Chapter Ten: Lanterns of White Bone

Xiang Jiuxi stared in bewilderment at the bean-sized flame at his feet, desperately trying to focus his mind and distinguish the boundary between reality and illusion.

The tiny flame drifted closer, as if seeking him out intentionally, and in the blink of an eye floated up the tunnel, pausing before him. Nourished by the oxygen at the entrance, the faint light gradually swelled into a blue lantern the size of his palm.

The blue glow spread, quickly illuminating the whole space. By its light, Xiang Jiuxi looked carefully, and at once broke into a cold sweat, his body swaying unsteadily, nearly falling.

That blue lantern was the very will-o’-the-wisp he had seen earlier, somehow rekindled in the thin air. Beneath the lantern, a pair of ghastly, elongated bone hands held it aloft!

The hands were unnaturally long, their fingertips moving with a hint of mockery. At a glance, Xiang Jiuxi recognized them as the dancing skeletons he had seen at the cave entrance.

The narrow tunnel left no room for him to wield his spear, so Xiang Jiuxi clenched his fists and braced himself to confront the skeletal hands.

The bony fingers twisted, shaping themselves into a lotus, then stilled. The ghostly blue flame, nestled in the center like a lampwick, continued to radiate its azure light.

Before he could process this bizarre scene, a rustling sounded from below. Xiang Jiuxi’s palms grew slick with sweat as he stared intently into the darkness.

Suddenly, a skull appeared out of thin air in the blue glow!

The skull fixed its hollow eyes on Xiang Jiuxi. Its rows of teeth trembled as if it were smiling at him.

As the blue light swept over its form, a sinister and eerie skeleton bearing the lantern was revealed in full.

So, the thing pursuing him was not a will-o’-the-wisp, but this skeleton.

Xiang Jiuxi drew in a sharp breath. Was that dance of the skeleton not a hallucination after all? He pinched his own arm hard—pain!

The lantern-bearing skeleton gazed at him motionlessly, its intentions unreadable. Xiang Jiuxi’s fear was plain, and for a moment, he was at a loss for what to do.

But soon, his survival instinct surged to the fore—whatever fiend or specter this was, he would deal with it first and ask questions later!

Steeling himself, he landed a heavy punch on the skeleton’s skull. The skeleton reeled from the blow and began to fall. Seizing the moment, Xiang Jiuxi kicked at it furiously, sending it tumbling down the tunnel. The blue lantern lost its luster, flickering weakly on the ground.

He hadn’t expected the skeleton to be so easily dispatched. Just as Xiang Jiuxi was about to feel relieved, the blue lantern suddenly flared to life once more.

After a few flickering moments, the lantern shone even brighter, illuminating the entire subterranean chamber.

Beneath the lantern, the shattered bones began to stir, swiftly reassembling themselves into a complete skeleton.

The skeleton slowly opened its arms, cradled the blue lantern in its palms, then cocked its head to one side, gazing silently at Xiang Jiuxi with deep, shadowed eye sockets.

Xiang Jiuxi’s hair stood on end, a cold wind brushing the nape of his neck, sending shudders through him.

Yet the skeleton made no move to attack; it simply held the lantern and watched.

Though the skeleton’s sockets were empty, there seemed to be a mysterious force within them, drawing Xiang Jiuxi’s gaze, holding him captive.

The instant their eyes met, Xiang Jiuxi’s heart began to race wildly. His spirit felt as if it were being torn away from his body, which could no longer move. His consciousness seemed to be sucked toward the skeleton!

In a daze, a series of bloody images flashed through his mind—mountains of corpses, seas of blood, bones and flesh all heaped together. Through the thick, red mist, a colossal gateway appeared, with three bold characters inscribed above: “Cixiao Mausoleum.”

“Is this… a cemetery? How could it be like this!”

Behind the gateway, the scene was nothing short of a demonic hell. Dozens of black-clad butchers wielding boning knives moved forward in a line, their skilled hands working methodically. Behind each, a large iron chest was dragged along, and as they advanced, chunks of red flesh were tossed into these chests. When a chest was full, another group of white-robed attendants replaced it, over and over, leaving the cemetery reeking of blood and littered with grotesque bones.

The horrific sight churned Xiang Jiuxi’s stomach; he retched uncontrollably. As the blood mist thickened, the butchers receded into the distance. Only occasional faint wails echoed through the haze…

The vision shifted. Now Xiang Jiuxi saw a lithe young woman, holding incense, kneeling in prayer on an empty patch of ground.

In the center of the clearing stood an altar, upon which rested a crimson planet, and below it, an oval-shaped vessel.

“Mars… and the Ark?”

Seeing these two objects, Xiang Jiuxi instantly understood. He couldn’t help but smile bitterly—after tens of thousands of years of human civilization, everything had come full circle.

At that moment, the girl seemed to sense his presence. She began to twist her neck stiffly, turning to look at him.

Xiang Jiuxi wanted to approach and ask who she was, but as he walked forward, he suddenly stopped, terror dawning on his face. He saw the girl twist her neck a full one hundred and eighty degrees—her body still knelt before the altar, but her face now smiled directly at him.

“Enough of this trickery—who are you really?”

After all that had happened, Xiang Jiuxi knew he was trapped in a hallucination on the surface of his consciousness, with every vision orchestrated by some outside will. And it all began when he met the gaze of the lantern-bearing skeleton. Wanting answers, he demanded an explanation.

“I… we are not…” the girl stammered, her voice indistinct. Before she could finish, her face began to contort, her skin rapidly aging and shriveling, then flaking away like shattered porcelain—leaving behind nothing but a skeleton.

“It’s you!”

Xiang Jiuxi was stunned. Wasn’t this the very lantern-bearing skeleton he had encountered in the cave? Could it be that this was the skeleton’s form in life?

“If you have something to say, speak plainly. I may not be a saint, but I’m a reasonable man—there’s no need for all this evasion!”

After careful thought, Xiang Jiuxi was sure there was a reason for all the bloody scenes the skeleton had shown him. And for the dead, there were usually only two reasons: a final wish, or a cry for justice.

Sure enough, at his words, the skeleton’s bones began to rattle as it shakily rose to its feet and stepped slowly toward him.

Xiang Jiuxi stood firm, determined to show the skeleton his reliability.

Finally, the skeleton stopped before him and, with a thud, knelt to the ground.

“We… we died so unjustly!”