Chapter 590: Chapter 418: The Skeleton Night Battlefield
Watching the snowflakes continuously falling outside, many people recalled the days when they once lived underground.
At this moment, the temperature outside wasn’t extremely low, hovering around negative five degrees Celsius. The reason it felt so cold was because just the previous day, the outdoor temperature was still around twenty degrees. It was only after one night that the temperature suddenly dropped below freezing, catching everyone unprepared and causing such a sensation.
However, unlike the previous sudden temperature drop that led to heavy casualties, this time, although the drop was also abrupt, continual natural disasters had made everyone psychologically prepared. Moreover, even though the temperature seemed to have suddenly fallen by over twenty degrees, the lowest temperature was still within the range humans could endure, so there were hardly any incidents of people freezing to death last night.
Although Kyoto is located in the north, the underground Refuge Centers that had been built before the previous natural disasters were practically all destroyed due to the earthquake.
Dong Tianyu was not very clear about other places, but in Kyoto, when the Imperial Court rebuilt the city, they had already made preparations. Now, in various places across Kyoto, there are well-equipped underground Refuge Centers.
The three underground levels that Dong Tianyu had arranged during the construction of his house could also be considered a simple Refuge Center. After all, the House Registry took over the renovation, so it lacked nothing essential.
Just as Dong Tianyu was enjoying the snowy scene outside his window, those responsible for patrols did not go out for patrolling. Instead, drones were arranged to replace the Patrol Team.
The sudden snow caused severe damage to the crops in the Plantation Area near the outskirts of Kyoto; however, as most of the Plantation Area was planted with short-cycle vegetables, although it could be said that the entire effort was in vain, in reality, at most three months of effort were wasted.
Although the outdoor temperature did not continue to drop, the light snowfall that began last night had not stopped. This light snow might not look much, but persistent snowfall had blanketed the earth in a layer of white.
In fact, after confirming that a new round of natural disasters had begun, Dong Tianyu had intended to go out early to check the situation outside. But looking at the weather conditions now, he gave up his original plan.
Due to the snowfall, unmanned drone patrols were more convenient. The thick snow on the ground meant that if anything happened, there would definitely be traces left on the snow, making it easy for drones to observe.
For some unknown reason, the many drones patrolling the outskirts of Kyoto did not find any abnormalities.
Because the snowfall was light, most people thought that the snow would stop soon, but unexpectedly, this light snow continued for many days without stopping. Just when everyone thought the disaster would persist this way indefinitely.
One night, the quiet snowy surface suddenly began to bulge with small mounds, followed by snow-white skeletons breaking through the snow and crawling out from underneath.
At this time, those that emerged from under the snow varied in appearance, including human skeletons, ancient creature skeletons, and even those of the Bug Race.
If Dong Tianyu had seen this situation in the wilderness, he probably would have instantly understood that this disaster was an Undead Disaster.
These skeletons that broke through the snow, after crawling out, stood motionless in the snowfield. If someone who was unaware of the situation saw this scene, they might mistake it for someone having placed some skeletal specimens there.
Once the density of the skeletons that emerged reached a certain level within an area, a hint of flame-like Soul Flame suddenly appeared in their hollow eye sockets.
As the grey-white Soul Flame filled their eye sockets, the previously motionless skeletons suddenly moved, and then their bodies, like rusty machinery, jerkily but continuously twitched.
As the frequency of the bodily movements of these skeletons increased, it was as if a machine not running smoothly at startup was gradually becoming more efficient with use.
Once the Soul Flame fully controlled their skeletal frames, those skeletons that first completely mastered their own bodies suddenly began attacking the other skeletons nearby, which had not yet taken control of their own bodies.
Perhaps because smaller bodies were easier to control, those that first attacked other skeletons were predominantly human-shaped or those of small ancient creatures.
The method of attack by these skeletons was very simple. Since the other skeletons were still twitching uncontrollably, the aggressors would directly target the skull. If they could touch the Soul Flame in the eye sockets of the target skeleton, then the point of contact could absorb the Soul Flame of the other.
As soon as the Soul Flame in the attacked skeleton’s eye sockets was completely absorbed, not only would the Soul Flame reflected there vanish, but the entire skeletal frame would turn increasingly gray-white, disintegrating into ashes when the Soul Flame was gone.
The skeleton that absorbed the Soul Flame, whose own frame was originally grayish, began to glow. As it absorbed more and more Soul Flame, its appearance transformed toward the likeness of white jade. Perhaps this was the jade bone referred to in the ancient saying "Body of Gold and Bones of Jade."
