The aftershocks of the Meteor Fire Rain had not yet dissipated, and the smell of charring still lingered in the air.

Above the bone mountain, the sound of cracking bones echoed again.

Countless ghastly green Soul flames reignited.

The second wave of Undead War Beasts rapidly reformed.

They let out silent roars, their hollow eye sockets fixed on Gandalf below, then surged forward like a tide.

Claws, fangs, bone spikes.

Various attacks rained down.

But they were all blocked by the Arcane Barrier, which glowed with arcane runes on Gandalf's body.

-571

-411

-602

...

Dense damage numbers, like raindrops, appeared above Gandalf's head.

The light of the Arcane Barrier dimmed at a visible speed.

In a blink of an eye, nearly half of the 60,000+ shield value was consumed.

Zhou Huai was not in a hurry.

He controlled Gandalf, who simply stood still, like a magnet attracting moths.

When more and more awakened Undead War Beasts gathered around, reaching over a hundred.

He had Gandalf slowly raise his staff.

Ancient incantations were chanted again.

"Forbidden Spell: Thousand-Mile Ice Seal!"

Boom—!

Extreme coldness spread like ripples.

In an instant, the Undead War Beasts, which had been wildly charging just moments before, instantly turned into crystal-clear ice sculptures.

The massive bone mountain, in a flash, became a chilling ice mountain.

【Ding! Congratulations, Host, Clone 'Gandalf's' Rank has increased to LV12!】

A golden light of leveling up appeared.

With the increase in Rank, Gandalf's consumed Mana instantly refilled.

He was in peak condition.

He didn't even need to drink blue potions.

Beneath the ice mountain, bones began to tremble again, seemingly endless.

But the thick ice layer bought Gandalf precious time.

By the time those Undead War Beasts broke out of the ice.

The cooldown for Forbidden Spell - Meteor Shower had long ended.

The cooldown for Forbidden Spell: Thousand-Mile Ice Seal was also more than halfway through.

Next, it would be a no-suspense Forbidden Spell carpet bombing.

Boom!

The Meteor Fire Rain fell, melting the ice mountain and incinerating the Undead War Beasts to ash.

Buzz!

The Thousand-Mile Ice Seal spread, freezing the newly formed War Beasts and creating conditions for the next round of fire rain.

The symphony of ice and fire played a destructive movement here.

The entire underground space was blasted beyond recognition; if not for its special structure, it would have collapsed long ago.

On the ground, not a single intact skeleton of an exotic beast could be seen.

All the bones, under the repeated bombardment of Forbidden Spells, had been reduced to the finest dust.

【Ding! Congratulations, Host, Clone 'Gandalf's' Rank has increased to LV14!】

The golden light of leveling up appeared again.

Zhou Huai looked at the empty field, still feeling a bit unsatisfied.

That's it? 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

It was too weak.

It only allowed Gandalf to gain four Ranks.

As the vast numbers of Undead War Beasts were completely annihilated.

Beyond the mountain of bone dust ahead, a new passage appeared before Gandalf.

Zhou Huai controlled him, stepping through the passage.

The scene before him suddenly opened up.

This looked like a huge circular plaza.

Above the plaza, skeleton frames were still scattered everywhere.

However, the bones here were not only from exotic beasts.

Many of them clearly belonged to humans.

Zhou Huai even saw many scattered pieces of equipment, long since Lost their luster, in the piles of bones.

Here, a brutal bloody battle between exotic beasts and humans seemed to have once erupted.

The outcome was probably a mutual defeat.

He controlled Gandalf to walk forward and casually picked up a battle-axe stuck in the rib cage of a giant beast.

The axe blade was full of nicks, and the axe handle was badly rotted.

【Decayed Titan's Battle-Axe】

【Quality: Epic ☆☆☆ (Three Stars)】

【Rank: LV30】

【Attributes: ??? (Damaged, unable to view)】

【Special Effects: ??? (Damaged, unable to view)】

【Note: This was once a battle-axe that had drunk Divine Blood, but time has worn away its sharpness. Perhaps a true Divine Craftsman can restore its former glory.】

Epic Three Stars!

Zhou Huai's eyes lit up.

He then rummaged around for a few more pieces of equipment.

A broken longsword, a shattered suit of armor, a pair of battle boots full of holes.

Without exception, all were Rank 30 Epic-grade equipment.

Unfortunately, they were all too decayed to be used again.

Zhou Huai, however, did not let them go.

He put these scraps of metal, one by one, into his spatial ring.

He would let Ouyezi research them later; perhaps they could truly be repaired and regain their former glory.

Just as Zhou Huai was controlling Gandalf, picking up trash all over this ancient battlefield.

In the very center of the circular plaza.

Two eerie green flames suddenly emerged from the two dark, hollow eye sockets of an exceptionally large exotic beast skull.

Whoosh—

A cold wind inexplicably rose.

The entire plaza began to tremble slightly.

Zhou Huai immediately sensed {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} something was wrong.

Judging by this posture, a BOSS battle was about to begin.

And so it was.

In the center of the plaza, countless massive skeletons, as if summoned by an unseen force, began to rapidly assemble.

Soon, an incredibly colossal exotic beast skeleton slowly rose from the ground.

It resembled a giant four-legged beast, but with three ferocious heads.

【Three-Headed Undead Tyrant LV30 (Calamity-grade BOSS)】

【Health: 100000 / 100000】

【... 】

Upon seeing this, Zhou Huai, without a word, immediately had Gandalf raise his staff.

First strike is an advantage.

"Forbidden Spell - Meteor Shower!"

However, the reaction of the Three-Headed Undead Tyrant exceeded Zhou Huai's expectations.

Facing the doomsday meteorites falling from the sky, its left head suddenly reared up, letting out a high-pitched howl.

Countless shattered bones rose from the ground, rapidly converging above its head, forming an incredibly thick bone wall barrier!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Meteor Fire Rain slammed heavily onto the bone wall, erupting with deafening roars.

The bone wall withstood Gandalf's full-power attack.

But it also became covered in cracks, then shattered with a crash, turning into a sky full of bone dust.

Seeing this, Zhou Huai immediately realized that this BOSS was a bit tricky.

He unhesitatingly relinquished control of Gandalf.

Compared to himself, he now trusted the Smart Core AI's micro-management and judgment more.

The BOSS seemed offended by its defense being breached.

Its right head suddenly turned towards Gandalf, letting out a piercing roar.

An invisible sound wave instantly crossed space, sweeping towards Gandalf.

It was incredibly fast, with no way to avoid it.

Zhou Huai frowned slightly.

He didn't know what effect this move would have.

As it turned out, after Gandalf was hit by the sound wave, he acted as if nothing had happened.

Even the shield value of the Arcane Barrier on his body showed no consumption.

It was as if it was just an ordinary roar.

This scene not only stunned Zhou Huai.

Even the Three-Headed Undead Tyrant's three massive heads paused briefly.

It seemed it was a bit stunned too.

What Zhou Huai didn't know was that this BOSS skill, 'Soul Deterrence' (Soul Tremor), could ignore all physical and magical defenses and directly attack the target's Soul.

Professionals with strong Mental Energy would fall into a prolonged stun state.

Those with weak Mental Energy might even have their Soul annihilated on the spot, leading to instant death.

However, Gandalf, no longer under Zhou Huai's control, had no Soul within him at all.

What he had was merely the cold Smart Core AI.

Soul attacks were completely ineffective against him.

After a brief moment of surprise, came towering rage.

The main, central head of the Three-Headed Undead Tyrant suddenly opened its menacing maw.

A viscous, green flame, emanating an ominous aura, spewed out like a breaking flood!

Gandalf, controlled by the Smart Core AI, made an evasive maneuver immediately.

But the flame's coverage area was simply too vast.

Although he dodged in time, he was still grazed by the edge of the flames.

-12391!

A huge damage number appeared above Gandalf's head.

Fortunately, he had the Arcane Barrier on him.

Otherwise, this one hit would have instantly killed him.

However, that bizarre green flame, although blocked by the Arcane Barrier.

Showed no sign of extinguishing, like a maggot in the bone, it continued to burn on the shield's surface.

-521

-522

-531

Continuous damage numbers kept appearing.