Chapter 1331
It felt as though the sky was thick with dust and shadow, shrouded by a haze of black-gray mist. No light pierced the gloom—no stars, no moon, just endless darkness. For an ordinary person, it would be a night where not even your own hand could be seen before your face...
The air was heavy with the power of death. On the flat, featureless earth, countless undead wandered aimlessly. Others fought and slaughtered each other; the victors would devour the defeated's Soul Fire—by far the fastest way for the undead to grow stronger.
If not for their tireless, ceaseless battles, the Undead Plane would have burst at the seams long ago.
In the distance, bone skeletons clustered in droves; not far behind, ghostly spirits drifted through the gloom. Leon dropped his concealment, and in that instant, every undead around seemed to sense something. They all turned and rushed at Leon, and the swarming ghosts shrieked as they joined the assault.
The presence of living breath in the Bone Realm was like a drop of water falling into boiling oil—no undead would ever let fresh flesh and soul slip away.
Leon stood his ground, bent down, and scooped a handful of black earth. After letting flames burn it for a moment, crystals like black gravel began to condense in his palm.
"This is the place—the plane with the largest reserves of Black Sand. For the next ten thousand years, you won't find another with even a tenth as much as this one..."
Leon ignored the lesser undead. When they closed to within a few dozen meters, their Soul Fire began to tremble violently, as if facing a terrifying nemesis. Panicked, they retreated, only to turn and charge again—repeating the cycle over and over.
The ghosts, tangled together like a swarm of jellyfish, behaved the same way. Whenever they drew near to Leon, they shrieked and scattered, only to surge back after a brief retreat...
The powers of the undead nemesis weren't particularly strong, but these undead—none above level ten or so—had no hope of resisting its abilities.
After about ten minutes, the area within several dozen meters of Leon was completely empty. The lesser undead had formed a ring around him, shoulder to shoulder, encircling him at the center. Behind them, a dense crowd of at least ten thousand undead creatures had gathered.
Once the undead had gathered, Leon spat out a flaming rune. Instantly, a ring of fire flared up around him, rapidly expanding outward. In just one second, it engulfed a thousand meters, swallowing every undead creature in its path.
The sea of fire illuminated this gloomy world. Countless undead were reduced to ashes, leaving behind only fragments of Necrotic Essence scattered on the ground.
In less than a minute, silence fell over the area. The flames burned quietly, but not a single undead could be found. Leon had deliberately lured every nearby undead into this trap; for now, there wasn't a single undead within ten kilometers.
He opened the Death Tome and flipped to the Sage's Chapter. Instantly, the chapter erupted with a powerful devouring force, swallowing all the Necrotic Essence left on the ground.
Yet, even after absorbing so much Necrotic Essence, there was barely any change.
There were still only two seventh-rank spells he could imprint. To upgrade the Sage's Chapter again, he'd need an utterly staggering amount of Necrotic Essence.
Unless he encountered another powerful undead nearing the peak of Sky Rank—the death energy such a creature carried could be used as ordinary Necrotic Essence.
Leon roamed the Bone Realm, radiating his living aura and constantly drawing swarms of undead creatures. He destroyed them all; most were only around level ten, with few above level twenty, and only two above level thirty so far.
With all the hunting, Leon's undead nemesis abilities began to evolve. After a week of slaughter, even low-level undead would flee in terror if they got within a hundred meters, and not even a Bone Giant at level thirty could approach within fifty.
Leon radiated living energy—a beacon in the darkness, as conspicuous as a lighthouse in the night. Even the weakest undead could sense his aura from ten kilometers away.
After half a month of hunting, he had nearly wiped out every undead in the Bone Realm, including the strongest—one Bone Giant at level thirty-nine.
But he also discovered something odd: there was another Plane Path in the Bone Realm, and this one was relatively stable. It opened for ten minutes every day, and each time, a fresh wave of undead poured into the Bone Realm from the other side.
Seeing this Plane Path, Leon suddenly remembered: not long after the Lincoln Trading Guild acquired the Bone Realm, the Stoneland Kingdom suffered a massive undead invasion.
The outbreak started near Angel City. According to the records, it was triggered by an evil Bonecaster experimenting with a spell, who accidentally opened the gateway to the Undead Plane and unleashed a horde of undead.
But looking at this plane, and the undead pouring in from the Plane Path, Leon suddenly understood.
The undead invasion back then had nothing to do with the Bonecaster—it was the undead flooding in from here.
The aura leaking from the other end of the Plane Path brimmed with terrifying death energy, and a torrent of it was pouring into the Bone Realm.
No doubt about it—the other side was the infamous Undead Plane, said to be the hardest high-tier plane to conquer!
In the era of plane colonization in Northend World, there were countless attempts to conquer the Undead Plane. Each time ended in disastrous losses, and little progress was ever made. Only at the absolute peak was the Undead Plane subdued—but soon enough, those unbreakable bones rose again, and the undead sea returned with a vengeance.
In most planes, you could carve out territory and slowly harvest resources, holding the front lines as needed. But in the Undead Plane, these tireless undead never stop. If they sense the living, it's endless, all-out war.
Most factions that tried to conquer the Undead Plane ended up exhausted and ruined. The undead could afford it; humans couldn't...
The undead would trade a hundred, even a thousand of their own for a single living soul—and with an endless supply of reinforcements, a proper war in the Undead Plane meant unleashing at least a hundred million undead at once. Anything less was just a skirmish.
Even in the future, when magitek warships are fully deployed, sheer numbers alone could still wear you down to death...
Leon stood before the Plane Path, incinerating every new undead that appeared, then hesitated—and stepped through.
Concealing all traces of his aura, he emerged from the Plane Path into a world of black, white, and gray. Ahead loomed Bone Mountain, a thousand meters high, built from endless piles of bones. Around its slopes, hordes of skeletal undead wandered.
Among those bones were replacements for the skeletal undead, while the stronger bones were used as weapons.
In the distance, a Bone Archer raised its bone bow, snapped off a rib, and fired it—shattering another undead's spine. It darted forward, grabbed the still-burning skull, and devoured its Soul Fire.
Then it dismantled the fallen undead's body, took another rib and attached it to itself. After securing the rib, the Bone Archer hesitated, then stripped all the opponent's ribs and fastened them to its own frame—ending up with more than thirty ribs...
Nearby, undead wandered everywhere—almost all of them locked in battle. Undead fell, new ones arrived, and some even crawled out of Bone Mountain itself, freshly spawned and ready to fight...
A gray sun hung overhead, shedding a cold, eerie light. Its rays felt like death itself, seeping into everything—a sun long dead, smothered by the breath of death...
Leon stared at the sun, unsettled by a deep sense of discomfort.
He flew into the air, gliding slowly toward the horizon. The land below was barren, littered with half-buried bones. The only plants were twisted, monstrous things that could survive nowhere but the Undead Plane.
A patch of grass, black as weeds, stood half a meter tall. A level-twenty Skeletal Warrior stepped into it—and instantly, the plants sprang to life, tangling around every joint.
In less than three seconds, the Skeletal Warrior was torn to pieces, leaving only its skull with Soul Fire still burning.
The grass writhed wildly. Blood-red roots burst from the ground and bored into the skull, draining its Soul Fire until it faded away. Once the skull was secured, the roots dragged it underground, like bloody veins.
The grass flourished—within a minute, hundreds more stalks had sprouted.
Leon knew this plant well: Soul-Eater Grass. Common in the Undead Plane, it survived on death energy alone, but to grow stronger, it had to devour the Soul Fire of undead.
He laid a trap, waiting for mindless undead to stumble in.
Casually slicing off a blood-red root from the Soul-Eater Grass, Leon continued onward. These plants weren’t particularly valuable—there were plenty of substitutes, and Northend World had its own. There was no need to risk exposing his aura just to dig up Soul-Eater Grass here.
After flying for hours, he spotted a crude city built of bones ahead. Leon released Ragulin and Barton, and also summoned the Prince’s undead.
The moment the three undead appeared, chaos erupted. Undead creatures scattered in terror. The Prince’s undead glanced at Leon, then obediently followed orders to attack the bone city.
Calling it a city was generous—it was less than a thousand meters across, at its center a ten-meter-high altar holding a bone throne. A level thirty-five Skeleton King sat atop the throne.
The battle ended quickly. The Skeleton King’s Soul Fire was devoured by the Prince, while its Necrotic Essence was handed over to Leon.
Leon concealed himself, letting the Prince lead Barton and Ragulin in a ruthless hunt. All the Soul Fire from the slain undead was consumed by the trio, while the Necrotic Essence was reserved for Leon.
After half a month, with the Plane Path as their center, every undead creature within a hundred kilometers had been slaughtered. Each of the three undead left their mark on the territory, signifying it as their own. For a Heavenly-rank undead, even without a single subordinate, claiming a hundred kilometers of land was perfectly normal.
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After half a month of voracious devouring in the Undead Plane, the three undead had grown much stronger. Ragulin and Barton had reached level thirty-nine, while the Prince had stabilized at level forty-one.
The abundance of Necrotic Essence hadn’t evolved the Sage’s Tome to copy eighth-level spells, but it did unlock an additional slot for seventh-level magic.
After claiming the territory, Leon set up an alchemical array to seal and hide the Plane Path, then departed with the three undead.
In recent days, Leon had sensed massive gatherings of undead in the distance—at least hundreds of millions waging war. The leaders on both sides were terrifying Undead Lords, all above level forty-five.
Though the battlefield was at least two or three hundred kilometers away, Leon knew that if he leaked any trace of life, those two Undead Lords would sense the faint glow in this darkness.
If those Undead Lords noticed, they’d abandon their war and come straight for him.
Leon glanced back, a flicker of regret in his eyes.
If only he could take down a few Heavenly-rank undead, the Sage’s Tome would surely upgrade again—and Undead Nemesis would advance as well.
Unfortunately, that was just wishful thinking...
Any Heavenly-rank undead without tens of millions of minions wouldn’t dare call themselves a lord...
Those Undead Lords above level forty-five could easily throw hundreds of millions of undead into a single war...
And it wasn’t just low-level undead—Leon sensed that those two Undead Lords commanded at least fifty Heavenly-rank undead each.
You couldn’t provoke beings like that—stirring up a hornet’s nest. Even after a year of fighting, you’d never wipe them out.
Besides, Leon wasn’t undead—he’d tire eventually. Forget a year; after a few days of nonstop battle, his soul would give out. Mana was endless, but the soul would fatigue...
After sealing and concealing the Plane Path, Leon turned to leave. He’d found a road to the Undead Plane—a major gain—but with his current strength, he couldn’t establish a foothold there.
He knew the Undead Plane’s coordinates, but they were only approximate, and had been left behind tens of thousands of years ago.
If he opened the Plane Path now, he might end up in the bone city of some Undead Lord.
Returning to the Bone Realm, Leon sealed the Plane Path on this side as well.
Without the death energy and undead from the Undead Plane, the Bone Realm became truly barren—a wasteland with nothing left.
He opened a demi-plane and released a thousand alchemical golems. Aside from a few combat golems, the rest were engineering models for mining and smelting. While not as skilled as alchemists, they were more than capable of extracting and refining Black Sand.
Leaving the golems behind, Leon took out the Death Tome and inscribed several runes, marking the Bone Realm’s coordinates. Then he stepped into the Plane Path and returned to Northend World.
When he returned, he was still underground. He dismantled the alchemical array, erased all traces, and destroyed the Plane Path before finally resurfacing.
Leon quietly returned to Angel City. Coming down from the third floor, he saw Hubert happily gnawing on a half-meter-long beast leg, Reina dragging an ice crystal and studying something, and the shop bustling with business—customers came in, paid, and left with potions.
Seeing Hubert glare with an expression that screamed 'Come on, I dare you to cause trouble,' Leon knew that no one would dare mess with the Gilded Rose.
The Black Sand mining was sorted. Now, all Leon had to do was periodically retrieve refined Black Sand from the Bone Realm—the alchemical golems could handle the rest.
After giving instructions at the Angel City shop, Leon left a batch of alchemical potions and thirty level thirty-nine combat alchemical golems.
He took Hubert and Reina and left Angel City, heading straight for Neverwinter City.
Upon arriving in Neverwinter City, Farrow immediately came to report on recent events.
Listening to Farrow’s report, Leon remained calm—everything had gone as planned, or even better than expected.
Partnering with the Lincoln Trading Alliance was a brilliant move. Leon didn’t care much about slander, but if this issue wasn’t handled well, Gilded Rose’s development in Odin Kingdom would be severely limited. In time, this smear could become a real stain on Gilded Rose’s reputation.
Gilded Rose currently lacks the power to expand into Stone Kingdom. Opening a branch in Angel City is already the biggest step forward. In Angel City, as long as you have strength, gold, and sell quality goods, establishing yourself is easy.