Another World: When a Necromancer Possesses the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls

Li Xingyao got up, preparing to go to the cafeteria for lunch. Actually, he had always liked the school cafeteria, even though it wasn't as good as restaurants outside. However, ever since his sister left the city for higher education, Li Xingyao's breakfasts and dinners had been handled by automated machines. He had tried to recreate some of the dishes from his previous life, but the ingredients were too expensive, and he genuinely lacked any cooking talent.

Li Xingyao smiled. It seems that, just like in his previous life, he was destined to be connected with the cafeteria.

The afternoon training ground was empty and cold, the floor gleaming metallic under the lights. Barriers rose up around the perimeter, separating each training cubicle.

"In the early stages of a summoner's game, the key isn't a wide variety of skills, but rather 'stability.'" Teacher Lin stood in the center of the arena, his voice clearly reaching each student's ears. "Can your summoned creatures be summoned when needed? Can they accurately execute your commands once they appear? All of this depends on the strength of your mental power and your control over star energy."

Finally, it was time to summon him. Li Xingyao walked into his assigned cubicle. Using his star energy, he began the summoning process, and with a 'whoosh,' a skeleton warrior appeared before him.

Li Xingyao was a little stunned. The undead warrior opposite him was still standing silently, staring at him, just like in the undead realm.

"The air is a bit quiet," Li Xingyao sensed something was off. He couldn't help but say, "Wait a minute, although the information I read yesterday said the summoning time was both fast and slow, it still required guidance. How did this suddenly happen?"

Unconvinced, Li Xingyao summoned again, and the same thing happened once more. Another undead skeleton appeared before him, and both skeletons remained silently motionless.

Looking around, Li Xingyao sensed something was amiss. Leaving the skeleton warrior in his cubicle, he turned and headed towards the cubicle belonging to the light-attribute female student.

"Although she's a light-attribute character, she belongs to the summoning category. So she must be summoning. Let's go check on her," Li Xingyao thought as he walked.

Sure enough, as soon as I entered the girl's cubicle, I saw her using Star Energy to summon something. A ball of light bloomed in her hand, and a few seconds later, a light-type spirit the size of a small dog appeared in front of her.

"Her situation is a bit different from mine. I wonder if it's because of our different professions. I guess I'll have to experiment a bit more," Li Xingyao thought to himself after observing for a while.

Back in his cubicle, Li Xingyao retrieved the two undead skeletons and continued his summoning attempts. This time, he didn't communicate with the undead space; he summoned directly using the method described in the textbook.

This summoning was different from the previous ones; black mist appeared before him once again. As the star energy was depleted, a skeleton warrior slowly appeared before him.

Li Xingyao leaned closer to examine it and discovered that this skeleton warrior was somewhat different from the one he had seen before. Its material, height, and weapons were all noticeably reduced.

"I wonder if their combat abilities are different," but that's not the most pressing issue right now. I'll try to figure it out during my training later. For the first day of training, I'll just follow the instructor's instructions.

Today's training was destined to be tedious and even torturous. Teacher Lin's requirements were simple: for students specializing in pure summoning, it was to repeatedly complete the "summon - dismiss and recall" cycle in the shortest amount of time.

After an hour of summoning training, everyone's mental state had noticeably declined. Teacher Lin then organized another meditation session, and after everyone recovered, they entered free practice time.

Without hesitation, Li Xingyao chose to further refine his "Arrow of Death" spell in the subsequent spell lessons. He walked to a standard target position, took a deep breath, cleared his mind of all distractions, and then began to condense star energy, guiding the energy to form an arrow in front of him.

Focus, stabilize, aim, launch!

"I did it! I'm a mage now!" Li Xingyao was excited. As a "model student" who had played games, watched movies, and read novels, becoming a mage had always been one of his goals! Now he could finally achieve it.

Focus again, aim again, and launch again!

Although I had just done summoning training, the feeling of summoning a pet to fight for itself is distinctly different from the sensation of actually casting a spell.

In the initial stages, the formation speed of the Death Arrow was inconsistent, sometimes fast and sometimes slow. The density of the arrow itself also fluctuated. Sometimes the energy was too dispersed, and the arrow would dissipate more than halfway through its flight; other times, due to the emphasis on stability, the formation time was longer, resulting in increased star energy consumption and difficulty in controlling the flight trajectory and accuracy.

"Keep going, I'm about to roll up my sleeves! As someone who has undergone 'three years of college entrance exam preparation and five years of mock exams,' doing repetitive practice questions is nothing."

After resting, Li Xingyao resumed his practice, immersing himself in repetitive exercises. He focused his mental energy, carefully experiencing each convergence of stellar energy, feeling every subtle step as the energy gathered at his fingertips and formed the arrow.

Ten times, twenty times, fifty times... He would meditate to recover whenever his star energy was depleted. But he didn't stop; he carefully felt the entire process of each energy mobilization, trying to get used to this state.

Looking up at his classmates, he saw that they were all resting in their cubicles, some sitting and some standing, with most of their eyes on Li Xingyao.

Actually, the other students had already rested for a long time. After all, this was the first training course, and many people hadn't yet adjusted from their previous state. Before awakening, they had mostly done physical training; the use of star energy, especially the practice of spell skills, consumes different amounts of it.

After three hours of intensive training in the afternoon, Li Xingyao was utterly exhausted, wishing he could lie down immediately. But his heart was filled with a tremendous sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. His mastery of the fundamental skill, Death Arrow, had clearly improved significantly; the feeling of wielding the spell was so real and wondrous.

"I still need to practice more to improve my proficiency. I can't release Death Arrow at will yet. After all, it's a basic skill, and I need to try to make it 'instantaneous' as much as possible." Li Xingyao thought about today's lesson while packing his things.

Although today's gains were significant, reflecting on the battle videos I've watched before, aside from preparation time, the combat speed of those classes was incredibly fast. Even in magic-based battles, it was a barrage of skills with very short casting times.

That evening, Li Xingyao skillfully activated the "Circulation Method" he had learned during the day, guiding the newly generated star energy flow to nourish his somewhat "dry" body and repair his mental fatigue. He could clearly feel that after today's high-intensity training, his body and mind were in a state of extreme "hunger," and the effect of his meditation seemed exceptionally good, with the recovery speed and growth activity of his star energy being much more active and efficient.

"It seems that consumption and recovery, high-intensity training and focused meditation are two sides of the same coin, complementing and promoting each other." A realization dawned on him, and he gained a clearer understanding of his future training plans.

The first day of professional training ended in this state of extreme physical exhaustion but immense mental excitement.

The night was deep in the public apartment building.

Li Xingyao completed his second meditation session and slowly opened his eyes. His star vortex had grown stronger, but the mental fatigue also arrived as expected, as if he had run a marathon, leaving his head feeling somewhat dizzy.

Meditation practice and meditation are very different. Meditation practice is the cultivation of star energy to increase star energy, while meditation is the restoration of mental energy.

"If only I could meditate and practice one more time..." This thought popped into my head uncontrollably.

"Meditation practice... is the process of guiding the omnipresent stellar energy into the body, cleansing the meridians, and converging it into the stellar vortex."

"Soul power... is essentially energy, and it's pure spiritual energy... could it increase the number of times I can cultivate?" A bold idea was born in his mind.

With a thought, he carefully guided a wisp of soul power, as thin as a spider's thread, slowly flowing into his limbs and bones, eventually merging into his mind.

"Buzz..."

An indescribable feeling of comfort instantly spread throughout my body! It was like parched land receiving sweet rain, and the previous fatigue and drowsiness receded as quickly as the tide! In its place was a cool, clear, and energetic feeling, and my mental energy was even more active and abundant than before I started meditating!

"This?!" Li Xingyao's eyes widened suddenly, his face filled with unbelievable joy!

"Soul power can actually replenish the body's fatigue after meditation?! Doesn't that mean..."

An astonishing deduction exploded in his mind: since soul power can eliminate the physical and mental fatigue after meditation, does that mean that he can use soul power to "reset" his physical and mental state after the second meditation session, thus allowing him to meditate a third time, or even more?!

This idea is somewhat risky and completely goes against the teacher's warning today.

But the temptation of having an extra opportunity to cultivate star energy every day was too great for Li Xingyao, so great that he couldn't resist giving it a try.

Suppressing his excitement, Li Xingyao did not act immediately. He waited patiently for a moment, carefully sensing his state after being nourished by soul power. After confirming that there was no discomfort, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes again.

This time, he was even more focused than before. His consciousness sank in, and his stellar energy was once again activated…

When the third meditation session ended, Li Xingyao carefully examined his body. He did feel a slight throbbing pain in his meridians, and a bit of mental fatigue, but it was far from the point where he needed to stop, as his elder had suggested. Moreover, the effectiveness of this meditation was almost undiminished!

"It worked! It really works!" He almost cheered.