After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 318: Chapter 317: Face-Changing

Willow suddenly tugged on Door Panel and whispered, ”I feel like we’re being watched.”

Her intuition was sharper than the others’. Door Panel immediately tightened his grip on his giant axe. ”Front or back?”

”I’m not sure. It comes and goes.” Willow hummed. ”It’s behind us now.”

”We’ve been marked,” Hee Lingchuan said, having heard them. ”These things move freely through the rock walls. Who do you think it’ll attack first?”

Xuu Chun blurted out, ”A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.”

Hearing this, everyone looked at the wounded man bandaged up like a mummy. He froze and instinctively stopped in his tracks.

Just then,

A pair of claws emerged from the ground, grabbed his ankle, and yanked down hard!

The ground where the wounded man stood seemed to simultaneously turn into soft mud. With one pull, he was dragged down, sinking right up to his calves!

He had just cried out in alarm when Hee Lingchuan was already there, his blade hacking into the ground right beside the man’s calf.

The ground was indeed soft and yielding.

The blade slid straight in, as if cutting through something. The texture was different from both rock and mud.

The thing struggled violently, its strength like that of a large, thrashing fish in water.

In a flash, he slashed once on each side of the wounded man’s legs.

As he lifted the Floating Life Blade, a drop of green blood slid from its tip.

’A direct hit.’

Door Panel seized the chance to yank the wounded man free.

The leg the man had instinctively retracted came free easily, but two toes on his other foot were trapped in the ground.

The moment the monster retreated, the ground solidified almost instantly.

Hee Lingchuan, seeing the good deed through, used his blade to dig the toes out for him.

Everyone then saw a monster’s claw hanging from the wounded man’s ankle, severed at the wrist, dripping green blood nonstop.

The surprise attack was so sudden that the wounded man was free before his shock had even subsided. But no one had time to breathe a sigh of relief, because countless shadowy figures were charging at them from the front!

Xuu Chun’s jaw tightened as he shouted a warning to the group, ”The Bone Puppets are here!”

So these were the so-called Bone Puppets. Hee Lingchuan finally saw them for himself. They were like puppets kneaded from bone and mud, varying in size and bizarre in shape. Their outer shells were like uneven stone, with sinister white bones exposed in some places.

Their main bodies weren’t entirely made of human skeletons. Hee Lingchuan could also recognize the skulls of wild boars, mountain deer, pythons, and even rats, all pieced together. Sometimes, several of these would appear on a single Bone Puppet, with no sense of aesthetics whatsoever.

It was clear the Jindu Ghost Child controlling them lacked suitable materials and could only make do with whatever it found. Or perhaps its aesthetic sense was just abysmal from birth.

But their numbers were staggering.

Xuu Chun hadn’t been wrong. The Bone Puppets were a dense, teeming mass. The sight of them charging forward like a tide would be too much for any ordinary person to handle.

Moreover, these things were utterly fearless, charging ahead without any regard for self-preservation.

Most importantly, a man was sprinting frantically ahead of the Bone Puppets. Seeing Hee Lingchuan and the others, he roared, ”Help me! Help me!”

The Patrol Guards were taken aback.

Wasn’t that Wang Xu, the vice-captain of Duan Xinyu’s team?

He too was covered in blood and filth, rushing before the group, panting for breath.

Hee Lingchuan asked him, ”Where’s Duan Xinyu?”

”Dead! They’re all dead!” Wang Xu cried hoarsely. ”The whole team was wiped out! Two monsters attacked us!”

’Two?’

Hee Lingchuan and Xuu Chun exchanged a look.

’So, did the Jindu Ghost Child that attacked Xuu Chun’s team retreat to help its brethren attack Duan Xinyu’s group?’

Willow suddenly said, ”Now we’re facing two of them as well!”

One was elusive and could turn the ground into a mire, while the other was the younger one that could mold puppets and wear Mud Armor.

’In other words, the final showdown is about to begin.’

Everyone tightened their grip on their weapons.

Then, the army of Bone Puppets charged, crashing into the group!

Xuu Chun, having combat experience, was the first to act, tossing a few palm-sized wooden plaques onto the ground. They righted themselves upon landing and emitted concentric halos of light that spread out like ripples on water.

The halos covered a large area, essentially blanketing the narrow passage. Any Bone Puppets walking within the light slowed to the pace of an old ox pulling a broken cart.

The Slowdown Technique had taken effect.

Door Panel grabbed his shield and slammed it heavily onto the ground.

A shockwave erupted from the shield, spreading in all directions and blasting the dozen or so Bone Puppets at the front into pieces.

’That wasn’t so hard.’

However, the scattered fragments quickly reassembled themselves, cobbling together new Bone Puppets that were even more bizarre and ugly than before.

Xuu Chun shouted, ”Smashing them is useless! It’s better to immobilize them!”

Hee Lingchuan glanced at the blade in his hand. No one had noticed that only the Bone Puppets he shattered didn’t regenerate.

’What’s the reason?’

’Is it because of its Void Shattering trait?’

The Floating Life Blade could destroy intangible and incorporeal things. But Hee Lingchuan wasn’t sure if these Bone Puppets counted.

Willow said angrily, ”Why didn’t you say so sooner!”

She took a few steps back, drew an arrow from her back, and nocked and loosed it with a SWOOSH.

The arrow wasn’t aimed at the Bone Puppets, but at the ground beneath their feet.

A frigid chill spread out from where the arrowhead landed, sticking to the soles of the Bone Puppets’ feet and creeping its way up...

About ten or so breaths later, the hundred-plus Bone Puppets on the icy ground had all frozen into ice sculptures, completely motionless.

”See? Frozen solid.” Willow’s expression was blank, but her heart was bleeding. These were the Ice Arrowheads she’d bought from a crooked merchant on Spirit Island, and each one cost ten taels of silver!

’Ten taels could buy so much fine wine! Still, the arrow’s effect is undeniably amazing.’

Xuu Chun turned and ran. ”Let’s move! This won’t hold them for long!”

Willow protested, ”Hey, this should hold for at least half a double-hour.”

The crooked merchant on Spirit Island had slapped his chest and guaranteed that the ice runes on the arrow would last for a full double-hour, even in the height of summer.

”You think my team didn’t try flash-freezing?” Xuu Chun’s expression was grim. ”It’ll melt! In this strange Mine Cave, even solid ice thaws out! Look—”

He pointed at the rock wall. ”Look here!”

The power of the Ice Arrowhead was indeed considerable; even the rock wall was covered in a layer of frost.

But right before their eyes, the white frost was slowly vanishing, replaced by trickling beads of water.

’It’s melting? This fast?’

Seeing the Bone Puppets in the distance catching up again, the group took the hint and turned to leave.

Hee Lingchuan understood now. In this strange Mine Cave, the Bone Puppets and the Jindu Ghost Children could both draw energy from the rock walls, making recovery and thawing a simple matter.

’This home-field advantage is just ridiculous.’

Unless they left the Mine Cave, they really had no perfect solution for dealing with the Bone Puppets.

Not to mention the two monsters watching them like tigers eyeing their prey.

Just then, a team member behind Xuu Chun suddenly shouted, ”Are we missing someone?”

Everyone stiffened and started a headcount.

Sure enough, the count only reached ten.

One person was missing.

Hee Lingchuan’s heart sank as he scanned the group. ”My squad is down one man.”

The wounded man was still fine, but the Patrol Guard who had been supporting him was gone.

’I chopped off that monster’s arms. Did they grow back this quickly?’

Just then, a figure shot out from the dark passage ahead, shouting, ”He’s the Jindu Ghost Child! Don’t trust him!”

Everyone jumped in fright. Looking closely, they saw it was Duan Xinyu!

The man was covered in blood and filth, his left arm hanging limply at his side. And the person he was pointing at was none other than Hee Lingchuan.

”Me?” Hee Lingchuan pointed to himself, a look of confusion on his face.

”Get lost! Stop getting in the way!” Duan Xinyu’s fiery glare was directed at Wang Xu. ”It ate Wang Xu and is impersonating him!”

Wang Xu, who was standing behind and to the left of Hee Lingchuan, stepped forward and shouted, ”No, no, *he’s* the Jindu Ghost Child! I saw it eat the captain with my own eyes!”

Everyone was baffled for a moment. With a powerful enemy behind them and another person lost, did they really have to start playing a guessing game now?

Willow threw two Thief Mustards onto the two men, observed for a few breaths, and then announced, ”No color change on either of them.”

As soon as she said this, everyone simultaneously took two or three steps back, putting distance between themselves and their companions.

The failure of the two Thief Mustards meant that they couldn’t detect a Jindu Ghost Child.

Taking it a step further, the previous test on Xuu Chun and his three companions was also invalid.

A Jindu Ghost Child could also be hiding among those four.

Perhaps this also explained why a team member had vanished without a sound.

Hee Lingchuan looked back the way they came and heard the approaching footsteps of the Bone Puppets. They were out of time.

”You both claim you saw the Jindu Ghost Child eat the other one?”

Wang Xu’s eyes were red. ”The captain’s death was horrible!”

Duan Xinyu was furious. ”Bullshit! I saw the monster chew off both your arms with my own eyes! First the left, then...” He choked up, unable to continue.

The scene had been too gruesome.

Hee Lingchuan nodded. ”We will definitely avenge our comrade.” Before the words were even out of his mouth, he suddenly drew his blade!

The others saw a flash of Blade Aura, like a bolt of white silk. Wang Xu leaped back seven feet in the nick of time, shocked and enraged. ”On what grounds do you believe him!”

Hee Lingchuan had already fired a Sleeve Arrow. THUD! It sank into Wang Xu’s chest, the arrowhead blooming inside. ”On the grounds that your blood is green.”

As he spoke, he closed the distance, simultaneously yanking the attached Hooked Rope to drag his opponent violently toward him for a backhanded slash to the neck!

The spray of blood from the Rope Arrow’s impact was, indeed, green.

The other Patrol Guards, their doubts erased, surged forward to attack.

As long as they could incapacitate this thing, the army of Bone Puppets behind them would be nothing more than useless rubble.

”Wang Xu” seemed to sneer before opening his mouth and spitting a stream of green slime at Hee Lingchuan.

It was fast, sudden, and voluminous.

The two were already closing in on each other rapidly. Seeing no way to dodge, Hee Lingchuan could only manage to raise an arm to shield his eyes.

A searing pain shot across his face as if he’d been splashed with strong acid, and Hee Lingchuan couldn’t help but cry out.

’Well, I *have* been splashed with strong acid.’

The talent of the Jindu Ghost Child they had killed in the ”stomach” earlier had somehow been inherited by this younger one.

But the blade in his hand didn’t hesitate for a moment.

But ”Wang Xu” actually managed to grab his wrist and slam him to the ground!

At the same time, a pair of claws shot out from the ground, latched viciously onto Hee Lingchuan’s ankles, and began to drag him down.

The two Jindu Ghost Children attacked in unison with seamless coordination. And they didn’t pick off the weak; they went straight for the team’s backbone, Hee Lingchuan!

Kill him, and the rest would lose their nerve. The team would collapse on its own.