Chapter 1407: Kingdom of Nightmares
Everything that Lin Yun had seen in the forest of bloody trees and the dark castle allowed Lin Yun to confirm Lesonbora's identity. He then disguised himself as an envoy for the King of the Undead.
Lesonbora wasn't suspicious at all. He was almost scared to death. He had to kneel before Lin Yun, a level-46 skeleton king, even though he was a level-48 vampire ancestor.
Normal undead creatures weren't as shrewd as Lesonbora. Lin Yun might be only in level 46, but the fact that he knew the King of the Undead's name suggested that he was very close to the King of the Undead, and might have been personally trained by him.
Lesonbora did not dare to offend such an undead creature. Even if he were the first ancestor of vampires, he wouldn't dare to defy the King of the Undead.
There was indeed only one king in the Plane of the Undead. All the dark creatures had to acknowledge that. It was because he was a horrifying being beyond the Heaven Rank. He could completely kill all the vampire ancestors with only one hand…
Seeing that Lin Yun remained silent, Lesonbora felt even more terrible.
What a stupid undead creature. Does he not have any empathy at all? He's truly an idiot…
Lesonbora complained in his heart, but did not dare to show any disrespect. Even though he believed he could tear apart the level-46 skeleton king easily, he did not dare to even hurt his finger bone.
"Esteemed skeleton king, all has been carried out according to the King of the Undead's instruction. All those stupid human beings fell for the trap.
"They cannot possibly escape from the Kingdom of Nightmares. They'll be forever trapped there. The King of Nightmares has perished. Nobody can run out of the Kingdom of Nightmares after falling into it.
"They'll be trapped there for a long time, but they won't die any time soon. One of them is terribly strong. Four of my brothers are now permanently gone. They were killed by that horrifying expert.
"I was the only one who survived, but I was dying too, and I had to heal myself first. I was unable to report to the King of the Undead in time. You must forgive me…
"As it happens, I have a gift for the skeleton king…"
Lesonbora hesitated for a moment, and regretfully took out a black stone box that had weird bloody patterns on the surface. When Lesonbora opened the box, a soul fire that was emitting terrifying soul waves burnt quietly inside it.
Feeling the soul fire, Lin Yun's own soul fire was shivering beyond his control. That was his instinctive reaction.
The soul fire of a level-48 undead creature, which was in the perfect condition, contained a dozen times more soul power than Lin Yun did.
The soul fire was so enormous that if Lin Yun swallowed it, he would receive enough death marks for him to improve his understanding of the law of darkness to the highest level.
His mastery of the law of darkness would be even better than that of the laws of earth, fire, water, and wind. All he needed to do was digest the soul fire. That was the talent of undead creatures.
Normally speaking, a level-46 undead creature would surely explode if they swallowed such a massive soul fire, but Lin Yun was different. He could only utilize one-tenth of the soul fire at best. Only the power in that range wouldn't cause negative influence on him. If he swallowed all of it, there would be negative influence.
Lin Yun stowed away the box, and nodded at Lesonbora.
"The King of the Undead will understand you. You've done an excellent job. The King of the Undead said that if those human beings are alive, more strong human beings will come for them.
"We'll send all of them into the Kingdom of Nightmares. The final victory will be ours. We will be unprecedented victors!"
Lesonbora was finally relieved. Exactly at this moment, Lin Yun suddenly waved the scythe of death, and dismembered him.
Lesonbora, after being dismembered, didn't die. His head rolled on the ground, and looked at Lin Yun with shock and confusion, having no idea why Lin Yun would suddenly attack him.
The special power of the scythe prevented him from transforming or recovering. He was already heavily wounded in the first place, and he was even more badly injured now. He would've been dead if he had had a soul…
"Esteemed skeleton king, why are you doing this? I've carried out the King of the Undead's order…"
Lin Yun dropped the scythe of death, and gray mist arose on his body. After the mist dispersed, Lin Yun regained his original appearance. His vigor made him as dazzling as a sun in Lesonbora's eyes.
"Human being. You are a human being. Goddamn it. That's impossible. It's absolutely impossible…"
Lesonbora was already going crazy. How could a skeleton king turn into a human being?
Lin Yun ignored Lesonbora's screams, and sprayed some of his blood. He took out the alchemy array he prepared, and threw Lesonbora's limbs into it. He then activated the alchemy array with his blood.
Very soon, Lesonbora's devastating screams came from the alchemy array.
"Human being, you won't end well. The King of the Undead won't spare you, nor will the vampires. It's useless even if you kill me. All of those people are now in the King of Nightmares. Nobody can possibly rescue them.
"It's useless. They're already trapped there. Even the King of the Undead cannot rescue them. You will die a miserable death. Aaaaaaah…"
While screaming desperately, Lesonbora turned into a pool of blood. Lin Yun thought for a moment, and threw the scythe of death into the alchemy array.
It was very difficult to kill a vampire ancestor. However, he had learned from his experience that it was much easier to treat them as special living materials. Vampire ancestors didn't have souls anymore. They would be completely dead if they were sacrificed as special materials.
He killed the level-48 vampire ancestor, and used him as a material to upgrade his scythe of death. Very soon, bloody stripes appeared on the surface of the scythe that seemed to be made of pale bones. The entire scythe turned burning red, and looked even more horrifying. It seemed much more intimidating than before.
Originally, the scythe was just a level-47 skeleton king's weapon that was essentially part of its body, but it could compare to a level-49 skeleton king's scythe at this moment, and was even more powerful than that in certain aspects.
He picked up the scythe, which was shrieking. One of the new bloody skulls on the scythe glared at Lin Yun maliciously. Even the scythe was shivering, as if it was going to soar and take Lin Yun down.
Lin Yun shook his head, and transformed into a skeleton. He emitted the purest aura of death, and the scythe of death instantly fell quiet. The skull stared at Lin Yun for a few seconds, and finally opened its mouth, swallowing a bit of the aura of death that Lin Yun released. Instantly, the scythe's aura became the same as Lin Yun's, and it acknowledged Lin Yun.
Lin Yun scratched his skull with his claws, causing a large number of sparks. He was quite amused.
The birth of every skeleton king was a coincidence. A skeleton king could pick up a scythe of death when it was born. If the scythe acknowledged him, then it would swallow some of the skeleton's power of death, and turn him into a skeleton king. If it didn't acknowledge him, it would just kill the skeleton, and swallow his soul fire, continuing to wait.
The approval partly depended on the number of death marks, and more importantly on the purity of the power of death. After all, the undead creatures didn't care about what the soul fires they swallowed were from.
If they swallowed too many undead creatures that were not their own kind, their power of death would be impure even if they had more death marks.
It was barely possible to find an undead creature that didn't swallow the soul fires of other types of undead creatures. Being transformed from the Chapter of the Dead, Lin Yun's power of death was as pure as his mana. It was even purer than that of any undead creatures in the Plane of the Undead.
It wasn't surprising that the scythe of death acknowledged him. At this moment, Lin Yun felt as if the scythe was an extension of his arm and part of his body. He had turned into a real skeleton king, and not just a counterfeit.
After turning into a skeleton, Lin Yun unleashed a terrifying amount of power of death, and cut the dark castle into pieces with the scythe. The tiny bit of the aura of a living human being was buried under the enormous power of death.
Nobody could possibly discover the trace of a living person here. At best, they could only find that a skeleton king had conquered the place.
But the dark creatures and the undead creatures weren't friendly to begin with. Or rather, they didn't know what "friend" meant at all. It wasn't a big deal that a vampire ancestor's castle was torn apart by a skeleton king. Nobody would care about that…
If the culprit was an undead creature, then it would be an internal conflict. Even the other vampire ancestors wouldn't do anything more than investigating the matter, and killing several dozen undead creatures to vent their fury…
Lin Yun left the forest of bloody trees with the bloody scythe on his back. All the trees on his way automatically made way for the dreadful skeleton king. It wasn't difficult for him to walk out of the forest at all.
However, if he were a living human being, those bloody trees would instinctively launch suicide attacks. They wouldn't stop even if they were all torn into shreds.
Lin Yun realized the advantage of being disguised as an undead creature again. He thought that the Chapter of the Dead actually had the most practical ability, even though it didn't seem powerful.
The crisis was resolved when he disguised himself as an undead creature. He could turn into a local of the Plane of the Undead. Also, he could swallow soul fires and level up as an undead creature instead of understanding laws. That made the chapter much more practical than other components. At the very least, it could directly help him improve his level.
Leaving the forest, Lin Yun took out the level-48 soul fire, which was advanced and complete. It was definitely a rare treasure in the Plane of the Undead. It could be exchanged for a territory the size of the Odin Kingdom from any undead lord, provided that its owner wasn't killed first…
There was not any consciousness left in the soul fire. It could almost be used as currency in the Plane of the Undead. Lin Yun found a place, and tried to absorb the soul fire.
A level-46 skeleton king carrying a level-49 scythe was like a three-year-old holding a piece of gold in the nest of bandits. The higher-level skeleton kings wouldn't hesitate to take away the scythe, even though they might not be able to get its approval.
After he started to swallow the soul fire, Lin Yun realized that it was even more powerful than he expected. Also, it belonged to a skeleton.
One-thirtieth of the soul fire already equaled all of Lin Yun's soul power. In other words, the soul fire contained 30 times as much power as Lin Yun's soul fire did, and its quality was multiple times greater too, even though Lin Yun's own soul fire was of a high quality.
As he swallowed the soul fire, he eliminated the stuff that might cause side effects. The stuff was soul power too, however, and it would be a waste just to get rid of it. Lin Yun thought for a moment, and injected the unused soul power into the scythe, letting it absorb the soul power.
Having absorbed so much soul power, it was possible that the scythe would evolve into a magic tool and have a Magic Tool Incarnation. Then, it wouldn't just be a skeleton king's weapon.
It took Lin Yun an entire week to swallow the soul fire. Although he only absorbed one-tenth of it, his soul power had expanded by five times, and its quality was three times better than before.
The abundant death marks in the soul fire were melted into Lin Yun's own. Essentially speaking, he had grasped those laws directly. Then, he leveled up.
He became a level-47 skeleton king…
After turning back into a human being, he discovered that he had reached level 7 of the Heaven Rank, but only his mastery of the law of darkness reached level 7 of the Heaven Rank. His understanding of other laws wasn't quite there yet.
Still, the improvement of his level was valid. After the improvement, it was a lot easier for him to understand other laws.
After examining himself for a while, Lin Yun transformed into a skeleton king again. He was amazed with the Chapter of the Dead.
The undead creatures' route of advance was much simpler. The advancement of an undead creature with a mage's wisdom was much faster than that of most undead creatures in the Plane of the Undead.
Although advancing by swallowing soul fire would be more difficult after this time, and the difficulty would increase exponentially later, it was still much easier than trying to understand and grasp the complicated laws.
More importantly, this method was the undead creatures' instinct, and fitted the laws of the Plane of the Undead perfectly without any side effects. That was the most horrifying part.
As long as Lin Yun was willing to, he could continuously hunt undead creatures that were above level 47 and swallow their soul fires, which would allow him to rise to level 49 soon.
But that was just an idea. The efficiency of 10% meant that he had to kill a dozen level-49 undead creatures in order to reach level 49.
Also, if his mastery of the law of death was much greater than those of earth, fire, water, and wind, then it would be a problem too. His foundation would be unstable, and his potential would run out.
After turning into a level-47 skeleton king, Lin Yun began to consider how to rescue Gandaph and the others. According to the poor vampire ancestor, Gandaph and the others had entered the Kingdom of Nightmares.
Thinking of the Kingdom of Nightmares, Lin Yun couldn't help but scratch his skull with his claw. He was facing a serious problem…
The Kingdom of Nightmares belonged to the King of Nightmares, who was heavily wounded in the war of gods. To escape from his opponents, he ran from Noscent to the Plane of the Undead. Unfortunately, he was still too gravely wounded. His soul was full of cracks like broken glass. He was not able to survive, even though he made use of the power of Noscent.
The Kingdom of Nightmares perished in the Plane of the Undead. His kingdom then collapsed and melted into the Plane of the Undead. It was sort of an attached plane, but not a real one.
Also, the Kingdom of Nightmares was not a real world. Anyone who entered it would be entering countless nightmares. Nobody could foresee what would happen. Moreover, the Kingdom of Nightmares and the Plane of the Undead had had special interactions, making people know even less about it.
What the poor vampire ancestor said was quite believable. It explained all of Lin Yun's questions at once.
The Kingdom of Nightmares was the only place that could've trapped Agalon without killing him. Agalon was too strong to die in the Kingdom of Nightmares, but it was very difficult for him to escape too.
At the very least, he was unable to escape from the Kingdom of Nightmares for now, unless he ignited his God Fire and surpassed the Heaven Rank.
The fifth vampire ancestor wasn't killed, but he was so badly wounded that he didn't recover after such a long time. There were also other vampire ancestors who got killed. It had to have been Agalon's or Alonzo's doing. They were so strong that they had ways to kill the vampire ancestors even though the vampires were hard to kill.
To be continued