The Era of Gods

Chapter 502: Chapter 502 Shatar Undead

To the west of the ruins lay a vast mountain range stretching thousands of kilometers. Information exchanged with Sunset and the native inhabitants revealed that the environment beyond the mountains was not as harsh as the Hellfire Plains, and there were still surviving natives there.

However, Sunset had not crossed the mountain range and was not clear about the specifics of the other side.

After examining the map, there weren’t many options, only to head westward to observe the Undead of Shatar, or cross the mountain range to delve deeper into the world.

With the map in hand, the correct direction was established, following a straight route and sweeping forward.

Seven days later, Lin Xiao, sitting atop his mount, finally saw other colors appear on the vast red Earth—a stroke of greyish black amid the red. Demons became fewer here, and as they continued forward, a faint grey mist rose into the air. Gazing into the distance, one could make out Skeleton racks wandering in the greyish black land.

The team stopped at the edge for some rest and reconnaissance. Rogue Dark Moon stealthily moved ahead, and soon brought back surprising news—the relationship with the Undead Beings of this land was neutral, not cold as it was for Sunset.

Quickly, he realized that it must be because he had spent the past few years vanquishing many Demons, hence starting with a higher reputation than Sunset.

This was good news. He ordered the team to continue moving forward. Soon they encountered the first Undead, and as expected, its name was not the red of an enemy, but the yellow that signified neutrality—a non-aggressive state unless he initiated an attack.

And even if he did attack, only the attacked would retalify and would not turn the rest into enemies.

Of course, attacking would cause a loss in reputation, and quite rapidly at that. If one tried to farm Undead by attacking them, they could easily become hostile again.

Entering the Undead’s realm, they no longer saw any Demons, except for the odd one that respawned, which was quickly swarmed and besieged by the distant Undead, as if injected with chicken blood.

When Lin Xiao saw a massive, crumbling stone portal that towered hundreds of meters high, he knew he had arrived at the Shattrath Ruins.

An elite Undead Knight riding a skeletal warhorse, escorted by a group of Undead soldiers, was on patrol. Above his head there was a gold exclamation mark—a sign that he offered a task.

Lin Xiao had his subordinates stop and approached personally. The Undead Knight reined in his horse, and a deep voice emerged:

“Stranger, I see the curse of the Demons wrapped around you. Your Slaughter of Demons will earn our friendship!”

“The sinister Destruction of the World shall face Judgement, and I shall remain an enemy of the Demons, forever!”

When dealing with humans, speak as humans do; when dealing with ghosts, speak as ghosts do. These Undead abhorred Demons, so naturally, he would also express his hatred for Demons.

This speech had a significant effect. The Undead Knight conversed amiably with him for a while, not only activating the reputation system for Shattrath Ruins but also giving him a token and guiding him deeper into the Shattrath Ruins.

After saying goodbye to the Undead Knight, they passed through Shatar’s Gate into the heart of the Shattrath Ruins.

The journey revealed that the Undead appeared to have established a Kingdom made of Undead Beings, where some with retained Wisdom banded together to control the Undead and build a state to combat the Demons.

Lin Xiao had not yet decided whether to stay here or to consider building a Fortress; he needed to first assess the strength of the Shatar Undead and whether resources in the vicinity were plentiful.

Having unimpeded access, he arrived at the central part of the Shattrath Ruins and witnessed a reconstructed Undead city and its leadership: an Undead Council ruled by a Level 82 Lord Template Lich and seven other Undead leaders with Levels surpassing Level 80.

Honestly, this strength was quite formidable, but it still fell short compared to the Demons. It was only because the Demons were not currently focused on this area; otherwise, the survival of this Undead Kingdom would have been incredibly challenging.

Lin Xiao then explored the area surrounding the Shattrath Ruins, and while doing so, he conveniently took on some reputation quests. To tell the truth, after seeing the reputation items that could be exchanged from the quartermaster in the center of the ruins, there were a few items that particularly caught his attention.

The most valuable among them was a unique Orange Legend trinket called Will of the Undead, with a singular attribute but an incredibly powerful effect: it made the wearer immune to fear, charm, and polymorph.

Demons were most skilled at fear and charming mortals; with this immunity, one could say it was powerful beyond measure.

To exchange for this unique legendary trinket, one must attain Revered reputation with Shatar and complete the task of destroying a Demon City nearby.

Revered reputation was not difficult to earn; it just required time and effort.

But destroying a Demon City…

Let me put it this way: this Demon City is the greatest enemy of the Shatar Undead, who have been unable to do anything about it for so long. With Lin Xiao’s current strength, it would require all the Leaders and Lords under him to reach Level 80 before they could stand a chance, but as of now they are only around Levels 72 or 73, and their strength falls far short.

Therefore, after much deliberation, Lin Xiao decided to give up on grinding for reputation here and, instead, chose to leave temporarily. He would return to complete this mission when his strength had increased—it was something that had to be done.

It was foreseeable that in this Outland, their greatest enemies would be the Children of Nightmare and the Demons, or to be more precise, the threat of the Demons would be even greater if the Children of Nightmare were in a similar situation. He would definitely challenge the strong among the Demons in the future, and without sufficiently powerful equipment, it would be impossible to do so.

Although he couldn’t undertake the mission for this legendary accessory now, it didn’t stop him from grinding out his reputation to exchange for a few other great items. Before leaving Shattrath Ruins, Lin Xiao frenziedly took up missions, focusing primarily on killing Demons, something he excelled at.

Why not kill two birds with one stone, grinding reputation while leveling up!

This grind lasted half a year; he stubbornly avoided doing missions, relying solely on grinding Demons to bring the reputation of Shattrath Ruins to the highest level of worship with excess to spare. After that, he destroyed three Demon Camps and killed several notorious Demon Overlords, exchanging the reputation items he had collected for a few rare artifacts.

The most valuable of these was a large Magic Airship, said to be a relic left behind before Shattrath was destroyed, about fifty meters in length and capable of accommodating a hundred people.

This contraption needed Mana or pure energy to function. Now that the Shatar Undead had no source of pure energy, they could only rely on Mages to pour Mana into it for sustained flight.

Lin Xiao had a number of Leader-class Mages, but to power this thing for an extended flight was still insufficient, so…

“Exchange it first, and find a way later,” he decided.

Whether the item would be useful or not wasn’t important; great items should be secured first.

Another impressive item was a very special purple Magic Wand called the Forgotten’s Wand of Authority, which not only significantly enhanced the power and effect of Shadow Spells but also had a unique passive effect and a powerful active effect.

The passive effect made players wielding this wand neutral to all Undead they encountered, meaning as long as the wielder did not initiate an attack, they would not be attacked by the Undead.

The active effect allowed the user to forcibly control an Undead to serve them. The stronger the Undead, the shorter the duration, as it went against the Will of the Undead. Once the effect ended, the user would become hostile to the controlled Undead.

This effect was incredibly powerful; as the name suggests, it could control all Undead, including Lord Template Undead, theoretically even the current Great Undead Lord of Shatar.

However, this was just in theory. After all, a purple wand couldn’t possibly have an earth-shatteringly powerful effect; even if it truly could control something, the duration would surely be incredibly brief, barely enough to accomplish anything before facing the wrath of a Level 80+ Great Undead Lord.

But this didn’t detract from the power of the item, which could prove to be game-changing in certain exceptional circumstances.

After exchanging for these rare items and a few sets of Tier 4 level equipment, Lin Xiao led his remaining subordinates away from the Shattrath Ruins. Following an old map obtained from Shatar, they arrived at a mountain range called Hell’s Wall and entered an underground passage.

Hell’s Wall was a towering mountain range that in ancient times could be flown over. However, with the ancient world shattered due to the war, the chaotic space high above created a barrier that cut off any attempts to fly across, forming a literal Hell Wall that divided the inside from the outside.

In fact, there is a valley cutting through Hell’s Wall that lies between the Shattrath Ruins and the world on the other side of the mountain, but the Demon City is situated right in the middle of this valley, making it impassable, leaving only this underground passage, untouched by anyone for tens of thousands of years, as the only route.

According to the Great Undead Lord of Shatar, this underground passage is part of the Under World of this realm, which could be used to cross the Hell’s Wall Mountain Range to the other side, as well as to enter the Under World of this realm.

This world was already in ruins, or at least the surface was. Because of the complex environment of the Under World, Demons couldn’t invade in large numbers, and it eventually became the last refuge for survivors. After the catastrophic failure of the final battle, a vast number of the native survivors and the remaining resistance retreated underground to continue the fight against the Demons.

But later, something unknown happened in the Under World. The resistance and natives who retreated there seemed to undergo a terrible change, becoming greatly influenced by another powerful force, which drastically altered their personalities. The underground resistance split into two factions and fought incessantly. As time went by, the connections between the underground and the surface world gradually severed, and for thousands of years, no news had come out.

The map given by the Great Undead Lord had detailed markings for the path leading to the other side of Hell’s Wall and also a route to the Under World.

Lin Xiao didn’t want to complicate matters, so his team entered the underground and followed the map’s indications towards the other side of Hell’s Wall.

Perhaps it had been expanded in the past, but this underground passage was quite large; even several Lords transformed into Supreme Naga could pass through it.

The passage was filled with Undead Beings, all ancient survivors who died within it. They were not part of the same system as the Shatar Undead, so his reputation held no sway here, and attacks were still imminent; they had to clear their way through.

“Consider it grinding some experience then!” he thought.