Chapter 594: Wilderness Ember, Strange Bones in the Cave

The Great Wasteland knows no years.

For the newly born human race, time has no meaning.

What matters is whether one can survive between each sunrise and moonfall.

They were formed by Nüwa Shengren from Jiǔtiān Xīrǎng and Three Light Divine Water, innately carrying a trace of Innate Dao Body.

Yet this does not spare them from the fate of being treated as blood food.

They are too weak.

So weak that even the lowest demon beast can easily charge into their tribe and unleash a bloody feast.

All they can do is hide and reproduce.

Like wild grass, they struggle to take root on the perilous vast land of the Great Wasteland, humbly seeking survival.

"Ao wu——!"

The mournful wolf howl shattered the tranquility of dusk.

A thin-built, dark-skinned youth was running frenziedly through the forest.

Behind him, a demon wolf as large as an elephant, radiating ferocious aura, followed at a leisurely pace.

The demon wolf's eyes were filled with mockery, as if playing a game of cat and mouse.

The youth's name is Sui.

He is the fastest runner in the He" Tribe.

But no matter how fast, he cannot outrun a demon beast already on the path of cultivation.

His lungs burned like fire, his legs felt as heavy as if filled with lead.

He knew he could not escape.

Today was his turn to go out and find berries to fill his stomach, yet he never expected a demon wolf to invade the tribe's territory.

To buy time for the women and children of the tribe to flee, he deliberately lured the demon beast away.

The shadow of death, like the demon wolf's foul saliva behind him, pursued relentlessly.

Despair, like a tide, drowned Sui's heart.

Just then, the ground gave way beneath his feet; he cried out in misery and fell into a dark, deep mountain cave.

"Bang!"

His body slammed hard against the hard ground, intense pain shot through him, Sui's vision went black, and he nearly fainted to death.

Fortunately, the cave is not too deep.

More fortunate still, the demon wolf seems wary of this dark cave, merely prowling and roaring at the entrance, not yet chasing inside.

Sui curled up in the icy corner, gasping heavily, the relief of surviving the calamity was quickly replaced by deeper despair.

He is only temporarily safe.

The demon wolf's patience is limited; once it enters, this narrow cave will become his place of death.

Cold, hungry, afraid.

Various negative emotions eroded the youth's fragile heart.

Just as he thought he would slowly die in this endless darkness and cold.

A faint light appeared in the deep part of the cave, entering his vision.

It was a small cluster of flames.

Very small, very weak, as if it could be blown out at any moment by the cold wind from the cave mouth.

Yet in this absolute darkness, it was that bright, that warm.

Sui was stunned.

He had never seen such a thing.

His tribe had also seen lightning strike dead wood, igniting a great fire.

But that fire was violent and destructive, bringing only death and fear.

Whereas this cluster of flames before him gave him a feeling of... intimacy.

He struggled, dragging his injured body, bit by bit, crawling toward that cluster of flames.

The closer he got, the clearer the warmth from deep within his soul became.

Finally, he crawled to the front of the flames.

He reached out his hand, cautiously approaching.

The flames licked his fingertips, without the imagined burning pain, only a warm current flowing along his arm into his limbs and bones, dispelling all cold and fatigue.

What is this...?

Sui's eyes were filled with shock and curiosity.

He discovered that beside this small cluster of flames lay a bone half the size of a palm.

The bone was entirely black, neither metal nor jade, its surface covered with countless twisted, eerie symbols, as if containing some ancient and evil power.

The moment Sui's gaze fell upon that bone, an indescribable longing surged from his heart, madly growing.

A voice echoed in his mind.

【Take...... me......】

【I...... will...... bestow...... upon...... you...... strength......】

【Supreme...... strength......】

Strength?

Sui's breathing became rapid.

He recalled the tribesmen torn apart by demon beasts in his tribe, his mother's desperate eyes before death, and his own helplessness and fear when facing the demon wolf.

He needed power!

He dreamed of possessing power!

As long as he had power, he could protect his tribe, could make the tribe no longer wander in displacement, no longer live in fear and dread!

He looked at that piece of black bone emitting endless temptation, then looked at the cave entrance outside, at those green wolf pupils faintly visible in the darkness.

Reason told him, this thing was very strange, very dangerous.

But the instinct to survive, and the yearning for power, overwhelmed everything.

He trembled, and reached out his hand.

He wanted to pick it up!

He wanted to accept this bestowal from an unknown existence!

The demon wolf outside the cave seemed to have sensed something too, letting out an uneasy low growl.

Inside the mountain cave, Sui's fingers had already touched the edge of that black bone.

Ice cold, deathly still.

A chill that seemed capable of freezing the soul, traveled along his fingertips, about to bore into his body.

However, right at this critical moment!

Buzz——!

A brilliant, supremely majestic golden divine light, like the newly risen scorching sun, instantly tore apart the darkness at the cave entrance, illuminating the entire mountain cave bright as broad daylight!

A terrifying pressure that made all things submit, descended from beyond the heavens!

Outside the cave, that unrivaled demon wolf, didn't even have time to let out a miserable scream, before under this pressure, instantly dissolved, transforming into a wisp of green smoke.

Sui was stunned frozen by this sudden change.

He froze in place, maintaining that posture of about to pick up the bone, not daring to move a muscle.

A cold, majestic, utterly emotionless voice, like divine thunder from above the nine heavens, resounded with a boom inside and outside the mountain cave.

"By Heavenly Emperor's Imperial Edict, patrol the Great Wasteland!"

"Human Clan Territory, demons and heretics prohibited!"

"All demon creatures in this place, without exception……"

"Kill! No! Mercy!"