Chapter 638: Imprint
The two Undead servants and the two Humerus Wyrms searched the green dragon graveyard all over. In fact, there was no need for them to put in too much effort, because the battle had already turned everything in the graveyard inside out, especially the wyrm skeletons that had accumulated there.
As a pharmaceutics Guru, Lin Li possessed Master-level Recovery Potions which helped his body recover greatly. He no longer had any worries. He’d initially planned to enter and steal, but it ended up becoming an armed robbery. Since he had already killed all the owners of the graveyard, the remaining items were for him to keep.
Although there were numerous cracks in the Titan Dragon Spear, Lin Li could sense the massive energy in it, and the thunderbolt that took out the Double Death Dragons was nothing compared to it. Lin Li couldn’t help but cluck his tongue. It was no wonder that the Titan Dragon Spear was the weapon of the Titans. It could effortlessly kill the Double Death Dragons in no time.
After withdrawing the Titan Dragon Spear from the Ring of Endless Storm, Lin Li again summoned Gloomy Dark that had been blasted away just now. However, when Gloomy Dark returned, it gave Lin Li a great shock, not because it was damaged, but because there were actually two more black beads that resembled satellites constantly revolving around it.
“What is this?” Lin Li grabbed Gloomy Dark. As soon as he did, he could sense the aura of the Double Death Dragons coming from the pearls.
Could that be the imprint of the Double Death Dragons? Lin Li did know some things about the imprinting of souls. After being transformed into a Lich, human beings would keep their soul imprint in the Life Case so that they could be born again with the soul imprint even if they died. Therefore, most people would not dare to provoke them unless they could find and destroy their Life Case. Otherwise, they would be in deep trouble because they would have to face the revenge of the Lich. However, if one could find the Life Case of a Lich, he would be able to subdue the Lich, regardless of how powerful it might be.
However, Dracoliches were different from human Liches. Wyrms used dragon crystals as their source of power, and lost the ability to use dragon crystals after transforming into Dracoliches. Their soul imprint then became their source of strength. Therefore, the Dracolich’s soul imprint would not be hidden in the Life Case, but would replace the position of dragon crystal in the Dracolich’s body.
In other words, the two satellite-like black beads of light revolving around Gloomy Dark were previously the source of power for the Double Death Dragons. However, under the purification of the Holy Light, the power in these two soul imprints had obviously disappeared. Although there was no more power, they were still revolving around Gloomy Dark, perhaps because they were driven by a trace of instinct left.
However, for Lin Li, that was not something to be happy about. Although the Double Death Dragons were powerful, the two purified black beads were no longer of any use. Not only was there no trace of power in them, they were continuously leeching off and depleting the energy within Gloomy Dark. The two were basically just parasites, and Lin Li had never liked incurring a loss.
After thinking for a moment, Lin Li let out some mana and got ready to completely erase the soul imprints of the Double Death Dragons. However, with the input of that minute amount of mana, Lin Li suddenly found that there was a slight resistance from those two black beads.
Although the resistance was faint and seemed to be easily erasable, Lin Li was still surprised.
It was completely different from what he had guessed! Lin Li withdrew his mana and looked at the two black beads with a slight frown. Although the resistance was insignificant, it meant that there was still the consciousness of the Double Death Dragons within the black beads. Could it be that the Double Death Dragons did not completely die after being purified by the Holy Light, and instead continued to live in another form?
With the experience Lin Li had obtained in the Endless World, he dared say that he was knowledgeable, but the situation was truly beyond fathomable for him now. Even though he did not have a detailed understanding of Undead creatures, he knew that Dracoliches were Undead creatures. Holy Light, one of the pieces of the debris of the stars, no doubt contained the Rule Power of Light and the ability to purify all evil beings.
Although the Holy Light could not exert all its power when Lin Li was controlling it, the Double Death Dragons had also been seriously injured by the thunderbolt in the Titan Dragon Spear. Judging from the results, Lin Li could deduce that they had indeed been purified by the Holy Light. Otherwise, how could they have become two black beads? Lin Li thought about it, but couldn’t understand why the two soul imprints left behind by the Double Death Dragons would become such peculiar existences.
Could it be that the Double Death Dragons were not considered Undead creatures?
Lin Li suddenly came up with an idea which even he was taken aback by. It was undoubtedly a very ridiculous idea. However, apart from this absurd and ridiculous explanation, Lin Li couldn’t think of anything else to accredit the phenomenon to.
Lin Li shook his head helplessly. Since no reasonable explanation could be found, there was no point in dwelling on it. Even if the absurd theory held, the matter was beyond the scope of his own ability, and there was no need to waste his time mulling over it. It was a matter of changing life forms and a realm that could only be reached by those who were at the peak of the Sanctuary-realm. Even Lord Osric could not achieve such a feat in the past, let alone Lin Li.
Although he gave up and stopped thinking about the matter, Lin Li still wondered about something. He had no idea if it was true, but maybe it had something to do with the Immortal King.
It was actually extremely easy to dispose of those two black beads left behind by the Double Death Dragons, but Lin Li did not erase them. Instead, he let them continue to absorb the power in Gloomy Dark. It would be difficult to make the infinite power in Gloomy Dark be reduced significantly even if there were 200 of those beads around it.
Besides, Lin Li was not really that generous. As time passed and he gained more experience and profound understanding of magic, he actually gained more knowledge about the debris of the stars too. In fact, Lin Li had been aware since a long time ago that Gloomy Dark was not as generous as it appeared to be.
On the surface, it seemed that Gloomy Dark was very generous and selfless by giving its energy to all dark creatures. However, there were indications that while Gloomy Dark provided power to dark creatures, it was also gaining something from dark creatures in an inexplicable way. Moreover, it was not like a positive cycle, but was akin to fishing. Gloomy Dark was like an experienced fisherman who threw out only a few insignificant lures but was catching big fishes.
Although the process was still incomprehensible and couldn’t be explained by any theory, Lin Li believed that the speculation should be correct. The best proof of that should be the Undead creatures in the Scar of Death. Gloomy Dark had been there for more than 1,300 years, and the pure Dark Force created countless powerful mutant Undead creatures, including Legendary Liches and Legendary Humerus Wyrms. During this process, Lin Li could hardly imagine how much effort and power Gloomy Dark had to give out. However, after 1,300 years, Lin Li obtained Gloomy Dark and could clearly sense that the Gloomy Dark power was much stronger than what he had imagined.
Lin Li now had three pieces of the debris of the stars in his hands, namely Holy Light, Gloomy Dark, and Rebirth. Each contained different Rules and had different characteristics. However, if the other characteristics were put aside and only strength was taken into consideration, Gloomy Dark which had selflessly given out its energy and power for more than 1,300 years was the most powerful of them.
Lin Li was not at all worried about the energy and power of Gloomy Dark. If its energy were depleted, it wouldn’t be a real magical artifact.
As for the soul imprints of the Double Death Dragons, Lin Li did not care what kind of changes would occur after they absorbed the power of Gloomy Dark. Anril was a world where only the strong would survive, and strength was the basis of comparison. Before their deaths, the Double Death Dragons were powerful twin dragons which became horrible twin Dracoliches after their death. However, what was left of them now was only the primal soul imprint that could only survive by relying on the power provided by Gloomy Dark. They were in no place to compete with Lin Li.
Perhaps, one day, the soul imprints of the Double Death Dragons would absorb enough power from Gloomy Dark to reemerge as the Double Death Dragons. But so what if they did? Since all of their power came from Gloomy Dark, Lin Li could erase them effortlessly with a wave of his wand.
Not to mention, Lin Li might only be level-21 and a beginner in the Legendary-realm, but he held the magical ring with Evil Eye Tyrant’s crystal and the God of Mages Geresco’s Book of Eternity. He also had perfect magical talent gotten in the Endless World[1]. It’d be impossible for him not to surpass the Double Death Dragons with such advantages.
Lin Li did not know exactly how the soul imprints of the Double Death Dragons were formed or how long they’d existed, but one thing for sure was that he had absolute control over the two soul imprints.
[1] If you remember the very beginning of the novel, it was said that Lin Li basically maxed out the potential of a mage avatar in the Endless World game, and he got sent to Anril with all that intact. That’s also where his skills in pharmacy and so on came from.