Right after the New Year, Sandro silently left the Northlands as well.
We discussed many things and came to many agreements that weren't even on paper. It could be said that we had a great time together.
During this process, we both reached a tacit agreement to forget about a certain Undead Emperor who had gone missing … I would never release Conservation. Avoiding a deadlock in a negotiation that was destined to be impossible to reach an agreement was a type of technique.
According to our agreement, within two months, a group of high-level undead would enter the Northlands under the banner of the Xiluo Empire. They would bring with them large amounts of resources and resources, as well as teaching materials that would help train the first human undead mages.
As for me, Sandro was indeed a generous trade partner. He wasn't stingy at all when it came to teaching juniors. Both Harloys and I benefited greatly from him. Of course, as a trade, we also paid a certain amount of our research results.
"Normalization of magic …"
From a certain standpoint, the reason why Undead Emperors were so dangerous was because their research results had already surpassed the limits of the Creator Goddesses. Many seemingly unremarkable things could also be incredibly dangerous as long as one studied them deeply enough.
Actually, in the real world, where you would die if you were beheaded. This wasn't a video game world where you wouldn't die as long as you didn't run out of health. Discussing combat strength and level would be a joke. As long as you could pierce an enemy's vitals, a rusted dagger would be no different from a forbidden spell.
Sandro's research direction began with the normalization of Divine Arts, buffs, debuffs, and other enchantments. He first researched why some spells could be effective for a long time, while others would only be effective for an instant.
Then, he moved on to how to make a short-term explosive spell be effective for a long time. This was like turning something rotten into something magical … It seemed quite difficult to understand. Then, let's give an example. For example, if I made a fireball into a buff spell, the existence that was buffed would constantly explode with flames, burning everything like the sun.
"Transforming a lifeform into an energy form, and then into a magical form … that's inconceivable."
As for how he accomplished this, he didn't explain it. I believed that it was impossible to explain it either, just like how I was unable to explain how I created the Seven Original Sins with words.
Ignoring the process and only talking about the result, the final result was that he gave up his physical body and turned into magic. His entire body was a spell — Ultimate Withering.
The Withering spell was a seventh-circle necromancy spell. It was not very powerful, but it was extremely destructive to living beings. The principle of the spell was to extract all the water in a certain environment and make them wither and die. The spell was very destructive to living beings, but not to the undead … Of course, with Sandro's power, he could also turn bones into powder. The undead would not be able to withstand it.
As for Sandro's physical body, beneath his decaying body, there was a withering spell that was becoming more and more intense. This spell was perpetually evolving. Previously, the fairies had said that Sandro had instantly cast out a forbidden spell, but in reality, he had simply removed his disguise and transformed into a withering spell that could cover the entire plains, forcibly blocking the enemy's forbidden spell and greatly injuring the ordinary warriors.
In the undead world, this wasn't any big secret. As long as Sandro had attacked before, it would naturally spread. This was also the reason why he was nicknamed the "Witherer" and "Lord of Withering".
This was also how Sandro had broken through the limits of an undead's natural physical body and soul to become an Undead Emperor. He had already transformed into magic. What else could possibly restrict him? From a certain standpoint, he was no longer an undead. In fact, it could even be said that he didn't belong to any species at all.
I had long since learned this information from Aso. This was also why I said that Sandro was more dangerous than ten Conservation combined. Other forbidden spell mages would have various restrictions when using forbidden spells. Casting a forbidden spell would cause them to enter a long period of decline. However, Sandro was able to instantly transform into a forbidden spell without any restrictions. If he really gave up on everything and started to destroy the living, that would be an unstoppable calamity.
The price to pay was that Sandro, who had transformed into magic, was no longer able to use normal undead magic. However, this restriction was incomparable to the destructive power of his forbidden spell transformation.
Sandro was a strategic weapon of destruction. He didn't attack, but the moment he attacked, he would furiously create no man's land and change the entire world's map.
It should be mentioned … that any area that was swept over by Sandro's map attack would be destroyed. The soil, plants, and animals would all be destroyed. The soil would lose all moisture and turn into deserts. The undead would also be reduced to bone dust within Sandro's domain. Neither enemy nor ally would be able to survive. Sandro would obtain an entire Undead Plane.
This was a power that could only be used for destruction. Sandro was unable to create anything, but he could destroy everything.
Sandro didn't have any so-called Myth-ranked weapons. Or, to put it another way, he himself was a Myth-ranked weapon.
Not only that, Sandro himself was a form of magic. That meant that apart from dispelling that frightening forbidden spell, there was no way to destroy it. Sandro was an eternal existence that no one would be able to deal with.
The other Undead Emperors were also quite dangerous. However, from Aso's memories, he unhesitatingly viewed Sandro as the most dangerous existence of all. Even in the immemorial Divine Wars, no God had been able to make Sandro submit.
This was why I had previously said that just obtaining Sandro's combat strength would be more than enough. Even in a Divine War, Sandro would still be an excellent card.
Perhaps Sandro wouldn't be able to destroy a Main God by himself. However, he would be able to destroy everything that a Main God possessed, while the Main Gods would be unable to kill him.
Actually, Main Gods were only an evaluation to begin with. They were "existences capable of easily suppressing powerful Gods." An ancient existence like Sandro had long since been forgotten by history. There was no Main God's evaluation of him at all. However, not a single Main God would say that they could easily defeat Sandro.
But judging from his defeats in the immemorial Divine Wars, Sandro also had a natural enemy. And, his natural enemy was in his enemy's faction. This was why Sandro didn't dare to do as he pleased. Let's not talk about this for now.
Sandro generously gave us many of his research results. Many of these results were far too advanced for me, so I needed more time to absorb them. Harloys, on the other hand, benefited greatly as she communicated with Sandro.
In return, I also gave him a new discovery. Although it was only a low-level, first-circle magic spell, in a way, this discovery could change the entire world of undead magic.
Mana Bone Creation, a first-circle undead magic spell. It would consume a certain amount of mana to create some bones that could be used to cast undead magic.
Alright then, some people could probably tell that this wasn't my invention at all. It was Undead Emperor Conservation's personal discovery.
At the time, I forced her to her limits, making it so that she didn't have any resources to create new cannon fodder. She forcefully created something from nothing, using her endless mana to create an undead giant as her trump card in the final battle.
In the end, after she was defeated, the results of her research naturally fell into my hands.
Not only that, I complained about how wasteful she was. This was a spell with the potential to change the world, yet she used it as her personal trump card. That was far too wasteful.
Cultivating undead magic required resources. Corpses and flesh weren't something that could just be obtained by the wind. Although it was now quite easy to obtain corpses due to the many years of war, these were still the "accumulation of resources" from the past. As more and more undead magic cultivators appeared, there would naturally be more and more tomb robbers … er, tomb robbers. At that time, many problems would arise.
Not to mention, the promotion of undead magic was no longer something that only undead mages could do.
The development of new magical engineering technology brought about great developments with each passing day. No matter how the technology developed, it was only natural that the more spellcasters were the source of magic, the better. Compared to other types of magic cultivation, the cost of cultivating undead magic was low, and the requirement for talent was low. Even if an undead acolyte didn't have the ability or talent to become an official mage, just "selling magic" and "selling zombie labor" would be enough to support themselves.
Actually, portable death mana batteries were becoming more and more popular in the market due to their low price.
Making all mages, even if it was just undead magic, would obviously improve the entire magical engineering civilization. However, the problem of "resources" had been brought up multiple times by others.
Magical bone creation was essentially no different from using magic to create ice or earth. Both involved the conversion of magic and the elements. I felt that the successful research on bone creation was directly related to the fact that the power of death had become one of the four major elemental powers. Otherwise, the previous undead mages wouldn't have missed out on such an important technology.
For Conservation, who lived in the Ice Plane, and for an Undead Emperor who was already at the top of the Undead Plane, such an accidental invention probably wouldn't mean much to her. After all, she could easily summon countless undead as cannon fodder. However, this was an incredibly important foundation for the entire undead magic system.
"… This, as expected of the only Undead Ruler in the past three thousand years. Amazing, truly amazing."
Sandro was rather frightening when he opened his eyes. However, his words were filled with genuine joy. I felt rather embarrassed, but I wouldn't tell him that Conservation was the one who invented the Undead Emperor Karwenz. That would also bring up a topic that we had intentionally ignored — the missing Undead Emperor.
Conservation had now become Yongye City's limitless mana source. With her as the core, an undead magical engineering factory was currently being constructed. This was a core project that was directly related to my personal power development. How could I possibly stop?
Ahem, ahem, let's not talk about such things. At the very least, Sandro had left with a satisfied expression. We had also obtained quite a lot of benefits.
Harloys was now one step closer to becoming an Undead Emperor. I also had many new ideas about the magic sword that represented death. Old antique Harloys was quite knowledgeable. Since we were all working together, he wouldn't be stingy. All of our questions were answered. His experience and knowledge that had been tested by the passage of time had greatly benefited us.
At our current level, it was already quite rare for someone to be able to point us in the right direction. If we accidentally took the wrong path, it was possible that we wouldn't be able to return for several years, several decades, or even several centuries.
As Conservation's knowledge system was gradually revealed, and Aso's knowledge system was unlocked, a tremendous amount of undead knowledge was being accumulated for me.
Harloys, Aso, Conservation, Sandro, and myself. All five Undead Emperors' knowledge systems were placed before me. It was likely that my power system would become unbalanced. My knowledge in other areas would be far inferior to that of undead magic.
But if I had something to eat, would I really spit it out …?
Cough, getting back to the main topic, I felt like I could do something now that all the undead's secrets were placed before me. Perhaps I would be able to give everyone a fright.
"You should first obtain a Myth-ranked weapon and become a SemiGod. The four magic swords are quite ambitious, but none of them have matured yet. Be careful not to meet a powerful enemy that will directly kill you. Also, I can't wait any longer. "
"Isn't it because it's too difficult? You can't wait any longer? Do you think you can break through? Have you found a method to break through? "
Harloys' words surprised me for a moment, but then I was delighted. A magical pet's power level couldn't possibly surpass its master's. Since she felt like she couldn't wait any longer and felt like it was time to break through, that would be a tremendous difference in power level.
"I can give it a try. I'm about 50 to 60% confident in breaking through. Also, thanks for your contribution …"
I was rather astonished by Harloys' words. Other breakthroughs could be accomplished by taking medicine or studying secret techniques, but Undead Emperors were the equivalent of breaking through the limits of the Creator Goddesses. They would be creating their own path. How could they possibly rely on external help?
"With so many Undead Emperors' paths before me, not counting the amount of knowledge I've accumulated, this half-living, half-dead body of mine has indeed been a great help to me."
For once, the silly cat wasn't acting all tsundere. She seemed to be sighing. Now that she mentioned it, going back and forth between life and death several times was indeed very helpful in understanding the power of death.
"Alright, I'll try to break through as quickly as possible. At the very least, I'm quite satisfied with my ice magic sword's progress …"
The back of my building was now filled with all sorts of ice sculptures and snow sketches. These weren't materials for my ice magic sword. Rather, they were tools that I used to deepen my impression and memories of the Northlands. As an extension of the Ice Traveler, I would likely need to recall many past memories and calamities in order to create my ice magic sword in the Northlands.
But sometimes, when you recalled past misfortunes and calamities, and thought how wonderful your current life was, a new calamity would arrive.
After the New Year, all the administrative departments resumed their operations after a short rest. However, the news that arrived wasn't all good.
How could the Northlands' natural calamities not mention the beast stampede that would arrive every year?
"The winter hunt squad was ambushed by a beast stampede? How were the losses? "
Sandro's visit caused me to put down all the trivial matters on my hands. I also handed over the winter hunt to Renée and the others. What made me feel sad was that Kelly didn't let me off the hook. She still deducted my allowance like she said before … Cough — cough — I never expected that the Mist Kingdom would actually suffer losses during the winter hunt even with their current military strength.
"… The beast stampede was much smaller than expected. We didn't suffer many losses. However, Her Highness Renée felt that something was wrong with the situation. This is a letter she personally wrote to you."
The messenger left after handing me the letter. I carefully read the letter.
Renée's words were quite simple and direct. There was indeed something wrong with the beast stampede. The beast stampede was less than one-third of the expected size, yet it unhesitatingly attacked the human army.
Beasts were intelligent as well. They would go around the fully armed iron army in search of weak prey to fill their stomachs, such as attacking villages. That was why as long as the beasts had an obvious advantage in numbers, they probably wouldn't actively attack the human army.
But now, not only did the beasts attack, they even ran away. Not only that, they didn't run fast enough. They didn't even enter deep into the mountains. This scene caused both Renée and I to think of guerilla warfare and kiting tactics. It was obvious that we were trying to stall for time.
I couldn't help but think of those twisted noodle demons. They were definitely behind this, but just what was their goal? Were they hoping that the beast stampede would be able to threaten the Northlands Mist Alliance?
The beast stampede's numbers had decreased, but I didn't think that was a good thing. Druil had long since come to the conclusion that due to the Elemental Tide's increase, a large number of wild beasts would transform into magical beasts, and magical beasts would become even more difficult to deal with in the beast stampede. Not only would magical beasts have stronger reproductive abilities, their strength and appetite would also increase, which would make these magical beasts hungry enough to hunt for food. Their numbers should have greatly increased.
Renée's prediction? She had made her prediction based on last year's beast stampede's numbers. Meanwhile, my prediction for the beast stampede was at least twice as many as last year's. That meant that more than 80% of the beast stampede had disappeared, while the remaining beast stampede was trying to stall the Mist Kingdom's winter hunting teams. Who would believe that there was no scheme behind this?
"Just where did the beast stampede go …"
"Where else could it go? If it's not in the Mist Kingdom, it's naturally in another country. The other countries in the Northlands will have some fun to watch."
"… Harloys, don't be so direct. Didn't you notice that I was intentionally ignoring this possibility? If your dog bites someone else's dog, you'll have to take responsibility for it!"
"Can't you just deny it? It's not like this is the first time you've done something like this."
"Good idea. I'll immediately reply to Renée. Elven Empress Harloys has a suggestion … Silly cat, don't bite me on the head! Do you still want to be an Undead Emperor or not!?"
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