Chapter 266: Source of the Concept Diagrams

The sky was gray, and visibility was very low. The three glowing balls in the sky barely allowed one to see dozens of meters ahead, and one could only see a blurry outline from afar.

The four of them followed the half-finished map and carefully identified their bearings. Every time they encountered a huge obstacle, they had to take a detour in advance.

Therefore, as they walked, the four of them gradually could not estimate how far they had gone from the stronghold.

Suddenly, a gust of cold wind blew past, and they suddenly felt uncomfortable. A cold aura seemed to have a mind of its own and wanted to enter their bodies. The four of them subconsciously stopped in their tracks.

“Is this the graveyard?”

Chen Yiming observed his surroundings and could only see graves all around him.

The surrounding temperature had decreased greatly compared to the road behind them. From time to time, strange cries could be heard from ahead, especially after they stopped. These sounds kept ringing in their ears, making it difficult for them to calm down.

They looked towards the landmark of the graveyard, which was an obelisk more than 1,000 meters tall. At this moment, due to the lack of light, they could only make out a black pillar.

Due to the distance, the black pillar seemed to be only dozens of meters tall. If not for the information provided by the stronghold, they would not have believed it.

There was no more detailed information from the stronghold. A short distance ahead was the limit of what humans had explored previously.

Chen Yiming looked at Xu Xiurong and asked, “Are we going deeper into the graveyard?”

Zhang Cheng and Yuan Guangzhou did not say anything. Xu Xiurong came from a clan that specialized in dealing with spirits. She was the true core of the team, and the two of them were essentially hired fighters.

Xu Xiurong looked around and replied, “The task of drawing the map can be completed along the way. The main goal is to find undead creatures that the team can deal with. Let’s search the areas that have been explored first.”

With that, she unzipped her backpack and took out a bottle of medicine. She explained, “This is the Xu clan’s special medicine. If you sprinkle it on yourself, it can greatly conceal the aura of living people.”

Chen Yiming, Zhang Cheng, and Yuan Guangzhou understood what he meant. They took turns to take the bottle and sprayed the medicine on themselves.

Before setting off again, Xu Xiurong told Chen Yiming, “The effect of the potion is best in the first hour. In the second hour, the effect will decrease by half. After that, it will lose its effect.

In addition, undead creatures are very sensitive to the aura of living people. It’s best to keep a distance of more than 100 meters.”

Chen Yiming nodded and walked forward, officially entering the graveyard. The other three followed closely behind.

The air here was even colder, and there was a dead silence everywhere he looked.

In addition, it was not as empty as the area outside. There were all kinds of miscellaneous items everywhere, such as bones, fur, blood-stained branches, and so on.

Seeing the blood-stained branches, Chen Yiming instantly thought of the ancient trees he had seen along the way.

The barbarians and chimpanzee-like creatures seemed to be guarding the ancient trees from their behavior. However, there were broken branches from the ancient trees here.

It seemed that there were also disputes between these creatures from the otherworld. The undead creatures seemed to be enemies with the creatures living outside the graveyard.

Not long after, Xu Xiurong pointed at a skeleton in the distance and reminded him in a low voice, “Don’t go near there. Go around it.”

This was Chen Yiming’s first time exploring the otherworld, so he wouldn’t act rashly. He made a big detour and observed the skeleton as he walked.

The skeleton was half-buried in the soil, and its full appearance could not be seen clearly. However, from the part of it that was exposed, one could tell that it was a crawling creature.

It had a long spine and tailbone that were about 70 to 80 meters long. When it was alive, it might have been equivalent to the peak of the warrior realm or a half-step away from the master realm.

This made Chen Yiming raise his guard again. They had only traveled a little over a kilometer into the graveyard , but they had already started to encounter undead creatures of this level.

Looking up at the obelisk in the distance, the height had barely changed. It was clear that they were still very far from it.

He could also roughly guess that there must be undead creatures equivalent to the master realm around the obelisk. He could not let his guard down.

After familiarizing himself with the environment, Chen Yiming became more cautious. His vision was still not good, but with his outstanding perception, he was able to control the distance perfectly.

They had discussed exploring a range of three kilometers and choosing the most suitable undead creatures to capture. Any place they passed that met the requirements for capturing the creatures would be marked on the map.

Near a pile of broken bones, Chen Yiming stopped in his tracks. He glanced at Xu Xiurong and gestured for her to make a mark.

The bones were scattered on the ground. Due to the fact that they had deliberately maintained a distance and the interference from the surrounding spiritual energy, they could only rely on her experience to determine if there were any spirits attached to the objects.

Xu Xiurong shook her head and said in a low voice, “All undead creatures will subconsciously return to a complete form. This pile of bones is either just abandoned bones or the spirits attached to it are too weak.”

Chen Yiming glanced at the scattered bones again.

In just 10 minutes after stepping into the graveyard, he had learned a lot from Xu Xiurong. This would be of great help to him if he came alone in the future.

At this moment, one of the upper layers of the skeleton shook. There was clearly nothing to hold it in place, but it did not fall.

Zhang Cheng happened to see this change. His eyes widened as he reminded them in a low voice, “There’s a situation. The bones seemed to have moved just now.”

The three of them froze, and Chen Yiming was no exception.

The graveyard was completely unfamiliar to him. Before they found out the true situation, no one wanted any incidents to occur. However, the situation did not change according to one’s will.

A bone slowly floated up, followed by more than 10 others, forming a simple skeleton. It did not even have a head.

The skeleton turned left and right, and happened to be walking in Chen Yiming’s direction.

“Is it a coincidence? Or have we been discovered?”

Chen Yiming, Zhang Cheng, and Yuan Guangzhou looked at Xu Xiurong, but she didn’t dare to give them an answer. After all, there was a difference between undead creatures and spirits.

Although she could indeed capture the undead creatures silently, this needed preparations to be done in advance. It was clearly too late with the current situation.

Xu Xiurong could only gesture for everyone to not move about rashly.

The area where the four of them were was silent. Only the sound of bones stepping into the soil and being pulled out could be heard.

A few minutes later, the skeleton slowly walked over to the four of them. The distance between the two sides was less than two meters, and there was a high chance that they would pass each other.

Just as everyone heaved a sigh of relief, the skeleton stopped and changed its direction to walk straight towards the four of them.

“…”

Chen Yiming was speechless. It wasn’t that he was afraid of his opponent, but that he had no choice but to release a stream of illusory internal force.

Xu Xiurong did not stop him. At this point, there was no other way. She hoped that he would not cause too much of a commotion and disturb the nearby undead creatures.

“Clang!”

The skeleton was knocked to the ground. Then, it struggled to stand up, but under the influence of the strange power, it was like a drunkard and couldn’t get up.

“It works!”

Chen Yiming was delighted. He unleashed his illusory internal force again, covering a radius of 10 meters.

This way, even if there was a small commotion, it would not be noticed by the surrounding undead creatures.

“Let me go next,”

Xu Xiurong said in a low voice. She took out a stack of talismans from her backpack and a bottle of yellow medicine. She poured the medicine over the talismans and soaked them thoroughly, and the symbols on them immediately lit up.

Chen Yiming took a special look at it. He couldn’t understand the symbols at all and they only looked like scribbles to him. He didn’t mind it too much. Nothing was simpler and more direct than the Sword Aura.

Xu Xiurong quietly walked over to the skeleton and, at lightning speed, stuck the talismans on each of its bones.

The symbols on the talismans became even brighter. At the same time, the skeleton stopped struggling, and only trembled from time to time, as though its bones were twitching.

In less than a minute, a grayish-white crystal was formed with complicated patterns etched on it.

It looked like a mountain covered in smoke, but it was incomplete and missing pieces here and there.

“So this is how one obtains concept diagrams.”

Chen Yiming had long known that the concept diagrams came from creatures in the otherworld, but this was the first time he had seen one being created with his own eyes.

Because the essence of the undead creatures was still that of spirits, and their bodies were considered external objects, the concept diagram appeared on the soul crystal.

Xu Xiurong picked up the soul crystal and said with a smile, “We’re in luck. This undead creature is probably equivalent to a warrior who has just broken through. Not only is it weak, but its ability is in its sense of smell.”

Unexpectedly, they had gained something from this incident. Everyone’s tense nerves relaxed.

Concept diagrams from undead creatures were still relatively rare. After this soul crystal recorded the concept diagram, it could still be used as a consumable item to temper one’s spiritual power.

Seeing that Chen Yiming had the ability to suppress the undead creatures, Xu Xiurong suggested changing their plan.

Chen Yiming had only been in charge of searching for the undead creatures, but now, the task of suppressing them was handed over to him. This task was originally assigned to Zhang Cheng, Yuan Guangzhou, and Xu Xiurong.

In the new plan, Xu Xiurong was only responsible for using the talismans to kill the undead creatures, while Zhang Cheng and Yuan Guangzhou were responsible for fighting if anything happened.

However, this way, Chen Yiming and Xu Xiurong would take most of the credit.

This was because once an accident happened and alarmed the surrounding undead creatures, the team would definitely retreat quickly, leaving very little room for Zhang Cheng and Yuan Guangzhou to play their role.

Chen Yiming had no objections. His goal wasn’t completely the same as the team’s, and he was more inclined to explore the graveyard.

“Sure.”

Zhang Cheng and Yuan Guangzhou agreed without hesitation.

Treasures like the soul crystal were almost impossible to find on the blue planet. It was already a blessing to be able to get something like that.

If not for the fact that Chen Yiming could lead the others into hiding, the team’s plan before entering the otherworld was to light a special incense and rely on their luck to lure out the undead creatures.

This method was extremely dangerous. If they were unlucky, they would attract the attention of undead creatures that the team could not deal with. At best, they would be chased down, and at worst, they would lose their lives here.

Soon, the team started to move again.

Perhaps it was due to their bad luck on the way here and used up all the bad luck after they encountered the undead creatures with a special sense of smell, but the team did not encounter any further incidents. They successfully used up all the potions in Xu Xiurong’s backpack to conceal their presence.

In order to appear normal, the undead creatures Chen Yiming chose were all at the warrior realm.

They had a fair amount to show for their efforts. They had obtained a total of 11 soul crystals. The last 10 did not have a concept diagram, but the soul crystals themselves were already priceless on their own.

This far exceeded Xu Xiurong, Zhang Cheng, and Yuan Guangzhou’s expectations. They had thought that the team was lucky, but they didn’t know that with Chen Yiming’s sharp senses and the strength of his internal force,

in the periphery of the graveyard, there were actually no undead creatures that he could not control.

…

The sky above them was quickly becoming brighter.

Xu Xiurong stood at the wasteland at the edge of the graveyard with a vexed expression.

There were still a lot of items left in her backpack, except the medicine that could hide a living person’s aura. This forced the team to retreat in advance.

She let out a long sigh and took out all the soul crystals from her backpack to split the loot.

“We can just take one piece each.”

Zhang Cheng and Yuan Guangzhou took the initiative to make a suggestion.

The two of them had almost made no contribution, other than during the fight with the underground creature on the way here. The outcome of that fight was terrible and had the opposite effect of causing more trouble. They were too ashamed to ask for more.

However, it was still a huge profit to be able to obtain one soul crystal. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that without Chen Yiming, the three of them wouldn’t have had the confidence to obtain three soul crystals.

Xu Xiurong was too embarrassed to take more and asked, “How about three pieces for me and six for you?”

Chen Yiming agreed to the distribution plan. He didn’t care if it was one more or one less, as long as they didn’t trick him on purpose.

Soon, six soul crystals were handed to him, including the one with the concept diagram. He took a look and memorized the concept diagram before putting it in his pocket.

In an instant, a soul crystal disappeared, but the Skill Points requirement for the Level-4 swordsmanship talent remained unchanged.

Chen Yiming was a little disappointed. The level of the undead creatures he had killed tonight was too low, so it wasn’t of much use to him. He quickly adjusted his mood. After all, he had another motive for his first operation.

After distributing the loot, the team set off on their way back to the stronghold.

…

As dawn broke, the silence in the damp wasteland was broken by humans.

After half a day of transportation, the first batch consisted of about 1,000 warriors and nearly 100,000 disciples. They were already waiting at the stronghold.

Everyone had excitement on their faces as they shouted about colonizing the otherworld. Their large numbers gave them the courage to explore the otherworld.

Under the lead of more than 30 warriors who had mastered the transformation of internal force, most of the martial arts practitioners rushed out of the stronghold.

Behind them were three humans at the peak of the warrior realm.

The first goal was to sweep through the explored areas with the stronghold as the center and try to establish the territory of the humans.

On the way back to the stronghold, Chen Yiming and the others encountered a war between humans and the creatures from the otherworld. Most of the creatures from the otherworld were forced to retreat, as if they weren’t even enough for the humans to kill.

Zhang Cheng sighed. “Fortunately, our target is the undead creatures. Otherwise, we wouldn’t even be able to get a share.”

The humans in front of him were using their numbers to kill the creatures from the otherworld that were fleeing across the wasteland. As for the caves that were the entrances to the underground passages, there were basically no creatures that could be seen in the day.

Xu Xiurong covered her mouth and smiled. “With your strength, not many people can compete with you. Go on.”

As she spoke, a many-legged creature was fleeing in the direction of the team. It looked a little like the thousand-legged insects on the blue planet, but it was countless times larger and nearly five meters long.

Zhang Cheng was a little embarrassed. “Forget it. I still have to rush back to the stronghold and use the soul crystal to temper my spiritual power.”

Xu Xiurong stopped teasing Zhang Cheng and asked Chen Yiming, “I need to return to the Xu clan for supplies. What about you?”

Chen Yiming remained calm in the face of this invitation. “I have to stay here. I still have something to do.”

Xu Xiurong did not expect him to reject her mercilessly. She was stunned on the spot and thought to herself, “You’re something. Are you playing hard to get? Or are you really not interested in me?”

She puffed out her chest a little. Even though she was wearing a special combat uniform, her curvy figure could not be hidden. Furthermore, she had exquisite facial features. She had never been rejected by a man like this before.

For example, Zhang Cheng had agreed to join the team without much convincing. Another example was Yuan Guangzhou. Although he was a friend from her father’s generation, if she did not have the ability or looks, he would not have given her a second glance.

Chen Yiming wasn’t lying. Not only did he have to further investigate the situation in the graveyard, but he also had to secretly ensure the safety of the stronghold.

If the humans rushed out, a temporary victory would mean nothing. It was very likely that they would face a counterattack from the creatures from the otherworld.

He had already formed a big plan in his mind. It involved the Chen clan and the Myriad Phenomena Sect. As the front line in the otherworld, they could not lose the stronghold.