Zhenyuan stretched its limbs, its long branches swaying in the air. As they whipped back and forth, the newly grown leaves fell one after another, piling into a thin layer on the ground.
Zhenyuan was, after all, a Ginseng Fruit Tree specialized for combat. Leaves were useless to it and would only hinder its fighting capabilities.
Therefore, after completing its advancement, it actively shook off its foliage, returning to being a bare-branched leader.
However, Yin Stone opened the small world within its body and sucked in all of Zhenyuan’s fallen leaves.
Seeing this, Zhenyuan was somewhat puzzled. It looked down at Yin Stone and asked, “Brother Yin Stone, why are you collecting my fallen leaves?”
“Heh, Brother Zhenyuan, you are a Heaven-Earth Spiritual Root. These fallen leaves are naturally no ordinary items.
I’m collecting them so I can sell them for a high price to those craftsmen at Undead Heavenly Crafts later. That way, I’ll have the money to let them forge and upgrade me.”
“So that’s how it is! Hahaha, Brother Yin Stone, you should have said so earlier. They’re just some leaves; I can grow a whole new batch just by sucking the essence blood out of a few demons.”
Speaking of forging, Chen Xu turned his gaze toward Yin Stone.
With the support of its unique talent, Keystone, Yin Stone could be treated as equipment to be forged, thereby gaining improvements.
He just didn't know if the forging techniques of the 《Secret Treasure Bone Path》 would work on Yin Stone.
If it was effective, then Zhenyuan’s exclusive Dao artifact would be accounted for. Furthermore, Yin Stone could break through to the Eternal-tier because of it, killing two birds with one stone.
But whether it was feasible or not depended on Ghost Axe’s side and the performance of the Exquisite Heart.
If Ghost Axe could thoroughly master the 《Secret Treasure Bone Path》 and extend it into a 《Secret Treasure Necrotic Path》—freeing the materials for the Dao artifact base from bone to all things undead—then Yin Stone’s future path would be secured.
Since Zhenyuan had reached the Eternal-tier, its permissions could be unlocked a bit more.
For example, the permission to freely open spatial gates to the Undead Dao Court was now granted to Zhenyuan.
Sensing the change in its soul, Zhenyuan was extremely excited. However, before it could cheer, it heard Chen Xu’s warning.
“The spatial gate to the Undead Dao Court is limited to yourself and Yin Stone. If you want to bring others or the gourds, you must get my permission first.”
Hearing this, Zhenyuan instantly wilted again.
“However, as for the spatial gates to the Land of the Undead, you can decide for yourself. But if anything goes wrong, you’ll have to deal with the aftermath yourself.”
“Don’t you worry, Master! I promise I won’t cause you any trouble!”
Seeing that Chen Xu had still left it with permissions for the Land of the Undead, Zhenyuan immediately leaned in close, displaying a look of extreme sycophancy.
To show that it was already a grown and sensible Ginseng Fruit Tree, Zhenyuan directly opened a spatial gate and returned to the demon battlefield, attempting to respond to Chen Xu’s trust with practical action.
With this, the first part of the Ten Yin Lords Plan was halfway complete.
Kunpeng, Sindragosa, Tal Rasha, Bone Guard One, and Zhenyuan were all Eternal-tier powerhouses. Five Eternal-tier beings were enough to keep up appearances.
Consequently, Chen Xu sent a message directly to Big Boss.
“Big Boss, in the name of Wanbao Pavilion, buy some traffic for me. It must cover at least a thousand worlds. Promote the Undead Yin Lords—promote Kunpeng, Sindragosa, Tal Rasha, Bone Guard One, and Zhenyuan.”
“Yes, My Lord.”
“Wait, take the Source of the Plague with you as well.”
Chen Xu suddenly remembered that the Source of the Plague’s talent could convert notoriety into plague effects.
Although the Source of the Plague hadn't reached the Eternal-tier, in terms of the number of demons killed, it far surpassed the other undead heroes. Even many angels from Heaven were far inferior to it.
The kill count of ordinary creatures simply could not compare to a virus. The true God of Death never swings a sickle; the harvest is completed invisibly.
Next, Chen Xu returned to the Undead Dao Court and summoned the two artifact spirits, Golden House and Yan Ruyu, telling them to hide 'clandestine content' within the Necrotic Archmage Tower.
They were to treat the Undead Yin Lords as a form of transcendent knowledge, serving as rewards for climbing the tower, and use the hands of the challengers to spread the word.
At the same time, Miracle, the core of the Undead Network, also received Chen Xu’s instructions.
He had Miracle create several alt accounts to post about the Undead Yin Lords from time to time on the transcendent forums that had trillions of daily active users.
He also secretly funneled traffic to these posts, allowing them to hit the trending lists and spark discussions.
With this three-pronged approach, they worked together to build momentum for the Undead Yin Lords.
Before long, the title 'Undead Yin Lord' spread through many civilizations like a virus.
The primary channels were the Necrotic Archmage Tower and the Undead Network. The traffic Big Boss bought was actually quite inefficient; the topic had already become a hot trend here before the promotion over there had even begun.
And among the six Undead Yin Lords, the most popular turned out to be the Source of the Plague, who had been staying in the Necrotic Archmage Tower the whole time.
Judging by the real-time backend popularity from Miracle, the combined buzz of the others wasn't as high as that of the Source of the Plague.
This promotion had unexpectedly given this special aberration unprecedented popularity.
Perhaps it was because the Source of the Plague was more 'approachable.' Every challenger who entered the tower would be tortured to within an inch of their life by it. This love-hate relationship meant it already had quite a bit of discussion among the challenger community.
The consequence of the Source of the Plague’s explosion in popularity was that the strength of its plagues directly increased several-fold.
The demons on the battlefield became the ultimate victims.
The demon plague, which originally took several minutes to be fatal, had now been optimized through generations and enhanced by the effects of notoriety. It now only took half a minute to take the life of an ordinary demon.
Such terrifying efficiency even changed the tactics of the undead army.
Plague bone arrows and plague bubbles led the way, turning low-tier demons directly into meat pulp, causing the demons' numerical advantage to vanish completely.
What followed were scenes of 'righteous' ganging up, where dozens or even a hundred skeleton heroes would surround and kill a high-tier demon whose condition had plummeted due to the plague.
Those skeleton heroes who were too slow to strike didn't even have the right to share in the spoils of war.
Under the massive slaughter, mountains of white bones piled up at Undead Heavenly Crafts.
Ghost Axe led Chen Yan in working day and night to manufacture secret treasure bases, consuming a vast amount of white bones. Otherwise, those bone mountains would have been even more numerous.
With the support of massive amounts of materials, Ghost Axe’s skills improved rapidly.
In the field of artifact casting, talent is important, but practical experience is equally vital.
Starting from the lowest tier of transcendent secret treasures, he gradually moved up to epic, legendary, and mythic. Secret treasures were produced one by one and were eagerly snatched up by the skeleton heroes.
It had been over half a month since the last batch of secret treasures was produced.
And this time, within the giant furnace specifically built for secret treasures, two secret treasure bases were devouring white bones at a terrifying speed.
In just a single breath, an entire mountain of white bones was completely melted into the secret treasure bases.
The white bones accumulated previously were being rapidly consumed at this moment.
Suddenly, Ghost Axe pulled out the axe at his waist, gripped it with both hands, and shouted loudly, “Chen Yan!”
“Understood!”
Chen Yan placed both hands on the ground. The Hellfire bestowed by the Undead Dao Court was now operating at full power.
Blazing Hellfire erupted from below, heating the two secret treasure bases until they were glowing red.
Ghost Axe gave a great leap, jumping into the furnace with his axe. The giant axe in his hands fell repeatedly, hacking at the secret treasure bases.
Strands of impurities were removed, and the color of the two bases became increasingly white and pure.
When the final axe strike fell, the forging of the secret treasure bases was declared complete.
This commotion naturally drew Chen Xu’s attention.
He descended upon the scene, first patting Chen Yan’s forehead, then looking at the two secret treasure bases forged for Kunpeng and Sindragosa, showing a puzzled expression.
“Ghost Axe, are you sure you communicated well with Kunpeng and Sindragosa?
A cube and a sphere? What kind of weapons are these?”
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