Yarra’s Adventure Notes
Chapter 409 - 35 Strange Undead_1

Chapter 409: Chapter 35 Strange Undead_1

The Place of Worship, spanning over a thousand square meters, should have been a picturesque valley blanketed in beautiful lush greenery. Historical records indicate that, enveloped by mountains, the area was warm and wet all year-round, a veritable haven for blossoming flowers and teeming wildlife. When the ancestral worship party arrived, they would pay their respect to the ancestors amidst the fragrant blooms, asking for the blessings of the tribal forefathers to protect the vast plains in the coming year. As the beastmen paid their respect to their ancestors, bold little creatures would gather around them, their curious eyes watching these giants perform actions they could not understand. Here, in this sacred place of souls, humans and animals learned to coexist in harmony to some extent.

But now, all of those elements were gone: no flowers, no grass, no small creatures, and no worshipping crowds. This place had turned into a cursed realm ruled by death.

In the middle of the valley, a mound of bones, Bone Mountain, stood. Its base almost occupied the entire valley. Bone Mountain was not tall, just about ten meters. At its peak, there was a throne made of white bones, on which a Bone Knight, whiter than any other skeleton, sat securely, overlooking the intruding crowd. The skeleton was peculiar. It looked like a Bone Knight but did not have a steed, and its power level was indiscernible. Instead of mindlessly attacking the five intruders like the horde of undead outside or sneaking or escaping like the first Bone Knight they had encountered, it merely sat on its throne, the Soul Fire in its eye sockets flickering faintly, its thoughts unknown.

"It appears this is one of our targets," Catherine looked up at the throne high above and found its calmness puzzling. "Pannis, do you think this undead can communicate normally? Like Annie does?"

"Hm, do you reckon a skeleton can talk?" Pannis replied with a bitter smile. "Annie can communicate because of the Voice of Souls from the ghost bloodline. But skeletons lack the ability to make any sound. Even with high intelligence, communication would seem impossible."

With a ’whoosh,’ the skeleton on the throne lifted its arm. Its jaw rattled and made a strange noise. As if they had heard an order, the twenty Bone Knights surrounding the throne made their mounts stomp on the ground in unison, unleashing an overwhelming aura.

"It seems to have understood us," Catherine said in surprise. "But we couldn’t understand what it said."

"Call on Annie. Don’t let her come out but converse with her through the pendant," Pannis suggested after some consideration. "Let her try to translate what it says. After all, undead communicate through soul interaction, not language. There’s a chance that she will understand. And remember, don’t let her come out directly."

"I understand. In case a battle breaks out, our abilities could easily hurt her," nodded Catherine. She moved her finger to her chest and gently tapped Annie’s hideout, then lowered her voice, "Annie, can you hear me? Can you understand what that person was saying?"

Half of Annie’s face suddenly appeared from Catherine’s chest. Glancing at the skeleton on the throne, she answered with half of her mouth, "I have a better method. I can let you communicate directly with it."

"Really?" Catherine got an unexpected answer and asked in confusion. "Can you really do that? How would you do it?"

"It’s a capability I was born with." Annie paused for a full minute before replying confidently. "Now you can have a try. You can talk to it normally. You should be able to understand it."

"Just like this?" Catherine found it hard to believe but still raised her voice and shouted at the skeleton on the top, "Mr. Skeleton, since you possess divine wisdom, can we talk first?"

"You... have entered my kingdom!" a deep and dignified voice echoed, not coming from the skeleton’s mouth but spreading through the air around its body. "Are you prepared to face the wrath of your king?"

"Your kingdom?" replied Catherine in a stern face. "This plain has been the beastmen’s pasture since the Third Epoch. Since when has it become your kingdom?"

"Beastmen? Haven’t they already abandoned this place? They deserted this sacred land of their ancestors." The skeleton stood suddenly from the throne, anger in its voice. "Since this land has become ownerless, I, of course, can claim it."

"Preposterous!" Despite the skeleton’s intimidating presence, Lina unleashed an even stronger aura. "The beastmen abandoned this place because the energy of death spread here under your control, causing undead to roam freely, didn’t it?"

"Nonsense!" The skeleton king’s presence faltered, and the volume of its voice dropped. "What does the expansion of the energy of death have to do with me? I only... Damn it, you tricked me into talking!"

"Big sister, it seems we were indeed right." The four members of the adventure team looked at each other, Lina nodded and said, "Skeletons with wisdom are just by-products, the real reason for the continuous enhancement of the energy of death requires a deeper investigation."

"Are you guys making fun of me?" The Skeleton King was furious. The twenty Bone Knights beside him stepped forward simultaneously, their sabers pointing towards the people beneath Bone Mountain: "In forty-seven years, no one has dared to mock me, I’ll make you guys pay."

"So you’ve only been conscious for forty-seven years?" Vivian held her notebook, making rapid notes. "Do you remember the state when you first gained consciousness? Do you remember who you were originally?"

"Well, I seem to have regained consciousness all of a sudden. I remember who I was and even how I died, but I can’t remember anything from after death, right, like waking up from sleepwalking, only being able to remember what happened before falling asleep." Vivian’s questions had Skeleton King scratching his head, he struggled to recall and answer. Just as he answered a few questions, he suddenly realized and swung his leg bone angrily, shouting: "Pay for your disrespect, fools. Rise, my guards, crush them."

Despite being a sentient undead, and capable of commanding others of his kind through willpower alone, he didn’t need to issue vocal commands. But in his rage, Skeleton King had apparently forgotten this, swinging his arms and commanding his guards. His twenty Gold Rank Bone Knight guards acted simultaneously, their goats rearing up on their hind legs, preparing for the final charge.

"Hold on." Catherine suddenly raised her hand in a gesture of prevention: "We still have things to discuss."

"What? Do you have any last words?" Catherine’s sudden reaction caused the Skeleton King to unconsciously halt his guards’ charge, but the knights who had already started to charge, particularly those attacking downhill, were not so easy to stop. The conflicting momentum and orders caused chaos among the knights; two even lost control and fell from their goats, tumbling down Bone Mountain.

The chaos at the top suddenly diluted the solemn atmosphere previously created by Skeleton King, the sight of the two Bone Knights tumbling down Bone Mountain causing the team to cover their faces, unable to bear to watch.

"Fools, fools, what are you laughing at?" The Skeleton King’s dignified voice suddenly became screechy, but it quickly returned to normal: "If you dare laugh again, I’ll chop you to pieces."

"But we didn’t laugh." The Skeleton King’s odd and ridiculous reaction relaxed everyone’s tensions. Pannis whispered something in Catherine’s ear, causing a smirk to appear at the corners of her lips, she announced: "See, we’ve got plenty of time and a few more questions to ask. How about we chat before we fight?"

"I...I don’t want to chat with you guys at all." The Skeleton King waved its leg bone and countered: "I just want to annihilate you intruders."

"But, if you get rid of us so quickly, then we won’t be able to chat." Catherine seemed not to care about the threat of the twenty Golden Bone Knights or the pressure from the strange undead creature before her. She calmly and gently replied: "Won’t you feel any regret about that?"

The Skeleton King fell into a baffling silence, after a long while, it suddenly came to its senses, angrily retorted: "Nonsense, I won’t have any regrets, I don’t want to chat with any living people, charge, crush them."

"Bang." A vial filled with silver-white liquid flew spinning through the air, accurately hitting a Bone Knight. The silver liquid splashed all over as the vial shattered upon impact. Even without Vivian’s spell or control, the liquid, being saturated with light-attribute energy itself, was like a potent poison on the body of an undead. Like a human dipped in strong acid, the knight’s bones melted away with the light energy, dissolving to dust in an instant.

The sudden incident caused the remaining nineteen Bone Knights to stop. Even though they didn’t possess the ability to think, they simultaneously retreated a few steps showing the fear of the person controlling them. This scene made the party of five laugh. There was a mischievous sparkle in Vivian’s eyes as she prepared to throw another vial. The threatening action made the Bone Knights retreat further while the party no longer lingered at their original spot. They began climbing up Bone Mountain, quickly reaching the front of Skeleton King who had his knights surrounding him.

"See, we can handle ourselves pretty well when it’s not a horde of skeletons... We’re not scared at all." Pannis grimaced, making himself look terrifying and said to the Skeleton King: "Your guards can’t crush us, now the tables have turned, isn’t it time for us to flatten you?"

"You, you, you." The Skeleton King, pointing at Pannis who looked ready to eat someone, suddenly cried out in a shrill voice, holding his head and sobbing out loud: "Waaah, someone’s picking on me, Mom, I miss you so much, come save me."(To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to qidian.com to vote and support us, your support is our biggest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)