Chapter 1403: Transformation
In the battle a moment earlier, Prome didn't seem to plan to open the cage of holy light immediately. He hesitated for a few seconds. Other people might not have noticed the hesitation, but Lin Yun knew very well that the cage of holy light had to be sustained by the holy light mage all the time, and that it would disperse the moment the mage stopped powering it.
Shaking his head, Lin Yun dropped the idea that flashed across his mind. Having established a holy light cage and summoned four holy light spirits to help with the battle, the man had proved himself to be of the virtues of holy light. Even the four holy light spirits had approved him.
Only those with the purest souls and perfect virtues could've received the acknowledgment and assistance of the four holy light spirits while constructing the cage.
The valiance, wisdom, and piety that the holy light spirits evinced showed that the holy light mage who summoned them had the same virtues.
"Sir Prome, let's just get out of here. The battle here must've caught the attention of a lot of undead creatures. The skeleton king has died. It's possible that the undead creatures will seize the chance to counterattack…"
Prome's face was unhealthily pale. He seemed too tired to talk. He simply nodded without saying anything.
Lin Yun looked at the side of the Plane of the Undead. In the distance, an ocean of undead creatures was surging, but very few of them were charging in his direction. They were actually fighting amongst themselves.
Very soon, Lin Yun discovered that countless crazy ghouls were attacking the other undead creatures near their territory. More and more undead creatures were torn apart. Everything was a mess. It was obvious that the undead creatures wouldn't be able to counterattack anytime soon—not while they were busy fighting each other…
Lin Yun put on a weird expression. He couldn't help but think of Emir when he saw the ghouls. Needless to say, he had brainwashed that guy too hard.
Emir had clearly started the civil war before the skeleton king died. He probably firmly believed that he couldn't get what he wanted until he killed all the competitors…
Lin Yun opened the space gate, and returned to the fortress along with Prome. On the other hand, Emir was roaring and commanding his subordinates to charge, holding a leg bone that was even longer than himself.
"Kill those idiots! Kill the skeletons who shelter our nemeses! Kill the bloody idiots and the goddamn skeletons…"
Emir raised his head and looked at the black hovering birds in the sky with bloodshot eyes as if they were his mortal enemies.
"Those goddamn skeletons are standing in our way while we try to kill those wretched birds. Just kill them all…"
Countless ghouls and zombies shrieked and charged. They were not in any sort of formation, and they didn't have any strategy. They simply pressed forward like a tide.
Skeletons were most neutral about crows in the Plane of the Undead. They had nothing but bones, and couldn't care less about the crows. The crows never attacked skeletons, either.
However, the low-level undead creatures that had flesh, such as ghouls and zombies, naturally detested crows. They were all prey to crows at the beginning. Or rather, they were just food on the table that could be eaten any time…
There were a lot of crows in the skeletons' territory. Emir wanted to kill them, but the skeletons wouldn't let him pass, considering it to be an invasion. So, Emir decided to just conquer their territory.
He was not just going to conquer the territory, but also kill the crows in it. Those goddamn skeletons were all obstacles in the way of his revenge, so they had to be eliminated…
The lords who were commanding the skeletons discovered that the ghouls and zombies were charging uncannily and crazily, even though they were just cannon fodder.
When the tides of undead creatures encountered each other, they didn't stop and fight each other. Rather, they joined and charged onward, until they encountered skeletons. They would just wave their claws. It was fine even if they didn't kill the skeletons, because they had comrades following them…
The skeleton lords were all dumbfounded. They had no idea what was going on. Why did the goddamn ghouls and zombies not follow the rules of the Plane of the Undead at all?
All the undead creatures had been abiding by the unspoken rules. They were all dumbfounded to see the guys who didn't follow the rules.
Skeletons could never understand how the undead creatures who had flesh hated crows. That was their instinct that had been engraved into their soul fire. Ghouls loathed crows in particular…
Damn it, we're supposed to be predators, yet they're competing with us over meat, and even eating us…
That was absolutely outrageous. So, he might as well kill all of them…
Almost all the ghouls agreed with Emir's proposal. The zombies, who had been victims to the crows too, agreed as well. Then, they joined forces and turned into the maddest army of the undead.
The undead creatures didn't really know if they were doing the right thing, but they knew they had to kill the crows…
Then, the skeleton king died, and Dirty Blood became completely chaotic. At the beginning, Emir attacked the adjacent skeletons' territory. Then, the other lords joined the war too. Nobody knew why they were fighting, but they simply fought one another.
As it happened, the skeleton king was killed. It was the best opportunity to claim territory. So, just fight…
Dirty Blood became more chaotic than ever. Undead creatures were fighting within a radius of thousands of kilometers. Even more lords were joining the war. Those new undead lords were caught in the mire of war before they realized what was going on. The situation became more and more chaotic.
On the other hand, Lin Yun and Prome returned to the fortress. Lin Yun removed the seven needles on Prome, and seized the opportunity to examine Prome's soul again.
His soul was as pure as a newborn baby's. It was like a piece of blank paper…
After removing the seal of seven needles and seeing Prome off, Lin Yun felt that something was wrong about the guy.
Not only was his soul like a piece of blank paper, but he was inhumanly virtuous too. He was almost like a living saint.
But after observing him for a couple of days, Lin Yun believed that he might be overthinking. He couldn't just suspect other people because he was incapable of doing it.
Then, he was busy treating patients. Almost half of the people on human beings' side, ranging from Archmages to level-7 Heaven Rank mages, had been infected.
Lin Yun held the Book of Death and invoked the power of the Truth Chapter, absorbing and swallowing the power of plague in the infected mages. The crystal phoenix was too busy digesting the Heart of Plague to be summoned, but it was very easy to swallow the power of plague that had been derived from the Heart of Plague.
It took him an entire week to cure the mages of their infections. Then, he wandered for days in the channel in all the infected areas, asking the crystal phoenix to swallow the remaining power of plague.
After neutralizing the plague, Lin Yun didn't stay in the fortress any longer. The new fortresses that were established were very close to the flames. When the flames died out, the war against the undead creatures would start again.
There was enough time for the experts on human beings' side to recover. Without the weakening of the plague, it would be less difficult for them to fight the rest of the war.
Lin Yun left the mage legion on the front line. He entered his Demiplane to study the scepter he acquired recently.
The scepter looked like a gathering of countless undead creatures' skulls at first look. However, when examined more closely, the skulls were actually from all sorts of undead creatures in the Plane of the Undead. There were even twisted marks of ghosts on the scepter.
The scepter was a symbol of the Plane of the Undead. However, there was an obscure layer on the surface of the skulls that prevented the scepter from leaking any special aura. It seemed to be a scepter made of stone just to hold the Heart of Plague.
Lin Yun worked for three days, but was unable to remove the seal on the scepter. On the fourth day, Lin Yun tried dripping his blood on the scepter. Instantly, one of the skulls on the scepter woke up and swallowed the blood. Then, more and more skulls woke up where the blood dropped.
The obscure layer outside the scepter seemed to be melted by blood, and the purest aura of death was released from the scepter. Lin Yun's right hand instantly turned into bones. Also, it was expanded. In only one second, Lin Yun's right arm turned into bones too.
After he released the scepter, his right hand was soon back to normal. He could not feel the slightest pain, as if everything he just felt was an illusion.
After seeing the scene, a few words popped up on Lin Yun's head. He instantly realized which component of the Book of Death the scepter was!
It was the Chapter of the Dead!
Bane obtained the component after he conquered the Plane of the Undead. In fact, several of the components of the Book of Death were found in the Plane of the Undead, but there were no detailed records of where and how they were found.
It had always been rumored that the Book of Death was developed in the Plane of the Undead, and it was somehow relocated elsewhere before it completely took shape.
In the end, the Book of Death ended up in the Bone Plane. That was why it was incomplete, and didn't have any of the components.
The discovery of components in the Plane of the Undead seemed to prove that point too.
The Chapter of the Dead was one of the components that was found in the Plane of the Undead. It boasted the purest power of death. Every living creature would turn into an undead creature when holding the Chapter of the Dead. Also, the transformation was comprehensive. Their mana would turn into the power of death, and any spells they cast would turn into undead spells.
Remembering how the skeleton king turned into a zombie, Lin Yun was greatly enlightened. He thought that it was because of the Heart of Plague. By transforming into a zombie, the skeleton king could better carry out the power in Page's scepter. However, the Heart of Plague didn't seem to carry that ability. The scepter, rather than the Heart of Plague, was working back then.
The way to lift the seal of the Chapter of the Dead was to use vitality to counter the power that belonged to the dead. Blood was the most vigorous part of a living creature.
Lin Yun took out a bottle of Health Potion, and poured it on the Chapter of the Dead. The abundant vitality was like the greatest acid for the seal outside the Chapter of the Dead, corroding it quickly. The skulls on the scepter crazily absorbed the vitality in the Health Potion.
The more vitality they swallowed, the more power of death the scepter released. That was the purest power of death that seemed to be from the core of the Plane of the Undead.
An hour later, all the skulls on the scepter woke up. They rolled and combined into a bigger skull, where a soul fire seemed to be burning.
The terrifying power of death corrupted everything. Many tools in the lab seemed to have decayed for millions of years. Everything turned gray. Even more power of death was trying to corrupt Lin Yun.
Staring at the skull that was sending out the power of death, Lin Yun smiled and took out the Book of Death. The moment it appeared, shrieks of souls echoed quickly, as if the skulls that constituted the bigger skull felt an enormous threat.
The power of death surged crazily towards Lin Yun, but it was all swallowed by the Book of Death when the chains on its surface broke apart. Soon, all the power of death in the lab was swallowed.
The skulls that made up the bigger skull couldn't remain the same. The bigger skull fell apart, and the smaller skulls, carrying a terrifying amount of power of death, poured into an empty page on the Book of Death.
A lot of tiny skulls appeared on the page. They struggled and shrieked, but they couldn't put up any resistance. They were all suppressed easily.
In only one minute, the permeating power of death on the book compressed into the pattern of one skull, which didn't seem very terrifying, but unleashed the purest aura of death.
Through the Book of Death, Lin Yun realized the ability of the Chapter of the Dead.
Its greatest ability was to transform him into an undead creature. The transformation was real, not just a disguise. If he cast an ice piton, it might appear as bone sting. His mana would turn into the power of death, and his spells would turn into undead spells. He would be the same as a real undead creature in every way.
But the transformation could be reversed. He could regain his original appearance any time.
When an undead creature held the Chapter of the Dead, they could turn into any kind of undead creature. Of course, it required a great amount of power. Also, the Chapter of the Dead alone couldn't do that. The Book of Death was required too.
Page's scepter was powerful partly because of the Heart of Plague, and partly because of the Chapter of the Dead, which contained the purest power of death that was essential for undead creatures.
The Chapter of the Dead was completely fused into the Book of Death. A skull mark appeared on the back of the Book of Death. Twice as many chains appeared on the surface of the book. When it was not used, they would prevent any of the components from rebelling.
Examining the power of the Chapter of the Dead, Lin Yun opened the Book of Death and activated it. Immediately, a stream of gray power of death erupted from the Book of Death, and enshrouded Lin Yun like mist.
There was no pain at all. He felt quite special, as if his vitality had been transformed into a completely different power. His mana was transformed into the power of death too.
After the mist was gone, Lin Yun turned into a pale skeleton. He spouted an ice rune, ready to make an ice mirror. However, the frost rune turned into a death rune.
The ice mirror turned into a bone shield, which looked like a mirror, but seemed quite awkward. It was more like a shield than a mirror.
Lin Yun extended one of his claws, and scratched his head. Sparks burst out when his claw touched his head, as if two pieces of metal were rubbing against each other, but Lin Yun didn't feel anything…
Shaking his head, Lin Yun walked to the other end of the lab, and stared at his new body in front of a device that looked like a mirror. His jaw was moving up and down.
His laughter spread out as soul waves. There was no sound in the lab at all…
Lin Yun tried to grin, only to find that it was impossible to do that as a skull. He could only move his jaw up and down in order to laugh…
To be continued