The Zen-Practicing Demonic Being

The last treasure chest was 4 kilometers from Wang Ziyi's shelter.

The group trudged through the uncleared forest with great difficulty. Fortunately, there were no creatures in the black fog. Otherwise, insects and all kinds of small animals alone would have been enough to give them a hard time.

After circling around for a while, they arrived near the treasure chest.

Just as Bai Yi had expected, an intensely oppressive rhythm surrounded the treasure chest.

Unlike other aberrations, the rhythm coming from ahead carried a trace of "stability" amid its strange chaos, along with the smell of sulfur.

This was the first time Bai Yi had sensed such a powerful rhythm. Merely sensing it made the hairs on his body stand on end.

His instincts told him that if he did not activate his Talent, he would die!

Yet rather than making Bai Yi retreat, that feeling made his blood boil. At some point, Bai Yi had begun to enjoy the thrill of challenging powerful enemies and teetering on the edge of life and death more and more.

Still, Bai Yi did not charge in like an idiot. He first explained the situation to his teammates, then led everyone to an open patch with few trees.

Bai Yi would lure the aberration there, where he and Tang Zheng would fight it.

The others would hide somewhere safe to watch and rest, while also getting a feel for the atmosphere of battle.

Once everything had been arranged, Bai Yi carried the fog lamp into the black mist.

Unlike last time, Bai Yi drew closer and closer to the aberration, yet it never attacked. This made him even more vigilant.

Finally, the fog lamp dispersed the black mist ahead, revealing the aberration hidden within.

It was a humanoid figure pieced together from backward-growing bones. Its spine dangled from the top of its head like a scorpion's tail, while its ribs spiraled through its chest cavity.

With its palms pressed together, it sat cross-legged atop a stone. Beside it stood a white bone staff formed from three bones twisted together in a spiral.

[You see the Inverse-Bone Walker. Sanity -1]

Only then did the aberration seem to notice Bai Yi. It slowly rose to its feet, gripped its staff, and offered Bai Yi a one-handed salute.

Bai Yi ignored it and pulled out [Shepherd's Mercy (Modified)].

He aimed and fired.

"Bang!"

The massive recoil raised the muzzle slightly as the bullet roared toward the aberration.

As if it had anticipated this, the bones in the aberration's head rapidly spread apart, forming a hollow opening.

The bullet passed through the hollow and struck a tree behind it, blasting a small crater into the trunk.

The sense of "stability" in its rhythm began to fade, while the aberration's chaos gradually took the upper hand.

As its bones returned to their positions, the Inverse-Bone Walker's head returned to normal. Then it strode toward Bai Yi.

Whenever it took a step, its shinbone pierced backward out of its knee, leaving trails of ghostly phosphorescence in the air.

A dazzling light ignited in Bai Yi's dark golden eyes, as though flames were burning within them.

He switched the revolver in his right hand into the White Bone Tang Dao and charged forward as well.

As the distance between them shrank, both man and aberration accelerated. Then they slammed into each other!

The moment they clashed, Bai Yi felt that the Inverse-Bone Walker was stronger than him. He stopped trying to meet it head-on, slipped downward with the momentum, and sent his bone blade slicing straight toward the aberration along the staff.

The Inverse-Bone Walker reacted swiftly. It immediately pressed down on its staff, forcing Bai Yi to abandon the attack and retreat quickly.

"Its Strength is at least above 18 points."

Bai Yi rapidly analyzed the information at hand. But just as he was about to continue, the Inverse-Bone Walker seemed to recall something. It stopped attacking, returned to the stone, and resumed meditating.

Then, in Bai Yi's perception, the aberration's rhythm gradually stabilized again.

This was the first time Bai Yi had been ignored by an aberration!

He looked at the Inverse-Bone Walker, which had returned to its meditative state, and shook his head speechlessly.

Then Bai Yi was more than happy to indulge it. The less it bothered with him, the better. He could go find the treasure chest!

So he took out the map and compared it for a long time, only to discover that the treasure chest was directly beneath the large stone the Inverse-Bone Walker was sitting on.

This site has added a font-changing feature. Click the "Settings" button to try switching fonts!

Now Bai Yi was in a difficult position. He slowly approached the aberration, only to find that it remained completely motionless the entire time, as if it regarded him as thin air.

Bai Yi tried pushing it, but it would not budge. So he raised his foot and kicked it. To his surprise, the meditating aberration was like steel, and the recoil made Bai Yi's foot ache sharply.

He stopped making pointless attempts, took out his revolver, and fired two shots straight at its head.

The bullets were easily deflected and did not harm it in the slightest!

Bai Yi did not believe the Inverse-Bone Walker was truly that hard. Otherwise, it would never have needed to dodge his earlier shot.

"Is it because of its meditation?"

After realizing he could not move the aberration, Bai Yi temporarily gave up and began digging, intending to reach the treasure chest from below.

Bai Yi took a shovel out of his ring.

"Crack—"

The shovel snapped the instant it struck the soil.

He was completely dumbfounded. The surrounding rocks and soil had become as hard as the Inverse-Bone Walker. In other words, if he wanted the treasure chest, he had to move this aberrant demon.

After being toyed with again and again, Bai Yi's expression turned as cold as ten-thousand-year ice.

"You like entering meditation, huh?"

He switched back to the bone blade and viciously slashed at the aberrant demon's rhythm!

As the rhythm was severed, the Inverse-Bone Walker's entire body stiffened, and dense bones continuously fell from its body.

It had been forcibly pulled out of its meditative state!

Bai Yi did not stop. With the mindset of striking while it was down, he repeatedly slashed at its rhythm.

With a snap, the Inverse-Bone Walker's rhythm shattered completely!

Then he raised his knee to his chest, his lower leg shooting out like a spring and sending the aberrant demon flying with a powerful front kick.

"I'll make you meditate."

When Bai Yi raised his gun and fired again, the Inverse-Bone Walker finally moved. In an extremely bizarre, twisted posture, it dodged all three of Bai Yi's bullets.

A highly oppressive rhythm emerged once more, but this time it no longer carried that previous air of "Zen." It had become twisted like the other aberrant demons.

"That's more like it. An aberrant demon should act like an aberrant demon. Why learn Zen meditation?"

Bai Yi was very satisfied with what he had done. This was the way he was familiar with dealing with aberrant demons:

Either you died, or he did!

At the ambush point, the group waited for a long time without seeing any sign of Bai Yi.

"Why hasn't Dog Bro come back yet? Nothing happened to him, did it?"

Tang Zheng stared into the black mist and muttered to himself.

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! Don't say something so unlucky. Dog Bro is so strong—if he can't win, he can still run away."

Wang Ziyi shot Tang Zheng a glare and said unhappily.

"It has indeed been a little too long. Something unexpected must have happened."

Xie Xu lay on a rock to rest. The wounds on his back had scabbed over by now. They itched terribly, but he could not scratch them, leaving Xie Xu extremely uncomfortable.

Meanwhile, Wei Fen and Zhang Zhen continuously cleared out the Rotting Corpses wandering nearby.

Li Zihua was somewhat uneasy. "The problem now is that if we stay here too long, we might draw even stronger aberrant demons."

"I'll briefly activate my talent warning from time to time. Don't worry."

The moment Xie Xu finished speaking, Bai Yi's voice rang out in everyone's minds:

[Everyone, take cover. Tang Zheng, cover me!]

The next second, Bai Yi flew backward out of the black mist!

At the request of many readers, a VIP membership ad-free feature is now available.

Click to view