Skull... Several members of the "Old Task Force" had seen many deaths and corpses. They wouldn't panic, fear, or tremble at the sight of a human skull being unearthed.

At the same time, a thought flashed through their minds, and they all turned their gazes to the other side of the tree roots.

There lay a fragmented skeleton and a name tag identifying the person as "Du Shaochong."

"Could this be his head?" Long Yuehong whispered.

In the dim environment, such a guess made him feel that the wind had become rather cold.

The "Old Task Force" saw the fragmented skeleton buried in a pit by a relic hunter at the ruins of the Swamp 1 relic laboratory, and the remaining part was under the old locust tree in Linhe Village?

For Jiang Baimian, this was unexpected, yet reasonable.

She pondered for a few seconds and said:

"This place corresponds to the Buddhist holy land of 'Zhuang Sheng.' Digging up the corpse of His incarnate body is actually quite reasonable."

"What's unreasonable is that we happened to obtain the other half of His incarnate body's corpse not long ago, in another place."

"Perhaps, that's why the person behind the scenes hired relic hunters to bury these bones in the ruins of the Swamp 1 relic laboratory," Bai Chen said in a speculative tone.

Shang Jianyao laughed:

"Want us to return the fragments to their original state, no, complete Du Shaochong's corpse?"

Without waiting for others to respond, he looked at his three teammates and said in a sinister tone:

"At that time, perhaps something very terrifying will happen."

Long Yuehong couldn't help but shiver when he heard this.

"Dig up this entire area first, find all the bones, and see if we can piece together a complete corpse," Jiang Baimian calmly responded, unaffected by the "ghost story."

"I'm just afraid..." Shang Jianyao drawled.

Long Yuehong instinctively asked:

"Afraid of what?"

Shang Jianyao smiled:

"It would be interesting if we couldn't put together a complete corpse."

"That means what we got before was fake," Long Yuehong scoffed.

Shang Jianyao suddenly changed his tone:

"What if there's one or two extra bones?"

"..." Long Yuehong didn't know how to answer for a moment. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the possibilities hidden in this phenomenon were exceptionally terrifying.

Shang Jianyao immediately became smug:

"The correct answer is that missing bones may be due to wild dogs passing by and carrying some away, while extra bones may be because this place was originally a graveyard, and you can dig up more bones if you keep digging."

Jiang Baimian, who had originally intended to listen to this guy's strange ideas to gain inspiration, could no longer maintain her composure and urged:

"Hurry up and dig! It's getting dark!"

Shang Jianyao then bent down and, together with Long Yuehong, began to dig up the soil under the old locust tree in sections, illuminated by Bai Chen's flashlight.

Jiang Baimian guarded the surroundings.

In the next ten minutes or so, based on the spot where Shang Jianyao dug up the skull, one white bone after another was successively found around it.

They were originally buried together.

"That's it." After another while, Shang Jianyao straightened up and said to Jiang Baimian, "Check if the number and position of the bones are correct."

Jiang Baimian, with her background as a scientific researcher, had sufficient knowledge of human anatomy. She had already been sensing the surroundings while using the flashlight to count and identify the unearthed human bones. Now, she spent a few minutes to confirm again and said:

"The number and position are correct."

"It really is the same one," Bai Chen whispered with a sigh.

Long Yuehong followed up, saying:

"It seems that this is really Du Shaochong's corpse."

A complete corpse.

Shang Jianyao laughed once again:

"Maybe these were also buried here just a few days ago."

"There are no signs of new burial," Jiang Baimian denied his "guess."

Shang Jianyao immediately changed his tune:

"A few years ago."

Jiang Baimian ignored him, looked around the entrance of Linhe Village, which was already shrouded in darkness, and frowned slightly:

"We've collected all the bones, but we haven't triggered any anomalies..."

Leader, do you really want to trigger anomalies? Long Yuehong was startled.

Shang Jianyao immediately became excited, glanced at the pale and dim moon in the sky, and said:

"Maybe we have to piece this corpse together, restore it to human form."

Ever since Jiang Baimian pointed out that this was the corpse of an adult, not a child, Shang Jianyao had stopped associating it with Xiao Chong and talking about respecting the dead.

Long Yuehong subconsciously wanted to say "Don't be rash," but he also felt that he might miss something if he didn't try.

Didn't some people go to great lengths to "send" the remaining bones to their team in the hope of causing some trouble?

"Wait until dawn to try?" Bai Chen offered a mature and prudent suggestion.

Although, in their experience, anomalies had nothing to do with whether it was dark or not, or whether there was sunlight, the quality of the environment and the level of visibility directly affected their performance.

Shang Jianyao looked serious:

"Delay might bring unforeseen changes!"

He tried his best to promote the plan of trying it now.

Jiang Baimian considered for a moment and said:

"Xiao Bai, Xiao Hong, put on the exoskeletons and bio-artificial intelligence armor, and drive the jeep to a place one kilometer away where you can monitor this place."

Seeing that the leader had made a decision, Bai Chen and Long Yuehong didn't hesitate and replied with a "Okay" before busying themselves.

After they retreated one kilometer, found a tall tree as a high point, and relied on the military exoskeleton and night vision binoculars to monitor the space under the old locust tree, Jiang Baimian also walked out about three hundred meters.

She held night vision binoculars in one hand and picked up the walkie-talkie in the other hand, saying:

"Hey, you can piece together the corpse."

"Okay!" Shang Jianyao happily agreed.

He wasn't rash. He first took out the "Six Senses Beads," the Little Jade Buddha, and the "Angel of Life" necklace and placed them aside so that he could use them at any time.

Then, he carefully pieced together the bones, consulting Jiang Baimian through the walkie-talkie when he didn't understand something.

Before long, a complete human skeleton appeared under the old locust tree.

It was obviously an adult, with a height between 1.75 and 1.8 meters.

Shang Jianyao squatted beside the skeleton, hovering his hand above the three items while looking around.

"Nothing's changed." He was quite disappointed.

Jiang Baimian was also observing and didn't respond immediately.

At this moment, Shang Jianyao suddenly realized:

"I get it, we have to chant Buddhist scriptures to save the soul."

He immediately sat cross-legged and had Pudu Chanshi chant Buddhist scriptures:

"Namo Arutara Samyak Sambodhi..."

The night was quiet, and there were no other sounds around.

"Sigh..." Shang Jianyao sighed a long sigh.

Jiang Baimian thought for a few seconds and said to the walkie-talkie:

"Go into the 'Sea of Origins' and see if there are any changes in Xiao Chong's crack."

"Well, go to the 'Corridor of the Mind' and open the door to 'Zhuang Sheng's' room to confirm the situation of His dream."

"Okay!" Shang Jianyao slammed his right fist into his left palm, looking inspired.

He remained seated and pinched the sides of his temples with a sense of ritual before entering his own mind room.

Above the "Sea of Origins," Xiao Chong's crack was still deep and silent, as if frozen in time.

In the "Corridor of the Mind," in room "102," the giant bird was flying endlessly over the sea.

Shang Jianyao disappointedly exited the "Corridor of the Mind," picked up the walkie-talkie, and reported to Jiang Baimian:

"Everything's normal."

Jiang Baimian frowned. After repeatedly confirming that everything was as usual, she walked towards the old locust tree while asking Long Yuehong and Bai Chen to return.

Soon, the four members of the "Old Task Force" surrounded the pieced-together skeleton. Bai Chen and Long Yuehong cautiously didn't disarm.

"What do we do next?" After a moment of silence, Long Yuehong asked.

Jiang Baimian thought for a while and said:

"Although we didn't find any anomalies in this last Buddhist holy land, the corpse itself can also 'speak.'"

"Later, get some equipment and bring Lao Ge here to measure the age of this corpse at the time of death and approximately how many years ago it died, to see if he died before the destruction of the Old World, or during the destruction of the Old World, or a long time after the destruction of the Old World."

"He is suspected to be the incarnate body of 'Zhuang Sheng.' Clarifying these issues will help us investigate the truth of the Old World's destruction."

Jiang Baimian was quite cautious and didn't completely equate this corpse with Du Shaochong and the incarnate body of "Zhuang Sheng."

"Why not just put it in the trunk and take it to the Wild Grass City to find Lao Ge?" Long Yuehong asked, puzzled.

Jiang Baimian looked at the corpse and said:

"Wei's experience in the cruise ship shadow tells us that things left behind on the graylands by 'New World' powerhouses that are closely related to themselves may form nodes connecting to the 'New World,' bringing various dangers. They can, and the Ruling Gods probably can too."

"If this is really the corpse of the incarnate body of 'Zhuang Sheng,' if we keep it by our side for too long, we might all suffer from 'heartless disease.'"

Clap, clap, clap, Shang Jianyao applauded.

Ah... Long Yuehong was shocked and a little afraid when he remembered carrying the incomplete corpse around.

Fortunately, it only lasted a day and a night.

And the "Old Task Force" previously leaned towards the incomplete corpse and name tag brought by the three relic hunters being fake.

"Yes." Bai Chen agreed with the leader's disposal, "Leave the name tag here too, and let Lao Ge appraise whether it's forged later."

Jiang Baimian glanced at Linhe Village, which was submerged in darkness, and nodded, saying:

"Then bury this corpse together with the name tag."

"We graylanders value a proper burial."

"But we still have to dig it out later for Lao Ge to test," Shang Jianyao spoke the truth.

Jiang Baimian glared at him:

"Do what you should do now and think about what you should think now."

Shang Jianyao didn't dare to say anything else and honestly put the corpse and name tag into the pit he had dug out before, then called out to Long Yuehong, shoveling soil one shovel at a time.

Before long, they buried the corpse that was suspected to be Du Shaochong's, which had returned to completeness.

Shang Jianyao picked up the "Six Senses Beads," stood beside the plot of land under the old locust tree, and chanted Buddhist scriptures with a compassionate look:

"Namo..."

As soon as he uttered two words, Jiang Baimian's peripheral vision suddenly saw lanterns, some yellowish and some pure white, lit up not far away.

They all belonged to Linhe Village, which was sleeping in the darkness.