Chapter Two: Bones (1)

After falling towards his death for over an hour, Raider's mindset had gone through countless changes. You could say that knowing he was about to die had broadened his mind. But now, this moment he had been waiting for did not happen. His insides shook as the only thing he knew for certain would happen did not happen.

While Raider was frozen in shock due to still being alive, the strange force that had prevented him from crashing to his death suddenly disappeared.

Raider's body hit the ground and the slight pain he felt jolted him to his senses. He stood up slowly and observed himself. He was a little dusty but his hands were just as he remembered them. He slowly patted himself  down and confirmed what he could not believe.

He was still alive!

Raider did not have a good life. From his youngest age he had been treated as a slave by every single clan member at all times. Never had anyone shown any compassion or goodwill towards him.  He could observe the happiness and prosperity of others from afar, but never be a part of it.

He didn't enjoy living.

Falling for such a long time really had changed his perspective on life. He knew he had nothing to lose! Death would be more of a relief to a person like him!

He had come to realise that and even accept it, almost being hopeful for it. But now that he hadn't died, he didn't feel regret, but relief.

He realised that no matter how much he didn't enjoy life, he didn't want to die. He had found a new taste for life.

As his resolve to live grew, his eyes finally adapted to the light enough for him to observe his surroundings.

He was surprised to discover that there were symbols on the rocky walls. They weren't engraved into the wall but painted, and almost seemed as if they were wiggling. Moreover, they seemed to be painted directly out of light.

They were causing the surroundings to be so bright.

Raider knew these were probably symbols used to place formations or enchantments because he had seen similar things in the settlement. However, the symbols he had seen there were nothing like the ones in front of him right now.

The symbols in and around the village were dim and flickering, sometimes even invisible to non cultivators. Plus, they didn't emit any light, they were condensed from water. The weaker ones were even still in a vaporous state.

The symbols here were like solid light. It was incomparable.

There was a single tunnel connected to the infinite abyss Raider had just fallen through. This tunnel was illuminated by magical symbols and seemed to be the origin of them all.

With no way back up, this was the only way for Raider to proceed. It might've been his imagination, but he felt almost drawn to the tunnel, maybe because it was the only way for him to live, or maybe because something inside was calling him.

As he started to walk down the tunnel, the people in the Barren Settlement were still on high alert.

Even after a couple of hours passed, they still didn't dare to release the alert. After all, the safety of their settlement was at stake in their minds. This could not be taken lightly.

If someone had come and taken their slave without any traces it meant three things for sure:

One, they knew where the settlement was.

Two, they had information about the Clan.

Three, they were at least as powerful as Clan Chief Soho.

Someone with these means could possibly bring about the end of their Clan and settlement. Better safe than sorry!

Back in the tunnel of glowing symbols, Raider was feeling more things at once than he had ever felt in his life. After the interminable fall, an endless walk awaited him. He was afraid of the unknown but determined to survive, restless from the fall and the walk but glad to be alive. Most of all, he was growing curious. Just what was at the end of this tunnel?

A couple of hours had passed since the clan people had returned after their investigation but it was difficult for Raider to measure time in his environment. Slowly but surely, he progressed deeper and deeper into the tunnel and the symbols on the wall grew more numerous and condensed.

Eventually, he reached the end of the tunnel.

There was nothing there except for a complete skeleton laying neatly on the ground and arranged in a peculiar fashion with the skull in the center and the rest of the bones in a sort of formation around it.

The magical symbols on the walls here were so dense that you couldn't discern them anymore, they seemed to blend together in a way that made the stone seem like a wall of light.

Raider observed the skeleton. Faint light seemed to glow from it in resonance with the magical symbols around it. It was as if the skeleton was the source of the symbols. In fact, Raider had a faint intuition that the symbols were placed here to seal or preserve this skeleton.

It was strangely beautiful. Every single bone was pure white, unsullied by time. There wasn't even a speck of dust on it. What should've been an eerie sight actually gave a holy feeling, like the skeleton of a God.

The light emitted by the skeleton was faint and soft but strangely hurt Raider's eyes when he looked directly at it. Even the blinding light from the magical symbols didn't have this effect.

It was as if no one was qualified to look at this skeleton.

However, as Raider approached the skeleton and looked at it, it seemed to feel his presence and grew a little brighter. The skull in the center shone more than the rest, as if something was inside of it.

Suddenly, as Raider arrived in front of the corpse, a body of light burst out from the skull and circled around Raider and the bones.

Raider felt like this blob of light could easily take his life if it wanted to. Slowly, the light came to hover above the skeleton and change shape.

After the time it takes to inhale and exhale once, the light had taken a humanoid shape.