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

Pleasant times always fly by. In the blink of an eye, the few days of vacation have come to an end. Li Xingyue's vacation is about to end, and the meeting time that Li Xingyao and Lin Wei agreed to meet is also just around the corner.

As dusk falls, the lights cast long, slender shadows on the platforms of underground stations in Shanshan City.

"When you get to Tianjing City, remember to send me a message." Li Xingyue looked up at her younger brother, who was now much taller than her, and carefully straightened his collar. Her eyes were slightly red, and she tried her best to keep her tone calm. "Don't act impulsively. Think things through. Safety first. As for Lin Wei... Uncle said she's very beautiful and has a complicated background. You need to be careful, okay? Don't be silly."

"Don't worry, sis, I know. And I have no feelings for Lin Wei." Li Xingyao nodded with a smile, his tone relaxed, trying to dispel the sadness of parting. "You too, don't just focus on the experiments, remember to eat on time and take care of yourself. I'll come see you again next vacation."

An announcement came on, and a gentle female voice urged passengers heading to Tianjing to board the train.

Li Xingyue finally couldn't hold back anymore, stepped forward and hugged her younger brother tightly, her voice choked with emotion: "Take good care of yourself..."

"Yes, you too." Li Xingyao gently hugged his sister back, feeling the warmth of their family affection.

The train doors slid open slowly. Li Xingyao picked up his luggage, gave his sister a bright, sunny smile to reassure her, waved vigorously, and turned to step into the carriage.

The train doors closed, shutting out the image of the older sister on the platform, who was trying to hold back her tears and was reluctant to leave.

The train slowly started moving and accelerated, and the platform lights gradually receded and shrank until they were completely swallowed up by the darkness deep in the tunnel.

Looking out the car window at the dim tunnel walls rushing past, the bright smile that belonged to his younger brother on Li Xingyao's face vanished like a receding tide, replaced by his usual calm and profound expression, even with a hint of coldness.

The "holiday" is over.

It's time for "work".

Li Xingyao turned around and walked straight to his private room.

It was time to continue his unfinished exploration in the World of the Dead. Last night, while searching for the lich, his mental energy briefly swept across an area of ​​the World of the Dead, and in that fleeting glimpse, he seemed to see a blurry, wandering figure—its features strikingly similar to the "lich" described in the records!

However, before Li Xingyao could investigate further, a colossal Netherworld dragon exuding a terrifying aura swept across the area. The overwhelming pressure forced him to sever the connection, and his mental energy rapidly retreated.

Now, free from external interference, it's time to reconnect to the world of the dead and take a closer look at that area to see what kind of undead dwell there. Was that figure truly a lich?

Li Xingyao pushed open the door to the private room, his steps steady and firm, his eyes sharp as knives, as if he had already pierced through the barriers of space and looked into that gray world full of death and opportunity.

The eternally gray sky of the dead world, like a thick, filthy blanket, presses low over the entire world, isolating it from all vibrant colors and light. There is no sun, moon, or stars here, only an eternal, oppressive gray-white.

The dry, cold air, carrying fine dust particles, flowed silently, stirring up bone meal from the ground and emitting a faint hissing sound like a sigh.

Li Xingyao's spiritual body hovered beneath the desolate sky, like a ghost. He silently estimated the distance; based on the vague sense of direction provided by his spiritual markers and memories, he was already more than five thousand kilometers away from the place where he first descended.

On Earth, such a distance would be enough to cross continental plates.

However, as far as Li Xingyao looked, the landscape was still an endless, barren plain covered with gray bone fragments and rubble, with only a few low, bare rocky hills breaking the monotony of the horizon like tombstones.

"Just how vast is this world?" This thought arose in Li Xingyao's mind again, filled with a sense of awe and indescribable insignificance. "The area I have explored is probably less than one ten-thousandth of this world."

Does it truly have boundaries? Or is it, in itself, a manifestation of the laws of death?

Gathering his scattered thoughts, Li Xingyao focused his attention on the present. His spiritual body, as if drawn by invisible threads, rapidly drifted towards the special area indicated by yesterday's spiritual marker. There lay his target—a suspected lich.

After flying for about fifteen minutes, the surrounding scenery began to subtly change. The land was no longer the unchanging barrenness; instead, the remains of some huge, regular rock foundations began to appear. They were like the ribs of a giant beast, broken and shattered, yet stubbornly protruding from the ground, outlining some grand blueprint that had long been lost.

The massive foundation of the wall is half-buried in the soil, covered with a thick layer of grayish-white sediment, where some unnatural ridges and human traces can still be vaguely discerned.

This is a huge urban ruin.

Li Xingyao's mind wavered. This was the first time he had seen such obvious traces of artificial creation in the world of the dead! Before this, he thought that this world only contained various undead creatures and the natural nests or battlefield ruins formed by their activities.

These ruins prove that a civilization once existed here, or at least that an intelligent race capable of building cities once existed. This discovery gave him a new understanding of the world of the dead.

Li Xingyao lowered his altitude to observe more closely. The ruins were astonishingly large; even though most of them were buried by time and dust, their remaining foundations still hinted at their former grandeur. However, in eerie contrast to this vast scale was silence.

A silence that was almost deathly still.

Apart from a few scattered, aimlessly wandering skeleton warriors, and one or two skeleton mages further away whose bodies flickered with faint energy and seemed to be staring blankly at some mark on the ground, this vast ruin, which should have been teeming with low-level undead, was strangely filled with large "blank" areas. This unusual emptiness was more unsettling than if it were filled with undead.

Something unusual must be going on. In Li Xingyao's limited understanding of the world of the dead, such a large "vacuum" area often meant the existence of powerful, high-level undead. Their aura and pressure dispelled all the lower-level undead, preventing them from approaching.

"Looks like I've found the right place. There's no aura that terrifies me here, and given the circumstances, there must be a high-level undead here," Li Xingyao thought to himself. His mental perception became more refined and concealed, like an invisible observer, and he began to carefully conduct a carpet search along the huge outer ring of the ruins, from the outside in.

After scanning a considerable distance and passing countless broken walls and ruins, just as Li Xingyao was wondering if his perception was wrong, his "vision" suddenly caught sight of the ruins of a building ahead. It should be a temple-like structure, and there were unusual spiritual energy fluctuations in this area.

Li Xingyao immediately stopped moving, minimizing his mental fluctuations, and as if blending into the environment, carefully "looked" around.

In the distance, amidst the massive foundation rubble, a dozen or so figures were gathered!

Their bodies are similar to those of humans, but they are more slender and elongated, with a dark obsidian-like color, or like ancient ivory soaked in time.

They were covered in tattered but still faintly discernible fragments of their once magnificent and exquisite dark robes. The intricate runes embroidered on the robes with some unknown metal thread had long since faded, yet they still emitted a faint magical fluctuation.

Their finger bones were exceptionally long, with a faint, chilling mist of death energy swirling around their joints. But most striking were the soul flames burning in their eye sockets—two more condensed, deeper dark blue flames! An elegant, calm, and ancient aura emanated from them.

They faced each other, their dark blue soul flames flickering and fading at a unique frequency, forming a silent yet efficient form of communication. At the center of their circle, a fragmented yet extremely complex magic circle was inscribed on the ground, containing pure death energy. They seemed to be conducting some kind of joint deduction.

Liches! And a small lich gang at that!

Li Xingyao's heart was instantly filled with immense joy! They found them! And not just one!

"If we can take this whole group with us, then I won't have to put in the effort to develop the advanced skills myself. Liches can unite to cast skills of advanced level or higher; they can act like information relay devices, each responsible for a part, and then forming a whole to cast high-difficulty spells."

Upon seeing them for the first time, Li Xingyao was reminded of the characteristics of multiple liches combined.

Without the slightest hesitation or preparation, they were facing undead that were highly intelligent, extremely vigilant, and difficult to summon. Any small movement could instantly alert them, causing them to scatter and flee, or even launch a counterattack.

With his mind locked onto one of the liches located at the edge of the group, which seemed to be the strongest, Li Xingyao's mental power instantly crossed space and connected to the past!

Undead Summoning!

hum!

It was as if an invisible vortex had suddenly formed! An immense suction force instantly acted on the lich! Li Xingyao clearly felt that the star energy within his body poured out like a flood, and more than a third of it was instantly drawn away!

Summoning high-level undead, the cost is truly terrifying!

This sudden attack was clearly completely unexpected by the lich and its companions! The lich, now locked on, stiffened abruptly, its dark blue soulfire pulsating violently. A powerful, icy mental resistance surged forth like a mental shield, attempting to break free from this forceful summons from an unknown space!

The liches around it also noticed the anomaly at almost the same time. Their soulfire suddenly intensified, and they all turned towards the lich. Its withered fingers were raised, and a chilling fluctuation of spiritual and death energy instantly condensed in the air.

Their reaction speed is astonishing! They intend to prevent their companions from being summoned away!

"Hmph!" Li Xingyao sneered inwardly; he had been prepared for this situation.