Ancient Ruins

"Holy crap, boss, what happened to you?!" The surrounding subordinates exclaimed in surprise upon seeing Xiao Yu's appearance.

"It's not a transformation, it's just that I've acquired a new form."

As he spoke, Xiao Yu deactivated his Heroic Spirit Form and reverted to his Skeleton General appearance.

However, it seems he wasn't the only one who achieved a professional advancement. While he was advancing in succession, on another battlefield, Andrew was also surrounded and killed by the Avengers Alliance.

The Earl of Monte Cristo naturally gained the authority to distribute Andrew's loot, and this time, Andrew's death was "fortunate" enough to also drop a Soul Fire Fragment.

After killing Andrew, the Earl of Monte Cristo gained Blasphemy Index that allowed him to directly advance to the rank of Blasphemous Saint, while his basic class, Demon Slayer, also advanced to [Death Avenger] after absorbing fragments of Andrew's Soul Fire Fragment.

Death Avenger: Having hunted too many evil Undead and absorbed too much negative emotion in the process of fighting and killing, your heart has been consumed by the emotions of killing and hatred for the living. Your beliefs have also changed. Now, darkness dominates your soul, and the darkness in your heart drives you to Road of Vengeance, a path of vengeance against all the living.

Your body gradually mutated under the corrosive influence of negative energy. As you absorbed the powerful soul of the Undead Andrew, you gained the ability to move between the living and the dead.

Gain the skill: Vengeful Spirit Form.

Skill Description: Enter Vengeful Spirit Form. You are considered an Undead creature, immune to negative energy damage, but also unable to receive healing spells.

All your Demon Slayer skills are converted into Undead- type skills of the same tier.

Gain the skill: Control of the Dead (available in Sniper mode).

Skill Description: For each Undead you kill, you can absorb Undead soul fire to enhance your soul power and increase your combat effectiveness in Vengeful Spirit Form.

Gain the skill: Life Repayment (available in Vengeful Spirit state).

Skill Description: For each creature you kill, you can absorb its life force to enhance your own life power and increase your combat effectiveness in Sniper Mode.

It can be said that the Earl of Monte Cristo and Xiao Yu took completely opposite paths; Xiao Yu obtained the Heroic Spirit Form and became an Undead / Celestial Realm being.

The Earl of Monte Cristo, however, acquired a state that was half-human and half- Undead.

In a sense, the two are now in very similar situations.

After dividing their spoils, the two player armies regrouped, sizing up each other's lineups and assessing their respective strengths, before facing off.

If the opposing team suffers significant losses while fighting the boss, neither side would mind wiping out the other's entire team to add to their loot for the day.

Unfortunately, after observing for a while, both Xiao Yu and the Earl of Monte Cristo came to the same conclusion: their strengths seemed to be about the same.

The previous battles hadn't depleted their resources too much, so neither side could be certain of victory if a real fight broke out.

"Looks like you're in luck, you've actually advanced to become Blasphemous Saint." The Earl of Monte Cristo sent a private message directly.

"Aren't you the same?" Xiao Yu replied. Blasphemers can see each other's identities, and at this moment, the Power of Blasphemy on both of them was frighteningly high.

The Earl of Monte Cristo said, "I discovered something quite interesting while absorbing Andrew's soul fragments."

"Well, why don't you tell me about it?"

Xiao Yu had only said it casually; in his opinion, Andrew would never reveal the so-called secret. Unexpectedly, the Earl of Monte Cristo actually spoke up.

"I learned from Andrew's soul fragments that the Naraku, God of Death gave him a mission: to conquer Fang Fortress. However, his goal in attacking Fang Fortress wasn't to gain more Power of Faith, but rather for a ruin beneath Fang Fortress."

Xiao Yu wasn't particularly surprised. "There are ruins beneath Fang Fortress? Did the people of Fang Fortress know about it?"

"I don't know. At least, as the fourth prince, I've never heard of it. It seems that only the gods know this secret."

According to Andrew's memory, God of Death told him that this ruin was said to be a relic from ancient times, even before the birth of the gods. Based on what Andrew's memory showed, this ruin was likely related to a huge secret.

Xiao Yu was taken aback. Things before the birth of the gods? That meant the game hadn't even started operating yet, since in the game's setting, the gods and the world were created together. But wait, he suddenly remembered something: before the game started operating, the quantum computer used by this game was actually the server for "Sky World." Could it be that this so-called ruin hides some data from "Sky World"?

But that's unlikely. Formatting erases all data. Who could possibly survive such a process?

A name suddenly popped into his mind.

When he left the Sky World, he left the Scepter of All Gods to Medivh. Moreover, Medivh was the last god in the entire game. If anyone could survive, Medivh was undoubtedly the most likely to succeed.

Of course, other powerful individuals besides Medivh might also survive, such as Lilith, whom he saw earlier. As one of the members of the Sage Council who appeared the least, Xiao Yu had only seen Lilith once or twice, so he wasn't quite sure if he had seen her correctly.

But now it seems that perhaps it wasn't a misjudgment.

Some remnants of that era in the Sky World have persisted to this day.

This made him think of a possibility.

If I could find Medivh, that would be fantastic. With his help, dealing with the gods would be much easier. So, could Medivh be found in the ruins beneath Fang Fortress?

The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed, yet a sliver of doubt lingered in his heart.

But why would the Earl of Monte Cristo reveal such important information? Such a huge secret in the game undoubtedly contains enormous benefits; why would a master gamer easily share such a secret?

"What do you mean by telling me all this? Do you want to explore this with me?" Xiao Yu asked curiously.

The Earl of Monte Cristo nodded. "That's right. Although I am the fourth prince of the Kern Kingdom, I cannot directly command the garrison of Fang Fortress. At most, I can only offer some indirect advice. Moreover, I cannot attack them, because if I did, my position in the Kern Kingdom would be ruined. I don't want my princely status to be lost like that."

"So I need someone to help me take care of them, to take care of the general of Fang Fortress. That way, I can temporarily gain control of the fortress and explore the ruins beneath Fang Fortress to my heart's content."

What do you want me to do?

"It's simple. You just need to help me take down the general of the Kern Kingdom. After that, I can let you join my expedition team to explore this ruin together."

Xiao Yu thought to himself, "You make it sound so easy. Killing the general of the Kern Kingdom is incredibly difficult, and how do I know you'll abide by the agreement?"

"Okay," he agreed readily, "But a network authentication agreement must be signed."

"No problem."

"You also have to do something for me."

The Earl of Monte Cristo smiled slightly, "Help you kill Emperor Odyssey?"

"Haha, you understand me best, Earl."

Killing the enemy's commander amidst a massive army sounds difficult, but in reality, it's not that hard, because, obviously, both sides have inside help.

As the saying goes, it's easy to guard against a thief within your own ranks, but difficult to guard against one's own. No matter how powerful these NPCs are, they are helpless against teammates who stab you in the back. Therefore, the general of the Kern Kingdom was quickly surrounded and killed by the Undead Legion led by Xiao Yu.

His army was either lured away by the Count of Earl of Monte Cristo's stratagems or divided by various Undead Legion, and he was completely unable to protect his commander.

The Earl of Monte Cristo even ordered his men to form a human wall to block the reinforcements.

Emperor Odyssey, too, died before achieving his goal, falling victim to the Count of Earl of Monte Cristo's sword.

Xiao Yu also used a similar tactic.

In this way, Xiao Yu and the Earl of Monte Cristo both achieved their respective goals, with one becoming the greatest Undead boss in the Burying Ground.

One became the temporary controller of the Fang Fortress.

Next, they will need to jointly explore the ancient ruins beneath the Fang Fortress.