"There really is a ruin ahead!"
Quinn Shepherd raced with the stampeding beasts, suddenly seeing the land ahead dip down into a canyon. Within the gorge, ancient buildings still stood—palaces scattered in disarray, wide plazas, and towering halls.
At the front of these ruins stood a lofty gateway, spanning the canyon with massive pillars, each wrapped in coiling dragons.
The herd charged straight for this gateway, surging into the ruins.
"The darkness is coming!"
Quinn looked up, his scalp tingling with dread. He saw the darkness flowing down the canyon walls like ink, pouring into the gorge!
That darkness would soon reach the gateway, swallowing it whole!
The beasts grew even more frenzied, stampeding toward the gateway. It was chaos—strange beasts collided and trampled each other, and a single misstep could mean being shattered to pieces.
But no one could afford to worry about that now. If you didn’t make it into the ruins before the darkness arrived, your death would be even worse!
Quinn sprinted desperately, suddenly grabbing the tail of a colossal beast. The creature was massive, like a speeding black mountain, knocking strange beasts aside and crushing them flat wherever it passed.
The beasts trailing behind the colossal creature leapt up one after another, grabbing hold of its tail so it would drag them into the ruins as well.
Quinn looked down to see that the fierce beasts beneath him, usually so terrifying, now clung to the giant beast’s tail in abject fear, not daring to move. Glancing back, he saw Senior Brother Kurt, Senior Sister Claire, and three other disciples madly racing for the ruins, not far behind him.
At last, just before the darkness could engulf the gateway, the colossal beast barreled through it—right as the inky blackness flooded the entrance.
Senior Brother Kurt, Senior Sister Claire, and another boy dashed in with a howl, but only those three managed to leap through the gateway before the darkness swallowed it. Of the other two boys, one was a step too late—only his arm made it inside. The second boy’s face, chest, legs, half his belly, and one arm got through, but the rest of him was swept by the darkness.
Kurt landed inside the gateway and immediately reached out to grab his two junior brothers. He seized one by the hand and yanked hard, pulling out nothing but a bare, white skeleton from the darkness.
Kurt’s other hand didn’t reach the second boy in time, and that youth collapsed to the ground.
Kurt and Claire shuddered in horror. The boy’s front was perfectly intact, but his back had been completely stripped of flesh—devoured by something in the darkness.
"What on earth is in that darkness? How can there be something like this?" Claire cried out in a shrill voice.
Kurt steadied himself, exhaled a shaky breath, and said gravely, "When a person dies, it’s like a lamp going out. Our two junior brothers died for the cause of exterminating demons—they died gloriously, heroically. That little demon spawn deliberately arrived at the ruins at the last possible moment to use the darkness against us!"
Another boy, furious and indignant, spat, "He’s in these ruins too, surrounded by darkness with nowhere to run! We’ll find him and tear him to pieces, avenge our brothers!"
"There he is!"
Claire spotted Quinn leaping down from the giant beast’s tail and shrieked, "You little demon spawn! You killed my junior brothers and now you want to run?"
Quinn bristled, "You were the ones who chased me for no reason, hounded me until nightfall, and got yourselves killed! I never did anything to you—why am I the one being hunted? How am I at fault here?"
Claire gritted her teeth, "You little demon spawn, still trying to make excuses..."
"Demon your ass!"
Quinn snapped, "Granny Sue and I only killed one deer to make clothes, and you call us demons. Yet you killed a whole herd of deer—who’s the real demon here?"
Kurt’s face darkened as he stepped forward. "This little demon spawn is good at deceiving people. There’s no point talking—let’s just kill him!"
The three were just about to attack when a series of deep beastly roars echoed around them. Startled, they looked about and saw hundreds, maybe thousands, of strange beasts gathered in the ruins—some even territory-level leaders—glaring at them with fierce, unfriendly eyes.
Kurt sensed trouble and quietly stepped back. The beasts, seeing the humans weren’t fighting, calmed down and made no further moves.
Quinn clicked his tongue in wonder. These beasts were usually at each other’s throats over territory and prey, yet now they coexisted peacefully—it was truly strange.
"Could it be that these beasts have made a rule—not to fight inside the ruins?"
Quinn blinked. Many of these beasts were sworn enemies, yet here they coexisted peacefully, proving his guess was right. The villagers always said that strange beasts had their own intelligence; after all, that demon ape he’d met could speak, always calling him 'little runt.' Maybe these creatures really had set rules for this place.
Kurt realized the same thing and let out a sigh of relief. He whispered, "Don’t make a move tonight. When dawn comes, we kill him immediately!"
Claire and another boy nodded in agreement.
Quinn looked around. The ruins sprawled across the canyon like a city, beasts everywhere—except for the plaza, which was completely empty.
On that plaza, there were only skeletons—human bones, two or three hundred of them, all still dressed in splendid clothing. No one knew why they had died here.
"They’re all women."
Strangely, every one of these women’s skeletons sat cross-legged in perfectly neat rows—fifteen rows of fifteen. It was as if disaster struck while they were meditating, killing them all in an instant before they could escape.
He approached the edge of the plaza, examining it closely. At the very front of the rows sat a leader, her skeleton cross-legged before the others.
All the skeletons, including the leader, faced the massive gateway, turned in the same direction.
"Senior Brother, look!"
Claire’s eyes lit up. She nudged her chin toward the skeletons in the plaza and whispered, "Each of those skeletons is holding a treasure! Every single one!"
Kurt’s gaze swept across the plaza, and his heart pounded wildly. Some skeletons clutched swords, others gripped horsetail dusters, some wore jade pendants, and others held precious bottles—there were all kinds of weapons and artifacts.
The treasures still gleamed as if freshly forged, clearly extraordinary.
Most striking of all was the leader skeleton’s luminous pearl, floating above her palm with swirling mist inside.
This place was actually a vast treasure trove!
"If we could get our hands on those treasures..." Claire whispered, her breath quickening.
Even the Five Elders of River Lee’s vault couldn’t compare to this place!
With these treasures, they could easily found their own sect and rise to power!
Kurt’s eyes gleamed. He grinned, "Heaven truly favors us! Fifth Junior Brother, go collect those treasures."
Fifth Junior Brother stepped forward, just entering the plaza when suddenly the horsetail duster in a female skeleton’s hand began to stir. Its strands grew like living things, and one slowly reached out toward him.
The strand moved like an impossibly slender spirit snake, lifting its head to inspect him.
"Senior Brother Kurt..." Fifth Junior Brother’s voice trembled; he didn’t dare turn his head.
Kurt said in a steady voice, "These treasures are dead things, ownerless. Don’t worry..."
He hadn’t finished speaking when the strand shot out like lightning, piercing into Fifth Junior Brother’s eye. The other strands whipped over, drilling into both his eyes.
Fifth Junior Brother opened his mouth in a silent scream. Quinn watched in horror as the boy shriveled at a visible rate, turning into a dried corpse in moments!
The horsetail duster kept coiling around him, quickly dissolving his skin and bones until only a pile of clothing and shoes remained on the ground.