Chapter 225 : Eternal Darkness Relic
Chapter 225: Eternal Darkness Relic! Wraith Jia Xu VS Skeleton Gan Ning!
Although the various Scourge Army forces had all performed admirably, it was obvious that they still could not change the final outcome. After all, this was a battle with an overwhelming disparity in strength.
However, because the Scourge Army had committed even more troops than they had during the battle against the Filthy Stone Monster, they would certainly generate even more Essence for the territory.
Hang Yu made a rough estimate.
It would probably generate around eighteen to twenty million Essence.
This income was already enormous, but it was far from the only source of revenue.
During this battle, the players would likely eliminate no fewer than two thousand members of the Buried Bones race.
These Starsea units yielded a large amount of Essence and Mana Crystals. Since the fighting across every battlefield was exceptionally fierce, most of the loot could not be collected in time, resulting in a significant amount of Essence being lost.
As usual, Hang Yu would claim this portion.
He estimated it to be around eight to ten million.
That was hardly a small amount either.
And this was not the end—it was merely the beginning. A tug-of-war naturally involved repeated clashes, and this prolonged process was more than enough to create tremendous value, greatly increasing the territory's Essence reserves.
Looking at it this way, Hang Yu almost wanted to thank the opposing Lich Lord. If he hadn't launched this offensive, where would Hang Yu have found so many "leeks" to harvest?
The faster the Scourge Army died, the better!
The territory was currently welcoming over ten thousand new recruits. On top of that, Hang Yu planned to expand the Azure Dragon Guard, establish the Black Tiger Guard, and the Iron Eagle Guard. Every one of these projects required massive amounts of Essence and resources.
Aside from cultivating his followers and troops, the new round of territorial construction already underway also had an enormous Mana Crystal deficit that needed to be filled.
For Hang Yu, this sudden outbreak of a Lord War was no different from someone delivering a pillow just as he was about to fall asleep.
Calling it timely assistance in a moment of need would not be an exaggeration.
Of course, although Hang Yu could reap tremendous profits from the war, he had no intention of treating the opposing Lord like an idiot.
The Scourge Army was simply too strange and abnormal. After encountering them once or twice, the enemy Lord would inevitably notice something was wrong and take appropriate countermeasures. This was absolutely not the time to lower his guard. He needed to constantly adjust his tactics and strategies according to the changing situation.
Thus, Hang Yu continued observing the battle.
A new development had occurred at Li Village.
After Little Bell set up the Four-Talisman Demon-Slaying Formation and killed the Skeleton General Zhang Hu, the remaining Buried Bones officers and soldiers all fell into chaos.
The Scourge Army seized the opportunity to swiftly reverse its disadvantage and launch a ferocious counterattack, inflicting considerable casualties upon the Buried Bones Army in the process.
However, at that very moment, the Blessing Point in Li Village lit up.
One figure after another descended through the Blessing Point.
Chimera Wraith immediately shouted, "The enemy reinforcements are here!"
Every one of the reinforcements was an elite combatant, almost all Tier-Three Buried Bones elites.
Among them, one figure possessed an especially terrifying aura.
It was a Skeleton General clad in golden armor and wielding a golden greatbow.
It was Skeleton Huang Zu, whom they had encountered in Sanxiang Ancient City.
"This is bad!"
"Huang Zu is here too!"
"Retreat first! A wise man doesn't fight a hopeless battle!"
"......"
When even the fearless Scourge Army realized Huang Zu had personally come to reinforce the battlefield, they barely hesitated before deciding to withdraw.
Zhang Hu was Level 22.
He was merely a third-rate or fourth-rate commander.
Huang Zu, however, was Level 25 and possessed the strength of a first-rate commander.
Even three Zhang Hus combined posed less of a threat than a single Huang Zu.
Moreover, this Scourge Army had already lost two-thirds of its forces.
How could they possibly continue fighting under such circumstances?
Yet Huang Zu had already drawn his golden greatbow.
A golden arrow shot toward them like a meteor.
After piercing through three players in succession, it struck the mana-depleted Little Bell directly.
-3654 (Lethal Critical!)
"Commander Little Bell is down too!"
"Holy crap! Everyone scatter and break through! That damned archery is terrifying!"
Huang Zu then aimed at Chimera Wraith, the only remaining Tier-Three powerhouse in the Scourge Army.
Again, he used only a single arrow.
Not only did it pierce through the guards beside her, it instantly killed Chimera Wraith with one shot.
The elite combat strength of the Divine Feather Palace Legion had been completely exhausted.
Although another two or three hundred players were still desperately struggling,
they had already been surrounded by the Buried Bones Army.
Several attempts to break out had all failed.
It could be said they had fallen into absolute despair.
"Sigh... we can't get away."
"Run? A real man fights until the very last second!"
"Brothers and sisters, I'll be going first!"
"We already fought well this time. Let's do better next round!"
"......"
Under the ruthless extermination of the Buried Bones race, combined with Huang Zu's relentless sniping, the players completely collapsed without any ability to resist.
In less than five minutes, they were utterly annihilated.
After wiping out the Scourge Army, Huang Zu found himself unable to feel the slightest joy.
Because those bastards had actually taken one of his important generals down with them.
An Acolyte Secret Guard responsible for delivering orders reported, "The Lord commands that you immediately return to defend Huangmei Hamlet!"
"Understood!" Huang Zu quickly reorganized the troops at Li Village before returning to Huangmei Hamlet through the Blessing Point.
Unlike the other four newly occupied Blessing Points, Huangmei Hamlet served as the territory's forward operating base.
Gray Decay, the Corpse Fiend General who served as supreme commander of this campaign, along with Huang Zu, commander of the Buried Bones Legion, were both stationed here.
Furthermore, Huangmei Hamlet had already been reinforced with brand-new defensive facilities.
Although the other four strongholds had been under attack since earlier, Gray Decay and Huang Zu had never dared to leave Huangmei Hamlet lightly.
The reason was simple.
On the human side, Wen Ping and Zhou Cang had yet to appear.
Gray Decay and Huang Zu feared that the attacks on the four small strongholds were merely feints.
The moment they personally led their elites to reinforce them, Wen Ping and Zhou Cang would launch another assault on Huangmei Hamlet.
Because of such concerns and caution, combined with the relatively weak offensive strength of the human side, the existing forces at the four strongholds were already sufficient to hold the attackers back.
Thus, the two great generals chose to remain where they were and adapt to any situation.
No one had expected that the Buried Bones Legion's general Zhang Hu would be killed at Li Village.
After this clash, the Buried Bones Army of the Lich Territory had suffered considerable losses.
Besides the death of the senior general Zhang Hu, approximately two thousand Buried Bones troops had also been lost.
But the Human Territory had suffered even greater losses.
Nearly four thousand human Offspring had participated in the battle.
Almost none of them returned alive.
Their casualties were roughly twice those of the Buried Bones Army.
Logically speaking, human territories found it difficult to train troops, making their military strength far less expendable.
The undead race, on the other hand, naturally excelled at rapidly producing armies.
Not only could they convert the population under their rule into soldiers on a massive scale, but even directly recruited units possessed superior innate talents, levels, skills, and equipment compared to humans.
This greatly reduced the time, effort, and resources required during cultivation.
Yet, at this very moment, inside the main city of the Lich Territory, Lord Xie Ming wore an unusually grim expression.
After observing the battlefield, a Corpse Wizard Grand Mage holding a staff also noticed something strange.
"After those humans died, not a single piece of loot was refined from their corpses!"
Every Starsea Lord had been blessed by the supreme Will of the Stars.
Therefore, all Lords and every one of their Offspring, citizens, and servants possessed the power granted by the Will of the Stars—
the ability to extract essence and refine all things.
To put it more simply, monsters dropped loot.
Wars between Lords inevitably caused tremendous losses, and the resulting spoils could offset part of those losses.
After this round of fighting, the Buried Bones Army had lost over two thousand soldiers,
while the Scourge Army had lost roughly four thousand.
Although the latter appeared to have suffered far greater losses, after they were annihilated, not a single piece of loot remained on the battlefield.
It wasn't that Xie Ming necessarily cared about the Essence, Mana Crystals, or equipment dropped by those humans.
The real issue was that this human army had behaved far too strangely, giving him an unsettling feeling.
Had this army truly been destroyed?
In fact, a similar phenomenon had already appeared during the battle for Sanxiang Ancient City.
The defending forces there had clearly been divided into two groups.
One group dropped loot upon death, while the other yielded absolutely nothing.
At the time, Xie Ming's attention had been focused almost entirely on Wen Ping, Zhou Cang, and the formidable Azure Dragon Guard, causing him to pay little attention to insignificant soldiers like the Scourge Army.
This time, since none of the major human generals had participated, he suddenly realized that many familiar faces among the Scourge Army had supposedly already been killed during the battle for Sanxiang Ancient City.
Could it actually be the very same army?
Xie Ming said solemnly, "This human Lord should possess some special ability or relic that prevents other Starsea forces from refining units within his territory."
The Grand Elder of Netherblood City, Corroded Bone, looked astonished.
"A Starsea Lord capable of such a thing? I've been in the Land of the Stars for so many years, yet I've never even heard of such an ability."
Xie Ming replied,
"Although it is extremely rare, there are countless Starsea Lords. No possibility can be ruled out."
He strongly suspected that Hang Yu possessed an extraordinarily powerful relic, or perhaps had constructed an exceptionally rare superstructure, allowing him to prevent enemy Lords from obtaining loot from units that died in Lord Wars.
Corroded Bone remarked, "This kind of ability appearing in a Lord War is truly disgusting. If one side's citizens and armies cannot be refined, the opposing territory loses the ability to sustain itself through warfare. Simply dragging the conflict into a prolonged war would allow them to wear down their enemy through this advantage alone."
Upon hearing this, the other Corpse Fiends were unconcerned.
One Corpse Fiend General sneered, "You're overthinking it. If the enemy were another upper- or middle-tier race, then perhaps such an ability would indeed be troublesome. But they're only humans—a lower race with a weak foundation. How could they possibly endure the attrition of a prolonged war?"
"Even so, they must not be underestimated."
Xie Ming calmly said, "I now suspect that this human territory possesses the ability to recover certain fallen Offspring. That may be why their deaths produce no loot. Or perhaps, to take it one step further, they can even resurrect fallen soldiers in large numbers."
The moment those words were spoken, every high-ranking Corpse Fiend was shocked.
Grand Elder Corroded Bone said, "If that's truly the case, then it would explain why a mere human territory has managed to gain a foothold on this Abyssal Plane."
The other Corpse Fiends began discussing the matter among themselves.
"Though somewhat troublesome, it's nothing extraordinary. Plenty of Starsea Lords possess methods of resurrecting territory units. Such abilities can come from special items, rare buildings, or rare relics..."
"Exactly. But regardless of how many resurrection methods exist, they all generally require an enormous price."
"If the enemy were a powerful race and possessed such large-scale resurrection abilities, we might indeed fear them. But since they're only humans, the threat they pose remains limited."
"......"
Xie Ming's thoughts were largely the same as those of his subordinates.
Comparing this battle with the one at Sanxiang Ancient City, he found it wasn't difficult to conclude that the human territory clearly possessed several different armies.
Only some of them were immune to refinement by the power of the Stars, meaning the opposing Lord's ability did not extend to all of his citizens.
There was still far too little intelligence.
Further observation was necessary.
The Corpse Fiend race was naturally sinister, cunning, and full of schemes.
As a Corpse Fiend Lord, Xie Ming was even more so.
That was precisely why he had chosen the Buried Bones Legion as the main force of this war.
The Buried Bones Legion did not consume the territory's population.
Instead, they could be directly converted from native inhabitants, making them ideal expendable troops.
Even if every last one of them was wiped out, there was nothing to regret.
Not to mention, there were still plenty of "fully matured" reserve forces waiting beneath Buried Bones City.
As long as they successfully conquered the Human Territory, why would they ever have to worry about replenishing their forces?
With that thought, Xie Ming shifted his attention away from Wo Niu Mountain.
Although the fighting there was intense, it had never been the true key to this confrontation.
The small amount of territory seized there simply wasn't enough to seriously damage the opposing Lord.
The real blow against him would come from the operation at Wan City!
Through his Lord's Vision, Xie Ming watched the strongest warrior in the Buried Bones Legion under his command—
Gan Ning.
Taking advantage of the fierce fighting at Wo Niu Mountain,
Gan Ning had silently entered the Wan City Region through White Tiger Mountain.
What Lord didn't have a few hidden trump cards of his own these days?
Although the human Lord had displayed strength and methods beyond expectations, everything remained within controllable limits.
Xie Ming didn't believe that a mere Scourge Army of insignificant soldiers could pose any real threat to his territory.
As for top native powerhouses like Wen Ping, Zhou Cang, and Zhang Zhongjing, they were certainly formidable, but still not enough to threaten him.
The human Lord had dispatched troops to Wo Niu Mountain to reclaim lost territory, which meant his attention had already been drawn there.
Xie Ming was certain the human Lord could never imagine that the struggle over several strongholds at Wo Niu Mountain was fundamentally unimportant, while the truly catastrophic crisis was about to erupt behind him, at the very heart of his territory.
......
Wan City Region.
More than ten li outside New Wan City.
Violent shadow energy suddenly erupted atop a low hill near a small village.
Twenty figures wrapped in undead aura gradually emerged from the invisible mass of energy.
This small unit consisted of twenty members.
Ten Buried Bones.
Ten Corpse Fiends.
Besides Skeleton Gan Ning and Skeleton Su Fei, the other eight Buried Bones warriors all possessed the strength of first-rate Tier-Three elites.
Their mission was to escort the Acolyte Secret Guards here, allowing them to carry out the next stage of the plan.
Su Fei approached the Acolyte Secret Guards.
"My lords, how is this location?"
These Acolyte Secret Guards were the Lord's direct Offspring.
Although they ranked among the strongest citizens under his command,
if it came down to a one-on-one duel, Su Fei had no fear of any of them.
But they were, after all, the Lord's personal Offspring.
They were his most trusted confidants.
Therefore, Su Fei dared not show the slightest disrespect toward these Corpse Fiends.
Even though they appeared to possess no individuality or emotions, he still wished to avoid displeasing the Lord standing behind them.
"This location is excellent."
"Let the first formation be activated here."
The ten Acolyte Secret Guards immediately spread out, taking out various ritual implements.
A formation radiating overwhelming deathly aura gradually took shape through their joint efforts.
The formation itself was not particularly complicated.
Its principle was simple—
by consuming a powerful sacrificial offering, it would summon a storm composed entirely of death energy.
The ten Acolyte Secret Guards were responsible only for constructing and activating the formation.
As for how powerful the resulting death storm would become, that depended almost entirely on the core sacrificial offering placed within it.
For the sake of this plan, Xie Ming had brought out a treasured item he had long kept hidden.
It was an object called the Eternal Darkness Relic.
Its grade was Tier-Three, High Blue Quality, yet its value far exceeded ordinary materials of the same level.
That was because it wasn't an ordinary Blue-quality material, but a rare treasure containing Divine Source Material.
Using it as the sacrificial offering to activate the formation, each death storm it summoned could cover an area at least one hundred li in diameter.
The Acolyte Secret Guards had chosen a location barely more than ten li from New Wan City.
In other words, it would not be long before the death storm swept across the city.
More than ninety-five percent of the ordinary civilians would perish without exception.
As a material containing Divine Source Material, the Eternal Darkness Relic possessed only a limited amount of Divine Source Material, enough to reach Blue Quality, yet that was still sufficient for repeated use.
Once the death storm successfully destroyed New Wan City, the Acolyte Secret Guards would immediately withdraw under the protection of Skeleton Gan Ning's Shadow March, then proceed to the next city and repeat the same process.
In this way, hundreds of thousands of people would be wiped out in an instant.
Even if the human Lord reacted immediately, it would already be too late to stop them.
The loss of several hundred thousand inhabitants would inflict devastating damage upon him.
As for the native residents who perished after being corroded by death energy, they would all eventually be reclaimed by the Lich Territory.
Xie Ming intended to build an entirely new, even larger, Buried Bones City within the New Wan City Region.
Ten or twenty years later, an army numbering in the hundreds of thousands of Buried Bones warriors would be born.
With such an enormous legion, the Lich Territory would possess enough strength to sweep aside any enemy!
Skeleton Gan Ning stood atop the low hill.
New Wan City lay directly before him.
He could even make out some of the buildings within the century-old city.
The land surrounding New Wan City consisted of relatively flat plains.
Vast fields stretched in orderly rows.
Numerous farmers worked among them, while gentle columns of cooking smoke drifted upward from nearby villages.
"Xingba, what are you looking at?"
Su Fei walked over from behind.
Gan Ning replied,
"The scenery.
Tell me...
how many years has it been since we've seen scenery like this?"
Su Fei paused briefly before answering,
"It's been far too long.
Why think about such things?
Our priority is completing the Lord's mission as quickly as possible."
In truth, after the Will of the Abyss descended, the resurrected corrupted Sun Jian had plunged the entirety of Jiangxia into chaos.
Since then, they had likely never again witnessed such peaceful and tranquil scenery.
Yet...
Su Fei felt absolutely nothing.
And now, they themselves were about to destroy the peace before their eyes.
Su Fei experienced not the slightest trace of guilt.
He didn't even think there was anything wrong with it.
In fact, nhe had already come to genuinely prefer the environment of Buried Bones City, while finding the vibrant scene before him strangely uncomfortable.
Ever since becoming undead, the human part of him had long since vanished.
Whether Huang Zu or Su Fei, they had gradually transformed into complete undead beings.
Their ways of thinking, their likes and dislikes, had all changed imperceptibly.
Naturally, they could no longer empathize with ordinary humans—
or with any living creature at all.
Su Fei's numbness made him seem unbelievably unfamiliar to Gan Ning.
The two of them had known each other long before serving Huang Zu.
Gan Ning had once wandered as an outlaw, relying on his exceptional courage and martial prowess to establish the infamous reputation of the Brocade Sail Pirates.
Su Fei, on the other hand, had been the descendant of a respected military family in Jiangxia.
Despite their vastly different backgrounds, they had become inseparable friends.
Gan Ning had always been fiercely loyal to his friends.
Yet by nature, he was rebellious and arrogant, bloodthirsty, ruthless, and merciless.
Su Fei, in contrast, had always been broad-minded, kind-hearted, and generous, frequently performing acts of justice.
Gan Ning thought to himself, if this were the Su Fei of years past, even if he had to sacrifice his life, he would never have stood by and watched hundreds of thousands perish before his eyes.
But then, on second thought, perhaps becoming like this wasn't so bad.
After all, there was no power to change anything.
At least, he would never again suffer confusion or pain.
Sometimes, Gan Ning even envied Huang Zu and Su Fei.
He himself seemed forever unable to escape the shadow of the man he once was.
Compared to them, he could never live with such complete acceptance or peace.
Suddenly, the temperature plummeted.
The formation had been completed.
It was an enormous circular array.
The ten Acolyte Secret Guards each stood at one section,
while countless complex runes rapidly formed within the formation.
At its very center rested a treasure box engraved with countless sealing runes.
The runes covering the box were now fading away.
The Eternal Darkness Relic was about to be unsealed.
The grand formation was about to activate.
"It's beginning!"
As the death energy within the formation grew stronger and stronger, the soul flames inside the empty eye sockets of Su Fei and the other Buried Bones elites burned wildly.
They were clearly anticipating the release of this power, as though awaiting the blooming of a magnificent fireworks display.
Gan Ning, however, tightened his grip on his twin sabers.
He could clearly feel his soul beginning to ache once more.
But at that very moment, something entirely unexpected happened.
"The Lord entrusted New Wan City to my care, so I can't allow any disturbances while I'm responsible for it."
A soft, languid voice drifted through the air.
"Besides, carrying out something this outrageous right under my nose...
don't you think you're looking down on me a little too much?"
"Who's there?!"
Gan Ning and Su Fei's expressions changed instantly.
For someone to approach so effortlessly without being detected proved that this person was anything but ordinary.
The air before the Buried Bones elites suddenly distorted.
A figure radiating chilling deathly aura appeared out of thin air.
The moment Gan Ning, Su Fei, and the others saw him, they all froze for two full seconds.
Because this figure wasn't alive.
Deathly aura permeated his entire body.
If anything, he seemed even more like one of the undead than they were.
"I am the Founder of Extreme Yin, the Acting City Lord of New Wan City—
Jia Xu!"
Jia Xu announced his identity.
He had already received Hang Yu's warning, so he had been closely monitoring every unusual phenomenon throughout the New Wan City Region.
Moreover, he possessed extraordinary mastery over necromantic arts, making him exceptionally sensitive to deathly aura.
Naturally, he had been able to react at the very first moment.
Su Fei and the other Buried Bones warriors all wore solemn expressions.
Gan Ning carefully sized Jia Xu up before saying, "You're strong.
But with only you, I'm afraid you won't be able to stop us."
That was certainly true.
Gan Ning was a Boss-class existence.
If Jia Xu had been at the peak of his strength, he would have been more than capable of dealing with a Skeleton Gan Ning who had only just stepped across the threshold of the Boss level.
However, Jia Xu's physical body had yet to fully recover.
He could only display part of his true power—
roughly equivalent to that of a super first-rate commander.
From that perspective, there remained a significant gap between him and Gan Ning.
"Hehe... is that so?"
Jia Xu remained completely calm and composed.
"I think it's a bad habit to reach conclusions before we've even crossed hands."
Then he smiled faintly.
"Come to think of it...
I actually ought to thank all of you."
Su Fei frowned.
"Thank us?
For what?"
Jia Xu replied calmly, "I've only recently entered my Lord's service.
I'm in desperate need of earning merit.
And all of you…
have given me exactly that opportunity."