Chapter 642: Section 429: Snake-Shadow Ghost, Rat-Eye Ghost
Zi Di’s stock of Soul Crystals had already plummeted below 20.
Ever since she first obtained them, she never had the chance to replenish her stock.
In fact, she had no means to replenish them at all.
Using one lessened the count; now there were fewer than 20 left.
The resources Zi Di had for cultivating as an Undead were mostly provided by Cang Xu.
To be honest, it was really thanks to Cang Xu that she could rise to the Black Iron Level as an Undead Mage so quickly.
“Before I am formally resurrected, if I want to maintain this pace of cultivation, I’ll need to find new Undead resources,” Zi Di frowned again, sinking into distress.
But collecting Undead resources was no easy task.
The plight of Undead Mages has always been precarious, with everyone in the world calling for their heads. Just looking for relevant channels was extremely difficult. Many powers were setting up traps in secrecy, releasing false information through the Black Market to lure Undead Mages into revealing themselves.
Zi Di currently had more pressing matters to attend to and simply had no time for this.
“Acting in my current identity, once exposed, would pose a great risk to the Dragon Lion Mercenary Corps. We cannot afford such a consequence.”
“So, it seems I have no choice but to rely on Cang Xu again.”
Zi Di sighed inwardly.
She had always held a great deal of trust and expectation in her companions.
On one hand, such a mindset was forged through the hard-earned experience of struggling to survive on Mysterious Monster Island. On the other hand, it was part of her nature as a merchant.
A merchant excels at networking, at leveraging connections to mobilize resources and turn a profit.
Some things that I can’t do, that doesn’t mean others can’t.
Through cooperation, others can and I, too, can benefit, overcoming the limitations of my own abilities.
This was the cooperative thinking of a merchant.
Precisely due to this, when the Dragon-man youth was persuading Zi Di to share the Blood Core with others, she quickly agreed.
It wasn’t just because Zi Di was deeply in love with the youth, but also her own awareness and values that led to her decision.
Zi Di began to meditate, storing Mana into the expanded Mana Pool she acquired upon leveling up.
Even though Mages can leverage external elemental energy, they also need to build up their own Mana Pool reserves. It’s like a merchant’s principal; the larger the principal, the more funds that can be leveraged.
“Compared to the Bronze Level, the Mana Pool for Black Iron Level Undead has expanded more than twice. Compared to my living Fire Element Mana Pool, it’s even larger by a factor of two, and my spiritual power has also increased,” Zi Di mentally assessed.
This was a unique cultivation experience, one that most Mages never possessed.
“But compared to my body’s efficiency after Bloodline purification, my current meditation is still far from effective!”
The gap was quite significant.
Zi Di’s Bloodline had been purified, like Lan Zao, to be extremely pure, reaching 100%. Unlike Lan Zao, Zi Di’s gunpowder flower Bloodline was Gold Level, surpassing the Silver Level of the Fish Bladder Bloodline.
Speaking of which, Zi Di had also wanted to create a passive cultivation environment that would continuously promote the Mage Level of her body.
Unfortunately, something unexpected happened on Lan Zao’s side, causing the Dragon-man youth to control the Deep Sea Monster Fish to go to their aid, also taking her body away with him.
Before parting, the two had considered having Zi Di take her own body on the road to the Ice Sculpture Royal Capital.
But after careful consideration, both felt that it was too risky. If discovered, the details of Zi Di’s Undead life would be exposed. Worse, if they encountered danger on the road and Zi Di’s body was destroyed, that would be even more disastrous.
From the ambush in Cold Wind Valley, it was clear that the concerns of the Dragon-man youth and Zi Di were justified.
They made the right choice—keeping Zi Di’s body aboard the Deep Sea Monster Fish.
Through the Soul Implantation Technique, Zi Di could manipulate her own body, which couldn’t be considered true resurrection, and meditation was very difficult with many disturbances. Yet even so, the efficiency of meditation in this state was far better than her current condition.
Golden Level bloodline was truly excellent!
After experiencing it, Zi Di found it unforgettable.
“Now, in my ghostly form of life, Black Iron Level must be the limit,” Zi Di concluded after numerous experiences.
Generally speaking, the transformation from a normal life to an Undead Life doesn’t necessarily result in improved talents.
Cang Xu was like this because he was chosen by the concealed Soul Vein inheritance within the oil painting and had been tested for the ability to practice Undead Magic.
Zi Di had not directly come into contact with the Undead Inheritance, but the results of her dual cultivation proved she was qualified to practice the Undead Magic System.
However, in practice, Zi Di became increasingly aware of the limitations of her cultivation talents.
Zi Di was not disheartened; in fact, she was content.
It was this talent that allowed her not to die completely on Mysterious Monster Island. Although she had transformed into Undead Life, there was still a glimmer of hope for resurrection.
“Moreover, my talent for Undead is not without room for improvement.”
“As long as I find the answer and know what my Undead bloodline is, I can purify it. As long as my current bloodline concentration isn’t 100%, there’s room to rise.”
Zi Di could use a Magic Potion to test blood, but the test was limited to normal life and couldn’t determine Undead Life.
This was beyond her field of knowledge.
Cang Xu had shared with her all the Undead Inheritance he acquired from Songfeng Island.
But these inheritances were either Basic Rank or Low-level, devoid of knowledge about bloodlines.
The Undead Magic System had developed spells that could directly detect Undead bloodlines and cultivation talents, but such spells were contained within Middle-level Undead Inheritance. Cang Xu had not yet obtained them from the ship ghost.
Zi Di’s efficiency at meditation was not high.
On the one hand, it was limited by bloodline, and on the other, there was a lack of negative energy.
Generally, the places suitable for Undead Mages to cultivate were graveyards, wanton burial grounds, ancient battlefields, and so on.
But now she was in the city center of the Royal Capital.
Fortunately, she had Undead resources in hand, which could provide negative energy.
Doing so was quite wasteful. These Undead resources could be used entirely as Alchemy Materials and the like. Extracting the negative energy for meditation would essentially render these resources useless. Even if they still retained some value, it would be significantly reduced.
Not only that, to conceal the fluctuations of negative energy and prevent exposing secrets, Zi Di had to lay out Arrays for cover.
She was not concerned that her cultivation of Undead would reveal her identity.
Her main confidence was in her Deception and Disguise Skill.
So far, this spell had never let her down.
However, this was also an expense. The cost was difficult to estimate—the Pearl Bubble was a Divine Level material!
By the time Zi Di had sufficiently filled her new Mana Pool, it was deep into the night.
She felt brisk and bright; as a ghost, she didn’t need to rest. Only when spiritually exhausted to the extreme would she fall into a state of rest.
Zi Di summoned some ghosts and began to transform them.
Among the Undead Inheritance she obtained from Cang Xu, Zi Di specialized in the Soul Vein.
In the low-level inheritance of Soul Veins, the main content is for Undead Mages to transform basic ghosts, providing them with comprehensive or specialized enhancement.
This is the cornerstone for an Undead Mage to become a one-person army.
Zi Di transformed only two types of ghosts, one type was the snake soul, and the other was the mouse soul.
These ghosts almost entirely originated from Snake Rat Island.
On Snake Rat Island, by slaughtering Tide Snakes and Melted Rats, she obtained a large number of ghosts.
Following the methods from the low-level Undead Inheritance, she was transforming snake souls into Shadow Snakes and mouse souls into Mouse-eyed Ghosts.
Shadow Snakes could merge into shadows to hide, secretly tracking targets and providing markings to the Undead Mage within a certain range.
Mouse-eyed Ghosts had enhanced scouting abilities.
“Since becoming Black Iron Level, my ability to transform ghosts has improved a lot.”
The effects of Mage level advancement were immediately evident.
Before long, Zi Di’s mana was completely depleted within her.
She meditated once again, drawing negative energy from the Undead Materials.
Soon, it was exhausted again.
After several rounds, she used up a lot of Undead Materials, but she managed to obtain more than twenty Black Iron Level transformed ghosts.
“Fortunately, transforming ghosts is an Undead Magic, not alchemy,” Zi Di exhaled a breath of turbid air.
After some hesitation, she decided to use the Deception and Disguise Array.
She took out the Array Map tiles and quickly pieced them together.
She had practiced this step extensively beforehand, to be prepared for sudden situations where she might need to immediately adjust the actual effect of the Deception and Disguise Skill.
Compared to the Bloodline Purification Array, the construction of the Deception and Disguise Array was not complex. Initially, Zi Di and Cang Xu had completed the construction of the first Deception and Disguise Array.
With the portable Array Map tiles, Zi Di immediately set about in secret to build a second set of the Deception and Disguise Array.
This was also to prevent future accidents.
If the first set of Deception and Disguise Array were to break, and the survivors urgently needed it, that would be bad.
The experience on Mysterious Monster Island profoundly changed the survivors’ way of doing things. Those who survived wished to be as well-prepared as possible, for only with sufficient preparation could they have a higher tolerance for errors in an environment fraught with crises, and they could fight for greater survival chances.
After the successful activation of the Array Map, Zi Di subsequently sent all the Shadow Snakes and Mouse-eyed Ghosts into it.
Zi Di knew the truth: these transformed ghosts hadn’t changed. But she was certain that the Deception and Disguise Skill had been successfully applied. To those unaware, these ghosts now seemed to be scouting Puppets.
To reduce the consumption of Pearl Bubble and extend the duration of the Deception and Disguise Skill, the disguised images of these transformed ghosts were also made very similar to the forms of snakes and rats.
“When it’s time to save, I have to save. After all, there isn’t much Pearl Bubble left,” Zi Di lamented internally.
Compared to Soul Crystals, Pearl Bubble was an essential item for the survivors, with immense significance.
Where it wasn’t necessary to save, Zi Di wouldn’t.
Just like now, as she applies the Deception and Disguise Skill to these transformed ghosts, it was essential. If she directly used these ghosts and someone discovered them, it would bring big trouble.
Now, with the Deception and Disguise Skill applied, Zi Di could use them with assurance.
Moreover, since Undead is a faction of Newborn Mages, although these are only Black Iron Level, their scouting capabilities were very promising.
Just like before, when she used Lan Lu’s ghost in the battle in Cold Wind Valley, she didn’t let the enemy realize that this was an Undead Mage’s tactic, but instead they mistook it for an Alchemy Puppet designed for combat.
“If I can transform Lan Lu, my combat power would see a significant boost. Even facing Zong Ge, I would have a certain ability to engage in direct combat.”
At the current stage, Zi Di was not too keen on attempting to transform Lan Lu.
This ghost used to be a Two-headed ogre mage with great potential. Successfully summoned after death, there was still a huge room for improvement.
Zi Di had designed many transformation plans for it, but transformations usually consume a considerable amount of time. At this stage, she still needed Lan Lu’s combat power, so the timing was not quite right.
“However, I could emulate that Light Mage and make extensive use of Alchemy Puppets.”
Zi Di’s own combat power, limited by her Mage Level, was not very high.
In fact, she herself was not interested in battle.
Pretending to be at Silver Level, she usually relied on excellent equipment or Magic Scrolls for firepower bombardment in combat.
Her fundamental skills were very solid, which was attributed to her studies at the academy. But to talk about battle talent, the wonder of impromptu performance, that was almost nonexistent.
Zi Di also knew where her interests and true talents lay.
She was not so fixated on her own combat capabilities.
The battle at Cold Wind Valley provided her with some inspiration.
Otherwise, how could it be said that enemies are often the best teachers?
“The current me can control more Alchemy Puppets than a normal Mage.”
After using Soul Crystals, Reduction Technique, and Reduction Technique, Zi Di’s mental burden was greatly reduced. Having just been promoted to Black Iron Level, a quantitative change triggered a qualitative change, which also substantially increased her Mana Pool capacity and her mental limit.
“And besides, as a life form, ghosts are naturally strong in spiritual power.”
This was a difference caused by the distinct nature of life forms.
“However, to purchase combat Alchemy Puppets, I still need to start from Snowbird Port.”
“Purchasing in the Bloodline City always seems inappropriate.”
After all, Zi Di and her companions were ambushed on their way to the Bloodline City, and the true identity of the enemy had not been discovered to this day.
“I’ll write the letter now, so someone can deliver it first thing tomorrow.”
“Hopefully, this batch of Alchemy Puppets can be sent together with the first shipment.”
“I just hope they arrive in time.”
Zi Di’s method of keeping in touch with the Snowbird Port branch was simple and unsophisticated: by sending letters through couriers using Teleportation Arrays for fast travel.
Sanda received Zi Di’s letter early in the morning.
At that time, he was discussing the Mercenary Group’s financial expenditures with Fat Tongue.
He had previously heard about the mysterious ambush Zi Di and Zong Ge faced in Cold Wind Valley. Zi Di’s desire to purchase a large number of Alchemy Puppets to strengthen her combat power was good news.
Sanda had no reason to oppose and was very supportive of it.
“Chairman Zi Di has once again become a Black Iron Level Mage, that’s great news.”
“Later, we can notify Mage Bu Quan, she should be more familiar with Alchemy Puppets than us. Perhaps she can provide better advice and help us buy the most suitable models,” Sanda said.
Then, he sighed: “The only thing is, with this, our expenditure has increased by a large amount. What should we do?”
He looked at Fat Tongue with a worried expression.
Fat Tongue smiled at him: “My attitude remains the same, Sanda, our current investment situation is healthy. There’s no need to worry too much.”