When system cheat becomes rampant!

Ri An spewed out Yellow Springs Water that was apparently also quite formidable, able to clash head-on with the red tentacles powered by Heavenly Connection, causing two terrifying presences to shake heaven and earth as they trembled through the world.

Boom!

Ri An and Brain Deficient, both relying on external forces, were also affected by this powerful presence, spitting out blood as they were thrown backwards by the equally matched forces!

Brain Deficient and Ri An both slammed heavily onto the ground, blasting a huge crater in the earth, their bodies mangled by the blast.

Brain Deficient was missing half his body, only black tentacles writhing, while Ri An's one wing was completely charred. Ye Ji was also caught in the blast and was sent flying into a mountain and out of sight.

—

"Woof woof woof!"

"Awoo awoo awoo!"

Xiaohei and Erha were grinning and laughing loudly.

Just now, Xiaohei had been responsible for using two bricks to delay Ri An and Ye Ji, while Erha controlled the branches on both sides of the valley, coordinating with Xiang Beifei's breath soil to strike Ghost Mustache of Remnant Visage head-on!

Xiaohei, who was always mischievous, had the most tricks up his sleeve. While delaying the two Meat-Winged Monsters with bricks, he didn't forget to pick up a section of black tentacle that had been chopped off, wrapping it around the hilt of the holy sword, pretending to be Ghost Whiskers controlling it, causing the two Meat-Winged Monsters to mistake it for the Ghostly Visage intervening.

With Erha's assistance, Xiang Beifei had used the trees to conceal the breath soil tubes early on. The Ghost Whiskers had thought it was Ri An and Ye Ji of the Moon God Race attacking and didn't resist much, which allowed the scorching magma to wipe out two-thirds of them!

The whole process lasted only a mere few minutes. If it weren't for Xiang Beifei not wanting to engage Brain Deficient head-on, he definitely would've taken more time to eliminate the rest of the Ghost Whiskers.

The Demon Tentacle Race and the Moon God Race were only temporary allies, with a relationship as fragile as paper. Even when meeting face to face, they would mock each other, so a little instigation at this time would certainly lead to a falling out.

Xiang Beifei couldn't care less what would happen if the Meat-Winged Monsters and the Ghost Whiskers started fighting each other. He wasn't very concerned, hoping for the best that they would both suffer losses, which would leave him in peace.

At this moment, they were inside a lava cave. While Brain Deficient hadn't reacted, Xiang Beifei had rescued the skeletons that had been battered to pieces. A group of skeletons sat uncertainly beside the magma, looking at Xiang Beifei.

These skeletons looked quite pitiful at the moment, most missing half their bodies, and a few had only a skull left with no body, resting on the skeletons of their companions. Temporarily using their companion's skeletons, it seemed as if one skeleton had grown two heads.

"These are your bones."

Xiang Beifei threw their fallen bones onto the ground, which scattered all over.

Seeing the bones on the ground, the skeletons' eyes lit up with flames, but they hesitated about whether to pick them up and turned to the White Flame Skeleton for advice.

The group of skeletons was still very disciplined. Having just encountered an ambush by Ghostly Visage, the situation was quite dire, so they asked for White Flame Skeleton's opinion before acting.

The leading White Flame Skeleton's flames flickered in its eye sockets as it realigned its disjointed bones. Staring at Xiang Beifei while reattaching its bones, the flickering flames appeared to be conveying something.

"I don't know what you're saying."

Xiang Beifei was pondering how to communicate with the skeletons because they communicated through the frequency of flames in their eye sockets. Different flashing frequencies of flames might represent different meanings, which was akin to Morse code without a key to understand.

He was getting a headache. Why did he always have to worry about language issues?

The White Flame Skeleton's flaming aura still cloaked its body, wary of Xiang Beifei. It was probably because it had seen Ghost Whiskers disguised as humans and didn't trust Xiang Beifei so easily.

"I am human, not Ghostly Visage—not from the Demon Tentacle Race."

Xiang Beifei clarified his identity, then added after a moment, "I saw the Demon Tentacle Race's Brain Deficient set a trap for you guys, so I just took the opportunity to lend a hand."

He walked to the mouth of the cave and waved his hand, and the breath soil instantly filled in the cave entrance to prevent Brain Deficient and the others from chasing after them.

The White Flame Skeleton blinked twice.

Xiang Beifei didn't understand what it meant and said, "I don't know if you can understand my words, but I will assume you do—I feel like the whole world understands me. Those guys from the Demon Tentacle Race deliberately placed our human bones in the valley to lure you in."

The White Flame Skeleton's eyes flickered again.

"You make it very difficult for me to communicate."

Xiang Beifei spread his hands. Youmong, although only able to say two words, could still communicate without barriers through intonation, unlike the White Flame Skeleton.

"I need to learn your Flame language first, so our communication will be a bit more convenient. Please cooperate with me, and if you understand, give a nod. Then, use the Flame language to indicate what 'you are handsome' means; don't worry, I learn languages very quickly."

Xiang Beifei said with earnest hand gestures.

He wasn't even sure why he was gesturing while speaking, perhaps he felt that communicating with the skeletons was like using sign language: frustrating when the other side was merely blinking flames without sound.

But at that moment, the flames in the eye sockets of the White Flame Skeleton flowed down from the skull, converging into a circle at the jaw, and then the flames roared to life, forming a voice.

"I understand what you're saying."

A dull and hoarse voice came from the White Flame Skeleton's jaw.

The voice was purely a result of flames producing a booming sound, and though it sounded rumbling and was not very standard, it was completely understandable.

"Eh? You can speak like this?"

Xiang Beifei found it utterly astonishing, as it was the first time he had seen the control of flame and air friction to create human speech. Strangest of all, the White Flame Skeleton spoke as if it was very practiced, making it sound quite realistic!

"If you can speak the human language, then that's great," Xiang Beifei heaved a sigh of relief, as it saved him the trouble of learning Skeleton language.

"Are you a human?" the White Flame Skeleton asked.

"Yes, from the Jiuzhou continent," Xiang Beifei nodded.

"Jiuzhou continent!"

The White Flame Skeleton's eyes flickered again, the flames becoming noticeably brighter.

Upon hearing the words "Jiuzhou continent," the flames in the eye sockets of the other skeletons also flickered violently, as if they found these words very interesting.

"You truly come from the Jiuzhou continent?" the White Flame Skeleton asked again.

"I'm a human. If not from Jiuzhou continent, where else could I come from?" Xiang Beifei said.

After exchanging glances with its companions, the White Flame Skeleton asked after a moment, "Can I verify it?"

"How will you verify?" Xiang Beifei asked.

The White Flame Skeleton extended a bony finger, with a tuft of flame appearing on it, and then placed that fiery finger on Xiang Beifei's heart.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The flame on the White Flame Skeleton's finger pulsed with the rhythm of Xiang Beifei's heartbeat.

The White Flame Skeleton soon spoke up, "You have a heartbeat!"

"No kidding, I'm human."

Xiang Beifei felt it was absurd. Wasn't having a heartbeat normal? Didn't desolate beasts also have heartbeats?

"We welcome humans here!"

The White Flame Skeleton's voice had noticeably changed in tone, sounding somewhat excited.

The other skeletons also seemed excited, hesitantly surrounding Xiang Beifei then extending their fingers to poke at his skin, even giving him a pinch.

"Why does everything feel so strange?"

Xiang Beifei felt uncomfortable all over, as if he was a rare treasure being observed by these skeletons, who seemed very interested in the flesh growing on his skeletal frame.

These creatures' interest in him was unsettling – hopefully, they weren't coveting the bones in his body?

Xiang Beifei was aware that these creatures specialized in collecting human bones to augment their own body parts.

But he wasn't really worried; according to Brain Deficient, these skeletons should have no ill will towards humans.