Target: Lady White Bone

The quickest way to bring Sun Wukong into the world was to use Years Like a Blade.

The soul skill required momentum.

Momentum could only be gained by killing monsters in the wild.

So, no matter how he looked at it, the time had come for him to leave the city.

But Su Mu was in no hurry to leave.

He first returned to the public rest area on the third floor of the hall, found a quiet corner and sat down. He pulled compressed rations and a recovery potion from his backpack and took his time consuming them.

He forced himself to turn his attention away from what lay outside the city and cleared his mind for a few minutes.

Then he closed his eyes, leaned back in his chair and fell into a deep sleep.

Unlike ordinary people, dungeon masters had their bodies' recovery efficiency naturally regulated by their Soul Spaces after awakening. Three hours of deep sleep was almost as effective as a full night's sleep for an ordinary person.

When Su Mu woke, it was exactly three in the morning.

He opened his eyes, his gaze clear and fresh.

He was well rested.

A little over two hours of deep sleep had been almost as effective as a full night's sleep for an ordinary person.

He could sense his condition clearly... his mind was sharp, his Soul Power was full, and all his bodily functions were at their peak.

Su Mu sat up on the bench in the rest area and rolled his shoulders.

There were hardly any people left in the hall, only the night-shift staff and a handful of dungeon masters who had just returned from outside the city. Reeking of blood and weary to the bone, the dungeon masters leaned in the corners with their eyes closed, resting.

He walked over to an electronic information terminal at the side of the hall, swiped the screen a few times and pulled up a map of the wild areas beyond the west gate.

A vast holographic terrain map spread across the screen. Dense clusters of markers and zones radiated outward from Rongcheng's west gate.

The entire wilderness was divided into numbered zones according to their danger levels.

The detailed information currently available to Su Mu covered zones 10 through 30. Unlocking the areas farther out required a higher professional-level clearance.

He tapped the "Zone 20" icon.

The map zoomed in.

Zone 20, about thirty kilometers from the west gate, lay at the edge of what the authorities designated as the "safe activity area for dungeon masters below level 20."

Beyond it were zones 21 through 30, where the nests were generally above level 20. Both the monsters' strength and the complexity of their rules far exceeded what he could currently handle.

Within Zone 20, there were six known nests in total. Su Mu scanned them one by one:

The Ashen Watchtower, a level 12 nest, mainly populated by fire-element gargoyles.

The Rotting Swamp Mire, a level 13 nest, mainly populated by giant swamp lizards and poisonous miasma monsters.

The Abandoned Mine, a level 14 nest, mainly populated by rock golems and subterranean worms.

The Fallen Church, a level 14 nest, mainly populated by fallen priests and shadow followers.

The Land of Buried Bones, a level 15 nest, mainly populated by skeletal undead.

Blackwater Stronghold, a level 16 nest, mainly populated by bandits and beastmen.

Of the six nests, Su Mu fixed his gaze on the Land of Buried Bones with barely a moment's hesitation.

The reason was simple.

The place was teeming with skeletal monsters.

When monsters in the Land of Buried Bones died, they left behind a large number of bones. In the hands of ordinary dungeon masters, these bones could only be sold as low-level undead materials. But in Su Mu's hands, every bone could potentially become raw material for constructing the "mountains of corpses and seas of blood" landscape of Lion Camel Ridge.

He remembered the description of Lion Camel Ridge in Journey to the West perfectly: "Skulls rose like ridges, bones stood like forests. Human hair was matted into felt, human skin and flesh rotted into mud and dust. Human sinews hung tangled in the trees, dried and scorched, glinting like silver. Truly, mountains of corpses and seas of blood, their stench unbearable."

For those eight hundred li of Lion Camel Ridge, mountains alone were not enough. To truly recreate that savage aura, he needed a fitting undead landscape.

And the Land of Buried Bones was the best place for him to obtain those materials.

What was more, if skeletal monsters dropped cards, there was a strong chance he could use them to construct Lady White Bone.

Within the world of Journey to the West, White Tiger Ridge and Lady White Bone were an essential part of the whole.

The White Bone Spirit, also known as the Corpse Demon, transformed herself three times and tricked Tang Sanzang again and again. She was one of the most iconic tribulations on the journey west.

And what was the White Bone Spirit's true nature?

She was a Corpse Demon born when a skeleton absorbed the resentment of heaven and earth.

If he wanted to build White Tiger Ridge in a dungeon and recreate the character of Lady White Bone, he needed a large quantity of undead-type and skeletal materials.

And the Land of Buried Bones happened to be the only nest near Rongcheng where skeletal monsters gathered in large numbers.

The White Bone Spirit was also one of the few demons in Journey to the West without a backing.

Having no backing meant he would not have to rely on constructing various systems later to strengthen her. As long as he refined her original rules from Journey to the West, she could unleash the power that belonged to her.

Of course, this White Bone Spirit's strength and system would be somewhat weaker, but for building an early-stage dungeon, she would absolutely be a bug-level existence.

After all, even a lesser demon like Little Drill Wind was extremely powerful in this world, let alone an independent demon king like the White Bone Spirit, who was unquestionably above lesser demons like Little Drill Wind.

With that thought, Su Mu closed the map and turned to the task terminal beside it.

The professional service hall was connected to the official task platform, and all sorts of commissions scrolled across the terminal screen.

Su Mu opened the "West Gate · Zone 20" category and filtered for collection tasks related to the Land of Buried Bones.

More than a dozen entries appeared on the page:

[Collect: skeletal essence ×50. Reward: 800 Alliance coins]

[Collect: decayed bone fragments ×100. Reward: 600 Alliance coins]

[Collect: undead dust ×30. Reward: 1,200 Alliance coins]

[Collect: intact skulls ×20. Reward: 1,500 Alliance coins]

Su Mu scrolled through them one by one.

These were all basic collection tasks. The pay was average, but they were reliable.

He accepted the tasks while he was at it.

He continued scrolling.

His finger suddenly stopped.

[Rare collection: Burial Corpse King · core soul flame]

[Task description: A slumbering corpse king dwells in the depths of the Land of Buried Bones. Its core soul flame is a high-grade undead-type material that can be used to create undead cards of rank B or higher, or rule cards. There is a chance of killing the corpse king and obtaining its core soul flame only on nightmare difficulty.]

[Reward: 1,000,000 Alliance coins + official task points ×500]

[Note: This task is valid indefinitely.]

Su Mu stared at the string of numbers for several seconds.

One million Alliance coins.

The figure left him silent for several seconds.

Adding his aunt's monthly wages to what she made mending armor at night, she earned seven or eight thousand at most.

One million was what his aunt would earn in ten years without eating or drinking.

And the card he had taken from his aunt that day held one hundred thousand. He did not know how long she had saved for it, and he did not dare imagine.

If he got his hands on that million, he would not have to be so constrained when buying resources in the early stages. And if he gave the remainder to his aunt, she would not have to work so hard anymore.

Su Mu took a deep breath and accepted the task as well.

Of course, he understood how difficult it was.

The Burial Corpse King, nightmare difficulty, an extremely low chance of spawning. With those three conditions combined, the odds of obtaining the core soul flame were about as low as winning the lottery jackpot.

But what if he got lucky?

He now had the SSS-rank Little Drill Wind card in hand, so nightmare difficulty was not entirely out of reach.

With the tasks accepted, he composed himself, collected his backpack from the rest area and got up to head for the hall's exit.