Chapter 1 The Skull Army

The skull army surrounded Krips Fortress completely. Except for a few steep mountains nearby that they couldn't reach, everywhere was covered in white skulls, like a white ocean.

Among these skulls, some huge bone behemoths began to appear. They were enormous, weighing over a thousand pounds, and numbered in the tens of thousands. Qin Han didn't know where he got these terrifying creatures. Even Nie Yan had never seen them before.

Qin Han stood on a mountain peak directly opposite Krips Fortress, looking down at the earth. The skulls covered the mountains and plains, seemingly ready to completely submerge Krips Fortress.

He revealed a strange smile. A six million strong skull army would definitely leave Krips Fortress barren. Once Krips Fortress was dealt with, the Mone Financial Group's troops would begin to take over the territories of the Niuren Tribe.

"Boss, when we were forming our forces, we had Light and Dark Eternal Sin responsible for attacking the Niuren Tribe's fortresses located in the southern part of the Greenland Empire. However, Light and Dark Eternal Sin was somewhat evasive. I think there's something fishy about this," Shen Jian Wushuang said next to Qin Han, carefully watching Qin Han's expression.

"You're saying he has plans?" Qin Han's expression looked somewhat unpleasant.

"I wouldn't dare to speculate wildly," Shen Jian Wushuang said, not daring to be too direct. "Before, the Niuren Tribe sent people to harass us, and we and the Sacred Guardians suffered heavy losses, but the Light and Dark Empire was unscathed."

Qin Han glared at Shen Jian Wushuang, who immediately fell silent.

Qin Han had not doubted the Light and Dark Empire. The news of several important meetings had been mysteriously leaked, and he was already suspicious of the Light and Dark Empire. His spies within the Light and Dark Empire had discovered some evidence, but at this crucial moment, if there was internal strife, it might not be good. The Light and Dark Empire had a total of over 200,000 people, accounting for nearly a quarter of the total number of players in the Mone Financial Group's army. Once there was a problem, it would affect the whole situation.

"Have the Light and Dark Empire launch an attack. If we don't receive any news from them within three hours, let them understand the consequences!" Qin Han said coldly.

Shen Jian Wushuang revealed a subtle smile that was hard to detect. He had successfully transferred the hardest and most tiring work to the Light and Dark Empire, allowing them to relax a bit and preserve their strength.

With a sharp, high-pitched whistle piercing the sky, the endless skull army surged towards Krips Fortress, and a magnificent siege battle began.

The walls of Krips Fortress were over sixty yards high and very thick. Hundreds of ironclad catapults were placed on the walls, and countless iron projectiles were thrown into the air, then screamed down, and patches of frost swept across.

Patches of magic exploded with dazzling light in the sky, sweeping across.

The skulls' attacks could truly be described as relentless. They were completely unaware of fear, stepping on the corpses of the skulls in front of them, approaching the city walls step by step. Those bone behemoths mixed in with the skulls, relying on their extremely thick health, rushed to the bottom of the city walls and continuously rammed into them, cracking the walls, and eventually died under the dense magic.

It was still very difficult for Qin Han to tear down Krips Fortress with a strong attack. The Zhushen's Sword's catapult troops were heading this way and would arrive in about an hour at most.

Nie Yan and the others stood on the city walls directing the defense. There were simply too many skulls outside, practically inexhaustible, and there were also many very troublesome elite-level creatures among them.

Just as a wave was beaten back with magic, endless skulls surged up again.

"Arrow towers, attack! Give them a good beating!"

Dense, rain-like arrows whistled down towards the skull army, and a large area near the city walls was immediately cleared.

Some bone behemoths used their long tusks to fling some skulls up, and one skull after another fell into Krips Fortress, immediately causing a burst of chaos.

"Warriors, paladins, hold them back! Don't let them threaten the mages and priests!" Nie Yan shouted in the team chat.

"Understood!"

The warriors and paladins inside the fortress surrounded the skulls that had flown in.

Qin Han made some adjustments to his tactics, added some configurations to his troops, and came up with some methods for attacking the fortress. Nie Yan clearly felt that the pressure of defending the fortress had increased a lot. Fortunately, the walls of Krips Fortress were strong enough to defend against the attacks for the time being.

"Guild Leader Nie Yan, those bone behemoths are too difficult to deal with. Their health is too high for us to take down," a player shouted anxiously.

Nearly ten thousand bone behemoths slowly approached Krips Fortress.

"Does anyone have any forbidden spells left?" Nie Yan shouted in the team chat. The cooldown time for forbidden spells was extremely long, and it was not uncommon for them to take one or two months to cool down. Tang Yao, Xie Yao, Yu Wang, and others had used their area forbidden spells, but they had not yet cooled down.

"I still have one," said Sha Bu Si De Huai Dan.

"I have one too," said Hei Se Di Yu.

"I also have one," said Mo Jiu, an elf elemental mage who had just joined the Niuren Tribe.

Only three left. Nie Yan thought for a moment and said, "Di Yu, you go."

Hei Se Di Yu nodded and walked towards the city wall.

"Wait for them to get closer!"

Hei Se Di Yu looked into the distance. Groups of behemoths were slowly approaching. They possessed sharp fangs and immense power. If they got close to the city walls, the city walls would be in danger.

One thousand yards, eight hundred yards, six hundred yards...

Hei Se Di Yu began to chant magic, uttering a series of spells. After ten sets of syllables, the sky suddenly shone with holy light. In the holy light, it seemed as if a magical door was slowly opening, and a giant pillar of light descended from the sky, covering an area within a radius of five hundred yards.

Within the pillar of light, countless undead emitted miserable screams.

This pillar of light lasted for more than twenty seconds before slowly stopping. The players on Krips Fortress looked forward, and a large area outside the city walls had been cleared. The bone behemoths that had been there earlier could not even be found. They had all been purified.

Qin Han, who was on the distant hillside, couldn't help but curse when he saw this scene: "Damn it, another forbidden spell! Non-stop forbidden spells!"

There were simply too many magic导师 (magic mentors) and holy牧师 (holy priests) in the Niuren Tribe, so many that it was maddening.

"Continue the attack! I don't believe we can't take down this fortress!"

The skulls continued to surge towards Krips Fortress, quickly filling the area cleared by Hei Se Di Yu's holy light bombardment.

There were so many skulls that they were truly inexhaustible.

Just as Nie Yan and the others were struggling to deal with the surging skulls, he received a message from Guo Huai that Zhushen's Sword's ironclad catapult troops were only a dozen minutes away from Krips Fortress.

They're coming fast!

A trace of imperceptible divine light flashed in Nie Yan's eyes. He had been waiting for a long time.

The distant skull army slowly separated to both sides. At the end of the plain, a team of over a hundred catapults advanced towards the direction of Krips Fortress. Although a hundred catapults was not a large number, if they were concentrated on one area of the city walls, it would be very easy to open a gap. Once a gap was opened, Krips Fortress would be in danger, and a tidal wave of skulls would surge into Krips Fortress.

The slowly advancing catapults put great pressure on the players of the Niuren Tribe.

"Guild Leader, what do we do? They have catapults coming over."

The players of the Niuren Tribe all looked at Nie Yan.

Nie Yan smiled faintly and said, "I have my own arrangements. You guys just focus on dealing with the skulls below the city walls."

Nie Yan's calm smile calmed their uneasy hearts.

On the distant mountain peak, Qin Han looked at the busy figures on the walls of Krips Fortress, and then looked at the slowly moving catapults below, revealing a chilling smile. Mad Rogue Nie Yan, let's see what you can do this time! These hundred or so catapults are meant to be sacrificed. As long as they can blast open the city walls, their mission will be completed. No matter how many catapults the Niuren Tribe has hidden in Krips Fortress, it's useless! They'll still be submerged in the sea of skulls!

He carefully controlled the skull army, keeping them far away from the catapults to avoid chaos when the skulls and the players of Zhushen's Sword came into contact.

The hundred or so catapults got closer and closer to Krips Fortress, only about a thousand yards away, and Krips Fortress would soon be within range.

Watching the slowly approaching catapults in the distance, Nie Yan sent a message to Guo Huai: "Guo Huai, begin."

"Okay!"

At this time, many mage players appeared on the surrounding mountain peaks outside Krips Fortress. They were all members of the Niuren Tribe, lurking in the forests and looking down. The endless sea of skulls on the plain below was shocking. They were scattered everywhere. On the steep rock walls of these mountains, someone had created open platforms, and each platform was arranged with a magic array.

There were as many as two or three thousand platforms with magic arrays on the surrounding mountains. Setting up these things was definitely a huge project.

Before coming here, these mage players didn't know why this place had become like this.

Sha Bu Si De Huai Dan and Yu Wang lead a team of six or seven thousand archmages, quickly spreading out.

"Five people per group, you know what to do, right?" Sha Bu Si De Huai Dan said in the group chat.

"Understood, Guild Leader Huai Dan."

All the mages immediately got to work. They stood on these platforms in groups of five, and their positions perfectly matched the magic arrays. They held scrolls as trigger items and began to chant spells, generating violent magical fluctuations around the magic arrays.

One second, two seconds... After ten seconds, catapults appeared on these platforms, a full thousand of them, appearing out of thin air.

Even the players who had personally completed the teleportation magic couldn't believe that they had moved thousands of catapults to the mountainside. It was simply a miracle.