The artifact was made by his ambitious ancestor to conquer the whole of the underworld. According to the instructions, the ring's greatest power was to create an army of undead made from Yin energy found in the underworld, which was not visible to the naked eye. They did not require any matter, but only the presence of spirits. Their bodies could be renewed, which was basically the definition of the undead.
However, in order to make countless Yin soldiers, there was a prerequisite for such power, and that was to have control over a certain number of spirits.
Lu Wu slowly pulled himself back to reality as he had zoned out for quite some time.
"So what do you think? Isn't it a marvelous invention?" asked Little Lolita, feeling pleased with herself.
"Actually, I'd like to know where we can find a bunch of spirits that can be spurred," Lu Wu pointed out their main problem.
The Little Lolita was shocked when she heard those words, her body became rigid and her eyes were watery, "I... why didn't I think about that? Without any spirits, this artifact will not work at all!"
Lu Wu felt a headache coming as he watched Little Lolita cough up tears. Come to think of it, this ancestor was quite unreliable. The idea of the artifact isn't bad, as for its capabilities… but where on earth will we find a bunch of spirits!? It's completely impractical.
He reached out his hand to massage the Little Lolita's head, and as he opened his mouth to give her a few words of comfort, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.
"Right, you are also the creator of this version of the artifact, correct?"
Little Lolita rubbed her puffy red eyes, nodding.
"Then is it possible for you to add some extra functions to it?"
Little Lolita lifted her head in confusion, clearly not understanding what he was implying.
Lu Wu took out the Yin Talisman which carried the power to travel between Yin and Yang, then dangled it in front of Little Lolita, saying, "Why don't you add the function of this object into the artifact?"
"It's not that difficult, but what's the purpose?" Little Lolita sobbed spasmodically, as if trying to calm herself down.
Lu Wu smiled, "Don't you know what I do for a living in the real world?"
As she listened, Little Lolita took out a small notebook from her pocket and flipped it open, "Lu Wu... 23 years old... born in the 365th generation... the descendant of the ruler of Beiqi.... has begun an entrepreneurship for three years... currently still a loser... developed a gaming website which has zero users... a singleton to date…"
Lu Wu hurriedly cut her off, "You just have to know that I'm a game developer. So is it possible for you to give an upgrade to this artifact, say, to extradite criminals from earth to the underworld through virtual reality, like how gamers do. They'll become our undead army, and as long as this is kept going, we shall have however many armies we want!"
The Little Lolita pondered deeply for a moment, then her eyes sparkled, "Great idea! Not to mention that what we're using are their corpses, so we can form new Yin bodies from scratch, just like how the players respawn in a game."
Lu Wu was astonished by her reaction, he never expected her to understand the whole picture in such a short time.
"Have you played games before?" asked Lu Wu sincerely.
"Ha! I am a loyal player of World of Warcraft for almost three hundred years now!" Little Lolita once again placed her hands on her hips.
Lu Wu blushed shamefully. Never would he have thought that this Little Lolita was so aged.
"But this task isn't easy, we shall need a set of systems from a variety of games, such as role-playing, trading, adventure, life simulation, and more..." Lu Wu's heart sank as he listed out the things they needed.
"You can count on me, this battle artifact shall not only have the power to create an undead army, but also have the ability to create all sorts of things from Yin energy and soul power, covering all the available items found in a typical game."
"What's soul power?" asked Lu Wu, his curiosity getting the better of him.
"Soul power has the ability to measure the strength of any beasts in the underworld, equivalent to measuring the willpower of a person who has been practicing. The soul power of every being will disperse after the host has died, and it is far more powerful than Yin energy."
This filled Lu Wu with high hopes, "Then is it possible for our gamers to loot and absorb the soul power from a corpse after taking its life? If so, then wouldn't our gamers have the chance to be up-leveled?"
"No problem!" Little Lolita patted her chest with confidence.
"However it would be nice if we could have a part of it to ourselves after our gamers have killed the creatures. This is because the soul power can speed up your training speed, not to mention it can help rebuild the kingdom of Beiqi. Lastly, it can act as a reward for all of our hard work!"
The Little Lolita's suggestion had been what Lu Wu was planning to say all along, he cracked a smile and proposed, "What do you say we take 20% of it?"
"Let's make it 30%!"
Both of them burst into laughter.
What's said would be done. After confirming the direction that they were heading, Bei Li, which was the Little Lolita's real name, brought Lu Wu to the royal palace, which was now a wasteland. She pulled open a scorched door right beside a charred pillar and a passage leading to the basement greeted them.
As Lu Wu was entering, he realized that the underground palace was quite spacious, just like a typical one.
There lay all kinds of ancient equipment. It looked as if it was some sort of laboratory.
From the Little Lolita's explanation, Lu Wu finally came to know that this was the very place his ancestor had done his research and development on the artifacts. As for Bei Li, she was the one and only helper of his ancestor, who stood by his research from the beginning to the very end.
As he stepped into the laboratory, Bei Li's look became serious. Lu Wu waited for her to change into a golden suit, which covered her entire body, then passed her the ring. She took it and got to work, pacing back and forth between equipment.
Lu Wu stared blankly at Bei Li as she switched from hammers to electric drills to brushes, testing all kinds of tools on the ring, doing all sorts of shamanistic stuff on it, chanting and reminiscing spells all the way.
After two hours of torment, Bei Li took off her golden helmet and passed the reformed ring to Lu Wu, feeling exhausted.
"This is it?" Lu Wu was having a hard time believing it.
"It wasn't too difficult to add those new functions to it. It now has a built-in server that can extradite gamers, and on top of that, it has its own database settings. Now we can finally put it into practice."
Lu Wu put on the ring skeptically, and the instructions of the artifact appeared once again.
Lu Wu was surprised to see its contents. This was exactly what he had wanted! Not only were the installments made by Bei Li much better than what he had in mind, she had even thought of the method to extradite players into the underworld.
This had left Lu Wu beaming with joy, "Your hard work has paid off!"
"Phew, I told you that I'm excellent! Let's go and test it out!" Bei Li exclaimed excitedly, though still being worn out.
The new ideas and functions had brought hope to Bei Li, which in turn had changed her perspective toward Lu Wu. With the new functions she had added, she felt that Lu Wu would definitely be able to recreate the glory of the King of Beiqi.
"Yes, let's go!"
As he said this, he reached out and tugged on Bei Li's tiny hand.
The originally happy-go-lucky version of Bei Li was now replaced with a mature lady whose face was as red as a tomato. She struggled free from his grasp and ran to the side, "I'm going to change out of this laboratory suit, wait… wait for me!"
After a while of waiting, she finally came out with her black mini skirt on. The gothic Little Lolita version of Bei Li returned to Lu Wu's side once again.
Lu Wu laughed secretly in his heart when he saw that she had been blushing. He held her hand once more and swiftly activated the newly added functions of the ring. Then they were off, traveling between Yin and Yang.
A maelstrom of darkness formed right in front of their eyes, but Lu Wu was no longer frightened by it. Instead he was willingly sucked into it.