Chapter Eighty-Five: A Bone

Fang Mu looked down at the pitch-black abyss below and said, “I don’t know why Wu Li threw him in there, but it can’t have been for anything good. She butchered his wife right in front of him, so he certainly won’t let it rest. Better to strike while he’s weak and take his life.”

Yan Xian’s mouth twitched. He very much agreed with Fang Mu’s idea, but the more he listened, the more Fang Mu’s tone sounded like that of a villain.

“Smack!” Fang Mu slapped a hand onto Yan Xian’s shoulder and said, “No matter. What you’ve found already is more than enough.”

Yan Xian was instantly dumbfounded. What sort of consolation was this? Why did he suddenly feel like he had become a mere tool, and not even a very useful one at that?

Of course, Fang Mu did not know this. If he had, he would have nodded without hesitation.

Compared with the man carrying a bronze compass, Yan Xian’s role in the present situation was indeed not very great.

...

The gloomy gorge howled with wind, and beyond that there was nothing unusual.

Fang Mu and Yan Xian exchanged a glance, then both leaped into the gorge.

Golden radiance enveloped Fang Mu from head to toe. Before jumping, he had already placed Ah Bai into the small wooden box he carried on him.

After falling for a moment, with a thunderous crash, Fang Mu and Yan Xian landed on solid ground.

The instant his feet touched earth, Fang Mu heard a sharp clang beside him.

Yan Xian had already drawn his long blade and was gripping it tightly.

Fang Mu frowned. “What is it? Trouble?”

Yan Xian nodded solemnly. “Ever since we jumped down, I’ve felt a subtle change in my blood energy. Blood energy is my secondary divine ability, so I can sense it. It feels as though something is slowly consuming it.”

Fang Mu glanced around, keeping the Golden Body Art in operation.

Under its light, part of the surrounding space was revealed.

Their feet rested on black soil, damp beyond reason, with a sticky, slimy feel beneath them.

The direction from which they had jumped was very close to the place where Wu Li’s husband had fallen, yet once they reached the ground, only the two of them were here.

Fang Mu asked, “Can you track anything?”

Yan Xian shook his head. “Nothing at all can be tracked.”

Fang Mu sighed, his tone carrying regret.

That note of regret made Yan Xian question his own life even more, as though he were not a qualified tool at all.

Who am I? I’m a genius with dual divine abilities. How did I become an unqualified tool? No, wait—I’m not a tool in the first place!

Yan Xian felt that Fang Mu was poisonous. Deadly poisonous.

For some reason, when standing before Fang Mu, even he, a genius with two divine abilities, seemed hard to brag about.

Fang Mu thought for a moment, then simply walked off in one direction.

Yan Xian asked in confusion, “Brother Fang, this is...?”

“There’s only one crack here,” Fang Mu said without turning back. “No other roads. Let’s pick a direction first.”

“But...” Yan Xian tightened his grip on the hilt of his long blade. “Shouldn’t we discuss it a little more?”

Fang Mu shook his head, gazing into the darkness ahead. Under the glow of the Golden Body Art, his features could not be seen clearly.

“Think about it,” Fang Mu said after a moment. “When faced with a road that has only one crack, a real man should charge ahead spear in hand, mounted and galloping, because there is no third path.”

There was only one road. It was either to the left or to the right—there was no third choice. First pick one side and then say more.

As for splitting up, that was the stupidest choice of all, because from ancient times to the present, the law that those who split up die has never changed.

Yan Xian looked at Fang Mu amid the golden light. His words, though not without reason, somehow sounded strangely off.

...

Tiger Leap Gorge truly deserved to be called a great canyon; the two of them walked through the darkness for a long time and still had not reached the end.

Yan Xian rubbed his eyes. Staying beside Fang Mu the whole time, bathed in that golden light, was making them ache a little.

Just after they had gone a bit farther, a gust of wind suddenly rose for no reason.

From the darkness ahead came a strange sound.

“I’m so scared... sob... I’m so scared...”

The voice sounded like that of a young boy. Although the words spoke of fear, the tone was unnaturally calm, like a straight line with no rise or fall.

Against the surrounding darkness, that calm voice was terrifying to hear.

Fang Mu turned back, his pupils contracting.

At some unknown point, Yan Xian had vanished without a trace.

There had been no warning, no sign at all; Fang Mu had not even sensed it. Yan Xian had simply disappeared.

“I’m so scared, so dark... so painful...”

The calm voice rang out again. This time, Fang Mu heard where it came from: beneath his feet.

He lowered his head and saw a gigantic rat kneeling at his feet, bowing repeatedly toward him.

The rat was enormous, no different in size from an ordinary adult house cat. Its fur was not black but a burnt yellow.

Rats with burnt-yellow fur are usually very old. Seeing this one making human-like gestures of worship, Fang Mu could not help but think of a legend.

When he first came into contact with the work of a coroner, he had looked up all kinds of taboos. Among them, the story of a rat bowing to a person also existed in the old Kingdom of Yue.

When a rat bows to a human, someone is bound to die.

This giant rat did not seem to fear Fang Mu at all, and it could even speak human words, making it all the more bizarre.

Fang Mu raised the butcher’s knife, using the Butchering People technique.

Within the flash of the blade, the rat offered no resistance and was instantly reduced to pieces.

“So weak?” Fang Mu looked at the rat turned into minced flesh with a puzzled expression.

A faint, misty green light emerged from the rat’s body and floated in midair.

Within that green light was a bone, though it was impossible to tell from which part of the body.

Once it appeared, it did not linger and flew off in one direction.

Fang Mu did not hesitate. He chased after it with the butcher’s knife in hand.

The bone flew very fast, nearly matching Fang Mu’s Earth Traveling Art.

As one fled and the other pursued, something different appeared ahead.

A white skeleton emerged not far in front of him. The flying bone embedded itself into the throat area of the white skeleton.

“Throat bone?” Fang Mu held the butcher’s knife and wore an excited expression as he thought to himself, “It’s a physical form. Can I just get my hands on it directly?”

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Fang Mu advanced with Earth Traveling Art and reached out to give it a grab.

To Fang Mu’s surprise, no prompt sounded at all, and the corpse-searching art did not react.

This was the first time he had encountered such a thing, and he paused slightly.

The white skeleton moved, lifting its deathly pale bone hand and reaching for Fang Mu...

“I’m so scared... I’m so scared...”

The outermost layer of the Golden Body Art shattered on the spot, while the inner layer blocked the bone hand.

Fang Mu’s gaze sharpened, and he raised the butcher’s knife. “Not bad. You’ve broken one layer of mine.”

For some reason, he could not get a hold of it, but since the skeleton could move, he might as well beat it until it was half dead first...