Old Cyclops raised all four of his arms and slammed them down heavily.
A shockwave tore through the ground, surging toward the skeleton soldiers.
At that moment, Bone Guard One was still reconsolidating his strength. The previous terrifying impact had dispersed the phantom form of the spider lily of the Huangquan Formation, and it would take energy to reform it.
Suddenly, a metallic giant carrying a massive shield charged out from the skeleton battle formation.
This strange combination was none other than the Great Shield Guard, Bone Guard Five, and the Heavy Armored Warrior, Bone Guard Nine.
In the Huang Cang Kingdom, the bodies of the Huang Cang Imperial Court's army had been thrown into the Undead Kingdom to serve as conversion materials for the undead army.
Their armor and equipment, however, had all been absorbed by Bone Guard Nine.
A massive amount of epic-tier and legendary-tier equipment fragments had bestowed Bone Guard Nine with immense power.
"Boom!"
Bone Guard Nine held the giant shield that Bone Guard Five had transformed into, blocking the shockwave at the front of the formation.
But as soon as the shockwave subsided, Old Cyclops burst forward and reached Bone Guard Nine. With a single swipe of his palm, he shattered the giant shield formed by Bone Guard Five.
Another strike landed, and Bone Guard Nine was reduced to a heap of bones, armor plates, and arrows scattered across the ground.
Deep within Chen Xu's soul, two soul sparks flickered.
This was the first time one of Chen Xu's skeleton heroes had fallen in battle, and he was unsure how long it would take for them to recover.
Having dealt with the two meat shields, Old Cyclops turned his gaze toward Bone Guard One.
This peculiar skeleton could make strange flowers bloom to bind his body, which made him feel very frustrated. Thus, he intended to deal with Bone Guard One first.
With another flash of movement, Old Cyclops vanished from his spot.
Sensing the danger, Bone Guard One instantly raised the large shield in his left hand.
"Bang!"
Terrifying force exploded against the shield, sending Bone Guard One flying backward.
If the Huangquan Formation had not gathered the strength of the skeleton soldiers, this single strike would have likely sent Bone Guard One to join Bone Guard Five and Bone Guard Nine.
Seeing this, Chen Xu snapped his fingers, summoning a large group of Vicious Ghosts to charge at Old Cyclops.
Against a mythic-tier enemy, ordinary ghosts could no longer affect the soul. Sending them up would be like dropping ice cubes into a deep fryer.
Appearing alongside the Vicious Ghosts were ten Fallen Skeletons wearing Magic Dragon Armor, followed by over a thousand ordinary Fallen Skeletons.
This special unit was the trump card in Chen Xu's hand.
The Magic Dragon Armor required epic-tier dragon skin armor, which was then modified through corruption. Epic-tier dragon skin armor was not in high supply; Chen Xu had only managed to exchange for ten pieces from Daxia.
Logically, the Dragon Court dungeon should have yielded plenty of dragon skin armor, but since that dungeon existed outside the world of Blue Star, there were no item drops rewarded by the World Will. Furthermore, the Dragon Court dungeon had vanished under Chen Xu's God-Slaying Poison, and the World Will hadn't even gotten a sip of the soup, so there were no completion rewards either.
As the Magic Dragon Armor activated, an evil aura emerged from the plates, frantically devouring the life force of its wearer. Simultaneously, it granted the wearer mythic-tier power.
The ten armored Fallen Skeletons took the lead in attacking Old Cyclops, with the rest of the Fallen Skeletons following closely behind.
Looking at the Fallen Skeletons that had suddenly appeared, a look of confusion once again crossed Old Cyclops' face.
He had never seen this type of skeleton before—skeletons with split skulls that still carried meat.
Wait, meat!
"Roar!!!"
Old Cyclops let out an excited howl. The craving for flesh once again dominated his mind as he charged toward the Fallen Skeletons.
The two sides clashed in close quarters. The Fallen Skeletons swung their beast claws, constantly tearing fresh meat from Old Cyclops' body.
Old Cyclops' four arms struck out repeatedly, and the large mouth on his abdomen spat out a mucus-covered intestine that served as a tongue. It coiled around a skeleton, attempting to drag it into the maw.
By relying on their numerical advantage, the Fallen Skeletons managed to maintain a stalemate with Old Cyclops.
In the rear, Bone Guard One had already stood up and condensed the spider lily once more.
Above, the Black Knights controlled the bone dragons to circle over the spider lily.
The previous separate battles had proven insufficient to defeat the enemy. The Black Knights and Bone Guard One intended to use the combined technique of the Biluo Huangquan.
Just as Xuan Chu and Bone Guard One were coordinating to merge their powers, Chen Xu stepped in and interrupted them.
This was because Chen Xu had noticed something wrong with Old Cyclops.
Old Cyclops' four arms struck in succession, firmly suppressing the ten armored Fallen Skeletons. Then, the large mouth on his abdomen began to frantically devour the other ordinary Fallen Skeletons.
A Fallen Skeleton would fall into that hideous maw and be crushed into bone shards in an instant. Then, the mouth would make a swallowing motion, gulping down the fragments.
All of this was normal, but what was abnormal was that for every Fallen Skeleton he ate, Old Cyclops did not need to spit out the bones containing corrupted power. Instead, he seemed to be gaining strength from the corrupted power.
His slightly trembling muscles indicated that Old Cyclops was intoxicated by the influence of the corrupted power.
This was extremely unusual.
Old Cyclops was not a candidate for the Lord of the Undead; without the power of authority, he shouldn't be able to digest corrupted power from Hell. The exclusive powers of two special worlds represented two extremes. Without the intervention of the authority of a Dao Lord, they could not be merged so easily.
If he were eternal-tier, he might have the means to return to the source and expend effort to consume the corrupted power. But Old Cyclops was only mythic-tier—even at mythic-tier consummation, he was still just mythic-tier.
"There's something strange. There is definitely something strange!"
Chen Xu felt he had seen through Old Cyclops' secret. This abnormal ghoul must have fused with a power that did not belong to him—or rather, a power that did not belong to the Land of the Undead.
Chen Xu pulled out the pure white stone and called Flideng over, tossing the stone to him.
"Throw this stone into that ghoul's stomach. I want to see what he really is."
Flideng caught the pure white stone and flew toward Old Cyclops. As he approached, Flideng timed his move perfectly. When Old Cyclops opened his massive mouth to devour a Fallen Skeleton, Flideng teleported directly in front of him and threw the pure white stone inside.
The tiny stone didn't catch Old Cyclops' attention; mixed with the bone shards, the pure white stone was swallowed.
Before long, Old Cyclops' movements ground to a halt. He began to twitch all over, and a raspy sound emerged from his throat.
A pure, flawless white light began to spread from Old Cyclops' abdomen, gradually extending toward his limbs. Meanwhile, a smear of crimson appeared at Old Cyclops' heart, resisting the purification power of the pure white stone.
"Found you!"
Seeing this, Chen Xu broke into a smile.
"Bone Guard Two!"
As Chen Xu's voice fell, a spear was instantly hurled, striking Old Cyclops' chest. The spear pierced through the chest and drove straight toward the heart. It was then sent flying backward by a surge of powerful crimson energy.
However, that momentary interference was enough to break the balance. The purification power broke through the crimson boundary.
"Roar!!!"
A gap split open in Old Cyclops' chest cavity, and a bright red heart, completely out of place with the aura of the Land of the Undead, fell to the ground.
"Thump-thump! Thump-thump!"
Even though it had left the body, the heart continued to beat with strong, rhythmic pulses.
Once the heart was removed, Old Cyclops' aura weakened rapidly. In an instant, he plummeted from mythic-tier to epic-tier.
The pure white stone was also spat out by Old Cyclops, though it had shrunk to the size of a fingernail. Flideng was quick and immediately picked up the pure white stone before flying back to Chen Xu.
Old Cyclops' limbs went limp, and he slumped onto the ground. With the last of his strength, he tried to reach for the heart on the floor. That heart was the source of his power and the foundation of his dominance over this territory.
"Boom!"
Patchwerk dropped from the sky, slamming his backside onto Old Cyclops and pinning him into the earth. Old Cyclops' barely raised arm fell limply to the ground following the heavy impact.
Not taking any chances, Patchwerk stood up and jumped high again, landing heavily to crush the ground into a deep depression.
"Alright, Patchwerk, that's enough playing."
Chen Xu had already teleported over, standing beside the bizarre heart.
"Patchwerk, I have a task for you. Extract this ghoul's skull and spine completely."
"Ha! Patchwerk! Dissect! First!"
It was the tradition of the Land of the Undead for the victor to take a part of the loser's body to display their majesty. Since Old Cyclops was quite famous, Chen Xu intended to turn his bones into a part of his Divine Throne.
"So, how exactly did this heart travel from Hell to the Land of the Undead?"
Chen Xu reached down and picked up the still-beating heart, channeling the authority of the Lord of the Undead to seal it within a crystal formed of necrotic energy.
Suddenly, Medusa's ethereal voice reached him.
"Great Chen Xu, I seem to sense the aura of Hell within that heart in your hand."
"Indeed. It is flesh power from Hell."
"Flesh power, is it?"
Medusa did not doubt Chen Xu's judgment. In the Land of the Undead, the authority of the Lord of the Undead could definitely analyze the source of the heart. What puzzled Medusa was how this power from Hell had entered the Land of the Undead. Was it a coincidental accident? Or was it a probe from Hell?
Rate on N.U.
