1684

 ### Chapter 1684: Finding the Method to Enter the Second Stage

Most people did not notice the skeletal god generals, only seeing streaks of light passing overhead. Some did not even notice at all. The skeletal god generals had concealed their aura - their auras were quite special and difficult to detect when deliberately hidden. 

In just half a day, a map of this secret realm had been fully explored by Lin Muyu. He knew clearly how many maple forests there were, which ones were large or small in scale, how many maple trees, and even how many people were still left in the secret realm.

Half a day had passed, and quite a few people had already left the secret realm. 

Of every 10,000 people who entered the Maple Forest Secret Realm, about 9,999 came to earn merit points from the divine city.

They had their own set methods:

The first step was to complete the basic tasks to get the minimum points.

After finding the first maple forest and obtaining 10 blood-red maple leaves, they would not search for a second maple forest. Instead, they would choose to directly use the escape talisman to leave.

Then they would re-enter the secret realm.

This method may seem unreliable, but it was the result of years of experience.

Each time the secret realm opened, there would be hundreds of people entering. The total number of maple forests was limited. 

If you found an unoccupied maple forest and obtained enough blood-red maple leaves, the second maple forest you found might have already been taken by others.

So you might end up empty-handed, better to just leave and re-enter.

They called this method "refreshing the secret realm."

Although it wasted one escape talisman each time, the efficiency was greatly improved, earning more overall.

According to Luo Feiyu, he could refresh the secret realm over 50 times in 30 days.

On average, it took him about half a day to refresh once.

Now half a day had passed, and more than half of the maple forests had been explored by people.

Of the hundred people who entered the secret realm, less than twenty remained.

Some had completed the tasks, while others were injured or poisoned and had used the escape talisman to immediately leave the secret realm.

So far, Lin Muyu had not discovered the second ability required.

Each time the Maple Forest Secret Realm opened, some people would die, but the overall death rate was not high.

"Twenty-one maple forests remain, three of which are large-scale with over ten thousand trees each."

"First explore these three large maple forests, eliminate the rune beasts inside, and see if it triggers any changes."

In Lin Muyu's plan, he would explore repeatedly to find the correct method.

Of course, he could also take multiple approaches simultaneously, sending enough skeletal god generals to slaughter the rune beasts in all the maple forests at once.

However, if changes were triggered that way, he would not be able to determine the specific cause - whether it was due to killing enough rune beasts, or killing a particular rune beast that caused the change. There was also the possibility that collecting enough blood-red maple leaves triggered the change.

Since he would be providing the strategy to the secret realm guide group afterwards, he could not just guess - he needed definitive results.

The skeletal god generals descended into one of the large maple forests, this time with a hundred of them.

They entered like tigers into a flock of sheep, swinging their bone swords to slaughter the rune beasts in the forest.

Against the ordinary small rune beasts, the skeletal god generals were unstoppable, killing them decisively.

The difference between large and small maple forests was that the large ones contained huge rune beasts.

A rune beast's strength was closely tied to its size - the larger ones were composed of more ancient rune fragments and contained stronger rule power.

However, even the lion or tiger-like rune beasts were at most minor god realm. They were far weaker than the skeletal god generals.

Lin Muyu himself did not enter the maple forest or collect any blood-red maple leaves.

Since he needed to obtain definitive results, he could not do two things at once.

Otherwise, he would not be able to determine the true trigger condition.

Whether or not he could clear this secret realm, the method he found would be very important information - not just for the Maple Forest Secret Realm, but as a reference for other special secret realms as well.

All secret realms came from the same ancient rune, so they shared some commonalities.

In this large maple forest with over ten thousand trees, the number of rune beasts was also extremely high. The skeletal god generals slashed their way through, killing for half a day.

After half a day, the three large maple forests were completely cleared.

Lin Muyu calculated that including large and small rune beasts, nearly a hundred million had been killed.

But the secret realm remained unchanged, without the slightest difference.

"Then continue, clear out all the rune beasts in the secret realm first."

After some thought, Lin Muyu decided to proceed with the original plan, clearing out the maple forests one by one.

The skeletal god generals immediately rushed towards another maple forest to slaughter the rune beasts.

Lin Muyu first cleared the unexplored maple forests, while also observing the other people in the secret realm.

A full day had passed since entering the secret realm, and of the hundred people from his area, only three remained.

One person was unlucky, taking a long time to find a maple forest, and was very cautious in collecting the blood-red maple leaves, doing so very slowly.

The other person was Lei Wenbin.

Relying on his speed advantage, after obtaining enough blood-red maple leaves, Lei Wenbin did not leave. Instead, he chose to continue searching for other maple forests.

With his speed, this approach was reasonable.

However, Lin Muyu did not want him to remain inside any longer - his actions might interfere.

But Lin Muyu could not directly attack him either, as the Human Emperor Network would punish that.

After some thought, Lin Muyu had an idea.

Lin Muyu took out a plant stem - it was not actually a stem, but something similar to a plant root.

It came from a minor god of the Golden Maple Clan. The true form of the Golden Maple Clan was maple trees, and the maple trees in the Maple Forest Secret Realm were five or six parts similar.

They were a plant-based race with a grudge against humanity, one of the two hundred races that invaded humankind in the past.

They were later defeated by Xiao Zhantian and nearly went extinct, barely surviving.

Now they had recovered somewhat and were active on the battlefield again, frequently clashing with humans.

During Xiao Sheng's recent attack, he killed a hundred enemy minor gods, including some from the Golden Maple Clan.

Lin Muyu produced a flame of undead fire, enveloping the Golden Maple Clan minor god's root.

Stellar-level spell: Resurrection of the Undead!

In the next second, flames erupted.

Following some unknown rules, the Golden Maple Clan minor god was resurrected in the undead flames.

His soul was reorganized, flesh and blood regenerated, reborn as an undead, becoming Lin Muyu's slave.

Lin Muyu had not used this spell since the Tulu Realm. As his strength grew, the Resurrection of the Undead seemed to become somewhat obsolete.

But using it here was appropriate.

The resurrected Golden Maple Clan minor god emanated a tremendous aura that soared into the sky. He was over two hundred meters tall, somewhat similar to the maple trees in the forest. 

If not looked at carefully, it would be hard to tell the difference.

"Using a minor god to scare you away, it's a bit of an overkill."

"But it doesn't matter, I'll just play around."

Originally, the minor god's head could have been used as a trump card - good material for corpse explosions.

But now that even the skeletal god generals had reached the minor god realm, these minor god heads had lost their greatest value.

Might as well make use of them.