Chapter 453: Mud House on a Rainy Night

General Hong continued: "Strictly speaking, there are only two Heavenly God skeletons here, the two with legs, the others are all servant races." General Nanke asked curiously: "Servant races?"

"They are the attendants and armies of the gods, and their existence is to serve the gods."

General Hong casually broke off a finger bone and cut the cross-section to look at it. He Lingchuan saw from the side that the bone quality inside was actually pale red.

Three thousand years have passed, and even the ashes of mortal corpses wouldn't remain, but the activity of the divine remains still existed, how amazing.

General Hong nodded with satisfaction: "These few are probably fallen into the water and didn't see the light directly. Later, the mountains and rivers changed, the water disappeared, and they were buried deep underground, so their activity could be preserved to this day."

He Lingchuan took the opportunity to ask: "Are divine remains also afraid of sunlight?"

"They are naturally not afraid for a short time, but the power of the sun's true fire lies in persistence." General Hong replied. "These divine remains were originally incompatible with the world, and after being blown by the wind and exposed to the sun for hundreds or thousands of years, their activity will be worn away bit by bit."

She added: "But these refer to the lower-ranking gods. As for the most powerful upper gods, they are very difficult to be obliterated."

General Nanke asked the question that everyone had: "How many gods are there outside the sky?"

There were so many divine remains in the Bei City ruins alone.

"Five thousand years ago there were less than one hundred thousand, and the Great War of World Destruction reduced at least half. Now, counting them all up, there are still less than one hundred and forty or fifty thousand."

"In the three thousand years from the Great Tribulation of World Destruction to now, only one hundred thousand gods have been born?" General Nanke shook his head. "Too poor, too poor."

One hundred thousand gods sounds like a lot, but over a period of three thousand years, it's equivalent to only thirty-odd gods born each year.

If the human birth rate were as ridiculously low as this, they wouldn't be far from extinction, right?

The soldiers all laughed.

General Hong seemed to have laughed too: "In these three thousand years, how many humans have multiplied in the world?"

"Uh..."

"There aren't as many as you imagine, right?"

But that's because of war, plague, and other natural disasters. The reproductive ability of humans has never been in doubt.

Without waiting for General Nanke to refute, General Hong continued: "The lifespan of gods is long, so it is very difficult to conceive offspring, requiring astonishing vitality and energy, not at all like humans who can conceive easily if they want to. One hundred thousand gods in three thousand years? Heh, this is still thanks to the contribution of the human world."

In the last sentence, He Lingchuan heard full sarcasm.

At this moment, another craftsman came to report:

"The tree roots and white bones have grown together."

The roots of the old locust tree and the divine remains were intertwined, some even embedded in the bones, difficult to distinguish from each other.

Those tiny root hairs looked... very much like capillaries.

Through the tree roots, the curled divine remains were closely connected to the Dragon Claw old locust tree growing on top of their heads.

General Hong didn't let everyone forcibly separate them, but stroked the tree roots, muttering: "Interesting, the locust tree is actually absorbing nutrients from the divine remains."

"The power of gods could not originally be used by creatures of this world, until the appearance of Nightmare Qi, this barrier was broken through..." She smiled. "This tree demon thought it had taken a big advantage, but in fact, it was subtly controlled by the divine remains. In at most seventy or eighty years, this locust tree will transform into the second body of the divine remains. If the Xiji national destiny could continue until then, it would also be unlucky."

"Is there still consciousness remaining in the divine remains?"

"Several years after the gods die, a new consciousness may be reborn in the skin bag." General Hong explained. "This only happened to the most powerful divine remains in the past. But now, times have changed, who can say for sure?"

"Dig out all the divine remains and take them away, as for this tree—" She jumped up and tapped the tree trunk. "Leave half of the tree stump buried in the soil, and cut down and take away the other parts."

The craftsmen were in a difficult position: "General, our tools are not useful."

This old tree was too hard, the tools would break with one strike.

General Hong pointed to the tree roots at the bottom of the pit: "Cut the main root, and try again."

He Lingchuan cut off two main roots, and the craftsmen tried again; sure enough, the tree was easy to cut this time.

The locust tree had spirituality and didn't dare to resist General Hong anymore.

Everyone worked enthusiastically, and General Nanke asked General Hong quietly: "What is the use of taking these back?"

"Refining a treasure, a deadly treasure." General Hong smiled. "Even locust wood is useful, this is truly an unexpected joy."

He Lingchuan and his companions glanced at her a few times while cutting the wood.

When General Hong and Zhong Shengguang planned to attack Xiji, besides dealing with the sinister problems given by Beijia, were they also coming for these divine remains?

What did she want to do with these divine remains? Since it was such a mobilization of troops, and a long-distance raid, and a war of destruction, only then to get the divine remains, then the "treasure" General Hong wanted to refine must not be an ordinary thing.

He could feel that as time passed, the entanglement between Panlong City, the gods, and Beijia was getting deeper and deeper.

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Rainy night, narrow valley.

The mountain forest had been empty and silent all night, the wild grass was dripping with rain, and there were snails shrinking their heads at the roots. Suddenly, more than ten people ran into the valley, bringing in muddy feet.

The wild grass was trampled, and that snail was crushed to pieces with a "pa" sound. But this little movement was easily covered up in the rainy night and in the heavy panting of the crowd like oxen.

They ran in the dark, but the valley was full of loose stones, high and low. An unlucky guy screamed "ah" and sprained his ankle.

"Run, run, the demons are going to catch up!"

"How did we get into the mountains?"

"Stupid, the mountains are better!" The last person cursed. "Hurry up and find a mountain cave to hide."

But their luck was truly bad, they found many corners, let alone a mountain cave, there wasn't even a mountain nest!

The lame guy was anxious: "It's killing me, this is Niutou Mountain, there's only a mountain nest on the mountainside, there's no place to hide! What should we do?"

The few people supporting him didn't speak, exchanging a few glances.

What else could they do? If the demons caught up, they would just abandon this lame guy and run first.

That way, they might be able to hold on for a little longer.

Just at this moment, a companion pointed ahead and shouted: "Eh, eh, eh, there's light ahead, there's light!"

Everyone looked closely, really.

In the distance, there were two orange lights, the position was very high, it should be on the mountainside, and they were swaying with the wind and rain.

In the pitch-black night like ink, it was truly conspicuous.

If there's light, there should be a household.

The lame guy asked curiously: "I've been to Niutou Mountain many times, how could there be a household there!"

"Quick, quick, go over!" The men were overjoyed, no longer listening to what he said. "It's at least two hundred zhang!"

The mountain road was difficult to walk, and they still had to climb up.

The most critical thing was that they were still carrying a burden.

Everyone had a tacit understanding, abandoning the injured companion without hesitation, and strode toward the light.

"Don't leave me behind!" The unlucky guy shouted, seeing no one paying attention to him, he threw out bait again. "I still have two hundred taels of silver, whoever helps me over will get it!"

Two hundred taels? A man's footsteps paused, slightly hesitant, but his companions were all running without looking back.

Oh right, who would believe this idiot could have two hundred taels? He couldn't even bear to add meat when gnawing on a pancake at noon. He spat and followed, rushing forward.

"Run!" Everyone was worried that the injured person's shouting would attract demons. Several people fell but didn't dare to delay, climbing up and continuing to run.

Behind them, the unlucky guy's cries for help grew smaller and smaller, soon covered by the wind and rain.

This was an obstacle race. More than ten people actually risked their lives to cross the rugged stone array in the dark night, climbing to the mountainside with hands and feet.

Finally, they found the light source.

An eagle-beak rock protruding outward, with a large and deep mountain cave below, about ten zhang in diameter, the terrain getting higher as it went in, pitch black inside, invisible to the eye.

The two orange lights they saw were surprisingly wind-proof lanterns hung on long bamboo poles outside the cave.

The poles were very long and swayed with the wind, looking very swaying from a distance.

These dozen fugitives didn't have time to think about why the lanterns were placed in that position, because roars came from behind.

They looked back and saw several black shadows shuttling through the loose stones.

The demons were chasing!

"Quick, quick, go in!" They rushed into the mountain cave in a panic.

There were a few mud houses in the cave, all with lights on, and silhouettes swaying inside. The outer walls of the houses were covered with a thick layer of mud.

Everyone went up and patted the door: "Open the door, save us!"

As a result, after patting twice, the door opened.

Everyone poked their heads inside, eh, no one? Where did the silhouettes on the window go? But they couldn't think about it at this moment, everyone rushed into the room, bolted the door, and blew out the lamp on the table.

The wall felt very solid, as if it were rammed with three-in-one soil, and the door panel was also covered with a thick layer of mud, so it was almost impossible to find where the door was when closed.

Soon, the sound of kicking and stepping came from outside the door, that was the demons scratching the ground.

Everyone held their breath.

Then the demons started scratching the door, making a "si la si la" sound.

Only a "pa" sound was heard, and the lamp on the table lit up.

Everyone was startled, but turned around and didn't see anyone at the table.

The lamp lit itself!

The demons outside the door were also stunned for a moment, immediately attracted by the light, gathering around and pushing the door hard.

Everyone rushed over and blocked the door with all their might.

As for the windows, they were too small, the demons shouldn't be able to get in.

However, they didn't hold on for long, an irresistible force came, and only a "zhi ya" sound was heard—

The door opened.

There were no more obstacles between the demons and the humans.

Immediately after, roars, screams, and growls rang out in the room, along with the sound of objects falling over.

Blood splashed on the window paper.

The door closed silently again, and the creatures inside didn't notice.

Soon, a crunching sound came from the room.

The mountain wind was stronger, and the two long bamboo poles outside the cave swayed violently.

The valley returned to its original tranquility.

Since there were no other visitors, the lanterns under the mountain rock automatically extinguished before the next strong wind blew.

Heaven and earth were silent, everything was in the sound of rain.

Chi Yan Nation, Shuangyi City.

He Lingchuan arrived here while the daylight was still early, seeing that there were only two main streets in the city, and the level of prosperity was far worse than that within the Baoshu Nation.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 454 =====