Chapter 190 – Strategy for the Boss, Vampires, and More

West Ridge City, large recruitment point.

The competition here had gradually concluded, but the lords and ranger players on the outskirts were still wide-eyed, staring at the terrifying torrents of energy surging in the distance.

Lord Wang Ba was among them.

He gazed into the distance.

The core area was a battlefield only veteran lords were qualified to enter. Even though Wang Erteng was a top-tier second-generation heir, he could only linger on the outskirts, competing with other old lords.

Not to mention the gap between him and the veteran lords, even the BOSS monster guarding the recruitment point in the core area was beyond his ability to provoke.

He would be blown to pieces with a single punch!

Even those powerful veteran lords, with their fierce generals and elite troops, dared not take on the Guardian BOSS alone. They might stand a chance if they went all-in, but the cost would be unbearably painful.

Not long ago, it was the joint effort of the main generals of these veteran lords that shattered the earth and toppled mountains, finally slaying the Guardian BOSS.

To seize an opportunity, luck alone was not enough; one also needed sufficient strength.

“Who obtained the recruitment rights for the ultimate unit?”

“It’s Lord Liu Feng, but this big shot had to promise many treasures to others to secure the recruitment rights. Rumor has it that Lord Liu Feng recruited the top-tier, three-star elite unit, the ‘Mountain Giant.'”

Ordinary players might not fully grasp the might of the Mountain Giant, but Wang Erteng, as a top-tier second-generation heir, understood it well.

Due to the vast gap between the Elite and Epic tiers, there was a clear distinction in strength even among three-star Elite units.

Such top-tier three-star Elite units already possessed a hint of the divine peculiarities of Epic units. With proper cultivation, they even had a slight chance of advancing to the Epic tier.

Not to mention veteran lords, if things dragged on, even a Great Lord might stoop to competing for it, disregarding face.

A Mountain Giant not only had limitless potential but was also an exceptionally powerful siege weapon.

Wang Erteng thought enviously, only shifting his gaze after a long while.

“I’m still young. In the future, I will surely have the chance to recruit such units, or even stronger ones.”

…

Logically, a large recruitment site should be guarded by countless monsters, requiring battles to progress step by step.

But Mu Yuan encountered none.

This could only mean one thing: a special, roaming monster had already slain all the other monsters in the vicinity.

At that moment, he sensed strands of killing intent diffusing through the air, shifting from loose to dense, like sharp needles pricking his skin and forehead.

His hair stood on end, and his eyes quickly grew solemn.

“It’s here!”

He said.

In front of him, Lu Liu let out a low shout. A protective glow spread from the Earth Rock Shield, forming a pair of golden wings that stretched open. The wings, over ten meters long, arched to shield everyone within.

A flash of blood-red light seemed to vanish in an instant.

The next moment—

Crack—

Lu Liu’s shield, incredibly sturdy and capable of withstanding a full-force strike from a battle general, now cracked, shattered, and exploded into pieces.

Mu Yuan finally saw the blood-red light clearly.

It was a bone arrow, enveloped in a viscous, crimson radiance, tearing through the sky and earth, piercing through visible ripples in the air.

It was still advancing!

Mu Yuan raised his hands.

Seizing the moment the blood-red light was blocked, he summoned rows of bone walls that rose from the ground with a thunderous roar.The crimson light pierced through several bone walls in succession before dissipating completely.

He looked into the distance.

At the edge of his vision, amidst a pile of scattered rocks, a figure had appeared unnoticed. She wore blood-red armor, a skull-like mask, and held a long crimson bow in her hand.

The curves of the armor suggested she was female, but the figure appeared somewhat blurred, as if both real and illusory.

“Another remnant of obsession?!”

But this one was clearly far stronger than any they had encountered before.

「Remnant of Obsession: Blood Raven」

「Tier: ???」

「Rank: ???」

The Lord’s appraisal ability was becoming increasingly unreliable, but based on experience and observation, Mu Yuan could roughly gauge its strength.

Nearby, General Dolai’s eyes lit up upon hearing the words “remnant of obsession.”

To it, this equated to “delicious food.”

Delicious and capable of making it stronger—that was double the happiness.

“Let this Dolai deal with it!”

Mu Yuan thought for a moment but did not stop it.

After Isloria’s evolution, Dolai’s Tianyuan ranking might drop to fourth—after all, the top three should include Mu Someone—but Dolai’s survivability was unmatched in all of Tianyuan, as it lacked vulnerable spots like a head or heart.

General Dolai charged forward, preparing to gather electromagnetic radiance.

A flash of crimson light appeared.

General Dolai attempted to dodge;

General Dolai failed to dodge! General Dolai’s barrier was shattered!

The attack method of this obsession monster seemed simplistic, perhaps inheriting only one ability from its former self. Yet, this singular ability was terrifying.

The speed of the crimson arrow almost surpassed the limits of Mu Yuan’s vision.

Its destructive power was even more horrifying.

Even Lu Liu couldn’t withstand it, let alone Dolai.

Dolai fell from the sky, scattering into several puddles of viscous fluid.

“You’re not playing fair! This Dolai hasn’t even made a move yet QAQ!”

Mu Yuan summoned the Undead Holy Mountain, placing it before them to instantly widen the distance between them and the remnant of obsession.

He stared at the terrifying crimson figure in the distance, his eyes devoid of fear:

“Retreat! Strategic withdrawal for now!”

He blocked and retreated simultaneously, the entire Undead Holy Mountain riddled with holes before they finally escaped beyond the Land of Buried Bones.

At this point, the remnant of obsession, Blood Raven, ceased pursuit. She slowly retreated, her form vanishing into the darkness.

Mu Yuan looked beside him, where a small Slime was crying QAQ, looking utterly miserable. Well, it was indeed pitiful—General Dolai hadn’t even managed to use any abilities before being decisively defeated by Blood Raven.

Now it seemed to be questioning its very existence.

How could this happen?

Even though it was already an epic lifeform, even though it had stepped into the half-step Domain realm, why couldn’t it even defeat a single monster?

“It’s not that you’re weak, but that she’s too strong.”

Mu Yuan temporarily withdrew and tasked Sophia with gathering intelligence related to large recruitment sites.

Soon, fresh intelligence about the West Ridge City area was presented to him.

“The strongest guardian monster at that recruitment site is a Warlord-tier War Golem.”

A Third-Order Warlord Tier was already a fierce warrior capable of rampaging freely across the battlefield.

Against ordinary soldiers, they could take on hundreds or even thousands alone.

In the ancient Eagle Kingdom, a third-order expert could serve as the lord of a city or hold a high ministerial position, treated as an honored guest wherever they went.In the Taixuan Alliance, Third-Order Warlord Tier warriors were not particularly rare, but such powerful individuals were mostly concentrated in large territories and top-tier domains, seldom seen in the outside world.

Among the player community, the majority were at the First-Order Professional Tier, while Second-Order Elite Tier players were not exactly scarce. However, when it came to the Third-Order…

The numbers dropped sharply.

Ranger players, even if they exerted their utmost efforts, would remain unable to break through to the Third-Order for ten, twenty, or even thirty years without a special opportunity.

For Lord players aspiring to reach the Third-Order, without unique opportunities or backing, they needed a long time to accumulate strength. And there was no guarantee that before they could succeed, their promising Third-Order commanders wouldn’t fall in some calamity.

This was a common occurrence.

Players who possessed Third-Order strength were already experts qualified to earn titles. With the right connections, they could even become vice-presidents of the Player Association in small cities.

During the recent struggle for recruitment grounds in West Ridge City, several seasoned Lords dispatched their Third-Order commanders.

Even so, facing the ‘War Golem’ one-on-one put them at a significant disadvantage. They only managed to defeat the Guardian Boss by ganging up on it.

“The Land of Buried Bones has only this one Boss, and clearly, she is stronger than the War Golem.”

It was like the difference between Outstanding One-Star and Outstanding Three-Star.

Moreover, this Boss had fully invested her abilities in offense, making her extremely ferocious.

Perhaps her defense and vitality were relatively weak, but charging forward to engage in close combat under the barrage of highly lethal blood arrows carried immense risks.

The reason he could retreat calmly earlier was, first, because the Undead Holy Mountain was quite resilient—though it was still shattered and required a long time to repair—and second, because they were relatively far from the Blood Crow. However, if they were to fight the Boss head-on and fail, escaping afterward wouldn’t be so easy.

To tackle her calmly, the prerequisite was to withstand the Boss’s attacks.

“The Blood Crow’s attacks have long range and high lethality, but she isn’t without flaws. She seems to only possess single-target attacks.”

Such attacks were most deadly to commanders and elites.

Even Third-Order Warlord Tier experts with weaker defense or survival capabilities could be severely injured by a single arrow.

Average Elite Tier units would be harvested one by one.

But,

if a Lord deployed a large number of cannon-fodder troops, could the Boss Blood Crow handle them with ease?

Mu Yuan pondered; a normal Lord might adopt this strategy. He didn’t have a cannon-fodder army, but he did possess the strategic skill ‘Death Legion.’

In the end, he shook his head. Even if the Blood Crow only used single-target attacks, she possessed a certain level of intelligence. If she couldn’t clear all the enemies, wouldn’t she just pick off the elites and strong units within the army?

Moreover, Dolai had been defeated too quickly earlier, so they might not have tested all of the Blood Crow’s abilities.

This strategy wasn’t stable enough.

Half a day later, the Undead General returned. He and Dolai, the two heroes, went out together and engaged in a fierce battle with the Boss Blood Crow. They fought across the Cosmos… for 30 seconds before the Undead General cautiously retreated.

“It’s a bit tricky,”

he said.

From this battle, they had tested more of the Boss Blood Crow’s abilities. Besides the blood arrows, she also had the skills to summon blood birds and perform blood teleportation.

And a crimson Domain!

The Undead General had confronted it with his own Domain.

His eyes couldn’t keep up with the speed of the blood arrows, but as long as he expanded his Domain, everything within its range was under his control, allowing him to easily dodge the blood arrows. That was, until the Boss Blood Crow also unleashed her Domain.

Only a Domain could counter a Domain.After canceling each other out, the Undead General found himself unable to dodge again.

Mu Yuan pondered, “If Deadbone were to unleash his full power and deploy all the undead creatures from the Undead Holy Mountain, he might have a chance to defeat the boss, but…”

After this battle, the Undead Holy Mountain, which Deadbone had painstakingly managed for so long, would likely be depleted by more than half.

This place was not like the Land of Trials, where everything could be reset at will.

Nor was it a stable approach.

Deadbone probably disliked such an unstable method of combat. Mu Yuan didn’t like it either; he had a more stable strategy.

A few hours later, the Tianyuan Strategy Group once again set foot in the Land of Buried Bones.

This time, Mu Yuan was merely a spectator, while the main force of the strategy consisted of the Undead General, the Rakshasa Lieutenant General, the Red-Clad Lieutenant General, Bone Two Three Four, and a group of elite troops.

The Undead Legion numbered 133.

This was the result of Mu Yuan gradually adding “new recruits” to the legion. The current number of new recruits was precisely the maximum that would not affect the stability of the legion’s soul.

The Undead Legion advanced slowly, their steps synchronized with a precision even greater than that of an honor guard.

Soon, the boss, Blood Crow, appeared at the edge of their vision. A crimson arrow flashed and vanished.

Boom~!

The blood arrow tore through the sky, striking one of the skeletal pallbearers. This arrow, powerful enough to pierce Lu Liu’s defenses, only caused the skeletal pallbearer to tremble, with cracks appearing on its armor… and that was it.

“The legion soul weakened the damage, and the remaining harm was shared among all the soldiers in the legion. Naturally, only this much was left.”

A few more blood arrows shot through the air.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Death Legion trembled once, twice, and then again, but nothing happened.

Well, not entirely nothing. After several arrows, many Skeleton Generals had accumulated significant damage, with their bones cracking or even breaking. However, they quickly recovered completely under Deadbone’s “Undead Resurrection.”

The legion continued to advance.

Meanwhile, Blood Crow kept shooting while changing positions. She occasionally summoned blood birds, but they were quickly shot down by volleys of bone spears.

“Should we seize the opportunity to launch a strong attack?”

Deadbone contemplated.

The Death Legion had already condensed its legion soul, and its true explosive speed was not slow.

But Deadbone dismissed the idea.

There were still over six days left to conquer the Land of Buried Bones. There was no need to rush. It could adopt a more stable method of subjugation—simply outlasting the enemy!

The boss, Blood Crow, kept shooting arrows, while they kept blocking.

This battle lasted for nearly half an hour, as if even the Dao itself were being worn away.

Visibly, the speed of the blood arrows shot by the boss had slowed significantly, and the crimson glow was no longer as thick or dense. Above the Death Legion, the nascent legion soul remained solid, with rolling black mist, looking as if it could fight for three days and three nights more.

“It’s time.”

Deadbone sighed softly.

The majestic Undead Holy Mountain materialized, spanning the sky and casting a mountain-like pressure upon the boss, Blood Crow.

Deadbone pursued, and Blood Crow fled.

After more than a dozen rounds of pursuit, the Undead General wielded his sword and struck down the boss, Blood Crow, in the Land of Buried Bones.

“What an arduous battle.”

Mu Yuan sighed.

A speck of light naturally emerged from the fallen boss, Blood Crow. It contained the essence of her power, experience, and realm.

This essence slowly drifted toward Deadbone.

Deadbone refused. Power gained without one’s own cultivation was far too unstable.

“In that case, I’ll take it for myself.”Dolai opened its mouth and inhaled, drawing the small cluster of essence into its mouth.

Crunch.

It closed its eyes and focused its spirit, yet it didn’t gain any profound insights. However, in the next moment, it instinctively unleashed the field skill ‘Infinite Serpent,’ which gradually advanced toward the Domain level.

Domain level—achieved!

As naturally as water flowing in a channel.

Even its Concept saw significant improvement.

“This Dolai seems to have become invincible!”

General Dolai had revived, embarking once more on the path of invincibility.

Meanwhile, Lord Mu ventured deeper into the Land of Buried Bones.

Recruit! Recruit! Keep recruiting! Still recruiting!

In the blink of an eye, a massive tide had gathered behind him—a force of several hundred rookie troops, including over twenty Skeleton Mages.

Skeleton Mages typically possessed one of the basic skills like ‘Gray Fire’ or ‘Corrosive Mist.’ They weren’t particularly strong, but with further evolution, they could awaken debuff-type skills, which General Undead found quite commendable.

Finally, Mu Yuan reached the depths of the Land of Buried Bones.

Here, three dazzling pillars of light shot up into the sky.

Within the pillars, a black coffin could be seen. The coffin was engraved with intricate, noble patterns, its lid slightly ajar, faintly revealing the figure sleeping inside.

“This troop is…”

「Prompt: Recruit Excellent One-Star troop ‘Vampire Viscount’? This recruitment requires 500g of Soul Sand.」

「Yes!」

The three brilliant pillars of light slowly receded and dissipated.

In their place stood three vampires, dressed in black tailcoats, adorned with dark red capes, and wielding black longswords—elegant and noble in appearance.

「Vampire Viscount」

「Grade: Excellent One-Star」

「Talent: Blood Drain」

「Skills: Cleave, Blood Slash」

Vampires were considered quite versatile troops, capable of both offense and defense, and could even fly. From the lowest-tier Vampire Servants to the legendary Vampire Dukes and Vampire Princes, they had left countless footprints and earned formidable reputations.

Similarly, vampires were notoriously arrogant.

They ranked in the upper-middle tier among troops of the same grade, but top-tier lords would never choose Vampire Viscounts when preparing Excellent Remnant Souls for their descendants—they were too difficult to subdue.

At this moment, the three Vampire Viscounts scrutinized the lord before them.

They didn’t possess full self-awareness but had enough wisdom to understand that this person was the one they were to pledge allegiance to.

The fact that he could summon them in this recruitment ground indicated that this lord possessed a certain level of strength.

They had no reason to be disobedient.

But,

they were noble vampires! Without a mansion each and a dozen male and female servants, the lord shouldn’t even think of ordering them around.

That was the bare minimum.

If another lord tried to recruit them without dozens of attendants and services befitting their status, they wouldn’t agree.

Hey, wait! Lord, why aren’t you saying anything? Hey! Hey!

Watching their lord, who had recruited them and then tossed them aside without a second glance, the three Vampire Viscounts were dumbfounded.

Was this reasonable?

How was this different from the fragmented memories they had?

Not only were they completely disregarded, but they also vaguely sensed disappointment in the lord’s eyes, as if he were saying, “Is this it? What kind of trash are these Vampire Viscounts?”

Mu Yuan wasn’t exactly looking down on the Vampire Viscounts—they were quite powerful, but…

In such a vast Land of Buried Bones, surely the strongest troops couldn’t just be these three vampires, right?

They couldn’t be, right?The neighboring West Ridge City has already produced Mountain Giants.

Mu Yuan held expectations for high-tier units. He might be able to evolve epic-level lifeforms, yet for units like Mountain Giants that lack lower-tier variants and possess extremely strong utility, he couldn’t evolve them.

What he anticipated most was obtaining certain high-tier units that he couldn’t acquire through evolution.

Vampires weren’t among them.

Their lowest-tier unit was the rare one-star ‘Vampire Servant’, which wouldn’t be difficult for Mu Yuan to obtain.

However, standing at a high point and gazing around, Mu Yuan could no longer see any pillars of light.

“Has it ended already?”

“No, it hasn’t. There hasn’t been any prompt indicating the complete conquest of the Land of Buried Bones yet.”

There must still be units hidden away, not yet recruited!

5K chapter… Still writing, striving to make the next chapter longer too…

(End of Chapter)