"Yuli, what is this place? Have you ever heard of it before?"
As they walked along a rugged path, Ye Feng turned his head to ask Xue Yuli.
Earlier, they had discovered large amounts of skeletal remains, not just of humans, but also of various creatures Ye Feng couldn't identify.
Some of these skeletons were incredibly massive, like mountains...
"I don't know!"
Xue Yuli shook her head. "Since I was young, I've hardly heard anything about the end of the Super Sandstorm Zone. Even the older generation is reluctant to talk about it!"
"Occasionally, there are adventurers who come here to prospect for Arcane Origin Stones, and they say they've seen 'Yin soldiers'..."
She paused and added.
"Yin soldiers?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly, recalling the冥文神碑 (Mingwen Shenbei) that the Skeleton Guild had painstakingly searched for twenty years. It was said to be able to command Yin soldiers from the underworld.
"Speaking of which, Ye Feng, what's the situation between you, the Bald Gang, and the Skeleton Guild?"
"You haven't been in the Dunes for long, yet you've managed to provoke two of the three major forces in the Dunes simultaneously. And judging by their previous attitudes... they hate you immensely!"
At this moment, Jiang Shishan's confused voice sounded.
"Uh... it's a long story..."
Ye Feng scratched his head, not knowing how to explain the situation to Jiang Shishan.
"Big... Big... Big brother, front... in front..."
Suddenly, Xiao Xiao's trembling voice, filled with obvious fear, reached Ye Feng's ears.
"What's going on?"
The group was climbing a slope, with Xiao Xiao happily running at the forefront, standing at the crest.
Upon hearing Xiao Xiao's words, Ye Feng quickly moved forward to investigate.
"This..."
Seeing the scene at the bottom of the slope, Ye Feng's expression turned horrified, and fine beads of sweat broke out on his forehead.
"Hiss!~"
"Hiss!~"
Xue Yuli and Jiang Shishan, who followed closely behind Ye Feng, both gasped, their faces etched with indescribable shock and dread.
Spread before their eyes were countless, scattered, white bones, covering almost the entire area ahead, a horrifying sight...
"This... this is a mass grave... no, a... ten... ten thousand person grave?"
Looking at the mountain of human skeletons, Jiang Shishan swallowed hard, his speech becoming incoherent.
"This... a incredibly fierce battle must have occurred here... apart from bones, there are all sorts of weapons..."
"It... it might be an ancient battlefield..."
Overwhelmed by the shock, Xue Yuli's speech became disjointed.
"Yuli, Shishan, haven't you noticed how quiet this place is? It's eerily quiet!"
"Logically, with such dense vegetation, there should be birds chirping, insects buzzing, and even a lot of ferocious beasts... but..."
Ye Feng spoke then, his face also grim.
"Indeed. From the moment we arrived here, the entire area has been silent except for our voices. Not even mosquitoes or flies!"
Xue Yuli nodded in agreement.
"This area seems to have only plants... have all the animals disappeared?"
Jiang Shishan's brows furrowed as he chimed in.
As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Feng, Xue Yuli, and Jiang Shishan's expressions changed, and they scanned their surroundings warily.
The absence of insect and bird sounds in the lush forest likely meant a powerful predator was hunting, and they, by making noise, could have become prey...
"Big brother, there are animals over there... and over there... they're all keeping a certain distance from this area, as if they're afraid of something!"
Just as Ye Feng and the others were searching their surroundings without success, Xiao Xiao, who had been observing with binoculars for a while, spoke up.
"Let me see!"
Ye Feng took the binoculars and looked. Xue Yuli and Jiang Shishan also took out their binoculars and scanned the surroundings.
After a long while,
The three lowered their binoculars, exchanged glances, and saw the worry and caution in each other's eyes.
"This place is full of strangeness. Everyone be careful from now on!"
As he spoke, Ye Feng paid particular attention to Xiao Xiao, as the other two were clearly on guard.
"Mmm-hmm!"
Xiao Xiao looked at Ye Feng and nodded seriously, her Beretta M9 pistol already in hand.
Then, Ye Feng and his group continued to advance towards the direction where Xue Yuli had sensed the special water-element arcane energy.
...
"Big brother, there's a hyena over there!"
As the group walked along a path paved with bones, oppressively silent, and with an eerie atmosphere, Xiao Xiao's voice suddenly rang out.
Ye Feng followed Xiao Xiao's gaze and saw, near some rocks in the distance, a hyena about the size of a 300-pound fat pig.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, Ye Feng's eyes narrowed.
The large hyena was odd. It was clad in tattered human clothing, wore leather shoes on its hind legs with its toes poking out, and its head was not the pointed snout of a hyena but looked very much like a human's, a round, bald head.
"Hehehe~"
"Screech!~ Squish~!"
The large hyena was currently tearing into a human corpse, sucking blood and marrow, emitting strange cries that seemed both painful and satisfying.
"Heh heh!~~ Heh~!"
The large hyena seemed to sense that Ye Feng and the others were watching it. It suddenly raised its head and looked in their direction.
"Damn... what kind of hyena is this..."
Upon seeing the face beneath the bald head of the hyena, Ye Feng was greatly astonished.
Because it was a human face. Although it was covered in blood and looked ferocious, it was undeniably a human face.
Ignoring its hyena body, with that bald head, it would definitely be mistaken for a human...
"It's a Bald Hyena!"
Seeing this, Xue Yuli exclaimed in surprise.
"Bald Hyena? A species of hyena? Unique to the Dunes?"
Ye Feng looked at Xue Yuli with some suspicion.
"It's not a species of hyena, it's a member of the Bald Gang, nicknamed 'Bald Hyena.' He's someone who injected himself with a hyena enhancement serum!"
"When he uses his ability, he transforms into a giant hyena, and his head retains the baldness and facial features from before the transformation, hence the nickname!"
Xue Yuli waved her hand and explained.
As she spoke, her gaze remained fixed on the Bald Hyena about a hundred meters away.
"Jie jie~! Heh heh!~!"
"Kid, so you're here. I'll kill you!"
Suddenly, the bald man let out a couple of cackles, spoke human words, and then stomped hard with his hind legs, crushing a pile of bones, and lunged rapidly towards Ye Feng.
"Bang!"
A loud gunshot echoed. It was Ye Feng's Barrett M82A1 firing.
"Plop~ Bong~"
"Crack crack~ crack... ."
The Bald Hyena fell to the ground, crashing heavily and snapping piles of bones.
"Uh... bloo... blood... I want... want... blood..."
The Bald Hyena on the ground whimpered a few times, raising its head, before collapsing powerlessly and becoming still.
"What's going on?"
Ye Feng frowned and quickly ran forward to examine the Bald Hyena.
He had only hit its hind leg with that shot, not a vital area like the head or heart, so it shouldn't have been fatal.
"Ye Feng, don't touch the Bald Hyena. He might be carrying nuclear radiation!"
Before Ye Feng had taken a few steps, Xue Yuli's anxious voice rang out.
...