12 Flattened Into Rice

Hours later, Yuan Ming chanced upon a ruin filled with ancient monasteries and human dwellings. There were no walls surrounding it, as far as he could see. It was most likely a human settlement.

'Idiots. I've never even heard of people building settlements here, were they insane or something? '

Even dozens of eras ago, Misty Mountain Range was as dangerous as now. So it wasn't implausible that a few ignorant people built settlements here eras ago. After all, he knew that the Misty Mountain Range was filled with such ruins.

Yuan Ming wasn't that deep into the forest after running at full-speed either. So he didn't mind exploring the ruin a bit.

Once he went deeper into the small ruin filled with broken and burnt buildings and structures, he found a small mountain inside. Mist blocked his view of the mountain, but he saw a path lead to the top of it at the bottom. He shook his head and began walking.

Once he began walking on the path, he saw a few caves on the mountain. From the beginning to the top of the mountain, there were caves and caves, and caves. It looked like a lot of people used to live in these caves.

He went inside one of them; but unfortunately it was too shallow and empty. He found nothing but a simple straw bed on the floor; which was also broken.

One by one, he entered the caves and climbed the mountain. All of them were empty. Perhaps a recent sect competition turned the caves empty?

Thinking as such, he decided to give up. But not before he entered the cave on the mountain top!

Yuan Ming dashed and in a few seconds reached the top of the mountain. Unlike what he first believed, the mist was thicker and stronger than when he was on the ground.

The undead didn't need to breathe, or at least it wasn't required. If they did he would suffocate the very moment he reached the top, as the mist sucked the air clean from there.

The topmost cave this time wasn't shallow. It's sharp entrance was two meter tall and almost three meter wide; it was big to let an entire army enter.

However, an invisible barrier obstructed his path. As much he tried, he couldn't enter as red light blocked his way.

'Is this a…spiritual formation?'

The red light turned invisible once again as Yuan Ming pondered. He could rest easy as it didn't attack, it only obstructed entry into the cave.

He recalled his knowledge of formations and tried to figure out how to break through. He didn't want to be struck with something strong enough to turn him into pudding by trying to break the formation — he wasn't that dumb anymore.

Yuan Ming slowly turned around and dug a few symbols and writings on the mountain floor. The floor easily gave away as he used his claws.

Once he was finished, the writings began to shine as he created a circle surrounding it. Essence from the air flew into it one by one.

His soul buzzed as something new connected with it. It was the thing he dug onto the ground, the 'Recall Formation' that helped people find which way it was. If he dug it onto the mountain, he'd be forever able to remember where it was as the formation would signal him where it was.

Yuan Ming treasured his life more than anything. So he didn't really care for some obscure cave. He quickly dashed down the mountain and left for the deeper range.

One thing he noticed over his journey was how eerily quiet the range was. The beasts howled and fought; their sounds reached him. But otherwise he met nothing.

'I shouldn't really talk about these… My luck is really bad. Who knows if a Beast Horde will attack me a few seconds later.'

Like clockwork, huge tides of wind burst through the forest and hills around Yuan Ming as the mist started to swirl. A few meters above him a gigantic beast appeared.

Its body was about 8 meters long, the scales on it gave off a metallic glow. It had golden yellow talons which looked as though it was forged with gold. The most unusual trait of the beast however, was that it had two heads and each head had a bloody broken horn. As it moved, its dragon-like jaw gasped for air.

Its tail whipped the air as the mist escaped and increased visibility. It ignored the bulky red beast trying to play dead by lying on the ground and flew somewhere else.

Actually, Yuan Ming wasn't trying to fake his death. The utterly dominating spiritual essence the creature leaked when above him flattened him into undead bread.

The essence signature of the beast was strong. Way stronger than the man that destroyed his arm!

[A Rank 6 Armored Earth Wyvern. Furthermore, it can fly. You can turn it into an Undead Earth Wyrm if you can get your hands on it…]

Rank…6?!

Imaginary cold sweat began to drip from Yuan Ming's body as he looked around him and discovered himself trapped with a valley obscured by hills and mountains. The ground around him was flat, suitable for a base.

Apparently, he might have moved way too deep into the range… oh well.

[Don't worry, that wyvern was injured. It escaped from the deeper parts of the Misty Mountain Range. The strongest beasts you'll find around here are Rank 4]

Yuan Ming sighed in relief and began digging the ground once again. It took him a while, as he meticulously scratched symbols and writings on the ground and created a circle around it.

Last time, he needed to sacrifice almost hundred Ghouls to activate the Summoning Formation. This time, it'd take a lot less.

Yuan Ming waited for a while. After a few hours, he was rewarded for his patience!

His soul stirred as he felt a new connection. Far, far away from where he was standing, but it was within the limits of the Misty Mountain Range. Like clockwork, dozens and dozens of new connections formed in his soul as he came to know he succeeded in poisoning the river.

However, none of them exceeded Rank 1. Maybe it was due to his own limitation, as he couldn't command beings of higher or equal ranks…

He…almost forgot about that!

Yuan Ming slowly shook his head as he remembered the gorilla. He wanted to turn it into an undead back then…it was fortunate that his greed won over, otherwise he'd have to deal with an undead gorilla.

Yuan Ming ordered the dead to awake, and the alive to heed his commands through his soul; within moments his sixty-three member Rank 1 Undead Horde was ready to heed his every order.

‹Come to me, my minions!›

His howl ripped through the air, and through the connections to his soul.