Chapter 308: The Monster is a Skeleton?
Thinking of how vampires were afraid of running water, sunlight, garlic, and more... Yu An decided to prepare it all.
If she ran into a Vampire, she would just throw it at them. Every one they took down was one less to worry about.
And so, Han Li ended up with a string of garlic hung around his neck, the smell so strong it made his eyes roll back.
Yu An couldn’t help but laugh at the sight. After having her fun, she took it off him, and the group set off.
There were countless forks in the path. Some groups entered one path together, while others went in alone.
The path Yu An and her group chose was empty, so after walking a short distance, Yu An let the Zaizai out.
Five adults and five Zaizai—exactly one for each of them to look after.
Little Serpent held Yu An’s hand, hopping and skipping with excitement.
He was small, so when he got tired of walking, he could just coil around the Female Mother’s wrist. He wouldn’t tire her out, which was how he won out over his brothers.
Of course, to be fair, this meant he couldn’t sleep next to his Female Mother when they rested at night.
Yu An let them decide for themselves. This was something the five of them had agreed upon; she wouldn’t interfere in their affairs, lest she be accused of playing favorites.
With the little ones chattering away, the journey was anything but lonely. Lu Lu dozed on Yu An’s shoulder, completely exhausted from babysitting in the pocket dimension for the last few days.
"Female Mother, what’s this?"
The tunnel was lit by Fluorite, but the plants and flowers, having never seen the sun, grew in all sorts of strange and bizarre shapes. The Zaizai found everything novel and would ask, "Why?" whenever they saw something new.
If Yu An recognized something, she would explain it to them. If she didn’t... she would pack it into her pocket dimension to study later.
"This looks like shepherd’s purse. Your Female Mother has made you dumplings and wontons with shepherd’s purse and pork filling before. Because it’s been in the dark for so long without sunlight, it hasn’t photosynthesized and lacks chlorophyll, which is why it’s grown so pale..."
Yu An explained eloquently, thankful that she hadn’t completely forgotten the little bit of biology she had learned.
Logically, wild vegetables and flowers like shepherd’s purse shouldn’t grow in a place that never sees sunlight. This place was truly magical.
’I wonder what albino shepherd’s purse tastes like.’
The Zaizai had a moment of sudden realization.
’Okay, they didn’t understand a thing. It all sounded very profound.’
Han Li furiously scribbled in a small notebook, determined to look up the answers in the books in the pocket dimension later. He strived to have something to talk about with Yu An at all times.
Mo Yan, walking behind the young couple, couldn’t stop smiling as she secretly savored one sweet moment after another.
Han Fengyun and Han Xiaoyun brought up the rear. They were sick of the sight of each other, but their gazes softened in unison whenever they looked at Mo Yan.
Just as the family was squatting on the ground digging up wild vegetables, a blood-curdling scream suddenly echoed through the tunnel. Yu An immediately shot to her feet, on alert.
Han Li quickly stood up. "An’an, what is it?"
"You didn’t hear that?"
Yu An looked left and right. "I heard a scream."
Han Li looked confused. "No, I didn’t hear anything at all."
When she asked Mo Yan and the others, they also said they hadn’t heard anything.
Just as Yu An was starting to think she had imagined it, a series of screams rang out one after another. Yu An pressed her ear against the stone wall to listen.
"It’s coming from the next tunnel. I can hear it clearly. Someone’s shouting about a monster... You guys really can’t hear it?"
The four of them shook their heads in unison. Even the Zaizai said they couldn’t hear it.
Han Li thought for a moment before guessing, "An’an, this place was formed from the fragments of the Heaven and Earth Stone. Maybe because you’ve spent so much time near the Heaven and Earth Stone, you can hear things through the stone walls?"
That was the only plausible explanation. Yu An didn’t dwell on it; the important thing now was to pick up the pace.
None of them knew if their tunnel had monsters. The first half of the journey had been so easy that they had all let their guard down.
Little Serpent coiled around Yu An’s wrist, and the other Zaizai transformed into their beast forms, becoming lighter and lessening the burden on the adults.
Only Xiao Yu couldn’t easily change into his beast form. His little tail was slippery, making him even less convenient to carry than in his human form.
’Maybe I should just have Female Mother send me into the pocket dimension...’
A hint of sadness flickered in Xiao Yu’s eyes. Suddenly, the world spun around him, and he found himself thrown into the air.
The little guy was dazed for a moment. As he fell, Han Li caught him effortlessly.
"Xiao Yu, you haven’t been eating properly, have you?" Han Li pinched his small cheek. "Eat more. Your Beast Father can carry you just fine."
The little one hadn’t yet learned to hide his feelings; his thoughts were written all over his face. Even someone as unobservant as Han Li could see them clearly.
’Forget one Zaizai—he could carry all six!’
Xiao Yu’s eyes instantly sparkled. He threw his arms around Han Li’s neck and gave him a loud SMOOCH.
Far away, thousands of miles from there, Lan Yin and Lan Ying were cultivating. Both of them frowned at the same time, seeming to feel something gradually moving farther away from them.
Oh, it was their Zaizai.
As they hurried along, Yu An noticed the Fluorite was growing dimmer. The path ahead was even shrouded in complete darkness. She thought for a moment and took out the Luminous Pearl that Lan Yin had given her.
She had intended to use it for light, but unexpectedly, the moment she took it out, something in the darkness ahead stirred.
Wherever the light reached, they scattered in every direction. They didn’t scream, only making a CLACK-CLACK-CLACK sound.
Mo Yan and Han Fengyun were all too familiar with this sound. They both instinctively looked at Han Xiaoyun.
That was a sound only skeletons could make!
Because they were only bones without flesh, every step they took produced a faint "CLACK." If they moved quickly, or if they hadn’t moved in a long time, the sound would be even louder.
Even without them saying anything, Yu An and the others could now see clearly what the "monsters" were.
Skeletons of all shapes and sizes—tall, short, fat, and thin—were scrambling away in a panic. Some collided with each other, causing their bony frames to fall apart, forcing them to hastily reassemble themselves on the spot.
In their haste, their movements became clumsy. Leg bones were attached to arm sockets, ribs and skulls were swapped, and some even grabbed the wrong bones from others, earning them a sound beating...
Yu An: "..."
The others: "..."
"Stop!"
Yu An couldn’t help but shout. To her surprise, the skeletons obediently stopped, their empty eye sockets all turning to look at her.
"You’re the so-called monsters?"
One of the smaller skeletons subconsciously nodded, but the movement was so forceful that its skull went flying off.
The corner of Yu An’s mouth twitched. She picked up the skull at her feet and placed it back on its neck.
As she got closer, she realized that the light from the Luminous Pearl didn’t seem to harm the skeletons. So why had they fled in terror the moment they saw it?
’Don’t tell me *we’re* the ones who scared *them*?’
Seeming to sense that Yu An meant no harm, the little skeleton tilted its head to look at her, then turned to look at Xiao Yu, who was being held by Han Li.
Yu An wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she sensed the little skeleton had become happy, and it made a cry she couldn’t understand.
As the sound faded, fifteen small skeletons emerged from the crowd.
They excitedly surrounded Han Li—or to be more precise, they surrounded Xiao Yu in Han Li’s arms.
Xiao Yu didn’t find them scary. On the contrary, he couldn’t resist reaching out to pat the top of one of the small skeleton’s skulls.
In that instant, the small skeleton’s leg bones transformed into the shape of a fish’s tail, lifting it five centimeters off the ground, as if it were floating in mid-air.
It excitedly swished its bone-tail, as if showing off to its companions, which made the other little skeletons stare at Xiao Yu with eager eyes.