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

It seemed to be awakened by some force; the enormous, blood-red soul fire, like a searchlight from hell, scanned back and forth, piercing through layers of dense deathly gray mist. Instantly, its head turned towards Li Xingyao, and its spiritual power spread out at the same time.

It was discovered!

An unprecedented sense of crisis, like the hardest ice, instantly gripped Li Xingyao's entire soul! In front of that giant skeletal ape, he felt as insignificant as dust!

The opponent didn't even need to launch a real attack; a single malicious thought was enough to completely crush his fragile consciousness, leaving not even a trace!

escape!

The thought flashed through his mind like lightning tearing through the night sky! The instinct for survival overwhelmed everything!

Li Xingyao instantly severed all mental connections with the world of death! At the same time, his mental will, like a frightened bird startled by a twang of a bow, retreated frantically along the mental channel he had come from at the fastest speed he had ever experienced!

He dared not linger even for a moment to observe the beast's specific reactions, nor even to guess what it was going to do! Only one thought remained in his mind: Leave! Return to reality!

"Huff... huff... huff..."

His consciousness crashed back into his physical body like a cannonball! Li Xingyao opened his eyes abruptly, gasping for breath like a fish out of water! His entire body was instantly soaked in cold sweat, his school uniform clinging tightly to his skin!

My heart pounded wildly in my chest, as if it wanted to break free of my ribs and leap out! My fingertips trembled uncontrollably, and the lingering fear deep in my soul lingered for a long time.

The mental impact of that devastating pressure made his head feel as if it had been repeatedly struck by a heavy hammer, with waves of throbbing pain.

Although Li Xingyao knew that the world of death was dangerous, this was just too terrifying! The devastating pressure from even a brief encounter at the level of consciousness almost caused him to have a mental breakdown!

This was the first time since he transmigrated that he had so directly and profoundly felt the terrifying truth of the superpowered world: the power gap between levels was like an insurmountable chasm, enough to cause absolute crushing!

"What exactly was that thing?" Li Xingyao thought with lingering fear, a chill running down his spine. The danger of the world of death far exceeded his previous understanding. In that unknown depths lurked too many terrifying beings capable of instantly annihilating a novice like him.

This instilled in him a deeper desire for power, while also bringing with it a sense of awe.

He forced himself to take a few deep breaths, trying to suppress the churning blood and the palpitations in his soul, and turned his gaze to the center of the training room. The skeleton spearman he had just summoned still stood there quietly, holding the hideous bone spear, the eerie blue soul fire burning calmly.

"This is not something I can summon right now. But so high-level creatures are this terrifying? What level of undead is it?" Li Xingyao sorted out her thoughts and calmed herself down.

After recovering, Li Xingyao suppressed his deep fear of the unknown behemoth and focused his mind again. This time, he became even more cautious, like an engineer scouting a minefield.

Carefully avoiding the direction from which the terrifying pressure had been sensed, like the most agile fish, they quickly scanned and filtered only in the relatively safe edge of the Sea of ​​Skeletons.

"Found it!" Soon, he locked onto another skeleton spearman far from the core area.

call!

Star energy consumption: 40 points; Soul power consumption: 30 points.

"Crack!" The familiar sound of bones dislocating rang out.

A second skeleton spearman appeared in the training room. The same slender frame, the same menacing bone spear.

Then, the third, the fourth...

When the star energy reserves dropped below the warning line, Li Xingyao decisively stopped the summoning. In the training room, along with the first one, a total of four skeleton spear throwers stood silently, their pale bone spears, tightly gripped, gleaming with a chilling light under the lamplight.

"Line up!" Li Xingyao issued the command through the mental link, his voice echoing in his consciousness.

The four spear throwers moved instantly! Without the slightest hesitation or confusion! They took off with their bony legs, moving swiftly and smoothly, forming a neat horizontal line. Their movements were coordinated and natural, far superior to the stiff and clumsy movements of ordinary skeleton warriors.

Their empty eye sockets all stared at Li Xingyao, their ghostly blue soul flames flickering as they quietly awaited the next command.

"Target, energy target ahead!" Li Xingyao's mind raced, pointing to the dented alloy target. "Spears! Volley!"

The instant the command was issued!

"Waaaaah—! Waaaaah—! Waaaaah—!!"

Four piercing shrieks, almost simultaneously tearing through the air, rang out! Four pale bone spears transformed into four meteors, carrying immense force as they slammed into the same target.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!"

Four muffled, thunderous explosions, almost overlapping each other, erupted in the cramped training room! Like four heavy artillery shells firing simultaneously!

The alloy target emitted a teeth-grinding, unbearably strained groan! The entire structure twisted and deformed violently! The previous dent widened instantly! Metal fragments flew everywhere!

The physical impact values ​​on the screen jumped and flickered wildly like a runaway top, finally displaying a staggering superimposed value amidst a blinding red light—

[1280 points (piercing)]!

The combined power! The effect is stunning! Far exceeding expectations!

Looking at the chaotic scene before him, Li Xingyao couldn't help but smile, a strong sense of accomplishment washing away his previous fear. "It's done! The problem of the power of ranged physical attacks is temporarily solved! Four spears fired simultaneously, over 1200 points of piercing damage!"

"This power is enough to instantly kill or severely injure most opponents of the same level!" He seemed to see the scene in the wilderness where those star beasts howled and fell to the ground under the attack of the bone spear.

However, when his gaze fell upon the glaring message that popped up on the screen: "[Target severely damaged! Estimated repair/replacement cost: 1200 credits]", his excitement was instantly extinguished by half. "Tsk... It's ruined. Another considerable expense... I should have done this kind of destructive testing at the school's training grounds."

Li Xingyao withdrew his gaze with some annoyance. The repair of the Myriad Soul Banner requires soul power, soul power requires hunting, hunting requires strength, improving strength requires training, training requires a training ground, and damaged training grounds require repair... a perfect cycle.

After a brief period of financial pain, Li Xingyao discovered that a new problem had arisen:

1. Increased Summoning Cost: Summoning a Skeleton Spearman requires approximately 40 Star Power and 30 Soul Power, which is about 1.3 times the cost of summoning a regular Skeleton Warrior (approximately 30 Star Power). Although its individual power is enormous, the summoning cost is significantly higher.

2. The ammunition problem is highlighted: the bone spears thrown by the spear throwers are part of their own skeletons! After throwing them, their hands are empty! Li Xingyao tried to command them to pick up the four twisted, deformed or broken bone spears on the ground through mental connection, but they did not respond.

Clearly, in their simple, intuitive logic, the thrown bone spears no longer belong to their "possessions." They have become... bare-handed skeletons.

3. Sustained combat capability is questionable: After completing one throw, the spear thrower completely loses its only ranged attack method and becomes a melee unit that is slightly stronger than the ordinary skeleton warrior.

How can we solve the ammunition supply problem so that they can have a continuous long-range firepower output capability?

"The bone spear... is part of their body..." Li Xingyao squatted down and picked up a sharp fragment of a bone spear that had been knocked to his feet. It was cold and heavy to the touch, and its texture was unusually hard, far exceeding that of ordinary bones.

"Does this mean that after each throw, additional star energy must be consumed to re-condense the bone spears? Or... should spare bone spears be 'stored' for them in advance within the undead space?"

Just as Li Xingyao was deep in thought with his brows furrowed, a faint, almost imperceptible dark red light flashed within the ancient banner floating in his sea of ​​consciousness.

That light… that aura… Li Xingyao was instantly drawn to it! This feeling was so familiar! It was clearly the same aura he felt when he encountered that skeletal giant ape deep in the world of death!

Li Xingyao was shocked! He immediately focused his consciousness into the inner space of the Myriad Soul Banner. Inside the banner, he keenly "saw" a tiny, rice-grain-sized, dark red gas!

It hovered silently, slowly writhing, radiating pure yet violent fluctuations of soul power! It was the unique aura of the soul fire from that giant skeletal ape from before!

"This is..." Li Xingyao was filled with doubt and surprise, his consciousness fluctuating violently within the Myriad Soul Banner's space. "Could it be that when my consciousness was swept by that giant beast's soul fire just now, the Myriad Soul Banner automatically intercepted... or more accurately, forcibly 'scraped' away a wisp of soul power?!"

Overwhelmed by curiosity, he tried to use his mind to carefully and extremely slowly approach the dark red gas.

The instant that mental energy touched that point of gas—

hum!

The dark red gas suddenly burst forth with light! A scorching, violent, and terrifying aura, seemingly capable of igniting the very essence of the soul, erupted instantly!

"Ugh!" Li Xingyao groaned in reality, feeling as if his mental energy had been branded with a red-hot iron, a sharp pain shooting through his brain! But what shocked him even more was that, with the burst of this aura, the ghostly blue soul fire in the eye sockets of the four skeleton spear throwers standing still in the training room suddenly flickered and surged wildly!

As if subjected to some intense stimulus, their skeletons trembled slightly, emitting a faint "crackling" sound!

At the same time, the Myriad Souls Banner itself also showed an unprecedented, almost greedy "desire" for this foreign, powerful soul energy! The ancient banner surface trembled slightly, emitting a clear and strong desire to devour it!

Li Xingyao endured the burning pain in his mind and tried to use his mental power as a guide to carefully lead it toward the Myriad Soul Banner, instead of letting it dissipate.