237 Warding Power

“A large energy stone mine?” This news completely surprised Zhao Fu, and he sat up as he looked at Li Wen and asked seriously, “Are you sure about this?”

Li Wen understood the importance of this, and he nodded earnestly.

When he saw this, Zhao Fu shot to his feet in joy and excitement. From the very beginning, energy stones had been one of the resources that Great Qin had lacked most. Apart from population and corpses, it was the third most needed resource for Great Qin.

This was because they would refine many high-grade and high-cultivation corpses every day. This required a large number of energy stones, and because they were so expensive, a great portion of Great Qin’s expenses was on energy stones alone. It could be said that energy stones were one of the greatest limiting factors for Great Qin, which Great Qin didn’t have much control over.

Now that Li Wen had reported that they had discovered a large energy stone mine, not just a small or medium-sized one, how could Zhao Fu not feel delighted?

“Hurry and tell me all of the details!” Zhao Fu smiled as he asked somewhat impatiently.

“Yes, Your Majesty!” Following this, Li Wen described to Zhao Fu all that had happened.

Li Wen and his team had opened up a fourth passageway in the underground region, and they found some traces of an energy stone mine at the end. They followed the traces and came to a large energy stone mine, but there were at least 50,000 or so Skeletons around it.

50,000 Skeletons wouldn’t be easy to deal with!

Zhao Fu thought for a while before saying, “Li Wen, take me there to look; we’ll come up with a detailed plan after.”

Li Wen obeyed and took Zhao Fu down to the passageway.

A while later, two soldiers lit some torches, and Zhao Fu stood between them with Li Wen leading the way. The underground region was still the same, and it was just as dark and terrifying.

Their party walked onwards silently.

Afterward, they came to an intersection and stopped. Zhao Fu found that there were many energy stone shards on the walls. They weren’t very big, only as big as fingernails, but there were many of them. They were scattered across the walls and looked quite beautiful.

“Your Majesty, the large energy stone mine is ahead. Please be careful,” Li Wen said.

Zhao Fu nodded, and the party continued onwards.

Finally, they came to the end of the passageway. There was a cliff here, and there was an incredibly large space ahead. Right now, Zhao Fu was at a cave mouth that was ten or so meters high.

The region ahead of them was quite large and surprisingly bright. This was because the walls were essentially covered with energy stones, and all of them gave off a brilliant light, making it seem like day. The sight was both majestic and beautiful; this was an incredibly big energy stone mine!

However, the area below them was like a sea of whiteness with all sorts of Skeletons. They milled around, and they looked like a colony of ants from above. There were too many of them to count, and there were roughly 50,000 of them. This would be quite troublesome.

After observing them for a while, Zhao Fu finally said, “Let’s go back! Don’t alarm the Skeletons here.”

Following this, the party slowly and quietly withdrew.

After returning to the surface, Zhao Fu once again gathered all of his leaders and discussed this matter. This energy stone mine was incredibly important to Great Qin, and because they couldn’t afford to have anything go wrong, they had to be careful.

After some detailed discussion, everyone split up to carry out his or her part in the plan. First, because the passage connected to a cave mouth that was quite high up, they could use this to construct some defenses. Furthermore, because there were 50,000 Skeletons, Zhao Fu would have to deploy all 20,000 of his soldiers. As such, the ten-meter wide passageway definitely wouldn’t be enough for them to travel through.

Zhao Fu wanted to dig the sides of this passageway and expand it outwards to allow more soldiers to be able to pass through it. However, they had to be extremely careful and couldn’t make too much noise, or they would alarm the Skeletons. If this massive army of Skeletons attacked, things could become disastrous.

As such, the digging would have to go quite slowly. Nevertheless, Zhao Fu believed that waiting a few extra days or weeks was worth it. They also had many talisman papers and other evil-warding items from the Ghost Festival, and after testing them on Skeletons from other passageways, Zhao Fu found that they were effective against Skeletons as well.

However, the effects weren’t as good as against Ghosts, and they were roughly half as effective. Regardless, this was still pretty good, as they would have no use otherwise.

Furthermore, the 300 Yin Soldiers, the Black and White Impermanences, and the City God would all greatly help, as they specialized in suppressing and capturing Undead.

Four days later, all preparations were complete. Everyone came to the passageway, which had now been expanded by more than 20 meters to the sides. The sides were covered with thick iron, and the area above, below, and to the sides of the passageway were covered with Evil-Warding Talismans. Zhao Fu stood at the mouth of the passageway and looked down at the countless Skeletons, and he gave the signal to attack.

_Swish, swish, swish…_

Suddenly, the deathly silent area was filled with the sound of the air being torn as arrows and ballistae bolts shot out.

Normal arrows and ballistae bolts weren’t very effective against Skeletons, but arrows and bolts with Ghost-Slaying Talismans on them would be able to reduce some of the deathly aura within the Skeletons’ bodies.

Even though the effects weren’t very great, they were still useful. For some of the powerful Archers, even without Ghost-Slaying Talismans, if their attacks contained certain attributes, they would be able to reduce a Skeleton into a pile of bones.

The arrows and bolts formed a dense rain that fell towards the countless Skeletons, and the effects could immediately be seen. This was especially for the ballistae bolts that had three Ghost-Slaying Talismans on them. They seemed to contain immense might and blasted through multiple Skeletons’ bodies, reducing them to fragmented bones.

This wave of attacks caused Zhao Fu and his soldiers to be completely exposed. Countless Skeletons fearsomely roared as they started to rush towards them, giving off a fearsome aura.

In fact, some people with lower cultivations were a bit dazed after hearing those roars, and the Skeletons rushed towards them like a flood. When he saw this, Zhao Fu once again ordered for his soldiers to shoot again.

Very soon, the Skeletons reached the bottom of the cliff. These Skeletons weren’t ordinary Skeletons, and they gripped their weapons with their teeth as their bony hands stabbed into the cliff, quickly climbing upwards.

Ordinary Skeletons wouldn’t be able to do such a thing, and they would be left at the bottom of the cliff, attacking the cliff based on their instincts. However, these Skeletons were different, and it was possible that they still had some memories from when they had been alive.