Chapter 3351: Chapter 3351: Bone Cave

Zen spoke with Pompeo a while longer and asked him to cooperate with Elizabeth.

Pompeo wanted to return to his hometown and so demonstrated absolute willingness to do whatever was needed of him.

Now that this problem was solved, Zen and Libby decided to head for Stage Thirty-one.

Before they took their leave, Elizabeth stopped them, “Wait a moment.”

“What's the matter?” Zen asked with curiosity, turning to look at Elizabeth.

“The Land of Bone Tribulation is way more dangerous than the Soul City. I can't go with you, but just... be careful...” Elizabeth said tenderly.

Her original plan was to escort Zen all the way to Stage Thirty-two, after sneaking through the Blooming Jade Stage. He was inexperienced and having Elizabeth at his side would certainly help him in avoiding many dangers.

However, she had never expected her plan to have such a huge flaw. As a result, she would actually have to stay in charge of the entire Blooming Jade Stage.

The sudden change of the situation was difficult for her to adapt to and left her feeling somewhat overwhelmed.

“Don't worry about me, you still need to worry about the Element Spirit race's retaliation. They won't let you off easily,” Zen warned.

With Pompeo's strength, he could defeat every enemy in Stage Thirty, but who knew what strange methods the Element Spirit race would use against him?

Zen and Libby then walked straight through the star ring of the human race. As they crossed the threshold, they transformed into two rays of white light and shot upwards to the higher stage.

The Sanskrit Light Stage, Stage Thirty-one of the Other Shore, was said to be the most mysterious of them all.

Zen opened his eyes once they had entered the Sanskrit Light Stage and saw nothing but blank whiteness. He was soon surprised to discover he was in a narrow cave that was white in every direction he looked. It was certainly strange on the eyes, and there appeared to be a special aura around as well.

An aura familiar to Zen. It reminded him of the bottom of the chaos. This feeling he got now was very similar to the aura in the prison created by the Chaos Ancient God.

“What is this cave?” Zen asked looking around and taking a few steps forward.

“It's no ordinary cave. This is a bone cave,” answered Libby. This might have been her first time here, but she had done her research beforehand and thus knew more about this stage than Zen. “In fact, we're inside a very large bone right now.”

“Inside a bone?” Zen's astonishment didn't last long; his eyes widened and he looked around again as he soon understood why he sensed the familiar aura of wild bones.

Generally speaking, the bones were empty inside. Some gigantic creatures did have large openings within their bones, and these were enough for smaller creatures to move around freely.

He walked up to the wall of the cave and reached out to touch it. It felt cool on his palm; it was indeed the touch of bones.

“It is said that all paths in the entire Sanskrit Light Stage are formed by similar bone caves to this. The world outside the caves is a deadly forbidden area, similar to the upper ice field in Stage Thirty,” Libby said smiling joyfully.

She had once believed quite firmly that the upper ice field was a forbidden area. But then she had followed Zen across it twice! It was inconceivable. She now thought that no so-called 'forbidden area' existed in the world at all.

“You mean we will travel through the Sanskrit Light Stage in these bone caves? How do larger creatures pass through these caves? It seems it would be impossible for them,” Zen asked lost in curiosity. ṛÀ₦о฿Ε𐌔

It was no problem for creatures of human size, and even creatures twice the size of a human would still be able to pass through these bone caves, even if only barely.

But for enormous creatures like those of the Abyss Spirit race, if they were to enter a cave of this size in the Sanskrit Light Stage, they would either stretch the caves dreadfully or get crushed in the narrow space.

And it would only be worse for a member of Colossus race. If Pompeo were with them, his life would have come to a grim end.

“There are larger bone caves for them,” Libby explained cheerfully.

Elizabeth had been their guide in Stage Thirty since she was most familiar with the area. Even if Libby knew anything about the places they went, she had virtually no chance to show it.

Now that Elizabeth was no longer with them, Libby felt the important mission of guiding Zen fell to her.

“What? Larger bone caves?” Zen exclaimed in shock, “A space this large inside a bone is astonishing enough. If there are caves massive enough for the Abyss Spirit race, how large will those bones actually be? What sort of creatures would have such gigantic bones?”

Libby shrugged and said, “I haven't found any information relevant to that in the documents.” She patted the wall of the bone cave and added, “I don't know what kind of creature's bone this is either. Let's go now.”

Zen nodded and followed her into the depths of the cave.

The entire bone cave was dead straight for the around a thousand feet they advanced. But then, a sharp bend revealed itself before them, with a bulging joint between the two bone caves.

Zen looked at the corners of the walls as they made their way through the joint. He hoped to get a glimpse of the forbidden area Libby had mentioned. But the joint had no gaps at all, and he couldn't see anything beyond the walls.

This next bone was also a thousand feet long. Once they had passed through the second bone cave, they came to an open space. It was a huge bone cavity which connected with other bone caves.

They entered the bone cavity and Zen glanced around before asking, “There is more than one path. Which one should we take?”

The bone cavity was connected to four other bone caves creating four different paths. It appeared the entire Sanskrit Light Stage was an incredibly large maze.

“The second one on the left,” answered Libby without hesitation.

“How do you know?” Zen asked curiously.

“From the records of the predecessors. Didn't you try learning about the higher stages before entering the Other Shore?” Libby asked.

Knowledge of the higher stages of the Other Shore was kept confidential to the public, but it was open to the disciples of the Oneness Sky Palace, especially the elites in the Land of Sword Grief.

Not only was Libby a genius with extraordinary talent, but she worked hard to learn anything she could as well. She had already done her research about stages to come before entering the Soul City.

Zen smiled awkwardly and said, “Apologies for my carelessness.”

“That's all right. I'll lead the way,” Libby said walking to the front and entering into the second bone cave on the left.

They walked along this path a while before coming to another bone cavity. Again, Libby didn't hesitate in choosing the second cave on the left. She then turned to explain to Zen, “There's actually more than one correct path leading to the Land of Bone Tribulation. This is the shortest recorded path...”

As she spoke, they suddenly heard a rustling coming from the depths of the cave ahead of them.

The caves were hollow so even the smallest sound would echo through and travel a long distance. They listened carefully and soon realized there were creatures running towards them.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Several figures emerged ahead. The one at the front yelled at them, “Run! Humans, run for your lives! There are Ghost-claw Worms coming!”

“Is that an Ear Mouse?” Zen recognized the voice and then saw the shapes of five Ear Mice clearly.

Libby's joy fled at the creature's warning. “Oh no, we should run now!” she exclaimed.

Zen didn't fully understand what was coming but he could tell that Ghost-claw Worms were formidable enemies from Libby's reaction. He quickly turned and followed her out of the bone cave.