This Necromancer Just Wants to Plant Trees - Chapter 86

In the dim and damp cave, flickering torches cast eerie shadows on the walls.

In the center of an unusual square altar, a shrunken celestial sphere slowly vanished into a radiant white light, revealing a sense of divine sanctity.

Then, a stone brick rose from the altar's base, trembling violently in mid-air, emitting a rustling sound as dust and debris rained down.

Soon, the outer shell of the stone brick fell away, revealing several pages bathed in a purple glow.

Seeing those pages, Blorken, who stood at the center of the altar, couldn't hide his excitement. He solemnly retrieved a book with an iron-hard cover and a hand with six fingers on the front.

"Hush!" The book and its pages made a shrill, boiling-water-like sound as they merged into one.

Three seconds later, the pages were completely absorbed into the book in Blorken's hand. In an instant, the hand with six fingers extended from the cover, gripping Blorken's throat, causing his eyes to bulge, and his temples to throb.

A few people standing beside the altar observed the scene coldly. The hand with six fingers seemed to possess a unique power that sealed all of Blorken's abilities, leaving him completely helpless.

At a critical moment, a skull suddenly flew out of Blorken's pocket! The skull violently collided with the base of the six-fingered hand. Simultaneously, dark, negative energy sprayed from Emma's eyes, coiling around the six-fingered hand like venomous snakes, tightening their grip.

Ten seconds passed before the six-fingered hand finally crumbled! Blorken lost his balance, his knees gave way, and he fell to the ground, gasping for air. However, he never let go of the purple book in his hand.

"Stay vigilant, young Blorken. There are many here who wish for your demise," Emma said softly.

Blorken smiled in relief, "I know. I've finally acquired the second profane book. I have a chance to restore more of your body parts."

Hearing this, Emma responded coolly, "When you actually accomplish that, you can say those words again."

With that, she returned to Blorken's embrace without looking back. Blorken gazed in the direction Emma had disappeared, a deep sense of infatuation mixed with a hint of loss in his eyes.

Then, he tightened his grip on the book and stood up. He approached the edge of the altar, facing a massive shadow, and said, "Shall we cooperate?"

A hoarse voice echoed from the shadow, "You seem quite weakened now."

Blorken furrowed his brow. Two figures, a male with a nose resembling an elephant's trunk and a voluptuous Zolean warrior woman, approached him from behind.

"He just made a deal with our master, offering a pre-made 'Celestial Sphere of the Dead' as a sacrifice in exchange for another 1/5 of the profane book. Although the profane book is powerful, it continuously backlashes against its owner. His strength has been suppressed to around level 18 with only 1/5 of the book, and now, I'd wager he's far from a fifth-tier level," the elephant-nosed man excitedly said, holding a slender wooden stick.

The shadow fell silent for a while. Blorken said coldly, "Don't be foolish. You dare not provoke me like this, and don't forget, at this crucial moment, with enemies on all sides, do you really want to offend the Bai Long Sect as well?"

The man within the shadow chuckled, "I'm not afraid of offending the Bai Long Sect, but I won't lay a finger on you either. After all, we used to be friends. Go on, Blorken."

The elephant-nosed man was about to say more but was pulled away by the Zolean warrior woman. Blorken breathed a sigh of relief.

He was indeed weakened now. To control the restless profane book, his strength had dropped to only about 60% of his usual capabilities. If these people had attacked, he would have paid a heavy price, whether in life or death.

Fortunately, the person within the shadow spared him. Blorken quickly departed, clutching the book. Only when he reached a location far from the altar and activated a pre-set teleportation gate did he regain his confidence to taunt, "Next time, if I get my hands on you, I might consider showing some mercy."

He added, "Also, your foundation here is an irregular square. Won't your deity find fault with that, Edsen?"

The person within the shadow suddenly became agitated, "I am not Edsen!" With that, he emerged from the shadows.

Blorken only took a brief glance and felt a deep sense of shock. Even with his experience in necromancy, he had never seen such a peculiar creature.

This man had only one intact part: his head. The framework from the neck down was pieced together using bones of various lengths and qualities, held together with magical glue at the joints. To make it appear human, they were wrapped in chains that seemed to have a life of their own, irregularly coiled around his body.

And at his limbs, eight iron chains hung from each hand and foot, their ends trailing on the ground. So whenever this person moved even slightly, the ground produced a faint scraping sound.

With Brorken's keen eyes, it was easy to see that these living chains had been taken from the "Hellchain Mage."

"From now on, I have only one name, and that is 'The Avenger!'" Edson's face blazed with a burning hatred.

The head, which could barely prove his past identity as a gnoll, was wrapped in a few smaller iron chains. As he spoke, the barbs on the ends of the chains occasionally pierced his scalp, a painful experience for most, but he showed no signs of discomfort.

"How did you become like this!?" Brorken asked, shocked. He and Edson had a certain level of familiarity, which is why he had taken the risk to trade with the Cataclysmic Cult.

Seeing Edson transformed into this grotesque form was hard for Brorken to accept, even with his expertise in flesh reconstruction.

"The Lord and the Father bestowed upon me a second life," Edson's face filled with devout zeal. "The Lord reshaped my head, and the Father took a piece of bone from each brother in the cult, using the power of the Chain Mage to reconstruct my body."

"I've become more powerful than before."

"Don't worry about me, Brorken. You should be concerned about yourself. You're weak now, and I can restrain my subordinates. But once you return to the Dragon Worship Cult... hehe... your subordinates might not listen to you."

Brorken scoffed, "There's no need for you to worry. The Dragon Worship Cult is highly structured and internally stable. It's nothing like your Cataclysmic Cult, a bunch of upstarts who think they're invincible with the support of a true god."

The elephant-nosed man said angrily, "Say that again?"

Brorken chuckled, "Did anyone ever tell you that your nose looks like the second one?"

Before the elephant-nosed man could react, Brorken walked into the teleportation gate.

But the next moment, he heard the elephant-nosed man mumble, "You're strange, why did you suddenly start complimenting me?"

Brorken's figure disappeared completely.

Layla, the orc warrior, put her hand to her forehead in disbelief. "He was insulting you!"

The elephant-nosed man looked surprised. "Really?"

Layla rolled her eyes. "Why does Father always assign me such lousy teammates?"

The elephant-nosed man smirked, moving close to Layla, shaking his trunk-like nose to nuzzle her thigh. However, he nearly lost his nose as Layla drew her blade in response.

Layla said, "You better watch your nose. Otherwise, I can't guarantee that you won't meet your third teammate very soon."

"Besides, I misspoke earlier. Sinvak is not as bad as you. He's much stronger than you!"

After saying this, she looked at Edson, who was covered in shaking chains. "The deal is complete, and our mission is over. It's time to leave, Ed... the Avenger?"

Edson's teeth chattered as he said, "Shh, don't talk. I can sense his presence! The Lord is guiding me. I see it, I see it... he's coming here to walk into our trap!"

"We're not going anywhere; we'll wait for him right here!"

Layla finally noticed that Edson's eyes were clouded, emitting a strange blue-white light.

"Him? You mean that necromancer, the one who also came to the South?"

Layla frowned. "That person is not easy to deal with. He has significant issues. Even if you can predict his actions in 'Pilgrimage' mode, we may not have a good chance of defeating him."

Edson looked at her cruelly. "Shut up, woman! If it weren't for your and Sinvak's incompetence during our last mission, we would be celebrating victory inside the Rolling Stone Town right now!"

Layla was about to say something when Edson gave her a malicious look. "Don't forget, this time, I'm the supreme commander. If you dare to defy my orders this time, you'd better hope I don't survive. Otherwise, I will personally hand you over to 'Father.' Hehe..."

Layla shuddered at his words. She instinctively touched her spine to make sure it was still intact. She breathed a sigh of relief but was sweating profusely, both on her palms and back.

"Emily," Edson said, "You go to the entrance of the cave and assess the capabilities of his companions. Remember, your main focus is self-preservation. If you can lure them into our trap, you'll be the hero of this mission."

Edson shook the chains on his body with determination. A significant amount of magical light radiated from him.

"Alright, Lord of Vengeance."

A seductive voice echoed from all directions, making the atmosphere tense near the altar. Only the elephant-nosed man remained, eagerly asking, "So, who are we fighting this time? Can I touch his thigh after we're done?"

...

Subversion.

The necromancer's inner battle technique combination of "Beguile + Chaos + Subversion" was one of the most advanced spells, especially in the context of not coordinating with others.

Even when used alone, Subversion was an extraordinary spell. It could forcibly compete with an enemy for control of an undead unit. The process of contention could last for about 3 to 15 seconds. After 15 seconds, even if both sides were still at a stalemate, the Subversion would be considered a failure.

However, the most significant advantage of this spell was that, in case of failure, there was virtually no punishment. Since the battlefield for control was happening on someone else's undead, the caster of the spell didn't even experience common penalties like Concentration Reduction or Mental Fatigue.

But when it succeeded, the targeted undead was considered a "temporary unit" and directly joined the caster's side. Though temporary units couldn't self-destruct, they could cause considerable damage when used by a commander in the midst of a battle.

Compared to continuous Subversion, which seemed appealing but had diminishing returns, a single Subversion was more effective.

Successive use of Subversion would result in a significant drop in effectiveness. Each subsequent attempt required a higher threshold to succeed, making it nearly impossible to Subvert more than a few undead units in a row.

By the time one reached the seventh or eighth attempt, the Subversion had become almost useless, easily resisted even by a first-tier mage.

So, using it against a massive undead army wasn't suitable. It was a spell meant for targeting individual undead!

What made it even better was that the Subverted unit was considered a "temporary worker," and the caster could do whatever they wanted with it. They could push it to its limits without any repercussions, as it didn't occupy a contract slot, cost no mana, and only required a bit of mental effort and negative energy.

"Praise the Eternal Death Maiden!"

Matthew sang Daniya's name sincerely in his heart.

This spell was of great importance, and he didn't expect to be able to control legendary units, but he might have a good chance of obtaining a few Bone Dragons!

"Listen to Xiu, it seems that there are several Bone Dragons under Blorken's command!" Matthew's eyes shimmered with anticipation.

But he soon snapped out of his contemplation.

Matthew spent nearly five minutes explaining to Bobo that he wasn't really eating feces. Meanwhile, he heard a voice from outside, "Mr. Matthew? We may need you to come out."

Matthew quickly went outside and followed Xiu's guidance to see a solitary figure wandering near the camp.

"She's been following us all the way," Xiu said, gazing at Matthew and the distant zombie lady with a complex expression.

"I understand. Let me handle it!" Matthew replied.

The zombie lady was lucky. Since she was in a remote location, she hadn't been taken by the Dead Man's Sphere and was one of the few undead creatures still wandering in the swamp.

Matthew hadn't been able to deal with her before because she was a sentient undead, and he didn't have the confidence to outmaneuver Daniya.

Now, the situation had changed, and he planned to try controlling her.

He cautiously approached her, saying, "Hello, we meet again. I'm very grateful for your help that night."

Matthew smiled, trying to play the emotional card.

The zombie lady looked at him with confusion. After a while, she suddenly lunged forward to bite him!

Matthew quickly took a step back to dodge and used the "Control" spell on her.

...

"Hint: Control successful. You have gained temporary control of the 'Zombie Lady.' You have 72 hours to use her."

The control was achieved without any resistance, which puzzled Matthew. Perhaps the zombie lady had a subconscious desire to cooperate with him. The process was unexpectedly easy.

However, he found himself lacking the satisfaction of a hard-won victory. He muttered, "Too bad Zeng Wu is gone; controlling him would have been much more exciting."

After handling the zombie lady, Xiu approached and explained that he had traced the whereabouts of the Blorken cult. It seemed that Blorken and his followers had all disappeared from the rainforest.

Matthew nodded, understanding that the cult's disappearance was likely for a specific reason. The Blorken cult wasn't hiding from him but had a different motive.

Matthew then tried to contact the Black Wisteria Dreamland. A soft voice soon echoed in everyone's ears: "Underground city."

Xiu realized that there were two or three entrances to the underground city nearby, one of which had previously been a territory of the Blackback Hyena People, but they had vanished.

The team decided to investigate the underground city. They extinguished their torches and tied a rope around their wrists for safety. If anything happened, they could signal each other by shaking the rope or easily free themselves.

Xiu took the lead, followed by Matthew, who activated his Desire Ring to gain Darkvision. With a range of about 10 meters, it allowed him to see in the dark. However, it also suppressed his desires and passions, which was somewhat uncomfortable.

As they descended further into the underground, the team became more silent, with only the sound of shuffling footsteps breaking the silence.

After about half an hour, Xiu's voice came from the front: "We've passed the territory of the vampire bats. Ahead, there should be a village of the Myconids. They're not a threat to us; you can light torches for a while. Creatures that have suddenly entered the underground tend to develop hallucinations if they can't see light for an extended period."

However, just as the torches were lit, Matthew yelled, "Watch out behind you!"

Xiu reacted swiftly, taking a step forward to create some distance between himself and the creature behind him. However, the creature moved even faster.

Matthew saw a white flash pass by, and the shadow leaped onto Xiu's back, disappearing instantly.

Xiu staggered and, upon regaining his balance, patted his chest. "What pushed me?"

Luckily, he was unharmed.

His words were barely spoken when his eyes started rolling back, emitting an abnormal light!

"Hehe, come on and give me a kiss!"

Suddenly, Hu Yi's voice became extremely delicate.

He rushed toward Matthew, embracing him, and leaned in for a passionate kiss!

Without a second thought, Matthew lifted his foot and kicked, but it was like kicking a steel plate. Instead of pushing the other away, he stumbled himself.

Fortunately, this kick somewhat delayed Hu Yi's beastly outburst.

Lumiere arrived in time, grabbing Hu Yi's shoulder and pinning him firmly against the wall!

Matthew looked closely.

...

"Warning: Your comrade Hu Yi has been possessed by 'Enchanting Soul.' 1/4 of his overall attributes have been temporarily drained by the 'Enchanting Soul.' If you kiss someone possessed by the 'Enchanting Soul' for more than 3 seconds, 1/4 of your attributes will also be temporarily drained."

"Enchanting Soul?"

Matthew's face turned serious. As a necromancer, he knew very well that this was a terribly dangerous undead creature. Don't be fooled by its name; it starts at Level 4 and has potential for destruction that even surpasses powerful beings like bone dragons and Black Knights.

What makes it so fearsome is its ability to absorb attributes, even temporarily. The 'Enchanting Soul' can easily render an ordinary adventuring party powerless by absorbing their attributes.

"Why is he so strong?!" Lumiere exclaimed.

Even Lumiere, who had confronted a Tyrant Rex, couldn't defeat a frenzied Hu Yi.

This realization made him quickly understand that something was amiss.

Matthew couldn't explain much. He quickly drew his long whip.

"Let me whip him!" Matthew ordered.

Lumiere, although puzzled, had complete trust in Matthew's guidance.

He did his best to turn Hu Yi's body around and pressed him firmly against the wall.

"Quick!"

During this process, Lumiere was horrified to find his own arms trembling.

"Come give me a kiss!" Hu Yi cooed.

He leaned closer.

"Go away!" Lumiere roared.

Just then, Lumiere heard a loud crack near his ear.

After the sound, there were two more consecutive cracks.

"Ah, Matthew, you whipped me!" Lumiere shouted in pain.

However, Matthew was not in the mood to care about that.

The 'Enchanting Soul' showed terrifying continuous possession abilities and an unimaginable speed. The only weapon Matthew had against it was the whip, and he had to be vigilant at all times to ensure it didn't target him.

"Hold on!"

"I refuse to believe she's completely immune to being dispelled!"

Matthew knew that now was not the time to be merciful. He grit his teeth and, with determination, whipped at the intertwined pair!

Crack!

Crack!

The clear sound of the whip, the alternating cries of pain, and the occasional seductive moans of the 'Enchanting Soul' mixed together and echoed through the cave.

After about ten seconds, Matthew suddenly felt his badge become scalding hot. From the Moonlight Goddess, he received a message, "I need moonlight."

Without a second thought, amidst his busy efforts, he wiped his badge to activate the "Moonlight Spell."

After taking this step, he continued to strike both of them with the whip.

In the next moment, a streak of moonlight illuminated the cave.

Two figures slowly materialized.

After the teleportation was complete, the Rolling Stone Town duo saw a surreal scene.

Matthew, drenched in sweat and panting heavily, was fiercely whipping a long whip.

Near the cave wall, two men were entwined, not avoiding Matthew's whip and occasionally making strange sounds.

Seeing this, Li Weichi subconsciously touched his bald head:

"Wow! Reiga, did we come at the wrong time?"

Chapter 87 >>

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