Soul School

“Res-respected Mythic Venerable, you still know of the Akhan Dynasty?”

Oris heard Chen Xu’s words, his whole body trembled, and he couldn’t even speak properly.

“Great Archmage above! Offending a Mythic Venerable was already bad enough, but one who knew of the Akhan Dynasty—it was truly over now.”

Chen Xu nodded.

“Akhan’s magic and mental research were very remarkable; those archmages were all extraordinary beings. I once went there to study, drawn by their reputation, and trained at the Balance School for a period.”

Chen Xu said plainly, a hint of reminiscence in his eyes.

That period in Akhan was one of the few times in this life when he truly worked hard and studied diligently. Later, he was dazzled by the power of his talent and fell into the grand path of the Lord of the Undead.

Only when he recalled his time in Akhan did Chen Xu feel like he was still a diligent and hardworking young man, that every bit of his strength was earned through his own efforts!

But this simple statement, in Oris’s eyes, stirred up huge waves.

The Balance School, one of the Ten Schools, and ranked quite high among them. Now it was truly over.

Although his own Soul School was also one of the Ten, one was a Mythic Venerable and the other an ordinary mage. After their backgrounds canceled each other out, Oris felt his future was bleak.

He could only pray that this Venerable was truly magnanimous and would forgive his offense.

“Sir Oris, which school are you from?”

“I am from the Soul School, respected Venerable.”

“The Soul School, also one of the Ten Schools. Hahaha, then we have quite a connection!”

After easing the atmosphere slightly, Chen Xu got straight to the point: “Sir Oris, what Natural Wonder do you wish to commission?”

Oris was from the Soul School, so Chen Xu wasn’t worried that he couldn’t afford the price, or rather, that the Soul School behind him couldn’t afford it.

For such a large order, Oris was merely an errand runner; the true decision-makers were surely the academy’s influential leaders.

Oris took out a booklet from his robes. Chen Xu recognized it as the simplified Natural Wonder blueprints he had asked Xuan Zhong to draw, which Wanbao Pavilion had then helped print into a promotional brochure.

Oris opened the brochure and skillfully turned to a specific page.

“Respected Venerable, our school wishes to commission this Natural Wonder, the Three-Phase Wraith Reincarnation Pool.”

“A Reincarnation Pool? Do you intend to stop being human?”

The Three-Phase Wraith Reincarnation Pool, ‘three-phase’ refers to the three elemental forms of wraiths: the Evil Spirit of Ice for ice element, the Explosive Flame Red Spirit for fire element, and the Nether Ghost Fire for lightning element.

This Natural Wonder was essentially a lottery machine; living creatures were put into the pool and then converted.

There was an extremely low chance of directly transforming them into mythic-tier elemental variant wraiths.

However, it was more likely that the transformation would fail, resulting in a pile of soul fragments or incomplete wraiths.

Although the success rate of the transformation was quite ‘touching’ (pathetically low), as a Natural Wonder of the Land of the Undead, it naturally had its unique features.

The Three-Phase Wraith Reincarnation Pool’s conversion had a guaranteed minimum. The soul fragments produced from each failed conversion would sink to the bottom of the pool, increasing the success rate of the next transformation.

According to the records of the Lord of the Undead’s legacy, the soul fragments required for this guaranteed success amounted to approximately one million wraiths, or one hundred million ordinary humans. Moreover, this estimate ignored the consumption during the Reincarnation Pool’s conversion process, meaning even more would actually be needed.

Chen Xu couldn’t understand why the Soul School would choose this Natural Wonder. Surely these mages, who revered truth, wouldn’t truly gamble on such a remote probability.

“Have you carefully read the description beneath this Natural Wonder? Just a friendly reminder, the success rate for this Reincarnation Pool’s conversion is extremely, extremely, extremely low, probably similar to your chances of becoming an Archmage.

Don’t come complaining to me later if everyone from your school goes in, turns into soul fragments, and sinks to the bottom of the pool.”

“Respected Venerable, rest assured, we are well aware of all this. We simply believe that this conversion process holds immense research value, and the profound truths it contains could very well create an Archmage!”

As he spoke the words ‘Archmage,’ the fear on Oris’s face momentarily vanished, replaced by an expression of longing and yearning.

“Alright, I’m just reminding you. How you use it is your business; just don’t come bothering me if something goes wrong. I also have connections with the Balance School.”

“Rest assured, what you are concerned about will absolutely not happen.”

Joking aside, who would bother a Mythic Venerable without reason? The current Akhan is no longer the ancient, legacy-rich mage dynasty it once was. After the great disaster, they have learned to act cautiously.

Although the conservative faction’s research might be slower, it was still better than the radical faction losing their lives.

“Sir Oris, I heard from Xuan Zhong that you intend to trade legendary creature corpses and space fragments. May I see the specific list first?”

“Oh, no problem, Venerable, please wait a moment.”

Oris took a booklet from his belt and handed it to Chen Xu.

“This is our school’s list of legendary creatures. Our offer is 100 corpses, plus five space fragments. Of course, the price is negotiable. I came here simply to confirm with you, Venerable, whether this Natural Wonder can truly be built.

After all, such a miraculous item coming from a nascent company in the City of Miracles is indeed a bit incredible.”

Chen Xu didn’t reply to Oris but focused on the legendary creature list in his hand.

It could only be said that Akhan was truly a treasure trove of resources. Although the act of pulling in fragmented spaces had brought Akhan to the brink of extinction, a disaster.

However, these numerous spaces had also brought countless species to Akhan.

This booklet contained over 50 pages, corresponding to more than 50 types of legendary creatures.

Flipping through the legendary creature list, an idea sparked in Chen Xu’s mind: if the Soul School’s reserves were so abundant, then the reserves of other Akhan schools shouldn’t be inferior.

Chen Xu had gone to great lengths to stitch more special creature limbs onto Patchwerk.

He had also inquired with Daxia, but legendary creature carcasses were all excellent forging materials, in high demand at Heavenly Crafts. Often, as soon as pioneering teams sold materials to Heavenly Crafts, they were immediately thrown into Heavenly Crafts’ furnaces.

As for Wanbao Pavilion, Big Boss, the Merchant of Myriad Worlds, had recently gone out on business again. After Chen Xu told his steward his needs, there had been no follow-up.

This Natural Wonder project from the Soul School, however, reminded Chen Xu that the Akhan Dynasty was another treasure trove.

“Sir Oris, although there are many types of legendary creatures, their quality isn’t particularly high. You previously mentioned five space fragments; what are their affixes?”

“They are yellow sand, ice river, illusory, sweet dream, and sky.”

“Illusory!”

Chen Xu hadn’t expected the Soul School to offer even such high-quality space fragments for trade.

“The quality of ‘illusory’ is completely on a different level from the other four, isn’t it?”

Facing Chen Xu’s inquiry, Oris replied nervously, “This illusory fragment has a slight problem. We recovered it from a fallen councilor, so it carries a bit of hell’s corrupting power.”

Corrupting power? Chen Xu immediately thought of the pure white stone in his hand. What was difficult corruption for others was no problem for him.

It seemed Chen Xu could make a huge profit from this deal.

With that, Chen Xu suddenly stood up and looked at Oris with a beaming smile.

“Sir Oris, corruption is not a good thing. This corrupted space fragment, while not exactly garbage, is close to it. Its value is practically zero.”

Oris was startled by Chen Xu’s expression.

“Res-respected Venerable, our school can increase the price. How about you give us a number?”

Chen Xu maintained his smile and held up five fingers.

“Add another 50 legendary creature corpses, and I want them to be non-repeating.”