System: Infinite Evolution into Qilin Bloodline

Zhang Hao picked up the bronze box, supporting the bottom steadily with both hands, his fingers gently resting on the edge of the lid.

He pushed the lid open to one side with a sudden force.

With a creaking sound as the lid slid slowly, an ancient and mysterious aura wafted out. Then, a dazzling green light, like the first ray of dawn, suddenly burst forth from inside the box and shot straight into the sky.

This green light was exceptionally pure, as if it had condensed a thousand years of life force, and spread rapidly outwards from the box like ripples.

It pierced through the dim air inside the cave, and wherever it went, the originally silent stone walls seemed to be given life. The ancient corpses embedded in the stone walls began to tremble slightly, as if sleeping giants were being awakened.

The green light, like an invisible giant hand, gently brushed over each corpse, causing the stone chips on their surfaces to fall off, revealing withered and twisted flesh.

As if drawn by some force, the corpses began to struggle and break free from the stone wall.

Their movements were clumsy and contorted, as if their long-imprisoned souls were eager to escape their constraints.

Deep scratches were left on the stone wall, marks left when they broke free, and proof of their yearning for freedom.

One by one, the shriveled corpses suddenly opened their eyes; though their eyeballs were dry, they still shimmered with a ghostly green light.

Then, the corpses began to wriggle, and their skin gradually regained its elasticity. Although they were still withered and yellow, they were no longer lifeless.

Their fingers curled into claws, gripping the stone wall tightly, each exertion accompanied by a spray of stone chips.

Finally, more and more corpses successfully broke free from the stone wall. They staggered a few steps, as if they were not yet used to this sudden freedom.

Then, more corpses followed suit, breaking free from the stone wall's cage in an almost contorted posture and staggering toward Zhang Hao and his group.

"They've come back to life! They've all really come back to life!"

The fat man screamed in terror, his voice echoing through the cave and sounding particularly shrill.

As if attracted by the fat man's shout, the corpses quickened their pace and pounced towards Zhang Hao and his group.

Soon, the entire cave was filled with these resurrected corpses. They were expressionless, with empty eyes, yet they carried an indescribable threat.

Seeing this, the fat man quickly raised his entrenching tool and slammed it down on the nearest corpse.

With a crisp "crack," the corpse shattered instantly, as if made of paper.

Even more shockingly, a swarm of ugly, cockroach-sized insects fell out of the corpse. They were silvery-white and shimmered eerily in the flashlight beam.

As soon as these insects appeared, they quickly crawled toward the people around them, at an astonishing speed.

Seeing this, the others also took out their weapons and began to drive away the surrounding corpses.

However, these corpses were equally fragile, shattering at the slightest blow, and each time a corpse was broken, countless white worms would fall out.

These insects swarmed in like a tide, making it impossible to avoid them.

Where they crawled, they left behind sticky trails, and the air was filled with an indescribable stench.

Zhang Hao stood still, his gaze calm and resolute.

The purity of his Qilin bloodline was already very high, and he was about to revert to the ancestral Qilin bloodline, so these white lice dared not approach him at all.

He looked around and saw everyone else scrambling and struggling to cope, and a sense of powerlessness welled up inside him.

"Ouch!"

The fat man suddenly screamed in pain. He didn't know when, but his body had been torn open by the white lice.

The insects burrowed into his body through the wound, causing him to grimace in pain.

Upon seeing this, Wu Tianzhen exclaimed in surprise:

"I remember now, these are white lice! They burrow into people's bodies to suck blood and flesh, using the human body as a nest to raise their offspring. Even after death, they can control the movement of the corpse!"

Upon hearing this, the fat man's face turned deathly pale.

The thought of turning into a monster like those corpses made him gasp.

He asked in a trembling voice:

"Naive, do you even know how to deal with something like this?"

Wu Tianzhen quickly scanned her surroundings, and suddenly her eyes lit up:

"Water! They're afraid of water!"

Upon hearing this, everyone rushed toward the underground river that encircled the hill and jumped into the water with a few splashes.

Sure enough, the white lice stopped moving forward as soon as they reached the water's edge. They seemed to have an innate fear of water, lingering there reluctantly.

Upon seeing this scene, Zhang Hao finally understood what the so-called "resurrection" was all about.

It turns out that all of this was simply because some special substance in the bronze box activated the white lice in the corpse, causing these long-dead lives to "awaken" again.

However, this awakening is not a true revival of life, but a manipulated and distorted existence.

However, even after understanding the truth, Zhang Hao's doubts did not diminish.

Their mission was to find clues about the Qilin's upper limbs, but now that they have arrived at the land of dragon energy and opened the bronze box, they still have no clues.

Just as he was deep in thought, a loud "bang" shattered the tranquility of the cave.

Suddenly, the bronze box began to tremble violently, as if some force inside was struggling wildly.

Immediately afterwards, the box exploded with a loud bang, scattering fragments everywhere, and the green light dissipated.

As the box exploded, the corpses that had been controlled instantly lost their vitality, fell to the ground, and could no longer move.

The white lice, as if they had lost their leader, scattered and fled, quickly disappearing into the depths of the cave.

Looking at the scene before him, Zhang Hao felt a mix of emotions.

They went through countless hardships to get here, but they never expected it to end like this.

The bronze box shattered, and the clues to the qilin's upper limbs remained elusive.

Just as everyone was confused, Zhang Hao suddenly noticed that among the shattered fragments of the bronze box, one piece seemed to be emitting a faint light.

He quickly stepped forward, picked up the fragment, and examined it carefully.

The fragments were shaped like a dragon spiraling into a circle.

After the white lice dispersed, Wu Tianzhen, Fatty, and the others crawled out of the underground river and returned to the hilltop.

The fat man was shocked when he saw what Zhang Hao was holding, and he exclaimed:

"Brother Zhang Hao, where did you get this?"