Lin Yu carefully read through the information Opal Hass had shared and now understood the mechanics of troop morale.

As a commoner, he had to admit it. The scions of prominent families received specialized education from a young age and had access to their families’ secret knowledge. When it came to the Lord’s Contest, they simply knew far more than commoners did.

After leaving the channel, Lin Yu knew what he had to do.

At the very least, he knew that within the Cuiwei Lord Corps, no other lord had an Undead Territory.

Furthermore, he no longer had any hesitation about destroying Undead Recruitment Offices. Even if he came across a god-tier one, he would decisively... give it some thought.

As for any Excellent (Green), Superior (Blue), or even Legendary (Purple) Undead Buildings, he wouldn’t need to hesitate. The moment he encountered them, he would tear them down.

...

「Three days later」 Lin Yu and his group had advanced to a position 10 kilometers from the center of the Desolate Land. This meant that in just under four days, they had pushed forward a total of 40 kilometers, clearing all Undead Buildings within a 1,600-square-kilometer area.

The closer they got to the center, the denser the buildings became, which was why it had taken them an extra two days.

Today, they were preparing to clear the final 10 kilometers.

Except... they’d hit a small snag.

"Phantom, Chenxi, any thoughts on why this whole mob of skeletons just swarmed out?"

Standing at the edge of a Wyite Bone Altar’s aggro line, Lin Yu stared at the vast, white sea of bones before him and couldn’t help but gulp.

After entering the final 10-kilometer stretch, the ground had turned completely grayish-white. Strange, bone-like "plants"—if you could call them that—sprouted from the earth.

’This can’t be called the Desolate Land anymore,’ he thought. ’It should be the Land of White Bones.’

Besides the change in terrain, the buildings in this area were packed incredibly close together, never more than a hundred meters apart.

As far as Lin Yu could see, there were seventy or eighty Wyite Bone Altars alone, to say nothing of the hazy outlines of more structures in the distance. There was no telling how many more buildings—or guards—awaited them.

When Lin Yu first saw this, he was actually quite pleased. He planned to clear them out little by little, since the guards they’d faced before wouldn’t attack as long as you didn’t cross their aggro line.

He assumed the same would be true here; with just a bit of patience, they could slowly but surely clear the area.

But who would have thought that by simply approaching a single Wyite Bone Altar, the guards from a dozen nearby altars would all emerge, eyeing them like prey.

Lin Yu sent Phantom to test an attack on one of the White Bone Skeletons. The moment Phantom struck, he knew something was wrong. The instant it was hit, the skeleton’s entire body pulsed with purple light. It counter-attacked, knocking Phantom straight out of the aggro range. And it didn’t stop there. With a dozen of its brethren, it gave chase with a clatter of bones.

Phantom had to run a long way away, nearly out of the skeletons’ line of sight, before they finally turned back to the altar.

Seeing Phantom’s somewhat disheveled state, Lin Yu immediately understood. These were the dreaded Energy Gathering Skeletons.

"Phantom, send someone to test the other skeleton guards. Let’s hope they aren’t all Energy Gathering Skeletons."

...

The results came back quickly. While not all of them were Energy Gathering Skeletons, they accounted for at least a third of the force.

The critical problem was that all the skeletons looked identical and were now completely mixed together. If you aggroed one, a whole group would swarm you. Trying to kite them was useless; they would just retreat once they were about to lose their buffs. They were a real pain to deal with.

"Druids are a type of Mage, right?" Lin Yu asked. "Do any of us have large-scale area-of-effect Magic?"

Lin Yu had already spent the past few days considering how to deal with troops like the Energy Gathering Skeletons. While they formed a powerful fighting unit when clustered together, allowing any single skeleton to become immensely strong in a one-on-one fight, their individual base stats were still weak.

All they needed was a single, powerful area-of-effect attack that could envelop and hit every single skeleton simultaneously. If the damage was high enough, they could wipe them all out in one go.

As long as it wasn’t a single-target attack hitting them one by one, their resonant energy’s defensive buff wouldn’t activate. This would weaken their damage reduction, allowing for much higher overall damage.

The key now was whether they actually had that kind of large-scale area-of-effect Magic.

Everyone looked at each other blankly after hearing Lin Yu’s question, and a wave of quiet murmuring spread through the group.

"Do you have one?"

"No! What about you?"

"Nope..."

...

Lin Yu even overheard someone say, "Not all Druids are Mages. They can be Warriors, assassins, healers..."

"Focus! This isn’t the time for idle chatter. We need to find a solution."

Lin Yu said, his expression serious and a little cross.

That shut everyone up.

Phantom, who was familiar with his subordinates’ capabilities, had no choice but to step forward.

"My Lord, most of the members of this expedition were selected for single-target takedowns and small-squad combat. We didn’t bring any heroes who specialize in large-scale battles. I believe if we need someone skilled in wide area-of-effect attacks, we’ll have to summon them from the territory."

Phantom’s explanation made Lin Yu understand. It wasn’t that his forces were lacking, but that the members currently with him didn’t have the right skill sets for this job.

"I see. In that case, we’ll wait. Let’s return to camp while I summon reinforcements from the territory."

Chenxi, who was standing to the side, looked like she wanted to say something but held back. After a moment of hesitation, she finally spoke up.

"My Lord, I know an Array that can transfer the energy from a group of people into a single person, who can then unleash an attack."

"However, my own power is primarily nature-based, and I don’t have any powerful area-of-effect Magic myself. If someone here has an AoE spell whose range and damage scale with the amount of energy channeled into it, we could give it a try."

Lin Yu’s eyes lit up. "You heard her! Does anyone have an area-of-effect ability that grows in range and power the more energy you pour into it?"

In the end, three Shape-shifting Druids stepped forward.

"My Lord, the three of us have a joint attack that can create a tornado. The more energy we use, the wider its range. The only problem is that our tornado has almost no attack power. Its main purpose is crowd control and knocking enemies back."

Lin Yu was in a bind. He looked to Chenxi, wondering if her Magic Array would still work in this situation.

"My Lord, please wait. Let me think. I’ll see if I can modify it."

With that, Chenxi knelt and began drawing on the ground. Everyone held their breath, afraid that even the sound of their breathing might disturb her concentration. The only sound was the soft scratching of her fingers in the dirt.

The minutes ticked by, and soon, half an hour had passed.

"Phew..."

Chenxi wiped the sweat from her brow and looked up. "My Lord, I’m happy to report I was successful. The Array has been modified."

A collective "phew" echoed from the surrounding crowd, making Chenxi look around at them in confusion.