Desperate in the Undead Mountain Range

A forest shrouded in a faint black mist, cold and damp, where every tree grew in strange, grotesque shapes, like monstrous beasts, appearing exceptionally terrifying.

Within the forest, swampy depressions bubbled everywhere, and if one wasn't careful, stepping into them meant eternal slumber.

"Crack! Crack!"

A harsh sound echoed from behind a large tree, like two rusty iron rods grinding against each other.

Soon, a skeleton holding a shiny black bone spear emerged from behind the tree. This skeleton was clad in tattered armor, and within its two hollow eye sockets, a pair of eerie red lights flickered.

Just then, a faint silver light flashed like lightning, silently shooting into the skeleton's ear canal.

Instantly, the red lights in the skeleton's eye sockets extinguished like flames doused with cold water, and its entire body collapsed into a pile of bones.

On the large tree opposite, a figure lurking in the shadows revealed itself. It was a boy of about fifteen or sixteen, carrying a dark longbow on his back, his face covered in dirt, and his clothes in tatters. However, his eyes, which occasionally flashed with a cold, lightning-like glint, were incredibly unsettling.

If anyone saw the boy at this moment, they would involuntarily feel a chill. His entire being exuded a deathly, malevolent aura, devoid of any human warmth.

The boy leaped down as lightly as a wild cat, pulled out the silver arrow from the skeleton's head, then inserted two fingers into the skeleton's dark eye sockets. After a moment, he extracted a green bead from within.

"Ha, lucky me, I got ten Undead Beads today." A smile touched Qi Bei's lips. Strangely, when he smiled, the deathly, malevolent aura completely receded, and his eyes became lively, giving off a warm and friendly impression.

"Night is coming again, I need to find a place to rest for the night. Sigh, I wonder when I'll be able to get out of this damned Undead Mountain Range," Qi Bei muttered. He tapped his foot and nimbly leaped onto a large tree, his figure disappearing among the trees with a few bounds.

The moonlight poured down like mercury, and the Undead Mountain Range began to come alive.

Skeletons, zombies, specter worms, soul-devouring beasts...

The Undead Mountain Range at night was a paradise for the undead, a carnival ground for the dead.

A living person in this place would only think they had entered hell.

In a dark rocky cave, Qi Bei sat cross-legged, his tongue touching the roof of his mouth, his breath sinking into his Dantian, his palms placed flat on his knees, facing upwards.

A faint white smoke rose from his Baihui acupoint on the crown of his head, and at the same time, dark, inky filth seeped out from the pores all over his body.

Suddenly, Qi Bei's body trembled, and several crisp popping sounds echoed within him.

Concurrently, on the palm of Qi Bei's left hand, a golden dragon pattern, soaring through the clouds, appeared, emitting myriad rays of golden light.

Qi Bei's Dantian felt like it was burning, and a trace of potent inner force surged towards his heart and lungs.

In an instant, Qi Bei felt as if his body had become a furnace filled with boiling liquid, about to explode.

"Ah..." Qi Bei's eyes snapped open, his mouth agape, and a loud roar erupted from his throat.

The roar shot straight into the sky, faintly carrying a hint of a dragon's cry.

After this roar, Qi Bei felt utterly refreshed, his body as light as a feather.

"The first level of the Divine Dragon Art is finally complete," Qi Bei murmured. In his Dantian, a swirling mass of golden-yellow inner force was slowly rotating. He could feel the surging power within his body; he could even hear the instinctive hissing of a zombie hundreds of meters away.

However, Qi Bei soon sensed trouble. His roar had attracted some high-level undead capable of flying and burrowing. The dense deathly aura outside, the terrifying roars of numerous undead, and the sound of them breaking through the air towards his direction formed a hellish symphony.

Qi Bei leaped up and poured out Undead Beads of different colors from a pouch, arranging them into a peculiar formation.

"Mogoras, Bianna." Qi Bei held a black ancient book, chanting obscure incantations.

The moment Qi Bei finished chanting, a mysterious magical rune rose from the black ancient book. The over a hundred Undead Beads on the ground instantly shattered, and a dense deathly aura enveloped his figure, gradually making him disappear.

A living person had vanished into thin air on the spot.

As soon as Qi Bei disappeared, the stones blocking the cave entrance were smashed by a colossal force. A skeleton covered in thick, black bone armor appeared at the entrance. The depths of its eye sockets flickered with golden light as it scanned the cave.

"Golden eyes, it's a top-tier high-level undead. Facing it directly, ten of me wouldn't be enough to kill it. But it seems it hasn't detected my presence. Magic is truly wondrous," Qi Bei thought to himself, secretly relieved.

Not long after, the skeleton flew away. High-level undead possessed a certain level of intelligence.

However, outside the cave, hundreds of low-level undead had already blocked the exit.

As the sky gradually brightened, the undead creatures outside the rocky cave clearly disliked the sunlight and instinctively began to move into the cave.

And just then, the magic of the invisibility formation was about to run out.

Qi Bei slung his longbow over his back, holding a bone knife in his left hand and a dark, reddish bone spear in his right. His body tensed like a hunting leopard.

Suddenly, with a "poof," the over a hundred Undead Beads turned to dust.

Qi Bei shot forward rapidly, his bone knife slashing out like a white lightning bolt, instantly decapitating three zombies in front of him. His body, carried by inertia, knocked over a skeleton, and his right hand's bone spear promptly pierced its eye socket.

Anger erupted, causing all the surrounding undead to go berserk, swarming towards Qi Bei.

"Die!" Qi Bei, filled with malevolence, roared. The bone knife and bone spear in his hands actually emitted wisps of golden light. Wherever they passed, it was like slicing through vegetables, leaving behind only severed limbs and broken bodies.

Qi Bei himself hadn't expected that after reaching the first level of the Divine Dragon Art, his combat power would soar to such an extent.

His strength, his speed, his reaction time had all increased by more than threefold compared to before.

Especially the golden light emitted when inner force was channeled into the bone knife and bone spear; they were as sharp as divine weapons, invincible.

However, Qi Bei dared not celebrate too early. These were all low-level undead. Although his inner force was surging, it had a fatal weakness: it couldn't last long. After just a few attacks, more than half of it was already depleted.

Qi Bei had already rushed out of the cave. He didn't dare to linger in battle. There were five to six hundred undead creatures around. Once his inner force was completely exhausted, it would be difficult for him to break through the encirclement.

Low-level undead moved slowly. With Qi Bei's speed, he reached the outer perimeter without much effort.

Qi Bei decapitated a zombie in front of him, then flipped, landing on top of a skeleton and gliding over ten meters like a roc before landing, having escaped the undead horde.

Qi Bei breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to run.

Suddenly, an unexpected change occurred. A pair of large hands, equipped with long, sharp, dark purple claws, burst from the ground, gripping Qi Bei's feet like iron bands.

Qi Bei's heart leaped in alarm. The bone knife in his left hand glowed with a faint golden light as he swung it down.

With a "clang," the zombie hands were left with only a three-inch-long gash, while the undead horde in the distance was less than eight meters away.

Qi Bei roared, channeling his inner force into his feet. He stomped on the ground, launching himself upward like a cannonball.

A zombie was dragged from the earth. No, it should only be considered half a zombie, as its body was completely missing from the waist down, yet its claws still held Qi Bei's feet firmly.

Qi Bei landed, looking at the half-bodied zombie, his heart filled with a chilling dread.

The zombie's eyes glowed with a green, spectral light. Its body was incredibly tough, and a bright silver mark adorned its forehead. This meant it was a high-level undead, a Silver Corpse, due to the silver mark on its brow. Even in its incomplete state, it was still a powerful undead.

Using the strength of its hands, the Silver Corpse lunged forward like lightning, its fanged maw opening wide to bite at Qi Bei's thigh.

Qi Bei slammed the bone knife horizontally against the Silver Corpse's head, deflecting its bite and causing it to miss.

With a ruthless resolve, Qi Bei twisted and kicked his legs. Flesh and blood were torn from his body by the Silver Corpse's claws, but he regained his freedom. At this moment, the undead horde was only half a meter away, and the leading skeleton had already swung its bone blade.

Qi Bei dove, rolling a few times on the ground before suddenly leaping up onto a large tree. He had reached the edge of a dense forest.

With the cover of the thick jungle and his stealth abilities, his chances of escape increased significantly.

As Qi Bei leaped, he glanced back. His pupils contracted violently.

The Silver Corpse, with only half its body remaining, was actually three points faster than him. It pushed off the ground with its hands and leaped, becoming a mere blur.

Qi Bei's nerves were stretched to their absolute limit, his mind intensely focused. Every time he faced a life-or-death crisis, his taut nerves and concentrated mind allowed him to calculate and analyze with incredible speed.

"Crash!"

The moment Qi Bei leaped from a tree, the Silver Corpse's sharp claws tore it to shreds.

Qi Bei desperately leaped from tree to tree. However, no matter which direction he turned, the Silver Corpse stayed right behind him. His back, thighs, and even his buttocks bore the marks of its claws.

I can't shake it off. If this drags on, even if it doesn't tear me to shreds, the corpse poison from these wounds will be my doom. Qi Bei thought. His wounds were already festering, the poison spreading through his blood. If not for a breath of inner force protecting his vital organs, he would have been unable to move. Even so, he couldn't hold out much longer.

Qi Bei didn't panic. This wasn't the first life-or-death crisis he had faced. He knew deeply that without a calm mind in such moments, he would only die faster.

Just then, Qi Bei's gaze swept over a Corpse Eating Worm nest beneath a large tree to his right. A thought sparked in his mind.