Chapter 5: The Fall of the Skeletal Monarch and the First Annexation
The Skeletal Monarch's true form was not the massive skeletal golem seated on its throne of skulls—that was merely a vessel to display its authority and gather death energy. Its real core was a "Monarch's Life Flame," hidden deep in the heart of the bone sea, tucked away in a crack between secret dimensions.
This flame, forged from ten thousand years of its purest soul energy, was the source of its power and the key to its immortality. As long as the flame burned, even if the outer golem was destroyed a thousand times, it could be reborn using the flame and the endless bones of the bone sea.
This was the Skeletal Monarch's greatest secret—the trump card that let it dominate the Demon Realm. It was confident that no one could find or threaten its Life Flame, unless the oldest, most powerful beings at the very top of the Demon Realm struck personally.
But it was facing Lin Mo.
A cultivator renowned in the Cultivation World for deduction, calculation, and breaking through all manner of life-preserving techniques—a "top-tier grinder" who left no detail unchecked.
From the moment Lin Mo decided to act against the Skeletal Monarch, his goal had been crystal clear: not to defeat its army, not to seize its territory, but to directly and completely… erase the foundation of its existence.
Those seemingly harassing "technical sabotages"—the energy disruptions targeting the Death Energy Concentration Arrays—had a deeper purpose than just causing trouble. They used the tiny fluctuations from the arrays' energy chaos to trace backwards, pinpointing the core source that sustained the Skeletal Monarch's entire power system.
It was like locating a power plant's exact position through anomalies in the power grid.
Countless analyses of energy ripples, mappings of spatial fluctuations, and fragmented information about the forbidden depths of the bone sea (brought by the "defected" skeletons) allowed Lin Mo to mark three narrow areas on his demon-hide map where the Monarch's Life Flame might be hidden.
And when the Skeletal Monarch, enraged, marched its entire army out and channeled all its power to prepare for battle—this was when the link between its outer form and the Life Flame was strongest, and its energy fluctuations hardest to fully conceal!
Deep in the bone sea, behind a natural barrier formed by the interlocked ribs of a colossal ancient creature, the air rippled with imperceptible waves.
Lin Mo's figure slipped out like a ghost, silent and soundless.
He still wore that spotless green robe, utterly out of place amid the decay, paleness, and deathly aura surrounding him.
Here, there was no clamor of the army gathering outside—only a bone-chilling silence and cold. The air was thick with pure death energy; any ordinary being would have their life force stripped away instantly, turning to dry bones.
Lin Mo's gaze swept over the area enclosed by the massive ribs. His spiritual sense, like the most precise radar, locked onto the central point among the three suspicious coordinates—where the soul fluctuations, though hidden by layers of restrictions, glowed as clearly as a lighthouse in the dark.
Without hesitation, he stepped forward, crossing hundreds of feet in an instant to stand before a seemingly ordinary bone wall.
The wall was covered in countless tiny, twisted black runes, forming an extremely complex and powerful composite barrier of concealment and defense. Its strength would have troubled even Demon Lord-level beings.
Lin Mo lifted a finger. There was no glow, no surge of powerful energy—only a casual movement that, in truth, held profound cosmic logic. He tapped lightly on a few key rune nodes at the barrier's core.
It was like a hot knife slicing through butter.
The barrier, strong enough to withstand thousands of soldiers, didn't even stir a ripple. It dissolved silently under his fingertips, fading away. The bone wall smoothed like a mirror, then slowly split open inward, revealing a narrow cave entrance just wide enough for one person.
Beyond the entrance was a small, enclosed space. In its center, a flame the size of a human head—deep, dark gold—burned quietly. At the heart of the flame, a tiny figure, identical to the outer skeletal golem, flickered faintly. This was the Skeletal Monarch's soul essence: the Monarch's Life Flame!
Sensing the intruder, the Life Flame suddenly flared violently, sending out waves of soul energy filled with shock and fury: "Impossible! How could you find this place?! Who are you?!"
Lin Mo ignored the pointless question.
He looked at the flame, his eyes calm, as if appraising an item's value.
"Energy purity is decent, structural stability is average—seventeen obvious redundancies and weak points," he muttered to himself, like a meticulous engineer analyzing equipment parameters. "Annihilating it directly would waste over 80% of its energy. To recycle it, I'd need to build a dedicated conversion array… estimated time required…"
He seemed to find the conversion process too troublesome.
In the end, he made a decision.
He raised his right hand, palm facing the Life Flame—now thrashing wildly, trying to unleash all its power to fight back or escape.
There was no earth-shattering clash, no dazzling display of magic.
Only an absolute force of order, above all else, descended upon the space.
The Life Flame—burning for ten thousand years, holding all the Skeletal Monarch's power and consciousness—was plunged into an abyss of absolute zero. All its energy activity, all its soul fluctuations, were forcibly halted and frozen in an instant.
Then, like a candle snuffed out by the wind, it died away silently.
The dark gold flame scattered into tiny streams of light, finally dissipating into nothingness. The tiny soul figure didn't even let out a final wail before vanishing.
At the same moment, the Skeletal Monarch—riding its skeletal golem, leading a vast army of death toward the Abandoned Land's border—suddenly froze.
The soul-fire blazing in its eye sockets was doused like a bucket of ice water, flickering dimly before sputtering out completely, much to the horror of its undead subordinates.
The countless skulls that made up the golem, robbed of their power source, collapsed in an avalanche of bones—becoming nothing but a lifeless pile of dry remains.
The death army, once roaring with murderous intent, fell into dead silence and utter chaos. High-ranking undead could feel the soul link between themselves and their monarch snap—completely, forever.
The Monarch… had fallen?
On the march, right under their noses, in a way they couldn't begin to understand?
Panic spread through the undead army like a plague.
At the Abandoned Land's border.
The little demons, standing in formation, watched as the white tide of death in the distance ground to a halt just as it began to advance—then descended into chaos and commotion. The massive skeletal golem crumbled into a mountain of bones.
"L-Lord… are they… fighting among themselves?" a little demon stammered, clutching a bone spear.
Lin Mo's figure had reappeared on the tallest black rock, as if he had never left.
He glanced at the collapsing army in the distance, his tone calm as he announced:
"Target eliminated. Notify the 'Human Resources Department'—the newly established one in charge of accepting defectors—to prepare for receiving the scattered undead from the Skeletal Monarch's territory. Register them, screen them, and resettle them."
He paused, adding:
"Prioritize those with production skills. Those who only know how to fight will be sent to mine or work on infrastructure for reform through labor."
"Additionally, the Technology R&D Center will immediately send personnel to the Skeletal Monarch's former core area. Evaluate and take over the Death Energy Concentration Arrays there for technical upgrades and energy integration."
"Tell the Strategic Planning Department to start drafting a report on economic infiltration and industrial analysis of the Swamp Lord's territory."
The little demons listened to the flurry of orders, staring at the disorganized army in the distance—now either fighting among themselves or fleeing in all directions—and then at the calm green-robed figure on the rock.
Suddenly, annexing a Demon Lord's territory didn't seem… that hard?
It was just that their Lord's methods were a little… too clean, too efficient, and a little chilling.
Lin Mo paid no mind to the awe and fear in his subordinates' eyes. His gaze had already crossed the chaotic bone sea, falling on the distant, miasma-shrouded swamp lands beyond.
The Demon Realm Characteristic Economic Development Consortium needed more… members.