CHAPTER 245: Grave Digging

The once level ground bore witness to many ravines. The tombstone of Ayermika, the demigod being of the Lancelot Empire, stood majestically in the centre. Surrounding it was a ten-metre circle of chaotically dug trenches and holes. Dirt had been thrown everywhere, as if a team of archaeologists had been digging for antiquities. The whole area had been turned upside down.

Looking closer, Han Shuo noticed a few more mounds of brown earth. The little skeleton and the earth elite zombie were busy demolishing a huge skeleton at the bottom of a huge trench. This skeleton was a dozen metres long, and each bone was as tall as a man. The skeleton was transparent like crystal, its surface reflecting bright light. Obviously, it was the corpse of a super rank creature.

The two fellows sensed Han Shuo's presence in the midst of their demolition. They excitedly waved their hands, which held bones even larger than their own bodies, to greet their master.

After that, the little skeleton picked up several bones with his hand and flew to the middle of the trench in a flash, dropping the bones into a deeply dug pit. He carefully placed them in the middle of the deep pit, as if the bones were precious treasures.

"Uh.... What have they been doing these past few days?" Han Shuo stood in the air and watched in amazement as he asked Gilbert.

Gilbert complained loudly, his face as sombre as one at a funeral, "Not long after you wrapped yourself in the cocoon, those two guys started up these antics. First, the little zombie went underground and retrieved a bone. He bragged about it to the little skeleton, and the little skeleton got excited too. The two of them together were just the greatest grave diggers, turning the whole place upside down. They seem to be collecting these bones, I don't know what they're doing!"

Han Shuo listened to Gilbert's lamenting tale, his eyes gleaming as he looked into the deep pit that held the white bones. His body moved slowly and approached the pit. He landed directly in it, picked up a bone from who knew what super creature and examined it carefully.

The bone was heavy in his hand, it seemed to weigh about a hundred kilograms. The bright white bone seemed to contain a strange presence. The skin that touched this bone felt a biting cold, and a sharp and cold killing air flowed from the bone into Han Shuo's body.

The earth elite zombie silently emerged from the earth beneath Han Shuo like a ghost, his hand clutching a white bone as if it were something incomparably precious. As it handed this bone to Han Shuo, its golden earth-coloured eyes danced with pride.

This surprised Han Shuo. He took the bone from the earth elite zombie and immediately felt an eternal dragon breath within. He could tell that this bone was heavier than the previous one. This bright white bone caused the air around it to make a faint whistling sound. He carefully felt it again and sensed some wind magic elements within.

At this point, Han Shuo could say with certainty that this bone had come from a wind dragon. He was sure because, as a necromancy mage, he had some understanding of the bones of magical creatures. Every mage who came from the necromancy department had to use bones in his experiments.

The bones of some super-rank magical creatures still contained some energy from when they were alive. They could be used to make powerful weapons. For example, the white bone staff that Belinda of the Church of Calamity had refined was also forged from the bone of a super-rank magical creature. This bone would also be helpful for Han Shuo to improve his necromancy magic.

While Han Shuo was deep in thought, the little skeleton also seemed to be trying to prove something. He brought several bones in front of Han Shuo and then tugged on his sleeve to attract attention.

Han Shuo was stunned as he looked at the little skeleton. He discovered two strange lights shining in its eyes. The little skeleton's left hand was holding a white bone when a wave of silver light suddenly began to circulate within the bone. The originally translucent bone quickly corroded, as if time had accelerated a thousand times. In an instant, the bone containing a strange presence had turned to ash and scattered to the wind.

After that, the little skeleton tossed its head back proudly. It picked up another bone and made a chewing motion towards Han Shuo. The little skeleton then threw the bone back into the pile of bones.

Han Shuo could understand without the little skeleton saying anything else. The little skeleton and the earth elite zombie could absorb the energy of the huge skeletons scattered across this land. Due to the unknown power of imprisonment here, the souls of the dead creatures couldn't disperse into the heavens and the earth after death, and instead, some energy remained in their bodies. Even after the flesh had decayed, the bones still contained some magical energy. For these two, this energy was a great tonic. No wonder they were so interested in playing grave robbers and had turned this place upside down.

Han Shuo smiled as he rubbed the little skeleton's smooth skull, then patted the Earth Elite Zombie's shoulder and said gently, "Hehe, you did well! How about this, you guys collect all the usable bones here!"

After being encouraged by Han Shuo, the earth elite zombie rubbed his head in genuine joy as he quickly sank back into the ground. In the blink of an eye, he appeared next to the ten metre long skeleton and began to dismantle the bones. As for the little skeleton, he waved his bony hands and danced around, happily sending Han Shuo a message to express his thoughts.

After focusing his attention for a moment, Han Shuo nodded and said understandingly, "So you think it's no problem for you and the Earth elite to take these bones. Wait until you collect them all in one pile, I'll help you!"

The little skeleton had sent a message that he wanted to take all of these bones to the other dimension for the benefit of the necromancy creatures in his camp. Han Shuo had been surprised for a moment after he'd understood, then he had expressed his agreement.

Upon receiving Han Shuo's approval, the little skeleton became extremely excited. His seven bone spurs shook, sending him flying through the air towards the Earth Elite Zombie. The two of them continued to dismantle the skeleton of the giant magical creature.

As Han Shuo watched closely, he noticed that the two weren't just taking anything from the ten metre long skeleton. Relying on their sensitivity to energy, they only took bones with energy and promptly threw away the ordinary ones.

The useless bones discarded by these two were scattered all over the trench-filled area. Obviously, they hadn't sat idly by and watched the two of them die over the past few days while Han Shuo was cultivating. This ten metre long skeleton seemed to be their last prey.

While the little skeleton and the earth elite zombie were still hard at work, Han Shuo's eyes were drawn to the tombstone with the name Ayermika Cotton engraved on it.

Only now did Han Shuo discover that this tombstone of the legendary figure of the Lancelot Empire had originally revealed only a small part of its splendour. Thanks to the trenches that the Earth Elite Zombie had carved, he'd raised the one metre high tombstone by three metres. From the top of the tombstone down, it seemed to get wider the deeper it was buried. It was shaped like a miniature hill, which confused Han Shuo.

Seeing Han Shuo focus his attention on Ayermika's tombstone, Gilbert seemed to remember something and suddenly shouted loudly, "Master, this engraved stone slab is really strange. The little Skeleton and Earth Elite Zombie asked me to try to move it, but we found that it's extremely heavy. I didn't expect that even my strength couldn't move it at all."

"Oh, this is a bit interesting!" This surprised Han Shuo greatly. As a member of the dragon race, Gilbert was still immensely powerful even in human form. Even if the stone tablet was twice as large, it shouldn't have been possible for Gilbert to not be able to move it.

That's why Han Shuo had flown to the tombstone as soon as he heard Gilbert's words. He reached out and touched the tombstone with a surprised face.

The gravestone was cold to the touch. Apart from the large, deeply engraved Ayermika letters, the whole gravestone was as smooth as a mirror. When Han Shuo ran his hand over it again, he didn't feel any discomfort or anything strange. This gravestone wasn't much different from an ordinary stone slab.

Taking a deep breath, Han Shuo tried to shake it and didn't even feel a tremor from the gravestone. It was just like Gilbert said, This stone was not easily moved.

"Come dig up this piece of land for me!" His mind raced, and Han Shuo waved his hand at the distant earth elite zombie.

The little skeleton and the earth elite zombie were too interested in their skeleton, this tombstone did not seem to have any appeal to them. Otherwise, with the Earth Elite Zombie's nature, it would have given this tombstone a try.

Following Han Shuo's instructions, the earth elite zombie immediately disappeared into the distant underground. After that, a tremor appeared beneath Han Shuo's feet. The earth and sand in which the tombstone was buried churned and stirred. The soft ground shook for a while before two cracks appeared beneath the tombstone.

The originally stable tombstone crashed down onto a high mound that had formed. The seven metre long tombstone was now completely exposed. Even its base, as wide as a tree root, could be seen.

"Hateful Zombie, he obviously has the ability, yet he deliberately lets this great dark dragon do all the carrying. What a lazy brat!" Gilbert watched as the Earth Elite Zombie followed Han Shuo's order to uproot the tombstone without much effort. At this point, he could not help but remember his previous experiences and complain loudly.

It was a pity that the Earth Elite Zombie simply didn't care for the noisy Gilbert. After finishing what Han Shuo had ordered him to do, he immediately returned to the side of the little skeleton and continued to dismantle the huge skeleton.

"Honoured Master, what are you going to do?" Gilbert asked, looking at the completely exposed tombstone.

"Let's have a look first!" Han Shuo answered casually. Then he approached the tombstone and looked at it carefully, gently tracing the tombstone with his finger while looking a little thoughtful.

An ordinary gravestone would not be seven metres long. Moreover, the material of this tombstone was unknown. Even with Han Shuo's current knowledge of all kinds of ores, he couldn't identify the material of the tombstone. Combined with its unexpected weight, the tombstone made him suspicious.

As his finger brushed gently across the tombstone, a piece of magical yuan appeared on his fingertip like static electricity. It was pressed into the tombstone with a push from Han Shuo's finger. Suddenly, a huge wave of dark magical element was reflected back into Han Shuo's mind through the magical yuan. This energy was astonishingly similar to the power of imprisonment everywhere in the Forbidden Land.

Han Shuo turned pale and hastily pulled his finger back. He looked at the brown tombstone in astonishment and muttered, "How strange, this power should have disappeared by now, could it be... the strange locking power that covered the entire Forbidden Land came from the late demigod Ayermika...?"

"What is it, Master?" Little Dark Dragon Gilbert couldn't hear Han Shuo's muttering, but he couldn't help but ask when he saw Han Shuo's surprised face.

Han Shuo stepped back a few steps and instructed, "Gilbert, step back a little bit, I need to blow up this tombstone and see what's inside.

Waiting for Gilbert to move on his command, Han Shuo also backed up about ten metres. He took out the Demonslayer Edge and infused it with magical yuan. After absorbing such a large amount of evil intent, even though the Demonslayer's Edge hadn't truly become an incomparable masterpiece, it already contained a formidable power.

A fierce sword light erupted directly from the Demonslayer's Edge after Han Shuo infused his magical yuan, heading straight towards the tombstone with a terrifying force.

A rumbling sound echoed incessantly. The large, seemingly indestructible tombstone was shattered into pieces by the impact of the Demonslayer's Edge amidst a splash of glorious light.

Shards of stone flew everywhere. When everyone had calmed down, the brown tombstone was shattered into many pieces. A magic staff appeared on the ground, three amethysts embedded in dense dark magic elements. Next to the staff was an ancient, handwritten notebook.