Chapter 88.1

Editor: Kat

Proofreader: Junyans

The ground shook violently, and the shattered crystals above Wei Xun’s head fell like rain. After landing, Wei Xun wasn’t afraid of the incoming danger and immediately cut off the dried hands of the corpses with his sharp claws to escape his predicament.

However, there were too many of them, and Wei Xun couldn’t cut them all. He kicked away the dried corpses in front of him, stepped over their densely packed bodies, and looked for a chance to swing away with the spider silk climbing rope.

But at this moment, a ferocious bluish-black dried corpse fell from above his head and landed right in front of Wei Xun. This was a Xiangxiong warrior’s dried corpse from the sixth story. Compared with the group of mummified skinless slaves with severed heads, its limbs were as hard as iron and it was taller than Wei Xun. And its pair of iron-like hands were about to pinch Wei Xun’s neck!

Wei Xun reacted very quickly. In an instant, he dodged the mummy’s attack, reacting by bending at an incredulous angle, and kicked it back a step. More dried corpses swarmed towards him, and Wei Xun did not retreat but advanced.

He threw the spider silk climbing rope to wrap around the dried warrior corpse’s head, stepping on the dried corpse under his feet and leapt up, stepping on its shoulder as he landed. Through this action, Wei Xun used the bluish-black dried corpse as a stepping stone!

The young fox had also already possessed him. Hence, Wei Xun’s movements were extremely light at this moment. The dried corpse whose shoulders he had stepped on slowly reached out to grab him, but Wei Xun had already jumped onto the shoulder of another dried corpse before it could grab him.

The height of the crystal tower’s ninth story was no more than an average person’s height. When Wei Xun stood on the shoulders of the dried corpse, his head was almost touching the crystal floor of the eighth story. From this height, he could clearly see a snow-white nimble beast stepping on countless dried corpses and running towards him, despite countless shattered stones falling around it.

“Xiaoxue!”

“Howl.”

Because the snow leopard’s hyoid bone was different from that of other cats, the snow leopard’s cry was not like that of a tiger or a lion. Its cry was softer, and it sounded like a cat’s soft whine. This was why humans would feel that its cry was incongruent with its appearance.

However, Wei Xun’s sense of aesthetic was different from ordinary people. If the snow leopard was running and jumping on the snow mountain, he wouldn’t feel much if he saw it. But now, Wei Xun’s heart beat faster, and his heart was shaking—he just thought it was extremely majestic and handsome, and there was no animal more mighty than the snow leopard in this world.

This scene was really the most beautiful thing he had seen in the world. It left him mesmerized, and it was definitely worth taking pictures of this scene so that he could store it in his photo collection.

Wei Xun did whatever he wanted, even if he was in a dangerous situation, so he turned on the flashlight that could emit strong light, and the dazzling white light tore through the darkness. In order not to avoid scaring the snow leopard, Wei Xun shone it in the opposite direction, towards his back.

Coincidentally, under the beam of light emitted by the flashlight, Wei Xun felt something move above his head, as if something was avoiding the light. When he glanced sideways, he found that it was the gusin priest’s dried corpse. When he was surrounded by the headless mummified corpses and bluish black mummified corpses, this dried corpse had quietly ambushed him!

As if realizing that it had been discovered, the gusin priest jumped down from above towards Wei Xun’s back. Wei Xun continued to do what he previously did and dodged flexibly, tearing at its head with sharp claws, trying to separate its head from its body. But in the next moment, a silvery white figure pierced through the darkness like it was lightning, and tossed the gusin mummified corpse that was attacking Wei Xun fiercely into the air.

“Xiaoxue!”

Wei Xun was afraid that the snow leopard would be injured, so he threw the flashlight away and acted immediately. During the intermingling of light and darkness, the spider silk climbing rope thrown by Wei Xun wrapped around the gusin’s mummified corpse several times and directly pulled it over. As the flashlight fell into the sea of corpses, the light was swallowed up and the surroundings returned to darkness again, but the darkness did not affect Wei Xun’s vision. He found that the head of the dried corpse had been bitten off by the snow leopard.

The problem was that this kind of dried corpse could move normally even if its head was lost, but this gusin dried corpse was completely motionless, like it was rotten dead wood. Its tough and solid body was entangled by the spider silk climbing rope, and its head dropped down into the darkness. In an instant, its legs were submerged by the surging crowd of headless dried corpses.

Without giving too much thought to the dried corpse, Wei Xun hurriedly went to look at the snow leopard, fearing that it would also be drowned by the corpses. However, Wei Xun saw the snow leopard standing on top of the sea of dried corpses like it was standing on top of water, and the dried corpses stepped on by it stopped moving completely. Although the sea of corpses was still shaking and moving about due to the earthquake, the corpses did not reach their hands out in an attempt to attack the snow leopard like they did before.

Why was that? Was it because the devil’s curse was only aimed at Wei Xun, or was it because the snow leopard, like the arctic wolf and the white antelope, was a guardian of the snowy mountain, so it had a suppressing effect on the resurrected dried corpses?

“Howl.”

The snow leopard stepped on the dried corpses and ran in front of Wei Xun. When it bit onto his wrist to hold onto him, its sharp teeth that could tear its prey’s fur and flesh were retracted. Then, its thick tail anxiously patted his calf. Seeing that Wei Xun was not moving, it stood up. When it did so, it was taller than Wei Xun. It unexpectedly wanted to grab him away by the back of his neck.

“Let’s go.”

Wei Xun kept his doubts in his heart and followed the snow leopard to the southeast. The dried corpses along the road didn’t move, but they were densely stacked together, like an unstable plank road. In two or three seconds, the snow leopard and Wei Xun passed this plank road to the southeastern crystal wall. The layered human skins that were attached to the crystal wall were completely torn apart and fell inward, but behind them was a gap that could allow one person to pass through.

The snow leopard pressed Wei Xun’s waist to urge him to move forward. Wei Xun didn’t tarry either. The gap was more than half a person’s height and one person’s width, and it didn’t collapse due to the earthquake, slanting upwards. Wei Xun and the snow leopard entered the gap one after another while he secretly manipulated the swarm to explore the way. After running for more than ten minutes in this gap, the two walls of the path had widened a lot, allowing Wei Xun and the snow leopard to run side by side.

At this point, this path could already be called a tunnel. There were obvious traces of humans excavating the tunnel here, but why was there a secret passageway that would lead to the outside world on the ninth floor of the crystal tower? If it wasn’t for the earthquake that caused the human skin to fall off and the cracks behind it to expand, this secret passageway could be said to be well hidden.

This reminded Wei Xun of the craftsmen who had built the imperial tomb in the history books. In order to ensure the ruler’s privacy and to avoid exposing the entrance of the underground palace, and to prevent future generations from stealing artifacts from the tomb, most of these craftsmen would be killed. According to the legends, clever craftsmen would dig a passageway for themselves in advance as a way to prevent being locked in and buried with the imperial figure.

Could this secret passageway be left by the craftsmen who built Little Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring at that time?

In any case, it was impossible to know what really happened in historical events. Regardless, this secret passageway had made it really convenient for Wei Xun. The ground was still shaking, and the passageway behind him was constantly collapsing. The speed at which it collapsed could almost catch up with the speed of them running through it. In fact, the road ahead was also constantly collapsing but the swarm of insects in front forcefully created a way out for Wei Xun.

More than half of his swarm suffered casualties in the earthquake, but this time they gained a lot from the crystal tower. These gains allowed Xiaocui to recover quickly and continue to expand the swarm.

“Xiaoxue, let me give you another name.”

In the dark, Wei Xun touched the snow leopard’s shoulder blade and felt a handful of blood. Xiaoxue was stronger and more powerful than a regular snow leopard. Wei Xun observed how its shoulder blades appeared like rolling hills when it walked and ran.

However, the gap was so narrow just now that even someone as skinny as Wei Xun had to turn sideways to pass through. It was difficult to imagine how Xiaoxue had gotten in, and how it had chased him all the way from the surface to where he was now.

The thick fur on its shoulder blades had fallen off, and blood kept oozing out from its wounds but when it was touched by Wei Xun, it simply avoided Wei Xun’s touch slightly and pressed its head against the side of Wei Xun’s waist, urging him to move forward quickly.

Wei Xun took out the golden mosquito mouthpiece and tapped it on both sides of the snow leopard’s shoulder blades so it wouldn’t feel any pain. Normally, it didn’t have much of a reaction to it, but this time, in a rare moment of sympathy, he didn’t want to cause pain to the snow leopard. In addition to blood-sucking, the golden mosquito mouthpiece also had the function of allowing one to not feel any pain when Wei Xun sucked their blood.

Although it didn’t hurt, the wound on the snow leopard’s shoulder blade needed to be cleaned and bandaged when they reached the outside world.

Wei Xun decided on a whim to give the snow leopard another name. To him, the snow leopard was different from subordinates like Xiaojin and Xiaocui. He and Xiaojin and Xiaocui shared a master-servant relationship. They could serve him and be used by him, but similarly, he also provided them energy. Just like this time when Wei Xun devoured the devil and became stronger, Xiaojin and Xiaocui also gained a lot of benefits.

However, Wei Xun and the snow leopard were not in a master-servant relationship. Furthermore, even if he became stronger, the snow leopard would not receive the slightest benefit. On the contrary, Wei Xun had to suck blood from it to replenish his Yang Energy. Therefore, under this premise, and with how the snow leopard was able to find him and traverse all the way through this secret passageway to reach and rescue him despite the earthquake occurring, Wei Xun was really touched. He was also somewhat embarrassed.

He didn’t like to owe favors to others, even if the other party was a beast. Hence, he thought about how to repay the snow leopard. Then he realized that Xiaoxue, the name he just casually picked previously, wasn’t really appropriate.

“What should I call it?”

In the dark corridor, Wei Xun babbled, panting slightly, as he slowed down from running to a brisk walk. “Xueyuan (Snowfield)? Xuepeng (Avalanche)? Xuehai (Sea of snow)? Xueshan (Snowy mountain)? Xuefeng (Snowy peak)?”

“What name do you like?”

The snow leopard just listened silently as it observed all directions vigilantly. It suddenly roared towards the back of the tunnel, and then its glowing animal pupils quickly turned towards Wei Xun in the darkness. In the next moment, the snow leopard positioned itself horizontally to block the way forward, with its thick big paws on Wei Xun’s body.