Start with the hidden role of the Great Emperor of Fengdu, and immediately unleash 100,000 Yin Soldi

Chu Jiang did not hesitate.

He brought up the Fengdu Underworld building panel, first exchanging blue soul points for white soul points, and then tapped the upgrade option for the second-tier Ghost Gate.

"Upgrade."

[Consuming 2000 White Soul Points, upgrade to Tier 2 Ghost Gate...]

The black soil beneath their feet suddenly cracked open, the cracks being deeper and denser than when the first stage was built. Purple-black light patterns surged out from the cracks, spreading along the ground for hundreds of meters.

The colossal bronze gate of the Gates of Hell trembled violently in the black mist.

The ten-zhang-high door frame began to expand, the dark metal patterns twisted and reassembled, and the hideous ghost-head copper nails on the door surface cracked one after another, revealing larger and more ferocious new nail heads inside.

Each copper nail's mouth opened and closed, silently roaring, and the number of teeth had doubled.

The three ancient seal characters "Ghost Gate Pass" on the lintel were repainted by Youhuo, with thicker strokes and fiercer flames.

The entire giant gate rose to a height of fifteen zhang, and the black mist gushing out from the cracks in the gate changed from spreading along the ground to rolling upwards. The chilling aura was like a materialized storm, shaking all the withered bones within a radius of two hundred meters into powder.

The panel has been refreshed.

[The second-tier Gate of Hell is complete!]

[Ghost Soldier Storage Limit: 500 → 2000]

[Storage limit for Yin Generals: 3 → 10]

[New Attribute - Underworld Blessing: All attributes of all Yin Soldiers and Yin Generals +10%]

Chu Jiang's gaze lingered on the last line.

Deep within the shadows, the aura of the five hundred Yin soldiers changed at the same moment.

The originally blurry, dark blue ethereal body solidified a bit, and the light of the Soul-Hooking Halberd in his hand became brighter, with the edge of the halberd's blade changing from semi-transparent to a cold blue with a tangible feel.

A layer of light blue patterns appeared on the rocky carapace of the Ghost General Xiong Po, and its three-meter-tall body grew even taller by half a head.

Ten percent of all attributes.

The numbers may not be large, but the sheer number of people involved is staggering.

The simultaneous upgrade of 500 units results in a qualitative leap in overall combat power.

Chu Jiang put away the panel, a slight smile playing on his lips.

The second-tier Ghost Gate has this effect.

So what will the effect be at tier three? And tier four?

Thinking of this, he stood up from the giant skull and glanced at the dense, pale green soul fire deep in the wasteland.

"continue."

Five hundred ghost soldiers rushed out.

After receiving the full attribute bonus, the Yin soldiers' advance speed visibly increased.

With a swing of the Soul-Hooking Spear, the skeleton soldiers' soul flames were ripped out before they could even flicker, and the sound of their bones scattering crackled and popped together.

The number of ghost soldiers began to increase, heading towards two thousand.

But soon Chu Jiang's brows began to furrow.

Not right.

The sound of bones grinding together coming from the gray fog ahead had changed.

The snapping sounds were no longer scattered, but rather a continuous, dull, heavy, and endless chorus.

That was the sound of thousands of skeletons moving simultaneously.

The ghostly soldiers' advance slowed down abruptly when they reached the middle of the wasteland.

It's not because of insufficient combat power.

The road ahead is blocked.

At the edge of the horizon, countless skeletons, rotting corpses, and skeletal knights were crammed together, layer upon layer, forming a ghastly white wall of bones more than three meters high.

The undead in the back row pushed forward, stepping on the broken bones in front, an endless stream.

A C-level maximum bounty will not have more than 10,000 undead.

The Qingzhou Hunters Guild's intelligence indicated that this place was a "monster's lair," and a bounty of one million had been posted for seventeen days without anyone accepting it, leading everyone to believe that the difficulty was too high.

In retrospect, it wasn't that it was difficult.

The intelligence itself was wrong.

The density of undead in this wasteland far exceeds the upper limit of C-level.

But Chu Jiang did not retreat.

He stood still, directing the ghostly soldiers to continue their attacks.

As the undead creatures were slaughtered, the number of ghost soldiers also increased rapidly.

Six hundred.

one thousand.

One thousand and five.

Hundreds and thousands of dark blue figures silently emerged from behind the battle lines, wielding long spears and joining the meat grinder-like frontal conflict.

The more you kill, the more soldiers you have.

The more soldiers you have, the faster you can kill them.

The snowball started rolling.

Chu Jiang sat back on the giant skull, watching the number of Yin soldiers on the panel skyrocket.

What others see as a deadly horde of zombies.

The assembly line in his eyes.

After the ghostly soldiers pushed through the middle of the wasteland, Chu Jiang noticed a second anomaly.

The surrounding undead were cleaned up by the ghostly soldiers as easily as cutting melons and vegetables, just as expected.

But something's wrong with the spirits in the inner circle.

They do not retaliate.

They didn't run away.

A skeleton soldier, whose shoulder blade had been shaved off by a soul-snatching halberd, did not flicker its remaining soul fire toward the ghostly soldiers. It simply lowered its head, using its remaining arm to support itself on the ground, and stubbornly crawled forward.

They are in the same direction.

All heading towards the center of the wasteland.

Chu Jiang sent Xiong Po forward to test the waters.

A three-meter-high rock slammed down, smashing half of the body of a bronze-level skeletal war bear.

Ribs were broken, skull was cracked, and blue orbs of soul light seeped out from the gaps in the broken bones.

But the war bear, which only had half a body left, didn't even glance at Xiong Po.

It used its two remaining front paws to desperately dig into the black soil, its finger bones embedded in the mud, crawling inch by inch toward the center.

Chu Jiang's eyes turned cold.

This is not driven by instinct.

Driven by instinct, the undead will either frantically attack the nearest threat or scatter and flee when their soul is wounded.

There is only one explanation for this state of "ignoring everything and moving in only one direction".

That means there is a higher force forcibly pulling them along.

Chu Jiang immediately changed tactics.

"receive."

Most of the ghostly soldiers turned into dark blue specks of light and filed back into the depths of the shadows.

Only one hundred ghost soldiers remained on the battlefield, scattered around to keep watch, while Xiong Po shrank back into his shadow to await orders.

Chu Jiang pulled up the hood of the Netherworld Cloak, and the moment the fabric touched his face, his presence vanished completely from this world.

To hide.

Instead of going against the tide of the dead, he followed their path, mingling in the pale white river, and stealthily making his way to the deepest part of the wasteland.

The surrounding temperature is getting lower and lower.

The white mist he exhaled changed from thin to thick, and frost began to form on his eyebrows.

The gray fog in the air had somehow taken on a faint blood-red hue, as if someone had mixed a few drops of blood into the fog.

The density of the undead on both sides increased, and eventually they were no longer walking on the road, but moving through the gaps between the skeletons.

No matter how close these spirits were, none of them turned their heads toward the Chu River.

It wasn't because of the Nether Cloak.

It's because all their attention was firmly held by the force in front of them.

As Chu Jiang passed through the last wisp of blood-red fog, the ground beneath his feet vanished.

To be precise, the terrain collapsed downwards like a cliff.

A huge black basin came into view.

With a diameter of at least three kilometers and a depth of over one hundred meters, the basin walls are smooth black rock, as if they were dug out of the ground by something.

At the edge of the basin, countless undead knelt on the ground.

Skeleton soldiers, rotting corpses, skeletal knights, bone beasts—all of various ranks and types, numbering in the tens of thousands—faced the center of the basin, their postures resembling pilgrimage.

The soul fire in their eye sockets all pointed in the same direction.

The center of the basin.

A dark red beam of light shot up from the ground and pierced the gray-white clouds.

Inside the beam of light churned a viscous, dark red substance—neither liquid nor gas, but something somewhere in between, something that instinctively made one want to vomit.

Dead silence.

It wasn't quietness, but rather the concept of "dead stillness" itself solidified into a tangible form, radiating outwards from the pillar of light.

Chu Jiang's soul was touched.

The bloodline of the Emperor of Fengdu tells him that what is being conceived in the pillar of light is related to the underworld, but not entirely related to the underworld.

It seems to be a product of the dark forces being artificially distorted and corrupted.

This is not within the scope of a C-level bounty mission.

The intelligence discrepancy was not the Hunter's Guild's fault.

After the bounty was posted, some unexpected change occurred in this wasteland.

Chu Jiang crouched behind a rock at the edge of the basin, his gaze sweeping over the tens of thousands of kneeling dead.

Each one is a key element.

He glanced down at his shadow.

Deep within the shadows, the phantom of the second-tier Ghost Gate floated steadily. Behind the gate was a fully-equipped army of Yin soldiers, numbering two thousand, plus a Ghost General whose attributes had been enhanced in all aspects.

Deep within Chu Jiang's pupils, a dark purple ghostly fire silently ignited.

He remained silent for three seconds.

Then, Chu Jiang reached out and brushed the ashes off his cloak, stood up, and silently crossed the edge of the basin, following the shadow of the black rock wall, and slipped into that dark red wasteland.