Chapter 158: The Tomb Guardians, The Moonstone

[Name: Tomb Guard]
[Race: Undead]
[Level: 50]
[Skill 1: Heavy Slash LV.6 (Swings a machete to strike the enemy, dealing sixfold damage with a 10% chance to break the enemy's defense. Cooldown: 2 minutes)]
[Skill 2: Savage Charge LV.4 (Charges at the enemy with increased speed; the target hit falls into a stun state lasting 0.5 to 3 seconds. Cooldown: 4 minutes)]
[Skill 3: Undead Body LV.3 (Passive skill: Grants immunity to curses and dark magic, but light and lightning magic deal double damage)]
[Skill 4: Resurrection of the Dead LV.3 (Passive skill: As long as the soul fire remains unextinguished, the body can regenerate even if shattered)]
[Skill 5: Curse of the Dead LV.2 (Passive skill: Attacks carry a curse that reduces the target's all attributes by 10% and inflicts continuous damage until death)]

Xu Han raised an eyebrow.
An otherworldly beast of the Undead race.
And judging by the name, this corridor was undoubtedly the passageway to a tomb.
Since it was a tomb, burial items and treasures should be quite abundant, right?
He wasn't greedy.
Just a few epic-tier pieces of equipment would be enough.

Those tomb guards also spotted the uninvited guest before them.
Wielding their machetes, they walked step by step toward Xu Han.
As the distance closed,
the tomb guard at the very front suddenly accelerated, rushing fiercely toward Xu Han!
Savage Charge!

Xu Han had already anticipated their move.
Charge to close the distance, followed by a heavy slash.
If one strike couldn't kill him, wait for the second.
A standard routine for warriors.
He flipped his palm.
Brilliant electric arcs danced across his palm.
The phantom of a giant eagle suddenly materialized behind him.
Lightning also gathered within the eagle's beak.
"Chain Lightning!"
Xu Han let out a low growl and thrust his palm forward.

Boom!
Two bolts of lightning roared toward the tomb guards.
The charging tomb guard abruptly halted.
Lightning crackled over its body, and its frame stiffened.
The electricity rapidly spread to the other tomb guards trailing behind.
Those tomb guards likewise fell into a state of paralysis.

Xu Han flashed forward, hurtling rapidly toward the nearest tomb guard!
The Ice-Blue Blade swept out,
instantly slicing into the gap between the tomb guard's vertebrae.
This was also a skeleton's weak point!
Crack!
With just a gentle application of force,
the joint snapped.
The tomb guard's head dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.
Its body squatted down, trying to retrieve its head and reattach it to its torso.
Xu Han refused to give it that chance.
He stomped his foot down on the skull.
With a sharp crunch,
the skull shattered instantly.

A few wisps of ghostly blue light dissipated.
That headless skeleton crashed heavily to the ground, completely motionless.
Afterward, Xu Han transformed into a blur of motion, rushing toward the remaining tomb guards.
In just a few breaths of time,
all the tomb guards were thoroughly slaughtered.
He used Devour All Things to consume the corpses of the tomb guards.

The system prompt sounded in his ear:
"The host has devoured Tier-3 tomb guards for the first time, gaining 30 points of Strength and 30 points of Constitution."
"The host has acquired the tomb guard's skill: Resurrection of the Dead."

Xu Han raised an eyebrow and opened his skill interface to check.
Resurrection of the Dead LV.1: Passive skill, as long as the soul fire is not destroyed, the body can regenerate even if shattered.

Xu Han: ......
Has the system malfunctioned?
Giving him a skill like this.
This skill was certainly extremely useful for those tomb guards.
As long as the head wasn't destroyed, they could resurrect indefinitely.
The problem was,
he wasn't a skeleton!
Even if his head remained intact while his body was destroyed, was he supposed to get up and piece his body back together bit by bit?
Was that something a human could do?
If someone else saw that, wouldn't they be scared to death?

He shook his head helplessly.
Forget it, he'd just pretend he didn't have this skill.
Just as he was about to continue walking forward,
his gaze suddenly fell upon a stone lying on the ground.
The appearance of this stone was rather strange.
It looked like a crescent moon,
radiating a faint ghostly blue glow.
Curious, Xu Han used the Eye of Truth to check the stone's information.

[Name: Moon Stone]
[Quality: Epic]
[Description: A stone infused with dark power, usable for crafting or enhancing equipment]

It actually was a Moon Stone!
Xu Han's eyes lit up.
This item was an extremely rare material!
It could be used to forge high-tier equipment.
Equipment forged with it would be imbued with rich dark energy, making it a favorite among dark-attribute mages.
It was said that equipment forged with Moon Stones on the market could sell for tens of millions,
and demand often outstripped supply.
After all, items like Moon Stones only dropped from otherworldly beasts with dark or undead attributes.
There were no other channels to acquire them.

Although the Moon Stone before him was only the size of a palm,
selling it out in the world would fetch at least ten million.
Xu Han put the Moon Stone into his spatial ring, feeling quite pleased.
Coming here was the right choice!
He continued walking forward, searching for the traces of tomb guards,
hoping to drop a few more Moon Stones.

Soon, he encountered another group of tomb guards.
After easily dispatching them, however, there was no sign of any Moon Stone.
Xu Han didn't get discouraged and pressed on.
Several hours later,
he had slaughtered over a dozen waves, numbering no less than a hundred tomb guards.
Yet apart from a few tattered bronze-tier pieces of equipment,
he hadn't even seen the shadow of another Moon Stone.
Xu Han let out a long sigh.
The drop rate for these Moon Stones was simply too low.
His hope of farming Moon Stones here had been shattered.

As he walked further ahead, a glimmer of light finally appeared in front of him.
A surge of joy welled up in his heart.
After walking for so long, he had finally reached the end of the corridor.
He quickened his pace and arrived at the exit of the passageway.
The next second,
he was stunned by the sight before him.

A bronze gate towering dozens of meters high appeared ahead.
This bronze gate was set into a massive rock wall.
Flanking the two sides of the bronze gate stood two gigantic stone statues.
Both of these statues possessed beast heads and human bodies.
Due to the passage of time,
the surfaces of the statues were somewhat eroded, obscuring their original appearance.
Yet standing right there, one could still feel an overwhelming sense of pressure washing over them.

In front of the statues lay a massive crowd of tomb guards clad in tattered armor.
At a glance, there were at least a hundred of them.
Observing this scene,
Xu Han felt somewhat bewildered.
Whose tomb was this place, exactly?
Judging solely by this setup, whoever rested here held an extraordinarily high status.
A surge of eagerness rose within his heart.
There had to be incredible treasures inside this tomb!
However, wanting to enter the tomb meant crossing the open area teeming with these tomb guards.
Over a hundred tomb guards.
Trying to fight his way through would undoubtedly waste a considerable amount of time.
Moreover, the commotion would certainly not be small.
The people from Annam Country were bound to be in the vicinity as well; once that group was drawn over, he would find himself trapped in an awkward situation of being attacked from both front and rear.

He needed to find a way to reach the bronze gate without alerting these tomb guards.
Although he possessed Stealth,
these tomb guards didn't rely on sight.
Stealth could fool living creatures, but it couldn't fool the dead.
They could sense the life aura emanating from living beings.
Unless that life aura could be masked.

Suddenly,
a flash of inspiration sparked in his mind.
Right!
Perhaps he could try that skill!