Chapter 235: Necromancer’s Language of the Dead

[You advanced to Sequence 3: Necromancer]

[You acquired skill: Language of the Dead]

[Sequence advancement conditions are as follows:]

[Communicate with 1,000 spirits unwilling to disperse after death, and learn the reason for their lingering (0/1000)]

“I’ve buried all the cursed beings in the entire Qian Country, and now you’re telling me I need to have heart-to-hearts with a thousand of them. Where am I supposed to find a thousand cursed beings?”

Chen Xiyi looked at his advancement conditions after becoming Sequence 3: Necromancer, and felt completely troubled.

The insufficient number of cursed beings was one issue, but another was that he had to communicate with them and understand why they refused to move on.

“You can’t possibly expect me to create more, can you? That wouldn’t be right.”

This advancement still granted two skills, but like Spirit Warden, Language of the Dead leaned toward the benevolent side.

The other skill was called Malevolent Whisper, which was probably similar to Specter’s Curse.

Language of the Dead allowed Chen Xiyi to communicate with ghosts after death. He could not only speak the language of ghosts but also understand them—this was a basic ability.

Moreover, it enabled Chen Xiyi to determine whether a ghost harbored malice toward him. This ability somewhat overlapped with the Game Log, but it was more specialized.

Additionally, if Chen Xiyi communicated with a ghost, his words could purify the resentment, malice, and other negative emotions in the ghost’s heart, calming malevolent spirits and specters, thus facilitating better communication.

Lastly, it provided support. If communication failed, Chen Xiyi could use Language of the Dead to enhance, restore, or remove negative statuses from the spirits under his Spirit Warden. Of course, it was also effective on other benevolent or good spirits, while it caused some damage to malevolent ones.

Well, “some damage”—from the current situation, the damage was about as effective as poking someone with a toothpick. However, it had a good effect: it could forcibly break through the resentment and malice in the target, restoring their rationality.

But Language of the Dead was more supportive in nature and definitely inferior to Malevolent Whisper in combat.

The effects of Malevolent Whisper were the opposite of Language of the Dead. Besides the basic communication ability, purification and calming turned into inciting resentment and malice. Furthermore, the support aspects focused on cursing, weakening, or even driving ghosts to madness.

Of course, its offensive power was higher than that of Language of the Dead. It was a soul attack that did not distinguish between good and evil, unlike Language of the Dead, which only worked against malevolent spirits and specters. However, it lacked special effects.

Using Malevolent Whisper, a Necromancer could now suppress the specter from Specter’s Curse. But the specter would also be subjected to constant whispers, making it even more frenzied and bloodthirsty.

“Two paths… I chose the wrong one back then~”

Chen Xiyi sighed. If only he had known, he wouldn’t have taken the benevolent path but the malevolent one instead.

He never expected things to turn out this way. Both Spirit Warden and Language of the Dead were developments of the benevolent path. If he rashly switched to the malevolent path in the next stage, he was certain this Module would likely become useless.

“A single Sequence actually splits into benevolent and malevolent paths? That’s just absurd.”

After becoming a Necromancer, Death Notice upgraded: its range expanded, and its effects strengthened.

Spirit Warden, of course, also leveled up. The spirits entwined around him grew stronger, and armor and weapons appeared.

It looked somewhat like a sword-and-shield soldier, but that made sense, considering it was for protection.

The only thing that didn’t change was the distance it could leave him—still 1 meter. Perhaps that was a limitation.

“With this, my close combat abilities seem stronger. Death Notice, Spirit Warden, plus Language of the Dead—if you think about it, my spirit now has strength comparable to a Grandmaster Martial Artist. But if it actually fought a Grandmaster Martial Artist, the spirit would come out on top.”

“Weapon sharp, shield sturdy, armor hard, body agile, size increased.”

Chen Xiyi immediately spoke, then felt his Spirituality suddenly dim. The protecting spirit’s size instantly expanded, the long blade shimmered with a dark, sharp glow, the shield thickened, and even the armor was shrouded in a layer of Black Mist.

“It seems I underestimated this Language of the Dead. As long as I have enough Spirituality and speak fast enough, the spirit can be strengthened without limits.”

Just as Chen Xiyi finished speaking, in less than thirty seconds, the enhancements on the protecting spirit vanished.

On one hand, his Spirituality was insufficient; on the other, the level of Language of the Dead wasn’t high enough. Currently, each status boost could only last about ten minutes, and with each additional boost, Spirituality consumption increased, shortening the duration.

Of course, this wasn’t exclusive to the benevolent path’s Language of the Dead; the malevolent path’s Malevolent Whisper was also a “three-second true man.” After all, both were level 0 skills—it wasn’t as if the malevolent path skills were inherently better than the benevolent ones.

It was just that the effects of the two paths’ skills differed.

“There’s also the Sequence 4 Soul Shepherd type. I need to plan ahead. Judging from the advancement conditions, it’s likely related to controlling and mastering ghosts.”

He finally understood the meaning of the poetry.

From corpse collection to tomb guarding was the first stage. The subsequent Necromancer and Soul Shepherd belonged to the same stage.

“If I follow the benevolent path, I’ll probably get skills of the ‘many help the righteous’ type. Does that mean I need to help them fulfill their unresolved wishes after learning why they refuse to disperse?”

“That would be incredibly difficult. After all, it’s a thousand people, not just one.”

After reaching Sequence 3, Chen Xiyi realized that if an ordinary person had advanced this far, they would have already stepped into the supernatural stage.

At Sequence 2, one was still an ordinary person—even the protecting spirit was just at an ordinary level. But at Sequence 3, even without the enhancements from Language of the Dead, the spirit was already at the level of an Innate Warrior.

It was a qualitative change. Even Chen Xiyi’s Spirituality underwent significant changes, faintly emitting some eerie aura.

However, it hadn’t fully manifested yet, and with the presence of the Primordial Spirit, there were no further changes.

Moreover, disregarding the enhancements from his own Primordial Soul Martial Dao, this advancement alone, though not as exaggerated as the protecting spirit’s sudden leap, was enough to elevate an ordinary person’s physical fitness to the level of a Postnatal Warrior.

Therefore, Chen Xiyi speculated that the enhancements from advancing to Sequence 4 would be even greater. And if he suddenly switched to the malevolent path, it would likely cause incompatibility.

“Forget it. A thousand people it is. I’ll deal with it in the next world.”

Chen Xiyi sighed. So what if the upgrade method was a bit strange? At least he had an upgrade system now.

As for it not matching his usual style?

How did it not match? It was all just playing games and completing quests.

Previously, taking unorthodox and malevolent paths maximized his benefits, so of course, he played that way.

When playing games, he wasn’t a story-focused player; even if he were, his priority would still be maximizing gains.

Now, following the benevolent path maximized his benefits, so of course, he would take the benevolent path.

Moreover, it was only this Module that followed the benevolent path. If other gameplay methods could provide sufficient rewards, he would take the benevolent path there too.

But in reality, most required unorthodox playstyles to succeed.

“With this, if there are ghosts in the next world, I’ll have to make more enemies and kill fewer NPCs. Perfect for stacking shield strength with Eternal Life and Prosperity.”

The reason for killing fewer NPCs was that he worried killing them might turn them into ghosts. If he then proceeded with communication and exorcism in one go, it might shift him to the malevolent path.

Yes, that was how the malevolent path worked: kill NPCs, turn them into ghosts, interrogate them, and finally feed the ghosts to the specter. This way, reaching a thousand would be quick, and it would also help the specter grow.

But Chen Xiyi felt that although this malevolent path speedrun was satisfying, the side effects would keep growing.

Currently, there were specter backlash and eerie whispers.

That’s right—every time Malevolent Whisper was used, not only the specter but the Necromancer would also hear strange, eerie whispers.

He didn’t know exactly what they were, but it was a negative status, and it seemed to be permanent.

It triggered every time it was used.

Therefore, although Chen Xiyi coveted the malevolent path, he didn’t want the side effects.

If he had started on the malevolent path, he definitely wouldn’t regret it and would even speedrun this world. Unfortunately, he hadn’t.

So, to fully utilize the Module’s potential, no matter how difficult the benevolent path advancement was, he had to stick with it—just like with fairies. He would rather develop slower than have incomplete Spirituality in his fairies.

After all, only top-tier fairies could unleash the full power of the bond system, and top-tier fairies had stronger abilities and uses.

This was about quality over quantity.

After adapting to Sequence 3: Necromancer, Chen Xiyi stopped guarding the tomb at the Graveyard. Guarding tombs yielded no benefits.

Moreover, the cursed beings he had collected and buried had mostly dissipated.

So, it had no connection whatsoever with the Necromancer advancement.

“However, it might not be necessary to fulfill their unresolved wishes. After learning why they refuse to disperse, I could simply use the corpse collection and burial package to forcibly make them dissipate.”

Chen Xiyi suddenly thought of something. What if their unresolved wish was to conquer the world, achieve Immortality, or something else Chen Xiyi couldn’t accomplish? He couldn’t just be stuck because of that.

This might be the true method of Necromancer advancement: no need to fulfill their unresolved wishes; making them dissipate by himself worked just as well.

But Chen Xiyi thought that he might as well try pushing the benevolent path to its limit to see if the Sequence 4 skill would be stronger.

It’s not like he had anything better to do.

“When the time comes, if I can fulfill their wish, I’ll do it. If not, I’ll forcibly collect their corpse, bury them, and send them off.”

Chen Xiyi just needed to treat this quest as a thousand-step job change mission—one where he could skip steps if needed.

After finishing this, Chen Xiyi began the first modification of the Half-Dragon Gene Weapon, targeting the Peach Blossom Luck Bloodline Bearer Clones.

Chen Xiyi’s plan was simple: the cuckoo occupies the magpie’s nest.

The Peach Blossom Luck Bloodline Bearer was key to Ao Lü’s resurrection. But the problem was, Chen Xiyi had a batch of pirated Clones.

Thus, these Peach Blossom Luck Bloodline Bearers became somewhat obstructive. When the time was right, Chen Xiyi decided to eliminate them all.

It might have been a bit difficult before, but after deploying the second batch of beauties, the difficulty decreased significantly.

There were two monsters beside them who could kill them at any moment. When they relaxed in bed, taking them out would lower the difficulty another notch.

Without the Peach Blossom Luck Bloodline Bearers, he could push out all the identical Clones. These Clones were complete; aside from lacking frontal lobes, having their Primordial Spirit suppressed by a Subsystem, and being injected with the Half-Dragon Gene Weapon (Ao Lü version), they were perfectly normal.

“This way, I might even save a Sword Realm Projection.”

Such a powerful weapon was an instant-kill tool for boss fights, so Chen Xiyi thought it would be better to handle things himself if possible.

It would also serve as practical experience. If he couldn’t solve it later, he could always bring out this ultimate weapon. It was all part of gaining experience.

Moreover, these experiments and studies would have to be done eventually; Chen Xiyi was just doing them a bit earlier.

“I wonder what goodies I’ll collect from Ao Lü’s body.”