Free Web NovelChapter 45: Chapter 44: It’s a Graveyard
"B-Boss, don’t scare me! I honestly didn’t know it was an ancestral grave! I just knew there were bodies buried there," Liu Xingxing explained hastily, tears welling in his eyes.
The contract showed no reaction. Li Ziyu took a step forward and asked again, "Then how did you know this place was a marsh?"
"The terrain! When you’re treasure hunting, terrain is crucial. You can learn a lot of key information from it. Oh, right, and feng shui! Boss, think about it, aren’t ancient tombs always related to feng shui? That’s all about terrain!" Liu Xingxing said in a rapid-fire burst, watching Li Ziyu draw closer.
Li Ziyu stared at Liu Xingxing for a moment before breaking into a gentle smile. The menacing aura around him dissipated in an instant, as if it had never existed. He patted Liu Xingxing’s shoulder. "Don’t hold it against me for scaring you. We’ve only known each other for a short time, and this world is too dangerous. I can’t afford to trust anyone easily."
As the menacing aura faded, the Skeleton Undead and Skeleton Warriors silently withdrew, merging back into the walls.
GULP. Swallowing hard, Liu Xingxing clutched his chest and took several long, deep breaths. ’That scared me to death! The Otherworld is so dangerous, and the Boss is dangerous, too. I don’t want to be here anymore!’
Although he was scared, Li Ziyu’s words actually put Liu Xingxing at ease, because they were both direct and honest.
They really had only known each other for a short time. It was only right that the other party didn’t trust him.
If the roles were reversed, Liu Xingxing wouldn’t dare trust someone else just because of a contract, either—even if that contract was effective and could kill with a single thought.
Li Ziyu’s actions were actually a good thing. At least it proved he didn’t plan on using him and then tossing him aside. Through the night’s battle, Liu Xingxing had already made up his mind. He was going to latch onto the Undead City Lord’s coattails for dear life; he would become a permanent accessory!
The Otherworld was too dangerous. Forget the bizarre, nightmare-inducing Lizardmen—the simple inability to find food was unbearable. He remembered how the two Catmen had looked at him that evening. Their gazes had been unsettling, and they would occasionally flex their sharp claws. They might be small, but they were dangerous.
If the Boss hadn’t given him food in time, he might have been a corpse by tomorrow.
So, what the Mobile Fortress eventually became no longer mattered. The most important thing was to cling to his powerful new patron and avoid dying for some stupid reason.
’Only by surviving can I have a better tomorrow.’
The Undead seemed to have a peculiar fondness for digging up bones. Ever since the bones of the Big-Horned Bulls started being continuously unearthed, the Undead were ecstatic. They were swinging their claws so hard they were flying off. Looking through the window, Li Ziyu would occasionally see an armless Undead chasing its own airborne arm bone. It had literally swung its own arm off.
Some of the more endearingly dim-witted Undead would even hold the excavated bones up to their own bodies, apparently checking to see if they could swap in a better part...
’Why have they suddenly become so lively?’
’Are these Undead part dog or something, getting this excited about digging up bones?’
Gazing down at the scene, which looked like a pack of unruly children let loose in an amusement park, the corner of Li Ziyu’s mouth twitched. ’Still, it’s a good thing. At least their work efficiency has improved.’
And their efficiency was indeed improving. One Undead, apparently finding digging with its claws unsatisfying, plucked off a companion’s head and started using the skull as a shovel... And what do you know, it was much faster than using claws. The only problem was that neither of them noticed the companion’s Soul Fire was now swirling dizzily in its sockets.
Liu Xingxing, having recovered from his earlier scare, let curiosity get the better of him. He sidled up to Li Ziyu and craned his neck to peer down. When he saw the chaotic construction site below, he let out a snort of laughter.
He saw one Undead, a Bone Shield strapped to its arm, struggling to claw at the dirt. Amused, he couldn’t help but shout down to it, "Use your shield! The Shield!"
The Undead froze at the shout. It looked up toward the fortress, then glanced at the Bone Shield on its arm, and then back at the hole it was digging. It detached the Bone Shield, sized it up, and then plunged it forcefully into the ground. The edge of the Bone Shield worked just like a spade. With another hard push, it pried up a large clod of earth.
Skeleton Undead: !!!
A whole new world had opened up!
The Undead lifted its Bone Shield and went at it again and again, digging more joyfully than ever.
The nearby Undead noticed the change. After observing surreptitiously for a moment, they decisively tossed aside their companions’ skulls, equipped their Bone Shields, and joined the great digging army.
Using Bone Shields to dig improved their efficiency even further, and more bones were sent into the fortress. In just a short time, the skeletons of a dozen or so Big-Horned Bulls had been unearthed, much to Li Ziyu’s pleasant surprise.
Even with just these dozen-odd skeletons, the night was already a success. The Lizardmen had provided one windfall, and now there was this harvest. It was more than enough.
But the surprises weren’t over yet. As the Undead kept digging, the excavation area expanded, and more and more skeletons were constantly being unearthed. Li Ziyu was secretly astonished. ’Just how many animals are buried in this marsh?’
"This marsh is huge. We’re only digging through the top layer right now. There are way more bones deeper down," Liu Xingxing said, as if seeking praise, in response to Li Ziyu’s unspoken question.
Liu Xingxing wasn’t exaggerating in the slightest. Aside from the Big-Horned Bull skeletons on the surface, they could find new skeletons just by digging down a little, with no effort at all.
The bones beneath the marsh came from all sorts of animals. Some even carried a special aura; they weren’t from ordinary Wild Beasts, but from more powerful Fierce Beasts, or even Demonized Creatures!
This place was no longer a mere Burial Ground; it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a cemetery!
For others, this place had little value since they couldn’t use bones. But for Li Ziyu, this place was a Gold Mine!
Hunting?
’Why bother hunting? How could chasing down prey possibly yield a harvest as large and as quick as this?’
Who knew when he’d find another place like this? This was the best opportunity to expand his number of Undead, and he couldn’t let it pass him by. Li Ziyu acted decisively, using the newly unearthed bones to summon more Skeleton Undead, fashion more Bone Shields, and send them right back to digging.
Li Ziyu set aside the bones of the Fierce Beasts and Demonized Creatures. The bones of these special creatures had other uses and were ill-suited for summoning basic Skeleton Undead.
The newly summoned Skeleton Undead joined the digging army, hauling back even more bones.
’This is so damn satisfying!’ Watching the number of Skeleton Undead grow and grow, Li Ziyu felt a surge of pride. His gaze toward Liu Xingxing grew even more amicable.
He patted Liu Xingxing’s shoulder. "Not bad. You did a great job."
"Boss, you flatter me," Liu Xingxing replied, looking utterly overwhelmed by the praise.
’We’re not leaving. We’ll just keep digging. We’ll leave when this place is picked clean.’ Li Ziyu straightened his chest, having made his decision.
Throughout the night, the Undead dug tirelessly under the Moonlight, not stopping until the first rays of dawn touched the horizon. Only then, at the City Lord’s summons, did they reluctantly return to the fortress, like children who hadn’t had their fill of playing outside being dragged home by their parents to do homework.
After the Undead returned to the fortress, they merged into the walls, and the fortress walls thickened considerably. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
By the end of the night, Li Ziyu already had 1,000 Skeleton Undead. The Warehouse was also piled high with several hundred units of various skeletons. Before entering Hibernation Mode, he added four more Tombs of the Dead.
Directly summoning Undead from the skeletons was certainly gratifying, but building Tombs of the Dead would provide a continuous output, which was a much more sustainable use of resources than simply expending them on summoning Skeleton Undead.
The four new Tombs of the Dead looked much like the first one: patches of black earth with Wooden Sticks stuck in them, or stone markers so weathered the inscriptions were illegible. In any case, they looked rather pathetic. frёewebηovel.cѳm
He casually replenished the tombs with Soul Energy, then activated Hibernation Mode.
