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Gu Su had no time to check every notification carefully, nor did he deal with converting the supplies right away. He hurried into his Rundown Tent and impatiently called up the Graveyard Demon's status panel.
He had clearly felt the Graveyard Demon change just moments ago. That was what he wanted to look into most right now.
As expected, the moment he opened the status panel, its figures came into view. They were already nothing like they had been before his expedition. The changes were far beyond what he had expected.
This brought a flash of barely concealed delight to Gu Su's eyes, and even his breathing hitched slightly.
[Name: Desolate Graveyard (Gray Quality)] [Level: 0] [Feature: Graveyard Demon (Degraded Gray)] [Resources: 3,392 gold coins, 9 Yin Qi, 42 wood, 5 stone, 50 metal, 2 gems, 0 crystal, 3 mercury, 0 sulfur] [Buildings: 1. Weird Tree (Level 1): Graveyard defense core. Current status: 51% repaired 2. Rundown Tent (Level 1): Graveyard building core and residence. Current status: Intact 3. Netherfire Pile (Level 1): Can gather Yin Qi and produce 500 points every 24 hours. Current status: Intact 4. Empty Graves (one at Level 3, two at Level 2, three at Level 1): Placing a corpse inside automatically converts it into an undead inhabitant that the owner can control 5. Grave Mound (one at Level 1): Strengthens an undead dwelling and increases its capacity. Placing a corpse inside automatically converts it into an undead inhabitant that the owner can control 6. Grave Mound (one at Level 1): Strengthens an undead dwelling. The types and number of undead inhabitants remain unchanged, but ordinary undead become elite (Skeleton attack +1, defense +1, health +3). 7. Rundown Fence (Level 1): Basic defensive structure that can block low-level invaders. Current status: Intact 8. Earthbound Vein (Level 0): Allows the graveyard to move. Current status: Inactive (requires completing the relevant task to repair) 9. Corruption Mycelium (Level 1): Can absorb items, anomalies, tools, and buildings with properties such as death, Yin Qi, and undead, expanding the graveyard. Current status: Intact 10. Deadwood Forest (Level 1): Produces wood (1 unit/hour) and affects the properties of Empty Graves in the forest. Current status: Intact 11. Nether Soul Shop (Level 1): Goods can be purchased here for 2–10 gold coins (limit of 3 items per day; most have Yin Qi or death energy properties). Current status: Intact]
[Description: The Graveyard Demon is almost repaired. Keep it up!]
With just a quick glance at the status panel, Gu Su had a clear picture of all the Graveyard Demon's changes. It had recovered incredibly quickly, and now covered more than six hundred square meters.
It was only a little over two hundred square meters short of the standard size. At this rate, the Graveyard Demon would soon meet the requirement. Then his graveyard wouldn't be some knockoff version anymore.
The dead trees gathered at the back of the graveyard weren't ordinary deadwood at all. They were the result of the Graveyard Demon repeatedly collecting them by various means, eventually creating a new Level 1 building: the Deadwood Forest.
It could steadily produce one unit of wood per day. The output wasn't high, but it was a reliable source.
The two newly added Empty Graves beneath the trees' shade weren't ordinary Level 1 Empty Graves, either. Influenced by the Deadwood Forest, they had become special graves that were fundamentally different from the others.
Just as Gu Su had seen, tombstones had appeared in front of these two graves. That was a sign that they didn't follow the usual path.
When corpses were placed in these special Empty Graves, they no longer produced ordinary skeletons. Instead, there were two entirely different options, each with its own specialty.
One was a ghoul. Its combat ability was on par with an ordinary skeleton, with no particular advantages.
But ghouls had the Logging skill. They could serve as undead lumberjacks, responsible for cutting timber in the Deadwood Forest and improving its wood output. That would solve the labor shortage in resource production.
[Ghoul (Level 0, Summoned Creature): Experience (0/100), Attack 1, Defense 1, Health 10, Skill: Logging]
The other option was a Bone Beast, which could be chosen as either a Bone Hound or a White Crow. The Bone Beast's greatest advantage was that "one corpse could produce several creatures."
An ordinary corpse could be turned into two Bone Hounds or three White Crows without consuming any additional resources. It was highly cost-effective.
[Bone Hound (Level 0, Summoned Creature): Experience (0/50), Attack 1, Defense 0, Health 5, Skills: None] [White Crow (Level 0, Summoned Creature): Experience (0/50), Attack 0, Defense 1, Health 3, Skills: None]
Bone Hounds were agile and had a keen sense of smell. They could patrol the area around the Graveyard Demon, keep watch for sudden incursions by low-level enemies, and protect the territory.
Their weakness was just as obvious: they had no defensive ability at all, and one hit would kill them.
White Crows were small and good at flying, making them difficult for enemies to spot. Gu Su could send them out to scout the surrounding area, investigate enemy movements, locate resources, and identify potential dangers. They would provide useful information for his expeditions and territorial expansion.
But White Crows were so small that they had no attack power. If they found trouble, they could only watch, not fight. That was another problem.
Both had their uses and drawbacks, but they would each be a useful addition to Gu Su's territory.
Which to choose and how to allocate them would depend on his future needs. There was no need to decide just yet.
But there was one important detail: these Empty Graves couldn't be turned into Grave Mounds. They could only be turned into grave mounds that prioritized quantity; they couldn't produce elite undead.
That had been decided from the start, and it couldn't be changed.
What surprised Gu Su most, and what he cared about most, was the Oil Depot Slug's corpse, which had vanished without a trace.
Just as he had guessed, the Graveyard Demon had absorbed the Oil Depot Slug's corpse.
The reason was simple. The Oil Depot Slug had been able to carry a whole gas station around on its back. Even after it died, it could still carry a graveyard around.
That was the Graveyard Demon's straightforward way of processing and understanding things.
So the Oil Depot Slug's corpse hadn't disappeared by accident; the Earthbound Vein had successfully absorbed it. This meant that one-third of the Earthbound Vein's repair task was complete, bringing him one big step closer to his dream of making the Graveyard Demon mobile.
At the current rate of progress, all he had to do was find two more ghosts or wandering spirits to serve as an energy conduit for the Earth Vein, then install a suitable mobile power system in the Earthbound Vein and provide it with enough power. That would fully repair the inactive Earthbound Vein and give the Graveyard Demon the ability to move.
Of course, if Gu Su didn't want to follow the task's instructions, he could also find two more creatures like the Oil Depot Slug and bring their corpses here. That would work just as well.
But Gu Su didn't think there were any other creatures nearby that could carry huge objects around.
He would have to follow the task's instructions and look for suitable materials instead.
After figuring out how the Graveyard Demon had changed during this time, Gu Su finally felt reassured. He pushed open the tent flap and walked outside.
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