The sadness of the entropic clan

More than thirty centipedes outside the stone gate did not leave immediately. Instead, they began to devour the headless centipede's corpse voraciously, showing no trace of grief for the loss of their companion.

Qin Yu, realizing that these centipedes were not leaving for the time being, had no choice but to stay inside and turned his attention to the stone chamber.

The chamber resembled a hall, empty and devoid of any objects. Towards the back, there were two stone doors. Qin Yu carefully pushed open one of them, trying his best to avoid making any noise that could alert the centipedes outside.

As the stone door opened, Qin Yu once again widened his eyes in astonishment. He gazed ahead and saw a vast expanse of white, with towering hills of piled-up bones. The sight dazzled his eyes, and the distinct smell of decaying bones assailed his nose. Unable to bear it, Qin Yu quickly retreated and closed the stone door.

"How can there be so many bones here? Could it be that the Entropy Clan people prefer to bury the dead in a stone chamber?"

Qin Yu was certain that these were human bones, piled up like hills. It must have taken an immense number of human remains to accumulate to this extent. Unless it was a burial custom of the Entropy Clan, it was truly abnormal.

"Are there bones in the other door as well?" Qin Yu murmured to himself. He pushed open the other stone door and fortunately, he sighed in relief. This chamber contained no bones; there was only a stone bed and a stone table. The walls were embedded with fluorescent stones, providing enough light to see a few things on the stone table.

Qin Yu entered the room and quickly approached the stone table. He found a folded piece of yellow silk fabric placed on the table.

It was a thin silk fabric, and Qin Yu could immediately tell that there were words written on it. Curiously, he picked up the fabric and unfolded it to read.

The fabric was densely covered with tiny characters, as small as fly heads. It took Qin Yu considerable effort to decipher the contents written on this piece of silk fabric.

After putting down the fabric, Qin Yu's eyes flickered with an indescribable brilliance, his expression constantly changing. Finally, he clenched his fist tightly and struck the stone table forcefully.

The reason behind Qin Yu's intense emotional fluctuation was precisely the content recorded on this fabric. It was a piece of fabric on which a member of the Entropy Clan had recorded some events they hoped future generations would see.

The Entropy Clan migrated from a distant land to the area around Copper Drum Mountain. Even the members of the Entropy Clan themselves are unclear about their exact place of origin. The clan settled in the mountain, facing the threat of wild beasts and venomous snakes. Their situation was precarious, and population growth was slow. This state of affairs persisted until the arrival of the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord.

Just as recorded on the stone pillar of the Nine Stars and Three Talents Formation, the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord appeared before the Entropy Clan, helping them drive away wild beasts and expel the venomous snakes. Since then, the Entropy Clan became the most powerful force in the region of Copper Drum Mountain, and their population experienced rapid growth.

In gratitude to the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord, the Entropy Clan revered it as their guardian beast, granting it a higher status than their clan leader. They also built numerous altars to worship and offer sacrifices to the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord. The cave where Qin Yu currently resides is a result of generations of the Entropy Clan's dedicated efforts to excavate a dwelling specifically for the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord.

Once the cave was constructed, the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord took up residence inside and never left. The Entropy Clan people were not allowed to disturb it by entering the cave casually.

Several hundred years after the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord resided in the cave, it suddenly appeared before the Entropy Clan once again, intending to bestow upon them a natural gift: spatial teleportation.

Accompanied by a group of newborn Entropy Clan children, the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord entered the cave. Three days later, the children were sent back out and, as expected, when they grew up, they possessed the innate ability of spatial teleportation. They could instantly appear in unfamiliar places thousands of kilometers away.

Of course, this form of teleportation had its limitations. Each person could only use it three times within a year, and the distance traveled would affect the number of uses. The first group of youngsters who acquired the spatial gift lived for over eighty years. After their death, their bodies were placed in the specific location designated by the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord. It informed the Entropy Clan that they were no longer ordinary mortals after receiving the blessings of the divine and should not be buried according to the burial customs of ordinary mortals. Instead, their bodies must be buried in the exact location within the cave as instructed by the divine lord.

Since then, whenever a newborn baby is born among the Entropy Clan, they are sent into the cave to undergo the blessing ceremony of the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord. However, the Entropy Clan gradually discovered a phenomenon. Except for the first and second generations who received the blessings, the subsequent generations of the clan did not live past the age of seventy. In fact, each generation had a higher mortality rate, with more than half of them dying in their prime years.

This phenomenon caused panic among the Entropy Clan. However, the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord assured them that it was a punishment brought upon by the divine powers they had acquired from the heavens. They were told that as long as they endured for a few more generations, their bloodline would completely transcend mortality, and they would gain prolonged lifespans.

The Entropy Clan wholeheartedly believed in the words of the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord. The prospect of their clan potentially becoming immortal filled them with joy and smiles. The sacrifices they made now seemed insignificant compared to the prospect of godhood.

Several generations passed, and the Entropy Clan no longer had any elderly members. Once a man reached thirty years old, he would die, while women could live slightly longer, up to the age of forty.

The younger generation, lacking reverence, did not hold the same admiration for the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord as their elders. Witnessing their parents and elders dying early one by one, they began to oppose the path of godhood and demanded to abandon the activation of their innate gifts.

The Thousand-Legged Divine Lord did not grant their request, and tensions between the two sides escalated. The conflict deepened over time until it finally erupted with a significant event.

The protagonist of this event was the owner of the silk cloth on which the writing was recorded. On his twentieth birthday, his mother passed away. According to tradition, he was supposed to send his mother's body into the cave to the specific location designated by the Thousand-Legged Divine Lord within a set time.

However, instead of promptly bringing his mother's body into the cave, the owner of the silk cloth planned to secretly bury her outside. So, under the cover of night, he carried his mother's body to a hillside to bury her.

Just as he finished digging the grave and was moving his mother's body, he suddenly heard urgent cries. The sound was even more grating than a crow's caw. He perked up his ears and listened carefully, only to realize that the sound was coming from his mother's heart.

Under the radiant moonlight, he witnessed with his own eyes a red creature bursting out from his mother's heart. The small red creature stared at him for a while and suddenly leaped into the distance, shooting away and disappearing deep into the forest.

The silk cloth owner was stunned by the sudden appearance of the red creature. By the time he regained his senses, the creature had already vanished without a trace. However, this incident made him more vigilant. The next time someone from the tribe died, he secretly followed the person carrying the corpse into the cave and managed to blend in with the place where the bodies were placed, the same chamber that Qin Yu had previously seen.

This time, he was prepared and stayed by the side of the corpse for three days, around the same time his mother had passed away. As expected, he once again witnessed the red creature crawling out from the heart of the corpse. Anticipating its emergence, he immediately covered it with a cloth to prevent it from flying away.

The silk cloth owner captured the red creature and took it away. One month later, the Thousand-Foot Divine Lord suddenly announced to the crowd that they would hold a major celestial ceremony. Once the ceremony was completed, their lifespans would become prolonged, and they wouldn't die prematurely anymore.

The news spoken by the Thousand-Foot Divine Lord ignited great excitement among the entire Entropy Tribe. People began preparing the necessary items for the celestial ceremony as instructed by the Thousand-Foot Divine Lord. However, only the silk cloth owner felt that something was amiss. He sensed the presence of the Thousand-Foot Divine Lord in the red creature, which led him to believe that it concealed a tremendous secret.

On the day of the celestial ceremony, all the members of the Entropy Tribe gathered at the Thousand-Foot Divine Lord's abode, awaiting his lead to commence the ceremony. To their surprise, once they all arrived at the altar, the Thousand-Foot Divine Lord did not appear. Instead, numerous millipedes emerged, their leg segments rhythmically tapping the ground, producing a strange rhythm that echoed throughout the entire altar.

The silk cloth owner witnessed countless tribe members collapsing to the ground amid this peculiar rhythm. Subsequently, red creatures emerged from their hearts, identical to the scene after his mother's death.

Witnessing this spectacle, the silk cloth owner fully understood that the Thousand-Foot Divine Lord was not some divine beast at all but rather someone who gained the tribe's trust and harbored these red creatures within the tribe members. Once these red creatures burst out, the tribe members would perish.

Sensing an unusual sensation in his own heart, the silk cloth owner rushed into the chamber and hastily wrote down this passage. Then, he entered the adjacent chamber where corpses were placed, waiting for death to arrive.