A world of bones - skeletons as far as the eye can see and nothing else.

The skeletons here were massive in size. Any single piece was already the size of a peak. They scattered across millions of miles. One could easily imagine how large they used to be when they were still alive.

They have seen the giants in the ancient courtyard prior to this. However, these ones seemed smaller compared to these skeletons.

Just one skeleton alone was shocking enough but there were thousands of them here - truly a magnificent scene.

They have never experienced something like this before so they became overwhelmed with fear; their mouth left agape for a long time.

“What… is this place?” One student dropped to the ground, trembling.

Li Qiye didn’t answer; his eyes focused on the bones ahead in a profound manner.

“This place?” The bull laughed: “Where else can it be but the Beast Garden? The resting place of all the sacred beasts.”

“You’re, you’re saying that the gigantic beasts in the garden will come here before death?” A different student asked.

“Hehe, it’s not that simple. Do you see any small skeletons in here? The wild boars and rhinoceros aren’t here.”

The group took a look around and sure enough, they couldn’t see anything small.

“When the melon is ripe, it falls.” The bull elaborated: “Not just anyone is qualified to die here. For example, don’t you always aim for the bigger fish when fishing and release the small ones?”

“Impossible.” One student said: “These gigantic beasts must have been unbelievably mighty, who could actually catch them?”

“Haha, that was only an example, but it’s a good one.” The bull laughed.

“No need to scare them, they haven’t reached the right level yet.” Li Qiye withdrew his gaze and shook his head.

“I’m simply telling them about the grim reality of this world. Let this be an early lesson for them.” The bull shrugged.

The students looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

This skeletal world made them feel quite strange. After all, their Academy of Light was shrouded by the light - a paradise for all living beings.

Li Qiye smiled and continued forward, only occasionally glancing above.

“Come over here! I found a pearl!” A student behind him found a jewel among a gap between the bones.

It was the size of a fist with a pink glow. This student excitedly told his friends.

Li Qiye looked over at the skeleton and said: “This is a truefire scaled serpent, a special morph. It obtained the grand dao with the light and created these pearls in its spine. Look from the eighteenth to the thirty-sixth vertebra, you will find many of them.” [1]

“Really?” The group became excited and rushed over. They tried their best to work together to move these gigantic bone pieces.

“Wow, you’re right, so many pearls!” Bright flames jumped up from the pearls below the vertebrae.

“Let’s take them all.” They pushed the bones away to reach the fiery pearls.

“We’re rich!” The group took them all and cheered.

However, they handed the pearls to Li Qiye since he was the one who gave them the hint.

“You guys can split them. The truefire pearls can expel coldness and poison, it’s very good to keep around.” Li Qiye didn’t want them.

These pearls were great treasures to the students but no different from pebbles in his eyes.

The young ones cheered again before dividing the pearls.

“Hehehe, I didn’t lie to you, right? I told you that I would bring you to a place with lots of treasures.” The bull heartily laughed.

The young ones agreed - this bull really didn’t trick them.

“See that mountain iron leopard over there?” Li Qiye smiled and pointed at another corpse: “Take some bones and cut deep to find the marrow essences. They are true metals, perfect for creating weapons.”

The young ones became excited right away.

“I guess just look around, the good stuff here exceeds your imagination. What you get depends on your luck.” He added.

The group ran over and cut down its tailbone. They drilled inside and saw marrow essences looking just like true metals.

They became as busy as ants, moving from one skeleton to another to find items.

These gigantic beasts used to be powerful. Though their vitality and essences have mostly dispersed, some precious parts were still left behind.

“Check out this tooth!” One student found a shiny tooth as sharp as a blade.

“Not bad, that’s a new tooth from a water-cutter alligator, tough and sharp.” Li Qiye commented.

“I found this really soft bone.” Another student found a jade-like bone inside one skeleton.

“Get over here, look at what I found!” One more carried over an oversized toe bone seemingly cast from gold.

These students crazily searched around for treasures in this skeletal world, no longer frightened by these dead behemoths.

Occasionally, Li Qiye would give them pointers on where to find treasures.

He himself took his time because ordinary treasures were useless to him. He would stop every once in a while and cut out a skull to take out a strange flame seed or cut out a spine to find a jade essence…

Very few items warranted him taking action. The rest only earned a passing glance.

“You brought me here to dig up trash?” Li Qiye leisurely asked the bull while the rest of the students were preoccupied.

The bull has been following him instead of treasure hunting.

“Haha, no, I just wanted to show you that Desolate Saint is not a good guy at all. Here is the perfect example. You’re also a big shot and should notice some clues already.” The bull laughed.

“I know far more about Desolate Saint than you.” Li Qiye glanced at the sky and smiled.

“Oh, so do you think he’s a saint or, hahaha, a devil in the darkness?” The bull asked.

“Very few people are truly born evil in this world.” Li Qiye said: “Everyone struggled in some ways. The saviors tried their best; others resisted the darkness; more tried to save themselves without giving a damn about their loved ones or anyone else…”

He paused for a moment here before continuing: “However, only a selected few persevered. That’s why, one can’t judge them on one action or just part of their past and determine their morality, whether they’re a saint or a devil. Desolate Saint had struggled to fulfill his aspirations. Unfortunately, life seldom goes according to plans.”

1. Does vertebrae sound too modern and scientific? But keep on using “bone” sounds bad too