23: Chapter 23 Double Decay Sweep

"Let death... bloom~"

Tian Ming shouted its lines and led the army into the valley entrance.

Through the high-altitude vision of the Skeleton Vulture, Xu Qin could see the battlefield ahead clearly.

As five hundred Undead poured into the valley.

Inside the stronghold, cries erupted immediately.

The Sand Jackal Hunters grabbed their bone spears and rushed out of the sheds, while the three leaders simultaneously let out a War Cry.

All attack power +3!

In an instant, the Sand Jackals' combat power surged.

But Tian Ming ignored it entirely.

It stood in the center of the Undead phalanx, raising its bone staff high.

The skull at the top of the staff flared with intense, ghostly blue fire.

[Death Wither!]

Boom!

A dark purple force field spread out from beneath Tian Ming's feet.

Instantly covering nearly one-third of the stronghold's area.

The Sand Jackal Hunters within the range of the force field instantly slowed down.

-8! -8! -8! -8! ...

Eight points of shadow damage per second.

Movement speed reduced by 40%.

Attack power reduced by 20%.

But before they could run out of the force field's range.

Tian Ming released its second skill.

[Wither!]

Boom!

Dark purple ripples spread out again.

Within the field, the Sand Jackal Hunters' defense dropped sharply by 40%, attack speed decreased by 30%, and movement speed decreased by another 35%.

Good heavens, with two debuffs stacked, more than thirty Sand Jackal Hunters had over half their combat power rendered useless.

Walking was like trudging through a mud pit.

But on the other side, the five hundred Undead had already rolled over them.

The Undead Sand Jackal pack hunting instinct triggered, combined with the leader's War Cry, bringing attack power to 31.

The opposing Sand Jackal Hunters had 6 defense, which was reduced to 3.6 by Wither.

One claw dealt 27 damage, two claws and they fell.

The racial suppression of [Fear of the Dead] also triggered simultaneously.

Seeing their own kind as skeletons, the Sand Jackal Hunters' morale collapsed instantly.

The remaining Sand Jackals had their attack power whittled down again and again,

so weak that when they hit the Minotaurs' bone armor, you couldn't even hear a sound.

0. 1. 0. 1. ...

Xu Qin sat on a rock, watching the battle, and nodded with satisfaction.

"Fierce! This little control combo is invincible."

Two and a half minutes later.

The stronghold fell quiet.

Tian Ming stood in the center of the pile of corpses.

It tapped its bone staff lightly.

[Legion of the Dead!]

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

Within a twenty-meter radius, fifteen corpses were simultaneously lifted by purple light and stood up from the ground.

They turned into Undead Sand Jackals and joined the Undead Army.

The battle ended.

Zero combat losses.

Seeing this, Xu Qin couldn't help but exclaim.

"Everything started from when I fought that Warthog to the death."

At this moment, the scene of him charging at the front, fighting to the death with the Warthog yesterday, appeared before his eyes.

Ding!

[Battle Victory!]

[Calculating loot...]

[Targets killed: Sand Jackal Hunter Level 3 × 84, Sand Jackal Leader Level 5 × 3]

[Basic drops:]

Sand Jackal Skeleton × 84

Sand Jackal Leader Skeleton × 3

Soul Energy + 1410

Bone Spear × 84

Animal Hide × 168

Meat × 336

Sand Jackal War Spear (Green · Fine) × 3

Mud Brick × 65

Wood × 38

Stone × 52

[Talent "War Gift Level 6" triggered!]

[All loot quantities × 7!]

[Final acquisition:]

Sand Jackal Skeleton × 588

Sand Jackal Leader Skeleton × 21

Soul Energy + 9870

Bone Spear × 588

Animal Hide × 1176

Meat × 2352

Sand Jackal War Spear (Green · Fine) × 21

Mud Brick × 455

Wood × 266

Stone × 364

[Battle Rating: S (Crushing annihilation, zero combat losses)]

[Talent upgrade progress: 13/1000]

The numbers were beautiful.

But Xu Qin didn't look at the loot first.

His gaze fell on another line of text.

[Lord gained experience: +141]

Hmm?

Only this much?

This morning, when he led his team to attack a Sand Jackal stronghold of the same size, he had earned several thousand experience points.

Xu Qin opened the detailed calculation to check.

Understood.

Whoever fights the battle gets the experience.

The Lord only gets 10%.

Reasonable, very reasonable.

Furthermore, as long as it was a battle fought by troops under Xu Qin's name,

regardless of whether he commanded it personally, War Gift would trigger.

What did this mean?

It meant that in the future, Xu Qin could send two, three, or five heroes to fight simultaneously in different directions.

The loot from every battle would be multiplied by seven.

And he, Xu Qin, could level up just by sitting in his territory.

Just as he was imagining the future.

Ding!

[Hero Tian Ming leveled up! Level 1 → Level 2!]

[Command limit increased: 500 → 600]

[Attribute increase: Attack power +3, Defense +2, Health +30, Mana +50]

"Not bad!" Xu Qin patted Tian Ming's bone armor. "I truly didn't misjudge you!"

"Everyone, tear this place down for me!"

Thousands of the Undead Army swarmed forward, razing the stronghold to the ground.

...

Over the next four hours, Xu Qin led Tian Ming to sweep through various strongholds.

With Tian Ming taking action, the fighting style became increasingly simple and brutal.

The process was to find a stronghold, Xu Qin would set up a perimeter, and Tian Ming would lead the troops to charge in.

Death Wither paved the way.

Wither reaped the harvest.

Undead Tide replenished health for the front line.

Legion of the Dead raised people on the spot.

After the combo, there were zero injuries throughout.

One of them was a Minotaur stronghold with sixty-three troops.

After the battle began.

Wither directly slashed the Minotaurs' Tough Physique by 40%,

even if the Minotaurs had a low-health doubling effect, it wouldn't improve much.

The entire battle took less than four minutes.

There was another battle that was also very interesting.

Xu Qin discovered two strongholds that were close together.

After the Vulture finished scouting and reported back, the total number of troops in both strongholds was less than one hundred.

Xu Qin thought, that's fine, with his current forces, it would still be a crushing victory.

So he led his army to attack.

But when he arrived at the scene, Xu Qin was amused.

This was a mixed settlement of Sand Jackals and Minotaurs.

The two sides were fighting fiercely for their respective territories.

Encountering such a good thing, Xu Qin naturally had to intervene.

So Tian Ming took action, casting both area-of-effect skills directly where the troops were most concentrated.

In the chaos, the effect was even more pronounced.

It ended in five minutes.

The battle ended.

Fight, tear down, then leave.

With every calculation, Tian Ming's experience bar shot up.

Level 2.

Level 3.

Level 4.

The command limit rose from 600 to 700, and then to 800.

Attack power also went from 38 to 41, then to 44, quickly matching Level 18 Xu Qin.

But Xu Qin didn't care.

As long as the loot multiplier for every battle was present, it was fine.

As for Tian Ming, it was even better if its level exceeded his.

Skeletons, souls, meat, leather, stone, and wood quantities climbed rapidly.

...

Five hours later.

Xu Qin rode the Skeleton Pig and was the first to rush into the novice protection light shield.

The reason he came back in such a rush was because his inventory was full.

Xu Qin dismounted and headed straight for the bone vault.

He dumped everything from his inventory into it at once.

Until the thirty-two inventory slots were completely empty.

Xu Qin finally let out a long sigh of relief.

"Refreshing."

At this moment, Tian Ming led the Undead Army walking in from outside the light shield.

The Great Lich walked at the very front of the team, holding its bone staff, its ghostly blue soul fire brighter than it was five hours ago.

Xu Qin opened Tian Ming's attribute panel.