Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 402 - 28 Ghost Cry Mountain_1

Chapter 402: Chapter 28 Ghost Cry Mountain_1

"Been waiting for you." In almost impossible circumstances, Catherine twisted her shield-bearing arm, borrowing the momentum of the sprinting Silver Wolves easily parrying the unexpected strike.

Upon encountering the retreating undead outside the mountain earlier, everyone had increased their vigilance even though it hadn’t been brought up. Prepared at all times to deal with a surprise attack. As expected, right after a battle when people should be at their most relaxed, the undead launched their long-planned ambush. The Bone Knight’s ambush strategy was simple; he dug a shallow pit, buried himself and his mount, covering it with a layer of loose earth. If it were elsewhere, this most basic concealment wouldn’t have fooled anyone present, but amongst the soil pits, from where undead had erupted, it was challenging to detect this disguised pit, creating perfect conditions for a surprise attack.

Unfortunately for the Bone Knight, Catherine had been on guard. The moment it leaped out swinging its sword, Catherine’s shield had already moved into a defensive position, leaving no openings for the undead. As sword clashed against shield, Catherine’s body swayed on the back of the wolf, using the sway to dissipate the power of the sword, disregarding the Bone Knight and running straight into the distance. The Bone Knight’s sword paused for a short moment, though brief; it indeed faltered for about half a second. It behaved as it should, mechanically shifting targets as every undead would do; the horse-cutting saber raised again, aiming at Lina who was charging head-on towards Catherine.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Lina’s right hand sketched complex symbols in the air as she murmured, "In the name of the merciful God Denia, let the lost souls return to their eternal sleep."

Under the faint glow, the ambush Bone Knight’s sword-swinging movements gradually slowed. Soon, the horse-cutting saber let out a dull thump, falling from the Bone Knight’s hand. Not only did the saber fall; the Soul Fire in the knight’s eyes rapidly weakened and eventually completely extinguished. Both the rider and the steed were reduced to white bones, devoid of life.

"Confirmed, it’s indeed a conscious undead," Catherine called back as she ran forward, her elegant eyebrows knotted together in serious concentration. "Although it became mechanical and rigid at the very end like a regular undead, my timely interception of its attack surprised it, hence the half-second pause. This reaction is entirely consistent with an intelligent creature that failed in a surprise attack and has no previous experience dealing with such failure. I can’t be wrong."

"No, it was not conscious on its own." Pannis’s expression was also grim, the undead provoked memories in him, reawakening the buried pain and regret. He shook his head forcefully to reset his thoughts, correcting, "As previously mentioned, they’ve been controlled by a higher entity. The fact that it went back to being an unconscious undead in the end means that the controlling undead had already given up its control over it, thus it reverted back to being a normal undead."

"Have you encountered this situation before?" Lina, who had picked up on the hidden implications in Pannis’s words, asked, "That’s right, I remember you once said that there aren’t many people who understand the undead better than you."

"A similar situation." Pannis didn’t deny it against his conscience, nodding in agreement, "But that’s another story."

No one spoke further; each was deep in their thoughts. As the vanguard, Catherine tore through several defenses composed of undead bodies. The consecutive charges winded her Silver Wolf mount a little. Noticing the mounting fatigue in her mount, she expressed her concern, "These Silver Wolves are not dedicated rideable beasts, they’re starting to tire. We need to slow our pace a bit; I worry they might not hold up."

"No, speed up and break through." Marcia looked up, presenting an alternative, "See that mountain in the distance? That’s Ghost Cry Mountain, our destination. If we rush, we can reach the foot of the mountain in at most ten minutes. When we get there, the terrain becomes complex, riding will no longer be possible, then the Silver Wolves will have plenty of time to rest."

"Ten minutes?" Catherine glanced at the distant mountain peak, clenched her teeth, comfortingly stroked the neck of the Silver Wolf beneath her, and nodded firmly, "Let’s go, a high-speed dash."

Admittedly, the communication skills between a knight and his mount is quite peculiar. The Silver Wolves, though highly intelligent within the wolf-pack, still are not intelligent creatures; they, fundamentally, cannot comprehend any human language. Still, with Catherine’s few strokes, the leading Silver Wolf seemed to have completely grasped Catherine’s intention. It let out a piercing howl and leaped high into the air, crossing dozens of scattering skeletons as if it were a gust of wind, and charged ahead. The other four Silver Wolves, following its lead, also increased their speed, revealing a speed and will that all the creatures of the plains feared. No one seemed to stop their march.

Ghost Cry Mountain, White Ridge Mountain, Blood Mist Mountain, long ago, these were the shared sacred grounds of the nearby seven tribes, the burial grounds of their ancestors. When a tribe member died, their closest kin would wash the deceased’s body, then cover it from head to toe with a mat woven from calming herbs common on the plains. After three days of laying in state in a tent, the tribespeople would collectively take the deceased into these mountains, choosing a different location for burial depending on the deceased’s status. Born in the plains, buried in the plains. While living, they received the plains’ benefaction, taking all they needed for survival from the plains. After death, they returned it to the plains, their bodies becoming manure, nurturing the grasslands. This was the most perfect destination in the mind of every creature of the plains, an emotion unique and hard for outsiders to comprehend.

These three mountains were oddly shaped, each long and narrow, with different orientations, forming a triangle. The center of the triangle was a secluded valley, once a shrine where nearby tribes made sacrificial offerings to their ancestors but had been since deserted due to the torment of the undead. According to the chieftain of the contracting tribe, the mass appearance of undead began in the vicinity of these three sacred mountains. Therefore, it was entirely reasonable to speculate that the problem originated from these three mountains, or more specifically, within their sacred land.

Unlike nearby hills, these three mountains were high, roughly five hundred meters tall, perhaps the ancient beastmen chose it as a burial ground because they thought that being buried at such high altitude could overlook the entire plains. The bottom half of the three mountains were covered with lush green grass, while the upper half was bare rocky peaks, a very steep terrain, and would require effort to climb.

"How do the Beastmen carry the dead up there for burial?" Looking up at the peak from below, the ever-curious Lina felt utterly puzzled. "Such a steep mountain, I doubt anyone could climb it, right?"

"They bury the bodies in the plains." Marcia, who regularly traversed the plains, was familiar with these tribes and explained to Lina, "The bodies are buried on the gentle slope at the foot of the mountain. No one climbs up to the top to bury the bodies. It’s all rocks up there, impossible to bury anyone."

"I see." Lina, now enlightened, nodded, "So, our plan now is to cross over here?"

"Yes, once we cross, we should be able to see the Beastmen’s shrine." Marcia replied, "I’m also quite curious to see what this shrine, worshipped by the nearby Beastmen, actually looks like."

"Let’s go check it out then." Catherine jumped down from the wolf’s back. They had been moving quickly earlier, leaving the large group of skeletons and Bone Knights far behind. This gave them ample time to contemplate their next move. However, Catherine expressed a concern, "What I’m worried about now is these silver wolves. We can climb over, but they aren’t mountain climbers, how will they get across? We can’t just abandon them in this undead-infested region."

"Let me ask Diana." Lina squatted down next to one of the silver wolves and scratched its chin, making it issue a contented whimper. Only then did she whisper something in the wolf’s ear. The Silver Wolf nodded like a human and vigorously licked Lina’s silver hair with its tongue. A bit perplexed, Lina covered her wet hair and returned to Catherine, "No problem, they can climb up there with their physical condition. Don’t worry, they climb more nimbly than we do."

"What did you just do..." Catherine looked at Lina in surprise, "Did Diana come out? Why didn’t we notice any change in you?"

"No, she was too lazy to come out." Lina replied nonchalantly, shrugging her shoulders, "So she just borrowed my mouth to ask the question."

"She can only borrow parts?" All three members of the adventure team were surprised and looked at Lina, "Why didn’t you ever mention this before?"

"Well, of course, I didn’t." Lina was busy drying her licked hair, "I only found it out recently too. Actually, to be more precise, it’s Katerina who discovered it accidentally not long ago, we didn’t know about it before."

"Huh, doesn’t that mean..." Pannis seemed to be lost in a strange imagining, his face slowly revealing a lewd smile.

"Lick him." At Lina’s command, the five resting Silver Wolves pounced on Pannis in unison, happily taking turn to lick his face, making him cry out under the relentless tonguing.

"She can only borrow any part with my permission." Lina huffed, very conscious of Pannis’s unsavory thoughts. Blushing, she added, "So for those mischievous ones, I certainly won’t let them borrow anything at will."

"So it requires your consent? That’s a relief." Knowing full well what Pannis had been insinuating, Catherine felt reassured. She kicked Pannis’s foot, who was still enjoying his intimate encounter with the Silver Wolves, "Quit fooling around, time to prepare for the climb."

"What about Vivian?" Marcia looked worriedly at Vivian, who had been seemingly in a daze, "She might not be able to climb."

"Don’t worry, I’ll carry her." Catherine waved her hand, "Let’s rest for another minute and then hit the road."(To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for it on qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users can visit m.qidian.com to read.)