Chapter 285

"You went out?!"

Fang Yue and the tail both startled.

"I just stuck my head out a bit to take a look, and then I found two corpses lying in the corner. These four Fluorescent Beads were taken off their bodies. Besides the Fluorescent Beads, there's also this bag."

Saying this, Liao Moran pulled out a small black cloth bag.

She put her two Fluorescent Beads inside the bag.

The Fluorescent Beads, which had been glowing, instantly lost their light, as if the bag could absorb their radiance.

Great find!

Fang Yue glanced curiously at it, but couldn't make out anything special.

After all, he wasn't an appraiser—he couldn't identify most things.

Worried Fang Yue and the others might snatch her black cloth bag, Liao Moran quickly tucked it away.

Fang Yue rolled his eyes, let her search the Bronze Room again, confirmed there was nothing left, then the three regrouped.

"Looks like there's nothing else in this room—let's go outside and check."

Just as Fang Yue finished speaking, Hai Ming, who had been left lying aside by the three of them, suddenly coughed twice.

"Damn! Finally came around—that was unbearable!"

Hai Ming sprang up at once, grumbling at Fang Yue and the others.

It's just a trip to the gates of hell—why get so scared?

Fortunately, Fang Yue understood most players were here to play a game, not hardened warriors, so he could sympathize.

He explained the situation in the Bronze Room to him, then made reluctant Liao Moran hand over the Fluorescent Beads, and the four of them exited the Bronze Room together.

As soon as they stepped outside, the four maintained a formation, ready to guard against sudden dangers.

Mostly, Fang Yue bore the burden, but he couldn't watch all directions—so they were his eyes, helping spot threats early.

After tense observation and confirming no danger, Fang Yue walked toward the direction Liao Moran pointed.

Soon, he reached a dark corner nearby, illuminated the shadows on the ground with a Fluorescent Bead, and indeed saw two skeletons.

Fang Yue bent down to examine closely—he could tell the two skeletons were one male and one female, apparently dying while embracing each other.

The male skeleton's fatal wound was no longer visible.

But the female skeleton's sternum bore a massive fracture, as if struck by something heavy, nearly shattering her chest bones, killing her from the severity.

Besides the skeletons, Fang Yue also found tiny, nearly fossilized fragments of cloth here.

When he touched them, they couldn't withstand even slight pressure—they crumbled into powder and dispersed.

Suddenly, a faint fragrance drew near, and then the tail's small head pushed into his field of vision, trying to peer past him at the skeletons.

"Ye Ge, can you tell who they were?"

Fang Yue shook his head slightly, then stood up and moved aside to give space.

"All I can tell is they were a man and a woman—maybe lovers from Mo Cun who committed suicide by jumping off a cliff, got unbelievably lucky and entered the Huanggui Yiji, and died here."

Because Ni Dongmei had hinted at it, Fang Yue thought jumping off a cliff to enter the relic was plausible.

"So romantic!" Liao Moran's eyes sparkled, clearly yearning for such love—making Fang Yue feel weird—this woman was probably mentally off.

"Captain Ye, were they trapped to death in the relic, or killed by some danger? Can you tell?"

Hai Ming clearly had more practical sense—he asked the key question; no wonder he was a player, utterly indifferent to romantic suicide backstories.

"Not trapped to death—at least from the wounds, the female skeleton was crushed by something heavy and died from it. The male skeleton's bones are still mostly intact, but we don't know why he died. Either way, be careful—there's probably a trap here, or something heavy might fall from above."

The three nodded. Hai Ming had already heard from Liao Moran about the Fluorescent Beads' origin, so he circled the two skeletons, seemingly dissatisfied with only these few treasures.

Only after Fang Yue called him twice did he reluctantly stand up, preparing to follow the three deeper.

But just then, Hai Ming suddenly felt the male skeleton looked vaguely familiar.

It was like… it was like…

Hai Ming felt the answer was right at the tip of his mind, yet he couldn't recall it.

Just then, Fang Yue's voice suddenly rang out.

"Stop zoning out—catch up!"

Hai Ming instinctively looked up toward Fang Yue—and instantly, his mind rang like a bell, a flash of insight!

Yes! This familiarity—it was… Yese Liming!

This corpse gave off an uncanny resemblance to Yese Liming.

Realizing this, Hai Ming's heart pounded wildly—he couldn't help but glance again at the skeleton on the ground.

Was it his imagination? He felt the male skeleton had changed slightly, though he couldn't say how—only that the resemblance to Yese Liming grew stronger.

As if… this skeleton truly was Yese Liming's own corpse, petrified and lying there!

At the same time, whether he'd misseen it or not—

The female skeleton, which had seemed so unfamiliar just moments ago, now looked entirely like the tail.

Height, foot shape, palm size—all matched perfectly!

This is insane!

Could it really be…

A strange fear rose in Hai Ming's chest—he instinctively stepped back two paces.

"Hai Ming! If you don't catch up, we're leaving you behind!"

Fang Yue called again, and Hai Ming stumbled hurriedly toward him.

Only when he rejoined the group did his pounding heart gradually calm.

He turned back to look at the direction of the two skeletons—the corner was now swallowed by darkness, invisible.

No, no way—skeletons are just skeletons; how could they possibly be Yese Liming and the Tail Goddess?!

The four-person squad, using the light from the Fluorescent Bead, gradually moved away from the corpses, carefully exploring the great hall.

The two corpses were left behind, lying quietly where they were.

But at this moment, if Fang Yue were to return here and look at these two corpses again, he would surely be greatly shocked.

Because these two corpses had undergone an utterly tremendous transformation!

They had clearly already completely taken on the skeletal form of Fang Yue and Tail.

Apart from lacking flesh and blood, the size of their palms, the comparison of their heights, the shape of their feet—every single skeletal feature had perfectly matched up!

On Tail's female corpse, the crack in the sternum had visibly healed over, restored to the appearance of a healthy sternum. The bone was white as though brimming with nourishment, utterly unlike the kind of corpse eroded by the passage of time!

And then, accompanied by a crack!

On Tail's corpse, the sternum suddenly split open once more! Just like the very first time Fang Yue and the others had seen the female corpse, that same kind of crack on the chest appeared once again on the sternum of Tail's corpse.

……

"Ah!!"

Tail, who had been exploring the great hall together with Fang Yue and the others, suddenly let out a scream of agony.

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(End of chapter)