"Harmless disposal in progress, please wait."
Xia Ni spoke softly.
She walked up to the monster's corpse, her hands transformed into vibrating, humming Light Sabers, swishing swiftly a few times.
Thin, dense bloodlines began to surface on the monster's body.
The next second.
More than half of the monster's body completely collapsed into a heap of mangled flesh.
Flames burst forth from one of Xia Ni's hands.
The corpse turned to ashes.
Xia Ni then proceeded to dispose of another monster before returning to their side with a smile.
—She looked just like a girl who had just gotten home from school, not someone who had just killed two monsters with Little Wu.
"Xia Ni, how are you so powerful?" Wu Xiaode exclaimed.
"I have a weapon." Xia Ni replied succinctly.
"Do you need the Soul Power from this monster?" Wu Xiaode asked.
"I can't absorb it." Xia Ni answered.
Wu Xiaode said, "Ya, you're up."
Ya spoke in a low voice, "Are you sure you want to absorb its Soul Power? You should know that once your Soul Power limit is increased, you'll have to kill even more monsters to return to the original world."
"Becoming stronger is always the top priority, go ahead." Wu Xiaode said.
Ya then flew up.
To Wu Xiaode's disappointment, this time it only replenished his Soul Power without increasing the limit.
A few minutes later.
The three began to make their way towards the other end of the abandoned passage.
"There's airflow in this direction, with an extremely faint light coming through. Perhaps if we keep walking, we can find a way out," Xia Ni suggested as they walked.
Wu Xiaode looked at her and couldn't help but ask, "Sister Lan, does Mobile Battle Armor also have Soul Power? Is she alive?"
Xia Huilan, carefully avoiding the corpses and debris underfoot, replied, "She was cultivated from my cells."
"What? She's your clone?" Wu Xiaode said in shock.
Xia Huilan replied, "She was created with me as the biological blueprint, equipped with a brain wave overclocking processor, controlling the entire alloy frame. The outer layer is biological skin and hair. The whole body's Mecha and weapons are detachable, expandable, and upgradable—"
"This is Xia Ni."
Wu Xiaode listened in astonishment and quickly asked, "So, she's a live person?"
"Yes, but two thirds of her body is an alloy frame," Xia Huilan said.
"That's incredible," Wu Xiaode marveled.
"When she was first made, the higher-ups wanted to erase her consciousness, turning her into a killing machine," said Xia Huilan.
Xia Huilan's face showed a hint of anger, and her words became forceful and clear:
"She is a human, and being human, she shouldn't be denied her rights because of her body."
Xia Ni stood beside them, smiling gently.
"Xia Ni..." Wu Xiaode looked at her, at a loss for words.
"My sister created a fake version of me and gave it to them. Then, during their experiment, it was destroyed by accident, so now I'm free," Xia Ni explained.
Wu Xiaode suddenly remembered something and asked, "Do you need to kill a certain number of monsters to be here in this world?"
"No need." Xia Ni replied.
"How much Soul Power do you have?" Wu Xiaode asked.
"10 points. I have as much as the world limit," Xia Ni said.
"That's amazing," Wu Xiaode remarked.
Xia Huilan smiled, "Don't be complacent. This world is unfathomable. We will help you kill enough monsters and then head back immediately."
"Mm." Wu Xiaode nodded.
His eyes suddenly caught sight of something, but upon turning to look, there was nothing to be seen.
"Xia Ni, did you see anything?" he asked.
"I have activated the real-time combat alert system. For the moment, I haven't detected any activity," Xia Ni said.
"Strange..."
Did I see wrongly?
Wu Xiaode felt a troubled in his heart but noticed that the Book of the Dead had quietly opened in front of him.
The pages revealed rows of ice crystal small characters:
"Urgent mission:"
"Buy Time."
"Mission Brief: The monsters are continuously digging through the underground tunnels, about to find the entrance to Secret Passage No. 5. You must hold them off for at least ten minutes, allowing the people inside the passage to evacuate safely."
"Mission Reward: Unknown."
"—Do you accept this urgent mission?"
"Note: This urgent mission does not utilize the Wishing Wall, therefore it does not count towards the daily use limit of the Wishing Wall."
Wu Xiaode was momentarily stunned but quickly came to his senses.
There are undead here!
If it's an additional task, there must be additional gains.
Right now, my main priority is to improve my strength, so why not?
The limit of my Soul Power has reached 6 points.
Even if I'm not in a hurry to deal with the One-eyed Giant, I must push my Soul Power beyond 10 points as soon as possible, in an effort to catch up with those in the S-tier club.
—That Evil Mage won't be easy to deal with!
Just because I poked him a few times, does it mean he'll be willing to surrender?
There's no such person in the world.
Or rather, someone that cowardly could never become a powerful being.
"I accept the mission!"
Wu Xiaode immediately responded.
The Book of the Dead trembled.
An odd fluctuation radiated from the book.
Soon, a faint human silhouette emerged in the Void.
This was a man dressed in combat uniform, his figure almost translucent, floating in midair, looking towards Wu Xiaode.
Xia Huilan and Xia Ni could not see him.
——This was a ghostly soldier!
"Thank you for being willing to lend a hand," the ghostly soldier sent a telepathic message to Wu Xiaode.
"How did you find me?" Wu Xiaode asked.
"Your abilities are from the Undead Side, it was they who found us — to be honest, very few people can awaken the powers of the undead and Heroic Spirits because such powers must be awakened at the moment of death," the ghostly soldier explained.
"Everyone dies, so by your reasoning, everyone has a chance," Wu Xiaode replied telepathically.
The man shook his head, "The moment of death is too brief, there is simply no time to awaken any powers, and even if one does awaken them, as they have already entered death, there is no opportunity to use those abilities."
Wu Xiaode nodded slightly.
He had awakened the Book of the Dead at the moment of his death, but at that time he had entered the Death Demon Cave, which gave him a chance to use the book's powers to communicate with the undead.
In the end, he was exceedingly rare in not being eaten by the One-eyed Giant.
This gave him the opportunity to return to the real world with the Book of the Dead.
——Indeed, it was difficult.
The ghostly soldier beckoned behind him.
Dozens of people dressed in combat uniforms quietly appeared in midair.
"You—why haven't you reincarnated after death? Why are you still lingering here?" Wu Xiaode couldn't help but ask telepathically.
"Our mission is not yet complete," the ghostly soldier said.
"Is it to guard secret passage number five?" Wu Xiaode asked.
The ghostly soldiers nodded.
Wu Xiaode sighed, shook his head and said, "So be it, please take me to secret passage number five."
The ghostly soldiers immediately became spirited, floating in midair and flying towards a direction in the underground corridor.
"Xia Ni, protect Sister Lan and follow me,"
Wu Xiaode shouted.
He followed the ghostly soldiers forward, and the two women sprang into action, closely following behind him.
"Did you find something?" Xia Huilan asked.
"After my Awakening, I had some strange premonitions, now we'll go and see if they come true," Wu Xiaode said.
Xia Huilan did not speak.
Wu Xiaode knew she was worried; after thinking for a moment, he directly asked the leading ghostly soldier:
"Is there any danger nearby?"
The ghostly soldier said, "There are indeed several dangerous passages, but I will take you through a shortcut to avoid those risky areas and reach passage number five ahead of the rest."
He flew to a wall, pointed to a spot on it and said, "There's a mechanism here, open it."
Wu Xiaode stepped forward for a look, and indeed there was a damaged stone slab on the wall.
It seems this stone slab can be pried open...
In any case, such traces, even if it's a normal person, might not be noticed, let alone those huge monsters.
Wu Xiaode stretched out his hand to pry.
Boom, boom, boom——
The wall slowly revolved, revealing a deep stairway passage.
"Little Wu, how did you know there was a secret door here?" Xia Huilan asked in surprise.
"Look at this."
Wu Xiaode pointed the damaged stone slab out to her.
——It wasn't that he intended to keep it from her, but his ability was linked to the One-eyed Giant; he dared not let just anyone know about it.
What if those who knew became implicated? The One-eyed Giant was an unsolvable existence.
He absolutely could not let it touch anything he needed to protect!
"You're so observant, to even see this,"
Xia Huilan said admiringly.
Wu Xiaode, thick-skinned, did not say much and started to walk along the stairs.
Xia Ni suddenly pulled him and Xia Huilan, and whispered, "Look."
A ball of light emerged from her arm, condensing into a holographic video, showing the scene they had run through just before.
As they ran past a few corpses—
One of the corpses opened its eyes and glanced at Wu Xiaode.
Xia Huilan turned pale and looked flustered, murmuring, "Is it a living person playing dead?"
"I have checked; there is no heartbeat, pulse, or breathing," Xia Ni said with a smile.
Wu Xiaode instinctively looked around.
All the corpses in the corridor opened their eyes, coldly watching the three of them.
This scene was particularly chilling.
Xia Huilan covered her mouth, her face pale as she looked around, looking quite unstable.
Wu Xiaode, worried she might panic, quickly supported her and said, "Sister, don't be afraid."
"I'm not scared," Xia Huilan said.
"Then what is this—" Wu Xiaode began.
Xia Huilan, excited, grabbed Wu Xiaode's hand, trembling, "If I can calculate the rules behind the soul power phenomenon, this would be a groundbreaking achievement!"
Wu Xiaode silently bowed his head.
Your last achievement is not yet complete, and now you want another groundbreaking one?
At that moment, Xia Ni said softly, "Soul power wave detected, determined to be the effect of soul power propulsion."
His thoughts shifted, and he turned his head to the ghostly soldiers in the void, "Is it the undead controlling these corpses?"
The ghostly soldier watched the holographic video, coming to realization:
"No, that's evil magic that can control corpses, in fact, the souls of those corpses have long departed from here."
Evil magic that controls corpses...
Wu Xiaode's heart jolted, and he immediately realized.
It must be the guessing magic.
It must be him!