Chapter 223: The New Generation's Undying Sovereign

On a small rising mound of earth, a tall, sturdy dark purple-gold skeleton hunched its body and let out a horn-like long cry; the whole earth boiled over, and countless skeletons and zombies surged forward with the sound of the horn.

Behind it, rows upon rows of golden skeletons, piles upon piles of silver skeletons, batch after batch of iron-skinned zombies and bronze-skinned zombies, lined up in neat formation.

The most eye-catching among them was a three-meter-tall sturdy skeleton.

Describing a skeleton as sturdy was already a bit strange, because a skeleton that was nothing but bone — how could it be sturdy? Wasn't it all just bones?

But this skeleton was, against all odds, very sturdy: thick at the joints, thick-boned, even its fingers and toes were short and stubby, looking very solid at first glance.

Moreover, it was a golden skeleton — three meters tall, sturdy and solid — its combat power was estimated to be extremely terrifying. Only, at this moment it stood cautiously, shrinking itself up like a quail.

"Move aside, move aside, don't crowd, be careful." The golden skeleton, timid in its movements, carefully pushed aside the others of its kind around it and said in a muffled, hollow voice.

One careless bit of excessive force — snap — and the head of a grey-bone skeleton was knocked off by it.

"Oh, it fell off…" the golden skeleton said, vexed and guilty, hurriedly tiptoeing over, picking up the grey-bone skeleton's head, wanting to put it back on.

But just as it picked up the grey-bone skeleton's frame — crack — possibly from using too much force, two of its ribs were snapped off by it.

"Oh, it broke… I'm sorry…" the golden skeleton said guiltily, wanting to try again; with another lift — crack — the skeleton's lumbar vertebra broke.

The golden skeleton's voice sounded as if it was about to cry: "I knew it… I… can't do anything right… I'm so stupid…"

The Great Sage drifting over saw this scene and said helplessly: "Dagu, just toss it onto a pile, that'll do."

"Oh." The golden skeleton called Dagu hurriedly threw the frame and skull in its hands onto the ground — and with that throw, it dislocated the other's arm bone as well.

Crack-crack-crack, the grey-bone skeleton's head rolled onto its cervical vertebra, joined together, grabbed the dislocated arm bone, swiftly fitted it back on, pushed off with both hands, crawled out a few body-lengths, and only then realized something was missing.

Turning back to grab its own lower half, the grey-bone skeleton didn't even bother to reattach it, crawling and rolling out to a safe distance, and only then turned around, opening and closing its jaw soundlessly at Dagu.

The golden skeleton scratched its head and said dejectedly: "I'm sorry…"

The Great Sage said helplessly: "Dagu, you have to be fiercer. If you're fiercer, these low-level skeletons won't dare come near you. Your strength is too great and your body too hard — any little bump and you can knock them apart."

"Oh…" Dagu responded, drooping dejectedly for a while, then suddenly raised its head, waved its arms wildly on both sides, made a snarling and waving-claws gesture, and opened its jaws to howl "Aoo, aoo" all over the place.

After finishing, it even asked: "Am I fierce?"

The Great Sage's form almost couldn't hold itself together from bursting apart; holding back laughter, it nodded: "Fierce, so very fierce, you scared me to death."

As it spoke, it released its own imposing presence — a Saint of the Dead, a Great Sage — that imposing presence was as tangible as substance to ordinary skeletons; whoosh, the low-level skeletons and zombies around scattered instantly over a dozen meters.

"Aoo~ aoo~" Dagu, thinking it was its own "fierceness" that did it, waved its claws and acted cute at everything around.

The Great Sage shook its head, drifted toward the purple-gold skeleton, and soon arrived behind it: "Harvey, why have you come? It's been nearly three hundred years since you last came to the front lines."

The purple-gold skeleton called Harvey turned around, nodded at the Great Sage: "A few days ago, on a communication bone tablet, there was someone saying he was the God of the Undying."

"Oh, you mean that one — it's fake, obviously some human child picked up a communication bone tablet and randomly sent a voice message." the Great Sage said.

That communication he had also heard; when the other side solemnly swore it was the God of the Undying, the Great Sage really did have a very strange feeling, and wondered how the Undying Empire was now, how the King was now.

Harvey shook his head: "I'm not talking about a human, but our soul — that soul at the front-line relay station."

"Oh, hehe, a young one, it's normal to be a bit excited. The ones at the relay station are all undead or liches born less than a thousand years ago, many of them born on this plane, easy to lose control of their emotions — don't take it amiss." the Great Sage explained.

Harvey glanced back at him, his tone strange: "Great Sage, you don't think I came to call you to account, do you?"

"That couldn't be." The Great Sage shook its head: "The new-generation Undying Sovereign, Lord of the Mourning Dead, the purple-gold skeleton Harvey — how could he make a special trip for something like this? There must be something important, so what did you come here for?"

Harvey did not respond immediately, but raised his head to look at the sky, lost in thought.

The Great Sage also followed his gaze upward, but apart from the inverted hanging ribbons of light, the sky was no different from usual.

After a long while, Harvey suddenly said: "Do you think the King is still here?"

The Great Sage was caught off guard by the question, hesitated for a while before saying: "Maybe, probably, perhaps, should be gone by now, right? Didn't we discuss this before? Why are you suddenly bringing this up again."

"Then why didn't we perish along with him?" Harvey asked.

"Uh, at that final moment, we all felt the soul-link sever — perhaps the King used some kind of power to forcibly cut the soul network, letting us survive." the Great Sage said.

This matter, they had already discussed repeatedly several thousand times in the first three hundred years, and had long reached a consensus; now the Great Sage repeated it like reciting from notes.

"So, am I only the new Undying Sovereign? And unable to become, like Locke, the King's most loyal warrior." Harvey said regretfully.

After a pause, Harvey continued: "We have already reached a consensus that the King is gone. Breaking through the human defense line and returning to the Palace of Rest has become meaningless, so over these years I've been too lazy to come to the front lines — better to sleep quietly and train my bones."

"But after hearing that young soul's cry, I realized I was wrong."

"We have already formed a consensus and confirmed the King's passing, but these young souls have not. They may feel that the Undying Empire still exists."

"It's just that the path is blocked by humans; as long as the defense line is broken, they can return to the Palace of Rest to pay homage to Your Majesty and become the King's subjects."

"For the sake of these young souls, I think I should make a move. Seven hundred years ago, I had just broken through to Lord of the Mourning Dead, my strength not yet consolidated. Today, I have already consolidated my strength, becoming a true Lord of the Mourning Dead — the human defense line cannot stop me."

"The Palace of Rest, too, is about to welcome its new master."