Green Bone Spirit Cat Warriors could instantly reach the low first rank by completing the Inheritance Spirit Rune and awaken Bone Spirit Power.
Other high-year Transcendental Green Bone Skeletons were only half a step away from the first rank. With their transcendent power, they could easily cross the threshold through daily cultivation and advance to the first rank, awakening Bone Spirit Power.
Over the past two months, more than thirty Apprentice Transcendental Green Bone Skeletons had advanced to become first-rank Bone Spirits.
Compared with Transcendental Skeletons, it was much harder for Common Green Bone Skeletons to awaken Bone Spirit Power on their own.
Still, with a large enough population, the numbers added up. Kurd had plenty of high-year Green Bone Skeletons, and every so often one or two Common Green Bone Skeletons awakened on their own.
First-rank low-level Skeletons who had awakened Bone Spirit Power could continue growing by strengthening their Bone Spirit Power and transcendent power.
More than a dozen of the earliest first-rank low-level Green Bone Skeletons had advanced to the mid-level first rank.
"Lord Medivh, we found the Spirit Cat Tribe Ancestral Land!"
Medivh was running the Skeleton Assembly Line in the underground warehouse of High Tower Castle, refining bones excavated from an ancient battlefield, when the Spirit Cat Skeleton Warlock he'd sent out to investigate brought back good news.
The Spirit Cat Skeleton Warlock had traced the Spirit Cat Tribe's roots all the way to its original homeland, accompanied by several Cat-men.
"Easy does it!"
Medivh felt no guilt whatsoever about digging up other people's ancestral graves.
He attached his mind to a White Bone Skeleton and remotely directed the Skeletons as they excavated the Spirit Cat Tribe's ancestral graves.
The Spirit Attachment Technique was something Medivh had recently learned from a Storm Skeleton Mage.
Before its death, one part of that Storm Skeleton Mage had been quite knowledgeable about alchemical puppets. The Spirit Attachment Technique was a means of controlling them remotely.
Medivh's Skeletons were unlike traditional undead. They were more like alchemical puppets made of unusual materials.
With the Spirit Attachment Technique, Medivh could completely control every move a Skeleton made.
Every high-year skeleton was precious. Accidentally destroying even a few Blue Bone or Purple Bone Skeletons would be a major loss.
The Skeletons taking part in the excavation were Archaeology Skeletons who'd undergone Medivh's special training. Their movements were gentle and precise, and they were exceptionally skilled at excavating bones that had nearly crumbled away.
Whenever high-year bones were unearthed, first-rank Skeletons used Bone Spirit Power to form Spirit Membranes around them, sealing and protecting them. This ensured the bones wouldn't decay faster due to the change in environment or shatter during transport.
The Archaeology Skeletons had taken part in many ancient battlefield excavations and were highly capable. Under Medivh's remote guidance, they removed every bone that had survived from the Spirit Cat ancestral graves.
That was only the first step. Next, they had to keep the Spirit Membranes on the bones intact at all times to ensure the bones could be safely transported back to Kurd.
Kurd's Bone Warehouse had professional conservators.
The Skeleton Conservators spent day and night nourishing the perishable bones Medivh wasn't currently using with Bone Spirit Power, slowing their erosion and decay.
From excavation to upkeep, from preservation to use, Kurd had developed a specialized industry chain. When it came to bones, they were professionals.
Medivh prioritized refining any bones in poor condition with a short shelf life, as long as they could be smelted into Skeleton parts. He never wasted anything, and it also eased the Skeleton Conservators' workload.
"Those are our ancestors?"
When the Skeleton Caravan returned to Kurd, the Cat-men learned that their ancestral graves had been dug up and lined the road to bid farewell to their forebears.
"In time, our ancestors will accompany us in another form."
Watching the Spirit Cat Skeleton Warlock and Spirit Cat Skeleton Warriors in the Skeleton Caravan, they couldn't help thinking that.
The Cat-men didn't riot over the desecration of their graves, and the bones were safely delivered to No. 1 High Tower Castle.
Medivh stopped refining ordinary Resurrected Skeletons and went over in person to sort through the bones.
There were quite a lot of bones belonging to the Spirit Cat Tribe's ancestors. The oldest was 762 years old.
The Purple Bones with histories of over five hundred years were carefully prepared and sent to the Core Storage Room for preservation.
The rest were all Blue Bones. Medivh first set aside the bones in the worst condition for refining.
The Spirit Cat Tribe had migrated more than once. They'd already moved before the Odyssey War broke out.
The bones excavated from the Spirit Cat Tribe Ancestral Land were at least 432 years old. That meant the Spirit Cat Tribe had left their ancestral home more than a century before the Odyssey War broke out.
Medivh knew roughly where the Spirit Cat Tribe had settled during its first migration, but it was too far away. He didn't send the Skeletons across most of Odyssey to excavate bones there.
The Spirit Cat Tribe Ancestral Land was closer to Odyssey.
In fact, when the Spirit Cat Tribe migrated a second time, they'd initially intended to return to their ancestral home. That was why they'd left an ancient battlefield site near Kurd.
They'd suffered a major setback along the way and only then changed course for Spirit Cat Hill.
The Spirit Cat Tribe Ancestral Land had unusual geology, and the bones of their Cat-man ancestors had been preserved remarkably well by chance.
The excavation yielded several thousand Blue Bones, the youngest of them Cobalt Blue Bones that were 432 years old.
With Blue Bones on hand, Green Bones were yesterday's news. Medivh worked day and night, focusing on refining the Cobalt Blue and Deep Blue Bones.
Medivh didn't use the well-preserved Deep Blue Bones that were at least 495 years old for refining. He had the Skeleton Conservators send them to the Core Storage Room to accrue more history.
In just five years, those Deep Blue Bones would become Light Purple Bones, increasing their historical value even further.
If Kurd hadn't needed a certain amount of transcendent power, Medivh would have wanted to set aside all the Deep Blue Bones to accrue history.
He would only consider doing that once the Purple Bone Skeletons were in service and the Blue Bone Skeletons were no longer the backbone of his forces.
For example, there was already a group of Minotaur bones less than a hundred years old in the Graveyard District, accruing history.
Green Bone Skeletons were currently the backbone of Kurd. They didn't need that little bit of combat strength, and there was no hurry to refine the bones into Resurrected Skeletons.
"Suixiang, you really are my lucky star!"
After several days, Medivh had finished refining all the bones that urgently needed to be processed.
As he took a break, Suixiang came over carrying food, dressed in a maid's outfit.
Medivh was in high spirits. He slipped an arm around Suixiang and made her his main course.
These Cat-girls, whom he'd unexpectedly taken in, had contributed enormously to Kurd's development.
Kurd's first big break had come when Suixiang led him to excavate an ancient battlefield where the Spirit Cat Tribe had fought the human army.
After that excavation, Kurd's number of Transcendental Skeletons had grown.
With that foundation, Kurd had weathered one incident after another. He'd even taken the initiative to wipe out the Minotaur Tribe in the mountains and dig up their ancestral graves.
Taking in the Spirit Cat Tribe had been another major boost.
The bones brought back from Spirit Cat Hill had greatly strengthened Kurd's upper ranks.
Later, the ancient battlefield sites marked by the Spirit Cat Tribe brought Kurd a large number of high-quality Green Bones.
This excavation of the Spirit Cat Tribe Ancestral Land had brought Kurd a great many high-quality Blue Bones.
Once all those high-quality Blue Bones had been refined into Blue Bone Skeletons, Kurd's upper ranks would become much stronger.
Resurrecting Blue Bone Skeletons was an efficient way to cultivate the mind.
For a while, Medivh's mental power would grow very quickly.
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