Chapter 009: The Dodge Family

“You!” Seeing one of his companions beaten to death, Karu was utterly enraged! His eyes turned red, and red light emanated from his entire body. Even the battle axes in his hands glowed with a blood-red hue, fueled by an energy that was either rage or combat qi. Forgetting that Sullen had effortlessly defeated a skilled dwarf just moments ago, Karu swung his axes at Sullen.
“Kill all these dwarfs!” Seeing Karu in a frenzied state, Sullen frowned slightly and signaled everyone to attack. He bent his legs slightly, then pushed off forcefully. The axe in his right hand, infused with red energy, resembled a red sun. With a swing, a red lightning-like strike rushed toward Sullen.
“Sunblade! Who are you? How do you possess the Sunblade?” Faced with such formidable power, Sullen was finally astonished.
The Sunblade! One of the most famous divine weapons among the dwarves. In fact, aside from the Dwarf King and their skills in crafting and mining, the Sunblade was their most renowned artifact. Even the Dwarf King’s weapon paled in comparison!
By infusing combat qi into it, the Sunblade could automatically unleash lightning attacks according to its owner’s will, with the power increasing with the user’s skill level. With this weapon, a warrior could instantly become a master of both martial arts and magic!
The Sunblade didn’t require any incantations to unleash lightning, meaning there was no delay in casting it. Moreover, it relied entirely on combat qi to activate the lightning—truly a divine weapon every warrior dreamed of!
The lightning attack took the form of red bolts, with the Sunblade determining their color based on the user’s combat qi attributes. Seeing the red lightning streaking toward him too quickly to dodge, Sullen created a protective barrier in front of him. The red lightning struck the barrier.
With a loud boom, the barrier was shattered. Before the red lightning could dissipate, another bolt hit Sullen.

Then, with a loud crack, black smoke erupted all over Suren’s body, and his hair stood on end from the lightning strike!
“Blazing Axe, how did you come to possess the Blazing Axe?” Ignoring his own safety and still struck by the already weakened lightning spell, Suren, such a skilled warrior, was barely affected and continued to ask about the origin of the Blazing Axe with vigor.
“My name is Karu, Dodge Karu. Now that I’ve said that, you should know why I have the Blazing Axe, right?” Karu said with a smile.
“Very good, very good. I never expected that today I would actually meet the heir of the Dodge family, and moreover, this heir is holding the Blazing Axe of old!” Suren said slowly, emphasizing each word.
It felt as if a person filled with deep hatred suddenly saw their enemy, desperate to bite off pieces of flesh from them!
“Hahahahaha! I can’t believe it! Truly unbelievable! The once-great Dodge clan, the most powerful among the dwarves, has now fallen to such a state—the clan’s treasure, the Blazing Axe, is now in the hands of a mere Holy Rank warrior!” Suren laughed loudly.
“Suren, what are you talking about? Why bring our Dodge family into this?” Karu shouted.
“Yes, your Dodge clan was so glorious once. Think of my grandfather, my father, even my great-grandfather—all died at the hands of your clan’s Blazing Axe. I never expected to encounter it again today! Perhaps it’s time to settle the centuries-old grudge between our two families!” Suddenly, Suren’s eyes rolled back, and a long whip appeared in his hand!
He swung the whip in the air, and a crisp sound came from its tip.
As he moved the whip again, it coiled continuously in the air. At its tip was a very sharp metal point, resembling a snake’s fang, coiling around the whip’s body as it stared intently at Karu ahead, ready to strike a fatal blow at any moment!
Looking at the mountain of bones beneath his feet, Du Fan sighed. So many bones—how many people must have died! With bones everywhere, there must be tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions!
Just as Du Fan was roughly estimating how many people must have died to produce such a large pile of bones, ripples suddenly arose beneath the bone mountain where they stood.
There was still life inside the bone mountain!

What’s meant to happen will happen. After entering the Divine Ruins, the group lost all hope of luck! With a mortality rate of over 90%, they were constantly reminded that this adventure would be a difficult journey—one filled with dangers alongside rewards. A single mistake could cost them their lives, leaving them to join the countless bones piled up here in years to come. If extremely lucky, like the Dwarf King and that beast lord, they might even ascend to godhood and become the supreme beings on this continent! The bone mountain beneath their feet trembled slightly, and as time passed, the tremors grew more intense. It seemed as though something was trying to emerge from within—the bones on the surface kept sliding down. As the surface bones fell, more bones surged out from within, just like water boiling over and contents tumbling out. To the astonishment of everyone present, eight skeletons finally emerged from the mountain of bones. These eight skeletons looked exactly alike on the surface! Their bones were completely different from those in the mountain—they were as clear as snow and as smooth as jade! As soon as the eight skeletons appeared, the jawbone in the middle one’s mouth moved, emitting sounds with a strong metallic tone. No one there could understand those sounds. As those metallic noises continued, the skeletons moved faster. Walking on top of the bone mountain, they moved with agility as if walking on flat ground. Perhaps because they hadn’t seen living people in a long time, or maybe they were always like this, but upon seeing Du Fan and his group, a faint green light began to glow in their deep, pale eye sockets. With the appearance of that green light, a thin layer of green glow covered their entire bodies. “Poison gas! Be careful! Don’t let these skeletons scratch your skin or injure your muscles! That green light is the corpse poison formed by these skeletons absorbing corpse energy over time!” Du Fan shouted loudly upon seeing the green glow on the eight skeletons.

With Du Fan’s shout, the three magicians unleashed their magic simultaneously. In this mountain of bones, the natural energy was very weak. Fortunately, all three were dual-elemental magicians—skilled not only in the natural magic related to the elves but also in dark magic. At Du Fan’s command, three streams of black flames shot toward the three skeletons in the middle.

After the black flames passed and died down, those skeletons showed no signs of damage at all and continued to march boldly toward Du Fan and his group.

A sixth-level dark magic spell cast by a saintly-ranked magician had absolutely no effect on these skeletons!

“Magic doesn’t work! These skeletons are immune to magic!” Bashaa shouted loudly.

As soon as he finished speaking, Bashaa stepped forward with his axe, which had once wounded a golden dragon, heading straight toward the horde of skeletons. Seeing Bashaa move forward, Moses and Du Fan also grasped their weapons and advanced toward the eight skeletons.

Upon seeing three living beings approaching them, the skeletons’ jawbones trembled as if they hadn’t eaten anything good in a long time and suddenly encountered delicious food—their excitement was evident.

Behind Du Fan, Moses, and Bashaa, arrows in red, yellow, blue, green, and purple were quickly nocked on their bows. Before Du Fan and his companions could engage the skeletons, the arrows were shot at lightning speed toward the eight skeletons!

Clanging sounds filled the air as the skeletons were knocked around.

Even a saintly-ranked archer could only knock them around! Just that! After shaking for a while, the skeletons regained their balance and continued charging at Du Fan, Moses, and Bashaa!

The areas hit by the arrows only left slight marks.

“Karu, back then, your Dodge family inflicted suffering on my ancestors. Today, I’ll return it all to you,” Suren said gracefully, waving his long whip, which spiraled elegantly through the air.

“Perhaps your ancestors said the same thing back then, only to be killed by my ancestors. What’s the point of saying such things now?” Karu replied.

“The past is the past; the present is now. Take the present as an example—can your Dodge family compare to what it used to be? Back then, in that dwarf underground city, even those mountain dwarfs dared not disobey the orders of your Dodge family. What about now? Ever since the Dwarf King appeared, your Dodge family has been on the decline.” Suren continued to wave his long whip, which kept taking on different shapes in the air.

“Haha, even if our Dodge family has declined, we’re still better than a lone wolf like you! Look at yourself—your great-grandfather, grandfather, and father were all killed. You’re completely alone. Why not join our Dodge family? At least here, you won’t suffer from hunger or cold.” Karu suddenly burst into laughter.

“Hmph, your Dodge family—how many dwarfs and beings in the realm of magical beasts even remember the Dodge clan anymore? If your clan were truly prosperous, why would they hand over a sacred artifact like the Sun Axe to someone like you, a Saint-class being?” Suren said with disdain.

“Even if I’m just a Saint-class being, as long as I have the Sun Axe, I’ll surely slay you with it today! I’ll cut off your head to enhance the fame of this Sun Axe in my hands! From what you say, I know you must be from the Ice Snake clan among the magical beasts! I never expected that another Saint-class magical beast from your Ice Snake clan could transform into a human! Come on, stop talking—take this axe!” With that, Karu combined his two axes, and a more intense red lightning bolt shot straight at Suren!