Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The Zombie King’s situation was becoming quite dire, while Yang Ling was enjoying this turn of events as he sat cross-legged on the ground.

Yang Ling had used the Poison Wizard’s Mantra to refine the black gas within his body little by little, while he still used the black gas engulfing his body to absorb the Zombie King’s life force.

There were many guards encircling the underground tomb, and a large group of high-grade Spirit Snakes was among them. There was also an underground leader whose body was engulfed by flames, as well as innumerable Cerberuses.

If it could be said that the Scorpion King was an expert, then the Zombie King was an expert among experts, and he had vigorous Magical Energy and life force.

After Yang Ling absorbed the Zombie King’s vigorous life force, he felt like his Wizard Power and Mental Energy rose drastically, and his skin seemed to tingle in pleasure. He felt comfortable all over, as if he had just drunk a mouthful of Immortality Spring.

Ah!

The Zombie King had approached this fight with arrogant overconfidence, but now that his life force had suffered such a drastic loss, the tables turned. The Zombie King’s four limbs became powerless, and he crumpled to the ground, writhing. He let out miserable screams as the black gas in his body went out of control and started dispersing quickly.

Every time he let out a wisp of black energy, a little bit of his life force went with it. His limbs sagged like a balloon that had lost its air. His flesh also became withered, and he seemed like a dry mummy lying on the ground.

Meanwhile, fewer and fewer Zombies emerged from the Stone Forest Spell Formation.

“What… What is going on?”

The Dark Dragon King stopped his headlong rush toward the Zombie King, who he had planned to slash with his claws. The Dark Dragon King was dumbfounded.

This was also the case for the Flying Dragon King, Seylius, the purple mouse, Little Ice, the Corpse Wizard King, and the others who were present.

The Corpse Wizard King used a Zombie Explosion Spell to get rid of a group Zombies that pounced at him, then commanded the others in a deep voice, “Obstruct the Zombies that are pouncing at us, and don’t disturb my lord. Hurry up!”

Even though even the Corpse Wizard King didn’t know exactly what had happened, he could still detect that Yang Ling’s life ripples were becoming stronger, while the black gas engulfing his body was becoming thinner.

As for the Zombie King, his situation was the exact opposite. He was growing weaker.

Yang Ling wasn’t just protecting himself; he had the upper hand.

“Tear all of those monsters to shreds. Charge forward!”

“Kill them, and twist their heads off.”

After the Corpse Wizard King gave a demonstration, the crowd turned around, charged at the innumerable Zombies, and started venting their anger.

There was a large number of Zombies, but they couldn’t break through the defensive circle around Yang Ling. They fought savagely, but they couldn’t get close enough to their Zombie King to save him.

Zombie King’s struggles slowed, and eventually, all he could manage were weak gasps for breath.

No more Zombies emerged, and the black gas engulfing Yang Ling’s body thinned like a rising mist.

There was still a large number of Zombies within the restriction’s land, but with the Five Great Wizard Guards and the Corpse Wizard King fighting, it was a massacre.

After Yang Ling refined the last wisp of black gas, he took a deep breath and his eyes snapped open. He took a look at the dying Zombie King and sneered coldly.

What a nutcase, he thought.

The Life-Intertwining Spell was amazingly powerful, but it required a great deal from its caster. If the Zombie King had stopped after a single cast, Yang Ling would probably have died.

But the Zombie King had gotten too greedy and tried to take down the Corpse Wizard King, Dark Dragon King, and the others in one shot. He had forcefully used the Life-Intertwining Spell once again, despite how little Mental Energy was left in his body.

As for the outcome? He not only gave Yang Ling the chance to refine the black gas, he also lost control over the black gas in his body, which let Yang Ling take advantage of his weakness.

Yang Ling summoned a Withered Tree Warrior and ordered it to drag the drying Zombie King to him. Yang Ling quieted for a moment, then put his right hand against the Zombie King’s head to use a high-grade Soul Tampering Technique.

If one started something, he must go through with it to the end!

Since Yang Ling had already inadvertently absorbed the Zombie King’s tremendous life force, he might as well go all the way and absorb his soul.

After Yang Ling became an intermediate-stage Divine Wizard, he had been able to use the Soul Summoning Spell to revive a Vandal Tribe member who had been sealed in ice for several thousand years. He was also able to easily absorb enemies’ souls.

Now that Yang Ling practiced Soul Wizardry, his understanding of soul tampering was only becoming deeper. He managed to absorb the Zombie King in a short while, and his Mental Energy rose. The Zombie King’s memory also flowed into him without a hitch.

Sure enough! The black gas emanating from the Zombie King hadn’t been Zombie Poison, but a high-concentration of Death Energy.

The underground tomb had a dead atmosphere everywhere, and in some places, the Death Energy was so intense that taking just a single breath of it would kill a human. This place was probably more terrifying than hell to ordinary people, but to a Zombie King that practiced Black Magic, it was a rare sacred ground for training.

After the Zombie King spent innumerable years there, he absorbed an astronomical amount of Death Energy, and after he compressed it as much as he could, every wisp of black gas contained boundless energy that could devour his enemy’s life force. It could even corrode an enemy’s soul. It was too terrible!

Would the Death Energy retain such great power after Yang Ling refined and absorbed it?

After the Death Energy was refined and absorbed, it merged with the black-white Wizard Power.

Yang Ling was confused by this, and he condensed a Chilly Ice Arrow out of thin air and strengthened it with a wisp of his Wizard Power.

In a split second, the Chilly Ice Arrow started shivering as if it was alive, and a swooshing sound echoed as it shot out. It managed to kill more than ten Zombies in succession before disappearing, and wisps of black gas came out of the fallen Zombies’ heads. The black gas flew like a gust and seeped into Yang Ling’s head.

He had consumed a wisp of Wizard Power and Mental Energy, but in exchange, he had gotten a wisp of a soul.

After Yang Ling absorbed the black gas that seeped into his body, he felt his Soul Energy become stronger. He was overjoyed, since he hadn’t expected that such a misfortune would yield such an unexpectedly powerful new ability.

Yang Ling’s mutant Life-Intertwining Spell was stronger than the Zombie King’s spell, while its attack scope was also a good deal broader.

“Hehe, I can use Mental Energy as a guiding link, and Wizard Power as the main force to harvest enemies’ souls. From today onward, I will call this technique Spirit-Slaughtering Arrow.”

Yang Ling used his Mental Energy to lock onto several strong Zombies and shot Chilly Ice Arrows at them that crushed their heads. After Yang Ling finished absorbing their souls, he nodded with satisfaction.

He had shot ten arrows in succession with great precision!

After Yang Ling got an initial understanding of Spirit-Slaughtering Arrows, he decided to test them further on the Zombies in the vicinity. Spirit-Slaughtering Arrows were shot one after another, and Zombies wearing heavy armor fell down one at a time. All of their heads exploded as they dropped.

A Divine Archer?

When they witnessed Yang Ling revealing his divine might, as well as the Chilly Ice Arrows that appeared in his hand out of thin air, the Dark Dragon King, Emmett, and the other people praised him.

“Tsk, tsk. When did my lord become a Divine Archer? Why wasn’t I aware of it?”

“Hehe, what does a Divine Archer amount to? The most terrifying arrows are ones that are able to harvest souls like the ones possessed by my lord.”

The crowd discovered that Yang Ling couldn’t just shoot with great precision, and that he also used Spirit-Slaughtering Arrows to harvest Zombies’ souls. They were all surprised, and they praised him even more. This was especially the case for the Scorpion King Emmett, as he was so envious of Yang Ling that he drooled.

Emmett’s scorpions were also able to harvest enemies’ souls, but they had to crawl over their enemies and bite them to achieve it.

Moreover, if they ran into a person such as the Zombie King, whose body held dangerous poison, they wouldn’t be able to deal with him. They were greatly lacking in comparison to Yang Ling’s Spirit-Slaughtering Arrows.

As the crowd worked together to finish off the Zombies, the ground became filled with corpses, and blood flowed until it formed a river.

And as they fought, none of them noticed that the Stone Forest Spell Formation was absorbing a large amount of blood. A faintly discernible pattern appeared on it, and a strange power began to ripple through the air.

When the last Zombie fell, a thumping sound began to roll out of the underground tomb. It was muffled, but it was still resonant, as if two giants boulders were colliding heavily. When they listened longer, it started to sound like a drum from some ancient battlefield.

Bang!

As drum’s sound resonated around them, everyone felt their bodies heating up, while their energy and blood churned around in their bodies, as if they had suffered a formless attack.

Meanwhile, the roars of innumerable Magical Beasts came from the lush forest. The sound was deafening, and it was closing on in them, as if the forest’s Magical Beasts were attracted by the drum’s sound.

“Oh no… It’s the Human Skin Drum!” After the Scorpion King Emmett listened to the sound carefully for a moment, he cried out involuntarily, recalling an old legend.

In the Thebes Empire, every time a Pharaoh died, his successor would kill a thousand criminals whose hands were stained with blood. He would turn their scalps into a drum and their skulls into hammers. Those instruments would be buried along with the dead Pharaoh, and when the Human Skin Drum’s sound echoed once again, the dead Pharaoh would come back to life.

Creak!

A creaking noise came from the Stone Forest Spell Formation, as if it was trying to confirm Emmett’s thoughts, and just after this, the whole Magical Formation collapsed, revealing a deep hole beneath.

A chilly wind blew and strange cries like babies wailed, reaching the crowd’s souls.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Many Magical Beasts rushed toward the hole, bewitched by the Human Skin Drum. Their eyes were blood-shot as they circled around the restriction’s land. Among them were huge pythons, packs of Wind Wolves, and frantic Violent Earth Bears. More Magical Beasts swarmed out of the forest every moment!

When the crowd saw that the number of Magical Beasts that were appearing and listened to the captivating Human Skin Drum, their expressions became grave and their hearts sank.

Meanwhile, in a land several thousand miles from there, many experts that trained in meditation shook themselves, and their eyes snapped open. They turned in the underground tomb’s direction and quieted for a moment, before they started taking action.

There was a lofty mountain in the Banto Empire that reached the clouds, and its original name was Tungus Mountain. But since the Fire God established a castle there and started training in meditation, people began calling the mountain Fire God Mountain.

The whole mountain was covered with all kinds of Magical Formations, and it was forbidden for anyone to enter it or leave it.

When the Human Skin Drum’s sound rose from the underground tomb, an old man, whose body was engulfed by flames, woke up. He used a Soul Sound Transmission that traveled for more than a thousand miles and reached the Mercenary Guild’s great elder, Farn.

“It’s the Human Skin Drum. The tomb was opened. Farn, take a trip there with a clan’s elder.”

“Understood, Teacher. Thank you.”

Farn was holding a chicken leg and a cup of rum, but when he received the Fire God’s Soul Sound Transmission, his body shook all over, and he used his sleeves to wipe off his greasy hands.

In the twinkling of an eye, Farn vanished from the tavern.