Doomsday Reboot: My Superpowers Absorb Everything

On the seventh day after the purified spring water was introduced into the fortress's reservoir, Lin Ye discovered something unusual in the greenhouse. The sunflowers watered with the spring water had tiny fangs growing from the center of their flower heads, and the edges of their petals were tinged with faint blood vessels. In the morning dew collected from the flowers, one could even see swimming red sand mycelium—only these mycelium were enveloped in golden energy, like tamed little snakes.

"They are evolving by devouring the remaining mycelium." Suya collected the flower dew with a glass tube, and green energy formed a thin film on the tube wall. "This flower dew can cure red sand disease, but if the concentration is too high, it will cause hallucinations. It must be diluted thirty times before it can be used."

Lin Ye's silver-striped bark gently touched the flower head, its fangs suddenly retracting, and the flower head tilting slightly, as if in a gesture of goodwill. "That's a good thing," he smiled. "It means that plants can adapt to viral soil, and we might be able to cultivate more crops that can resist mutants."

Skinny Monkey limped in, carrying a bronze fragment salvaged from the church bell tower. Engraved on it was a skull on horseback, exactly like the banner of the Bone Castle Lin Ye had seen in the scale images. "Old Zheng said this thing was cast from the bones of a mutated horse," he tossed the fragment onto the table. "Scarface Sister-in-law looked at it and said it's the mark of the 'Bone Riders.'"

"Bone Rider?" Lin Ye picked up the fragment, the silver patterns on it gently warming.

"It's an organization from the north," Skinny Monkey said, stuffing a sunflower cake into his mouth. "They say they ride mutated bone horses and use living human bones as weapons. Even mutants dare not approach them. Scarface said that the first batch of red rashes mycelium from the cannery was sold to the Black Crow Gang by the Bone Riders."

Lin Ye frowned. He stroked the skull on the fragment and suddenly remembered the struggling figures in the Mother Nest—had the Bone Riders been providing "nourishment" to the Black Raven Hall all along?

Just then, an old carpenter from the migrants rushed over, carrying a half-carved piece of wood with a crooked, white bone castle on it. "Chief," the old man's hands trembled violently, "this castle... I saw it when I fled north, in a ravine in Black Wind Mountain. The walls were made entirely of thigh bones, and two three-meter-tall bone giants stood at the entrance."

"Are you sure?" Lin Ye's silver pattern suddenly throbbed violently, and the skull pattern on the fragment resonated with the castle on the wood, emitting a faint red light.

"No mistake!" The old man pointed to the spire of the wooden castle. "There's a string of dried human heads hanging there, and the one at the very front is wearing the emblem of the Iron Hoof Alliance. I recognize him!"

Lin Ye's heart sank. The Iron Hoof Alliance's emblem—could it be that Zhao Feng's father was captured by the Bone Riders back then?

He immediately summoned everyone to a meeting in the map room. The scarred woman looked at the bronze fragments, her face pale: "The leader of the Bone Riders is called 'Bone King,' and it's said that he can control corpses and mutated bone beasts. The Black Raven Hall is just their puppet. My husband overheard that the Bone Riders are looking for the 'Seed of White Scales,' saying that if they find it, they can control all the Red Sha mutated creatures."

"The Seed of White Scales?" Suya's green energy suddenly surged. "Could it refer to the White Scale Serpent?"

Lin Ye recalled the white-scaled snakes in the underground lake and the skeletal remains of the cubs inside the mother core, and suddenly understood: "What the Bone Riders want is not the white-scaled snakes, but the white-scaled snake genes that can suppress the red sha mycelium. They want to cultivate a corpse mother that can only be controlled by themselves."

Skinny Monkey slammed his fist on the table: "Then what are we waiting for? Let's lead the troops and wipe out their base!"

"No." Lin Ye shook his head, pointing to Black Wind Mountain on the map. "Black Wind Mountain is surrounded by mutated bone beasts. Our scale vines are useless against bones. Besides, the exact strength of the bone riders is unknown; a rash attack will only result in losses." He paused, looking at the scarred woman, "Did your man leave any other clues about the bone riders?"

The woman thought for a moment, then pulled a rusty iron box from her bosom. Inside was half a tattered map, marked in red with a secret passage leading to Black Wind Mountain, its end point being the underground prison of White Bone Castle. "This was secretly drawn by my man. He said that many 'container candidates' like us are imprisoned there."

Lin Ye's gaze fell on the prison marker on the map, where a small white-scaled snake symbol was drawn. "We need to go to Black Wind Mountain." He put away the map, his eyes resolute. "Not to fight, but to rescue people and find out more about the Bone Riders."

Before setting off, Lin Ye had Su Ya mix ten bottles of "awakening potion" with purifying flower dew to prevent being attacked by hallucinations; Lao Zheng coated everyone's weapons with a layer of white snake scale powder, which was said to be able to counter the bone weapons of the bone riders; Skinny Monkey was the most enthusiastic, pestering Lao Zheng to attach a bone blade to his iron spear, saying that he wanted to let the bone riders taste what it was like to be stabbed by bones.

On the day of their departure, it was just dawn. Lin Ye, along with the skinny monkey, the scarred woman, and five elite Iron Hoof Alliance soldiers, rode their mutated warhorses towards Black Wind Mountain. Su Ya stood at the fortress gate and stuffed a handful of purified sunflower seeds into Lin Ye's backpack: "These are a fast-growing variety. Scatter them if you encounter danger; the vines can trap bone beasts."

The mountain path in Black Wind Mountain was more difficult to traverse than expected. The trees along the way had all turned grayish-white, as if all moisture had been drained away, and countless tiny bones were embedded in the soil, making a crunching sound when stepped on. The scarred woman said that this was the Bone King's "Bone Domain," where all living beings would slowly ossify.

"Be careful, there are bone beasts ahead!" The skinny monkey suddenly reined in his horse, pointing his iron spear at the bushes by the roadside.

Three partially ossified wolves sprang from the bushes, their white bones exposed where their fur had fallen away, their eyes gleaming with a ghostly blue phosphorescence. Clearly drawn by the scent of the warhorse, they bared their teeth and pounced.

Lin Ye's energy blade slashed at the lead bone wolf, the white scale powder on the blade gleaming blue in the sunlight. The moment the bone wolf's skull was shattered, its body suddenly transformed into countless bone fragments, reforming in mid-air into an even larger bone wolf, its claws covered in barbs.

"Damn it, it can even regenerate!" The skinny monkey's iron spear pierced the bone wolf's belly, but got tangled in the bone spikes inside. "Is this thing even alive?"

The scarred woman suddenly pulled out a tinderbox and lit the bundle of mugwort she carried with her. The moment the thick smoke rose, the bone wolves' movements noticeably slowed, and fear flickered in their phosphorescent eyes. "Bone beasts are afraid of mugwort smoke!" the woman shouted, throwing the bundle of mugwort at the other two bone wolves.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Lin Ye swept his energy blade across, completely shredding the reconstituted bone wolf into bone dust. The moment Yin Wen touched the bone dust, he sensed a faint trace of red sha energy remaining within it—it turned out that the bone beast was also a mutant infected by mycelium, only manifesting in a different way.

"The Bone Riders are using Red Sha mycelium to modify bone beasts." Lin Ye wiped the bone powder off his energy blade. "This shows that their research on Red Sha is more in-depth than that of the Black Crow Hall."

The group continued forward, and the closer they got to Black Wind Mountain, the more bone beasts they encountered. There were mutated, bone-like bears, winged bone birds, and even snake-like bone pythons, all of which were driven back by the mugwort smoke, yet they lingered around, as if waiting for something.

As evening fell, they finally found the entrance to the secret passage on the map, hidden in a cave behind a waterfall. The cave entrance was covered with vines, and several skeletons hung from them, each wearing a wooden tag with a container number around its neck.

"It's the corpse of a candidate for the container." The scarred woman's voice trembled. "My man said that unqualified candidates are thrown here to feed the bone beasts."

Lin Ye used his energy blade to cleave through the vines, and the cave was filled with a strong smell of blood and decay. The passage was narrow, allowing only one person to pass at a time, and the walls were etched with countless scratch marks, clearly indicating that someone had struggled desperately here.

After walking for about half an hour, a faint light appeared ahead. Lin Ye signaled for everyone to stop, and then quietly crept over—at the end of the passage was a spacious stone chamber filled with iron cages, each containing a person, men, women, and children, all with red fleshy growths painted on their chests, the very "container candidates" the scarred woman had mentioned.

At the very back of the stone chamber, Lin Ye saw a familiar figure—an old man with white hair sitting in an iron cage, wearing a tattered Iron Hoof Alliance uniform and a faded wolf head badge pinned to his chest. It was Zhao Feng's father, Zhao Shan!

"Old Zhao!" Lin Ye's voice trembled slightly, and the silver pattern suddenly burst out with blue light the moment it saw the old man.

Zhao Shan slowly raised his head, a glint of light flashing in his cloudy eyes: "You...you have the aura of the White Scale Serpent..." His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping, "Finally...someone has come..."

Just then, the stone door of the chamber suddenly slammed shut with a loud bang, and torches instantly lit up, illuminating the dozens of bone riders standing around—they wore skull armor, carried bone spears, wore white bone masks, and had eerie blue phosphorescence in their eyes.

The leader of the bone riders was tall, with a huge white snake scale inlaid on his armor, and he held a scepter shaped like a bone throne in his hand. It was none other than Ainz Ooal Gown!

"Welcome to my collection room, bearer of the White Scale Seed." The Bone King's voice was like the clinking of bones. With a gentle tap of his scepter, all the bars of the iron cages began to retract. "I have waited for this day for many years."

Lin Ye's energy blade was instantly drawn, its silver patterns resonating intensely with the Bone King's scales, emitting a piercing shriek. The skinny monkey and the scarred woman also gripped their weapons, confronting the Bone Rider.

Zhao Shan suddenly shouted from inside the cage, "Don't fall for it! He's trying to force you to release your silver-patterned energy so he can extract the white-scale gene!"

The Bone King let out a sinister laugh: "Old man, you're still so unruly." His scepter pointed at Zhao Shan's cage, and the bars suddenly pierced the old man's body. "But it doesn't matter. Once I get the White Scale Gene, you will all become my perfect bone slaves."

Lin Ye unleashed his silver energy to its fullest extent, forming a dark purple energy wall within the stone chamber, protecting everyone in the center. Looking at the menacing bone riders around him and the ever-shrinking iron cage, he knew that a direct confrontation was futile.

"Skinny Monkey, to the left!" Lin Ye suddenly shouted, slashing his energy blade at the bone riders on the left to draw their attention.

The skinny monkey immediately understood, throwing his iron spear at the torch on the right, plunging the stone chamber into darkness. The scarred woman seized the opportunity to ignite all the bundles of mugwort; as thick smoke billowed, Lin Ye's energy wall expanded violently, blasting away the nearest bone riders, while simultaneously using an energy blade to cleave open Zhao Shan's iron cage.

"Follow me!" Lin Ye grabbed Zhao Shan and rushed towards the secret passage with the scarred woman. Skinny Monkey brought up the rear, scattering purifying sunflower seeds at the pursuing bone riders. Golden vines suddenly grew rapidly, entangling their bone armor.

As Lin Ye ran out of the passage, he glanced back at the direction of the Bone Castle, where the spires gleamed with a ghostly blue light in the twilight, like a lurking beast waiting for its next hunt.

Zhao Shan leaned against his warhorse, coughing violently, and pointed below the castle: "There... there's a huge bone kiln... they're burning living people... to make bone powder..."

Lin Ye clenched his fist, the silver markings on his right arm throbbing wildly. He knew this was only a temporary retreat; he would definitely return, not only to save people, but also to completely destroy this castle built of bones and sins.

The wind in Black Wind Mountain grew colder, carrying the acrid smell of burning bones. Lin Ye looked up at the sky; the afterglow of the setting sun dyed the clouds blood-red, as if foreshadowing the impending bloody battle. But in his heart, there was no fear, only determination—for Zhao Feng's father, for the trapped vessel candidates, and to prevent the Bone Riders' conspiracy from succeeding, he had to become stronger, strong enough to overturn that throne forged of white bones.

Skinny Monkey, supporting Zhao Shan, suddenly pointed to the distant sky: "What's that?"

Lin Ye looked in the direction he pointed and saw a flock of huge bone birds flying from the direction of the Bone Castle. Their wingspan was ten meters wide, and they were holding burning bones in their claws. Like a dark cloud that blotted out the sun, they swooped down in their direction.

"It's the Bone Riders' air force!" the scarred woman's voice trembled. "They're after us!"

Lin Ye mounted his horse, shielding Zhao Shan in the middle, his energy blade gleaming blue in the sunlight: "Don't panic! Run back, Su Ya's Steel Forest can hold them off!"

The iron hooves of warhorses trampled the boned earth, followed by flocks of bone birds whistling past and the ever-approaching castle of bones. Lin Ye knew that the real battle had only just begun. But he was no longer alone—he had comrades fighting alongside him, a homeland awaiting his return, and the indelible silver mark on his right arm, guiding him through the darkness towards dawn.