After his class change, Tie Zhu had become noticeably more agile.
At times he climbed a nearby tree to look around, then nimbly dropped to the ground and dashed along in the shadows.
He was hardly any slower than Zong Shen jogging on Old Travel Horse.
Zong Shen didn't waste any time either.
Along the way, he used the Strategy Module to scavenge.
He dug around to the east, then looked over to the west.
And he really did manage to find a few things.
Most of them were various kinds of money pouches and copper coins.
Altogether, he picked up eight or nine hundred coins.
With this skill, Zong Shen could get rich just by picking up money.
Following the Strategy Module's hints, he also unearthed two more corpses, though unfortunately they weren't worth much.
They were the remains of ordinary wandering merchants who had passed through not too long ago.
All Zong Shen got from the corpses were a few common-quality, unremarkable weapons.
It was better than nothing.
They continued on, stopping and starting along the way.
An hour later, Zong Shen spotted Colby resting beneath a large tree to the north.
Colby noticed Zong Shen at the same time.
"Colby, anything unusual?"
Zong Shen nudged his horse and rode over to Colby.
"Everything is normal, my lord!"
"Please show me the way."
Colby saluted.
"Let's go. We'll head northwest. Take me to the ruins of the Forest Temple you found yesterday."
Zong Shen had a clear goal.
According to what Colby had told him earlier, he had once been northwest of the territory.
In the woods beside a mountain path, he had found an abandoned temple.
There seemed to be two chests inside.
Nothing lifted your spirits quite like opening a treasure chest.
"Follow me, my lord."
Colby was clearly a capable warrior.
After exploring the area the day before, he had become thoroughly familiar with all the routes.
He led Zong Shen and Tie Zhu straight northwest.
From here,
Zong Shen could just make out a mountain range at the far end of the vast grassland.
It looked like a thick, dark-green line dividing the grassland in two.
They continued northwest.
The grass grew thicker and thicker.
It nearly reached Old Travel Horse's knees.
No one knew what might be hiding in it.
But with Colby leading the way, Zong Shen felt at ease.
The only drawback was that their progress slowed considerably.
Tie Zhu in particular, without a mount, struggled to make his way through this terrain.
His black fitted clothes were covered in grass and leaves.
After another hour or so of travel,
the three of them finally crossed the grassland.
Along the way, Zong Shen had expected to run into wild beasts, but it turned out he'd been worrying for nothing.
The beasts seemed to go berserk only at night.
What Zong Shen didn't know was
that the beasts could sense danger, too.
Both Luna and Colby were extremely dangerous in their eyes.
They wouldn't provoke either of them.
Of course, that was only one reason.
Just imagine it.
One thousand "lords" and thirty thousand stupid farmers had suddenly appeared in an area of forty thousand square kilometers. To the wild beasts living there, it was like a buffet opening up, with forty thousand extra portions of food that could move around.
The lords could all attract the beasts,
causing them to spread out even more.
This disappointed Zong Shen, who had hoped to kill a few wild beasts along the way.
What were wild beasts?
They were walking rewards!
They could drop items and be butchered for fresh meat and pelts.
The three of them crossed the grassland and entered a somewhat desolate area.
The soil was marked with a web of white lines.
Thin wisps of mist also drifted up from the ground.
This should have been where the mountains and grassland met.
Instead, it had become a barren wasteland.
The strangest thing was that, as far as the eye could see, this strange land
was dotted with uneven ground where stark white bones protruded.
The bones had a jade-like sheen. No one knew how long they had been buried here.
They hadn't decayed, just like the Elf Race's remains that Zong Shen had dug up earlier.
"Stop, Tie Zhu, Colby!"
Zong Shen waved for them to halt.
He began to study the land carefully.
(Withered Burial Ground)
(The Blood-Burning Legion buried the corpses of the Elf Race's civilians and soldiers whom they had slaughtered here, offering them to the Lord of Blood-Burning to create a Land of Buried Bones. Here, the Elf Race's War Ancient Trees cannot take root.)
A golden Strategy Guide appeared at once,
answering Zong Shen's question.
Zong Shen raised an eyebrow.
As a dedicated digger, he instinctively felt that this Land of Buried Bones must be hiding something.
"Are there any treasures buried here?"
(Seventeen hundred thousand civilians from Azshara, fifty-seven thousand Elf Race defenders, and more than a hundred thousand Alliance soldiers and mercenaries are buried here. Their remains have tainted the land for 179 kilometers. The Blood-Burning Legion created this place to blockade Azshara. If you dig here carelessly, you may disturb the undead sleeping beneath the earth.)
(Unless you have an undead archmage, don't go looking for trouble here.)
After seeing the Strategy Guide's warning, Zong Shen immediately abandoned the idea.
This Land of Buried Bones was clearly a place of great danger.
If some huge monster emerged and killed him on the spot, it wouldn't be worth it.
"Let's keep going, Colby."
Colby nodded.
He rode ahead on the Giant Wolf, leading the way.
As he went, he said,
"My lord, almost all living beings despise places like this."
Zong Shen remained silent.
The Land of Buried Bones was very long, but only a dozen or so miles wide.
The three of them soon crossed it and spotted a conspicuous path into the mountains at the edge of the woods.
The trees there were thick, their leaves a dark green.
As soon as they entered, the light around them dimmed abruptly.
As a Nord Shadow Scout, Tie Zhu felt right at home in the shadow-filled woods.
The roadside was just as overgrown.
Emerald-green vines.
Huge stones covered in moss.
Zong Shen also spotted many architectural ruins.
This sort of place could very well contain ruins.
Zong Shen followed Colby as he hacked their way through the undergrowth.
They followed the path for about ten minutes.
Colby stopped.
"My lord, this is the place."
He pointed toward an area by the roadside covered in bushes and vines.
Zong Shen looked inside, but couldn't see any sign of ruins.
Colby drew his twin blades and pushed aside a bush, revealing a narrow path barely wide enough for one person.
He had cleared it while exploring the day before.
Before leaving, he had covered it back up.
"Follow me, my lord. The ruins are just ahead!"
Colby said with meticulous seriousness.
He entered the path first, his sword constantly hacking from side to side.
He cut down the brambles,
clearing a wider trail for Zong Shen.
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