Soulstone Seal

The Evil Spirit of Ice laughed wildly high above Hanyuan.

Along with the laughter came a powerful, overwhelming pressure.

"Such a terrifying aura—cold, brutal, and slightly frenzied. Old Ye, doesn't this feel a bit like that old dragon?"

Xiang Longwu circulated his inner qi, manifesting his fist intent to help everyone resist the pressure of the Evil Spirit of Ice.

Ye Bufan looked up at the Evil Spirit of Ice in the sky.

Although the spirit's pressure did weigh heavily on him, it felt incomplete compared to the aura of the Black Dragon he had faced in Mohai.

While Ye Bufan and the others were considering their strategy, Chen Xu had already begun his deployment.

The spatial gate to the Undead Kingdom opened, and a continuous stream of ghosts surged out.

"Brother Chen, do you seem to know this Evil Spirit of Ice?"

Ye Bufan asked, seeing Chen Xu's composed expression.

"Yes. This Evil Spirit of Ice originates from the ghost race of the Land of the Undead."

A long, long time ago, the status of ghosts in the Land of the Undead was actually not very high.

As high-tier units among the undead, their status should have been significant.

However, the reality was that across many generations of the Lord of the Undead, not a single one had ever come from the ghost race. Even the most common skeleton soldiers had produced several Lords, yet the high-tier ghosts had none, as if they were cursed.

One must understand that as the supreme ruler of the Land of the Undead, the Lord of the Undead fully wields the authority of that realm and can modify, erase, or even add new rules.

Although undead creatures have weak concepts of race and no concept of family, every Lord of the Undead would more or less modify the rules to favor their own kind during their path of advancement.

This led to a gradual decline in the status of ghosts. Sometimes, even common skeletons would look down on ghosts of the same rank, or even those a rank higher.

Under these circumstances, the ghosts refused to accept their fate. If their race did not produce a Lord of the Undead soon, the rules would be entirely rewritten by other races. They feared that in a few hundred million years, ghosts would become the bottom tier of the Land of the Undead, trampled under the feet of ordinary skeletons.

Thus, driven by the ambition for racial prosperity, the strongest among the ghosts turned their attention toward the Elemental Spirit Realm.

In their view, the spiritual body of a ghost shared certain similarities with the elemental body of an elemental spirit. If they could fuse spirit with elements, they would surely strengthen their race.

Later, through the ghost race's machinations, they actually managed to steal a portion of the elemental source from the Elemental Spirit Realm. As for how they achieved this, the inherited knowledge contained no specific record of the process.

However, the results were documented in detail. The ghost race obtained the elemental source, and some powerful ghosts fused with it, ascending into new forms.

There was the Evil Spirit of Ice who mastered ice power, the Explosive Flame Red Spirit who mastered fire power, and the Nether Ghost Fire who mastered lightning power.

Among the three elemental variants, the Nether Ghost Fire was the strongest. The most powerful Nether Ghost Fire of that era eventually seized the throne as the new Lord of the Undead.

After ascending to the high throne, the advancement rules for elemental variants were added to the laws of the Land of the Undead, giving ghosts the possibility of higher-tier growth.

Ordinary ghosts naturally peak at the epic-tier. However, the three elemental variants are all mythic-tier.

"So you are saying that thing up there is a powerful mythic-tier monster?" Xiang Longwu asked after hearing Chen Xu's explanation.

"To be precise, it is only half of one."

"Half?"

"Yes. This Evil Spirit of Ice is incomplete. It was likely artificially split into two halves. The one that just broke free from the seal is only one half. As for the other half, I suspect it is sealed within the moat rings of the sixth and seventh rings."

"To split a mythic-tier being alive and seal it to serve as a power source for a defensive array... this Hanyuan is not to be underestimated."

The information regarding the three elemental ghost variants occupied a significant portion of the Lord of the Undead's inherited knowledge.

Therefore, Chen Xu had observed that the state of the Evil Spirit of Ice in the sky was incorrect. Although its mythic-tier pressure was still formidable, it was far too weak compared to a true Evil Spirit of Ice.

In the sky, the laughing Evil Spirit of Ice also sensed that something was wrong.

All its power had escaped from the seal, yet its strength should have been far greater than this.

The Evil Spirit of Ice looked down at Hanyuan City, its eyes filled with hatred.

It then scanned the moats and felt its own power emanating from them.

The Evil Spirit of Ice let out a roar. "Despicable Night Elf King! I will pull out your soul and hang it in the slaughterhouse of the Land of the Undead! I will make you watch with your own eyes as your kin and your people are hacked into pieces of raw meat and stitched back together into those disgusting abominations!"

Two frozen orbs appeared in the hands of the Evil Spirit of Ice. With a strange shriek, it hurled them toward Hanyuan City.

However, the frozen orbs did not hit the city as the spirit expected. Instead, they were blocked and devoured by a faint blue energy shield in mid-air. The energy from the orbs flowed through the shield and into the moats.

"Despicable Night Elf King!" the Evil Spirit of Ice cursed again. It was bad enough that its other half was sealed, but it had even been turned into an array that could block its own attacks.

"Evil Spirit of Ice! Tell me your name!"

Hearing someone call out to it, the Evil Spirit of Ice looked back and found a group of ordinary humans, along with many skeleton soldiers and ghosts. Most peculiar of all was a massive skeleton giant. It had no memory of which Hell Archduke this creature served.

"Heh, which Hell Archduke's contracted Necromancer is this, to be willing to give you so many skeleton soldiers and ghosts?"

The Evil Spirit of Ice muttered under its breath, then teleported in front of Chen Xu, looking down at him.

"Necromancer, report the name of the Hell Archduke behind you, then find me ten million units of food. If you do, I will overlook your insolence."

"Haha, overlook my insolence?"

Chen Xu extended his right hand, palm upward. The skeleton mage hero Tal Rasha emerged from the Undead Kingdom and placed a dark blue stone into Chen Xu's hand.

"A soulstone! How do you have a soulstone!"

The Evil Spirit of Ice shrieked the moment it saw the stone in Chen Xu's hand, turning immediately to flee.

Soulstones were tools specifically designed to seal souls, developed by a brilliant mage kingdom within the myriad worlds. Originally, they were merely containers for mages to store living souls and preserve experimental materials.

But later, mages discovered that these containers were perfectly suited for use with sealing spells against troublesome enemies, such as Hell demons and ghosts.

As a soul mage, Tal Rasha knew how to craft soulstones, and he seemed to have a strange fondness for them, making many in his spare time.

The moment the Evil Spirit of Ice appeared, Chen Xu had thought of Tal Rasha and his soulstones.

The Evil Spirit of Ice flew rapidly toward the sky, but Chen Xu's ghosts had already secretly surrounded the area, pouncing on the spirit with frenzy to block its escape.

Then, a massive castle appeared out of thin air, pinning the Evil Spirit of Ice beneath it.

"The Overlord's Castle! You... you are the current candidate!"

Holding the soulstone, Chen Xu approached the Evil Spirit of Ice.

"I... I am willing to submit to you, great candidate! I know many secrets of the Land of the Undead! I can help you ascend to the throne... Ah! No! No!"

Chen Xu ignored the pleas of the Evil Spirit of Ice and directly activated the soulstone, thrusting it into the spirit's head.

Pressed down by the Overlord's Castle, the Evil Spirit of Ice was unable to move. It could only watch helplessly as it was sucked bit by bit into the soulstone.