Chapter 45: Preparations

When Liu Zhi returned from the Underworld Palace, several skeletons trailed behind him. These were all newly recruited skeletal soldiers, two of whom had mastered the "Z-Slash Secret Sword" and the "Indigo Gale Sword Technique." He had brought them out specifically to show the Soul-Wraith Naga, hoping she could judge whether these skeletons had the potential to improve their swordsmanship.

The rest were ordinary skeletal soldiers, but all had discarded their previous weapons. Liu Zhi intended to forge new arms for them; the days of wielding someone else's femur as a club were over. Besides re-equipping them, Liu Zhi also wanted to test his own magical reserves and see how much he could expend daily.

Compared to the Soul-Wraith Naga, who consumed at least five points of mana per day, the skeletons required far less. Entering or leaving the Underworld Palace cost both the skeletons and the Naga one point of mana each, but once in the real world, a skeleton needed only a single point of mana per day to keep functioning. There was no need to periodically return to the Underworld to replenish their yin energy.

With this in mind, Liu Zhi calculated: he had sixty-six points of mana in total, which would fully replenish each day after meditation. Every day at noon, he needed to inject thirty points into the Underworld Palace, keep at least five points in reserve for the Soul-Wraith Naga, and save ten points for unforeseen problems. This meant that, unless he sent some skeletons back to the Underworld Palace, he could support a force of up to twenty-one skeletal soldiers at once.

“If they’re properly armed, this is already a decent squad. But if I want to strengthen these skeletons, my mana is still insufficient,” Liu Zhi mused, his head aching with the realization. He understood that, as a necromancer, he was but a novice. There was too much he hadn’t had time to learn. He knew nothing of advanced meditation to increase his mana; even his daily attempts at meditation served only to replenish what he spent.

He also lacked the knowledge for even the most basic skeletal enhancements. He had no idea how to make their bones harder, nor how to make them more agile. As things stood, his skeletal soldiers were little different from ordinary humans in combat.

For this reason, Liu Zhi was reluctant to invest too heavily in their development. He hadn’t taught each one the "Z-Slash Secret Sword" or the "Indigo Gale Sword Technique." Though the experience cost wasn’t enormous—only about three hundred points per skeleton—it was still a precious resource, hard-earned through the lives of each fish-man he’d slain. He was unwilling to expend it all at once on skeletons.

Lacking a formal method of enhancement, Liu Zhi resorted to his own improvisations. He gathered vines from the area, dried them, shredded them into strips, and wrapped them around the skeletons’ bones. He also set about crafting weapons for them. As he’d expected, arming them with spears was effective, but he also fashioned flail-maces for them, using large stones and vines as chains.

These ten-pound stone flails could be used for smashing or throwing. For skeletons, who cared little about being pierced or controlled by spears, this was an ideal weapon. Liu Zhi had tested these weapons in the Underworld Palace: most skeletons would shatter with just a single blow, never surviving for a second strike. He was confident that, even against living foes, armed with such weapons, his skeletons had a real chance of victory.

While Liu Zhi was busy strengthening his forces, the Soul-Wraith Naga prowled the inner reaches of the Golden City. With the skeletons now guarding him, she had more time at her disposal, so Liu Zhi sent her to scout for possible enemies lurking near the city.

At the very least, Liu Zhi needed to know where the enemy was coming from and how they managed to bypass the giant serpents guarding the perimeter.

The Soul-Wraith Naga was not without her abilities. On the tenth day after slaying the eagle, she finished a full circuit of the Golden City and reached a conclusion: the enemy had appeared on a nearby cliff. However, they would not descend the cliff, as it was perilously high—a single misstep would spell certain death. Instead, like Liu Zhi himself, they would enter by moving against the current through the underground river.

They would need to lure all the giant serpents away first, then seize the opportunity to send infiltrators inside. Liu Zhi trusted the Naga’s judgment. If the enemy was indeed coming upriver, their timing was crucial. They could not approach right after the daily rainstorm, for that was when the giant serpents fed; anyone in the river then would become snake food, no matter who they were.

Given the length of the journey, their only chance to lure the serpents away would be in the afternoon. They would then advance cautiously, and, by Liu Zhi’s reckoning, would arrive at the Golden City around midnight.

Having reached this conclusion, Liu Zhi wasted no time in taking action. He was no longer alone; he stationed several skeletons along the riverbank to keep watch. The serpents themselves he ignored, but if any humans attempted to move upriver, his skeletons were to signal and strike immediately.

To ensure the enemy suffered a crushing blow, he assigned the skeleton skilled in the "Indigo Gale Sword Technique" to this post. Meanwhile, Liu Zhi was training large numbers of skeletons in the Underworld Palace, preparing to deploy them directly among the enemy during the coming battle.

However, the mass grave yielded only a handful of skeletal soldiers each week—five to seven at most. The rest fell short of the standard, or were mere upper torsos, crawling bone fragments unable to fight properly.

Thus, Liu Zhi's skeletal forces were still not at full strength. He hoped the enemy would take their time, for the longer they delayed, the more time he had to prepare.

But now, the Snake-Strike tribe had already gathered outside the river. Warriors raised from childhood to battle giant serpents, they knew their prey’s habits intimately. Having tracked the serpents here, they already had a plan to lure them away and infiltrate the Golden City.

This was the first advance party, sent to scout and assassinate. The Snake-Strike tribe had no intention of waiting for the other tribes—they would act on their own. These dark-skinned natives painted themselves white and waited quietly by the river. Only when the tremors on the water’s surface signaled that the serpents had been drawn away did they strap on their weapons, slip into the river, and begin their slow, silent journey upstream.