Chapter 151: The Precipice

"These skeleton monsters don't seem to be very high-level..." Fiona observed for a moment, muttering to herself.

"Duh, it's a low-tier secret realm, what did you expect?" Lu Yong summoned his Peerless Blade Dancers, scattering them to quickly slaughter the surrounding skeleton monsters.

The others also began hunting skeleton monsters in small groups or on their own.

Roar!

Soon, the scent of humans carried into the distance, and more skeleton monsters crawled out from the ground, surging toward the crowd.

Lu Yong left the group and chose a higher vantage point on a slope in another direction, offering a wider field of view that was easy to defend and difficult to attack.

He set up his positions right there, mounting machine guns and artillery.

Rat-tat-tat!

Boom, boom, boom!

The firepower of the artillery shells went without saying, but the Gatling guns seemed to struggle slightly against this type of skeleton monster.

Yet once their numbers grew, the interweaving fire net proved utterly invincible.

Skeleton monsters still fell in droves, and the harvesting speed was fast, but Lu Yong still felt it wasn't fast enough.

"Captain..." Fiona tugged at the corner of Lu Yong's clothes, looking as if she had something to say.

"Go if you want. There are plenty of monsters here, I'm not afraid of someone stealing my kills." Lu Yong sighed and shook his head. "Besides, so many people are already stealing them..."

"Oh." Fiona puffed out her cheeks, stepped aside, glanced at the people not far away, and then summoned her own magic puppet.

A slender serpent maiden with a faint golden sheen throughout its body looked quite different from the ones Lu Yong had summoned.

Opening its mouth, it spat out a brilliant beam of golden light, which appeared even more extraordinary in the somewhat gloomy environment.

The monsters struck by it didn't turn to stone; instead, they all dissolved into light, as if they had been blasted out of existence, growing translucent, turning into light, and immediately dissipating.

"This thing's attributes and summoned creatures appear to adapt based on the summoner's class or skills..." Lu Yong said thoughtfully.

"Hehe!" Fiona looked rather pleased. With a flash, she summoned wings of light, flew into mid-air, and slashed wave after wave of sword light toward the cluster of monsters.

"Holy Light Cross Slash!"

Even leaving aside Lu Yong at level 17, Fiona at level 15 was an absolute force of annihilation in this low-tier secret realm, effortlessly plowing through whole areas without any problem.

As for the others, they all harbored their own ambitions, knowing that wonderful treasures awaited within this secret realm, destined only for those fortunate enough to find them.

Otherwise, even standing right next to a mountain of treasure would mean returning empty-handed.

The opportunity was right before their eyes, how could they waste it?

The danger level of this low-tier secret realm fell far short of a dungeon, allowing many to slaughter monsters with ease.

Thus, guided by a few resourceful individuals, they all began exploring this secret realm with a tacit understanding.

"Eh?"

After grinding for a while, Lu Yong noticed the number of monsters around him suddenly drop, only to realize that the others had already advanced a considerable distance.

Worse still, they had been surrounded by a massive horde of skeleton monsters and were unable to break through the encirclement.

They could neither advance nor retreat...

The word "awkward" simply didn't do the situation justice.

Consequently, Lu Yong directed his battle formation to advance as well, following far behind at a safe distance.

This ensured he could constantly farm enough skeleton monsters while also guaranteeing that the others wouldn't be trapped and killed here.

Everything else could take care of itself...

***

A few days passed in this manner before Fiona was the first to fly back.

"Captain, I'm hungry..." The young girl stared at Lu Yong, who was eating emotionlessly, her eyes filled with wistful envy.

In truth, she had also been farming monsters nearby all along, following closely behind at a moderate distance, keeping a constant eye on Lu Yong's situation. Seeing him stop to eat, she too retrieved food from her storage space.

To her, this was the survival experience of a mercenary captain; the timing for meals and rest must certainly hold profound wisdom...

Therefore, when Lu Yong stopped to eat once again, she rummaged through her depleted storage space and naturally gravitated toward him.

"Mm! Captain, the food you have here is so delicious!" Fiona took the food Lu Yong handed her, took a quick bite, and let out an involuntary gasp of admiration.

Although she was always ready to flatter him, this food had been prepared by Duo Duo's own hands, and after rigorous personal testing, it was truly, undeniably delicious.

Having grown somewhat bored with monster grinding, she had originally intended to ask how much longer they had to keep fighting, but once she started eating, nothing else mattered anymore...

They could grind until the end of time for all she cared!

Haha!

"Captain! We're back!"

Just as the two of them were eating, a group of people came running back from the front, crowding around. Looking at the pair enjoying their meal with such relish, wolfish expressions appeared on all their faces.

This wasn't their first time entering a secret realm, and previously they would always make preparations, but this time, the supplies they had prepared were largely consumed inside the dungeon, leaving them unable to hold out any longer.

"Captain, do you have any more food?" A young man asked shamelessly, prompted by a hint from his companion.

"I have a little left, but with so many of you, it certainly won't be enough." Lu Yong pulled out the key to the Skeleton Secret Realm and said, "You can go outside first, gather some supplies, and come back after a while. Of course, you don't have to come back at all if you choose."

With that, he opened the gate to the secret realm.

"Captain, just name a time, and we'll definitely return on schedule!" said one man.

The others nodded in agreement.

Although some of them hadn't farmed enough here yet and wanted to stay a bit longer to explore further, they had to admit—this Skeleton Secret Realm was full of nothing but bare bones! Aside from skeleton monsters, there was literally nothing else here!

Therefore, they had no choice but to temporarily head outside, acquire food and drink, procure reliable gear, and then return to continue their exploration.

Such a ready-made secret realm sitting right here waiting for them to plunder was an opportunity they could usually only dream of!

"Time, you say..."

Lu Yong produced an hourglass-like device, tossed it to the other party, and said, "Let one run of sand be the limit. When the time is up, I will open the gate to the secret realm, and you can come straight back in. Don't expect me to wait if you're late."

"Understood!"

The man caught the hourglass and, mirroring another one Lu Yong took out, flipped them simultaneously. Fine sand trickled down on both sides in perfect synchronization.

"Move out, quickly!"

The group filed out through the gate of the secret realm...

"Captain, what was that?"

Fiona had been hiding behind Lu Yong just moments before, afraid he might suddenly chase her away.

Even though she had run out of food and drink, why bother preparing her own when she could freeload off the captain?

Especially since everything the captain produced tasted so extraordinarily good!

"An hourglass."

Lu Yong glanced at her indifferently and said, "You don't need to understand the concept of time. Just mark your checkpoints."

"Eh? I don't get it..." Fiona said with a delightfully silly expression.

***

"No need to understand. Just eat your food." Lu Yong waved a hand dismissively and resumed eating on his own.

Ever since entering this secret realm to farm monsters, several days had passed, and they had slaughtered more than enough.

When these monsters surged forward together, while lacking the overwhelming momentum of the Demon Secret Realm, they were still not something ordinary people could handle.

The others had only survived this long by relying on their sheer numbers, generally higher levels than the monsters, and most importantly, Lu Yong's puppet legion holding the line against the vast majority of the foes.

Yet even now, Lu Yong's level still hadn't increased.

"We're still not grinding enough!"

With most of the people having left, only Fiona and a few others who had been sparing with their food and supplies remained.

The lured skeleton monsters were now very few in number and easily dealt with.

"Ca... Captain..."

The level 10 boy who always blushed whenever he looked at Fiona approached Lu Yong and pointed into the distance. "There's a steep cliff up ahead, and down below there... there are..."

"What is there?" Fiona asked.

"Uh... there are, there are skeleton monsters!" the boy stammered.

"Pfft—"

Fiona couldn't hold it in and spat out a mouthful of the food she had just eaten, almost splashing it all over his face. "This is the Skeleton Secret Realm! There are skeleton monsters everywhere! What's so surprising about that?"

"Uh..." Reprimanded so abruptly, the boy instantly grew flustered. He lowered his head, his face burning red, and stayed silent for a long time.

"Is the number of skeleton monsters in that place you mentioned very large?" Lu Yong asked.

Without so many people actively luring them, if the numbers were still high, something was definitely abnormal.

"A lot!" The boy nodded vigorously, as if seeking validation, and said, "As many as there were when everyone was here!"

"As many as when everyone was here?" Fiona muttered.

"Let's go take a look!" Lu Yong immediately stood up, motioned for the boy to lead the way, and headed in the direction the youth had indicated.

Along the way, only scattered, sporadic skeleton monsters attempted to attack them.

They were either swept away and shattered by sword qi, or struck by the serpent maiden's dark beam and turned to stone.

Soon, Lu Yong arrived at the cliff the boy had spoken of and witnessed the sight:

Countless intertwined skeleton monsters were all struggling and roaring, writhing as if trying to break free from the depths of hell, frantic and rabid.

However, these skeleton monsters seemed to be restricted to a specific area by some mysterious force, unable to break out.

Otherwise, Lu Yong suspected this Skeleton Secret Realm would have ended up looking identical to the Demon Secret Realm.

"Eh? What's that?" Fiona suddenly pointed to the densest cluster of skeleton monsters and said, "There's light shining through from there! It looks like there's something inside, and it's glowing!"

"There's something in there..."

Lu Yong crouched at the edge of the cliff, studying the phenomenon carefully for a moment before deciding to simply blow it up. After all, this was merely a low-tier secret realm—what kind of bizarre tricks could it possibly pull?

Even if mutated skeleton monsters emerged, he could easily crush them!