If an Undead Lord on the level of the Heavy-Armored Zombie Lord discovered his Corpse Tomb, Fang Zhou wouldn’t have much to fear. With the strength he now possessed, he should have no problem sweeping through this corner of the world as long as he was careful.

However, the concentration of Death Energy in the Wasteland of Strife far exceeded that of the Corpse Hills. There were surely undead more advanced than Zombies present. If he were to be attacked today by a Ghost Lord or a Vampire Lord, whose entire command consisted of Ghosts or Vampires, Fang Zhou wouldn’t even need to fight. He might as well just turn tail and run.

This forced Fang Zhou to be extremely cautious. If these high-level undead discovered his tomb, the consequences would be disastrous.

Therefore, to avoid potential attacks from these high-level undead, Fang Zhou had to make some preparations.

The first step was to establish a patrol team. They didn’t need to be strong in combat, just fast enough to run. Once traces of high-tier undead were discovered, Fang Zhou would dispatch troops to eliminate them if their numbers were small, and to lead them elsewhere if their numbers were large. In any case, as long as they weren’t allowed to find any trace of the Corpse Tomb, everything would be fine.

The other method relied on Fang Zhou himself.

He recalled the Undead Sky Skill he had now fully mastered. This skill could provide stealth and shelter for allied Undead Creatures within the range of the Undead Sky Screen, while also slightly enhancing their Four-dimensional Attributes. Fang Zhou could rely entirely on his mastery of the Corpse Authority to research and materialize a city defense building within the Corpse Tomb designed to conceal its location.

In Fang Zhou’s vision, the ideal effect of such a building was to spread a fog of war that would completely envelop the Corpse Tomb, making it difficult for the enemy to pinpoint his position. Although researching and materializing such a City Defense Building would definitely consume a certain amount of time and resources, Fang Zhou was not lacking in that department. The investment in building the Undead Sky Screen for safety was completely worth it.

Having made up his mind, Fang Zhou ordered Tidamia to quickly process the spoils from the battle. He also ordered Sain to throw the thousands of Undead Beast mounts brought back from Chiguo Plain into the [Corpse Rider’s Tomb] in batches, synthesizing and transforming them into more Corpse Knights.

As for himself, he devoted his entire being to the research of the Undead Sky Curtain Building.

...

At the Outpost Fortress, before entering the mountains, Fang Zhou paid a special visit to Lieutenant Colonel Shen Zhongyun, who had once helped him. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Upon seeing Fang Zhou’s powerful, lower Bronze Tier aura, Shen Zhongyun was unable to control his expression, freezing on the spot. After a long moment, he finally recomposed himself, patting Fang Zhou on the shoulder with a wry smile.

"You rascal, this is too outrageous! You’re only 19 this year, right? And you Awakened less than a year ago? You’ve already gone from a new recruit straight to Bronze? It took me five whole years to make the same progress!"

In the time since his promotion, Fang Zhou had already informed Instructor Su Xinyan, Master Sandro, and others of the good news about his breakthrough to the Bronze Tier, and had been met with a wave of their disbelief. Therefore, he was not at all surprised by Shen Zhongyun’s astonishment.

With a modest smile, Fang Zhou didn’t say much more. After exchanging a few words with Lieutenant Colonel Shen Zhongyun about recent events, Fang Zhou accepted the topographic maps and Fierce Beast data that the man had specially prepared for him. He then took his leave and headed once again toward the Fierce Beast Mountain Range.

By this point, over a month had passed since his advancement to Bronze. During this period, he had enhanced all the Undead Mage Skills that his main body could deduce to their absolute limit. He had also updated his collection of somewhat outdated Marvels.

He assessed that his strength could already be considered powerful among lower-tier Bronze Professionals.

The only downside was that his Corpse Clone, still in the Wasteland of Strife, had yet to encounter any Bronze Undead other than Zombies, so it hadn’t been able to devour and analyze the racial Talents of other undead. This also meant that his main body couldn’t deduce other mature Skill Trees at the Bronze Tier, aside from the Skeleton Series and the Corrosive Poison Series.

Originally, Fang Zhou’s plan had been for the Corpse Clone to kill and devour some Ghost Series undead creatures at the Bronze Tier, allowing it to analyze their racial Talents. According to his calculations, this would most likely have provided the foundation and backing he needed to deduce the Soul Series Skill Tree for his Undead Mage profession. Unfortunately, because the Corpse Clone had been laying low and farming in a remote corner, this plan had been temporarily put on hold.

Even so, after integrating the various real-time research findings reported by the Undead Mage research project team, Fang Zhou had successfully deduced and perfected several new skills.

Walking along the road, Fang Zhou shifted part of his consciousness to look at his attribute panel.

[Name] Fang Zhou

[Profession] Undead Mage

[Sub-profession] Basic Alchemist, Basic Blacksmith, Basic Array Master

[Tier] Bronze·Lower

[Title] Enemy of the Kobolds, Sea City Military Academy’s Number One Seed, Undead Chessmaster, King of New Recruits, Skeleton Tutor

[Attributes] Strength 252, agility 250, Constitution 250, Spirit 405

[Status] Soul Split, World Will’s Attention

[Rune] Harvest Festival (Night Watcher II, Heart Steel II, Gallows I)

[Spirit Pet]

Vigus (Black Iron, Death Elf): Double Casting, Strong Magic

Tiamat (Black Iron, Black Gem Dragon): Dragon Sect Spiritual Wisdom, Death Aura, Deadly Dragon Breath, Nether Dragon’s Might

[Equipment]

Dusk Robe (Green Armor, Refinement +3, Level 3 Ruby *3)