Chapter 487: Bone Remains
Countless stars shone brightly in the sky.
A vast continent was floating above boundless grayish-brown clouds.
Nie Tian stood by the edge of the floating continent, where a slender spatial rift was hanging over everyone’s head like a huge sword.
He gazed off into the distance and saw many more floating continents, some of which were even bigger than the one they were standing on.
However, most of them were small ones that were only several square kilometers wide. They seemed to be channeled by some sort of force as they floated slowly and disorderly.
There wasn’t a sun or moon, just stars. The spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth didn’t exist in the air, nor did any energy that other outsider races could use as a power source.
SHEW!
Zhen Huilan was the last one to fly out of the slender spatial rift and land in the middle of everyone.
Eyes narrowed, she glanced around at this strange heaven and earth, and then said, “There is a small Space Spirit Jade mineral vein in the continent we are now standing on.”
Pei Qiqi’s eyes instantly lit up.
“Qiqi, go and see if you can gather those Space Spirit Jades,” Zhen Huilan ordered.
Pei Qiqi nodded and sped off towards the center of the continent, her body thrumming with spatial energy ripples as she tried to detect the Space Spirit Jades.
All the others remained at the edge of the continent, glancing around, hoping to gain a better understanding of this mysterious place.
Nie Tian was no exception.
Since Zhu Lian, Bai Yu, and the others were around, he didn’t unleash his Heaven Eyes, but rather gazed around with his eyes.
He tried jumping, and instantly shot dozens of meters into the sky. Expression flickering, he exclaimed, “I can barely feel any gravity!”
Shocked, Wu Ling and the others tried jumping after him. Every one of them shot dozens of meters into the sky and landed steadily.
Standing by the edge of the floating continent, Nie Tian gazed down, and discovered that the boundless grayish-brown clouds were like a sea of clouds, preventing him from seeing what was underneath them.
He gazed ahead, and saw that numerous huge boulders were floating about slowly.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Yao Shou and other Spirit God Sect members flew through the spatial rift and landed among the Tool Sect members one after another. Afterwards, they regathered into a group.
Yao Shou and the other two Profound realm experts from the Spirit God Sect didn’t speak immediately after assuming a firm foothold, but rather glanced around curiously.
They also noticed the large number of continents floating in the distance, and the even larger number of floating boulders around them.
“Master Zhen, this is...” Yao Shou said, frowning. As seasoned and knowledgeable as he was, he didn’t know what he was looking at.
Zhen Huilan pondered as she said. “This vast dimension somehow exploded, forming many floating continents and broken boulders. The explosion destroyed the gravitational field, and the special energy of heaven and earth that originally enveloped the whole continent changed and became the grayish-brown cloud sea underneath us.”
Instantly enlightened, Yao Shou pondered for a while in silence, then said, “I’ll go and take a look around.”
With these words, he circulated his spiritual power and flew away from the floating continent that everyone else was standing on, towards a huge boulder that was floating nearby.
Like a feather, he soon landed on the huge boulder. After a brief scan, he didn’t find anything noteworthy, and thus flew towards another boulder that was floating in a farther location.
Seeing that he had headed out, Bai Yu said, “Let’s take a look in the vicinity as well.”
The ring of holding on her finger flickered, and immediately afterwards, a Rainbow Lightning appeared before her.
After jumping onto it, she stood at the prow, where she unleashed a layer of crimson spiritual light that enveloped the Rainbow Lightning and her petite physique.
In this strange dimension where the gravitational field had been destroyed, the Rainbow Lightning sped off like a bolt of lightning in the opposite direction that Yao Shou had gone in.
Afterwards, the other two Profound realm experts from the Spirit God Sect, Zhen Huilan, and Zhu Lian also left this floating continent and went searching in nearby areas.
Meanwhile, the Worldly realm and Greater Heaven stage Qi warriors from the Spirit God Sect spread out and started examining the continent with their psychic awareness.
The Tool Sect juniors were the only ones who stayed in place and continued to glance around with their curious gazes.
A hour passed...
One after another, people gradually returned to the place where they had first landed. They all shook their heads and said they hadn’t found anything noteworthy on the continents and boulders they had gone to.
Bai Yu was the only one who didn’t come back empty-handed.
She returned with a floating mountain of grayish-brown bones that was nearly a thousand meters high. She dragged it back effortlessly with numerous red ribbons.
The mountain of bones stopped and floated by the edge of the continent.
Nie Tian inwardly marveled as she stared at it. He noticed that the magnificent mountain of grayish-brown bones was filled with holes that were the size of fists, making it look like a colossal beehive.
Furthermore, the mountain of bones seemed to be empty inside.
“This is....” Staring at the thousand-meter-high mountain of bones, Yao Shou, who had returned earlier, couldn’t help but approach and reach out to touch it.
The moment his hand made contact with one of the grayish-brown bones, it became flying scraps that rapidly vanished completely.
Zhen Huilan’s eyes lit up as she shot a beam of light out of her fingertip. As soon as it shot into the mountain of bones that was riddled with holes, countless bones were instantly reduced to flying dust.
“The power within these bones must have dissipated over however long they have existed,” Zhen Huilan said, contemplating simultaneously. “If my speculations are correct, this mountain of bones is one of the Bonebrutes’ ancient starships. The Bonebrutes’ ancient starships were all forged with bones and in the shape of pyramids.”
“One of the Bonebrutes’ ancient starships!?” Yao Shou exclaimed.
At that moment, Bai Yu, who had taken it back to their landing site, said, “I’ve done a thorough examination. There aren’t any Bonebrute remains inside this hollow mountain of bones. It seems to have been penetrated by countless sharp blades at the same time, and lost the ability to travel through the void, so it was eventually abandoned.
“After all these years, the bones seem to have lost all of their power. That explains why they turn into flying dust upon contact.”
Astonished, Zhu Lian asked, “Why would an ancient starship of the Bonebrutes’ appear here? And who riddled it with holes?”
Everyone else was thinking the same questions.
“Senior Yao!” At that moment, the voice of a Spirit God Sect Qi warrior echoed out from a distant location on the floating continent they were standing on.
Yao Shou instantly flew towards the source of the voice.
Even though the Tool Sect members were curious about what it was about, they remained where they were.
It wasn’t long before Yao Shou returned with three human corpses.
He casually threw the corpses before the crowd and said, “My men found them. From the way they are dressed, they weren’t with any of the powers that have come from the eight realms.”
Nie Tian jumped in and blurted. “They are members of the Dark Moon.”
Ma Jiu, who he had dealt with before, was among the dead Yao Shou threw to the ground.
A few years ago, Ma Jiu had ambushed Pei Qiqi in the Void Illusion Mountain Range. After that, Nie Tian had rescued her from him and his men.
Yao Shou took a glance at Nie Tian and said, “That means they are local Qi warriors then. They must have come in here before us, and for some reason, died here.”
Bai Yu and Zhen Huilan walked over to the three corpses and squatted down to examine them.
After a thorough examination, they both shook their heads, failing to identify the cause of their deaths.
“Their rings of holding are still here,” Yao Shou, who had already examined the corpses, said with a furrowed brow. “And there aren’t any fatal wounds on them. I can’t find the cause of their deaths.”
At that moment, Pei Qiqi returned quietly and whispered to her master, “There were only a small amount of Space Spirit Jades in that buried Space Spirit Jade mineral vein. I’ve mined them all.”
Yao Shou and the other powerful experts from the Spirit God Sect seemed surprised as they overheard Pei Qiqi’s words.
Space Spirit Jades were very precious spiritual materials for Qi warriors who practiced spatial power. However, since none of the Spirit God Sect experts practiced spatial power, they didn’t show any intention of asking for a share of them.
A quarter hour later...
The Worldly realm and Greater Heaven stage Spirit God Sect members returned from different directions on the floating continents. Under Yao Shou’s inquiring gaze, they all shook their heads, and said that they hadn’t found anything worth noting.
As a matter of fact, Yao Shou and the other powerful experts had already scanned this floating continent with their strong soul awareness when they had first landed on it, and none of them had detected any signs of life or soul fluctuations.
Everyone’s search results confirmed their speculations.
“What’s your plan, Master Zhen?” Yao Shou asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” Zhen Huilan said with a serious expression. “Considering that local Qi warriors have already come and searched this continent, I suppose we probably won’t find anything here. I think I’ll go to search in further areas with other Tool Sect members. What’s your plan?”
Yao Shou looked up into the air and asked, “Master Zhen, when do you think this spatial rift will become stable again?”
“From the look of it, it won’t fully stabilize within a short time,” Zhen Huilan answered. “This spatial rift that leads to the Void Illusion Mountain Range is constantly changing. Every time it stabilizes, it will become even more turbulent and violent afterwards. So I can’t tell for sure when it will become safe to pass again.”
Yao Shou nodded and said, “I see. Okay, let’s leave a mark here, and start our separate searches.”
“Sure." Zhen Huilan agreed.