From the fake emperor to the concubine

The old woman frowned as she looked at the writing on the animal skin and said, "We can't understand the writing from the south."

Zheng Yi said, "I'll draw the diagrams, and then I'll teach Chi Ya to speak them."

Red Fang pointed at himself: "Me?"

Zheng Yi said, "Your memory is not bad."

Red Fang said with a hint of pride, "That's right."

The old woman said, "He can remember things well, but he's a liar."

Chiya retorted, "When did I ever let anything slip?"

The old woman said, "When you were seven years old, you told the dog where your older sister hid the meat."

Chiya exclaimed urgently, "That dog has been following me!"

Zheng Yi couldn't help but chuckle.

Chiya's face turned red again.

……

Over the next few days, Zheng Yi practiced bone strengthening during the day and revised the prescription at night.

The people of the Black Rock tribe became increasingly familiar with him.

At first, the children would hide when they saw him.

Later, they discovered that this southern monk did not suddenly breathe fire, nor did he eat children, so they began to circle around him.

Every day, a little girl would come to me carrying a bone bigger than her face and ask, "Mr. Zheng, can I use this to insert acupuncture needles?"

Zheng Yi always said, "There's no need to insert anything into the bones."

She asked again the next day.

Chiya said her name was Xiaolu, and that she always had strange questions in her head.

The little deer asked Zheng Yi, "Can you fly?"

Zheng Yi said, "Not really now."

"Don't cultivators all know how to fly?"

"Only those with high cultivation levels can achieve this."

"Then you're not tall?"

Chiya laughed loudly beside him.

Zheng Yi nodded: "It's not high enough."

Little Deer thought about it seriously and said, "Then you should drink more soup."

Zheng Yi said, "Okay."

The old woman happened to be passing by and, upon hearing this, actually served Zheng Yi an extra bowl.

Chi Ya couldn't laugh anymore, because he had also been stuffed with a bowl of food.

On the seventh day, the snow stopped.

A rare sliver of pale blue peeked through the distant sky.

When Zheng Yi reached the twelfth level of Bone Strength, Wu Chen suddenly returned from outside, his face very grim.

Two hunters followed behind him, carrying a person.

The man was covered in blood, with a dent in his chest and blood foam constantly bubbling from his mouth.

The old woman, leaning on her cane, strode out: "Who is it?"

Wu Chen said, "People from the Gray Deer tribe."

Red Fang's expression changed: "The Gray Deer Tribe? How did they get here?"

Wu Chen shook his head: "Of those found in Dongpo, he's the only one left."

The old woman squatted down to examine the injury.

The gray deer hunter was already delirious, but he still clung tightly to Wu Chen's wrist, speaking broken words in the wilderness language.

Zheng Yi couldn't understand it, but he could hear the fear in it.

Wu Chen's expression grew increasingly grim.

Chiya translated in a low voice: "He said... something has emerged from White Bone Lake. It's not a demonic beast. The entire hunting party of the Gray Deer tribe is gone."

Zheng Yi stepped forward.

Just as the old woman was about to stop the bleeding, she noticed a layer of grayish-white frost around the edge of the wound.

This is not a typical frostbite.

The frost seemed alive, seeping into the flesh and blood.

Zheng Yi squatted down: "Let me see."

The bone woman immediately stepped aside.

Zheng Yi pressed his fingertips against the wound and probed it with his divine sense.

The next moment, his eyes turned slightly cold.

That's not demonic energy.

It's not just ordinary cold poison.

It's more like something mixed with death energy and ice spirit.

The gray deer hunter suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils dilated, but he stared intently at Zheng Yi.

He managed to squeeze out a few words in broken Central Plains dialect:

"The lake...the bones...have stood up..."

After saying this, his body suddenly stiffened.

The Bone Woman placed her hand on his chest, and after a moment, whispered, "He's dead."

The open space was eerily quiet.

After the wind stopped, even the bone bells stopped ringing.

Wu Chen slowly stood up and looked north.

Red Fang's face turned pale: "Bones standing up? What do you mean?"

No one answered.

The body of the Grey Deer hunter was quickly carried into the stone shed.

The Bone Woman forbade anyone to bury her immediately.

"No one should touch his wound."

She stood at the entrance of the shed, leaning on her bone cane, her face colder than the snow outside.

Red Fang couldn't help but ask, "Bone Woman, the person is already dead, what's there to be afraid of?"

The old woman glared at him: "I'm afraid you'll die too."

Red Fang immediately shut his mouth.

Zheng Yi squatted beside the corpse, his fingertips hovering above the indented wound, not falling.

The grayish-white frost in the wound had stopped spreading, but it hadn't dissipated either. It was like a thin layer of bone powder, clinging to the edges of the flesh, faintly exuding an aura of death.

Wu Chen stood to the side and said in a deep voice, "What did you see?"

"This is not an ordinary monster's wound."

Zheng Yi withdrew his hand and said, "It's like my sternum was shattered by some kind of cold, lifeless thing. The cold air seeped into my internal organs through the wound, freezing my life force little by little."

Chiya's face darkened: "An inanimate object? Can a dead thing still attack people?"

Zheng Yi glanced at him: "Some things are more troublesome when they're dead than when they're alive."

Chi Ya swallowed hard.

The Bone Woman whispered, "White Bone Lake."

Wu Chen asked, "Bone Granny, do you know?"

The old woman remained silent for a long time before saying, "When I was a child, I heard the older generation say that there are many bones buried at the bottom of White Bone Lake, not just animal bones, but also human bones. Every few decades, strange things happen by the lake."

"What strange thing is this?"

“There’s a sound of bones rattling at night,” the Bone Granny said. “Crack, crack, like someone crawling under the ice. There was a child from the Gray Deer tribe who was playing and went to the lake to pick up white stones. When he came back, he talked in his sleep all night, saying that someone in the lake was calling him to come down.”

Red Fang asked in a low voice, "And then?"

The old woman looked at him and said, "Later, he cut open his own stomach and pulled out his ribs one by one, placing them at the door."

Chiya's face turned pale instantly.

The hunters nearby also fell silent.

Wu Chen frowned: "How come I've never heard of this before?"

“Because you weren’t born yet then,” the Bone Woman said. “Later, several tribes went to the lake to burn bones, and many people died before the matter was suppressed. After that, there was no news for decades, so people stopped talking about it.”

Zheng Yi asked, "How was it suppressed that time?"

Bone Granny shook her head: "I don't know. The Black Rock Tribe only sent thirty people, and seven came back. None of the returnees would say anything, only that there are eyes under the lake."

Zheng Yi's eyes flickered slightly: "Eyes?"

Wu Chen seemed to remember something, and his expression darkened.

Zheng Yi looked at him: "You said you've seen snow lanterns."

Wu Chen nodded: "West of White Bone Lake. At night, a row of blue and white lights floated in the snow. My father told me not to look, but I still took a look."

"Like eyes?"

Wu Chen hesitated for a moment: "At the time, I thought it was a lamp. Now that I think about it... it was."

Red Fang whispered, "What about the Gray Deer tribe?"

Wu Chen did not reply.

Because this is a very serious problem.

The Grey Deer tribe is not far from the Black Rock tribe.

If something really happens over there, the Black Rock Tribe will be unable to escape it sooner or later.

Zheng Yi stood up: "This person can't be left here for too long."

The old woman asked, "Burn?"

Zheng Yi nodded: "Burn. Burn his blood and clothes too. Don't bury the ashes in the tribe, take them downwind and seal them up."

Wu Chen asked, "Will it spread?"

"I don't know," Zheng Yi said, "but there's no good in keeping this chilling aura around."

Bone Woman immediately said, "Red Tooth, go and tell someone to prepare kerosene."

Red Fang responded, but after taking two steps, he turned back and asked, "Bone Granny, should I also move away?"

The bone-wielding woman scolded, "I told you to prepare kerosene, not to crawl into a corpse."

Red Fang ran away immediately. By the time the body caught fire, it was already dark.

The flames were huge.

But the body burned very slowly.

After the kerosene was poured on, the outer hide quickly curled and turned black, and the flesh sizzled, but the grayish-white frost on the chest remained stubbornly unmelted. When the flames touched that spot, it even faintly turned blue.

The onlookers grew quieter and quieter as they watched.

The little deer huddled behind a woman and whispered, "Mother, is he cold?"

The woman covered her mouth and whispered, "Don't speak."

Zheng Yi stood in front of the fire, his fingers twitching slightly inside his sleeve.

A wisp of spiritual fire silently disappeared into the flames.

With a loud bang.

The blue and white frost was finally burned through, and a sharp, strange sound came from the corpse's chest cavity.

It sounded like bones were crying.

Chiya took a half step back in fright: "What was that sound?"

Zheng Yi's eyes turned slightly cold: "There's something inside."

Wu Chen gripped the bone spear tightly: "Alive?"

"That doesn't count as a job."

In the fire, the sternum of the Grey Deer hunter suddenly moved.

Immediately afterwards, a charred rib slowly rose from the chest, as if it were about to crawl out of the corpse.

A gasp of surprise immediately rang out from the surrounding crowd.

Wu Chen took a step forward, his bone spear thrusting straight forward.

Zheng Yi, however, was faster.

He raised his hand and pressed down.

The spiritual energy transformed into an invisible pressure, directly pressing the rib back into the fire.

"burn."

The flames suddenly surged higher.

The rib writhed a few times in the fire before finally cracking open with a snap.

A wisp of gray smoke emerged from the cracks in the bone, trying to escape like a thin snake.

Zheng Yi flipped his palm, drawing his short sword. The blade was imbued with the icy spiritual energy he had recently refined, and he slashed backhand.

The gray mist was dispersed with a single slash.

But the moment they dispersed, Zheng Yi suddenly heard a very soft voice in his ear.

"Come……"

The sound was as faint as bubbles under ice.

Zheng Yi's eyes narrowed slightly.

Wu Chen asked, "What's wrong?"

Zheng Yi did not answer immediately.

After a moment, he said, "It knows where this place is."

The Bone Woman's expression changed: "What do you know?"

Zheng Yi looked north.

In the darkness of night, the snowfield stretched out to the horizon.

"Things from the Lake of White Bones."

The fire crackled, and the wind swept in from downwind, dispersing the acrid smell and a faint, fishy chill.

But the chill did not disappear with the fire.

It's like a nail, stuck in everyone's back.

Chiya gripped the bone spear, his knuckles white, and after a long pause, he finally spoke: "What did you mean by what you just said?"

Zheng Yi continued to look north, without turning around immediately.

"That means it's not something unconscious."

Bone Granny's eyelids twitched: "You'll think about it?"

"Whether they'll think about it or not is hard to say," Zheng Yi said, "but at least they'll look, they'll try, and they'll follow the scent to find us."

Wu Chen's voice was deep and heavy: "How far can you search?"

“If it were just the wisp of gray energy that I just dispersed, they wouldn’t have come looking for us so quickly,” Zheng Yi said. “But the Gray Deer tribe escaped from the direction of White Bone Lake. He died here, and there’s that thing hidden in his sternum… It’s like he’s leaving a mark.”

"mark?"

“Like a road sign.” Zheng Yi turned to look at Wu Chen. “For it, the Black Rock Tribe may no longer be an unfamiliar place.”

The expressions of the surrounding hunters changed.

Chiya subconsciously turned around and glanced at the leather sheds, bonfires, and women holding children standing far away behind the tribal stone wall.

"Will it come?"

Zheng Yi said, "That's possible."

Suddenly, the Bone Woman raised her hand and slammed her staff heavily onto the ground.

"What are you all doing standing here? Being afraid won't help. Wuchen, double the number of people on night patrol. Don't let the fire go out, hang salt and ashes on the outer wall. Children are not allowed to leave the shed tonight, and tie up any dog ​​that barks. And—"

She glanced at the crowd.

"No one is allowed to leave the tribe alone."

An old hunter whispered, "If the Gray Deer tribe is really gone, shouldn't we move first?"

Wu Chen didn't answer, but glanced at Zheng Yi first.

Zheng Yi said, "Whether we relocate or not is a matter for later. Right now, we don't even know what's going on, so it's not necessarily safe to relocate anywhere."

The old woman nodded: "Keep watch for one night."

Chiya wanted to ask more, but was glared at by Gu Po and shut up.

The fire gradually died down.

The body of the Grey Deer hunter was finally burned through in the spirit fire, the embers collapsing into a pile of whitish ash, interspersed with a few pieces of cracked bone fragments.

The Bone Granny wouldn't let anyone touch it, so she took a long-handled bone shovel and slowly scooped the ashes into a stone jar.

Zheng Yi watched her movements and asked, "Have you encountered something like this before?"

The old woman said, "I've never encountered anything like what you described. But there are many shameful things happening in the wasteland. If a living person dies improperly, the body cannot be buried in the usual way."

She sealed the mouth of the stone jar and handed it to an older woman next to her.

"Take it to the west slope, bury it under the windy spot, and then cover it with three layers of black stones. Don't look back after you've buried it."

The woman responded softly, picked up the stone jar, and walked away quickly.

The little deer wanted to follow, but her mother pulled her back.

Zheng Yi looked up at the sky.

After the snow stopped, the night sky was so clear it felt almost hard, and the stars hung low. To the north, it was pitch black, like an endless wall.

Wu Chen followed his gaze.

"You want to go."

It's not a question.

Zheng Yi said, "I want to."

Red Fang blurted out, "Now?"

“Not now,” Zheng Yi said. “We’re not familiar with the roads at night, and going there would just mean sending them into the snow.”

Chiya breathed a sigh of relief, then looked a little disappointed: "I thought you were going to rush over right away."

Zheng Yi looked at him: "You want to go?"

Chi Ya stubbornly replied, "I...of course I want to."

The Bone Woman sneered, "You want to see if your bones can walk on their own?"

Red Fang fell silent.

Wu Chen said, "Before dawn, I will send people to explore the east and north slopes to see if there are any unusual traces."

Zheng Yi shook his head: "Don't spread it out too much."

"Afraid of being picked off one by one?"

“I’m afraid there’s more than one of those things,” Zheng Yi said. “The entire Gray Deer tribe was wiped out, with only one escaping. If it were just a single, inanimate object, they might not have been able to clean it up so thoroughly.”

Wu Chen was silent for a moment: "Then let's have two teams, keep an eye on each other, and don't go too deep."

Bone Woman said, "Don't go too far. Let's check the area around the tribe tonight. As for the Gray Deer tribe... we'll talk about it at dawn."

Wu Chen did not refute, but simply nodded.

Chi Ya asked in a low voice, "Zheng Yi, did you hear something just now?"

Zheng Yi looked at him.

Chi Ya shrank back, but still finished speaking: "Your expression changed when you cut that gray aura."

The firelight reflected in Zheng Yi's eyes and made him jump.

"It sounds like someone is talking."

"say what?"

"Come."

Chiya felt a tingling sensation on his back.

"It's asking you to go?"

“It seems so,” Zheng Yi said. “It also seems like it was just following my divine sense and deliberately sending out a thought.”

The old woman coldly replied, "Then just ignore it."

Zheng Yi hummed in agreement, but said nothing else.

Wu Chen could clearly see that he didn't really intend to ignore it.

But Wu Chen didn't stop him, only saying, "Don't go out of the tribe alone tonight."

Zheng Yi asked, "Are you afraid I'll run away?"

Wu Chen said, "I'm afraid that if you die, we won't even be able to recognize all the prescriptions you left behind."

Chiya couldn't help but laugh, but then realized he shouldn't be laughing and quickly straightened his face.

Zheng Yi smiled and said, "Alright, I won't leave tonight." (End of Chapter)