Marching into the Land of the Undead!

The next day was New Year's Day.

In the Age of Transcendence, people did not really have holidays. After the revelry, everyone immediately threw themselves back into dungeon clearing.

Xia Qiming made a special trip to give Chen Xu a red envelope before rushing back to the military academy to study the next ultra-tier dungeon target.

Besides Xia Qiming, Ye Bufan also gave Chen Xu a red envelope.

Xiang Longwu did not; that unrefined man was still single. According to Daxia tradition, only those who were married gave red envelopes to their juniors.

What surprised Chen Xu most was the gift from Big Boss, the Merchant of Myriad Worlds.

It was a beautifully wrapped gift box with a greeting card tied to the ribbon.

【Dear Mr. Chen Xu, I heard that it is currently a grand festival in your world. To celebrate, I have prepared a small gift for you. Happy New Year!】

After reading the card, Chen Xu unwrapped the box. Inside were five space fragments, three exquisite gemstones, four bottles of unknown substances, two spatial storage cubes, and a picture book.

Chen Xu first took out the five space fragments. Beneath each fragment was a small label describing its affix.

They were Underworld, Undead, Profound Ice, Fishery, and Blood Sea. All were affixes Chen Xu had never fused before, and there was even an Undead affix.

One could only say he was truly the Merchant of Myriad Worlds; he could even get his hands on an Undead affix.

Chen Xu recognized the three gemstones at a glance as high-purity elemental gems, all of the ice attribute.

As for the four bottles of what looked like potions, Chen Xu opened them one by one to check.

Pulling out a stopper, Chen Xu shook the bottle. It was filled with grayish-white powder.

High-quality Jade Bone Powder, a hot commodity in the Land of the Undead. It was usually a maintenance product only high-tier undead could afford.

Chen Xu opened the other three bottles and found another bottle of Jade Bone Powder, while the other two were high-concentration soul fluid.

These were also bestsellers in the Land of the Undead—the former for skeleton-type creatures and the latter for soul-type creatures.

The two spatial storage cubes: one contained over a hundred dragon corpses, and the other was packed with rotting fish carcasses.

Chen Xu threw both cubes directly into the Undead Kingdom.

As soon as the dragon corpses landed on the snow of the Everfrost Divine Kingdom, they were immediately covered by ice and snow. Before long, a bone dragon flew out from the drifts.

It flew toward Sindragosa, offering its faith to the Dragon God.

As for the rotting fish carcasses, they were all dumped into the Inverted Sea. Instantly, a large number of bubbles surged from the seabed.

The transformation of the Bone Kun would still take some time.

The final booklet turned out to be the records the Wanbao Pavilion had gathered on the Land of the Undead over the years.

It covered some of the special terrain, necrotic creatures, and dangers to watch out for.

Unfortunately, Chen Xu already knew all this from his inherited knowledge.

Still, he appreciated Big Boss's gesture.

After opening the gifts, Chen Xu went to Linglong Academy to bring the Black Knights and Bone Guard One back to the Undead Kingdom.

"Mythic Chen, I am glad to report that the instruction for Biluo Huangquan and Star-Chasing Feathers has been completed.

As for the techniques, the Huangquan Sutra has been modified.

Our teachers created Preaching Jade Bones specifically for skeletons. As long as your skeleton replaces one of its own bones with a Preaching Jade Bone, it will learn the technique within a day.

Unfortunately, time was tight, so we only managed to make 500. Your skeletons are quite large, so the production takes longer."

Qin Yanxin even took out a jade bone and demonstrated by replacing one of his own bones to show Chen Xu.

"The Soul-Reaping Origin-Tracing Arrow has also been modified. Since it is a legendary-tier technique, we created Preaching Bone Tablets. Your archers just need to stare at one for a day to learn the technique."

Qin Yanxin clapped his hands, and two staff members carried out a bone tablet over five meters high and three meters wide.

At this size, it could probably teach many Skeleton Archers at once.

"As for the Spirit Nest Dragon-Nurturing Divine Art, it is a bit troublesome. The modification is finished, but we ran into trouble with the teaching. The intelligence level of the abominations is... quite innocent."

Qin Yanxin thought for a moment before settling on the word "innocent."

Chen Xu did not mind. Even an elite abomination like Patchwerk had a laughably low IQ, let alone these ordinary ones.

Chen Xu waved his hand, signaling Qin Yanxin not to feel pressured.

"Since the modifications are done, you do not need the experimental subjects anymore, right?"

"Uh, we still need a few abominations to verify the teaching results."

"Fine, I will leave ten abominations here. The rest can wait until I return."

"Very well. Safe travels."

Leaving ten abominations behind, Chen Xu left Linglong Academy.

Next was the final stop before heading to the Land of the Undead: the military base.

He had to inform Xia Qiming.

Chen Xu was worried that time in the Land of the Undead might flow differently from Blue Star, just like in the Dragon Court.

He did not have a definite return time for this trip.

During this period, he would not be able to help with Daxia's operations.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

Chen Xu knocked three times and entered Xia Qiming's office.

Xia Qiming looked up, saw it was Chen Xu, and put down his documents.

"Are you ready to leave?"

"Yes, I am heading out now."

"How long will you be gone?"

"Hard to say."

"I see."

Xia Qiming stood up, walked over to Chen Xu, and patted his shoulder.

"Then I wish you a smooth journey, Student Chen Xu."

...

In the Undead Kingdom, atop the Overlord's Castle.

Chen Xu stood with his hands behind his back, facing his army of one billion undead.

Thanks to the Spirit Qi Recovery and the dungeon drop bonuses, Daxia's daily output of corpse materials had increased from 10 million to a staggering 30 million—a threefold increase in efficiency.

As they say, under heavy rewards, there are bound to be brave men. And under high performance targets, there are bound to be grind-lords.

Out of 900 million corpses, 300 million were converted into skeleton soldiers, 100 million into Skeleton Archers, and 100 million into skeleton mages.

In this way, the skeleton brothers alone numbered a full 900 million!

The remaining 400 million corpses were allocated to ghosts, abominations, and necrotic knights in a 1:2:1 ratio.

Now, the numbers of high-tier units reached an incredible level: 2.06 million ghosts, 2.06 million abominations, and 4.37 million necrotic knights.

Altogether, it was nearly a billion.

This billion-strong army was the source of Chen Xu's confidence as he marched into the Land of the Undead.

Standing on the battlements, Chen Xu looked up at the spatial gate leading to the Land of the Undead.

With a grand wave of his hand: "Set out!"

With a thought, the spatial gate in the sky descended to the ground.

Bone Guard One, holding his sword and shield, was the first to enter. A swarm of skeleton soldiers followed closely behind, moving in a special formation—the Huangquan Formation from Biluo Huangquan.

Once the undead army had all entered, Sindragosa flew to the castle and lowered its head.

"Wu~"

Chen Xu stroked Sindragosa's head, then mounted it and entered the Land of the Undead.

Instantly, the authority of the Lord of the Undead resonated with the Land of the Undead.

A unique sound echoed throughout the Land of the Undead, announcing Chen Xu's arrival.

In an instant, several gazes turned toward Chen Xu's location.

"The scent of a newcomer, hehehe... And it is in Old Cyclops's territory. This is going to be a good show."