Success

He gently pushed open a half-closed wooden door. The room looked like a bedroom, with a battered wooden bed and bedding on it.

But perhaps because too much time had passed, the bedding was already worn out and filthy. There was also a wardrobe in the room, and he used his short knife to pry open its door.

The clothes inside had also decayed. Huo Ling lightly touched them, and they crumbled away from weathering.

Huo Ling slowly backed out of the room, then turned and pushed open another door.

The moment he opened it, Huo Ling's heart gave a violent leap.

A skeleton lay across from the doorway, slumped against the wall.

Huo Ling could not help holding his breath as he quietly gripped the short knife in his hand.

He looked at the skeleton, then at the short knife. Feeling uneasy, Huo Ling slowly backed away.

He quietly opened his backpack and took out something big.

A red fire axe!

Huo Ling had found it in an old fire safety cabinet downstairs in his residential complex. After taking it home, he had deliberately sharpened it to ensure its edge was keen.

He sheathed the short knife and hung it at his waist. Holding the fire axe, Huo Ling once again crept into the room with the skeleton.

He first examined the furnishings in the room. Its layout was no different from the other room.

There was likewise a bed, a large wardrobe, and a bedside table beside the bed.

The skeleton lay at the foot of the bed, with a patch of dark brownish-black stains beneath it.

Could these be traces left behind after the corpse had decayed?

Huo Ling slowly approached the skeleton and lightly prodded it with the fire axe. To his surprise, that simple touch sent the skull rolling onto the floor.

Huo Ling was so frightened that he did not dare move carelessly. Only after a while did he continue examining the skeleton.

The entire skeleton was dark grayish-black. He had no idea how long it had been lying here.

Aside from the skull Huo Ling had just knocked off, its ribs were scattered all over the floor.

Looking closely, Huo Ling could even see that several ribs had broken in the middle.

And he could not find the skeleton's leg bones. Even among its arm bones, he could only see the bones of one hand.

Was this person disabled?!

Suddenly, Huo Ling narrowed his eyes. Turmoil surged through his heart as he spotted faint bite marks on the bones.

He gently picked up a rib and stared at the marks on it. They were tooth marks. He had not been mistaken.

His family had been poor, and they rarely had chances to eat meat. Whenever the family bought pork ribs, Huo Ling and his brothers would gnaw them so fiercely they nearly sparked.

That was why the ribs gnawed by his family often bore clear tooth marks.

And these marks looked like human bite marks.

Huo Ling could not help wondering if this person had been eaten. Otherwise, how could the bite marks on the bones be explained?

The thought sent a chill down his spine.

The more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became. They had been able to leave tooth marks on pork ribs because the ribs had been cooked.

Then had this skeleton also been cooked?! If not, how much force would someone gnawing on this corpse raw have needed to leave marks on raw bones?

Huo Ling let out a long breath. He could not keep thinking about it. This skeleton had clearly been here for an unknown amount of time. Even if something had really gnawed on it, it should have left long ago.

He could not keep scaring himself.

Huo Ling extended the fire axe and smashed apart the skeleton's frame. He knew there was a type of undead called a skeleton soldier.

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Better safe than sorry. There was nothing wrong with scattering the skeleton as a precaution.

Next, Huo Ling checked the last room. There were no surprises there either; apart from a decrepit bed, he found no new skeletons.

Huo Ling moved his backpack into the innermost room, then looked over the items in the house and slowly dragged the nearly collapsed sofa to the doorway.

The iron door could not be shut. It creaked the moment he moved it, and it would be bad if it attracted danger.

A wooden sofa would at least provide some obstruction. If anything dangerous came, he would have time to react. Even if he died, he could die with a little dignity.

Only then did Huo Ling have time to inspect his backpack.

A spatial rift had cut a large hole in the bottom of it. He had no idea what was left inside.

After opening it and checking, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Most of the important items in the backpack were still there. What had fallen out were the tent and some miscellaneous items.

Some food had been lost, but the survival pack Ren Zhengyang had given him was relatively intact.

Huo Ling took out the remaining food and estimated that, if he rationed it, it would still be enough.

He briefly cleaned the whole room. Though there was a wooden bed and bedding, both were so ruined that sleeping on them would be like sleeping on scraps. They were completely unusable.

Huo Ling threw those things into another room, swept the floor, and prepared to sleep directly on the ground for the next few days.

Leaning against his backpack, Huo Ling lay on the floor to rest. At last, he slowly relaxed the tension he had carried since his awakening began.

His current situation was not bad. At the very least, he had a temporarily safe shelter. As long as he stayed steady and did not take reckless risks, barring any accidents, surviving safely until he returned to Blue Star should not be a problem.

He focused on sensing his mind and vaguely felt a beacon within it.

This was the beacon that would return him to Blue Star. Right now, it felt indistinct, appearing and vanishing.

According to the book, the day that beacon felt as though he could crush it would be the day he returned to Blue Star.

Suddenly, an unusual sensation began in his head and swept through his entire body.

Gradually, the sensation grew stronger. Huo Ling felt as though his brain were turning to mush, as if he had been thrown into a washing machine, with the world spinning around him.

Though he felt terrible, Huo Ling was incomparably excited. This was the awakening!

I'm going to gain an extraordinary physique!

The fish will leap through the dragon gate today!!!

With what little consciousness he had left, Huo Ling gripped the fire axe tightly in his hand and stared fixedly at the doorway.

He wanted to prevent any accidents from happening later. He also clenched his teeth tightly, doing his best not to make even the slightest sound and invite unnecessary trouble.

He did not know how much time had passed before Huo Ling finally regained consciousness. He shook his head, which had yet to recover from the dizziness.

He felt a rusty taste in his mouth. It was blood!

He reached up and touched his face. There were still traces of undried blood around his mouth and nose.

Huo Ling was alarmed. He hurriedly dug out some tissues from the miscellaneous items. In the danger-filled Spirit Realm, the most important thing was not to make any noise. The smell of blood was even more unacceptable.

After wiping the nosebleed off his face, Huo Ling immediately sealed the tissues in a bag to keep the scent of blood from spreading.

He checked his body. He had become stronger, his body felt lighter, and all five senses had grown sharper. Even his mind felt clear and refreshed, as though he had become smarter.

It seemed that his awakening had succeeded!

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