The sky was black and red.
The ground beneath her feet was also black and red.
The air was thick with a dry, hot feeling.
Qu Weichen could see gray, ash-like particles drifting and fading in the air, but she didn’t actually feel hot.
“Sweetheart, this is as far as I can take you.” Chen Qingjue reached out and ruffled Qu Weichen’s hair.
The woman smiled gently, her light brown eyes gazing at Qu Weichen, full of affection and reluctance.
“You have to survive, okay~”
“…I will.”
Qu Weichen turned her head to dodge that hand, but Chen Qingjue just twisted her palm and pinched Qu Weichen’s cheek before stepping back with a smile.
“Then, see you around?”
With that, the woman turned and left without hesitation, her steps light, showing no sign of regret or doubt.
[It’s all just a succubus trick.] Number Nine let out a deep sigh.
Qu Weichen knew the feeling.
She glanced around, then poked Number Nine.
“Let’s not talk about that.
Which way do we go?”
[Use the passage as a landmark and follow the divisions on the map…] Number Nine paused.
[Does this Abyss even use the standard north-up, south-down, west-left, east-right map orientation?]
“How would I know?” Qu Weichen was starting to get a bad feeling.
“Don’t tell me you…”
[Ahahaha, I was just messing with you! I’m great at giving directions!~] Number Nine’s mechanical voice laughed, but in the system space, it looked a bit troubled.
It analyzed the map again, compared it to Qu Weichen’s current surroundings, hesitated, and finally said, [Just go straight to your left.]
Qu Weichen was silent for a moment.
She took out the parchment from her spatial ring, but she really couldn’t make sense of the map.
She glanced at the distance and general direction between the passage and the main clan, decided to trust Number Nine, and headed to her left.
Magic circles lit up one after another.
First appeared a skinny skeleton soldier, then a skeleton archer with a wooden bow and armor, and finally a skeleton heavy axeman in iron armor wielding two big iron axes.
The skeleton heavy axeman was about 1.8 meters tall, looked strong, and was clearly a cut above the skeleton soldier and archer.
Qu Weichen circled the heavy axeman, barely satisfied with its seven skill point cost.
—Not that she had a choice, the first two were just too weak in comparison.
With these three minions following her, Qu Weichen felt a bit more at ease.
Chen Qingjue couldn’t sense the souls of the undead she summoned, so she wouldn’t notice anything odd, but the regular Abyss undead didn’t seem to realize either.
Maybe it was because she was a Demon King.
Qu Weichen didn’t think she’d run into another Demon King anytime soon, so she didn’t worry about it.
Near the passage… there really weren’t any undead wandering around.
This was supposed to be the “Ancient Serpent’s” territory, but its forces were gone.
Maybe they realized they couldn’t take the passage and retreated for now?
The black-red sky, the black-red ground, faint black mist drifting in the air—Qu Weichen climbed a slope, and the skeleton soldier fell behind.
The skinny little skeleton was like an old, broken-down robot, its parts rusty, struggling to keep up.
They were weak, but skeleton summons didn’t have a time limit.
As long as they didn’t die, they’d stick around.
After five minutes, Qu Weichen summoned again, maxing out her three summon skills.
Six skeletons formed a not-so-impressive little squad, trailing after her.
After about half an hour, Qu Weichen looked up at the sky.
The Abyss sky never seemed to change.
She frowned, worried about keeping up her diligent training routine.
[I’m keeping track of time, don’t worry~] Number Nine said.
[I’ll remind you to get up and train every morning.
Your hard work won’t go to waste.]
Good.
Qu Weichen let out a breath and kept walking.
After hurrying down a big slope, she finally spotted signs of undead on the uneven ground!
Was that… a group of skeleton grunts? About a dozen of them, patrolling their territory, shuffling along in a line, the soul fire in their eyes flickering weakly.
Qu Weichen raised her hand and took out her silver bow.
She nocked an arrow, drew the bow to full, and aimed carefully at a skeleton head that wasn’t moving much—deep breath, deep breath.
Steady hands, steady stance.
Her mind was full of archery tips she’d crammed from Constance.
She steadied her breathing, released the string, and the arrow shot through the air, straight into the skeleton’s skull.
Bullseye.
A smile tugged at Qu Weichen’s lips, but the next second, the two skeleton archers beside her also drew their bows and let loose.
Two wooden arrows hit the skeleton skulls dead-on, but… they just bounced off.
Qu Weichen: “…”
The rest of the skeleton squad slowly turned their heads, staring at her and the six scrawny skeletons behind her.
The soul fire flickered, and for some reason, Qu Weichen sensed confusion—and a strong killing intent.
[…You can’t really blame them.
Their aim is good, but their equipment sucks.
These are wooden arrows, and without any “qi” to boost them, how could they possibly pierce a skeleton’s skull?] Number Nine explained sheepishly.
[There’ll be skeleton buff skills in the future.
They’ll be awesome then.]
Qu Weichen: “You think I’ll live that long?” Honestly, Number Nine was a master at painting a rosy picture, and Qu Weichen was already full from all the empty promises.
Abyss creatures weren’t stupid.
When they realized Qu Weichen had attacked first and had skeletons with her, they naturally saw her as an enemy “scout” or “vanguard.” They brandished their weapons and charged.
Judging by their charge, these skeleton grunts were way tougher than the wobbly ones from before.
But the skeleton heavy axeman was reliable.
It was taller than most of the enemy skeletons.
System skeletons were mass-produced, so each type looked exactly the same, but if you looked closely at Abyss skeletons, you could tell if they’d been male or female, adult or elderly in life.
Some skeletons were clearly from beastfolk, others from giants or dwarves.
But this time, it seemed like all the skeletons were human? Qu Weichen didn’t think too much about it.
She drew her longsword and charged.
She was getting used to her new weapon in battle—maybe one day she’d slash down and break through to Tier Three, unleashing sword energy? Practice made perfect, after all.
Maybe because of her dagger training, Qu Weichen’s sword style was agile and unpredictable.
Facing a group of skeleton soldiers, she could dodge and weave, slashing at each one without trying to kill in a single blow, always moving and evading their attacks.
[…] Number Nine wanted to complain about her flashy moves, but thought better of it.
With Qu Weichen’s strength, brute-forcing her way through wasn’t really an option.
The skeleton heavy axeman shone in this fight, swinging its axes wildly.
One blow could crack a skeleton’s bones, two or three would break them completely.
The skeleton grunts tried to get in on the action, but when the heavy axeman accidentally hit one, it sent the grunt flying, shattering it instantly.
Number Nine, quietly watching the battle, glanced at Qu Weichen and saw her focused on decapitating a skeleton, not noticing what was happening nearby.
Only then did it relax.
As for the skeleton archers… they were still shooting arrows at close range.
Wooden arrows whizzed into skeleton faces, making the enemy skeletons even angrier.
Wasn’t this just humiliating them? Number Nine couldn’t bear to watch, just glad Qu Weichen had learned [Skeleton Heavy Axeman Summon].
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a single useful minion.
With a final crack, Qu Weichen split the last skeleton with her sword.
She slowly wiped the blade with a cloth and sheathed it.
The ground was littered with broken bones, the skeleton archers and soldiers nowhere to be seen.
Qu Weichen stared for a while, then looked at the heavy axeman missing an arm and another missing its left hand, a bit helpless.
“Can they grow new bones?”
[You can dismiss them and summon new ones.
The system will recycle the materials to make new skeleton heavy axemen later.]
Got it.
No wonder the skeleton grunts never left corpses behind.
Qu Weichen looked at the bones on the ground.
“Do you want these?”
[They’re from a different world, hard to recycle, too much trouble,] Number Nine said.
Skeleton creation had its own process, and these bones were tainted by this world’s aura.
Plus, these skeletons had been human, with lingering soul traces, so they were worthless for recycling.
[Just leave them.
The Abyss’s black mist will slowly devour them, letting them return to true death.]
Qu Weichen nodded, dismissed the armless heavy axeman, and summoned a new one to follow her.
As for the skeleton soldiers and archers… forget it, better to travel light.
…
Qu Weichen didn’t know how long she’d been walking, but she was finally starting to feel tired.
Glancing at the unchanging sky, she found a slightly higher rock to sit on, took out some food and water from her spatial ring, and had a quick meal to restore her strength.
Along the way, she’d run into another squad of skeleton soldiers, about as strong as the last group, and she and the heavy axeman had handled them easily.
As for the Abyss buffs to skeleton soldiers… there probably were some, just not obvious.
On the Floating Continent, the stronger you were, the more restrictions you faced, so weak cannon fodder like this barely felt any limits.
No wonder Qu Weichen didn’t notice much difference.
Jerky, bread, water—Qu Weichen ate quickly until she was about eighty percent full, then stopped and took out an apple for dessert.
She hadn’t seen any of those “lava fruits” Chen Qingjue mentioned, or even a single tree.
This couldn’t go on.
She’d have to find some resources before her stockpile of fruit and food ran out.
“Can’t you open a food shop or something?”
[I don’t have a shop module installed, what do you want me to do?] Number Nine sounded very innocent, even sent a “/pitiful” emoji.
Qu Weichen just laughed and didn’t say anything more.
Guess she was getting used to it.
