The main force crossed the arched bridge, reached the other side of the river, and advanced toward the center of this Desolate Land.

Along the way, scouts would report back from time to time, having found new buildings.

These buildings, besides the Wyite Bone Altar, also included the Bone Shooting Range, Bone Tower, Bone Graveyard, and Bone Training Ground.

They produced Skeleton Archers, Skeleton Mages, Bone Beasts, and Skeleton Warriors, respectively.

As their name suggested, Skeleton Archers were similar to ordinary White Bone Skeletons. They wielded bone bows, could perform ranged attacks, and their aggro range was much greater than that of White Bone Skeletons.

A Skeleton Mage was a skeleton capable of manipulating elemental power and firing Elemental Missiles. Their range was slightly shorter than that of a Skeleton Archer.

A Bone Beast was a skeleton assembled from the bones of various beasts. Bone Beasts had a very strange appearance. Since the bones of different animals varied greatly, their combination into a single skeleton resulted in a bizarre and frightening form. The combat power of a Bone Beast wasn’t high, but its attacks were laced with a potent poison, dealing high damage.

The Skeleton Warrior was an enhanced version of the White Bone Skeleton. Clad in Bone Armor and wielding a bone blade, it had increased attack, defense, and HP. However, it lacked the resonance effect, which actually made it less of a threat to Lin Yu’s group.

Upon receiving a scout’s report, Phantom would dispatch Legendary Tier hero members to probe the enemy’s combat strength. After gathering basic information, Phantom would then send a small team composed of heroes from the exploration party and Druids to eliminate the guards.

Once the building’s guards were completely wiped out, Chenxi would lead 5 Legendary Tier heroes and 50 Druids to accompany Lin Yu to the building.

Lin Yu was the one to decide how to handle the buildings. However, due to elemental counters, Lin Yu loathed these Undead-type buildings and chose to destroy all of them.

The tiers of these buildings were quite good. Aside from a few of Excellent (Green) grade, the rest were all Exceptional (Blue) grade, contributing a good number of Universal Building Fragments for Lin Yu.

The entire group advanced in fits and starts, constantly clearing out the surrounding Undead Buildings.

At a Wyite Bone Altar, upon Lin Yu’s command to destroy it, the entire altar began to turn to dust. Ten points of light floated into Lin Yu’s body, and the surrounding land gradually shifted from a grayish-black to an earthy yellow. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Chenxi, how come I feel even busier than Phantom today?" Lin Yu said, looking at the scene before him and pounding on his somewhat tired legs.

"My Lord, Lord Phantom has to coordinate and command the troops from the center!"

"Besides, My Lord, weren’t you the one who said we should find as many of these buildings as possible to rack up more fragments?"

"The reason we’re so busy now is just that we’ve found so many buildings, and they’re so spread out!"

"You’re right. Today’s haul has been huge. I should be happier." Lin Yu nodded in agreement. "It’s a happy kind of tired, I guess!"

Repeatedly destroying the Undead Recruitment Offices was getting a bit boring for him. However, only he, the lord, could perform operations on Recruitment Offices. Fortunately, the reward was the Universal Building Fragments he needed; otherwise, he would have wanted to take a break long ago.

Just then, a falcon flew in from the distance. Seeing its familiar form, Lin Yu sighed. "Let’s go. Another messenger. They’ve probably eliminated the guards at another Recruitment Office. Time for us to clean up."

...

Over the course of a full day, Lin Yu’s party advanced 20 kilometers. But along this path, they cleared out all the buildings within a 10-kilometer range on both sides. This meant the team had cleared out Recruitment Offices in an area of roughly 400 square kilometers.

Strangely enough, all the Recruitment Offices in this land were Undead-type. And the closer they got to the center of this Desolate Land, the more densely packed the Recruitment Offices became.

Furthermore, the sentinels in the sky observed that the buildings in the central area were packed together in a continuous stretch.

If not for the lack of a system prompt, Lin Yu would have almost thought he had stumbled into another lord’s home territory.

But just in case, while resting back at last night’s campsite, Lin Yu decided to hop on the chat channel to ask.

After all, he was now a lord belonging to the "Cuiwei Lord Corps," and attacking fellow members was forbidden during this stage.

He didn’t know what the consequences of attacking would be, but since he had joined the legion and received benefits, it was better to follow the rules.

[World Chat Channel (789654)]

[Cuiwei Lord Corps Internal Channel (564789)]

Lin Yu: "Hey guys, does anyone here have a territory from the Undead Race?"

Jin Dongjie: "Nope. None that I know of."

Jin Dongjie: "Who would choose that kind of territory? Spend a month there for the first stage, and you’d come back a dried-up corpse, wouldn’t you?"

Lin Yu: "What if they enhanced and got an Undead-type Territory Core in the Preparation Room?"

Jin Dongjie: "Impossible. It’s random, sure, but the competition gives you a Territory Core with attributes that match your own constitution."

Jin Dongjie: "Otherwise, what if they gave us humans an underwater territory? We can’t survive underwater, so we’d be screwed, right?"

Jin Dongjie: "Or gave the Merfolk Race a desert territory? Wouldn’t they dry up and die?"

Jin Dongjie: "It’s impossible for us humans to randomly get Undead-type buildings. Even if we did, it’d be useless. Stay in that kind of environment for too long, and you’ll be dead or crippled. You wouldn’t even make it past the first stage."

Jin Dongjie: "But, you never know. I’ve heard some back-alley rumors that a small number of nobles turned themselves into vampires to achieve immortality. If they entered the competition, maybe they’d get an Undead-type territory."

Opal Hass: "Jin, shut up. You actually believe that kind of rumor? Don’t spread false information. There are so many people in this group. Be careful or you’ll be charged with spreading rumors when we get out."

Jin Dongjie: "Ohh! Sorry, my bad. It was a slip of the tongue. I took someone’s made-up story for real."

Jin Dongjie: "Everyone just pretend you didn’t see my message. Like I was never here, okay?"

Jin Dongjie: "I’m logging off. Bye~"

Opal Hass: "Everyone, watch what you say in the channel. Don’t think no one will hold you accountable for spouting nonsense!"

...

The conversation in the channel had suddenly gone off track. This Opal Hass seemed to be some kind of big shot. They started giving a warning speech in the channel, and only when they were done did Lin Yu have a chance to chime in.

Lin Yu: "Um... I have a question. I just found a Wyite Bone Altar. It’s a wild Recruitment Office that can recruit White Bone Skeletons. Should I recruit some? These things don’t consume food and have no upkeep cost. Their stats are a bit low, but it seems like a pretty good deal."

Opal Hass: "Hmph, go ahead and recruit them then. Just watch out for your troops’ morale dropping and deserters appearing!"

Lin Yu: "There’s morale? I don’t see it anywhere."

Opal Hass: "Of course you commoners wouldn’t know about these intricacies. Let me enlighten you all for free. Morale is a hidden stat. It’s not displayed, but you have to be aware of it yourself."

Opal Hass: "Troops of every race have morale. If you mix your army, especially with troops from enemy races, it will easily lead to a drop in morale, a decrease in combat effectiveness, desertion in battle, and so on."

Opal Hass: "This is especially true for the Undead Race and the Demon Race. Mixing them with troops from any other race will cause the other race’s morale to drop."

...