Chapter 157 Total Annihilation

At the summit of Mount Erciyas.

After recalling the super skeletons using his spiritual consciousness, Li Yunfei said to Honghong, "Let's leave this place first so we won't be detected by the Golden Skeleton King."

Honghong nodded. Without employing any formal escaping techniques, the two of them controlled their internal magic treasures to carry them several kilometers away.

Here in the netherworld, although they had applied concealment talismans and suppressed all fluctuations of their auras, they were still living humans. Their vital yang energy stood out in the netherworld as conspicuously as two bright lanterns in the dead of night.

Ordinary ghosts might not notice them, but a ghost of the Golden Skeleton King's caliber stood a high chance of perceiving them.

Based on the perception range of the super skeletons, Li Yunfei roughly deduced the perception range of the Golden Skeleton King.

Although the super skeletons were only at level 55, they had been reinforced with soul pills, and the intensity of their soul power had reached the late Golden Core stage. Using them as a benchmark was practically reliable.

As long as they remained outside the Golden Skeleton King's perception range, they were safe.

Once the time for the intersection of yin and yang arrived, and they crossed from the netherworld into the mortal realm, it would no longer matter.

At that time, even if they flew right above the skeleton army, no one would deliberately conduct targeted scans without prior knowledge, so there would be no fear of the Golden Skeleton King discovering them.

With Li Yunfei and Honghong's current cultivation levels and attainments, they were still incapable of freely shuttling between yin and yang. They still needed to rely on the boundaries where yin and yang intersected, or places where the barrier between the two realms was extremely thin, to pass through.

However, following the skeleton army presented no problem. When the yin-yang intersection time arrived at night, the skeletons could use their sheer numbers to gather together and condense a dense amount of nether qi, leaking it out of the netherworld and affecting the mortal realm's magnetic field. This would cause the location where they stood to experience an overlapping of yin and yang, transforming it into a boundary zone between the two realms.

At that moment, Li Yunfei and Honghong could take advantage of this convenience to leave the netherworld and enter the mortal realm along with them.

The Golden Skeleton King quickly led its massive army to Mount Erciyas. With a sweep of its soul power, it instantly discovered the cave where the Asura spears were stored.

It dispatched its personal guards to retrieve all the Asura spears, and the guard previously instructed by Spirit 01 shared the operational method with the other guards holding the weapons.

Subsequently, the Golden Skeleton King stood upon a large volcanic rock. Judging by its waving arms, gestures, and clenched fists, it appeared to be delivering a stirring, impassionate speech.

The skeleton soldiers below raised their weapons in unison, their jaws continuously opening and closing, filling the air with a steady chorus of clicking sounds.

To be a leader, smooth talk was a fundamental skill; if you couldn't rouse your subordinates' morale with a few words, how could you be fit to lead?

Time passed quickly. When the hour of You arrived, the Golden Skeleton King waved its hand, sending out a wave of soul energy. In an instant, the boundless sea of skeletons burrowed into the ground and completely vanished.

A thick, impenetrable nether qi surged upward from beneath the earth, leaving Li Yunfei, who had his Dharma Eyes open, nearly blind to everything save for a vast expanse of black mist.

He closed his Dharma Eyes and looked around, and sure enough, he noticed some unusual phenomena.

Not far from the foothills of Mount Erciyas, upon the previously barren land, entirely different sights faintly began to emerge.

The sensation was akin to superimposing two different photographs on a computer screen, looking exceedingly bizarre.

Gradually, a city materialized in the eyes of Li Yunfei and Honghong—a modern metropolis.

At first, the city appeared somewhat illusory, much like a mirage. However, Li Yunfei knew this was no mirage, but rather the scenery of the mortal realm.

Without a doubt, that city must be Kayseri in Turkey. To Li Yunfei's slight relief, the city appeared empty and devoid of any lights.

It seemed the Turkish government had long since received intelligence regarding the skeleton army's approach and had proactively evacuated all the residents.

As time progressed, the sights of Kayseri and the surrounding mortal environment grew increasingly solid and realistic.

If anyone with open Dharma Eyes had been present in the mortal world at that moment, they would have seen boundless black vapors rising from the ground outside the city, blanketing the evening sky and completely obscuring the last remnants of light.

To ordinary people, naturally, the rising black vapors remained invisible; they would merely attribute it to a change in weather and an impending rainstorm.

Finally, the surrounding environment solidified entirely, and the realms of yin and yang overlapped at this location.

"Click, click, click..."

The skeleton army re-emerged from beneath the earth, and in the blink of an eye, the land turned a stark, pale white.

The Golden Skeleton King slashed its greatsword toward Kayseri, and the sea of skeletons immediately surged toward the city.

Following the movement of the skeleton army, the dark clouds blanketing the sky also rapidly expanded forward.

Floating a hundred meters high in the air above the skeleton army, Li Yunfei and Honghong followed them into the city.

The moment Li Yunfei drew close to the skeleton army, a system prompt rang out in his mind.

"Attention Host, the instance dungeon [Undead Calamity] has been discovered, with a level range of 86 to 90. Please select the dungeon level."

Li Yunfei directly ignored the prompt and focused his attention on the actions of the skeleton army.

Surprisingly, the skeleton soldiers possessed a certain degree of principle. They merely searched everywhere for living humans and living creatures, yet refrained from damaging any of the city's infrastructure, acting with absolute discipline.

For in their view, these cities would all belong to them in the future, and the residents living here would eventually become part of the skeleton race. To destroy the city would be tantamount to wrecking their own home!

They launched a carpet search of the city, not even sparing the sewers. Asphalt and concrete roads were no obstacle to their innate talent for tunneling.

However, after searching for a while, the skeleton army failed to find any large groups of living humans, discovering only a few homeless vagrants hiding in sewers and air-raid shelters.

These vagrants usually loitered in the sewers and shelters, and when the government organized the evacuation, they had somehow been overlooked.

God knows what was going through their minds. Kayseri had a population of nearly 1.1 million, yet during such a massive evacuation, they remained completely oblivious—or perhaps they knew and simply refused to leave?

Unsurprisingly, they were discovered by the tunneling skeleton soldiers and beaten to death in a swarm.

Not all vagrants were mere pushovers; some even managed to scatter a few skeletons. Yet facing absolute numbers, the meager martial prowess of ordinary humans was utterly insignificant.

The Golden Skeleton King felt quite depressed. It had never expected that such a massive city would yield merely a few hundred living humans in the end.

Since they encountered no resistance this time, the skeleton army swept through the entire city in no time, yet the Vatican army had still not appeared.

Witnessing this, the Golden Skeleton King simply led the army out of the city and turned back toward the northwest, intending to proactively seek out the papal army for a decisive battle.

Crossing Mount Erciyas, the skeleton army marched back for only five or six kilometers before running headlong into the papal army.

The three major chivalric orders of the Church—the Hospitallers, the Templars, and the Teutonic Knights—formed a three-pronged encirclement. To the northwest were the Templars with 36,000 troops; to the west were the Hospitallers with 23,000 troops; and to the southwest were the Teutonic Knights with 22,000 troops.

To the south and north lay boundless oceans—the Mediterranean to the south and the Black Sea to the north. With nowhere else to go, naturally, no troops needed to be deployed there.

This already constituted sixty percent of the three major orders' total forces, leaving a mere 40,000-odd troops at their headquarters.

The three major orders relied primarily on cavalry, with each order mustering over 5,000 horsemen, all possessing the cultivation of the Spirit Activation stage, while the infantry were all in the Light Initiation stage.

Those who had not reached the Light Initiation stage were simply unqualified to participate in foreign wars; they were either studying in knight academies or preaching to believers in churches.

The Paladins wore gleaming silver plate armor, with only their eyes visible through their visors, and cloaks bearing red crosses draped over their backs.

Their weapons came in two varieties: either a shield and sword in hand, or a long lance.

Rather magically, however, the warhorses they rode all had eyes faintly glowing with white light—clearly abnormal, most likely because the Paladins were utilizing their own cultivation to provide energy support for their mounts.

From Vatican City to Paris, and from Paris to Turkey, the distance spanned far exceeded 5,000 kilometers. How could ordinary warhorses possibly endure such a journey?

Moreover, many Paladin combat skills required the aid of a mount to execute properly. Thus, a Paladin's warhorse was effectively equivalent to one of their weapons.

At this moment, Li Yunfei and Honghong were following the main force of the skeleton army on the northwestern side. When the two sides met, the system prompt sounded in his mind once more.

"Attention Host, the instance dungeon [Light and Dark Battlefield] has been discovered, with a level range of 91 to 95. Please select the dungeon level."

The dungeon level had unexpectedly jumped up a notch. It seemed this was not due to the Golden Skeleton King, but rather because of the Church faction.

If the dungeon were generated, someone within the papal army would be enhanced by the system to a strength exceeding level 91, whereas the Golden Skeleton King, if it became the dungeon boss, could only reach level 90 at most.

Li Yunfei chose to ignore it once again. Even in reality, fighting both sides head-on would cost him an immense amount of effort, let alone generating a dungeon.

He quietly observed the leading figures of the papal army. Riding at the very front were three knights clad in pitch-black plate armor, bearing a white cross on their chests, with greatsword-style crosses hanging at their waists and no shields.

They were inquisitors hailing directly from the Inquisition. Flanking them and riding just behind were cardinals dressed in long red robes, with crosses hanging around their necks and Bibles held in their left hands.

Ordinary bishops wore white robes, and priests wore black robes, maintaining a distinct hierarchy where one could easily discern their rank simply by the color of their attire.

To deal with the three major orders, the Golden Skeleton King had also made preparations.

3,000 Golden Skeleton elite guards wielding Asura spears were divided into three groups of 1,000 each, facing the respective chivalric orders, led respectively by the Flame Skeleton King and the Frost Skeleton King.

The skeleton army had no concept of scouts, but the papal army did.

The Templar Knights continued marching toward Kayseri at an unhurried pace.

They didn't need to rush; their current objective was merely to drive the skeleton army eastward, with no need for direct conflict.

As long as the skeleton army didn't run amok elsewhere, they wouldn't rush to engage them in battle.

As for the cities slaughtered by the skeleton army along the way, that was beyond their jurisdiction.

Presumably, the countries and cities in this direction should have received intelligence long ago. If they still failed to take the initiative to evacuate, being slaughtered was their own fault.

At that very moment, a few Paladin scouts galloped furiously toward the center formation. The inquisitor riding in the middle raised a hand, and the command to halt the army was swiftly relayed down the line.

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Chapter 2/3

The scout knights galloped close, reined in their horses, and reported loudly, "Reporting, Lord Frederick! The skeleton army is charging toward us. It looks like they actually intend to launch a counter-offensive."

Frederick, who sported a hooked nose and rode at the very center, narrowed his eyes slightly and said mockingly, "I wager Kayseri is already an empty city by now, isn't it?"

The scout knight replied, "Yes, my lord. According to intelligence we received, Kayseri completed the evacuation of its final batch of residents two days ago."

Frederick, believing he had thoroughly grasped the Golden Skeleton King's mindset, looked left and right at his two companions and smiled, "It seems these bags of bones have been driven to desperation. Well then, gentlemen, prepare for battle!"

"This time, let's smash a few more bones and let them know that continuing to flee is their only way out."

The man on his left cautioned prudently, "Don't underestimate them. If the Golden Skeleton King were truly driven to desperation, it could have stayed inside the city and relied on the fortifications to fight us. There's no need to charge over here and court death."

"There is a saying from Great Xia that I completely agree with: 'When things are abnormal, there must be a goblin.' We'd best be cautious."

Frederick asked in utter confusion, "A goblin? Where did a goblin come from? Albert, do you have any basis for saying that?"

The others looked at him quizzically as well.

Albert choked on his words for a moment, left speechless, before patiently explaining, "The 'goblin' here doesn't mean a literal goblin; it means something is definitely amiss."

Only then did the others understand. The man to Frederick's right seemed to possess a contrarian personality. Hearing this, he remarked, "Great Xia people are simply baffling. Why must it be a goblin? Why not say that when things are abnormal, there must be a ghost?"

Albert nodded. "You actually hit the mark there. When describing abnormalities, Great Xia people also say 'there is a ghost'; when describing someone with a guilty conscience or harboring a conspiracy, they say 'there is a ghost in their heart' or 'harboring a ghost's child'."

The contrarian frowned and said, "What a cursed description. How can a heart get pregnant? Why use a ghost's child to describe a conspiracy?"

"I've also heard they love to say 'think in the heart' [literally *xinsi* or *xinsiang*]. Does the heart possess cognitive abilities? Don't people use their brains to think? Great Xia's thought processes are truly bizarre."

Albert: "......"

High in the sky, Li Yunfei and Honghong concentrated their hearing. Hearing this exchange, they nearly burst out laughing.

This Albert seemed to be someone who enjoyed studying Great Xia culture, but he had evidently been misled by poor translations, picking up only a half-baked understanding.

Well, that was only to be expected. With the rather sparse Western languages, accurately translating Great Xia culture was fundamentally a difficult task.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have translated the "Six Fan Gate" into the "Police Station with Six Fans" back in the day (from the English version of *House of Flying Daggers*).

Still, his comprehension of the underlying meaning was mostly sound; things being abnormal definitely implied a problem, much like the proverb "every anomaly implies a demon."

His understanding of "a ghost in one's heart" and "harboring malicious designs" was essentially correct. As for the contrarian's question about why Great Xia people coined terms like "thinking with the heart," even Li Yunfei didn't quite understand it.

The man had a point—the heart lacked cognitive faculties; thinking was done with the brain!

Frederick waved a hand. "Alright, Albert, that's irrelevant, but what you said makes sense."

"Pass down my order: the infantry will form a square and advance, the cavalry will charge, and we will follow closely behind the cavalry to anchor the line and assess the situation first."

"If there truly is a problem, we can handle it promptly. If there is no problem, we'll deal the Golden Skeleton King a heavy blow."

"Understood."

......

"Click, click, click..."

On the side of the skeleton army, led by the Golden Skeleton King, the main force surged forward, followed closely by two thousand elite golden skeleton guards.

The one thousand golden skeleton guards holding golden bone sabers in one hand and Asura spears in the other were intermingled among them.

Fearing that the Paladins would discover the anomaly and be on their guard, it intentionally refrained from sending the spear-wielding guards to the very front.

Previously, the Golden Skeleton King always hid in the rear, sending ordinary skeleton soldiers to exhaust the enemy's cultivation before leaping out at the crucial moment to counter the inquisitors.

Yet this time, in order to directly draw out the inquisitors and secure their demise in a single encounter, it took personal command of the vanguard.

When it saw that the vanguard charging out from the opposing side consisted of Paladins, while the inquisitors lagged behind in the rear, it was overjoyed. *You are literally delivering yourselves to me to be slaughtered.*

The Paladins directly executed the combat skill "Charge." The white light in their warhorses' eyes flared brilliantly, and their speed instantly turned lightning-fast, bringing them right to the eyes of the skeleton army in a flash.

The Paladins on horseback shouted, "Praise the Lord, Hallelujah," while the weapons and shields in their hands erupted with intense white radiance.

As their greatswords slashed down and lances thrust forward, blindingly white bright battle qi poured toward the horde of skeletons.

Behind them, priests and bishops cast wave after wave of buffing and healing-type holy magic, causing the light attribute energy on the Paladins to blaze fiercely, making their silver plate armor emit a dazzling radiance.

The cardinals chanted hymns praising the Lord in unison, petitioning Him to bestow power to purify the evil in the world.

These were hymns, but they were also incantations of holy magic. Ray after ray of holy magic rained down into the skeleton horde, purifying the skeleton soldiers into piles of bone ash in massive batches.

The Golden Skeleton King refused to be outdone. It raised its golden greatsword, channeled its soul power into the blade, and unleashed a terrifying, massive golden sword qi with a horizontal slash directed at the Paladin ranks, while the elite guards behind it similarly unleashed golden blade qi.

"Puff, puff, puff..."

There was no earth-shattering roar. Against the two thousand golden skeleton elite guards facing five thousand Paladins, their blade qi was actually annihilated by the bright battle qi.

Although the attacks formed by the bright battle qi were mostly offset, a small portion—though slightly weakened—still slammed fiercely into the bodies of the golden skeleton guards.

The elite guards struck by the bright battle qi instantly saw the soul fires in their eyes dim, teetering on the verge of extinction. After enduring a few more attacks, they finally disintegrated into piles of bone ash upon the ground.

Originally, their numbers had exceeded 100,000, but from Paris to Turkey, they had suffered continuous attrition along the way, leaving fewer than 50,000 remaining.

This was precisely because bright battle qi exercised an overwhelmingly oppressive suppression over them, requiring five or six parts of their own strength to offset just one part of the enemy's.

Fortunately, this exchange of remote attacks was not a loss for them. While over 600 golden skeleton elite guards disintegrated, more than a dozen cardinals and Paladins were knocked from their horses by the Golden Skeleton King's strike.

Trading blows with the Church, losing 10 golden skeleton elite guards for a single Paladin was not a loss; trading 1,000 guards for a cardinal was an absolute net profit.

With this single strike, the Golden Skeleton King had eliminated two cardinals and twelve Paladins, making it a massive profit.

Following that, it was time for the Golden Skeleton King to expand its gains and rack up more achievements. It strode forward to meet the Paladin army, bypassing the ordinary Paladins, bishops, and priests, and targeted the cardinals exclusively.

A late Golden Core cultivator fighting Nether-Transformation stage opponents—killing them one by one with every sword stroke—was simply due to the Golden Skeleton King lacking diverse combat techniques. Had a Great Xia late Golden Core grandmaster been in its place, a single move could have reaped dozens or hundreds of Nether-Transformation stage opponents.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

The Paladin army, enveloped in thick, holy radiant energy, slammed fiercely into the skeleton horde, kicking up a storm of bone ash wherever they passed.

Hundreds and thousands of skeleton soldiers were being shattered. If they were allowed to slaughter their way completely through the sea of skeletons, this single wave might well wipe out hundreds of thousands of skeleton soldiers.

The Poisonous Green Skeleton King and its toxic green skeletons spewed out green venom mists. While these mists could not harm Paladins protected by holy radiant energy, they rapidly wore down the buffs cast by the bishops and priests, draining their cultivation.

Normally, the cardinals would use "Purification" to dispel the green venom mist, but today they were all intercepted by the Golden Skeleton King and were currently being slaughtered.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

At that moment, a continuous series of crisp gunshots rang out across the sea of skeletons. Those previously unstoppable Paladins began tumbling from their horses one after another.

The fallen Paladins typically bore dense, through-and-through bloody holes across their bodies, turning their torsos into something resembling watering cans.

Their flesh was rapidly corroded by the green venom mist, transforming into skeletons in the blink of an eye before rising anew to turn their weapons against their former comrades and join the ranks of the skeleton army.

Deprived of holy radiant energy support, the warhorses were likewise quickly corroded down to bare skeletons, transformed into skeletal mounts by the Poisonous Green Skeleton King.

The golden skeleton elite guards wielding Asura spears vaulted onto the horses, pursuing the Paladins who had charged to the front while continuously firing from behind.

Watching this, the Golden Skeleton King opened its jaw wide—had it possessed the capability to laugh aloud, the entire battlefield would likely be echoing with its wild laughter right now.

"Damn it! Albert, your 'goblin' can go to hell! How many of our brothers has your stupidity killed?"

Frederick roared angrily, leaping directly into the air to shoot toward the Golden Skeleton King. While still airborne, a cross-shaped wave of bright battle qi slashed downward.

That was the Inquisition's most classic fundamental holy combat skill—the Cross Holy Light Slash.

Albert was currently filled with grievance as well. This time, anomalies truly implied a goblin; to a certain extent, his prediction hadn't been wrong.

Yet in his wildest dreams, he never expected that the "goblin" would be the Golden Skeleton King abandoning its usual operating style and personally charging at the very front.

While he reacted a beat too slowly due to emotional turmoil, another inquisitor had already leaped into the air to charge at the Golden Skeleton King.

The Golden Skeleton King required at least two inquisitors to match it, so he dared not hesitate.

Yet it was precisely Albert's sluggish reaction that saved his life.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

Just as the Golden Skeleton King slashed apart the Cross Holy Light Slash, with Frederick reaching the airspace above it, his hands holding a greatsword aloft, and a sword imbued with intense holy light preparing to cleave downward, a volley of dense gunshots erupted.

With the first shot, Frederick's protective battle qi shattered; with the second, a burst of blood blossomed across his chest and abdomen; followed by the third, fourth, fifth shots...

Suspended in mid-air, Frederick trembled like a sieve, blood continuously bursting from his body as through-and-through holes multiplied across his torso—precisely mirroring the soldiers who suffered concentrated firepower on the battlefield.

Frederick stared in incredulous disbelief. How... how was this possible?

Aside from the Golden Skeleton King, no one could break his protective battle qi. Even for the Golden Skeleton King, one-shot penetrating defense was impossible! What kind of guns were these?

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Chapter 3/3

He would never get to discover the truth. Amidst the concentrated gunfire, a bullet condensed from massive soul power finally pierced his brain.

Frederick was instantly plunged into eternal darkness, his body falling limply from mid-air.

The Asura spear injured both the body and the soul. Pummeled by so many gunshots, his soul was naturally battered to pieces and ultimately dissipated completely, ceasing to exist in this world.

The other inquisitor met the exact same fate, being beaten into a living sieve.

Albert watched this scene in horrified disbelief, his already thoroughly scrambled mind plunging into utter bewilderment.

What kind of firearms could possibly break through a Bronze Knight's protective battle qi?

And those intermediate knights who had charged into the sea of skeletons—why were they being hunted down?

Good God! Were those firearms from hell itself?

Do not assume Frederick was a weakling just because he was ranked as a Bronze Knight; this wasn't playing *Honor of Kings*, and "Bronze" did not signify weakness.

On the contrary, it represented the pinnacle level of cultivation and attainment in the current supernatural world of the Blue Earth.

The hierarchy of knights progressed from: Knight Cadet, Novice Knight, Junior Knight, Intermediate Knight, Senior Knight, Bronze Knight, Silver Knight, Gold Knight, Platinum Knight, Legendary Knight, to Holy Knight.

Knight Cadets corresponded to the Qi Condensation stage (pre-level 10 for Li Yunfei), whereas Bronze Knights corresponded to the Golden Core stage (levels 50 to 59 for Li Yunfei)—they were far from weak.

Those Paladins who charged into the skeleton sea were intermediate knights, while the commanders of the three major orders were merely peak senior knights.

At present, the Church had yet to produce a Silver Knight, just as Great Xia had yet to produce a Nascent Soul cultivator.

"Click, click, click..."

The Golden Skeleton King raised its greatsword high, swept it forward with wild excitement, and charged directly at Albert and the infantry formation behind him.

The elite golden skeleton guards followed closely behind. At least 300 of them clutched Asura spears, while the rest went off to hunt down the Paladins who had penetrated the skeleton sea.

Up in the sky, Li Yunfei smiled faintly at Honghong. "The dust has settled. How many of these Church members manage to escape back will depend entirely on luck."

Honghong's eyes flickered slightly. "Although no one from the Church witnessed the Asura spears, they did hear the gunshots after all. Have you any interest in... personally engineering a century-old sensational unsolved mystery?"

Hearing this, Li Yunfei froze. He pondered for a moment, a cold gleam finally flashing in his eyes as he nodded. "You're right. Let this battle become an unresolved global mystery!"

"However, we cannot do it ourselves; the characteristics of our power are too distinct. To avoid leaving any traces that the Church might recognize and trace back to us, let the super skeletons handle it!"

"Arrange it however you see fit."

......

The papal army had been defeated—routed thoroughly. The mainstay of the three major orders—the mounted intermediate-level Paladins—were wiped out entirely, swallowed by the sea of skeletons, all slain by the Asura spears.

The Asura spear truly lived up to its name as the Asura; it was indeed an peerless divine instrument for slaughtering all living things.

Of the 8 inquisitors, 7 died; Albert escaped by the skin of his teeth, abandoning his mount to flee through flight.

Of the 120 cardinals, 96 died; the remaining 24 likewise followed Albert in fleeing by flight, though with their cultivation levels, they could neither fly far nor fast.

To accommodate them, Albert deliberately slowed his pace. Fortunately, the skeleton monsters lacked the ability to fly, so there was no fear of being pursued.

The infantry had no hope of escaping. Competing in stamina against skeletons was tantamount to seeking death; skeletons possessed no concept of endurance—as long as their soul fires remained unextinguished, they could run forever.

With no other choice, they formed formations to make a desperate final stand, achieving the feat of destroying over 2.2 million skeleton soldiers before being completely annihilated.

The Church's force of 81,000 could easily have crushed the skeleton army, yet due to a single foolish decision, they were buried in their entirety upon this foreign land.

After flying northwestward for over an hour with the miserable and pathetic remaining 24 cardinals, Albert saw their cultivation levels approaching exhaustion and had no choice but to land temporarily to catch their breath.

"Everyone, hold on a little longer. Recover slightly and we'll resume our journey! We are less than 50 kilometers away from Ankara, the capital of Turkey; we'll reach it soon."

They were currently in a desolate countryside not far from a highway. Unfortunately, due to the recent ravages of the skeleton army, no vehicles were traveling on the road, otherwise he might have considered commandeering a car.

A cardinal asked with a dazed expression, "Lord Albert, how on earth... did we lose?"

Having never experienced the might of the Asura spear, he remained utterly clueless about how their defeat had come to pass.

Then again, anyone who had experienced the power of the Asura spear was already dead; if he had experienced it firsthand, how could he possibly be alive to ask this question?

"It's a strange kind of firearm... Who goes there?!" Albert was about to answer when his expression suddenly shifted. Intense holy light surged over his body, and with a *shhh*, he drew the cross greatsword at his waist.

No one answered his question. Only a wave of soul energy transmitted itself directly into their minds, conveying the message: "Why don't you go to heaven and ask God to answer that question for you?"

"Bang, bang, bang..."

A continuous, unbroken string of gunshots erupted from the empty surroundings, firing as rapidly as firecrackers.

Albert and the 24 cardinals shook violently amidst the gunshots. Moments later, both their physical bodies and souls were battered into a riddled state, resembling sieves.

A physical body riddled with bloody holes could at least retain its corpse intact, avoiding fragmentation.

However, once a soul was perforated with countless holes, the only outcome was complete scattering of the soul, destroying them utterly.

Albert's eyes bulged wide with fury, and he fell backward filled with unmitigated grievance. His final thought before death was: "Why couldn't we block it?"

Protective bright battle qi, when all was said and done, was fundamentally the same thing as a Great Xia cultivator's protective spiritual energy or a martial artist's protective qi barrier—all of them concentrated energy on the surface of the body to enhance personal defense.

Since it was all-over body defense, the energy was naturally dispersed. How could it possibly withstand the highly concentrated energy bullets of the Asura spear?

As far as Li Yunfei had ever witnessed, the only magical treasure capable of automatically adjusting its defensive intensity and pinpoint accuracy was the Sun-Gold Wheel.

He wouldn't dare claim there wasn't a second such treasure in the world, but there certainly weren't many.

To a certain extent, the Asura spear could indeed be considered a top-tier instrument of slaughter, qualifying it to rank on the same tier as the Sun-Moon Gold Wheels.

Thus, every single force dispatched by the Church had been completely and utterly wiped out without a single survivor. Aside from the skeleton army, no one else knew the inside story.

Now, it was time to deal with the skeleton army.

The Church's expeditionary force had been completely annihilated. Unless Great Britain's Round Table Knights stepped forward, Europe possessed no other faction capable of rivaling the skeleton army, leaving them to remain an inevitable scourge.

They knew the truth of this battle. To prevent them from being captured alive by interested parties and interrogated about the truth, they could never be allowed to remain in a wild, unmanaged state.

From the moment they accepted Li Yunfei's assistance, their fate had been sealed with only two paths available to them.

Either annihilation, or allegiance.

......

Concealed within the air, Li Yunfei recalled his 46 super skeletons and returned with Honghong toward the previous battlefield, trailing far behind in the sky to watch the skeleton army clean up the battlefield.

Their method of cleaning up the battlefield was exceedingly simple: the Poisonous Green Skeleton King sprayed its toxic green mist, corroding all the corpses down to bare skeletons before transforming them into skeleton soldiers.

Because the skeletons formed from these Paladins already possessed cultivation before death, although their personal strength could not be retained post-mortem, the bones reinforced by the bright battle qi still made them far stronger than ordinary skeleton soldiers.

This battle had not lasted long; it was currently not even 10 P.M.

Tonight's battle had eliminated the Church army that had pursued them relentlessly for so long, yet they themselves had suffered losses totaling over 2.4 million.

Meanwhile, the Church army had only replenished them with 80,000 troops, leaving their current total at approximately 3.7 million.

Still, having gained over 10,000 cavalry units, they hadn't completely suffered a net loss.

The skeleton army relied on sheer numbers to constitute an undead calamity; otherwise, they were nothing at all.

Anxious to replenish his forces, the Golden Skeleton King immediately reorganized its ranks and charged back along the path it had come.

They had come from Paris, making Paris their homeland. Previously, they had no choice; driven away by the Church, they were forced to leave their native soil.

Now possessing the strength to defy the Church, they naturally wished to fight their way back home and turn all living humans in the surrounding cities into their own kind.

It was inconvenient for Li Yunfei and Honghong to act in the mortal realm, because once they struck, they would inevitably leave behind the spiritual energy fluctuations unique to themselves.

They couldn't be certain whether anyone could extract special fluctuation signatures from the battlefield to investigate who was responsible.

Therefore, for absolute insurance, they decided to wait until dawn, when the skeleton army returned to the netherworld, before making their move.

The current netherworld was practically the premier location for silencing targets.

Fortunately, the skeleton army was returning by the same route. Along this path, they had slaughtered everything in their wake, leaving virtually no living humans remaining, so there was no fear of more innocent lives being claimed.

Moreover, given the speed of the skeleton army, with only seven hours left until the rabbit hour of dawn, how far could they possibly travel?

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