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

A thin layer of ice covered the black rocks on the inner wall of the basin, making no sound when you stepped on them.

Chu Jiang advanced about two hundred meters, staying close to the shadows. When he was less than five hundred meters away from the dark red pillar of light, the black soil beneath his feet began to shake.

It wasn't an earthquake.

It's a heartbeat.

Deep underground came a series of dull, rhythmic vibrations, extremely low in frequency, with each vibration about three seconds apart, but each one made the bones in his feet go numb.

The black soil at the base of the beam of light began to churn violently.

First came the bulges of mud, one, two, a dozen or so, as if something huge was turning over underground.

Then the soil exploded, and a bone emerged from the ground.

The bone was over two meters in diameter.

Then came the second, the third—ribs, spine, wing bones—pulled out of the black soil one piece at a time, bringing with them large chunks of gravel and mud.

A roar tore through the air of the entire basin.

It wasn't a roar, it wasn't a screech.

It is a frequency somewhere between the two, a frequency that only dragons can emit.

The sound waves visibly distorted the air, causing ripples to spread out of the dark red substance churning within the beam of light.

A giant skeletal dragon rose fully from the black earth.

It is tens of meters long, and its wingspan can cover half the sky of the basin.

Every bone was burning with a ghostly blue flame, so intense that it solidified, outlining the entire skeleton as a walking blue fiery mountain.

The distorted death energy within the pillar of light seemed to have found an outlet, and the viscous, dark red substance poured down the dragon's spine, filling every crevice.

The detection instrument exploded.

The ear-piercing, scalp-chilling notification sound rang three times in a row:

[Warning! Gold-tier Lord-level target detected – Skeleton Dragon!]

[Level: Lv.25!]

[This objective far exceeds the current assessment limit for a Class C mission; immediate evacuation is recommended!]

Chu Jiang did not move.

He crouched in the shadow of the rock wall, his gaze sweeping from the dragon's skull to its tailbone, then from its wing bones to its limb joints, completing the overall assessment in three seconds.

Gold grade.

Lv.25.

He is fifteen levels higher than him.

Most importantly, it's a gold grade, which is three grades higher than an iron grade.

At the edge of the basin, tens of thousands of kneeling undead skeletons cracked under the dragon's might, their skulls buried deep in the black soil, and the soul fire in their eye sockets shrank to the size of pinheads.

Not one dared to move.

Chu Jiang slightly raised his right hand and summoned fifty ghost soldiers from the Gates of Hell.

To test the waters.

Fifty dark blue figures silently spread out along the bottom of the basin, approaching the dragon from three directions simultaneously.

The skeletal dragon reacted three times faster than Chu Jiang had predicted.

It didn't even turn its head.

The massive skull suddenly drooped down, and eerie blue bone fire surged from the empty eye sockets, while the dragon's mouth opened wide.

roar.

This sound was different from the previous ones; the previous ones were declarations of existence, while this one was an attack.

A materialized soul shockwave erupted from the dragon's mouth, distorting the air in a visible fan shape and engulfing all the Yin soldiers charging forward.

The fourteen ghost soldiers at the forefront didn't even have a chance to dodge.

The pale blue ethereal body twisted and expanded violently the moment it touched the shockwave, and then shattered.

Like a firefly crushed, its light dissipates and disappears into the air.

A red warning message popped up on the panel.

[Death of Ghost Soldiers x14]

Chu Jiang's fingers clenched tightly.

Fourteen ghost soldiers.

Instant kill.

Since his class change, his ghostly soldiers have crushed berserk wolves, rock-armored bears, swamp lizards, and countless undead armies.

I've never been instantly killed.

Not even once.

The dimensions of the Gold grade are completely different from those of Iron and Bronze.

The remaining thirty-six ghost soldiers did not retreat.

They will not retreat unless Chu Jiang gives the order to do so.

Thirty-six dark blue figures braved the aftershocks and forced their way close, raising their soul-snatching halberds high and slashing fiercely at the right foreleg bone of the skeletal dragon.

Thirty-six long spears fell almost simultaneously.

Ding.

The sound was very soft.

It was so light it didn't sound like a weapon striking bone.

The moment the tip of the long spear touched the surface of the dragon's foot bone, Chu Jiang understood the reason.

A layer of dark red, semi-transparent armor covered the surface of the bones, formed from the condensed twisted death energy poured in from the pillar of light.

The long spear slashed down, only creating a faint ripple on the surface of the armor, and then...

It slid open.

Not even a crack was left.

Thirty-six soul-snatching halberds are like tickling a gold-rank lord's soul defense.

The skeletal dragon was enraged by these ant-like attacks.

The bone fire in the empty eye sockets swelled to three times its original size, and the thick bone tail swept across with a shrill whistling sound that tore through the air.

The bony tail was over a meter in diameter, and its sweeping trajectory left a dark red afterimage in the air.

All thirty-six ghost soldiers were within the sweeping range.

Chu Jiang pressed his right hand down sharply.

"Bear Soul!"

The gates of hell have opened wide.

A three-meter-high rocky shell rose from the ground, and the ghost general Xiong Po landed heavily in front of the Yin soldiers, his arms crossed.

"Iron Wall of Rock!"

Silver-tier skills unleashed at full power.

A huge, pale blue soul shield opened up in front of Xiong Po, enveloping all the Yin soldiers behind him.

boom--!

The bone tail lashed out at the shield.

The shockwave exploded outwards from the point of contact, blasting the black soil at the bottom of the basin several meters away, and sending shrapnel flying like bullets.

Xiong Po's feet plowed two deep furrows in the black soil, cracking the surface of its rocky carapace inch by inch, with fragments peeling off from its shoulders, chest, and arms.

The three-meter-tall body was forcibly pushed more than ten meters away.

But it didn't fall.

The pale blue shield flickered violently, riddled with cracks, but did not shatter.

A silver-grade weapon withstood a gold-grade weapon in a single blow.

That's the limit.

Looking at the spreading cracks on Xiong Po's body, Chu Jiang made a judgment.

One more time, and the shield shatters.

Two more blows, and the bear's soul will shatter.

A Gold-rank lord's suppression of a Silver-rank Ghost General is all-encompassing; their attack, defense, and speed completely overwhelm the latter, making a direct confrontation a death sentence.

Moreover, the Yin soldiers and Yin generals share the same level as oneself, which means there is also level suppression.

retreat?

Chu Jiang glanced at the tens of thousands of kneeling undead around him, and then looked at the total number of Yin soldiers on the panel, which had been replenished to nearly two thousand.

The third-tier Ghost Gate requires 5,000 white soul points.

The combined soul points of these undead are enough for him to complete the third-tier Ghost Gate Pass.

The third-tier Ghost Gate can expand the maximum number of Yin Soldiers to five thousand!

Once the Yin soldiers are replenished, your combat power will experience a qualitative leap.

And if the soul of that gold-grade skeletal dragon could be harvested...

That's at least a gold-rank ghost general.

But this skeletal dragon is too powerful; if we're not careful, our entire army might be wiped out.

Just as he was thinking this, the shadow beneath Chu Jiang's feet suddenly trembled.

It wasn't something he triggered on his own.

Deep within the shadows, the phantom of the second-tier Ghost Gate trembled violently, and the two bronze gates began to shake on their own, with the black mist gushing out from between the gates ten times thicker than usual.

Then, a phantom emerged from the crack in the gates of hell.

Not big.

The size of a book.

To be precise, it's a book.

The book was entirely black, with no text on the cover, but its surface was covered with dark gold patterns, exactly the same as the patterns on the architectural blueprints of Fengdu Underworld on the Chujiang panel.

Three words instantly flashed through Chu Jiang's mind.

Life and death book!