“What, what happened to me?” Zi Di was startled to find her body and limbs appeared to be a translucent gray color.
And on the ground, her pale body no longer breathed, because she had lost too much blood.
“So, I turned into a ghost?” Zi Di realized in her daze.
In that moment, Cang Xu’s voice inquired: “Miss Zi Di, did you also practice necromancy?”
Zi Di slightly stared, then she recalled her days at the Academy of Magic. Once, a suitor gave her some taboo knowledge——the soul devourer magic cultivation technique.
When her future was dark and when her hopeless aptitude had almost driven her insane, she embraced the soul devourer cultivation technique she had obtained by a fluke.
In the end, before using it for the first time, she saw that suitor killed on the spot because he cultivated necromancy.
Although Zi Di was also tested, perhaps because she only cultivated necromancy briefly and superficially, nothing was detected.
Thus, Zi Di was immensely frightened, and after that lesson, she no longer touched necromancy.
“I didn’t expect necromancy would indirectly save my life.” Zi Di whispered as she nodded to Cang Xu.
Cang Xu understood clearly: “As expected.”
He was not surprised that Zi Di could access knowledge pertaining to necromancy.
The school of necromancy was also one of the major schools of magic. Its founder was You Can.
When You Can first founded it, they only spread it to a few apprentices. Necromancy was always hidden away and developed slowly.
Eventually, it was exposed one day. Both the people and the gods were terrified!
The school of Necromancy targeted life, thus it naturally provoked hate. Necromancy also touched the secrets of the soul, and as this was the gods’ restricted domain, they immediately ordered its destruction.
As a legend, You Can had no choice but to hide and wander all over. They became the enemy of almost all people, and all gods.
As a way of rebelling, You Can began to scatter knowledge of necromancy and did their best to circulate it.
Necromancy’s original advantage was that it allowed those with limited aptitudes and talent to see new hope.
For a moment, necromancy bred like flies and continued to do so despite repeated prohibition. This consumed every major power’s energy while allowing the true necromancer elites to hide better.
“Many thanks Cang Xu, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to condense my soul into a ghost.” Zi Di expressed her gratitude, “Also, thank you for killing Jia Sha. I have now completed my contract with the tower spirit to kill that priest.”
After the contract was fulfilled, Zi Di’s spirit was no longer burdened, only by breaking away from this final shackle could she transform her soul into a ghost.
“Zi Di.” The body double youngster moved toward the ghost girl, with a complex expression he extended his hand, however he only touched air.
“Your Lordship……” The ghost girl Zi Di looked on helplessly as her fingers passed through his, and her heart filled with emptiness and disappointment.
However, the two continued to look at each other with deep love.
“Cough cough.” Cang Xu coughed twice and couldn’t help but warn, “You two, don’t forget we are still in danger, we should think of a way to escape this island.”
Met with Cang Xu’s warning, the girl suddenly reacted from her entangled emotions.
Zi Di’s face was solemn: “This is the most important place in War Merchant’s alchemy factory control hub. I will continue to erode the tower spirit and seize the authority here. I will find out if there is a way to escape this place soon? It is very possible War Merchant has elemental crystals in his storage that we can use to replenish the magic power reserve. With sufficient magic power, we can teleport away.”
Zong Ge walked over, his severed arm had already been hastily bandaged: “Actually we have another option, the flame dragon king. It's not out of the question, we may be able to negotiate with it. By giving up a portion of contribution, he can grant us a helping hand.”
“This……can only be considered as a last resort?”
“Previously, we really offended him.”
“He is a legendary dragon king; will he take us ants into consideration?”
“Perhaps, we can help him escape the seal.”
“Without us, I can still see him escaping.”
“Don’t say that, if we want to negotiate with him, won’t we need to deal with those golems first?”
Everyone whispered and discussed.
As Jia Sha was tormented to death, the teleportation door disappeared. The third floor still had chaotic lightning, while the second and first floor still had artificial magic beasts tearing at each other's throats.
Everyone could only find another path.
Zi Di began to invade the privileges again.
The process was very smooth and quick.
“Without Jia Sha hindering me and the tower spirit seeming to have withered away, my journey is unimpeded!” Zi Di quickly obtained complete teleportation privileges, weather control privileges, and more.
She first stopped the lightning, controlled the odor again, and took command over the artificial magic beasts the tower spirit controlled.
Under the beast groups’ watchful gaze, some people left the control hub while the body double youngster and several others continued to protect Zi Di while she continued to invade the privileges.
“I already control the magic power reserve, however there isn’t much magic power left.”
“I have just gained authority over the alchemy golems.”
“There are many warehouses here, there might be some elemental crystals hidden in them.”
Every piece of good news was transmitted from Zi Di’s mouth.
Zong Ge’s group had left the control hub and headed towards the warehouses that might have elemental crystals.
During their journey, they encountered alchemy golems and magical traps, all of which were under Zi Di’s control. Each of them moved quickly, it was like galloping through a flat prairie.
Waiting until the manpower came, the warehouse metal door then automatically opened with a rumble.
“This place has ore.”
“This place has processed alchemy materials, and even Obscure Gold!”
“These look like pieces of alchemy golems. I understand now, this is an alchemy golem’s module.”
“Good news, we found several boxes of magic scrolls.”
There were a few healing scrolls in the bunch, they were then quickly sent to the control hub.
On the fourth floor, the wounded used the scrolls to heal themselves. Zong Ge’s arm was also attached; however, he still couldn’t use it in the short term as it remained bandaged. Zi Di’s corpse also received strong treatment.
Cang Xu faintly shook his head: “That won’t work, her heart has already stopped beating, after being dead for too long, common treatment methods can only make a corpse intact, nothing more.”
“Her internal organs are already beginning to rot; she must be frozen to slow down the decay.”
As a necromancer, Cang Xu was also an expert at handling corpses, thus he was the one using the ice magic scroll.
Thus, Zi Di’s body was sealed in an icy coffin.
Bang rumble……
Another earthquake happened.
“Make haste, hurry up!”
“If this continues, the flame dragon king might escape his prison at any moment.”
“We should control that magma battlefield.”
The exploration team was becoming increasingly nervous as they raced against time to continue exploring.
Finally, they found their target.
“This should be an elemental crystal warehouse!”
However, everyone despaired, for the warehouse was empty.
By the wayside, there were one or two elemental crystals left on the ground.
“This passage leads directly to the magic power reserve; it seems the tower spirit has already replenished it with elemental crystals.”
“If we can’t replenish magic power, how can we escape?”
“Search! Keep searching.”
“Maybe War Merchant’s storage has an alchemy airship, we can’t say for sure.”
Everyone suffered a blow, but none of them abandoned hope.
Another door was opened through Zi Di’s authority.
This warehouse was filled with translucent white crystal pillars.
With difficulty, everyone discovered these white crystal pillars were not natural ore, but an alchemy product.
Zi Di was delighted at this discovery: “That is the tower spirit. Or to be more accurate, that is the medium the tower spirit is placed in. It’s like the relationship between the soul and the corporeal body.
Zi Di didn’t want to stay on the fourth floor.
She already obtained all privileges, no matter where she was, she could use them.
Very quickly, she personally came to the white crystal pillars.
“There are many databases here, the memory storage and written records here contain the secrets of War Merchant’s alchemy factory!” Saying this, Zi Di began to invade with her spirit.
The body double youngster also felt a rush of excitement as he thought of his magic core, those crystal pillars must contain information about it!
“I found the alchemy factory’s blueprint, there are three elemental crystal warehouses altogether.”
“Hold on, this is a records table. All of the elemental crystals have been consumed to replenish magic power.”
Zi Di’s reporting made the people happy for a moment, then concerned.
Tripleblade urged: “Search now, is there an airship tarmac?”
Zi Di shook her head: “No such installation, wait a minute, what is this?”
“I found records of War Merchant’s and his apprentice’s journeys……”
“An alchemy ship!”
“An alchemy ship is stored on this island, War Merchant sometimes used it to travel.”
Zi Di’s discovery made everyone cheer.
They didn’t have a way to replenish magic power, and hadn’t found an alchemy airship, but an alchemy ship was enough to sustain their hopes of escape.
“Warning, warning!”
“Tower spirit had been invaded by another spirit, intruder discovered, discovered all privileges have been lost……”
The tower spirit’s voice echoed again, causing everyone to become very nervous.
However, the tower spirit’s voice soon became intermittent, after constantly examining itself, it found all authority was in Zi Di’s hands.
“It seems the tower spirit really was dying.” Everyone relaxed for a breath before suddenly hearing the tower spirit’s voice once again.
“Incapable of counterattacking, self-destruct countdown initialized, database destruction initialized.”
Everyone turned pale with fright.
The immense crystal pillars also began to collapse. On their surface, countless cracks quickly spread and broke down, turning them into dust.
“The countdown has begun; this is the final self-destruct. As long as it isn’t War Merchant, no one can stop it!” Zi Di involuntarily shouted.
Notes
Yes, Cang Xu is a necromancer and a cultivator. Despite having no bloodline or aptitude, he still has knowledge, thus necromancy was the perfect option for him. This fact actually wasn’t revealed until book 2 originally, but due to it coming out of nowhere for many readers, it was added into the extended ending. Anyways, this self-destruct is Zhen Ren’s way of saying, you have enough cool shit already, take it or leave it scrubs.