Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 368 Purification Operation: Sea Serpent Barbecue - A Last-Ditch Effort

Today, the air around Four-Clawed Sea Serpent Island is filled with an eerie, restless, and chilling atmosphere.

As the undead creatures continue to spread, a unique virtuous cycle has formed here.

The more people die, the more undead creatures are resurrected, and thus, the more people die.

In this process, all parties benefited.

The bald eagles were the biggest winners. They not only gained a massive amount of SP catalysts extracted from undead creatures, but also, under their control, the capital, technology, and talent of the Four-Clawed Sea Serpents were fleeing this turbulent land in a frenzy, heading towards the free paradise across the ocean.

The Four-Clawed Sea Serpents also won a significant victory, and now they have naturally expanded their military. No country on the entire planet Earth has criticized them, and even their former adversaries, the Two-Headed Eagle or the Eastern Xia, have chosen to remain silent and stand by.

At the same time, they also took advantage of this opportunity to greatly alleviate the "aging population" problem that had previously caused great social anxiety.

Well, older people run slower and have less battery life, making them easier for zombies to catch.

Other surrounding powers are also winning. The coastal order of the Four-Clawed Sea Serpent has now vanished, and the coastline is like a sieve. Agents, adventurers, and even pirates from various countries can easily "pick up" a few zombies in various states to amuse themselves or sell for money.

Some laboratories want to research them, some wealthy people want to collect them, and some people with special fetishes need some novel "entertainment props".

In addition, these guys can smuggle goods that don't go through customs and pick up some sea serpent people who are desperate to escape.

The victims are mainly young women. After "personal use," they resell the products to countries that legalize such transactions, making it another lucrative business.

In chaotic times, human life and dignity become commodities with clearly marked prices.

Finally, the evil spirits at the ghost temple were defeated.

As the number of undead creatures increases, more and more negative energy is fed back, rapidly nourishing the evil spirits in these ruins and also continuously nourishing this native undead ruin on Earth.

Throughout the entire Ghost Temple area, a faint black mist seeped from every crack and under every piece of rubble, slowly rising to form a hazy, ever-expanding dark curtain.

In the mist, shadowy figures appeared: the former temple's priests, worshippers, officials, and shamans—those who had long since died—now "came back to life" in even more grotesque forms, their figures swaying in the black fog.

The scene was like a burly man picking his toes and putting on a pair of black stockings, with thick leg hair peeking out from the gaps in the stockings, adding a nauseating touch to the still-forming black curtain.

Given time, as the negative energy accumulates and darkness envelops the surrounding area, this place may grow into a super ruin. After all, there is only one such place on the entire planet Blue Star that simultaneously enshrines millions of sinners.

If given enough time to develop, perhaps a new underworld plane will be born on Earth.

As for Dongxia, who hadn't won, they waited silently, counting on their fingers.

As we entered mid-June, the environment on Four-Clawed Sea Serpent Island became increasingly harsh.

This also indirectly confirms why the distant starry world so hates and fears necromancers, those guys who don't summon undead creatures from the underworld, but instead use what's available to directly resurrect the dead.

Its horror lies in the double blow of psychological and physical. Psychologically, you may be facing your comrades who were just fighting alongside you, your parents who have raised you for decades, your lover with whom you have shared joys and sorrows, and even your child who was crying and begging for your embrace just yesterday.
Tactically, unless they can achieve an overwhelming kill ratio, for every soldier the enemy loses, the enemy gains a soldier.

As one side grows stronger, the steel defenses will eventually be worn through by bone claws and spikes.

When mid-level undead are mixed in with low-level undead, their killing effect on humans increases rapidly, resulting in a severe imbalance of losses between the two sides. Human armies defend against and eliminate the undead to a limited extent, while the undead slaughter the unarmed Sea Serpent citizens with impunity.

The difference in numbers between the two sides will continue to widen as a result.

In the previous phase, although the number of flesh giants continued to increase, the special squads of bald eagles repeatedly launched attacks and intercepted and killed them, which to some extent controlled the number of these mid-level undead creatures.

However, the bald eagles quickly lost interest after discovering that they could not find any trace of life force in the flesh-and-blood giants born from these sea serpents.

Without the strong control of the army, the balance was immediately broken, and the number of flesh giants increased, which led to a qualitative change in the liches.

Soon, a new undead variant was born.

A well-proportioned, highly agile Dark Knight with some command ability of a horde of the undead; packs of bloodthirsty and ferocious grave hounds transformed from death dogs or other four-legged animals; a howling banshee capable of launching small-scale mental attacks, causing the living to lose morale or even suffer mental breakdowns; a resurrected necromancer capable of simultaneously controlling multiple skeletons and coordinating small-scale battles...

The biodiversity of the dead in this land is becoming increasingly rich!

Gradually, the bald eagles began to feel the strain.

At the end of June, the first Bald Eagle's military camp fell. Apart from a few high-ranking officials who evacuated by helicopter, the more than two thousand soldiers in the camp were wrapped up by the Banshee and the Black Knight and carefully made into dumpling filling.

The color looked like it was made with tofu and sesame filling.

Some lawmakers have proposed a complete withdrawal of troops.

How could the bald eagles be willing to give up like this? Even if the bigwigs in Congress agree, the military and the military-industrial complex behind it will not allow it.

So the bald eagle once again resorted to its traditional skill—barbecuing sea snakes.

Fighter jets and bombers taking off from the Sea Serpent's homeland began dropping bombs on the undead populations on the Sea Serpent's ground, which was quite fuel-efficient.

The first wave of bombardment was aimed at the undead army that was moving towards Perry Harbor.

Perry Harbor is the Bald Eagle's largest port outside its home territory and the home port of the Eastern Aisha Fleet. It boasts six dry docks and hundreds of berths, capable of accommodating even nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. It serves as the Bald Eagle's superbase on the western side of the Tranquil Sea.

Bald eagles, naturally, could not tolerate such a super port being threatened by undead creatures, so they first carried out bombing of the surrounding zombie-infested areas.

The first to attack was an undead army that had marched through the western urban area, estimated to number over 30,000, with an unknown number of mid-level and higher undead.

It can be confirmed that it contains a large number of Dark Knights, Banshees, and Flesh Giants.

With authorization from the President and approval from the Secretary of War, the Joint Operations Command issued an order to officially launch "Operation Purification".

The first group to be deployed consisted of bombers that took off from the Four-Clawed Sea Serpent Air Force Base. They carried not ordinary bombs, but aerial bombs equipped with "fuel-air bombs" and "thermolytic warheads" specifically designed to target biological clusters.

Thermobaric bomb and incendiary bomb have been renamed, and they sound much better now.

According to the bald eagle's interpretation, this "cleanup operation" is a "humanitarian disinfection operation" with the goal of "removing infected biomass and cutting off the transmission chain."

This sounds even more high-end!

The bombing began at dusk, and when the first bomb burst into an orange-red fireball amidst the gray-black horde of corpses, this declaration of war by humanity against the dead would surely become a special medal etched in the bald eagle's record of merit.

The precision guidance system ensured that more than 70% of the bombs landed in their designated locations, and the light shining on the ground was like a torch of human civilization, gleaming brightly.

As for the remaining 30%, which has a slight deviation, just ignore it.

This massive "purification operation" dealt a major blow to the zombie horde and successfully kept Perry Harbor safe for three days.

On the fourth day, the undead army returned in force.

During this period, the Black Knights, as commanders, summarized their experience and learned to align granularity. They not only spontaneously dispersed the size of the undead groups, dividing the original super-large groups into small groups ranging from hundreds to thousands, but also cleverly separated mid-level and above undead from the hordes of corpses, allowing them to act independently.

You might bombard a zombie horde of a thousand people and not even be able to kill a single mid-tier undead.

And so, the bald eagles bombed more and more frantically, and the surface vegetation on this main route west of Perry Harbor was basically wiped out. The high temperature and explosions melted the soil, building debris and the ashes of the dead together, and after cooling, they formed a pitted, mottled, and dirty "crystallized shell" that looked like inferior glass or a dirty scab.

The number of undead traveling along this route is decreasing, but the surviving individuals are visibly becoming stronger, more cunning, and more bizarre—some even emerging as new variants outside the traditional necromancer's understanding.

Life is constantly evolving, and so are the dead!
However, the bald eagle's all-out attack ultimately yielded considerable results. Just as in the Starry World, its beyond-visual-range strikes and high-altitude bombing were problems that traditional professional systems and undead creatures could hardly solve. Some professional media outlets have calculated that, at this rate, in another twenty-five to twenty-eight years, the bald eagle could eliminate the vast majority of the sea serpent people, rendering the undead unable to be converted and completely eradicating the undead on Sea Serpent Island.

Of course, the four-clawed sea serpent wouldn't just sit there and wait to die.

When Kenichiro Kishi emerged from the underground permanent fortifications once again, the gloom on his face seemed to merge with the dark clouds in the sky.

His desperate attempt once again earned him the support of influential figures.

Since things have come to this point, then...

Stop living like this!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The expert team on sea snakes isn't stupid. After so much exploration and testing, they've roughly figured out the patterns behind these unusual mutations.

Rice and pork from bald eagles must have contained some special additives, which are one of the main "mutant" inducers.

So, if these undead variants, or extracts of the variants, are sent to other places, will they trigger the same undead effect?

For some time now, the four-clawed sea serpent has been making this attempt, secretly smuggling some undead creatures into the supplies being smuggled overseas.

They even used their overseas resources to conduct "contact" transformation experiments on-site.

The results of the experiment left them with mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.

The good news is that the principle works! In other countries, by using the same activation steps as the bald eagle, injecting the SP inducer into a person with the SP-017 synthetic agent will quickly induce "fentanyl folding" and cause irreversible undead phenomena.

The sad thing is that the success rate is extremely low, and the vast majority of conversions end in failure. Even if a few undead creatures successfully convert, they frequently experience various adverse reactions and eventually lose all ability to move.

The undead that they had finally managed to kill had "died" again, which truly saddened the sea serpent.

With such complex prerequisites and such a low success rate, it has absolutely no value for promotion.

So why did this cataclysmic disaster unfold so smoothly and efficiently in our land of the sea serpents?
Ultimately, the mystery was solved by the masters of the Sea Serpent Divine Path Sect.

Although the Ghost Temple was reduced to ruins, those thieves, still harboring malicious intentions, immediately sent people into the site to try to collect the scattered ashes and burned memorial tablets.

During this process, the Shinto Sect quickly discovered that there was something strange about this area.

Every now and then, clergy members would inexplicably undergo strange transformations and become undead.

Based on this discovery, the experts at the Sea Serpent Temple, after repeatedly sending people in for comparison, quickly discovered that this haunted temple area could efficiently necromance humans whose bodies contained "poisoned rice" and "pig meat".

The conversion process is smooth, painless, and has no obvious side effects.

Following this line of thought, the Sea Serpent's expert team designed a series of controlled experiments. By repeatedly sending people inside to "become undead," they finally confirmed the existence of a powerful "field" in the ruins of the Ghost Temple.

This field can greatly enhance and stabilize the transformation process of the dead among people who consume "poisonous rice" or "pig meat," making it smooth, efficient, and of stable quality.

Further research revealed that some seemingly ordinary spirit tablets or fragments of ritual implements brought out of the ruins, even when taken out of the ghost temple area, also possess this magical ability to "infect the dead".

In reality, these small objects are the habitats of those little liches.

Liches without a physical form need a physical vessel, commonly known as a "life box," which makes sense as a source of undead transformation.

Unfortunately, once the darkness began to spread, the sea serpent could no longer send anyone in.

The ruins are taking shape, and they'll start killing people!

The spiritual tablets and ritual artifacts that the Four-Clawed Sea Serpent currently possesses, which it brought out in the early days, have become its most precious "strategic assets."

Now, Kenichiro Kishi's plan is to respectfully send these "spirits of the empire" overseas.

Let's unleash the "Heaven and Earth Live Together" move! If we're going to die, we'll all die together!

The preferred areas are naturally those that have also been fed "poisoned rice" and "pigs" by bald eagles.

For example, the bald eagle's native habitat.

For example, the country of cacti, the largest rice exporter of eagles.
For example, another loyal dog of the bald eagle not only imports bald eagle rice, but also imports "radical pork" (pork containing ractopamine) under certain testing conditions.

For example, the Eastern Xia!

Is there still something to do with the Eastern Xia here?

It really does.

Although the price of white rice was extremely high, making it uncompetitive except for selling to its smaller neighbors, and only some private companies in Dongxia had ever purchased it in small quantities, it is highly likely that there was no such thing as "adulteration" at that time, so the possibility of infection was extremely low.

Dongxia was even more vigilant against "Lai pigs" and prohibited them from crossing the border, but Dongxia actually did have these "Lai pigs".

Ractopamine-treated pigs, also known as ractopamine-treated pigs, are permitted to be added to livestock by more than twenty countries and regions worldwide that have close ties with white-headed eagles. The vast majority of other countries not only prohibit their use but also forbid their import.

The only region on the entire planet that allows the unrestricted import of this thing is Dongdao Island, the pearl of Dongxia.

Coincidentally, this is also the overseas region where the Four-Clawed Sea Serpent has the deepest operations and the greatest influence, bar none.

This place has a large following of sea serpent enthusiasts, including top politicians and regional leaders.

The layout of the sea serpent here is more convenient than in any other place.

Kenichiro Kishimoto tapped his finger heavily on the location of the island on the map, his voice filled with a sense of excitement.

"Once we establish a foothold on the Eastern Island, panic will spread like a plague. At that time, a large number of 'islanders' will inevitably flee in panic to the main branch of Eastern Xia..."

"Perhaps our 'heroic spirits' can take this opportunity to visit the Eastern Xia Continent and see the sights."

"I'm sure my Sea Serpent ancestors would yearn for that land!"

It's tough on these heroes who sacrificed their lives for their country and now have to fight abroad!
Before his departure, in the dark underground shrine, Kishi Shinichiro invited a master of the Shinto sect to hold a grand festival.

The commander, dressed in a traditional crested haori hakama, bowed deeply, while the Shinto masters, fully armed, danced an ancient dance. The spirit tablets and fragments of ritual implements about to "depart" were enshrined in the center of the altar, surrounded by swirling black mist.

After the ceremony, Anxin walked to the altar, slowly knelt down, and then bowed deeply in the most standard "dogeza" posture.

"The nation's fate is in peril, and the country is on the verge of collapse. Now, we have no choice but to implore you all to embark on this journey once more..."

After the performance, Kenichiro Kishi slowly rose and watched as the ritual implements disguised as works of art were escorted away by armed personnel.

At that moment, a feeling mixed with tragedy, self-pity and extreme excitement swept over him, making his hands and feet tremble and his whole body shudder.

He seemed to see the backs of generations of sea serpent "sages" who were trying to escape their fate of being trapped in this deadly place.

Lord Yushiba once launched the first war of conquest against Xia by the Sea Serpents. After his defeat, he died and his kingdom was destroyed. Then, generation after generation of Serpent Kingdom politicians took over, doing their best to await the will of Heaven, and finally they had the momentum to swallow up the continent.

The outcome of this battle remains to be seen!
(End of this chapter)