Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Becoming a Thorn in Someone's Side
"If there are strong enemies, let's bypass that area for now; let's not provoke them and explore other directions instead."
Fang Jie had thought about going over to take a look, but after some consideration, he gave up the idea, who knew what dangers lurked. He was alone and still waiting for the results of explorations in other directions.
So, for the time being, that area would be abandoned; after all, he had no means to develop such a vast range.
Fang Jie was urgently in need of someone to share the burden. Being alone, many things were indeed quite tough to handle. Moreover, for three days, he hadn't seen another living soul.
Had it not been for the discussion area where he could chat with others and look at pictures and such, Fang Jie would have died of boredom long ago.
The number of Skeleton Labors under his command was increasing, and they were gathering more and more stone and wood, especially wood, as the surrounding forest terrain was the most abundant. Numerous forests were felled, all converted into wood.
Because of this, the surroundings had become barren.
"Do you know how to farm?" Fang Jie suddenly asked the Skeleton Labors.
Then, after trying many methods, Fang Jie finally discovered that these Skeleton Labors indeed knew how to farm. However, they were different from those human farmers; farmers of other races could generally plant anything at will.
But the Undead didn't need land or food like that, so even though they possessed farming skills, unlike farmers of other races, they couldn't just cultivate any plot of land.
They had to get the official land construction blueprints first before they could cultivate on the manufactured land.
"Hope the blueprints are easy to come by," said Fang Jie, frowning as he looked at the barren land.
As a descendant of a race deeply rooted in agriculture, Fang Jie felt uncomfortable seeing these idle lands idle. But he was powerless, the land was too vast for him to tidy up alone.
Besides that, the Undead Camp was filled with the Death Aura. If he couldn't use constructed fields to farm, then ordinary crops would likely perish under the corrosion of Death Aura.
Even now, Fang Jie could see many plants starting to wither and grow strange.
At this very moment, a group of Wolf Riders to the south were frowning at the forested area.
"Clan Leader, what should we do? Should we leave this place?"
Muras, gazing at his subordinates, said solemnly, "What exactly has appeared inside?" All Heavens Hunting Ground was a place where special powers could emerge at any time, and they had to be cautious.
Migrating their tribe was not a new occurrence; they had to do it for the survival of their clan.
Muras had heard that some Beastmen could establish formidable cities capable of suppressing any force that emerged nearby and even assimilate them. He couldn't help feeling envious, dreaming of when his tribe would possess such strength.
"Clan Leader, our scouts report that a large number of Undead have appeared there. We fear there might already be tens of thousands, but fortunately, they don't seem to leave that forest."
The edge of the forest bordered the grasslands they occupied, transitioning very abruptly.
However, such abrupt changes were quite normal within All Heavens Hunting Ground. New fragments often merged in, not necessarily of any specific terrain. These landscapes needed time to assimilate.
And stable terrains like forests and grasslands take much longer to change once they adjoin.
"Tens of thousands of Undead, huh? What's their composition?"
"From our scouting, they all seem to be Skull Soldiers, of Undead Troop, and their strength seems to be fairly similar, probably a formal army. But so far, no Black Iron ranks have been detected, nor any Hero Units."
"What are your thoughts? Do these Undead suddenly appearing here exist independently or has a mighty Undead Force descended upon us?" The outcomes of these two possibilities were completely different.
If it were just these isolated Undead, it might be fine to ignore them for the time being.
They could even erode them little by little, completely annihilating all the Undead.
But if it were a formidable Undead Force, that would lead to a different outcome.
"We're not sure, but we lean towards the latter. If it were just a group of isolated Undead, they probably wouldn't just guard the boundary and not come out since these Skull Soldiers would also act on instinct."
"Still, even if there's an Undead Force, it might not be all that strong; otherwise, we wouldn't see so many Low-level Undead."
Although the Undead Level was very low, it didn't necessarily mean that they were very powerful.
Muras lowered his head in thought, and after a long while, he said, "Some time ago, a Human from a world obtained a top-tier Talent, with every person eligible for a Lord's Cottage. Do you think it's them?"
They had encountered such Humans during their time, but due to the protection period, they couldn't act against them.
Now, just as they planned to take action, they discovered this situation.
"It shouldn't be. From what we discovered, those Humans aren't much strong, and some seemed like they were ready to pledge allegiance to us."
That said, tens of thousands of Skeletons—if it were them, they wouldn't be transferring allegiance to others. Besides, those were all Humans; how could they have Undead Troop, and in such large numbers?
"I understand, we'll have to be careful. The Undead are the natural enemies of all living beings. They're not just our enemies. Let's contact Hao Si and Ganier, we'll deal with these Undead together."
The others brightened up at this suggestion, "The Clan Leader is right; we can't take them on alone. If the Undead grow strong, everyone will suffer, so we should unite against them."
"Exactly, if they won't fight, we can simply retreat, and they'll have to face them."
These Wolf Riders were from a nomadic tribe, capable of migration at any time. In contrast, Hao Si and Ganier's subordinates would not have such an easy time migrating, forcing them to take action.
Meanwhile, Fang Jie was unaware that he was being watched as he continued to increase the number of Skeleton Labors under his command.
He needed more resources to construct his Territory; the wood and stone he currently had seemed inadequate. It was a pity there were no other mines nearby, otherwise, he could have excavated and stored them temporarily.
To store the vast resources, Fang Jie had expanded his Material Warehouse to five.
These were mostly used to store wood, while stone was simply stacked outside. After all, stone doesn't degrade, so there was no need to occupy space in the Material Warehouse with it.
If it weren't for the need to process the wood in the Material Warehouse, Fang Jie would have just left it outside as well.