Free Web NovelChapter 350: Chapter 176: Steamrolling and Leveling, Terrifying Efficiency
An idea emerged in Lin Ye’s mind.
The space within the Nirvana Tower was immeasurably vast, dotted with Alien Tribes.
’Relying on myself alone to level up quickly in the few days I have left would be far too inefficient.’
’But now, I have this army.’
He had already confirmed that he would receive the full amount of experience from any aliens his puppets killed.
There was no difference from killing them himself.
’The Fungal Energy within the puppets isn’t infinite; it’s bound to run out eventually.’
’But by constantly slaughtering and using old puppets to create new ones, this process could potentially become self-sustaining!’
As for the 150-kilometer control range limitation, Lin Ye had already devised a solution.
He recalled his battle in the Black Silk Forest against the mutated beast puppet controlled by the Fungal Descendant Corpse King.
Back then, several motionless puppets stood at the edge of the battlefield, acting purely as lookouts.
’Those puppets... they were probably more than just lookouts.’
’They were more like signal relays.’
Lin Ye could perfectly replicate this model. He would take a portion of his Undead Army and position them as relays, no more than 150 kilometers apart, forming a massive fungal signal relay network.
This would allow him to extend his control over the entire army, expanding his range from the 150-kilometer limit to thousands of kilometers—perhaps even enough to cover the entire Nirvana Tower!
At this thought, everything clicked into place for Lin Ye.
He looked at the burgeoning Undead Army before him and issued a new command.
The massive army quickly split, forming dozens of smaller squads with ten puppets each. They spread out from the canyon into the vast world beyond, like a great black net being cast wide.
They would become Lin Ye’s eyes and ears, an extension of his own body, bringing him a ceaseless stream of experience points and fresh recruits for his army.
Once all this was done, Lin Ye looked away.
He raised his head, his gaze fixed on the colossal Doomsday Volcano on the distant horizon.
Without further hesitation, Lin Ye transformed into a streak of light and sped resolutely toward the core region.
...
「Three days later.」
In a craggy mountain hollow.
"Chen Fei, stay calm! Don’t get reckless!"
Wang Lei roared, his long blade carving a precise arc to parry a stone spear aimed at his teammate.
The young man called Chen Fei spat, his face etched with impatience. "Captain, it’s almost dead! What are we waiting for? I can finish it in one blow!"
Kneeling before the three of them was a burly elite from the Stone Ghost Race. Blood gushed from a massive piercing wound in its chest; it was clearly a spent force.
This was the fifth elite-level alien their squad had hunted together.
"Don’t get careless. This is exactly when accidents are most likely to happen," Li Xin, the only female member of the team, warned.
Chen Fei pursed his lips. Just as he was about to argue, a piercing shriek tore through the sky.
The three of them tensed and snapped their heads up.
A dark figure was diving toward them at astonishing speed. It was a winged Stone Ghost, and it seemed even stronger than the one they had surrounded!
"This is bad!"
Wang Lei’s face fell. He yanked Chen Fei behind him.
"Prepare to engage!"
With their combined strength, facing an elite Stone Ghost at full power would be difficult, but they stood a fighting chance.
However, the attack they anticipated never came.
The flying Stone Ghost swooped down, its talons like hooks, and precisely crushed the head of its own dying kinsman.
Then, with a single flap of its wings, it soared back into the sky and vanished against the crimson horizon, without giving the three humans on the ground so much as a glance.
The entire sequence was as swift as lightning, executed with fluid grace.
In the hollow, Wang Lei and the others stared at each other in stunned silence.
"What... What was that? It killed its own kind?" Chen Fei’s jaw dropped and stayed there.
"Something’s not right."
"The Celestial Abyss Race is chaotic and bloodthirsty. They always attack humans on sight. Why did that elite completely ignore us?"
They discussed it for a while but couldn’t come up with any explanation.
"Whatever. Let’s just find another spot and search for our next target."
Chen Fei waved his hand in frustration.
Just as they were preparing to leave, Li Xin suddenly stopped. She pointed toward an opening to a valley up ahead, her voice trembling slightly. "Look... over there..."
The two men looked in the direction she was pointing. Countless carrion birds circled in the sky above the area, and the ground below was littered with corpses.
When they crept to the edge of the valley and got a clear view of the scene within, a chill shot up their spines.
The valley was a slaughterhouse.
Dozens of members of the Eight-armed and Stone Ghost Races were furiously slaughtering their own kind.
Their movements were mechanical and their eyes were vacant, as if they were merely executing some cold, pre-written program.
What made their skin crawl was that in addition to the aliens currently engaged in the massacre, the valley floor was covered with even more corpses.
As they watched, holding their breath and daring not to make a sound, something bizarre happened.
The corpse of an Eight-armed clansman, severed at the waist, suddenly twitched.
Then, its upper torso, using its six arms for support, pushed itself off the ground and rose in an impossibly twisted and grotesque manner.
Dense, black fungal filaments sprouted from its lower half, which lay several meters away, and actually stitched the two parts of its body back together.
All across the valley floor, the corpses began to rise, lurching to their feet like puppets pulled by invisible strings.
