He didn't know how long he had been flying.
Li Xiuman felt his mental energy deplete entirely, leaving him on the verge of plunging from the sky.
Yet, to avoid being dragged back, he desperately flapped his Bone Wings and flew even further away.
Just a little further. The further he went, the less likely they would catch up to him.
Finally, Li Xiuman could fly no longer.
He had to descend and land on the ground.
But he still lacked any sense of security.
He had been traumatized in that skeleton den; every time he closed his eyes, he saw nothing but skeletons, not to mention the agonizing torture he had suffered at Lucia's hands for so long.
Just the thought of it made his entire frame crawl with discomfort.
However, he no longer had the strength to keep moving. He had to think of another way.
When he really thought about it, wasn't it perfectly natural for a skeleton to bury itself in the dirt?
Without hesitation, Li Xiuman lay down on the ground and cast Earth Magic, sinking his body into the soil.
“I am a corpse. I am a corpse.”
Li Xiuman repeatedly hypnotized himself.
Wrapped in self-hypnosis, Li Xiuman slowly drifted off to sleep, lying completely motionless in the soil as if he truly were a dead body.
As he slept, his broken bones slowly regrew and recovered, bit by bit.
Just as he had thought before, as long as he equipped limbs to evolve, the skills contained within those limbs would completely become his own.
Even if the limbs carrying those skills were lost, the skills could still be used.
In other words, during every future evolution, he could swap out his limb bones to integrate different skills.
When Li Xiuman regained consciousness in the dirt, he was awakened by a noisy commotion.
He thought it was the succubi under Pound's command chasing after him, and was too terrified to even twitch.
I'm a corpse. I'm a corpse. I'm a corpse.
He continued to hypnotize himself.
But Li Xiuman soon realized they weren't the succubi from Pound's forces.
The voices were incredibly coarse and loud; even buried deep underground, Li Xiuman could hear them clearly.
Even when facing death, the succubi's screams of agony were soft and alluring.
So, these weren't succubi.
Furthermore, he could hear a faint, trembling female voice.
“Don't come any closer!”
Tedela shouted as she backed away.
“Don't be so scared. We brothers just want to make friends with you and have some fun.”
In front of Tedela, a strapping, half-naked man ignored her shouts and continued to close the distance.
Behind the strapping man were two other healthy, adult men.
One was somewhat chubby, wearing a leather breastplate, while the other was shorter, dressed in linen clothes.
How could Tedela possibly believe such nonsense?
She drew a dagger from her waist. However, even when pointed at the men, her petite frame lent her no intimidation whatsoever. Instead, it only prompted them to blow mock whistles.
A wave of despair washed over Tedela's eyes. Steeling her resolve, she pointed the dagger at her own neck.
“Back off! Unless you want to play with my corpse!”
This threat clearly had an effect. The men halted, though they did not back off.
“Young lady, we just want to have some fun with you. There's no need to be so tense.”
“Back off!”
Tedela continued to scream, but the hand clutching her dagger trembled uncontrollably.
“Alright, alright, we'll back off, we'll back off.”
“Just don't scratch that beautiful neck of yours.”
The strapping leader seemed to have been intimidated, making a show of backing away.
Tedela let out a sigh of relief, only to be caught completely off guard when the man suddenly lunged forward. His movements were incredibly swift—far beyond those of a common thug—and in an instant, he grabbed Tedela's wrist and snatched her dagger away.
“A little lady like you shouldn't be playing with daggers.”
Tedela struggled to wrench her wrist free, but the man's hand was like a pair of iron tongs, clamping onto her wrist.
“You bastard!”
She cursed, aiming a kick squarely at the man's groin.
“Oh, quite a fiery temper.”
The kick was easily deflected.
“You two, come over and hold her down. Let me test the goods first.”
The remaining two men grabbed Tedela's arms from both sides, pinning her in place.
Clack, clack.
Just then, a strange noise echoed from beneath the ground.
The soil began to squirm, as if something was about to burst out.
“What's that?”
The three men's attention was momentarily drawn away.
Then, they watched as a hand of pure white bone thrust up from the soil.
“Why is there a skeleton here?”
The strapping man drew a short sword from his waist.
“Whatever, I'll go take care of it first.”
“Hurry up, Boss. We're itching for our turn with such high-quality goods.”
He waved his hand dismissively and approached the skeleton with short sword in hand.
It was just a newly revived Low-Tier Skeleton. Although he didn't know why it was rising, there was no way it could pose a threat to him.
But in the next instant,
a jet of muddy water shot up from the ground, transforming into a mud arrow that pierced straight toward the strapping man's eyes.
In an instant, his vision was completely robbed.
As long as his opening move secured victory, whether it was honorable or not was not within the skeleton's scope of consideration.
“What the hell!”
The strapping man cried out in shock, flailing his sword to block.
But in the next second, he felt a cold grip on his neck, which was instantly snapped.
“Captain!”
The remaining two men finally reacted. Pale with shock, they abandoned Tedela, drew their short swords, and charged at the skeleton.
The skeleton turned its skull, its hollow eye sockets staring at the two rushing men.
“Quagmire.”
In an instant, the ground turned into thick mud, and the two running men fell straight into it.
“Damn it!”
Their angry roars held no intimidation whatsoever for the skeleton.
Transforming into a white shadow, the skeleton broke off one of its ribs, turning it into a bone blade, and effortlessly slit the throats of the two men stuck in the quagmire.
To the current Li Xiuman, dealing with these weaklings under Level 10 was child's play.
However, they only yielded dozens of experience points.
Ignoring the corpses, he turned and walked toward the woman sitting slumped on the ground.
Seeing Li Xiuman approach, the woman hurriedly raised her dagger.
After all, she had no expectations that a skeletal monster would spare her life.
Even so, Tedela felt a sliver of gratitude toward the skeleton. Had it not been for this skeleton's sudden intrusion, she would have likely met a far more tragic end.
The skeleton walked up to Tedela.
Suppressing her trembling body as best as she could, Tedela lunged with the dagger.
Li Xiuman watched the incoming dagger and easily caught it with his skeletal hand.
“Clack, clack...”
“Clack, clack...”
“I... clack... won't... clack clack...”
Damn, talking is so hard!
Hearing the strange noises coming from the skeleton, Tedela raised her head, staring at the monster before her in bewildered disbelief.
“Are you... speaking?”
Right after asking, Tedela mentally ridiculed herself.
How could a skeleton possibly speak?
“...Clack clack... Yes... Clack clack...”
“You can really... speak?”
Tedela wondered if her ears were playing tricks on her. After all, this skeleton was incredibly bizarre to begin with.
It could use magic, and it had demonstrated clear intelligence in the previous combat.
She thought for a moment before speaking again.
“If you have intelligence, please make a 'clack' sound.”
“...Clack.”
Tedela's eyes widened as she stared at the eerie skeleton before her.
“I'm sorry. I thought you were just a mindless skeletal monster.”
“Thank you for saving me, Mr... Mr. Skeleton.”
To show her gratitude and sincerity, Tedela let go of her hold on the dagger.
Though the dagger was already firmly caught and controlled by the skeleton anyway.
“Clack... n... clack... no need to thank.”
“No need... clack... to thank me.”
As Li Xiuman spoke, he adjusted the growth of his throat bones.
Based on the principle of sound propagation through vibration, he grew a thin plate of bone in his throat, vibrating it to produce sound.
He had been constantly adjusting the size and thickness of this bone plate since he first started speaking, and his voice was gradually becoming clearer.
“Clack... red carp... carp and green... clack...”
He turned to start looting the corpses, practicing tongue twisters as he fine-tuned the bone plate in his throat.
Rate on N.U.
