Chapter 138 – The Undying Legion

In the dim underground, the sounds of battle cries, clashing weapons, and explosions echoed incessantly.

The earth itself writhed and churned ceaselessly.

Beside Mu Yuan, tree roots thicker than his entire body burst through the soil, sprouting branches and leaves tinged with a bloody crimson. This gave the vast tree realm an eerie, bloodthirsty appearance.

“Is this normal, perhaps?”

“After all, War Treants bear the prefix ‘war.’ What’s wrong with being a bit bloodier in battle?”

Mu Yuan chalked it up to his own lack of experience.

What kind of troop unit isn’t skilled in combat? Even delicate Flower Fairies could tear goblins apart once they reached a high enough Rank.

The Myriad Tree Realm—or rather, the crimson tree realm—continued to grow.

It transformed slain monsters into fertilizer, sprouting more roots that, in turn, strangled more monsters.

Like a snowball of blood.

It grew and expanded relentlessly!

Ordinary monsters were meaningless before Tree Spirit Grandma, no matter their numbers—they merely became nourishment. Only elite monsters like Minotaur Warriors and Night Hunters could slice through the tough roots, but in the blink of an eye, they were swallowed by even more roots, devoured by man-eating flowers with gaping maws. The gruesome sound of “crunch, crunch” echoed, sending chills down the spine.

The battle in the Silent Forest lasted over half an hour, ending with the annihilation of most ambushing monsters and the retreat of a few elite, intelligent ones.

As the crimson trees and twisted roots gradually lost their nourishment and sustaining power, they withered and dried up rapidly, much like the drained plants around them. Their bark crumbled away, and the entire structures collapsed.

In an instant, the vast and eerie crimson tree realm that had enveloped the area shattered and dissipated.

Even Tree Spirit Grandma, who had grown to a hundred meters in height, began to shrink. Pieces of bark fell from her body, turning to ash as they decayed.

Despite this, Dolai widened its eyes.

It glanced at Tree Spirit Grandma, then scanned the surroundings where not a single corpse remained. It hesitated, wanting to speak but holding back, ultimately saying nothing.

…

“Truly… powerful!”

Though Tree Spirit Grandma was only at Rank 6, far from Elite Rank, her performance in this battle undoubtedly surpassed even Dolai going all out.

Tree Spirit Grandma excelled at holding a position and sustaining warfare through combat.

This was also related to the environment.

Area-of-effect skills thrived in suitable environments, and Tree Spirit Grandma possessed talents like ‘Root Spirit Draw’ and ‘Natural Breath,’ which heavily relied on the surroundings.

With these three factors combined, it felt like cheating.

The cost, however…

Was that the entire Silent Forest had been drained. Nearly every plant in sight had withered, and the land’s vitality had been almost entirely sapped by Tree Spirit Grandma. It was foreseeable that no vegetation would grow here for a long time.

This environmental destruction seemed even more severe than that caused by the death-spreading undead.

Mu Yuan vaguely recalled that treants were supposed to be environmental protectors?

…

After this battle, Lord Mu recalled the somewhat damaged Tree Spirit Grandma into the Mark Space. After a brief rest, they continued their march.

Subsequently, they encountered several more ambushes.However, perhaps due to “failing to deplete the enemy only to be depleted themselves,” the number of ambushing troops afterward was minimal. They charged forward almost like suicide squads, holding the mindset that eliminating even one enemy would count as a victory. Many cannon-fodder monsters even carried high-explosive devices strapped to their bodies.

Indeed, this caused significant trouble for the Tianyuan Legion.

Even a powerful Skeleton General, after enduring over a dozen explosions in succession, would be left on the brink of death if not outright destroyed.

Thus, Mu Yuan pointed from a distance, and wisps of gray smoke erupted from his fingertips, swiftly merging into the Skeleton General whose soul fire had dimmed and body lay in ruins.

In the blink of an eye, the Skeleton General returned at full strength. However, the ‘Undead Resurrection’ skill could not repair its shattered armor. So, Dolai opened its pouch, reached inside, and pulled out a brand-new set of… General’s armor that had just been crafted in the past two or three days.

Skeleton General Bone Forty-Four had returned, fully reset.

Not long ago,

In the ancient, dilapidated Netherworld city where the Spider-Woman Tribe resided.

The Minotaur Warriors, Night Hunters, Trackers, and other intelligent monsters that had escaped back were continuously describing the enemy’s formidable strength.

“A giant tree, as big as a mountain.”

“Black Armor, warriors, as numerous as the hairs on a bull.”

“No, more than that, at least double!”

Several intelligent monsters gestured animatedly—it wasn’t that they were incompetent, but the enemy was simply too powerful.

Even so, they had managed to eliminate quite a few enemy troops, achieving illustrious battle merits.

The Spiderwoman did not fully trust these incorporated warriors from various tribes. She merely continued issuing orders, relentlessly depleting the enemy. If cannon fodder could be exchanged for the enemy’s elite forces, any cost was worth it.

She thought with conviction.

Sure enough, by the time the Fated Lord’s legion arrived near the Netherworld city, only a little over a hundred remained.

Seeing this, the Minotaur Warriors, Shadow Hunters, and other intelligent monsters roared excitedly, “Hoo hoo hoo!” Their fervor spread to the ordinary, non-sentient monsters, who also began howling and roaring as if they had already achieved a great victory.

But was it truly a great victory?

The Spiderwoman Chieftain felt it wasn’t that simple. Yet even if the Minotaurs and others had exaggerated the enemy’s numbers, these dozen or so ambushes must have depleted a small half, if not more than half, of the enemy’s forces, right?

Thinking this, she too let out a sharp shriek.

“All troops, advance! Encircle and annihilate the Fated Lord’s legion!”

Of course, the Spiderwoman Chieftain kept a trick up her sleeve—she sent the incorporated warriors from various tribes to the front lines. If things went smoothly, her Spider-Woman Tribe would suffer no losses while defeating the enemy and completing the Great Serpent’s mission.

Then, the Spiderwomen would also receive the Serpent God’s blessings, breaking free from their own shackles.

“Praise the Serpent God,” she murmured. As a Spiderwoman, her true faith lay with the Spider Goddess, but since the Goddess had never manifested, she had no choice but to turn to the Serpent God.

However, even if her body leaned toward the Serpent God, her heart still worshipped the Goddess.

So thought the Spiderwoman Chieftain.

…

In the vast Netherworld, a city cast from black stone stood tall.

It seemed not to have originally been here but had sunk into the depths due to some cataclysmic event. The entire area formed a concave basin shape, at the center of which lay the ruined yet still majestic black Ancient City.

Gigantic structures hundreds of meters high lay sprawled across the city, crushing countless buildings beneath them.

Inside the city, various tall structures lay in collapse, leaving the place in utter disarray.Even so, the ancient city seemed to preserve the scene from when the cataclysm struck. The crude wooden and stone structures built within the city appeared strikingly out of place.

Yet no matter how incongruous they were, the tribal monsters had leveraged this ancient city to gain every geographical advantage.

“It looks like we’ll have to engage in urban warfare.”

“The buildings in this ancient city must be extremely sturdy, otherwise they wouldn’t have survived until now – the monsters would have torn them down long ago.”

Under these circumstances, Deadbone’s strategy of relying on the Undead Behemoth for a straightforward push became impractical.

However, this tactic ranked lower in Mu Yuan’s preliminary plans anyway. He never intended to use it, wanting Undead General to conserve as much strength as possible to handle unexpected situations.

“It’s time for the Undead Legion to truly reveal its prowess.”

He murmured.

The vanguard commander Bone Two had already charged forward wielding the ‘Deadman Greatsword’, advancing through arrows falling like locusts.

“For Tianyuan’s glory!”

“Little ones, follow me and kill kakakaka—”

It unleashed a dozen-meter-long dark sword aura that swept through the air, shattering countless arrows, obstacles in its path, and watchtowers and arrow towers alike.

Countless Skeleton Generals followed closely, charging into the grand, towering ancient city.

Amidst the vast sea of monsters.

They were like a drop of water plunging into tidal waves.

But these were drops of ink.

Cleave, Charge, spin, leap…

Bone Three moved with agile grace, weaving through the monsters as over a dozen bone swords slithered like snakes, harvesting monster lives with successive thudding sounds.

Even the relatively ordinary Skeleton Generals in the legion fought like elite warriors, constantly pressing forward, with common monsters falling to a single sword stroke.

A Minotaur Warrior roared and executed its Leap Strike skill, covering dozens of meters in a single bound.

Yet it only managed to push the level-nine Skeleton General back a few steps.

The two immediately engaged in combat, exchanging several moves without either gaining advantage, until the next moment…

Thud—

A wraith emerged from the side, using its Fear skill to create a momentary distraction, allowing the Skeleton General to decapitate the bull-headed creature with a single sword stroke.

Similar scenes played out across various parts of the battlefield.

Under Lord Mu’s meticulous control, these already formidable elite troops slaughtered Professional Tier monsters as easily as butchering chickens, with blood raining down like precipitation.

However, the number of monsters was ultimately overwhelming.

Thousands? Tens of thousands? Or even more.

He couldn’t estimate.

With exchange rates of dozens to one, coupled with ambushes by some intelligent monsters, the Skeleton Generals and wraaths inevitably suffered casualties, falling one after another.

Witnessing this scene from afar, the utterly astonished Spiderwoman Chieftain, Minotaur Chieftain, Lizardman Chieftain, and others finally felt relieved, showing pleased expressions.

The Minotaur Chieftain roared several times to boost morale.

The Lizardman Chieftain contemplated that it was almost time to start the victory feast.

But as they waited, they suddenly sensed something amiss.

“The numbers, seem, unchanged?”

“Decreased? Unchanged? Decreased?”

Even with their poor mathematical abilities and lack of compulsory education, the intelligent monsters vaguely felt something was wrong.

One hundred minus one hundred – shouldn’t that equal zero?

No, these skeletons were reviving!

The Spiderwoman Chieftain, possessing significantly higher intelligence, keenly detected the anomaly. However, even if the skeletons could revive, they were ultimately few in number. With continued attrition, their resurrection power would eventually be exhausted, and victory would still belong to their side.

She had just formed this thought when—Black mist—endless black mist—suddenly surged, enveloping the entire city district. Immediately after, as if the Gates of the Underworld had been thrown wide open, thousands of Skeleton Soldiers, Ghouls, Jiangshi, Skeleton Mages, Abominations, Blood Fiends, and other undead creatures poured forth.

Under the shroud of the black mist, these undead could rapidly regenerate broken bones, and severed limbs would stitch themselves back together in the blink of an eye.

Even creatures slain by the undead wobbled to their feet, stumbling forward like zombies to attack their surroundings.

It was as if an immortal legion was spreading its mark.

One more chapter, shouldn’t be too long.

(End of Chapter)