was dire; they had nearly been reduced to mere skeletons, with very little flesh left on their frames. If not for their perfectly preserved clothing that still lingered, Li Yi would have found it difficult to recognize them.

"Another person has come? Who is he, one of our bureau’s investigators, or some unrelated cultivator?"

"Don’t know him. However, he is somewhat special; he still has plenty of flesh on him. Under normal circumstances, an ordinary cultivator would barely be hanging on upon reaching this place; their condition wouldn’t be this good."

"Maybe he’s an expert," they speculated.

The skeleton frames discussed, their gaze resting on Li Yi. They had been trapped here for some time and had yet to find a way to break free, so they could only wait and hope others might succeed.

Li Yi ignored their discussions and followed the voice in his mind, continuing forward.

Suddenly.

At this moment, someone spoke up, "Is that Li Yi who works under Wang Jian?"

"Hmm?"

Li Yi stopped in his tracks and looked towards the source of the voice.

He saw a towering skeleton sitting cross-legged on the ground, motionless. A lot of his flesh had decayed too, but his condition was much better than the others; his facial flesh was still intact, making it possible to identify him.

"You are... the team leader, Zhang Lei?" Li Yi asked tentatively.

Zhang Lei’s eye sockets were empty, his eyeballs long gone. He spoke in a steady voice, "Indeed, it’s me, Li Yi. What’s the situation outside like?"

"Not great. Liu Yue, Wang Jian, and I fell into this place by accident while investigating. They are immobilized, all standing still in their original spots. I’m the only one who managed to follow some clues and find my way here," Li Yi said.

"Your instincts are still sharp, aware that the problem was on this floor and finding your way here so quickly," Zhang Lei affirmed in his tone, "But unfortunately, up until now, we haven’t been able to break this bizarre illusion. However, I can definitely say that it all stems from that thing."

He finished speaking and pointed in a certain direction to his left.

There, the building’s floor had collapsed, with chunks of concrete scattered about. On top of a heap of broken concrete stood a wall. This fragment of the wall was peculiar, as if carved from ancient White Jade, whole and with a faint glow in the dim light. Besides, the wall was covered with turquoise glazed tiles, clear and translucent.

Just this small section of wall suggested that the building it belonged to must have been extremely luxurious and exquisite.

But at the moment, Li Yi wasn’t preoccupied with the wall’s luxury and beauty. Instead, he stared intently at a relief mural on the wall.

The mural featured a pristine white skeleton, cross-legged with white bone palms placed together in front, forming a strange hand gesture. Below the Skull Mural sat a Lotus Platform, lifting the inherently sinister skeleton into a sense of transcendence and sanctity reminiscent of a Bodhisattva in a temple.

This Bone Mural seemed to possess a mysterious power. Merely by gazing at it, Li Yi’s vision began to blur. The surroundings slowly faded away, and the white bones before him became increasingly clear and real—as if coming to life, the skeleton seemed to give Li Yi a serene smile.

A smiling skeleton?

How could that be possible?

How could a skeleton manage a smile? That defied all logic.

Yet Li Yi saw the smile.

And as Li Yi was drawn deeper, the Bone Mural underwent another transformation. The sketched bones within the mural became more three-dimensional, as if fully emerging from the mural, and white bones began to sprout a garment—a transparent gauze dress, ethereal and seamless.

Even stranger, a humanoid silhouette appeared around the bones, overlapping them completely, shrouding the skeleton.

The humanoid silhouette replaced the bones, also seated cross-legged with hands in gesture, and over time, the silhouette’s features and body began to clarify, slowly transforming into a flesh-and-blood person.

The woman’s features were blurred, her appearance indecipherable, but her figure suggested she was female, draped only in a thin veil, her waist slim, her legs long, voluptuous and captivating. She gave Li Yi a sweet smile, and though she said nothing, her eyes expressed infinite charm, capable of summoning the most primal desires from the depths of a man’s heart.

Her form became increasingly clear and enchanting, yet her face remained stubbornly obscured, as if through a thick fog, impossible to discern clearly.

At this moment, Li Yi felt his heart pounding, his blood boiling. Despite being nothing but a skeletal frame, he was overwhelmed with a terrifying desire that surged like an inferno, threatening to consume his reason.

He was hard, his whole body tensed at this instant.

Simultaneously, the woman atop the Lotus Platform’s face suddenly became clear, her features exquisite, her skin so fair it seemed ready to burst upon a mere touch. She bore a slight resemblance to the woman known as Ning Wu, whom he had met before, and also to Lin Yue, who had guided Li Yi in his cultivation... Or perhaps this countenance was a hybrid of the two, more ravishing than either.

Li Yi couldn’t help reaching out for the woman, yearning to rush over, hold her in his embrace, then fiercely press her down onto the Lotus Platform.

However, when he wanted to move, his body disobeyed, rooted to the spot.

His feet were locked in an unyielding shadow that shrouded his whole being. Although the alluring woman was within arm’s reach, he could only stare helplessly, incapable of doing anything he so deeply desired.

The woman on the Lotus Platform revealed an enchanting smile, her body swaying seductively as she stepped down and approached Li Yi voluntarily.

With every frown and smile, every shaky move, she captivated utterly. Even if you knew she might be a ghost or spirit monster, you couldn’t withstand such a scene; you’d willingly die in such a tender snare.

Li Yi was completely lost, unable to extricate himself, his eyes fixed on her, his body struggling to actively greet the beauty approaching slowly.

But that impenetrable shadow held him down too heavily, so he remained standing there, motionless.

The woman descending from the Lotus Platform became more animated, and at this moment, she laughed, her voice pleasant. She swayed her enticing figure towards Li Yi, extending her fair arm, trying to wrap it around his neck, to pull this unresponsive man into her embrace, to utterly lose himself and sink into oblivion.

However, just as she was about to touch Li Yi,

The patch of shadow at Li Yi’s feet suddenly spread, like a pool of dense ink instantaneously rendering the whole world in its hue.

The woman, once voluptuous and tempting, now let out a piercing scream like a fierce ghost, and in an incredibly short span, her flesh disintegrated, revealing the skeleton frame beneath.

Beauty to bleached bones.

Desire and fear.

The abrupt turnaround jolted Li Yi into instant clarity.

At that moment, everything vanished; there was no beauty nearby, no skeleton before him, just the wall standing in the midst of ruins.

"Li Yi, Li Yi, can you hear me? Don’t keep staring at the Bone Mural on that wall; it harbors a malevolent force that can plunge you back into an even deeper illusion,"

Zhang Lei’s voice only then reached his ears, booming loudly, intent on awakening him.

"I-I’m fine," Li Yi gasped as though he had just emerged from drowning, but his heart still raced.

He looked at his hand.

The flesh of his palm was gone, leaving only the stark white bones.

This meant he was still trapped in an illusion, and everything he had just experienced was an illusion within an illusion.

But it all felt so real.

He had even smelled the fragrance coming from that woman’s body.

If that too was false, then what on earth was real?