Chapter 633: Dragon Soul Herb
When Lin Li was observing the dragon graveyard, his Undead creatures were just as astonished. The Vampire Norfeller had it better. Ever since he’d broken though to level-21, he had been focusing all of his energy on analyzing the soul inheritance of Vampires to let himself quickly exhibit power that was equal to his power level.
However, Ujfalusi could not stay calm, and there seemed to be massive waves crashing against his heart. He stared widely at the sight before him, and his eyes seemed to almost fall out. To a Lich, what could be more wonderful than entering a dragon graveyard?
Liches were best at producing Undead creatures, and intact dragon skeletons were absolutely the perfect material for it. Any dragon skeleton could be used to create a strong skeletal wyrm. In this space full of death aura, there would also be souls of dead dragons. Those might not be useful to others, but for a Lich, it was the best material needed for creating powerful Undead.
However, regardless of how agitated he was, Ujfalusi dared not move at all. Lin Li, too, did not dare to move, and had no choice but to stand quietly in the cave and observe everything in the graveyard.
If it had been anyone else, they would have barged in without hesitation already just for the sake of the Legendary dragon crystals. Well, it was just a bunch of dead dragons which weren’t too dangerous. To many people, the reason why the dragon graveyard was so mysterious and horrible was that the existence of the dragon graveyard often meant that there were groups of dragons guarding it. Without the guardian dragons, everything would be free for grabs.
However, Lin Li was well aware that the terror of the dragon’s graveyard extended far beyond the guardian dragons. The greater horror was actually present in the graveyards where Dracoliches ran rampant.
In Anril, few people might know what a Dracolich was because not all had the opportunity to enter dragon graveyards. After all, the groups of guardian dragons were terrifying enough to completely block all intruders. Therefore, in the legends about the dragon graveyards, people only focused on the countless dragon skeletons and the tempting Legendary magical crystals, yet they were clueless about the existence of the Dracoliches.
However, Lin Li did not just have basic knowledge about the Dracoliches, but was in fact rather familiar with them. Although it was his first time entering a dragon graveyard in Anril, he had a deep memory from the dragon graveyard that he’d visited in the Endless World.
That happened when Lin Li was preparing to challenge the Dragon of Destruction. After carefully studying the information about the Dragon of Destruction, Lin Li took the risk and ventured into a dragon graveyard in order to find a way to escape from the Dragon of Destruction’s affinity spells, Doom. Back then, his agenda was not to find treasure, but to find the skeletons and dragon souls of the former companion of the Dragon of Destruction.
It was in that dragon graveyard that Lin Li encountered a terrifying and intimidating Dracolich for the first time in his life. It was a tough and tedious battle which never failed to give Lin Li the thrills even now when he remembered it, though it took place only in the virtual in-game world.
Not to mention in the world of Anril, even in the Endless World, no one would know better than Lin Li how horrifying a Dracolich was. Although they were both dead dragons, the Dracolich was worlds apart from the Humerus Wyrm. It was akin to comparing a human Lich to a Skeletal Warrior of the lowest level.
Any dragon skeleton could be transformed into a Humerus Wyrm as long as it was still complete. However, only the strongest and most powerful wyrms could be transformed into a Dracolich after death. Besides, the Humerus Wyrm could only be created successfully with external help. After the transformation, it would have nothing to do with its previous incarnation, and all of its pride and memories of the previous lifetime would vanish.
However, a Dracolich relied on its own powerful strength to forcibly let its dead self continue staying in this world, either shouldering unfinished duties or possessing remaining grievances. As the dead, Dracoliches lingered in the world of the living. However, they had not completely broken out of the shackles of the Death Energy. Regardless of how powerful they were, they could never leave the dragon graveyards. Hence, Dracoliches could be considered the best gravekeepers of dragon graveyards.
Standing by the entrance, Lin Li began to hesitate a little. Although the treasure was right in front of him, it might be risky and even deadly to retrieve it. Although it was the graveyard of the green dragons, and the green dragons were the weakest dragons, it had a history of 1,300 years. God knew how old and how powerful a wyrm which had transformed into a Dracolich truly was.
Lich knew that there was a huge difference between Dracoliches and Liches formed from humans even though they were both Liches.
The human Lich was a dead person who completely transformed himself into an Undead creature. Although they could move about freely and stay unharmed even when exposed to sunlight, they would never fully inherit the power of their previous living self even if the preparations were complete and the transformation method was perfect. Therefore, when a human became a Lich for the first time, they would all be very fragile.
However, such experiences of the human Liches could not be applied to the Dracoliches at all. Although the Dracolich was constrained by the Death Energy and forever imprisoned in a dragon graveyard, during transformation, it’d inherit all the powers it’d possessed before death.
The strength of the Green Dragon King was already approaching the Sanctuary-realm; hence, the Dracolich of this graveyard would definitely be powerful too. A period of more than 1,300 years was neither long nor short. Even if the Lich only had the Legendary-realm strength of ordinary green dragons after transformation, it could still increase his strength by continuously absorbing the Death Energy in the dragon graveyard. Lin Li dared not imagine to what extent the Lich would’ve grown in the past 1,300 years.
Lin Li did not forget that the Dracolich he’d encountered back then had power of the Sanctuary-realm. Even if the Dracolich had yet to reach the Sanctuary-realm, it was probably not much worse than the Green Dragon King. Lin Li had just experienced the horror of the Green Dragon King back outside. The difference in power was truly despair-inducing.
However, Lin Li could not bear to leave just like that. Putting the dragon skeleton and the Legendary dragon crystals aside, the benefits to gain in this dragon graveyard went far beyond that. In particular, Lin Li also knew that there was an extremely precious herb that could only be found in places like dragon graveyards.
Now that the massive advantages and danger were juxtaposed with each other, Lin Li was stuck in a dilemma as to whether he should take the risk or not. It was a pity that after the transformation, the Dracolich would have lost its imprint. Perhaps even the projected avatar of the Dragon of Dream would not be able to do anything to it. More atrociously, the Dracolich was confined to the graveyard, thus leaving Lin Li with no chance to even invade by luring it away.
Lin Li frowned and thought about the countermeasures he could employ. He was unwilling to leave a treasure cave empty-handed because it was not like him to do so. Stroking his chin, Lin Li thought about the Dracolich he’d once encountered, and realized that although the Lich’s strength had already reached the Sanctuary-realm, it had had its weaknesses too. He reckoned that its biggest weakness should’ve been the lack of detection abilities.
Generally speaking, a Dracolich was imprisoned in the graveyard with nothing much to entertain itself with. Hence, the only thing it could do was sleep. Slumber combined with the lack of acute senses would give Lin Li a possible chance of sneaking in and leaving quietly—as long as he was careful and refrained from making big movements.
After instructing his Undead servants to be careful, Lin Li walked into the dragon graveyard, making his footsteps as light as possible. He ignored the dragon skeletons as well as the Legendary dragon crystals. Instead, he searched carefully along the edge of the graveyard.
The graveyard was massive, but Lin Li fortunately also knew the exact environmental requirements for the growth of the herb. Although he could only search slowly, his efforts were not futile. It didn’t take long for Lin Li to find a dragon’s head that was half-buried in the ground near him. There was a shoot of grass that emitted a faint glow in the eye socket of the dragon’s head.
Lin Li could not contain his joy when he saw the unassuming shoot of grass. It seemed that the experience he’d gained in the Endless World was very useful. He gently got through the dragon’s eye socket, carefully dug out the small shoot of grass, and placed it inside his ring. He then finally heaved a sigh of relief.
That was the Dragon Soul Herb, which Lin Li valued more than the dragon skeletons and crystals. No one in Anril knew how useful the Dragon Soul Herb was; of course, it might well be that most of them had no idea that it even existed. However, Lin Li had memories from his time in the Endless World; hence, he knew that the grass that contained the condensed dragon’s spirit and essence was more precious than the black lotus. Hence, it could be considered an absolute treasure.
In Lin Li’s memory alone, there were at least five top-grade Guru-level potion formulas which required the Dragon Soul Herb. Of course, in Anril, the value of the Dragon Soul Herb would probably be maximized only in the hands of Lin Li.
Now that Lin Li had gained experience on how to infiltrate the graveyard safely, he did not waste too much time, though he still made sure to be very careful. In no time, he found several Dragon Soul Herbs, which was a huge gain for Lin Li. They might be useless in the hands of others, but when in Lin Li’s hands, they might very likely be the key to his promotion to a Divine Smith.