Ambush: The Outsider with No Sense of Honor

On the ground, those dozens of eerie flesh balls were slowly writhing, as if some terrifying existence was about to be born from within.

A faint mythic aura continued to rise along with the movement of the flesh balls.

Old Insight watched this scene with a wicked smile.

These flesh balls, bred from the flesh of countless ghouls, were his supreme masterpiece as a great candidate for the Lord of the Undead.

By utilizing the ghouls' insatiable hunger, he had compressed, digested, and filtered the flesh of countless ghouls to extract the most refined essence.

This primitive extraction method had condensed the bloodline essence of the ghouls to an extreme point.

Next, a mythic being would be born from that essence—an incredibly powerful and perfect ghoul would descend upon the world to vent its fury upon the living.

But just as Old Insight was immersed in his masterpiece, Xuan Chu and eight other Black Knights arrived beside the flesh balls in an instant.

Before Old Insight could even react, divine power gathered on their blade tips, and with a series of full-strength slashes, they hacked the writhing flesh balls on the field in half.

A massive amount of blood gushed out, staining the grey ground a deep crimson.

"Protect the ghoul blood cores for me!"

Old Insight roared furiously, and the Black Knights around him, along with the gargoyles in the sky, charged forward.

Responding to them was a long-range barrage from the countless skeleton archers and mages atop the city walls behind Chen Xu.

A rain of arrows filled the sky, carrying various elemental spells. In an instant, the sky was covered as if it were collapsing.

The gargoyles flying in the air had intended to rely on their hard stone bodies and extremely high magic resistance to ignore the attacks from above.

However, they hadn't expected that Chen Xu's skeleton archers had learned formations.

Under the empowerment of 【Star-Chasing Feathers】, a special and ancient aura circulated on the bone arrows fired by the skeleton archers, containing incredibly terrifying destructive power.

This aura originated from the pinnacle of archers, the Great Shaman of Star-Chasing Feathers.

The bone arrows easily broke through the gargoyles' defenses, piercing through their stone bodies.

Seeing this, the gargoyles activated the strange apparatuses on their backs.

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!"

The strange apparatuses began to fire projectiles into the sky at high speeds.

"Boom!"

The projectiles exploded upon contact with the bone arrows or magic, releasing dispel and repulsion spells.

For a moment, a magic forbidden zone formed in the sky. The spells of the skeleton mages could not pass through it, and the bone arrows of the skeleton archers were affected by the repulsion, losing some of their power.

However, they could still easily penetrate the gargoyles' stone bodies.

While the aerial forces failed to make an impact, the Black Knights on the ground used their agile movements to evade the bone arrows and spells, rapidly approaching the flesh balls on the field.

Strangely, however, Xuan Chu and his fellow Black Knights did not step forward with their swords. Instead, they slowly retreated, looking as if they were avoiding a direct confrontation.

But in terms of strength, the Black Knights under Chen Xu's command were a level higher than those under Old Insight.

Just as Old Insight's Black Knights reached the flesh balls and grabbed the writhing masses to retreat...

A giant Taotie-like mouth struck from the side.

Kunpeng had long since hidden its figure, lurking above the skeleton soldiers.

By utilizing the extreme cold environment created by the Huangquan Formation and Chen Xu's massive aura as a candidate for the Lord of the Undead, it had escaped Old Insight's observation.

When these dozen or so flesh balls appeared, Kunpeng had sensed a strange fragrance wafting toward it, making its mouth water instantly.

If Chen Xu hadn't told it to endure, it probably would have lost control long ago.

Now that the Black Knights had entered the serving tray and Chen Xu's order had been given, Kunpeng could no longer hold back. It opened its massive mouth and swallowed the flesh balls, the Black Knights, and a large patch of blood-soaked soil all into its belly.

"Wuoooh... Burp!"

Kunpeng let out a satisfied burp. As its divine power circulated, it hid itself once more, retreating into the army formation.

Witnessing this scene, Old Insight slapped downward in a rage, crushing the head of the skeleton giant beneath him.

"Chen Xu! You have no sense of honor! The competition for the Lord of the Undead is to select the strongest one. This kind of ambush will not earn you recognition!"

"Only by ascending to the supreme throne of the Land of the Undead with absolute strength can one be acknowledged by all as the Lord of the Undead!"

Facing Old Insight's impotent rage, Chen Xu merely shrugged and spread his hands.

He felt that the ghoul in front of him had misunderstood the situation.

It wasn't that the strongest undead became the Lord of the Undead; rather, the undead who became the Lord of the Undead was the strongest.

Since Old Insight still held such naive thoughts, Chen Xu could only conclude that either the Land of the Undead was too isolated and its thinking too outdated...

Or the racial limitations of ghouls themselves restricted Old Insight's thinking. Even after becoming a candidate and receiving the empowerment of authority, which made his intelligence superior to ordinary ghouls, he was still not very bright.

With the flesh balls and Black Knights gone, the gargoyles in the sky were also retreating under the rain of arrows.

Chen Xu waved his hand, and the world-destroying tide of the undead army surged northward once more.

This time, even the skeleton archers and mages on the city walls moved.

They fired arrows and cast spells while running at high speeds.

Seeing this, Old Insight turned and fled, turning into a streak of light that vanished instantly.

He left behind the luxurious carriage and a skeleton giant with a half-shattered head kneeling on the spot. The charging necrotic knights arrived, and with one sword strike each, they completely smashed the giant to pieces.

Chen Xu was in no hurry now that Old Insight had fled. He ordered the Black Knights to lead the army and continue advancing toward the north.

That was Old Insight's territory. He could run, but he couldn't take his land with him.

Territory—the earthly divine kingdom established during the ascension ceremony—was a crucial part of the struggle for the Lord of the Undead.

If your territory was occupied by another candidate, then your authority as a candidate would be swallowed by them.

This peculiar rule of territorial struggle had been written into the fundamental laws of the Land of the Undead by a previous Lord of the Undead.

Legend has it that the Lord of the Undead of that era was unquestionably the strongest in terms of power. However, he had encountered a cunning candidate.

That candidate was a ghost, one famous for its speed and hiding abilities.

That Lord of the Undead had spent a mere two hundred years sweeping away all other competitors.

However, catching that last candidate had taken him a full three thousand years.

He chased, and it fled; it truly knew how to fly.

By relying on its innate skills, the ghost had repeatedly escaped the Lord's pursuit.

Ultimately, that Lord of the Undead had unified the Land of the Undead as a candidate. Every undead except for the necrotic archdukes followed his orders, and only then was he able to catch that cunning ghost.

After catching the ghost, he tortured it for over a hundred years before finally obliterating it, merging the authority, and ascending to the supreme throne.

Then, still unsatisfied, he wrote the territory rule into the struggle, completely ending such games of hide-and-seek.

For the siege, Chen Xu intended to send only the skeleton brothers, the necrotic knights, and Kunpeng.

Sindragosa would lead the Undead Bone Dragons and abominations to guard the territory. Combined with Big Boss and Gandalf, they should be able to hold out if they were ambushed by other candidates.

Furthermore, a territory battle was a stationary target. Chen Xu flew up from Sindragosa's back and reached a higher altitude.

He landed on Guixu.

While others led their campaigns from imperial carriages, today, Chen Xu would personally lead the campaign from his floating city.