Chapter 125: The Path of Bones

“Of course, but the monsters inside are too powerful. I can’t handle them as I am now. How about we team up to explore? We can each take what we need, and split the Attribute Gems equally?” Li Jin said.

Xu Feng thought for a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

The castle Li Jin mentioned was probably the Death Fortress. Xu Feng had been searching for it, hoping to destroy it early. Now, hearing that it produced Attribute Gems, the temptation was too great for him not to go.

After they finished discussing, under Li Jin’s guidance, they ran together towards the Death Fortress.

Soon, they reached the edge of the large graveyard that Xu Feng had previously ventured into. Xu Feng looked around. Many of the tombstones that had been destroyed before had now returned to their original state. Undead Creatures were likely buried beneath them again, and the power of the undead had grown stronger.

“There is an Undead Creature under every tombstone here,” Li Jin explained, thinking Xu Feng had never been there. “The further in you go, the stronger the monsters become. I encountered a Four Stars Skeletal Bison Warrior inside. Even invisibility doesn’t work on them; they can smell the scent of the living.”

Xu Feng nodded without speaking. He had personally experienced the terror of this graveyard. Although he hadn’t met any Four Stars monsters, he had encountered many Three-Star ones.

Li Jin led Xu Feng around the edge of the graveyard, heading west.

The graveyard was quite large. They ran along its edge for a long time before they saw a mountain faintly in the distance. On the mountainside, an Ancient Castle in European medieval style was built.

On the desolate land of the undead, a black mountain appeared out of nowhere, looking very abrupt. There was no life on the mountain except for rocks and corpses; only the castle made it seem even more strange.

Xu Feng looked up. The entire castle was made of black marble, similar in color to the mountain rocks. The whole castle seemed embedded in the mountain, easy to miss if you didn’t look carefully.

“It’s right there. At the foot of the mountain, there is a road paved with bones that leads all the way to the castle gate. Two Undead Guardians with Three-Star Elite strength guard the castle entrance,” Li Jin said, pointing at the distant mountain.

“Three-Star Elite? Two of them?” Xu Feng was startled. “Then how did you get in?”

Three-Star Elite Monsters were like bosses. Even if Li Jin was at Three-Star Peak strength, he couldn’t handle two Three-Star Elite Monsters alone.

“I have a skill called Misdirect. It can attract the monsters’ attention for three seconds,” Li Jin said with a slight smile.

“Three seconds…” Xu Feng frowned slightly. The alert range of Three-Star Elites was very large, making it almost impossible to rush into the castle in just three seconds.

“I also have another skill, Sprint. It initially increases running speed by 15%. I’ve maxed it out now, so it increases running speed by 45%,” Li Jin said with a laugh.

Xu Feng frowned a little. With Li Jin’s two skills combined, he could definitely enter the castle before the two Three-Star Elites reacted, but for himself…

Xu Feng glanced at Li Jin. Clearly, this was a test Li Jin had set for him. If he couldn’t even get through the castle gate, he wasn’t qualified to be Li Jin’s teammate.

This was a mountain completely devoid of life. Xu Feng looked up and saw that the mountaintop was always covered in a thick, dark mist, making it impossible to see how high the mountain was or what the top looked like.

The small mountain was covered with withered, rotten trees. These trees had all lost their moisture, becoming dry and wrinkled. Their leaves were completely gone, leaving only branches stretching wildly toward the sky.

On the mountain, they could occasionally see small animals like mice and rabbits that were now just skeletal remains, gnawing on rotting corpses.

A road over two meters wide, paved with bones, stretched from the foot of the mountain all the way to the castle gate on the mountainside.

“This is it,” Li Jin said.

The mountain was filled with undead energy. As soon as Xu Feng got close, he felt uncomfortable all over. Even breathing in, he smelled the stench of rotting corpses lingering in his nose.

This was the center of the entire undead region. If they destroyed this place, the undead region would become like a tree without roots or water without a source. It would soon be assimilated by Earth’s Will, absorbed as part of Earth. This place would become a paradise for Necromancers.

“Let’s go up first,” Li Jin said. “The alert range of those two Three-Star Elite Guardians is about twenty meters. Any closer, and they’ll smell the scent of the living.”

Xu Feng nodded, and the two of them began to climb up along the bone-paved road.

Crunch, crunch~

The rotten bones under their feet made soft cracking sounds as they stepped on them, making Xu Feng’s heart sink.

Who knew how many creatures’ remains were buried here, paving a road to death.

Walking on the Path of Bones, Xu Feng seemed to see the moment of his death in his previous life. The cold mouthparts of the Insect Human piercing deeply into his body, followed by his flesh being devoured, leaving only pale bones piled in the wilderness, just like the bones here, trampled underfoot.

The higher they climbed, the more confused Xu Feng’s gaze became, as if he had lost his soul. Li Jin glanced at Xu Feng and stopped. Xu Feng seemed unaware, continuing upward in a daze, his steps growing heavier.

“What’s happening to me? Didn’t I get reborn?” Xu Feng suddenly woke up. Darkness surrounded him, and he shouted loudly, “No, this can’t be my end!”

Hum~

A soft sound reached his ears. The darkness before him shattered like a mirror, and Xu Feng came to his senses.

Looking up, he was less than twenty meters away from the Undead Guardians at the castle gate.

Xu Feng broke out in a cold sweat. This Path of Bones had such a strong hallucinatory effect, making people fall into an illusion without realizing it.

“You passed the death illusion trial of the Path of Bones. Spirit Attribute increased by ten points.”

A cold, mechanical voice from the System prompted in his ear.

Xu Feng turned his head. Li Jin was less than ten meters behind him, looking at him with surprise.

“You actually stayed in the Path of Bones illusion for so long,” Li Jin said quietly. “And you broke free from the illusion right in front of the castle gate. How many points did your Spirit Attribute increase?”

“Path of Bones illusion?” Xu Feng said displeased. “You knew about it? Why didn’t you warn me?”

Li Jin shook his head. “It wouldn’t have helped. If you knew in advance and were prepared, you’d still fall into the illusion. And because you were on guard, the illusion would feel more real and harder to break free from. Two of my teammates died because of that. They didn’t break free and walked straight into the castle gate, where the two Elite Guardians killed them.”

Xu Feng wiped cold sweat from his forehead. The illusion just now felt too real. If Xu Feng hadn’t been reborn, what happened in the illusion could very well have been real—Xu Feng killed by the Bloodthirsty Insectoid, turned into a pile of dry bones.