Undead vs. Cold Ghosts

Most cold ghosts were under two meters tall, though a small portion resembling mammoths reached heights of over six meters.

Skeleton soldiers stood side by side, their bone shields braced in front of them to form a solid wall as they held back the charge and pushed outward step by step.

Behind the front line of skeleton soldiers were the abominations and necrotic knights.

When they encountered the massive mammoth cold ghosts, the even larger abominations stepped in. They swung their hooks in wide circles, aimed at the mammoth cold ghosts, and hurled them forward.

With the immense strength of the abominations, the hooks easily pierced through the cold ghosts' bodies. With a violent tug, the abominations dragged the giants back toward the line.

Seeing the abominations pull their prey in, the skeleton soldiers coordinated perfectly. Some shifted their shields to create an opening, letting the mammoth cold ghosts through.

They quickly closed the gap afterward. As for the mammoth cold ghosts that entered, several necrotic knights were already waiting. They were greeted by heavy knightly greatswords and the massive, fleshy impacts of the abominations.

The skeleton archers and mages in the rear had it much easier. They didn't need complex formations or tight coordination.

After emerging from the spatial gate of the Undead Kingdom, they jogged forward just enough to leave room for the troops behind them. Then, they raised their bone bows and began firing without even bothering to aim.

A rain of arrows whistled through the air, so dense that it momentarily eclipsed the sun. The meter-long bone arrows easily pierced the bodies of the cold ghosts. However, the cold ghosts seemed to have no specific weaknesses; the arrows only slightly hindered their charging momentum.

Fortunately, the sheer volume of arrows was enough. As soon as one bone arrow pinned a cold ghost, many more followed in rapid succession. It could be said that the cold ghosts weren't shot to death, but rather crushed under the weight of the arrows.

Of course, the most efficient ones were the skeleton mages. A single Fire Wall technique could melt a vast swath of cold ghosts. The blazing flames stood out starkly against the permafrost, and the skeleton mages quickly drew the cold ghosts' hatred, causing the monsters to accelerate their charge.

Many cold ghosts stepped onto the backs of their kin, leaping over the shield wall of skeleton soldiers to rush straight for the skeleton mages.

But upon landing, they found their vision filled with more skeleton soldiers, necrotic knights, abominations, and the sight of their mammoth kin being dismantled.

Under the overwhelming might of the undead army, the cold ghosts were forced back, their advance completely suppressed.

However, Chen Xu also noticed a problem. These cold ghosts had incredibly high ice resistance, meaning the ice damage from his skeleton soldiers was almost entirely ineffective.

Against previous monsters, the Aura of Cold would slow them down until they were as stiff as old men with bad joints. But these cold ghosts remained fast, completely unaffected by the aura.

It seemed that for this Hanyuan Siege Battle, the skeleton soldiers could only serve as meat shields, leaving the actual damage output to the other units.

In reality, the high ice resistance didn't bother Chen Xu much. The output from his skeleton archers and mages was more than enough, with every shot or spell taking down a cold ghost.

The abominations also stood like mountains at the very front, swathes of cold ghosts being sent flying with a single swing of their massive arms.

What truly bothered Chen Xu and made him feel disgusted was that these cold ghosts left no corpses after they died! Once they took fatal damage, they shattered into ice shards, scattered on the ground, melted into puddles, and flowed back into the permafrost of Hanyuan.

What was the point of an undead army going to war if not to replenish its ranks? Other races used war to thin out excess populations, but the undead used war to grow.

Now, because these cold ghosts couldn't be converted into members of the undead army, Chen Xu felt like he was losing out on this deal.

After temporarily pushing the cold ghosts back, Chen Xu summoned Xuan Chu and the other four black knights.

"My Lord!"

The five black knights bowed toward Chen Xu the moment they appeared.

"Each of you will join one of the teams. Command the undead army to cover them and help them carve a path to the coordinates marked on the map."

Chen Xu handed five electronic maps to the black knights. These were the same maps held by the Daxia strike force teams. Chen Xu had requested extra copies so the black knights could make tactical arrangements based on the terrain.

"For the will of the Lord of the Undead!"

The black knights took the maps and moved toward their respective teams.

"Everyone, these are the black knights under my command. They are experts in tactical leadership. They will escort you to your target locations."

The Daxia powerhouses cupped their fists toward Chen Xu in respect and then followed the black knights as they departed from the flanks.

The center was occupied by the spatial gate of the Undead Kingdom. Less than a third of Chen Xu's billion-strong army had emerged, and the gate would need to remain open for a while longer.

Chen Xu planned to deploy only half of his total forces. Since these cold ghosts could resurrect after being killed and couldn't be converted into undead, killing too many was pointless and wouldn't bolster his numbers.

The primary goal for this stage was simply to escort the five teams to their mission sites. Having enough troops for that was sufficient.

Chen Xu then summoned Invincible. Mounting the bone dragon, he flew to the front line to advance alongside the undead army.

Soon, the undead army reclaimed the original Hanyuan Base of the Daxia Military Academy. Chen Xu's army had finished its deployment, and the spatial gate to the Undead Kingdom finally closed.

Xia Qiming immediately arranged for personnel to move into the base and activate all the defense systems.

At the same time, Daxia's official legions, civilian warbands, and the war machine units from the Heavenly Crafts Academy and other schools finished assembling. They followed behind the undead army to provide supplementary firepower.

"Old Li, don't you have those paper cranes? Take us up into the air! These skeletons of Mythic Chen's are too tall. I can't even see the cold ghosts!"

"Yeah, Captain. If we can't see the targets, how are we supposed to fight?"

Members of a certain civilian warband looked at the towering skeletons around them, feeling as if they had entered a land of giants. At their height, they could see nothing but bone.

The captain called Old Li kicked one of his team members. "Dammit, did you guys slack off during the pre-battle briefing again? Paper cranes? Even the official fighter jets can't stay up there. What, are you mages planning to switch to the Martial Artist path and cultivate indestructible golden bodies? If you can't see the targets, just do what everyone else is doing and hurl your skills over the bone wall in front of us!"

Chen Xu paid no attention to the minor squabbles happening in the rear.

The five elite Daxia teams had already set out, heading deep into the permafrost of Hanyuan under the escort of the undead army.

Once they entered the actual territory of the permafrost, the number of cold ghosts increased. They also seemed to receive some kind of buff, making them even harder to kill than before.

With nearly half of his current strength diverted to escort the Daxia powerhouses, the main front line fell into a stalemate, and the advance slowed down.

Thus, Chen Xu opened a spatial gate in the sky and dropped Bone Guard One through it.

As Bone Guard One descended from the heavens, a laser beam shot from a distance and struck his shield. Fortunately, Bone Guard One was incredibly tough, and the power of the laser was negligible to him.

Chen Xu had simply wanted to mimic the entrance of an Infernal by having Bone Guard One crush a large group of cold ghosts upon landing. He had momentarily forgotten about the anti-air defenses.

Luckily, the laser's power was mediocre and failed to break his defense.

Bone Guard One slammed into the ground, and the resulting massive shockwave instantly annihilated a large cluster of cold ghosts.

Bone Guard One's grand entrance shocked the crowds in the rear.

"Holy crap, what kind of undead is that?"

"I don't know. Was that skeleton summoned from the corpse of an Ultraman?"