Undead Mage: I Have a Skeleton Clone

Chapter 673 - 450: Black Iron Upper, Fierce Beast Mountain Range, the Great Battle Looms!

This was also the origin of the Fierce Beast Mountain Range’s name. The preparations for this operation alone would take a month. Similar to a large-scale culling in the outside world, the main goal was to suppress the total number of Fierce Beasts near the garrisons and reduce the pressure on them. The bases of Sea City Military Academy and various civilian Adventurer Groups were established in a line behind the Longxia Military base, forming a series of settlements that directly faced the sprawling, mutated mountain range stretching thousands of kilometers.

There were many stable sources of resources around these base cities. These Cultivation Resources were partly supplied to the instructors and partly to the students, which was the primary source for Fang Zhou and his peers.

Generally, students who went to the Fierce Beast Mountain Range had two main types of missions. The first was to assist instructors in guarding resource points to earn a stable portion of contribution points each month, similar to working a regular post. Coupled with the environment there, one’s Cultivation speed would be faster than in the outside world. This was why most senior students were almost never at the military academy. Of course, this type of mission wasn’t just sitting around; it required constant vigilance against Fierce Beasts that might try to seize the resources, so it still carried a certain degree of risk.

The second type of mission involved venturing deeper into the mountains to hunt high-level Fierce Beasts, honing one’s skills while searching for new resource points or Heavenly and Earthly Treasures. Compared to the relative safety of the first option, the second was far more dangerous, but the rewards were also much richer. Usually, only the most talented and powerful geniuses chose this path.

Of course, every time the military base gathered high and low-Tier Fierce Beasts from a thousand-mile radius to begin an extermination mission, the surrounding military academy bases would dispatch some of their students as support. This "support," however, was limited to cleaning up the battlefield. The Fierce Beasts capable of breaking through that kind of firepower blockade were typically Bronze Tier or higher and were handled by specialized military teams. For these Black Iron Tier students, rushing to the front lines would be suicide.

Imagining the upcoming battles and rewards, Fang Zhou turned over, embracing Instructor Su for one last frenzied moment before the trial.

...

After preparing for the trial, Fang Zhou boarded a military vehicle headed for the Fierce Beast Battlefield, bringing his Black Gem Young Dragon, Tiamat, with him. With a body a full meter long, Tiamat naturally stood out in public. Fortunately, Instructor Su Xinyan had prepared for this and had given Fang Zhou a Cloak of Disguise. It had no other function than to camouflage the Black Gem Young Dragon’s appearance, making it look like an inconspicuous Spirit Lizard-type Spirit Pet.

Just before their departure, Instructor Lu Hu shared some good news. As long as Fang Zhou performed outstandingly in the Fierce Beast Mountain Range, Sea City Military Academy was prepared to let him skip another grade. In other words, if all went well, upon his return from hunting on the Fierce Beast Battlefield, Fang Zhou could become a student in the graduating class. To leap from a newly awakened freshman to a graduating senior in just one year was an unprecedented feat in the history of Sea City Military Academy.

Of course, Fang Zhou had earned this opportunity through his own effort and Talent. After all, his rank of Upper Black Iron Tier and his terrifying strength, which allowed him to take on a hundred enemies at once, had already left his second-year classmates far behind. Continuing to attend classes and train with them would be a bit like bullying them.

Fang Zhou was naturally extremely satisfied with this arrangement. A higher grade meant better Cultivation conditions, a greater share of resources, and a faster growth rate. He couldn’t ask for more.

After bidding farewell to the instructors and classmates who came to see him off, Fang Zhou boarded the military vehicle. Since it was the end-of-semester assessment period, none of his sophomore classmates were present. However, there were some senior students he recognized, such as Yue Pengfei, a third-year student he had traded with before, and the members of his Flying Roc Team.

In the few months since they had last met, Fang Zhou had skyrocketed from Upper Apprentice to Upper Black Iron. Yet Yue Pengfei and the others, who had reached Upper Black Iron long ago, remained at the same level. The Lower Bronze Tier was still a distant, unattainable goal. It was a classic case of a newcomer overtaking his predecessors. Fang Zhou was now a bona fide, highly sought-after celebrity at Sea City Military Academy. Seeing that he was part of the group for this Fierce Beast Battlefield trial, the senior students were both surprised and excited.

After Fang Zhou exchanged a few pleasantries with them, the accompanying instructor boarded the vehicle.

"Is everyone here?"

"Instructor, all accounted for."

"Alright, stow your luggage, count off, and let’s move out..."

As the military vehicle drove out of the academy gates, Fang Zhou instinctively glanced back at the increasingly distant school. He had a strange premonition that when he returned, things would no longer be the same.

...

The journey to the Fierce Beast Mountain Range involved spatial travel. The Secret Realm where the Fierce Beast Mountain Range was located was different from micro Spatial Fragments like the Forest of Nature. It possessed a relatively stable spatial barrier, and its internal Energy Concentration was also stable. Therefore, Fang Zhou had to switch between multiple modes of transportation to finally reach his destination.

After Fang Zhou and the others disembarked from the military vehicle, they followed the instructor into an airport terminal. After a short wait, a sapphire-blue aircraft slowly approached the terminal. The aircraft resembled a giant mythical whale, exuding a heavy aura. As it came to a stop before Fang Zhou, he had the strange illusion that it was a living creature. It wasn’t just him; the other students also wore solemn expressions.

The instructor turned around and shouted, "Attention! Stay close and don’t get lost."

"Yes, Instructor."

Fortunately, once aboard, Fang Zhou discovered that the cabin’s interior was normal, seemingly no different from that of a regular airplane. After everyone had secured their luggage, the plane slowly started up. Its speed increased amidst a rumbling vibration, and it soon launched from the airport.

Just when Fang Zhou thought the flight would be uneventful, a dense purple fog suddenly appeared ahead after about two hours. The sapphire aircraft plunged straight into it. The moment they entered the thick fog, everyone felt an illusion of space twisting around them. Although the view outside was completely obscured by the purple mist, Fang Zhou felt the plane’s speed increase severalfold. According to the information he had read, the several Fierce Beast Mountain Ranges sealed off by the Longxia Federation, including the stable passages connecting to the Mythical World, were all shrouded in this purple mist. The mist was a protective seal established by humanity’s most powerful experts.

An hour later, the plane’s speed dropped sharply. The fog ahead dispersed, revealing an open expanse of mountain forest with a small airport off to the side.

The instructor’s voice was grim. "You’ve arrived. Follow the signs after you get off. Do not wander off."

Faces filled with excitement and nervousness, the students grabbed their luggage and disembarked in an orderly line through the open cabin door. Stepping off the plane, they were greeted by a magnificent scene unlike any they had ever witnessed. The ground abruptly dropped away into a massive fault, revealing an endless primeval forest that stretched to the horizon.

As the group of Sea City Military Academy students stood at the cliff’s edge, mesmerized by the vast and spectacular primeval forest, a woman’s voice crackled over the airport’s speakers.

"You students over there, stop staring! Come over and register."

Startled, Fang Zhou and the others turned and noticed a guardhouse several dozen meters away.

The lead instructor cleared his throat. "Let’s head over. This is just the entrance to the spatial junction; we still have a long way to go to reach our academy’s outpost."

As each person passed through the guardhouse, an electronic voice announced their identity, the result of a multi-step verification process that was both incredibly precise and tightly secured.

*Soul Enemy identification passed. Physical verification passed. Sea City Military Academy third-year student, Yue Pengfei.*

*Soul Enemy identification passed. Physical verification passed. Sea City Military Academy second-year student, Fang Zhou...*

After completing the identity verification, the students followed the signs to a large plaza behind the guardhouse. The area looked like a military base that doubled as a cargo transit hub. Just then, a lieutenant came walking over. He first glanced at the time on his personal terminal before turning his solemn gaze to the group. "Students from Sea City Military Academy?"

"Yes," Fang Zhou and the others nodded.

The officer’s voice was firm. "Your transport plane is on Runway 8. Let’s go, I’ll escort you."

Led by the lieutenant, the group crossed the outer perimeter of the military base and quickly arrived at Runway 8. At the sight before them, everyone’s eyes filled with awe. Parked alongside the broad, enormous runway were hundreds of unmanned combat drones with wingspans of over ten meters and more than a hundred white fighter jets with thirty-meter wingspans. On several separate runways sat over a dozen futuristic Magic Energy Airships, each boasting a wingspan of sixty to seventy meters and an overall length of more than a hundred meters.