In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

Chapter 994 Calling the Name

"Where's the path?!" A-Jiu's voice came from behind, filled with obvious horror. "I clearly remember the crevice being right here—I even carved a mark on the rock face—"

Her voice trailed off. Because she saw it too—the mark she had carved on the rock face was still there, but the crack had indeed disappeared. It wasn't blocked by rubble, nor by anything else, but rather the rock face itself had somehow reformed itself in a way that defied logic, like the healing of a living creature's wound.

Lin Qiye's pupils contracted slightly. He suddenly thought of something—the rock walls and bone layers he had encountered along the way, the huge skeletal fossils embedded in the rock walls, the bone structures that had maintained their complete form even after being weathered and eroded—he had always thought they were the remains of some ancient behemoth that had long been extinct. But what if the entire Canggu Mountain Range was essentially part of the body of this ancient beast?

The mountain range itself is the torso of an ancient behemoth that is awakening. Those "bone towers" are its erect scales or horns, those "bone layers" are its fossilized carapace, and those fluorescent blue "crystal clusters" are crystals formed from the sedimentation of its blood.

They had not stumbled into a mountain range inhabited by ancient beasts.

They stood on the body of the ancient beast the entire time.

The moment this idea took shape in his mind, the rock beneath his feet began to shake violently again. This time, the tremor had an extremely clear rhythm—the very rhythm of the heartbeat he had just felt. With each heartbeat, the entire mountain range would tremble, and the amplitude of the tremors grew larger and the intervals shorter with each one.

It's waking up faster.

"Head up the mountain!" Mo Yuan shouted sharply, his narrow sword already drawn, its azure blade tracing an arc in the dim air. "The rift is sealed off; we can only descend from the other side by crossing the ridge!"

Without a word, Ajiu turned and rushed towards a narrow crevice diagonally upwards. Her physical prowess as a scout was fully unleashed at this moment. Her feet stomped continuously on the almost vertical rock face, and she sprang up like a lynx, climbing several meters upwards in the blink of an eye.

Mr. Xun followed closely behind. Although he had coughed up blood, his instincts honed over many years of cultivation remained. He climbed upwards using both his hands and feet, and although he was not as fast as A-Jiu, he could barely keep up.

Mo Yuan covered the rear, his blade drawing defensive arcs behind him. Although he didn't know who he was defending against in this area enveloped by ancient beast bodies, his habits honed over years of life-or-death missions made him instinctively choose the most vigilant stance.

Lin Qiye climbed upwards from the very edge of the group. He gripped a bone spike protruding from the rock face, using it as leverage to swing upwards, while glancing down at the same time.

Then he saw a scene that made his pupils shrink.

The "Mr. Xun" figure, nailed to the rock wall below, was being slowly swallowed by it. It wasn't sinking into the ground, nor being dragged away by anything; rather, the rock wall itself seemed to come alive. The black rock layers on its surface transformed into a substance somewhere between solid and semi-liquid, gradually absorbing the mutilated body into its depths. The black bone spurs on his limbs were retracting inch by inch, like some creature withdrawing its claws.

At the last moment, the monster suddenly raised its head and stared intently at Lin Qiye with its fluorescent blue eyes.

Then it was completely swallowed up by the rock wall, leaving not even a trace of fluorescent blue light, as if it had never existed.

Lin Qiye withdrew his gaze, exerted force with his arms, and his body shot upwards again, catching up with the group ahead.

The four climbed the steep rock face and finally crossed the ridge. The summit was relatively flat, covered with a thick layer of gray ashes, with a few broken, huge bone spikes scattered sparsely. Looking down from here, they could see the vast wasteland on the other side of the Blue Bone Mountains, the gray layer of ashes stretching all the way to the horizon.

But no one felt at ease.

From this height, they finally saw the entire Bone Tower.

Previously, when they were below the ridge, due to the terrain and fog, they could only see the lower and middle parts of the Bone Tower—the enormous spiral-shaped Bone Tower rising from the center of the basin, its body inlaid with fluorescent blue crystal clusters, its top hidden in the clouds. But now, standing on the ridge, with their view extending beyond the fluorescent blue basin, they could finally see the true top of the Bone Tower.

A swirling, dark gray cloud was slowly rotating at the top of the bone tower, forming a massive funnel-shaped vortex. From the center of the vortex emanated a deep blue light that did not belong to this world. This light flowed down the surface of the bone tower like liquid, staining every bone fissure and making the entire tower look like a purgatory torch hanging upside down from the sky.

The tower itself is writhing.

It's not a hallucination.

At the same time, I saw that the surface of the bone tower, with its dense network of bone holes, was opening and closing at an extremely slow but undeniably happening pace. Each opening and closing emitted a wisp of fluorescent blue mist, which swirled around the tower and coalesced into countless twisted and ever-changing shapes, like countless faces or countless hands.

At the base of the Bone Tower, the basin covered with thick clusters of fluorescent blue crystals was rising. A huge crack appeared in the ground at the center of the basin, from which fluorescent blue light surged forth, turning half the sky a deep blue. Something was slowly rising from that crack—not a creature like the giant bone-armored worm, but something far more colossal and indescribable.

It hasn't fully revealed itself yet; it has only peeked out from underground, yet it has already caused the entire mountain range to tremble.

That's a kind of horn.

Or it could be a claw.

Or some other unnamed organ.

Its entire body was dark gold, covered with a layer of scales thicker than any bone armor he had ever seen. Each scale was engraved with intricate patterns, not runes or array patterns, but a kind of extremely ancient natural vein that had never been recorded in any book, flickering with the pulse of the scales. Its size was unbelievable—the small portion that was exposed above ground was already wider than the diameter of the bottom layer of the bone tower.

The resonance within Lin Qiye reached its peak the moment he saw that dark golden body.

He felt the power of the Blood Demon within him ignite, every wisp of energy boiling violently. His blood was churning, his soul was trembling, and the gate deep within his body, which had only recently been breached, showed signs of loosening again under the impact of that resonance.

That resonance was no longer just a simple vibration—it became a sound. A deep, ancient sound, carrying endless vicissitudes and some indescribable sorrow, slowly echoed in his mind.

He didn't understand what the voice was saying.

But he understood the emotion in that voice.

It is calling.

It is calling a name.

That name is—

"Forest--

seven--

Ye—