Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 865 "The Fool (Part 2)" [7.3k words]

He wants him to turn everyone present... into ghosts?

Almost instantly upon hearing Ghost Dragon's words, Mingyu felt his thoughts freeze. He abruptly raised his head, staring intently at the tattooed, muscular man before him, and spoke in a somewhat sinister voice:

"Ghost Dragon, do you even know what you're saying?!"

"Nonsense! If I didn't know, why would I have asked you to do this?" Guilong scoffed disdainfully, glancing at Xie Kuang and Lao Hantui beside him, and said, "If you don't believe me, you can go and ask them yourself."

As soon as he finished speaking, Old Man with Cold Legs coughed lightly, wiped the black blood from his mouth, and said, "Don't worry, Netherworld Prison. Although Brother Ghost Dragon is usually a bit stubborn, this time, we really came here voluntarily, including Ghost Fiend and the others. We were prepared for this before we even came here."

After saying that, Old Man with Cold Legs turned his gaze to the young man next to him, who was covered in black bandages and had two black short knives hanging at his waist. He hadn't said a word the whole time, while the young man was looking at the short-haired girl beside him without saying a word.

"Hey, don't look at me like that. I just think it's better to transform myself into a ghost than to rot in a coffin in the twilight."

"Well~ my reasons are similar to Little Ao's. Besides, without Brother Mingyu, we would probably have died under that guy's curse long ago. Now we're just risking our lives to settle scores with her!"

The short-haired girl codenamed Aoduo looked around twice and explained somewhat helplessly, while the handsome young man next to her, wearing a deep V-neck suit and sporting flamboyant curly hair, casually brushed his bangs aside and smiled in a nonchalant tone.

"I have only one request: tell that guy Black Sword that he must kill a few more beasts from the Abyss, or I will never forget the punch he gave me, even in death."

With his left face covered by a ghost mask, the ghost-masked youth, whose voice sounded barely audible, struggled to his feet. He bowed to Mingyu and spoke, then looked at the blood-haired youth who was most familiar with Mingyu among those present.

"Tsk, to be honest, ever since I realized how lousy your luck is, I've actually had a feeling this day might come."

Xie Kuang gazed at the silent Mingyu before him, clicked his tongue lightly, glanced at the increasingly cracked blood-red barrier beside him, his eyelids drooping slightly, and spoke:

“Mingyu, do you remember what I said when we signed the contract after our first collaboration? I said I don’t have the habit of owing people anything.”

"If it weren't for your help back then, I would have been a corpse by the time I reached the first level. Now, I'm just repaying the life I owed you back then, therefore..."

As Xie Kuang spoke, he glanced down at the necromancer beside him, placed his hand on the other's shoulder, and said in a deep voice:
"Whether it's me or them, you don't need to feel guilty or anything. Just like Mo Chou said, if it weren't for the preparations you made, we would probably have been wiped out during the stronghold wave."

"..."

Upon hearing this, Mingyu remained silent, simply closing his eyes as if lost in memories. Meanwhile, Guilong, seemingly impatient, casually remarked:
"Alright, alright! What the hell are you all babbling about?!" Guilong said, looking at Mingyu who was kneeling on one knee with his head down, and grinned, "Hey! You surnamed Ming, you're not going to hold back and not bring yourself to do it, are you?!"

"Graceful? What nonsense are you talking about? I was just preparing a formation to perfectly transform you into undead."

As the tattooed strongman's words, tinged with sarcasm, fell, a cold retort rang out. Mingyu, who was supporting himself with a broken staff, opened his eyes, slowly stood up, and tapped his staff, creating seven exquisite and complex arrays beneath everyone.

Om-! !

In an instant, a massive amount of death energy surged from the formation, rushing into the bodies of the seven people through their seven orifices and six openings, frantically corroding their flesh and blood. Seeing this, Ghost Dragon showed no fear whatsoever; instead, he grinned with unusual glee.

"Haha, very good! That's it. You surnamed Ming, don't hesitate any longer. Let that bitch see what happens when she messes with us!"

Boom——! !

As Ghost Dragon's wild laughter rang out, a tremendous roar spread from the crimson barrier beside him. Mingyu merely raised a hand indifferently to block it, using a death energy barrier to neutralize the impact erupting from the crimson barrier on the verge of collapse. He then coldly replied to the tattooed burly man:

"Don't worry, I will."

As soon as the words fell, a monstrous death aura erupted, colliding with the shattered remains of the crimson barrier that had been completely destroyed due to the loss of its controller, transforming into a dark red storm that raged across the fragmented land.

……

Meanwhile, somewhere in the eighth-order world layer.

"Ok?"

A thick aura of death permeated the earth. On the battlefield, which resembled a living hell, a gaunt young man with severe dark circles under his eyes suddenly raised his head and looked at the distance with some confusion.

"So what if I die?"

"It's nothing, I just had a vague intuition just now."

"intuition?"

"Yes, it's an intuition... that feeling, like my 'kin' is about to increase again."

"Your kind? Uh, wait a minute... you don't mean another undead class is about to be born, do you?"

Upon hearing this, the lazy young man who was yawning nearby showed a look of surprise in his eyes, and the sleepiness in his eyes disappeared at once.

The external echelon.

For lazy young people who have entered this field early on, it's not something particularly distant.

However, if you add the prefix "necromantic", the situation is quite different.

The dead are not outside.

This is a saying that has always circulated in the park, and as far as he knows, at least since the concept of the extra-level echelon was born, in the entire park camp, only this necrophiliac companion in front of him, who keeps saying that he wants to switch to the necromancer class, has successfully stepped into this field as a necromancer.

According to the other party's description, the reason why the undead system can hardly produce an outsider-level team is not only due to the defects in its own system, but also due to a very important factor.

As for the specifics of that factor...

"Uh, speaking of which, what conditions did you say the Necromancer class had to meet to reach the top tier?"

"it's actually really easy……"

The gaunt young man spoke, looking down at the newly found skeleton of a beautiful woman in his arms, gently stroking it, and murmuring infatuation:
"By simply understanding his true views on the undead system, we can determine whether he is qualified... to step into a higher realm without abandoning his own existence."

"Those who willingly throw themselves into death for power are not qualified to grasp the true meaning of the dead."

……

Reef No. 57, near the No. 3 abyss suppression device.

Boom!

A tremendous thunderous roar resounded. On the battlefield, with the eruption of death energy, spiderweb-like arcs of black lightning shot into the sky from the ruins of the blood-red barrier, instantly shattering the dark red storm in front of the Netherworld Prison and revealing the figure of the alluring female clanswoman within, along with her gloomy expression.

"Heh, I didn't expect you to be even more ruthless than us when it comes to attacking your own kind."

As the cold, murderous words fell, the alluring female clansman stared at the cloaked youth before her, then looked at the seven figures beside him emanating a dense aura of death, and sneered mockingly.

In fact, the moment the seven appeared, she had already used her authority to read their thoughts.

To her surprise, the final burst of energy these people unleashed before their deaths was so powerful that it managed to trap her for several minutes, even after she had activated her Abyss Form, leaving her helpless to watch as they completed their plan.

but--

"In the end, it's just a few more puppets."

She had already witnessed countless humans who wielded the power of the death system in those worlds that had fallen into the abyss, and she had also seen their mastery of the art of death in previous battles.

Perhaps in terms of compatibility, corpses from one's own kind would be easier to manipulate than the remains of wild beasts from the abyss. But given the current situation, even if the other party had a few more usable undead, the result would only be that she would spend a few more minutes!

Boom—!

Below the battlefield, the alluring female descendant, having confirmed the situation, took a heavy step, transforming into a dark afterimage. She struck at the head of the Underworld at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, while simultaneously releasing her senses to guard against the opponent's elusive necromancy.

In the twenty-odd minutes she had been fighting her opponent, she had already figured out his fighting style.

Given her gluttonous power to devour the flesh and blood of all living beings, she would inevitably choose to consume a particular undead, using it as a means to create distance, and then manipulate other undead to swarm her while she attacks from afar using death magic. Therefore—

"What the hell are you doing, looking all horny and horny?! Go eat some shit!!"

Almost at the instant the alluring female clansman was about to rush towards Mingyu, a low, crude roar suddenly erupted, causing her pupils to contract sharply and a look of disbelief to flash across her eyes.

boom--! !

In the next instant, a jet-black spear aura shot out horizontally, heading straight for the head of the alluring female clansman, forcing her to switch from offense to defense and slap the spear shaft with her claw.

How is that possible? Wasn't this guy already dead? Why is he still...?

In an instant, a strong sense of unease arose in the mind of the alluring female race. However, before she could figure out what was going on, a sharp pain suddenly came from her back, causing a sense of urgency to rise in her mind. She decisively mobilized the abyss energy to bombard the surrounding area.

boom! ! !
A surge of abyssal energy erupted, crashing like a raging torrent into the area surrounding the alluring female race. The bandaged figure drifting behind her froze, and with a whoosh, she and the tattooed burly man were thrown back more than a hundred meters away, narrowly avoiding the attack.

The alluring female tribeswoman in mid-air looked at this scene with an extremely ugly expression.

it is true……

These humans truly retain their consciousness from their previous lives. Not only that, their strength hasn't diminished at all compared to when they were alive... no, it's not just that they haven't diminished; judging from the power of that attack just now, these guys have clearly become stronger after becoming undead!
"Humans, what have you done?!"

In mid-air, the alluring female clanswoman suddenly turned around, staring intently at the Netherworld Prison not far away, her gaze as gloomy as water.

Not only can it allow the transformed undead to retain their complete consciousness, but it can even make them more powerful than they were in life. She had never even heard of such a death system ability, let alone witnessed it!
"Who knows? Maybe it's just because... some guy realized he's actually just a fool."

As the cold and indifferent voice fell, on the battlefield, Mingyu slowly raised his head, opened his deep, dark eyes, and took in the scene on the battlefield.

……

That's right, I've only just realized it. 'Outer-tier? If you want advice on that, you'd be more effective asking Black Sword.'

Or rather, he had already figured it out, but he was just unwilling to face it.

'How do I comprehend the additional abilities of Grandmaster LV.20? Hmm, if it's about spellcasting or technique mastery, I might be able to offer some insights, but as for necromancy mastery, I'm afraid…'

Because it's a question unrelated to 'accumulation' and 'cognition,' unrelated to 'effort' and 'talent.'

'To reach the level of an undead master in the Outer Tier? Pfft, Old Ming, are you out of your mind? Even I know how difficult it is for your undead faction to reach the Outer Tier.'

Or rather, when exactly did he gradually become afraid to admit it?
"Netherworld, as your guide, I am truly gratified to see you choose my path. However, I must still offer you a word of advice: are you sure you want to choose both the path of the undead and the path of the mage?"

"With your talent and intellect, if you had abandoned necromancy and focused on developing your magical abilities, you should have easily achieved far greater success than you are now, instead of being bogged down by both paths."

Is it time to start using the old-fashioned excuse of being too bored?

Is it when he realizes that he is no longer able to trust others normally?

Or……

'Necromancer? Okay, I understand your choice. However, this might be a bit cruel for you, but I'll still give you this advice...'

'Someone as intelligent as you... isn't suited for necromancy.'

Was it when he fell into the trap called 'the wise man'?

'Heh... So you actually schemed this far? Tsk, I suddenly regret selling you that spell. Oh well, a loss is a loss. My corpse is yours to use.'

No, that's not right, these are all just excuses...

"Welcome to Paradise, new brother. You seem quite interested in this corpse manipulation technique. How about it? If you're willing to join our cult, I can give you a 50% discount."

Whether it's power or the path, for him, there's really only one reason for choosing the path of necromancy...

'Ahem, ahem... I'm sorry, child, it seems I can only stop here.'

"Don't make that face, child. I know you've been suppressing your talent, but from now on... please make good use of it."

Perhaps it will disconnect you from others and make you feel incredibly lonely, but given the vastness of this world, surely one day you will find meaning in your existence.

'Ah, what a pity, if only... I could... see it with my own eyes...'

Because, for him—

'Want to resurrect the dead? Pfft, Grandpa Dean, listen! Ax's saying weird things again!'

—This is the only way a fool like him can bring the deceased back to life.

……

[Note: Changes to the Contractor's skill effects have been detected. The current skill information for "Necromancer: LV.20" has been automatically updated.]

……

[Necromancer: LV.20 (Summoning - Passive)]

Skill effect: Undead creature summoning limit +410%, undead summoned creature attack power, health, defense power, and body speed +20%, undead summoned creatures can be immune to purification effects of level 4 and below.

Initial bonus ability 1, Soul of the Wise (Passive, LV.20): Undead summons will retain 20.5% of their original Intelligence level. If summoned permanently, they will retain 41% of their Intelligence level and gain a 210% learning efficiency bonus.

Initial bonus ability 2, Fool's Soul (Passive, LV.MAX): Can no longer dispel permanent summons, but the user's permanent summons are recorded in their soul essence. When the user is alive, even if the permanent summons perish, the user can revive the summons by permanently reducing their own attributes (New!!!).

LV.10 Ultimate Ability, Substitute Corpse (Passive): Can create substitute spirits. Substitute spirits can take all types of damage, negative effects, and causal curses in place of the user. Current production limit: 2.

LV.20 Ultimate Ability, The Ritual of the Fool (Passive): Only a true fool would commit such a reckless act, such as when converting a spirit into a spirit, the spirit being converted and the ritual master are in a state of complete willingness and complete trust, respectively. This conversion will retain 100% of the converted unit's intelligence, abilities, and growth potential. However, the ritual master will lose "absolute control" over the summoned creature, and 50% of the subsequent attribute enhancement effects will be automatically deducted as resources for enhancing the summoned creature (New!!!).

……

In the end, he finally accepted this hopelessly foolish path.

On the battlefield, Mingyu narrowed his eyes, gazing at the scene before him without saying a word.

He relinquished absolute control over his summoned creatures, making it twice as difficult for him to improve his own attributes as others. He even permanently tied his summoned creatures to a fixed ship, all just to preserve the memories and intelligence of a group of dead creatures, allowing them to continue existing in a near-living state.

"That's incredibly stupid."

"Haha! You're right! You're a hopeless idiot, you scheming devil!"

Mingyu murmured, while the burly man with the undead tattoo at the forefront grinned twice, took a step forward, and the evil dragon tattoo on his body seemed to come alive as it spiraled up, roaring as it crushed towards the bewitching female tribeswoman along with his spear.

"Well, although I don't think it's very nice to talk about my savior like this, I have to admit that it's quite surprising that someone like Brother Mingyu could comprehend such a grandmaster-level ability."

As the tattooed burly man charged out, the bandaged youth and the curly-haired youth from the other two directions also moved in unison. The former, like a ghost, stabbed at the back of the head of the alluring female tribesman, while the latter, with a slight smile, took a step forward and punched the alluring female tribesman from a fleeting, huge phantom.

A new...Grandmaster ability?
Damn it, could this guy be the kind of person who finds it easier to break through in dire situations?
No, that's not right. What's important now is figuring out what these guys are talking about as a new ability!
In mid-air, the alluring female clanswoman, who had clearly heard the conversation, narrowed her eyes slightly. She subconsciously looked at the Ghost Dragon closest to her and activated her authority's mind-reading ability, trying to ascertain what the new Grandmaster's ability was. Suddenly, an incredibly familiar sense of shock flooded her mind, causing her expression to change instantly.

No, this is—

Om-! !

'The arrangement of the perfect necromancy conversion array is…' 'This isn't what this guy really thinks…' 'To decipher the correct thought, please understand the following…' 'Ah, you foolish single-celled organism, you don't even know that necromancy can synchronize its own thoughts with those of its followers…' 'Just a pathetic wretch who won a few battles by luck thanks to its strength and information advantage, you have no idea how lucky you are…' 'If only those monsters were here…' 'Heh, the previous thought seems to have said something unnecessary…' 'Well, with your pitiful brain, you probably couldn't handle it anyway…' 'Can't even process five digits of information simultaneously, is the brain of the Abyss race filled with nothing but silt…'

The information bombardment she had experienced before exploded in the mind of the alluring woman, frantically assaulting every nerve in her brain. It briefly transformed the look in her eyes into a blank, broken gaze. She could only watch helplessly as the attacks unleashed by the three demon dragons rapidly magnified in her vision, and finally…

"Roar--!!!"

A deep, beastly roar exploded, and almost the instant the attacks of the three Ghost Dragons were about to hit the alluring female clansman, the pitch-black beast claw on the right half of her body seemed to suddenly come alive, violently splitting into three gigantic maws that devoured the three's attacks in one bite. At the same time, it tore towards the three Ghost Dragons with a terrifying speed that was even faster than that of a top-tier speed-type contractor.

Necromancer spell: Castling!

Boom—!

Just as the three were about to be devoured by the giant jaws, three spatial fluctuations erupted, replacing the figures of the three ghost dragons with three temporarily transformed undead abyssal creatures, which then devoured the abyssal creatures.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

"Be careful, that's a manifestation of her authority and power. If you get bitten by that thing, the entire wound will enter a conceptual 'missing' state, and there's no way to heal it."

Mingyu glanced at the empty cuff of his left sleeve and calmly explained.

The immortality provided by the Abyss Potion can only guarantee the immortality of the body and soul in their normal state, but it cannot counteract the various conceptual-level damages caused by the Authority of Sin. This is why he was forced into such a sorry state by the opponent before the arrival of Ghost Dragon and others.

"Hey, Mingyu, something seems off about that guy..."

Suddenly, Old Man with Cold Legs, who was standing to the side, seemed to have noticed something and reminded Mingyu. Upon hearing this, Mingyu's gaze swept over the alluring female clansman, and then he instinctively frowned.

"Wait, wait, no! Give me another chance...!"

As the panicked and terrified voices fell, the alluring female tribeswoman in mid-air, after using her transformed Gluttonous Hand to break through the encirclement of the three Ghost Dragons, suddenly revealed an expression of extreme fear, desperately begging for mercy from her autonomously moving, pitch-black right claw, as if she had seen something extremely terrifying.

"I promise, I promise there won't be any more mistakes this time, so, so, please, Ai...!"

Terrified pleas for mercy continued to fall, but before the alluring female descendant could finish speaking, a dark shadow suddenly swept across her head, biting off her entire head in an extremely brutal and bloody manner.

In an instant, the atmosphere of the entire battlefield seemed to fall into a deathly silence. Dark blood gushed out from the severed neck, like a fountain, drawing a beautiful arc in mid-air.

As Mingyu and the others witnessed this scene, their instincts for danger immediately began to scream in alarm. Just as Mingyu was about to order everyone to evacuate to a more distant location:
"You...you're delicious, aren't you?"

"!!!"

A soft, warm whisper fell from her ear, and the headless corpse of the alluring female clan, which had been hundreds of meters away just a second ago, suddenly appeared beside Mingyu without warning. She pressed the head bitten off by the Gluttonous Hand to her ear and breathed on her in a seductive voice that tingled her to the bone, causing her body to freeze in place uncontrollably.

This feeling... is it the allure I experienced before?!
"Wake the hell up!!!"

"Roar--!!"

The next instant, a low, furious roar, accompanied by a booming dragon's cry, exploded in Mingyu's mind, jolting him awake. The headless female corpse before him shattered with a crash, revealing the true scene before him:

"Ah~~!!"

On the battlefield, a groan far more alluring than before suddenly lingered in everyone's ears. Looking around, they saw that the headless female corpse of the bewitching female race, who should have been lifeless, was sitting astride the branch extending from the Gluttonous Hand, and in an incredibly bizarre way, she used her lower body to forcefully stuff the head inside.

Moreover, as he did this, a brand new head began to grow rapidly from the broken neck, transforming into a stunningly beautiful face that was somewhat similar to the previous one, but far more alluring.

"Hehe~ I originally just wanted to come and find out what was going on and try some delicious snacks, but I never expected to stumble upon such a delicacy!"

A tingling, almost hysterical sound rang out, instantly triggering a physiological response. The alluring female member of the race, suspended in mid-air, lazily stretched, then casually glanced back at Mingyu, revealing a captivating smile that could instantly seduce anyone with a willpower below 80. She then chuckled softly in the direction of the group:
"Although time seems to be running out, it's still polite to let them introduce themselves properly. After all, they're not some toy that doesn't even deserve a name!"

As the alluring woman spoke, the pitch-black color covering the right half of her body rapidly spread and surged from her skin, swiftly transforming into a seductive black gauze dress. She then lightly lifted the hem of the dress and smiled as she addressed the crowd:

"Hello, Avila Asmodeus Beelzebub, a descendant of the great sinners!"

……

(End of this chapter)