C116 Shadow Curse!
Lee Yuchan's cultivation of her spell demanded the sacrifice of a soul. When condensing her Lunar Spirit, the process left unmistakable traces.
The younger generation, including Yan Lu, Su Yan, and Han Hui, along with their family clans, might find it difficult to accept the sinister spell practiced by Lee Yuchan.
To avoid unnecessary chatter, Yu Yuan needed to seek out a secure location.
Aware of the situation, Lee Yuchan promptly followed.
Lee Yu, bringing up the rear, cautioned Yan Lu and Su Yan to exercise caution.
He then proceeded to follow Yu Yuan.
The golden skeleton, paying no heed to the others, strode purposefully towards Yu Yuan.
Inside the skull of the skeleton, a dark red flame danced wildly.
Specks of golden light showered the earth with each step the golden skeleton took.
The ground, as hard as ironstone, was perforated with numerous thumb-sized holes by the golden light.
Fellbeast bones that came into contact with the golden light burst into dust with a puff.
Yan Lu and the others' expressions turned grim as they quickly moved away from the Huang family's skeletal remains.
"A Solar Spirit..."
Zhan Tianxiang's eyes gleamed with excitement as he flashed a wide grin.
Solar Spirit experts were exceedingly rare in Aetherius. This Solar Spirit, who ventured into the Moonfall Sanctuary and met his demise, likely hailed from Euwrea or the Land of Quiescence.
The presence of a Solar Spirit here, especially one who had perished in this place, suggested that the one who pierced his brow was even mightier.
Why was the Solar Spirit's skeleton more resilient than that of the Golden Elephant God, even after all these years?
"It's the dark red flame, sustained by a trace of the Solar Spirit's essence, that has wrought all this!" Zhan Tianxiang realized after careful observation.
A nearly undetectable spiritual energy, drawn by the essence of the Solar Spirit, was subtly infusing the golden skeleton.
The golden light scattered by the moving skeleton was merely the residue.
This meant that the Solar Spirit's skeleton, rejuvenated by a strand of its essence, was once again accumulating spiritual energy and purifying its skeletal form.
Without external disruption, the Solar Spirit's skeleton would grow increasingly formidable.
It was conceivable that, in time, there might even be a chance for flesh and blood to regenerate and veins to reemerge.
"The vast powers of the Great Realm, with their arcane mysteries, can indeed resurrect the dead and reunite the soul—it's not just a legend!"
Zhan Tianxiang suddenly felt fortunate that he had always trusted Yu Yuan and steadfastly followed him. Otherwise, he would have missed witnessing the extraordinary nature of a deceased Solar Spirit.
He had never encountered a Solar Spirit master before, and this was his first glimpse of one.
"Solar Spirit, ah, Solar Spirit!" His gaze intensified with fervor.
...
Yu Yuan dashed out of the hole and returned to the open field without looking back, charging ahead with single-minded focus.
He was aware that the golden skeleton had only just begun to reforge its bones due to the return of a wisp of the Solar Spirit's essence. It would take a considerable amount of time before the golden skeleton could possibly catch up to him.
Hence, he was not concerned in the slightest.
His concern lay in the future.
The Solar Spirit's skeleton, revived by a returning spirit, had embarked on the path to rebirth.
For this former Solar Spirit-level expert, reviving to his former glory with just a wisp of spirit and a skeletal form would involve countless challenges.
Yet, if left unchecked and undisturbed, there might be a sliver of hope for him.
He was just one individual.
The forbidden area was expansive. Could there be others in different regions who, like him, had escaped as residual souls due to the transformation of the world?
The sword spirit's presence indicated that this place was filled with anomalies. The souls of the fallen experts could undergo strange transformations, becoming evil souls that torment newcomers or escape and endanger the innocent.
"The forbidden area must be pacified; otherwise, not only the empire but the entire continent of Aetherius could face great turmoil!"
A quarter of an hour later, he found himself standing steadfast among the ice rocks.
These ice rocks, once debris within the many pits of the wilderness, had been shattered by the fierce battles of powerful beings and scattered across the ground. The extreme cold had transformed them into a thick layer of ice.
The ice rock beneath his feet shone brightly, as reflective as a mirror.
Lee Yu and Lee Yuchan had kept pace with him, and almost the instant he halted, they too stopped at the center of the ice rock, looking at him with puzzled expressions.
"Here?" Lee Yu inquired, his curiosity piqued.
Yuchan's eyes held a hint of strangeness as she surveyed the ice rocks, murmuring, "This place..."
"Your initial spell wasn't the Shadow Curse, was it?" Yu Yuan interjected abruptly. "When did you switch to practicing the Shadow Curse?"
Lee Yu's face turned pale as he inquired, "Aunt, did you later practice the Shadow Curse?"
Lee Yuchan, with a frosty demeanor, turned to Yu Yuan. "How can you discern that so clearly?"
"It just feels like the Shadow Curse," Yu Yuan replied.
"Aunt?" Lee Yu pressed.
The female general, clad in heavy armor, exuded a fierce and bloodthirsty aura. After a brief pause, she shared, "I commanded troops in many battles against the Crimson Sun Empire. During one dire encounter, all of my officers perished, and I, too, was cornered and gravely wounded by the empire."
"The Shadow Curse has the power to collect the souls of fallen warriors and use them as a sacrifice to keep my own soul replenished."
"For the sake of victory and survival, I began to practice the Shadow Curse."
Pain was etched across Lee Yuchan's face as she recounted her story.
"Soon after employing the Shadow Curse, it was as if I could see the lingering souls of my comrades-in-arms, still present on the battlefield, being set ablaze. And I was the one holding the torch."
"They had already lost their lives for me, for the empire, and before their souls could dissipate into the cosmos, I rekindled them with the Shadow Curse."
The empire's female general, notorious for her ruthless tactics, bowed her head in sorrow.
A grimace of bitterness crossed Lee Yu's face.
The idea of sacrificing the residual souls of friends and allies to bolster one's own spirit and maintain combat effectiveness would be difficult for the empire's devoted warriors to stomach.
The Shadow Curse was a spell realized by the founder of the Stormcrown Empire, the Stormcrowned Emperor, amidst the throes of battle.
This spell propelled the Stormcrowned Emperor to the pinnacle of power in the Aetherius Continent during his time.
With the Shadow Curse, the Stormcrowned Emperor's military might surged with each battle he led.
In pursuit of advancing his practice of the Shadow Curse and elevating his realm, the Stormcrowned Emperor engaged in relentless slaughter across the battlefield. After every victory, he would mercilessly execute the entire enemy force, regardless of their surrender.
Even the lives of his own fallen soldiers were of no consequence to him; after all, the more warrior souls that perished in battle, the stronger he became.
The Stormcrowned Emperor's tyrannical deeds incited fury and resentment across the Aetherius Continent. In time, a formidable warrior from the Sword Sect in Euwrea set out, sword in hand, to confront him.
Despite wielding the Shadow Curse and having condensed the Solar Spirit, the Stormcrowned Emperor, who had reached the Unbound Stage, was slain by the Sword Sect's warrior.
The warrior, however, did not emerge unscathed and suffered grave injuries. Upon his return to the Sword Sect, he chose a life of solitude.
The Sword Sect, together with Euwrea's other sects, exerted pressure on the Stormcrown Empire, declaring the Shadow Curse a forbidden spell and prohibiting its cultivation among the empire's cultivators.
The Shadow Curse was ultimately destroyed, reduced to nothing but ashes.
Lee Yuchan, having come across the Shadow Curse by chance, secretly practiced it in her direst moments, advancing to the late stages of Subtlety.
Should her use of the Shadow Curse become known to Euwrea, it's likely they would dispatch their experts to eliminate her, potentially entangling the Silvermoon Empire in the fallout.
This revelation struck fear into Lee Yu, filling him with a profound sense of dread.
"Don't worry. The residual souls in this forbidden area are merely evil souls, not the Shadow Curse," Yu Yuan reassured her. "You can harness these evil souls to achieve the state of Lunar Spirit without any guilt."
"He's arrived. Prepare yourself."
In the midst of their conversation, the resplendent golden skeleton of the Solar Spirit came into view.
Yu Yuan extended his hand, pointing towards it from a distance.
