Chapter 1088: The Cave of Bones

“Meow meow meow meow meow!”

“Meow meow, meow!”

The big tabby cat pointed at each apparatus and called out to the group.

Hazeden wiped some sweat off his forehead and asked: “Can anyone of you understand Cat?”

Guyan replied: “I don’t have such a talent under my service”

Su Xue Er continued: “Then, we can only ask Sha Qiang. I remember reading from a book that since evil creatures need to travel to many worlds, they’re born with an ability to understand every language”

A few moments later, Sha Qiang was called.

『 He turned into a cat? 』 Sha Qiang asked in surprise, 『 Alright, us evil creatures can understand every language in existence, I’ll talk to him 』

『 Little kitty—— no, Gu Qing Shan, what do you want to say? 』

The big tabby cat explained: “Meow meow meow meow”

Sha Qiang listened and explained to everyone else: 『 ——he wants us to alter our course and head towards the Underground Command Center 』

“The Underground Command Center...”

Su Xue Er carefully recalled and soon found the appropriate route.

The so-called Underground Command Center was the technological base of operation that the Starlight Empire established here when the Inner Plane first began exploring this place.

It wasn’t just the Starlight Empire either, every organization that existed within the Inner Plane in the past had formed their own force to explore the Dusty World.

The various bases and routes that were opened up at the time were recorded into the star chart and now hidden in Su Xue Er’s memory.

Su Xue Er placed the big tabby cat onto the table, then quickly operated the equipment.

The metal ship slowed down within the darkness, gradually heading downwards.

After a short while, the tabby cat looked through the window and called out again: “Meow meow, meow meow meow!”

Sha Qiang translated: 『 He said to continue flying for three minutes, then change the course and head to the Reserve Armory 』

Everyone was surprised.

Changing course again?

“The Reserve Armory? I’ll change the course immediately”

Su Xue Er began to adjust the ship’s route.

After around 10 more minutes of flying, the tabby cat called out again: “Meow meow meow! Meow meow meow!”

『 He said to alter the course to the World Research Center 』

“...I’ll change it now”

『 Now fly towards the Mech Center 』

『 To the Mysticism Investigation Department 』

『 To the Vanguard Barracks 』

『 Change the course, to the Warp Tower 』

『 Wait a minute, change the course again, to the Cave of Bones 』

Su Xue Er continued to alter the course over and over.

While no one said anything, everyone was feeling very confused.

——where exactly is Gu Qing Shan trying to go?

Fortunately, they had an ally covenant with one another, and since Gu Qing Shan had piloted the Mech armor to shield everyone from the Black Flame Venerable in the earlier battle, everyone still chose to trust him despite their doubts.

However, they didn’t know that Gu Qing Shan was seeing something else entirely.

Within the deep darkness, countless tiny glowing sprites silently hovered like numerous fireflies.

While the ship flew, these glowing sprites would follow the ship forward.

After flying for a while, the glowing sprites would gather to form various words.

The Reserve Armory, the World Research Center, the Mech Center, the Mysticism Investigation Department, the Vanguard Barracks, the Warp Tower, the Cave of Bones; every once in a while, the glowing sprites would change to form different words and guide the ship forward.

While following their instruction, Gu Qing Shan also pondered.

Why is it that I can only see these glowing sprites after turning into a cat?

As the ship entered the cave, it began to descend.

From the description of the ship’s map, they knew that this place was a place where the Starlight Empire came to search for various strange kinds of bones, which rest at the very end of the secret passage, a large and wide underground cave.

After Reneedol’s betrayal of the Deities a hundred million years ago, the death of myriad Gods and the cursed sealing of the secret passage, this place had turned into a dark cave without any personnel.

Gu Qing Shan brought everyone out from the ship.

『 This place is so dark, there’s nothing here at all 』 Sha Qiang complained.

“That’s right, everyone makes sure to maintain your guard!” Guyan followed up.

Gu Qing Shan was seeing something completely different from everyone else.

——-he was currently a cat.

He was seeing countless glowing sprites that turned the entire cave into a sea of light.

“Meow meow meow!” Gu Qing Shan called out.

『 He told us to wait here 』 Sha Qiang said.

Gu Qing Shan wiggled to get himself loose from Su Xue Er’s embrace and jumped down.

He ran forward and leapt onto a large boulder.

A few moments later.

Among the innumerable glowing sprites, the brightest one descended and hovered in front of him.

The light slowly receded to reveal a long-bearded old man that was only as big as a thumb.

“Very well done, you’ve solved our riddle and gained the right to communicate with us”

The long-bearded man praised the tabby cat.

The tabby cat pointed at the group behind him and asked: ” Meow meow meow meow meow meow?”

“Indeed, everyone on your side had been stripped of power by the pledge, so they can’t see us” the long-bearded old man replied.

The tabby cat then pointed at himself and asked: “Meow meow, meow?”

The long-bearded old man chuckled: “Since you turned into a cat, you can naturally see us, because—– cats are born with the ability to see souls”

The tabby cat appeared doubtful and tiled his head: “Meow meow meow?”

“Ah, that’s correct, we’re pixies, but we’re all dead——- we can’t help but die”

The long-bearded old man continued: “A hundred million years ago, as the race that had the most profound understanding of Mysticism, we cooperated with the Deities to study the Occultism powers of the Dusty World”

“Until one day, a battle abruptly broke out between the Deities, this place was placed under a curse, completely sealed”

“Even more despair-inducing, the entire secret passage came under the joint pledge of the four Pillar Gods as well as numerous other powerful entities”

“Anyone would only be able to use a single type of ability here—— this pledge was initial put in place in order to prevent excessive power from bothering the Dusty World and result in irreversible outcomes”

“However, as the passage was sealed, we were no longer able to leave, and having been placed under the restraints of the four Pillar Gods, we had no choice but to live on, in this place”

“As time went by, we gradually accepted this”

“After all, there are countless artifacts from the Dusty World stored in this place, more than enough for us to study the power of Occultism for the rest of our lives. We were more than happy to live this way”

“But several ten thousand years ago, something was awoken here”

“Meow meow?” the tabby cat asked.

“Ah, it was a legendary Occultism artifact, a broken fragment of the Samsara”

“We didn’t know how or why it was awoken, but while it was only a fragment of a world, it contained innumerable Wraiths of overwhelming power that rendered us unable to retaliate”

At this point, the long-bearded old man’s expression changed.

All the pixie souls behind him became worried and panicked.

Numerous of those souls had already begun to flee towards the depth of the cave.

“Oh no!”

The long-bearded old man hurriedly said: “Quickly, that thing is coming, you need to hurry up and hide, we’ll talk later!”

“Meow meow meow?”

The long-bearded old man pointed at the ground not too far away and said: “Tell everyone on your side to get in and hide!”

The tabby cat turned around.

Only to see a dirty painting resting in the middle of countless unknown bones.

The long-bearded old man waved the short club in his hand and tapped Gu Qing Shan’s body.

Poof!

Gu Qing Shan returned to human form.

Immediately, all the glowing sprites vanished without a trace.

——-as a normal person, he could no longer see the souls of pixies.

Gu Qing Shan instantly pointed at the painting and told everyone: “Hurry, some kind of monster is coming, we need to head inside and hide!”

On the way here, everyone had run into the skeletal hand and the Black Flame Venerable, both impossibly strong monsters that couldn’t be repelled, so they really didn’t want to hear the word ‘monster’ right now.

Earlier, they saw Gu Qing Shan turn into a tabby cat and communicated with something invisible in the air, which roused an unknown sense of fright.

Now that Gu Qing Shan had returned to human form, they listened to him without question.

『 Isn’t this a painting? How do we get in? 』Sha Qiang asked.

Gu Qing Shan didn’t know either and simply walked up to the painting.

This was an extremely old painting that depicted the scene of people dancing while singing around a fire.

historical

Gu Qing Shan tried approaching the painting.

In the blink of an eye.

He vanished.

Everyone was shocked and looked into the painting at once.

Only to see Gu Qing Shan inside the painting, waving towards them.

Su Xue Er immediately walked into the painting.

She also appeared inside, holding Gu Qing Shan’s hand as she looked out at everyone.

—–there was no longer any hesitation.

Everyone quickly went into the painting.