Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Thunder Pearl

Ghost spirits, strange tales—these often become nightmares in young people’s dreams. If you hear too many ghost stories, it’s not unusual to wake up startled at midnight.

But now it was midday, with the blazing sun high outside the cave. The terror before the boys’ eyes was no nightmare, but something truly happening right in front of them.

The fear of the black wolf had not yet arrived when they first encountered the strange white bones in the stone coffin.

Supernatural beings did indeed exist in the world, but no ghost-like things appeared in Xu Yan’s eyes. While the other boys trembled in fear, he rushed several steps toward the stone coffin, causing his companions behind him to anxiously exclaim in low voices.

“Xu Yan, don’t go!”

“There’s a ghost in the stone coffin!”

“Brother Yan, come back quickly, wuu wuu wuu…”

Xu Yan seemed not to hear his companions’ low calls. He rushed a few steps to the stone coffin. The already nervous boys suddenly saw the skeleton sit up, almost face-to-face with Xu Yan. Some covered their eyes, others exclaimed in shock again, and the scene became chaotic.

The suddenly upright skeleton indeed startled Xu Yan, but he immediately ignored it afterward.

The stone coffin had no lid, and the skeleton inside was merely a lifeless set of white bones. As for why it suddenly sat up, it was because of the wind.

At the bottom of the stone coffin, a strange large web was attached. Below the web was a pitch-black abyss of unknown depth. This stone coffin looked like a coffin, but in reality, it was similar to a well opening. The skeleton’s movement was caused by strong winds occasionally blowing up from the abyss below the well opening, making the skeleton appear to dance.

Not even afraid of real supernatural beings, how could Xu Yan care about a set of white bones? At this moment, he only wanted to find a way out because the black wolf was about to catch up.

Compared to the lifeless skeleton, the black wolf was the true danger.

At the end of the limestone cave, there was no path left—Xu Yan had realized this as soon as they arrived. Now discovering that the stone coffin was hollow, hope rose in Xu Yan’s heart again. However, the strange web in the coffin displayed another kind of eeriness, especially the bottomless abyss below the web. When Xu Yan leaned over the edge of the stone coffin to look down, for some unknown reason, a feeling of trembling rose in his heart, as if something terrifying was lurking in that endless darkness.

Tap, tap, tap.

The soft sound of four paws walking steadily grew closer. From the far end of the passage came a heavy smell of blood. The boys huddled in the corner, clinging to each other. Apart from trembling, only low sobbing sounds remained.

Hearing the sound of wolf steps meant the black wolf was near. Xu Yan grew increasingly anxious. Suddenly, as he raised his head from the stone coffin, he paused slightly. In his peripheral vision, something was swaying with the moving skeleton.

When Xu Yan looked carefully, he discovered three transparent pearls embedded deep in the skeleton’s ribcage, looking like burial treasures.

They were glass-like pearls, slightly larger than bird eggs, crystal clear. If one looked carefully, one would discover that inside the pearls, there seemed to be flowing water patterns, as if a cicada-wing-thin jade sheet wrapped around a clear spring.

What appeared one way to ordinary people would look different to Xu Yan. There were indeed water patterns surging inside the pearls, but besides the water patterns, Xu Yan also saw a streak of lightning!

‘Something strange!’ he thought.

When he saw the faint lightning flowing in the pearls, a great sense of danger suddenly rose in Xu Yan’s heart, and his hand holding the pearl trembled slightly.

Those were no ordinary pearls, nor burial goods. In Xu Yan’s view, these pearls should be extremely dangerous objects. He had never seen them before, much less knew how to use them.

The dangerous thunder pearls were firmly gripped by Xu Yan the next moment, then pulled out of the skeleton’s ribcage.

With the demon wolf about to arrive, these three thunder pearls became the last hope. Although he didn’t know how to use them, Xu Yan guessed that these thunder pearls should explode, though he had no idea how powerful the explosion would be.

Putting away two thunder pearls, Xu Yan pressed one thunder pearl hard against the edge of the stone coffin. Only when the thunder pearl was slightly deformed did he stop, then called out, “Tiezhu! Bring them over here!”

The boys had already been frightened by the skeleton. Xu Yan’s call helped restore some of their senses, especially Tiezhu. Seeing that Xu Yan was fine, he became less afraid of the skeleton in the stone coffin and quickly led everyone over. Little Xiaohua was too afraid to approach the skeleton, so he had to carry her over.

Roar!!!

A muffled roar came through the passage. The silhouette of the black wolf finally appeared before the boys. Blood still remained around its mouth, and bits of flesh could be seen swaying between the gaps in its fangs.

“Hide behind me!”

With a low shout, Xu Yan had the boys hide behind the stone coffin while he stood at its side. In his left hand, he tightly gripped a thunder pearl.

To devour a living person in such a short time—this black wolf’s appetite certainly couldn’t be satisfied by just a few boys. Now with no way to retreat, whether they could escape this disaster depended on whether the thunder pearl in his hand could explode.

The hand gripping the thunder pearl became motionless. That stillness signaled the extreme of force and its imminent release. Although his right arm was too numb to exert force, Xu Yan still had his left hand!

The black wolf’s footsteps stopped at the end of the passage. Its blood-red wolf eyes coldly stared at the young Taoist beside the stone coffin. The next moment, the black wolf’s fur suddenly stood on end, as if it had seen an even more terrifying beast.

Xu Yan was just an ordinary young man, not frightening at all. What caused the black wolf’s strange reaction was the thunder pearl Xu Yan was gripping in his hand.

In Xu Yan’s eyes, not only did the black wolf’s fur stand on end, but he saw that the wolf’s other head actually showed an expression of fear.

‘It works indeed!’ he thought.

During the standoff, hope arose in Xu Yan’s heavy heart. As long as the demon wolf was afraid, it meant the thunder pearl’s power was extraordinary.

The silent standoff didn’t last too long. After a few breaths, the black wolf made its decision. Suddenly exerting force, its form exploded into action. This demon wolf wanted to kill its opponent first, before he could react.

The thunder pearl in his hand did indeed make the demon wolf very wary, but Xu Yan was after all a mortal. ‘As long as I kill him, the thunder pearl will also become a dead object,’ the wolf thought.

Wolves were inherently cunning, not to mention a demon wolf.

As the black wolf pounced, Xu Yan moved even faster. Without thinking, he swung his left arm and shouted loudly, “Flying Locust!”

Whoosh!

His left arm, already gathering power, drew a half-moon arc over the stone coffin. The moment he released, light flashed, and that thunder pearl, under all of Xu Yan’s strength, flew out with a roaring sound.

The demon wolf, constantly wary of the thunder pearl, was staring intently at the pearl’s movements even while pouncing. When it saw the opponent throw the pearl, the wolf’s body suddenly moved sideways. The red light on its invisible wolf head flared up, using some mysterious power to change the direction of its attack.

To move sideways during a high-speed pounce was something no normal creature could do. Yet this strange scene truly happened in the limestone cave. The demon wolf, having avoided the thunder pearl, let out a ferocious low growl from both wolf heads. It decided not to leave any of these blood meals alive.

Although the demon wolf’s movement was strange, the thunder pearl thrown by Xu Yan was even stranger. It wasn’t aimed at the demon wolf, but directly at the stone wall beside it.

Smack!

Rumble rumble!!!

The lightning-like thunder pearl struck the stone wall, first distorting then shattering, and finally exploding completely. In the deep limestone cave, a muffled, terrifying thunder sound appeared.