End of the Magic Era

Chapter 1404: Swallowing Soul Fire

Even Lin Yun’s voice had manifested as soul waves. There was nothing about him that didn’t look like undead creatures. His aura of death was even purer than that of normal undead creatures. He appeared as the purest undead creature.

Also, after he turned into a skeleton, his bones were unbelievably sturdy, just like a level-46 skeleton’s. A lot of sparks would be raised when he rubbed his hands. The hard alchemical devices in the lab were squeezed into a bizarre shape easily by his narrow and long claws.

He had been transformed into the most perfect skeleton. He even had the feeling that he was what the most perfect skeleton should be like.

Looking at himself in the mirror and the soul fire that was burning inside the skull, Lin Yun extended his finger into his eye socket. When he touched his soul fire, he felt like he had touched his own soul. The soul fire was just soul power in a different form…

Even Lin Yun couldn’t find any sign that suggested that he wasn’t an undead creature. He was absolutely flawless…

He thought of something, and inputted mana into the Book of Death again. The Chapter of the Dead glittered again, and abundant power of death spread out. Very soon, Lin Yun walked out of the mist in his original appearance. He looked the same, but his face was blue, and there was not any sign of a living creature on him. His eyes were covered in white membranes. Even his visuals had changed too.

Everything around him looked black and white. Only the living creatures were bright red. He could detect their auras from right here. Looking out of the lab, he saw living people dozens of kilometers away. Their auras rose to the sky, and were as eye-catching as lighthouses in a dark night.

He found no flaw that betrayed him at all after he turned into a zombie. He was a real zombie in his own eyes or those of anyone else.

With a thought, he turned into a skeleton again, and summoned Lord Shawn and Enderfa. Lord Shawn appeared, half asleep, only to find that a skeleton was staring at him with soul fire in his head.

“Damn it, an undead creature!”

Lord Shawn was so terrified that all his hair was rising. He slapped without thinking, and the third eye between his brows slowly opened.

Lin Yun extended his claws, grabbed Lord Shawn’s neck, and picked him up.

All of Enderfa’s three faces seemed terrified. He silently summoned the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel, and looked at Lin Yun vigilantly.

The face on the left side grimaced, and seemed quite brutal.

“Idiot, let go of him, or you will die miserably. No, you will wish that you were dead!”

The right face mumbled something in a low voice, and the face in the middle was quite solemn.

“Damn it, what’s Merlin doing? Why is an undead creature here? Did he capture the undead creature instead of killing it?”

Lin Yun’s jaws moved up and down. Before Lord Shawn and Enderfa counterattacked, his soul waves had spread out.

“Shawn, Enderfa, what do you think? Did you recognize me?”

Lin Yun’s words echoed in Lord Shawn’s and Enderfa’s heads. They couldn’t seem more shocked.

Lord Shawn gloomily screamed at the loudest of his voice.

“Oh, poor kid, how did you turn into an undead creature? You’re even a goddamn skeleton. Oh, this is truly bad…”

All of Enderfa’s three faces were sulking too.

“Merlin, how did you turn into an undead creature? There’s no future in being an undead creature. How did you die?”

Even Lord Shawn and Enderfa couldn’t recognize him. Lin Yun was instantly amused. They were very familiar with him, yet they couldn’t identify him as a counterfeit undead creature, so he was reassured.

Exactly at this moment, the lab was quietly opened, and Marianna snuck in like a thief. She then carefully closed the lab. However, the moment she turned around, she saw that a skeleton was standing behind her with Lord Shawn in his hand.

Marianna was so scared that her face became pale. She was about to spout out the power of gods, but Lin Yun’s skeleton picked her up and shook her, making her behave. The power of gods at her mouth dispersed like smoke too.

“Bastard, goddamn undead creature, filthy skeleton, let go of me. Let me tell you, I’m the closest friend to your monarch. Let go of me, or you’ll be dead for sure…

“You’ll be burnt in the well of holy light. Let go of me right now…”

Seeing Marianna, Enderfa hid himself in the shadows on the ceiling. Lord Shawn calmed down and watched the drama too.

Lin Yun held Lord Shawn between his arm and ribs, and spanked Marianna with his free hand. After a few spankings, Marianna became obedient, and stopped saying that the monarch of the undead was her friend.

After she was spanked, Marianna began to grimace at Lord Shawn, and bragged again. “Let go of me. I’m a friend to the master of this place. Let me tell you, Uncle Merlin is very terrifying. Even if you are an undead creature, Uncle Merlin will still eat every last piece of you. If you let go of me, I’ll tell you how to get out of this place so that Uncle Merlin won’t make you into soup…”

After Marianna finished, Lord Shawn covered his eyes with his claws. Lin Yun moved his jaws, and sent out soul waves again.

“Marianna, it seems that you’re as bold as before. Why don’t I remember that I like making skeleton soup?”

Gray mist enshrouded the skeleton that Lin Yun turned into. After the mist was gone, Lin Yun grinned, and looked at Marianna, who was dumbfounded.

“Huh, Marianna didn’t see me through, either, so nobody will possibly recognize me as a human being. Marianna, just behave and stay here.

“If you don’t want to be beaten up, you’d better not enter my alchemy lab without permission next time. Also, don’t climb the pillar, either. It’s dangerous, and may get you killed…”

Marianna knew very well that she would be beaten up if she argued, so she nodded obediently.

Lin Yun threw Lord Shawn aside, and then beat Marianna again.

“Marianna, I won’t tell Xiuban this time. If this happens again, instead of beating you in person, I’ll just tell Xiuban…”

After hearing that, Marianna, who was rubbing her butt and grimacing, clammed up, as if she were not going to complain.

If Xiuban was informed, then another beating would be underway. The only parenting method that the beastmen knew was beating. Their children were too sturdy to be hurt anyway.

Lin Yun left the Demiplane in a good mood. Marianna, who had always been trying to cause trouble, finally became obedient. He was going to the Plane of the Undead anyway. If she popped out of nowhere again, then it would be a problem.

The war came to a hiatus, and wouldn’t resume until the flames died out. When that happened, the channel would be able to endure the power of level-8 and even level-9 Heaven Rank experts.

When the channel could endure the power of level-9 Heaven Rank experts, it would be the best and only opportunity to seal the channel.

Considering the situation, it shouldn’t be a problem. Prome, the purest holy light mage, would supervise the channel, and prevent the army of the undead from marching across. When the channel could bear the level-9 Heaven Rank power, the Lionheart Prince and the forest elves’ king would stay in the rear, and ensure that nobody passed.

The most important thing to do at this moment was to find Agalon, Gandaph, and the others. Five of the Saint Alchemists to construct the Hexagonal Array had gone missing. That was highly unusual.

Gandaph might have been trapped somewhere—Lin Yun wasn’t really surprised. After all, Gandaph hadn’t reached level 9 of the Heaven Rank yet. There were many dangerous areas in the Plane of the Undead that might trap Gandaph and the other deans.

However, no ordinary undead creatures or dangerous areas couldn’t make Agalon go missing.

To make Agalon go missing, the monarch of the undead would’ve taken action in person. The four most famous undead creatures under his command couldn’t possibly achieve that.

Agalon had a Natural Demiplane. If he wanted to run, nobody could stop him except the experts beyond the Heaven Rank, such as the monarch of the undead.

He had been missing for a long time, which was highly unusual. According to their schedule, they should be making preparations for the Hexagonal Array already. At the very least, they could already set up the foundation of the array on the human side of the Mesomiya Plain.

Lin Yun left the mage legion on the front line, and then quietly left the fortress. He went to the Plane of the Undead through the channel.

It was very easy to sneak into the Plane of the Undead with the Chapter of the Dead. When he transformed into a skeleton and concealed his aura, even an expert beyond the Heaven Rank couldn’t possibly find him.

Even the monarch of the undead didn’t know how many skeletons there were in the Plane of the Undead.

All in all, there were skeletons in every part of the plane where skeletons could exist.

After passing through the flames, Lin Yun simply turned into a skeleton. Then, he found that the heat became insufferable, and that he was almost walking in magma when he walked on the soil…

He spouted an ice rune, which turned into a death rune after it came out. The aura of coldness and desolation spread out, covering up Lin Yun’s body and blocking the heat.

He had inherited the undead creatures’ weakness after he turned into one. If he had turned into a skeleton in the flames, he probably would’ve become the only Heaven Rank mage who burnt himself to death.

Lin Yun mumbled and spread out some soul waves. Then, he flew towards the undead creatures.

After flying 100 kilometers, he saw a lot of undead creatures. None of them were marching to the flames. Instead, they were fighting the undead creatures in their neighboring territory.

Lin Yun hid himself and floated in the sky, sneaking towards the battlefield. In this place, he could vaguely hear the cursing and yells of the undead creatures.

“Kill those ugly ghouls…”

“Swallow their soul fires…”

Needless to say, the only ghoul commander that the skeletons hated so badly was Emir…

No undead creatures cared about Lin Yun, even though he wasn’t hiding himself well. Even if some skeletons felt that there was a flying undead creature in the sky, they wouldn’t overthink it, as there were plenty of undead creatures that could fly.

However, most undead creatures could only walk on the ground. They could not compete with the flying undead creatures at all. When the ground was an utter mess with soul fires everywhere, the flying undead creatures still had the sky…

After transforming into an undead creature, Lin Yun could feel that a swarm of flying undead creatures were enjoying the war on the ground without intervening at all.

Lin Yun quickly flew to the center of the battlefield that had spread across 100 kilometers. More and more skeletons lost their skulls, and ghouls or zombies were torn into pieces all the time too.

In the center of the battlefield, the aura of death was a dozen times more abundant than that in other places. The fiercer the battles were, the more abundant the aura of death would be.

Lin Yun lowered his altitude, and floated a dozen meters above the ground. He hid himself, and flew randomly on the battlefield with the Book of Death.

The remaining essence of the undead on the ground was everywhere to be picked. No undead creatures cared about the remains. They only cared about soul fires.

But obviously, the undead lords weren’t really experienced in commanding armies. This often happened on the battlefield…

A skeleton’s neck was broken by a zombie, which swallowed the soul fire in its skull like a coconut—it sucked the burning soul fire from the skull and swallowed it.

Then, behind the zombie, another skeleton stabbed its claw into the zombie’s chest, pulling the rotten guts out of its chest. Afterwards, the zombie turned around, and twisted the head of the second skeleton, which was surprised that the zombie didn’t fall. It then continued swallowing soul fires.

Next, another skeleton warrior came, and cut off the zombie’s head. Holding the zombie’s head that was still roaring, it swallowed the soul fire in the zombie’s head.

The place was taken over by absolute havoc where countless undead creatures were feeding on each other. As they swallowed soul fires, their levels rose quickly.

The lower-level undead creatures rose very fast after swallowing soul fires. However, as their levels rose higher, their speed of advancement would slow down as they swallowed soul fires.

Most undead creatures had been torn apart by other undead creatures, and their soul fires became nutrients before they reached level 20.

Only a very small percentage of undead creatures was able to survive after reaching level 20. However, the total population of undead creatures was too big. The small percentage still meant a huge number.

Wandering for half an hour, Lin Yun saw dozens of undead creatures that had risen to level 30.

Lin Yun summoned Barton, Lagulin, and the prince’s ghost, asking them to join the chaotic battlefield.

The three bastards had been locked for a long time, and they discovered an abundant aura of death the moment they came out. They couldn’t even perceive Lin Yun anymore. So, they simply went on a killing spree, hunting for soul fires.

The battlefield became even more chaotic…

Lin Yun didn’t care about the three undead creatures. Even if they died, they would be resurrected in the Book of Death, and their improved level wouldn’t be lost. They could just stir trouble here.

Holding the Book of Death, Lin Yun looted the essence of the undead on the battlefield. As the Sage Chapter swallowed more and more essence of the undead, it was able to copy level-8 spells. Considering the pace, he would soon be able to swallow enough to copy the first level-8 spell.

As long as a level-8 spell was copied, it would be its most powerful version when it was cast out. It would probably be even more powerful than normal level-8 spells due to the enhancement of the Sage Chapter.

Earlier, Lin Yun had never thought that it could be possible to copy spells above level 7 on the Sage Chapter. He thought level-7 spells were the upper limit. After all, they required an astronomical amount of essence of the undead.

However, the astronomical amount of essence of the undead was everywhere on the ground like garbage. On the battlefield that had a span of hundreds of kilometers, a billion undead creatures were fighting fiercely, and nobody wanted the essence of the undead…

After looting for three hours, and swallowing a huge amount of the essence of the undead, the first spot for the level-8 spell to be copied on the Sage Chapter appeared. Lin Yun was exhausted. He wondered how long it would take him to create all the three spots of level-8 spells.

He estimated that he would probably have to fly for a couple of months on the battlefield to do that…