Chapter 158: I Am the Greatest Under Heaven

As the time neared 5:30 AM, Li Yunfei and Honghong, flying above the skeleton legion, noticed the surrounding environment slowly shifting.

The overlapping phenomenon of two completely distinct environments appeared once again. The wide highway below gradually grew blurry, slowly giving way to a desolate wilderness.

Because Li Yunfei and Honghong had remained within the shroud of the skeleton legion's Yin energy, they were naturally able to return to the Underworld alongside them.

However, as the Yin-Yang transition hour of *Mao* arrived, they flew to the very edge of the Yin energy shroud, keeping a safe distance from the Golden Skeleton King to avoid detection.

Once fully back in the Underworld, Li Yunfei and Honghong bypassed the skeleton legion and flew more than a dozen kilometers ahead of them.

When the Golden Skeleton King led its skeleton army to this location, it discovered that the mysterious kindred group had once again appeared ahead of them.

This time, the leader of the group was holding a pitch-black banner inscribed with extremely mysterious patterns, its surface resembling a continuously spinning vortex.

From that banner, the Golden Skeleton King sensed a massive concentration of signatures belonging to its own kind.

Halting the army, the Golden Skeleton King advanced with only its three thousand elite guards armed with Asura Spears, and said in a warm and amicable tone, "We meet again. I am very glad to see you, my friends."

Spirit 01 replied, "You did well. You truly displayed the might of the skeleton race."

The Golden Skeleton King said happily, "That is all thanks to your assistance. The Holy See's influence has now shrunk by sixty percent; one could say they are at their weakest."

"Yet if they are given enough time, they will rebuild a massive sphere of influence. My friends, surely you must have some plans regarding this?"

Spirit 01 stated, "You are too optimistic. Although sixty percent of the Holy See's army was wiped out, their true loss of strength is likely less than thirty percent."

"Do not forget, the Holy See's greatest assets are the Pope and the Grand Inquisitor. Those two alone account for thirty percent of the Holy See's total combat power."

The Golden Skeleton King countered, "Perhaps you are right, my friend, but we possess so many divine artifacts. Even the Pope and the Grand Inquisitor would find it difficult to resist them, would they not?"

In the distance, Li Yunfei was rather speechless. He had no desire to continue wasting words with this fellow; it had grown too full of itself and was now actually trying to coax the super skeletons into attacking the Holy See.

It was likely so inflated with arrogance now that, armed with three thousand Asura Spears, it believed it could sweep across the entire world and need not regard any person or faction.

It failed to realize that while the Asura Spears were powerful, their wielders were far too weak. Their ability to annihilate the Holy See's army was merely due to the advantage of a surprise attack.

Once used openly and having their existence exposed, the Asura Spears might no longer serve their intended purpose.

After all, their range was not particularly far. Once targeted from a distance, they might not even get the chance to fire.

Spirit 01 declared, "I do not wish to discuss this matter further. We came this time to fulfill our promise and grant you a great fortune."

The Golden Skeleton King did not mind and asked curiously, "What is it?"

Spirit 01 answered, "A glorious future. My master appreciates you and is very satisfied with your performance in this battle. He is willing to give you a chance to pledge your allegiance to him."

The soul flames flickering within the Golden Skeleton King's eyes suddenly constricted, shrinking down several sizes just like a living person's pupils sharply narrowing in shock.

A master?

This group of powerful kindred, nearly every one of whom possessed the aura of kings, were merely someone else's servants?

Servants, not subordinates.

Otherwise, the title used would not be "Master," but rather "King" or "Leader."

Just how terrifying of an entity must their master be?

To others, this might indeed be a supreme stroke of fortune, but to the Golden Skeleton King, every fiber of its being rejected the idea.

It was a king in its own right, commanding millions of troops, and perhaps tens or hundreds of millions in the future.

Why abandon a proper kingship to become someone else's servant? Its brain was not broken.

Yet it did not offer a flat refusal. Instead, it asked, "If we pledge allegiance to your master, what must we do?"

Spirit 01 replied, "Very simply, surrender a wisp of your soul core and dedicate your lives and everything else to my master, just as we have done."

If the Golden Skeleton King had flesh on its face, its expression would certainly have changed.

After a brief silence, it spoke again, its voice turning somewhat colder, "Perhaps you are a powerful organization, and your strength is beyond our imagination. Your master must undoubtedly be an unparalleled powerhouse."

Spirit 01 said, "Everything said before the word 'but' is nonsense. State your 'but' directly."

The Golden Skeleton King choked for a moment, suppressed its rising anger, and said, "But I have no intention of becoming anyone's servant."

Spirit 01 nodded. "Very well. My master never forces anyone. Joining is entirely a matter of voluntary choice."

The Golden Skeleton King inwardly breathed a sigh of relief and said earnestly, "I am sorry. Everyone has their own aspirations. Although we cannot become colleagues, I am willing to be your ally."

Spirit 01 replied, "That won't be necessary. We have never had any use for allies. You are either one of us, or you are a complete stranger."

"And now, please return our assistance to us. This aid was originally provided to support your fight against the Holy See. Now that the Holy See's army has been destroyed, we must reclaim it."

Hearing this, the Golden Skeleton King was deeply alarmed and blurted out, "You cannot do this! Without these divine artifacts, we would be completely unable to move an inch in Europe."

Spirit 01 stated, "That is your concern. Since you are unwilling to join us, on what grounds do you expect to keep our property?"

"Even assistance or war loans between nations require repayment, and often even more due to interest."

"Even in the case of unconditional aid, the recipient at the very least incurs a debt of gratitude, which must be repaid when the other party has need of it."

"We do not ask for extra repayment; we only require the return of the 'principal.' You suffer no losses whatsoever, and having eliminated a powerful enemy, you have already made a massive profit."

Left speechless, the Golden Skeleton King chose not to argue the point further, as reason was entirely on the other side.

Yet under no circumstances could it hand over those divine artifacts; they were the hope of its rise to power.

It said sincerely, "Can we change the method of repayment? We truly need these divine artifacts, and we are willing to accept this debt of gratitude. If there is anything you need us to do in the future, we will certainly give it our all."

Spirit 01 said, "I told you, we do not need allies. To be blunt, we have no regard for your favor; we simply wish to take back what belongs to us."

Upon hearing this, the soul flames in the Golden Skeleton King's eyes began to leap violently, and the message conveyed through its soul fluctuations turned icy: "Is there truly no room for negotiation?"

Spirit 01 answered, "None."

The Golden Skeleton King nodded. A wave of soul fluctuations suddenly swept outward as the three thousand elite guards behind it simultaneously raised their Asura Spears, pointing them at the super skeletons.

The Golden Skeleton King said coldly, "I did not wish to sour relations, but since you refuse to give us any choice at all, we have no alternative but to fight you to the death."

Showing not a shred of anger or even emotional fluctuation, Spirit 01 calmly stated, "Embezzling these divine artifacts—is this your final choice?"

The Golden Skeleton King nodded. "This is my choice, and a helpless one at that."

Spirit 01 said, "Very well. Let us hope you do not live to regret it."

With those words, the super skeletons vanished instantly from the spot, just as they had before.

The Golden Skeleton King once again swept its spiritual power across the heavens and earth in every direction, yet found no abnormalities whatsoever.

Its mood was extremely heavy. Both the heritage and the methods displayed by the other party filled it with deep apprehension. If it had a choice, it truly did not wish to make an enemy of such a faction.

Yet the other party was far too resolute, leaving it no alternative. Under no circumstances would it abandon these divine artifacts.

If the other party truly wished to subjugate it, they would surely display even greater power to utterly crush its resistance. When driven to the absolute limit, it would know how to yield to circumstances.

At least in that case, having no choice, it could justify the outcome to itself.

Unfortunately, things did not develop according to its expectations; the other party proved far more resolute than it had imagined.

Just as it prepared to lead the three thousand elite guards back to the main army and continue on its way, its entire body abruptly shook. It jerked its head up toward the sky, the soul flames in its eyes instantly shrinking to the size of soybeans.

Dense clusters of massive fireballs materialized out of thin air, condensing to a nearly tangible state like countless miniature suns, and came hurtling down with a deafening roar straight toward the ranks of the three thousand elite guards.

At the same time, an unimaginably huge purplish-gold hammer shadow, resembling a mountain peak, crashed down directly toward the top of its head.

Instinctively, the Golden Skeleton King raised its left arm while pouring spiritual power frantically, causing a golden shield above its head to rapidly expand and thicken.

Using violent soul fluctuations, it roared, "We are of the same kind! Must you be so ruthless?"

...

Meanwhile, after recalling the super skeletons, Li Yunfei said in a deep voice, "It is time to break through to the Nascent Soul stage. Having made this trip, we must have something to show for it."

Honghong arched her delicate, curved brows and asked, "Are you not planning to subjugate them? We only need to eliminate those three thousand elite guards, reclaim the Asura Spears, and then release the 690,000-strong skeleton army to surround them. Surely subjugating them then would be easy!"

Li Yunfei shook his head. "If the Golden Skeleton King had known what was good for it earlier, I might have accepted it. But since it chose to become our enemy, there is no need to waste the effort."

"These skeletons have already made a name for themselves internationally, and their situation is well known to various nations. If they were to appear within the Great Xia camp in the future, today's actions would give us away completely."

Honghong suggested, "Then we can eliminate the ones with distinct features and keep only the ordinary skeleton soldiers!"

"All skeletons look alike; who can prove for certain that they are the same batch from France? There are over three million troops there, after all!"

Li Yunfei shook his head again. "There is still too much risk. Do not forget, among those skeleton soldiers are the 80,000 from the Holy See."

"Although they have been converted into skeleton soldiers, they likely retain auras unique to Holy Knights, and it is hard to guarantee they won't be recognized by high-level Holy See cultivators."

"Since it has already been decided to turn today's battle into an unsolved mystery of the world, it is better to let them vanish completely. Besides, our labor will not go unrewarded."

Honghong shrugged. "As you like! I merely made a suggestion. If you believe this way is better, then we shall do it your way."

...

Li Yunfei nodded and said, "Let's begin! The three thousand elite guards are yours. I will personally deal with the Golden Skeleton King, eliminate the other skeleton kings and the Yin-god-tier skeletons, and the remainder should form a dungeon suited to our level."

Without further ado, Honghong focused her mind and summoned the Ghost Fire Ringing Bell, a magical treasure that granted a massive boost to her fire-type arts.

The bell expanded to the size of a washbasin before her. Channeling her demonic energy into it, the Ghost Fire Ringing Bell instantly transformed into a giant rotary cannon, its mouth spewing continuous streams of densely condensed fireballs that blanketed the three thousand elite guards.

Li Yunfei summoned his purplish-gold hammer, manifesting a colossal spiritual hammer shadow that smashed down ruthlessly toward the crown of the Golden Skeleton King's head.

Simultaneously, with a flick of his hand, two Asura Spears materialized in his grip, aimed directly at the massive golden shield the Golden Skeleton King had conjured.

He intended to obliterate the target in a single blow.

*Bang!*

Just as the purplish-gold hammer reached above the Golden Skeleton King, Li Yunfei fired both spears simultaneously, shattering the giant golden shield instantly.

Amidst the Golden Skeleton King's desperate, silent shrieks, the giant purplish-gold hammer struck heavily upon its skull.

*Boom!*

Where the giant hammer landed, a crater over ten zhang in radius and five to six zhang deep exploded into existence, the earth around it fracturing in every direction.

The Golden Skeleton King vanished completely on the spot, reduced directly to fine ashes.

The golden skeleton elite guards caught within the blast radius were also implicated, with at least seven or eight hundred of them wiped out by the strike.

The moment the elite guards dissolved, the Asura Spears—enveloped by Li Yunfei's divine sense—were pulled back into his system inventory.

Items held in the hands of others could not be retrieved by Li Yunfei unless the targets themselves were stored.

Yet skeletons, though undead creatures, possessed a form of life belonging to the undead, and in a certain sense counted as "living beings." The system inventory did not store living entities.

With the death of the Golden Skeleton King, Li Yunfei leveled up instantly, reaching level 59, which represented the peak of the Golden Core stage. The 46 super skeletons rose to level 56, while Honghong did not level up, though her experience bar saw a massive increase.

"Boom, boom, boom..."

As the purplish-gold hammer struck down, giant fireballs fell like rain, carrying out a blanket bombardment on the formation of skeleton elite guards.

The attack came far too suddenly for them to even react by burrowing underground for cover; they were instantly engulfed in flames.

Following a round of violent explosions, not a single one of the three thousand elite guards remained, all having vanished into smoke. The Asura Spears entirely disappeared, returning to Li Yunfei's hands.

With concealment talismans pasted on both Li Yunfei and Honghong, ordinary skeleton soldiers could neither see nor sense them. Seeing the overwhelming rain of attacks descending, panic gripped them, and they scrambled to burrow underground.

The four skeleton kings and elemental skeletons, however, vaguely sensed the positions of the two intruders. In an instant, green poison mists, fireballs, ice spikes, and electrical arcs poured toward their location.

Naturally, these attacks were futile. Once the pair cast their Sun Gold Wheel defensive shields, they could ignore everything else and focus entirely on outputting damage.

The 46 fully equipped super skeletons reappeared. As the four skeleton kings and elemental skeletons burrowed underground, the super skeletons pursued them beneath the earth, cutting them down one by one as if slicing vegetables.

Thus, the entire high-tier combat strength of the skeleton legion was eradicated.

After Li Yunfei and Honghong flew out of the skeleton legion's zone and re-entered, the system prompt rang out in their minds as expected.

"Attention, Host. A dungeon named 'Skeleton Grounds' has been discovered, with levels ranging from 56 to 60. Please select the dungeon level."

The Undead Calamity dungeon had transformed into the Skeleton Grounds; clearly, a skeleton legion lacking high-end combat power no longer possessed the scale required to form a calamity.

"Select level 59 dungeon."

"Dungeon level selection complete. Enter?"

"Enter."

"Dungeon entry confirmed. Initiating dungeon sequence."

A barrier of primordial chaos appeared around the periphery of the Skeleton Grounds, spanning a vast area. Even within the Underworld, a dungeon remained a dungeon, existing forever as an independent space.

Upon entering the dungeon, Li Yunfei immediately cast the Earth God Pacification Spell. With him as the center and a radius of five kilometers, skeletons were rendered incapable of tunneling.

The skeletons that had burrowed underground were forced back to the surface, charging toward him and Honghong.

Having become dungeon monsters, the skeleton soldiers lacked independent will and would fight the host to the death.

The Golden Skeleton King, along with the four elemental skeleton kings of frost, flame, poison, and lightning, reappeared.

However, they were no longer the previous five skeleton kings, but rather evolved forms of the surviving skeleton soldiers enhanced by the system.

This dungeon featured one major and four minor bosses.

Li Yunfei summoned the Bone Spirit Banner, turned, and swept it behind him. As the banner waved, his 690,000 fully equipped skeleton warriors materialized on the open ground.

Clad in vital energy armor and wielding vital energy sabers, they formed various battle formations with an aura that was both grim and razor-sharp. The 46 super skeletons instantly appeared at the forefront of the army.

Turning back around, Li Yunfei waited until the skeleton legion charged within the five-kilometer radius of the Earth God Pacification Spell, then pointed his Bone Spirit Banner forward.

The 690,000 troops behind him raised their sabers in unison and, led by the 46 super skeletons, surged forward to meet the oncoming skeleton horde.

Viewed from the sky, one side was neat, orderly, and disciplined, while the other swarmed forward in utter chaos. The two factions formed a stark contrast.

Meanwhile, Li Yunfei and Honghong took flight together, charging toward the five bosses.

...

This battle held virtually no suspense. The 690,000 fully armed, rigorously drilled skeleton warriors—who had spent at least 1,900 years nurtured in Yin lands—faced off against civilian skeleton soldiers with mere centuries of age. "Basic attacks" were the only fitting descriptor for their execution.

Even though the enemy outnumbered them fivefold, it made no difference. They could not even breach the defense of the vital energy armor—which was precisely why Li Yunfei looked down upon these ordinary skeleton soldiers.

The skeleton warriors formed various ancient Great Xia military arrays, shifting flexibly under the command of the super skeletons. When the skeleton soldiers rushed in a chaotic mob into the arrays, they were slaughtered en masse before they even realized what was happening.

Skeleton soldiers were mere cannon fodder, easily dealt with by the ordinary skeleton warriors. The true opponents for Li Yunfei and Honghong were the system-enhanced golden skeleton elite guards and elemental skeletons, which qualified as elite monsters.

Honghong split into five avatars, each wielding a different magical treasure to coordinate and sweep through the elite monsters.

Li Yunfei, fighting five against one, took on the bosses. With the Sun Gold Wheel for defense, the Asura Spears for armor-piercing, and the purplish-gold hammer and Moon Gold Wheel for primary offense, even the joint defense of the five bosses left them overextended and faltering.

After lingering for less than five minutes, all five bosses were slain one by one.

Li Yunfei, Honghong, and the super skeletons leveled up nearly every few tens of seconds.

When Li Yunfei and Honghong reached level 60, the golden cores and internal elixirs within their bodies shattered simultaneously, condensing into tiny infants within their dantians—the process known as breaking the core to form the Nascent Soul.

The quality of their spiritual power underwent another massive leap, their divine sense coverage doubled directly, and their combat power surged explosively.

Honghong grew another tail, transforming into a five-tailed spirit fox, gained an additional avatar, and grew slightly larger in appearance, resembling a girl of fourteen or fifteen years of age.

Her loli phase was finally nearing its expiration.

With just one more advancement, she would evolve into a six-tailed spirit fox, transcending the category of ordinary demons to become a true spirit beast.

As long as she did not reveal her true form, no one would ever be able to tell she was not human through her aura alone.

Daoist spells that previously required spiritual power to activate—those which caused self-harm if driven by demonic energy—were now fully accessible for her to learn and execute.

Because those skeleton warriors were not Li Yunfei's system-summoned entities, the concept of leveling up did not apply to them in the traditional sense.

Yet their true spirits were anchored to the Bone Spirit Banner, and since the banner was a magical treasure refined by Li Yunfei, the skeleton warriors functioned effectively as his weapons.

Consequently, the skeleton soldiers they killed also contributed experience points to him.

A full 3.7 million skeleton soldiers—even though individual experience values were low—accumulated a massive total of experience due to their sheer numbers. This directly pushed Li Yunfei and Honghong to the limit of level 63, the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage.

Because this dungeon was a level 59 instance, the maximum gap between one's own level and the dungeon level was capped at three levels; exceeding three levels yielded no further experience points.

Thus, after reaching level 63, Li Yunfei and Honghong stopped gaining experience, but the super skeletons continued to rise. By the end, before all the dungeon monsters were even cleared, the super skeletons had all reached level 63 as well.

The combat strength Li Yunfei now commanded had multiplied many times over.

"Dungeon cleared. Leave?"

As the final skeleton monster crumbled into a heap of bone ash beneath a skeleton warrior's saber, the system prompt for clearing the dungeon echoed in his mind.

The skeleton warriors looked around. Finding not a single enemy left in sight and seeing only their own brothers and comrades as far as the eye could see, they grew filled with excitement.

*Clack, clack, clack...*

Raising their sabers high, they waved them in circles overhead while their jaws clattered rapidly, cheering for their victory.

Never before—neither in life nor in death—had they fought such a satisfying battle. This could no longer be called a landslide victory; it was sheer bullying of the opponent. Fighting alongside Li Yunfei was truly exhilarating.

"Long live Great Xia! Long live Zixiao! Long live Elder Chenglong..."

Sensing the thoughts conveyed by the soul fluctuations of the skeleton warriors, Li Yunfei broke into a gratified smile. It seemed these skeleton warriors had completely surrendered heart and soul.

Opening the system panel to check attribute information: Physical strength 283 (5), Soul strength 214 (3).
Honghong: Physical strength 213 (5), Soul strength 185 (3).

Upon breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage, apart from the attribute points gained from leveling up, both physical and soul strengths had each increased by 10 baseline units.

Li Yunfei's soul strength had reached 71 times the baseline, allowing him to command up to 61 super skeletons.

However, he did not rush to summon more super skeletons, because this dungeon run had yielded new Bone Spirit Crests.

True to form, Honghong unlocked another innate skill upon reaching the Nascent Soul stage.

Instantaneous Movement: Capable of arbitrary spatial teleportation within the range reachable by divine sense.

This clearly belonged to an advanced evolution of the Earth-Shrinking technique, no longer reliant on the earth itself. As a result, Honghong would become even more ghostly and difficult to guard against.

Collecting all the items dropped by the dungeon monsters and selling off the useless ones, Li Yunfei obtained a total of 370,000 grams of spiritual stones.

In terms of equipment, he acquired one full set each of Flame Armor, Frost Armor, Poison Armor, Lightning Armor, and Golden Armor.

All of these defensive gear pieces came with built-in reflection or counter-attack effects, inflicting burning, freezing, corrosive, or paralyzing damage on the bodies and souls of close-combat attackers.

The Golden Armor lacked special counter-attack attributes because its function was not merely reflection, but rather "damage inversion."

Reflecting damage and inverting damage were two different concepts; damage reflection meant an opponent's attack would inflict the armor's intrinsic elemental damage back onto them.

Damage inversion, on the other hand, rebounded the actual force of the opponent's attack directly back at the attacker.

The Golden Armor possessed exceptionally high defense on its own, far surpassing the other four types of armor—the vital energy armor looked like a joke by comparison.

While defending against an opponent's attack, it could rebound 80% of the attacking force back to the assailant, which was exceptionally formidable.

Hitting someone wearing this armor was akin to hitting oneself, yet the wearer's defense was overwhelmingly high. While the opponent might withstand ten parts of their own force, their defense might not survive eight parts of it.

To wear this armor was to secure an absolute upper hand before the fight even began.

As for weapons, he obtained one each of the Flame Bone Spirit Sword, Frost Bone Spirit Sword, Poison Bone Spirit Sword, Lightning Bone Spirit Sword, and Golden Bone Spirit Sword.

It was worth noting that the Poison Bone Spirit Sword was entirely different from the Poison Flying Sword; they were separated by two major realms!

The greatest distinction was that while the Poison Flying Sword only possessed the property of corrupting living flesh, the Poison Bone Spirit Sword possessed even stronger corrosiveness alongside an additional function: transforming the remaining skeleton into a skeleton soldier.

Skeleton soldiers converted by the Poison Bone Spirit Sword would unconditionally obey the orders of the sword wielder. In a sense, this sword was the very source of an "Undead Calamity."

The Frost Bone Spirit Sword naturally carried freezing damage, while the Lightning Bone Spirit Sword carried a paralyzing effect.

Among the four elemental bone spirit swords, the Flame Sword possessed the highest lethality, the Poison Sword the widest killing range, while the Frost and Lightning swords offered the highest practicality.

The Lightning and Frost swords shared similar utility with subtle differences.

The Frost Sword froze targets outright when possible, and at the very least significantly slowed enemies down when it couldn't.

The Lightning Sword paralyzed targets outright when possible, and at minimum caused them to stall momentarily.

Regardless, both swords were divine artifacts for clearing mobs.

As for the Golden Bone Spirit Sword, it possessed no special effects; its sole function was the amplification of physical force.

However, the degree of amplification was immense—very high indeed, surpassing every weapon in his current possession, providing a force multiplier of over 10x.

While this sword was unremarkable to cultivators, it was tailor-made for martial artists; to a martial artist, this sword was a true divine artifact.

After all, the fundamental purpose of a cultivator's spells and arrays was to amplify lethality, allowing a single unit of spiritual power to exert several times its normal effect.

Spells with amplification effects exceeding 10x were certainly not unheard of, and arrays went without saying—10x might not even constitute a starting baseline, as arrays could reach dozens or hundreds of times amplification.

Martial artists lacked such elaborate means to maximize the lethality of their cultivation; aside from the martial skills themselves, their effectiveness depended entirely on their comprehension of martial arts and martial intent.

Yet this sword required none of that—no preparations whatsoever. A casual slash would carry over ten times the power.

When combined with martial skills and personal comprehension, the combat power an individual could unleash might well rival a grand array.

Because this 10x multiplier did not simply add to the power generated by martial skills and personal insight; rather, whatever baseline force output one could achieve was multiplied by 10.

For instance: if you outputted one unit of force, executed a certain sword technique, and made that single unit exert eight units of power, holding the Golden Bone Spirit Sword would cause that same attack to exert eighty units of power.

Terrifying, was it not?

Quite terrifying indeed.

Having reviewed the defensive gear and weapons, Li Yunfei turned his attention to the magical treasures.

The Ghost Fire Ringing Bell required no further mention; dropped by the Flame Skeleton King, he had already acquired it previously.

The treasure dropped by the Frost Skeleton King was called the "Frost Bone Spirit Fan," essentially a low-spec, knock-off version of the "Plantain Fan."

It could only fan out a wave of freezing currents to create an ice-and-snow world within a certain radius, lacking the Plantain Fan's unstoppable gale—which required a Wind-Fixing Bead to resist and could blow a person eighty-four thousand li away.

Furthermore, the scale of the frozen domain produced by the Frost Bone Spirit Fan depended on the amount of spiritual power outputted by the wielder, unlike the Plantain Fan, whose power was innate to the treasure itself.

Rather than the shape of a Plantain Fan, the Frost Bone Spirit Fan took the form of the folding fans used by ancient European noblewomen.

The fan ribs were crafted from the ice-blue bones of the Frost Skeleton King, while the surface was made of an ice-blue translucent gauze, looking very classical and beautiful, making it well-suited for female users.

The treasure dropped by the Poison Skeleton King was a deep green cloth bag named the "Poison Space Bag," equivalent to a low-spec knock-off of Maitreya Buddha's "Human-Harvesting Bag," used for capturing large groups of targets.

However, its properties differed from the Human-Harvesting Bag; the Poison Space Bag was filled with green poisonous mist. Living beings trapped inside, once their cultivation energy was exhausted, would be corroded down to skeleton frames and directly converted into skeleton soldiers—truly a vicious artifact.

Thus, this treasure only worked on living beings; for undead entities lacking flesh, it could at best serve as a prison.

While the poisonous mist radiating from the Poison Bone Spirit Sword could be dodged in time, being sucked into the Poison Space Bag meant certain death.

Unless one's cultivation exceeded that of the treasure's wielder by a major realm, or one possessed some supreme offensive divine artifact capable of shattering the Poison Space Bag to escape, there was nothing to do but await death.

The treasure dropped by the Lightning Skeleton King belonged to the same category as the purplish-gold hammer, both being drops from undead dungeon monsters.

It was a compact halberd named the "Lightning Bone Spirit Halberd," a low-spec knock-off of the "Thunder Halberd," measuring only a foot in length.

When activated, its halberd head could release three rapidly rotating columns of lightning, inflicting lightning damage and paralyzing effects on enemies within a certain radius.

The range of the lightning columns depended on the spiritual power outputted by the wielder.

Finally came the "Golden Bone Spirit Shield" dropped by the Golden Skeleton King. The Golden Skeleton King once again delivered a massive pleasant surprise to Li Yunfei.

This small, pointy-bottomed shield not only possessed the function of amplifying defense by 10x, but also shared the hemispherical defensive shield state of the Sun Gold Wheel, possessing the automatic adjustment function for defensive strength and targeting points.

If Li Yunfei had not fired both guns simultaneously earlier, a single gun might not have instantly broken the Golden Skeleton King's defense or smashed it to death with a single hammer strike.

The Sun Gold Wheel was a magical treasure that could only be refined and used by cultivators at the Yin-god stage or above; martial artists and those below the Yin-god stage could not wield it.

Yet anyone, regardless of cultivation system, could use this shield as long as they possessed energy—even Qi-refinement-stage cultivators, Qi-condensation martial artists, and awakened beings could use it.

Equipping this shield meant that every transcendent in Zixiao had the chance to possess the defensive power of a high-level cultivator, raising Zixiao's overall combat strength by leaps and bounds.

Beyond Zixiao, his own comprehensive combat power would likewise see a tremendous boost.

If he equipped his skeleton warriors with the golden-tier equipment as well, dressing them in Golden Armor, with a Golden Shield in one hand, an Asura Spear in the other, and a Golden Bone Spirit Sword at their waist, they would truly become an invincible army.

Li Yunfei's aspiration of "the entire city clad in golden armor" was thus fulfilled.

However, the golden-tier equipment was rather expensive; the price of one set of Golden Armor could buy fifty sets of vital energy armor, making a full-scale refitting unrealistic. He decided to forge only 10,000 elite skeleton warriors to serve as his personal vanguard force.

Li Yunfei summoned the Bone Spirit Banner, waving it to recall the skeleton army, leaving out only the super skeletons and the 10,000 elite skeletons holding Asura Spears.

Golden Armor, Golden Sword, Golden Shield, and Asura Spear—Li Yunfei grouped these four items into a complete set priced at 4,150 grams of spiritual stones.

For 10,000 elite skeletons, the total came to 41.5 million grams of spiritual stones.

Having equipped the elite skeletons, Li Yunfei replenished his super skeletons. Since he could now command 61 super skeletons, he adjusted their team composition accordingly.

With the bone spirit crests dropped by the elemental skeleton kings yielding the remaining three attributes, Li Yunfei adjusted the squad structure to: 30 warriors, 10 flame, 10 frost, 10 lightning, and 1 poison.

The warriors were fully outfitted with golden-tier gear, with the purplish-gold hammers and Asura Spears retained as secondary weapons.

The four elemental super skeletons naturally utilized equipment matching their respective attributes to maximize their combat potential.

However, he would not casually deploy the super poison skeleton; once he gathered ten of them, he intended to keep them hidden as an ultimate trump card or use them for "dirty work."

Looking at the neat golden square formation—one hundred ranks wide and one hundred ranks deep—before him, Li Yunfei broke into a radiant smile. "Haha, the entire city clad in golden armor—this little goal has finally been achieved!"

Honghong cast an amused look at Li Yunfei. She hadn't expected her master-brother to have such a childish side, yet the combat power of these 10,000 elite skeletons was unquestionably terrifying.

At the very least, opponents of equal numbers at the Yin-god tier would be thoroughly crushed by them. Defeating them would likely require ten or even dozens of times their numbers.

As for those below the Yin-god tier, no matter how many came, they were merely feeding the blender.

Combined with the super skeletons, Honghong could scarcely imagine what faction on the Blue Earth could contend with them.

As for herself and Li Yunfei, standing atop the summit of Mount Everest right now and shouting "I am number one under heaven," probably no one in the entire world would dare raise an objection.