Chapter 950
Impossible by Manpower
"Come."
This time it was much clearer than last night.
It even carried a hint of damp coldness in its smile.
Zheng Yi felt a surge of murderous intent and his divine sense suddenly pressed down on it.
The tall, lifeless object seemed to have been stabbed; it tilted its head, and a flash of blue light appeared.
The next moment, it moved.
The bone blade slashed diagonally, its speed as fast as a flash of white light in the snow.
Wu Chen instinctively raised his spear to parry.
clang!
With a crisp sound, Wu Chen felt a numbness in his arms, and the bone spear in his hand was actually cut open, and he was also knocked back two steps.
Zheng Yi had already approached from the side, his short sword carrying icy spiritual power, aiming straight for its neck.
The tall, lifeless creature didn't flinch; instead, it raised its left shoulder, its ribs flaring outwards to meet the blade head-on.
The blade severed two ribs, the cold force penetrating, but it only delayed its movement by a slight moment.
On the contrary, the grayish-white cold air emanating from the broken bones was surprisingly close.
Zheng Yi rolled up his sleeve, using spiritual energy to protect his face, and then cut in close, pressing a palm against its chest.
boom!
The spiritual energy penetrated the body.
The ice armor on the chest of the tall, lifeless creature cracked instantly.
But inside the crack, there were not internal organs, but a slowly rotating gray-blue mist core, containing many tiny bone fragments, as if they were biting each other.
Zheng Yi's pupils contracted: "It really does have a core—"
Before he could finish speaking, the mist core on the chest of the tall, lifeless creature trembled violently, and a much stronger force of deathly cold surged back.
Zheng Yi was jolted back, his boots leaving two long furrows in the snow.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Wu Chen attacked again, no longer using his bone spear to fight head-on, but instead targeting the gaps between the joints.
But the tall, lifeless creature was clearly "smarter" than the previous three. With a twist of its body, it avoided the spear tip and swung its bone blade back.
Wu Chen's leather armor on his chest was ripped open with a long gash, but luckily he dodged quickly and only the outer layer was torn.
“It’s learning,” Zheng Yi said coldly.
"what?"
"It's watching our moves."
As expected, the tall, lifeless creature did not chase after Wu Chen and strike a second time. Instead, it took half a step back, tilting its head slightly, as if it were weighing its options.
Immediately afterwards, the snow beneath its feet suddenly burst open.
It wasn't that it exerted its own force; something else had emerged from under the snow!
Seven or eight grayish-white skeletal hands burst forth from the snow and lunged at the two men's ankles.
Wu Chen reacted extremely quickly, severing three of them with a single spear thrust.
Zheng Yi then directly poured spiritual fire into the ground, and with a loud bang, a circle of fire rose up from beneath his feet. His bone hands crackled and curled up in the fire.
But that brief delay was enough for the tall, lifeless object to create distance.
It turned and flew north.
Wu Chen shouted, "Chase!"
The two rushed out of the snow valley at the same time.
The tall, lifeless creature was incredibly fast, leaving almost no trace as it swept across the snow, with only occasional bone blades scraping against the ice shell, sending up a trail of pale sparks.
Zheng Yi's consciousness remained firmly focused on the situation.
It didn't flee randomly, but headed straight for a lower area to the north.
The wind blew from ahead, carrying an even stronger smell of water and frost.
Wu Chen's face grew increasingly grim.
"We're almost at the lake."
"White Bone Lake?"
"Correct."
Zheng Yi did not slow down.
The tall, lifeless object suddenly turned its head, and a flash of blue light appeared beneath its icy shell.
That voice came to Zheng Yi's ears again.
This time it's not just one word.
"Get...down..."
The sound seemed to rise from a very distant and deep place, carrying the hollow sound of water crashing against bones.
Wu Chen obviously couldn't hear, but he saw Zheng Yi's eyes turn cold.
What is it saying?
"Tell me to come down."
Wu Chen cursed in the language of the wilderness and quickened his pace.
The terrain ahead suddenly opened up.
A vast lake appeared at the end of the snowfield.
White Bone Lake.
It was bigger and quieter than Zheng Yi had imagined.
The lake was mostly covered by ice, but not a smooth, flat layer of ice. Instead, it consisted of broken, re-frozen slabs of ice, intertwined with each other, revealing extremely dark water through the gaps.
There were no trees on the shore, only scattered rocks and a ring of bones worn white by the wind, laid out naturally, as if they had really been pushed up by the waves little by little.
The strangest thing is the center of the lake.
The ice there wasn't white, but rather a faint gray, as if a large shadow lay beneath it.
The tall, lifeless creature swept to the lakeside, did not stop, and stepped directly onto a crack in the ice.
Wu Chen abruptly stopped: "We can't go any faster! The ice isn't solid!"
Zheng Yi also stopped half a step.
The tall, lifeless creature stood on a sloping ice slab and glanced back at them.
That look held no emotion of a living being, yet it carried an almost mocking undertone.
The next instant, it raised its bone blade and plunged it into the ice beneath its feet.
click!
The entire ice slab cracked open, and black water surged upwards.
Its entire body sank straight down.
There was no struggle; it felt like coming home.
When Wuchen reached the shore, he only had time to see the last bit of grayish-white color sink into the black water.
Two bubbles rose to the surface of the lake, but quickly subsided.
"Oh shit."
Wu Chen plunged his spear deep into the frozen soil on the bank, the shaft of the spear trembling.
Zheng Yi stood by the lake, pressing his divine sense into the water.
But the water was too cold and too heavy.
When the divine sense probed downwards for no more than ten feet, it felt as if it were being pricked by countless tiny ice needles, and began to feel stiff and sluggish.
Further down, it's not clearer, but more confusing.
It's like having many fragmented thoughts and incomplete perspectives floating in the water, sticking to you the moment you touch them.
Zheng Yi decisively withdrew his divine sense, his face turning slightly pale.
Wu Chen noticed: "What's down there?"
“It’s not just one thing.” Zheng Yi stared at the black water. “It’s like many broken bones and many broken thoughts, intertwined together.”
"Can we go down and kill them?"
Zheng Yi did not answer immediately.
The wind was strong by the lake, making one's eyes feel tight.
He looked down at the water.
The water was so black it seemed to have swallowed all the light. A thin layer of grayish-white frost had formed on the edge of the ice crevice, much like the frost on the wounds of the Gray Deer hunters.
Wu Chen asked again, "Can we download it?"
Zheng Yi slowly exhaled a breath of white air.
"Being able to go down doesn't mean it should go down."
Are you afraid you won't be able to get out?
“I’m afraid that once we go down there, we won’t even be able to find what it’s trying to kill,” Zheng Yi said. “It deliberately led us here and then deliberately sank in front of us, just to make me chase after it.”
Wu Chen frowned: "Don't you possess divine sense?"
“The water here severely suppresses spiritual senses. The further down you go, the more chaotic it becomes.” Zheng Yi looked at the grayish ice area in the center of the lake. “And what lies below may not just be water.”
Wu Chen followed his gaze and remained silent for a while.
“I came to the lake once with my father when I was a child. He wouldn’t let me get close, saying that the bottom of the lake looked like a beehive.”
"honeycomb?"
“He said that when you step down, it’s not flat underneath,” Wu Chen said. “It’s like there are many hollow layers, many holes, and water swirling inside. If someone falls in, they won’t sink straight to the bottom; they’ll be swept away first.”
Zheng Yi's eyes darkened.
Therefore, we must not rush down.
Although he was a cultivator, his cultivation level had not yet recovered enough to move freely in this strange lake. If it were just plain icy water, he could force his way through with his spiritual power, but if there were holes, fissures, and groups of living, inanimate objects below, coupled with his obstructed spiritual sense—
Too dangerous.
Wu Chen stared intently at the lake, as if suppressing a fire.
"We just let it escape like that?" Zheng Yi said, "Today is."
Wu Chen slammed his fist into his thigh, making a dull thud.
"Most of the people of the Gray Deer tribe were dragged down by them."
“It might not be entirely them,” Zheng Yi said.
Wu Chen turned his head: "What do you mean?"
Zheng Yi squatted down and picked up a piece of bone half-buried in the snow on the shore. The bone was small, grayish-white, with fine abrasions on the edges, as if it had been washed by water for a long time.
“That tall thing just now moved like a weapon-wielding hand. The three in front look more like puppets pieced together from miscellaneous bones.” He turned the bone fragment over and showed Wu Chen the engravings on it. “This wasn’t a natural crack.”
Wu Chen squinted.
There is a very shallow curved line on the inside of the bone fragment.
It doesn't look like natural bone markings; it's like they were slowly etched in by something.
"You mean...someone did this?"
“It may not be a human,” Zheng Yi said, “but at least it’s not just a simple zombie transformation.”
Wu Chen looked at the lake and lowered his voice: "Then we should go down there even more."
Zheng Yi stood up: "I know."
"Are you going back?"
"go back."
Wu Chen was taken aback.
Zheng Yi looked at him: "I'm not afraid. I'm afraid that if I go down now, I'll most likely die for nothing."
Wu Chen remained silent.
The wind made the hems of their clothes tremble.
After a while, Wu Chen finally asked, "What do you want to do?"
Looking at the cracked ice on the lake, Zheng Yi suddenly asked, "Do you have any ways to make the water recede in your wasteland?"
Wu Chen was stunned: "What?"
“It’s not about scooping water out bucket by bucket; it’s about lowering the lake level on a large scale,” Zheng Yi said. “We’ll change the flow, release water, cut off the outlet, or pump out some of the water under the ice.”
Wu Chen stared at him for a few moments, as if to confirm that he wasn't just spouting nonsense.
"You want to dry up the lake?"
"At least let it go down first," Zheng Yi said, "so I can see what's on the next level."
Wu Chen's Adam's apple bobbed: "This lake is very large."
"I saw it."
"It's not the kind of large area that a dozen people can dig a ditch to get out of; it's the kind of large area that several people would walk around for half a day and still not be able to get around."
"I know."
Wu Chen still frowned: "Besides, the lake isn't a dead lake. It's connected to ice veins and even deeper water. If you leave it aside, it might seep back in from elsewhere."
Zheng Yi didn't rush to argue, but said, "That's why I have to go back and ask Bone Granny. You've lived here longer, so you know more methods than I do."
Wu Chen stared at the black water for a long time before nodding.
"Back."
On their return journey, both of them were much quieter than when they arrived.
After walking for a while, Wu Chen suddenly said, "If you really wanted to get off just now, I would have followed."
Zheng Yi glanced at him: "And then die together down there?"
Wu Chen said, "They might come up together too."
"You have quite the gambler's instinct."
“Many times, the people of the wasteland aren’t gambling; they’re just having no other choice,” Wu Chen said.
Zheng Yi said, "We have a choice today."
Wu Chen remained silent.
The sun was out, but it offered little warmth. The snow was blindingly bright, and in the distance, one could see the silhouettes of people patrolling the stone walls of the Black Rock Tribe.
Chiya had obviously been keeping watch, and when he saw the two return, he jumped down from the wall from a distance, running and sending snow flying everywhere.
"So, what did you see? Did any bones run away on their own? Did they fight? Who won?"
He asked a string of questions in one breath, and only when he got closer did he realize that the dark leather armor had been cut open and there was a shallow bloodstain on Zheng Yi's ear. His expression immediately changed.
"They really fought?"
Wu Chen pushed him aside: "Go back first."
Red Fang walked backwards, still asking, "What does White Bone Lake look like? Does it really have eyes? Can that thing talk? Why didn't you bring back a bone for Bone Granny to see?"
Zheng Yi said, "If you ask again, I'll take you to see it."
Red Fang immediately shut his mouth.
……
The old woman was simmering soup at the entrance of the pharmacy.
When she saw the two return, she first checked their hands and feet to make sure they weren't missing any limbs, then said coldly, "Let's go inside and talk."
The fire inside was burning brightly, and as soon as you entered, some of the frost that had frozen onto your clothes melted.
The old woman threw a packet of medicine powder to Wu Chen, then looked at the bloody gash on Zheng Yi's ear.
"sit down."
Zheng Yi said, "No need, it's just a superficial wound."
"Sit down if I tell you to."
Zheng Yi had no choice but to sit on the wooden stool next to the brazier.
Red Fang slipped into the house like a shadow, only to be struck in the chest by Bone Granny with her staff.
"Stand by the door and listen, don't interrupt."
Chiya muttered under his breath, "Then what's the point of listening?"
The old woman ignored him, pressing the powder into Wu Chen's chest and making a cut, while asking, "What did you see?"
Wu Chen recounted the chaotic rock area, the snow valley, the three dead objects, and the last tall thing.
He spoke briefly, but each sentence made the room a little quieter.
The two women who were arranging herbs in the corner stopped what they were doing.
When the Bone Woman heard the words "a core in the chest," her brows furrowed almost into a knot.
She let out a heavy sigh when she heard that "it sank into the lake by itself".
"It really is still a problem with the lake."
Zheng Yi looked up: "You really didn't know what was going on under the lake before?"
The old woman shook her head: "I know a little bit of what's been passed down, but I don't know the real stuff. Even those older generations who came back alive couldn't explain it clearly. It's like they couldn't explain it, or like they couldn't explain it."
Red Fang couldn't help but interject, "Could it be that they themselves didn't understand it?"
The old woman looked at her coldly: "Could it be that you talk too much?"
Chiya shrank back to the door and remained silent.
Zheng Yi asked, "Does White Bone Lake have an outlet?"
The bone woman was taken aback: "What mouth?"
"Where does the water go? If it's stagnant, it will eventually overflow. If it doesn't overflow, it needs a place to drain."
Bone Granny thought for a moment and looked at Wu Chen.
Wu Chen said, "There is a valley in the southwest. When the snow melts in late spring, the lake water will overflow a little in that direction. But you can't see the flow at other times."
"What about underground?"
"Who can see underground?"
After a few moments of silence, Zheng Yi asked the question that was on his mind: "Is there any possibility of draining the water?"
The room fell silent.
Even Chiya's eyes widened in surprise.
The Bone Woman stared at him for a long time, as if she were looking at someone who suddenly said he would turn the sky upside down.
Say it again.
“Drain the lake, or at least drain a large section of it,” Zheng Yi said, “so that I can see the first layer below, or force that thing to be exposed.”
Chiya couldn't help but say, "Are you crazy? That's a lake, not a meat-washing basin."
This time, however, the Bone Woman did not scold him.
She actually lowered her head and started thinking.
The charcoal in the brazier crackled softly, and the aromas of medicine and simmering soup rose layer by layer from the room.
After a long while, the Bone Woman said, "Drawing it out is impossible. At least it's impossible with manpower. Even if the Black Rock Tribe and several nearby tribes scooped with bone basins all winter, they still couldn't scoop out a corner of the lake."
Zheng Yi nodded: "Just scooping it out definitely won't work. What other methods are there?"
"Dig a trench and release the water?"
"can."
Wu Chen frowned: "We need to know which side is the lowest first."
The old woman said, "The southwest valley is indeed low, but that's only the surface. Nobody knows what the lakebed is like. If you dig down there and there are rocky ridges blocking the way, the water still won't come out."
Zheng Yi asked, "What if we blow it up first?"
The Bone Woman raised her eyes: "Explode?" (End of Chapter)