Undead Mage: I Have a Skeleton Clone-Chapter 506 - 364: Soul Crystal? Clone’s Further Evolution! (Part 2)

The former allowed him to guide and use mana more effectively. The latter granted him powerful Summoning Abilities, enabling him to summon powerful Undead Creatures in combat.

However, these two specialties had already occupied the space of his invisible mana core, and he could not engrave new ones for the time being. According to Fang Zhou’s estimation, he would have to break through to the Bronze Tier before he could continue expanding his library of Profession specialties. This meant that for the foreseeable future, Fang Zhou would need to focus his energy on refining and utilizing his existing specialties. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

As for titles, Fang Zhou believed their acquisition was a matter of chance rather than pursuit. For now, he lacked a clear direction to strive toward.

Regarding his study of World Runes, Fang Zhou was steadily progressing with the materials provided by Instructor Su Xinyan and Major General Ning Danxin. Although he had not achieved significant results in a short time, he was confident that persistent effort would eventually lead to a breakthrough. The three World Runes—"Heart Steel," "Night Watcher," and "Gallows"—were extremely useful even for Black Iron-tier Professionals. Therefore, he had ample time to enhance their effects before his advancement to the Bronze Tier.

The remaining factor that could most greatly enhance his combat power was, naturally, his skills. Fang Zhou had now mastered a diverse series of skills, covering categories like the Summoning Series, Skeleton Series, Corrosive Poison Series, Enhancement Series, and universal skills for Magic Professionals. These skills formed the core of his combat system, but in practical application, he still needed to overcome many challenges. The most critical among them was the accumulation of Soul Power.

Soul Power... I need a massive amount of Soul Power, he thought, an insatiable hunger growing within him.

...

The Blood Moon hung high in the sky, a mirror stained red, reflecting the death-filled land below. On this hill of corpses piled like mountains, the air was so heavy it felt as if water could be wrung from it. Everything was shrouded in a dead silence.

At that moment, a gigantic figure suddenly descended from the sky.

A Corpse Clone, over three meters tall, descended with thunderous force, crashing through several thick stone pillars. The pillars were as fragile as paper before it, and the sound of them cracking echoed through the air. Finally, the massive Corpse Clone landed heavily on the back of a slowly advancing zombie. At that instant, the blue light covering its body became astonishingly bright.

BOOM!

As if an invisible bomb had been detonated, an indescribably powerful Death Energy erupted with Fang Zhou at its center. The air for several meters around him seemed to twist and boil from the force.

Behind Fang Zhou, the once-rigid zombie met its end. As the Power of Death surged from the Corpse Long Spear in Fang Zhou’s grip, the zombie’s skin began to melt rapidly. Its once-solid surface was pierced layer by layer. Under the erosion of Death Energy, its flesh dissolved into nothingness, as if continuously melted by some invisible force.

The zombie let out a desperate roar—its last cry of rage. Then, its body suddenly stiffened and fell heavily to the ground, motionless.

"My lord, you’re truly amazing!" Double-bladed Skeleton Warrior Yongen trotted over, looking at Fang Zhou with excitement. Unlike the other mutated Skeleton Warriors like Tidamia, Verus, and Sain, Yongen not only possessed higher intelligence but also exhibited more enthusiasm and a talkative personality.

"Say a few more words. I like to listen," Fang Zhou responded, a hint of an imperceptible smile in his tone.

After speaking, he stepped on the zombie’s corpse and activated his [Corpse Armor] skill. The Corpse Essence within the zombie was extracted thread by thread until it was entirely absorbed by Fang Zhou.

Now that the battle was over, it was time to reap the rewards. Fang Zhou had led the Skeleton Battle Group in a long sweep of the valley, clearing out all sorts of low-tier Undead entrenched there, all to collect the local resources.

He raised his eyes and saw the ground beneath his feet drop sharply, revealing a splendid world before him. This valley was 300 meters deep and filled with colorful bone pillars. They emitted a faint glow, decorating the dark world like a Crystal Dragon Palace. The valley stretched for several kilometers, reaching over a kilometer at its widest point. Some of these bone pillars towered tens of meters high, while others simply clustered together in small groups.

Wandering aimlessly through this vast valley were numerous palm-sized white points of light. They glowed with a silvery radiance, like creatures from another world, creating a dazzling spectacle in the dead silence.

Faced with such a magnificent sight, even Fang Zhou couldn’t help but be awed. He then felt his mouth begin to water. It seemed his racial instincts were telling him that these white light points were extremely beneficial for his evolution. I wonder what benefits I’ll get from eating those, he thought.

When Fang Zhou led the Skeleton Battle Group into the Crystal Valley, the surrounding points of light scattered instantly, as if the invisible Spiritual Light of Fear emanating from him had frightened them out of their wits. These light points danced in the air like countless tiny stars, but under Fang Zhou’s oppressive presence, they fled in disarray, disappearing into every corner of the valley.

WHOOSH!

With a flash, Fang Zhou swung his massive right claw, gently capturing a light point slightly larger than a palm. The feeling was like pinching a speck of dust—hollow and airy. For the current Fang Zhou, a palm-sized light point was a perfect bite; it was so small he barely felt it in his mouth before swallowing it whole.

Hmm! A hint of astonishment appeared in Fang Zhou’s eyes the moment the light point was digested. The energy within his body had slightly increased. This was not just a growth in total amount, but an enhancement of his upper limit.

To use a simple analogy, if the maximum Death Energy in Fang Zhou’s recently-evolved body was 1,000 units, then after consuming that light point, his contained energy became 1,001. Both his upper limit and total amount had increased by one unit. Of course, this "one thousand units" was just an analogy, as Fang Zhou couldn’t specifically measure how much energy his body actually contained.

Although it was only an increase of one-thousandth and seemed insignificant overall, Fang Zhou’s mouth curled into a sinister smile as his gaze swept over the valley, which was filled with more than a thousand of these white light points.

Fang Zhou stared at the light points, excited for a good while. Whenever he opened his gaping maw, an immense suction would devour the motes of light from between the bone pillars. As they were sucked into his mouth, the light points emitted a faint HISS, as if in protest.

With each energy-rich light point he swallowed, the already abundant Death Energy within Fang Zhou surged crazily, and his aura became increasingly terrifying. His body was enveloped in a faint black mist, which flashed intermittently with electricity, causing the valley’s temperature to drop by several degrees.

These points of light seemed to coexist with the glowing bone pillars. Even with Fang Zhou’s rampant consumption, they only hid within the crevices of the pillars, showing no intention of leaving the valley.

Fang Zhou continued his sweep. After devouring nearly a thousand light points and doubling the energy within his body, a hint of regret appeared in his eyes.

I’ve reached the limit, Fang Zhou thought.

Just like the other Undead Attribute resources he had consumed before, these light points also had an absorption limit; the enhancement effect they provided had a peak. After he devoured about five hundred of them, the effect had started to diminish. By now, the gain from consuming each light point had been reduced to one-tenth of the initial benefit.