Provocation.
Chen Yu, staring at the skeleton warrior, was stunned for a long time.
This skeleton dared to provoke him.
Carrying two bronze statues, it tilted its head towards Chen Yu.
Clang.
Chen Yu flicked his wrist and threw down the bronze statue, supporting his waist with one hand and frowning slightly.
"Why are you showing off to me?"
The skeleton warrior tilted its head again, as if it understood Chen Yu's words not too difficultly. It was silent for a moment, looked at the bronze statue Chen Yu had thrown to the ground, and hooked the bronze statue with the tip of its right foot.
Clang!!
The harsh sound of metal collision reverberated endlessly in the deep pit.
The bronze statue that Chen Yu had put down.
Was steadily shouldered by the skeleton warrior.
Immediately after, without saying anything, it leaped onto the pit, making creaking sounds of bones colliding as it gradually moved away.
Leaving only Chen Yu and Er Gou in the pit, bewildered.
"This skeleton is incredibly strong!"
Er Gou's eyes widened, and he couldn't help but swallow.
Too formidable.
Carrying three bronze statues as if it were nothing.
This scene made him feel a surge of excitement. He ran to the nearby bronze statue and, with all his might, tried to lift it.
After lifting it only a few centimeters, the bronze statue landed back down with a thud.
"Stop showing off," Chen Yu glanced at Er Gou, then looked around at the other bronze statues. "Carry these bronze statues back. Don't rush to smelt them. Leave some at the sub-camps."
"How many should I leave?" Er Gou asked, craning his neck.
"Leave..."
Looking at the surrounding bronze statues, Chen Yu let out a light sigh.
"Leave them all."
He still intended to continue acquiring copper blocks from external sources. Smelting a large number of bronze statues would lead to an imbalance in his resource reserves.
Hundreds of bronze statues could be smelted into a massive amount of copper blocks.
This would saturate his copper reserves. If he stopped acquiring copper blocks externally, it would also affect the circulation of copper blocks in his region.
Although, this impact would actually be beneficial to him.
In the current region, large quantities of resources were flowing to him.
If he stopped buying back a certain resource, it would inevitably cause its price to fluctuate, very likely a significant drop.
He didn't want to do that.
Even though he could take advantage of this to repurchase resources at extremely low prices, if the market balance was broken, it would be much more difficult to re-establish equilibrium than to break it.
He did not want any problems to arise in the stable market he had worked so hard to cultivate.
In terms of resource reserves, his resource quantity was still relatively abundant. With external acquisitions, his iron, copper, silver, and gold were all in a relatively balanced state.
There was also no shortage of resource supply in smelting.
Since that was the case, he could try to be cautious with such a large quantity of bronze statues. After all, even if he truly needed a large number of copper ingots later, it would still be in time to smelt them.
He thought that leaving these bronze statues might have other uses.
Why would the Undead Dungeon leave dark chambers?
Specifically to place these bronze statues?
It couldn't be for burial like the Terracotta Army in Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum, right?
If that were the case—
It was too close to the main palace.
Just one wall apart?
Smelting a few dozen bronze statues would be enough. He should keep the rest well preserved, perhaps they might bring him unexpected surprises someday.
"Oh, right."
Just as Chen Yu was about to leave, he stopped and glanced at Er Gou.
"Do you know how that skeleton soldier evolved?"
"Evolved?" Seeing Er Gou's expression, he clearly didn't know about the skeleton soldier's evolution. He frowned and scratched his head. "I don't know. I just saw it gnawing on a lot of bones when it came in. It ate all the bones in the dungeon."
"Alright, you carry on."
Chen Yu left the deep pit and arrived at the main hall of the dungeon.
Indeed.
The skeletons he had killed had all disappeared, though there were still many bone fragments scattered around.
"Can it upgrade by eating bones?"
Chen Yu muttered.
On the way back to the camp, he happened to encounter the skeleton warrior who was preparing to return to the dungeon to carry the bronze statues.
Seeing Chen Yu, it paused instinctively.
There wasn't much of a reaction.
It continued towards the dungeon with creaking sounds.
"You stop right there!" Chen Yu muttered to himself, and the skeleton warrior actually stopped, tilting its head as if looking at him in confusion.
"It can understand human speech."
Seeing the skeleton warrior stop, Chen Yu's eyebrows raised slightly.
"Don't you know you're being disrespectful to me?"
The skeleton warrior tilted its head again.
Very bewildered.
"Tilt your head all you want!"
Chen Yu raised his hand and smacked it on the back of its head.
The skeleton warrior was unaffected, but Chen Yu's hand stung.
"Hiss!"
With his right hand faintly aching, Chen Yu drew a sharp breath with his hand behind his back.
It was really tough.
Even though his hand was already red, Chen Yu still kept a stern face and frowned.
"You keep tilting your head and neck. You have bone hyperplasia. With bones all over your body, aren't you afraid of breaking your neck?" Chen Yu said fiercely.
However, the skeleton warrior still had that bewildered expression.
It tilted its neck slightly.
As if curious about the meaning of Chen Yu's words.
Seeing that the skeleton warrior remained like this, Chen Yu became a little confused.
He really didn't seem to have a good brain.
"Stand at attention here and don't move around," Chen Yu pointed at it. The skeleton warrior truly stood straight and motionless.
Seeing this, Chen Yu's eyebrows raised.
It was quite obedient.
He told it not to move, and it obediently stood there.
"What is going on here?"
Chen Yu muttered again, speaking inwardly.
"Little Devil."
[What is it~]
Seeing that Little Devil was still sending messages inside the wristband, Chen Yu let out a sigh.
"Don't just stay inside. Can't you come out?"
[Roar]
Whoosh!
From the wristband, the Little Devil, holding a trident, appeared in front of Chen Yu. She floated in mid-air, tilting her head as she looked at the skeleton warrior not far away.
"This skeleton is quite good."
"But its brain isn't very functional," Chen Yu gestured towards the skeleton. "Look at its silly appearance. It's obedient, but its brain doesn't seem very sharp."
"It's probably young," Little Devil whispered.
"Huh?"
Young?!
It's already a skeleton, how could it still be young?
"Undead also have ages," Little Devil frowned. "It's possible your skeleton hasn't reached the stage of intelligence awakening yet. Everything is still in the initial stage of ignorance."
"Then what should I do?"
"Let it advance, or perhaps enlighten it more often in daily life."
Enlighten it?
Chen Yu wasn't particularly keen on doing such a thing.
It was too troublesome.
If he let it advance, then—
"I just heard Er Gou tell me that it gnawed on a pile of bones earlier," Chen Yu whispered. "After gnawing, it became the current skeleton warrior."
"Gnawing bones to advance?"
To Chen Yu's surprise, Little Devil's eyes widened instantly upon hearing this.
"Devouring type undead?!"
"Heavens!"
"What incredible luck you have!"