Necromancer, summoning 055? What the heck?

Chapter 294 The Mission of the Specially Recruited Tattoo Artists of Dongxia
The battle among the stars seems to have come to a temporary end.

Green Pine withdrew its troops from Emerald, and the elves and Stream Moon ceased hostilities. The orcish spring hunt, which usually takes place at this time of year, has yet to materialize this year.

Having just suffered such a severe beating, it seems unwise for the Plains Orcs to launch another southward campaign.

Taking advantage of this break, Chen Mo returned to his ordinary life as a lord, cultivating, handling government affairs, and making trips back and forth to Dongxia to transfer things.

Occasionally, I would accompany Liushuang... and my sister-in-law to stroll around Hanhai.

It was a stolen half-day of peace amidst the busyness.

Meanwhile, on the distant blue planet, it's a time of bustling activity.

Dongxia's violent clash with the bald eagle and the four-clawed sea serpent, achieved with unprecedented intensity, immediately drew the attention of the entire planet.

Is this unprecedentedly radical attitude the prelude to the next all-world war?
This is speculation for many countries, but for most of the people of Dongxia, it is a source of excitement.

Especially in the territory of the four-clawed sea serpent, fighting both sea serpents and white eagles together is just... awesome!

Sitting in his own "Mozhu Pavilion" shop, Zhu Lei stared blankly at the television hanging on the wall. The screen was showing Dongxia soldiers, fully armed and dressed like futuristic warriors, patrolling the land of Liuqiu.

Zhu Lei's eyes practically popped out of their sockets with envy.

Although this battle caused his small shop's business to plummet, he still wanted to fight even harder, even more ruthlessly.

It would be best to wipe out all those bastards of the sea serpents!

Back then, when the Four-Clawed Sea Serpent invaded the Eastern Xia, Sichuan and Chongqing were located in the southwestern hinterland of the Eastern Xia. They were one of the few regions that were not directly attacked by the Sea Serpent's land forces. However, the blood of the men of Sichuan was no less!

Throughout the war, 400,000 soldiers and 3 million able-bodied men emerged from here. One-fifth of the resistance soldiers in Dongxia came from Sichuan. It can be said that almost all the able-bodied men in the province were drained. Even many teenagers, dressed in rags and carrying rifles taller than themselves, rushed to the battlefield without hesitation.

"No army can be formed without Shu"—behind this saying lies a bloody history!
Time may pass, but it cannot erase the memories etched into one's bones. Whenever one deals with a four-clawed sea serpent, the bloodline gene from one's very bloodline will be automatically activated.

In present-day Dongxia, there is no longer any need for conscription. People signing up for the army can break down the doors of the recruitment office, and retired veterans have surrounded the mobilization office several times, with mountains of petitions, all for the chance to go to the battlefield.

Privately, some absurd rumors circulate in small circles, and now it takes at least twenty to join the team.

Zhu Lei guessed this was another scam by some broker or fraudster. They really weren't afraid of death to use their brains for something like this.

However, Zhu Lei was not qualified to join the army. When he was young, he wanted to look cool, so he got a lot of tattoos on his body.

There are majestic tiger heads, blooming petals, skulls, Guanyin statues, and the names of girlfriends hidden among the intricate patterns.

Having weathered that somewhat hazy and youthful period, Zhu Lei opened his own tattoo shop. He was extremely skilled and quite famous in the industry, earning him the respectful titles of "Master Zhu" and "Zhu the One-Needle."

Especially because of his own immature experience, he established several rules for his store, which made him famous.

Minors should not get tattoos, people who are drunk or confused should not get tattoos, people who do not have a medical examination report should not get tattoos, and people who have reactionary images or slogans should not get tattoos.

Many people came several times but failed to get the tattoo, and then they cursed him, saying he was faking it. He just smiled and didn't say anything.

During the peak of his business, he was so busy from morning till night that he didn't even have time to drink water. However, once the fighting started in the southeast, his business took a sharp downturn.

It seems everyone has a heart set on joining the army, and nobody wants to get a tattoo anymore.

Everything is clean and tidy, which is great!

Just as Master Zhu Lei was looking up at the Dongxia soldiers, drool practically dripping from the corner of his mouth, a knock came at the door.

Several middle-aged men dressed in summer formal attire entered.

Zhu Lei's heart skipped a beat.

Judging from his appearance and demeanor, he doesn't seem like my client.

Is it the Industry and Commerce Bureau? The Tax Bureau? Or the Urban Management Bureau? The Fire Department?
I didn't do anything wrong!
Just as he was feeling uneasy, the middle-aged man in the lead walked over and first showed his identification.

"Mr. Zhu Lei, right? We are from the Political Affairs Department of the Bashu Military Region. Don't be nervous. We've come to see you because we need your help with something."

"I heard you're a pretty good tattoo artist?"

Master Zhu breathed a sigh of relief. He was particularly intimidated by the clerks in the city's various departments, especially the temporary workers, but he felt completely at ease when he encountered soldiers.

"It's nothing special, just some minor insights!"

Zhu Lei wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, then quickly pulled the sleeve down to try and cover the lines on his arm. He hurriedly offered the chair, saying, "Sir, please sit down! Is there...is there anyone whose scar needs some treatment? I'll tell you, I really know how to do that!"

"The design I created can completely cover the scar so that it's not visible at all!"

The middle-aged man opposite smiled kindly.

"I won't sit down now, time is tight. On behalf of the Sichuan Military Region, I hereby formally recruit Mr. Zhu Lei as a special military personnel. This is the recruitment order."

"Explain the situation to your family, and we'll leave immediately. It seems you won't be able to come back for a while!"

Zhu Lei felt a rush of blood to his head.

Conscription? Special military duties?
Could it be that I'm going to tattoo those four-clawed sea serpent captives? I'll have to do a lot of needles, and yes, I'll need to use as little anesthesia as possible!

Okay, Master Zhu has some brains, but not many.

After making a video call to his wife, Zhu Lei got into a black minivan. The curtains on both sides of the windows were drawn, completely separating the inside from the outside. Zhu Lei was assigned a seat facing away from the driver's seat, and he couldn't even tell which way was which.

The van sped along and drove directly into the belly of the large, bulky plane parked at the airport. After the plane took off, Zhu Lei wasn't allowed to get out of the car. Two men in summer clothes sat on either side of him, chatting idly.

I don't know how much time passed. During that time, the flight attendants served tea twice and a meal. After the plane landed, a van drove directly out of the plane and, after many twists and turns, entered a military base.

When Zhu Lei got out of the car, he saw rows of glittering general stars. He didn't know exactly what those epaulets represented, but he had seen them on TV occasionally and they looked somewhat familiar.

This is definitely not small.

Zhu Lei was so nervous that he could barely walk. The middle-aged man who had accompanied him all the way sensed his tension and gently patted his shoulder.

"Don't be afraid, I'm not going to arrest you for questioning, nor will I send you to the battlefield. I'm just going to let you show off your tattooing skills."

"Completing the mission will at least get me a promotion to second lieutenant!"

Zhu Lei nodded stiffly. Sitting to his left and right were a dozen or so "rune brothers" who were trembling like him, with patterns showing on their necks and arms. They exchanged glances, their eyes filled with terror.

Fortunately, the meeting moderator quickly revealed the answer.

On the big screen, a huge, incredibly detailed photo of a tattoo was projected.

All the invited "special military personnel" were somewhat stunned.

They are all top-notch tattoo artists who have dealt with all kinds of human skin for many years. With just a glance, they can roughly judge a person's skin type and tightness.

The skin in the picture looks rather eerie.

Rough, with a bluish tinge from the inside out, its texture to the naked eye resembles the wrinkled bark of a withered old tree, and even after being shaved off, the coarse bark remains clearly visible.

A thought popped into Zhu Lei's mind: This is probably a dead person, or rather, the kind of dead person who's stiffened after death, almost becoming a zombie...

The tattoo designs were also very strange.

It doesn't look like a complete painting, but rather a large number of twisted lines and abstract symbols wrapped together. These complex interwoven patterns extend down from the neck, almost covering the entire back, arms, hips, and legs!
Zhu Lei stared at the picture carefully, trying to find some pattern, but as he looked at it, he felt a little dizzy.

The lines, varying in thickness, intersect at points, and it's as if something is shimmering slightly at those points, like magma flowing beneath thick layers of rock, or the reflection of a beast's pupil in the dark.

Zhu Lei lowered his head and rubbed his eyes.

An Eastern Xia officer, wearing a four-star double-line badge, cleared his throat and, in as gentle a tone as possible, began to assign tasks to those present. "Gentlemen, this is your work for now."

"You will receive clear samples and will be arranged to observe the actual objects up close. What you need to do is use your skills and, in accordance with the reference opinions and ideas provided by the expert group, completely and faithfully replicate these drawings onto the personnel we designate."

I look forward to your performance!

A day later, Zhu Lei was the first to walk out of the observation room. He was the first to complete the partial tattoo reproduction on the imitation leather material. After inspection, the completion rate was over 90%. Therefore, after signing a series of documents, he was given the opportunity to observe the actual object up close.

The tattooed man, nicknamed "Zhu Yizhen," almost gave in at that moment.

In that huge laboratory filled with the smell of medicine and disinfectant, rows of sophisticated instruments he couldn't name were lined up. In the center of the laboratory, there were a dozen metal tables, each with a huge body lying quietly on it.

Their skin was exactly the bluish-gray color shown in the picture, with bulging muscles and exposed fangs. Even though they had lost their lives, they still exuded a primitive and ferocious aura.

On them, the indigo totem that Zhu Lei had seen was clearly engraved!
These are all orcs lying here! And they're orc shamans!
Dongxia has been studying the magical system of orc shamans for a long time. With more and more samples and more and more data collected, the entire theoretical research system is close to maturity. However, it has always been unable to cross the threshold of practical application.

Since everyone's skin surface area, curvature, and structure are different, the institute suspended the work after several failed attempts.

After all, those selected to participate in the experiments were all loyal and outstanding soldiers of our own side, and we could not endlessly conduct risky experiments on them.

Until the Battle of Qishan, Chen Mo sent over another extremely unusual shaman corpse.

This is a hybrid orc, a child born from the union of an orc and a human. This is already a relatively rare category among orcs. More importantly, these hybrids, who are considered to have impure bloodlines and low status, are not qualified to become shamans.

But this woman happens to have a great shaman as her mother.

When women are fiercely protective of their children, they can be completely unreasonable.

This mother, with her powerful authority and resources, defied convention and raised her child, who was not particularly talented and was of mixed race, into a shaman.

Of course, after his great shaman mother died, this mediocre mixed-race shaman was unsurprisingly ostracized and wandered to the White Deer Plain, where he became the worship shaman of a small tribe.

Then, this small tribe participated in the Battle of Qishan, and the shaman was fortunate enough to be placed in the laboratory of the Dongxia Research Institute.

Why do we say it's lucky?
First, he was killed by a stray bullet to the head, and his body was remarkably well-preserved.

The second is this hybrid shaman, whose physical structure is very close to that of his paternal human, with very few orc features.

This provides a near-perfect sample for humans to inscribe shamanic runes!

Yes, the Eastern Xia were fortunate to have obtained excellent reference materials, and this shaman was also fortunate to have his name recorded in the history of the Eastern Xia.

After the pattern was reproduced with micrometer-level precision, the tattoo showed an activation response for the first time in the next experiment.

Unfortunately, when the activation reached the neck, it was unclear whether it was due to a flaw in the engraving of the "rune array" or some other reason, the psionic channel was interrupted. The research institute urgently activated the rescue procedure and administered three doses of "Life Praise Potion" to save the experimental soldier.

Faced with this helpless situation, an expert offered a suggestion.

"Try finding a master tattoo artist in China!"

“I doubt that highly accurate replication is necessarily entirely correct. I don’t believe that orc shamanic 'rune array' engravings can achieve the micron-level precision we do, but they can engrave them. I suspect that they are also trying to find a certain feeling.”

"Just like our researcher Zhang Changlin who nurtured the [Budding Talent]..."

After repeated discussions and layers of approval, the plan was finally approved for implementation, and "Master Zhu" was fortunate enough to become the first person in the public to engrave "runes".

After the initial panic, Zhu Lei exhibited extreme excitement.

He is witnessing history; he is participating in history.

He may even have his name recorded in family genealogies, county annals, or even books.

What could drive an Eastern Xia person more mad than this, even if it's just a "rune guy"?

He threw himself into the dense lines.

After more than ten days and nights of repeated observation and meticulous exploration, watching video demonstrations of shamans from the starry world, and with the comprehensive analysis of information from the expert team, Zhu Lei felt that the entire process was firmly imprinted in his mind.

You can give it a try.

This is a separate simulated "operation room". The magic array inside continuously pours into the space and maintains a standard spiritual pressure of spiritual energy. Well, this is the unit used in Dongxia to measure the spiritual energy in the air.

The warrior who received this round of engraving was a young man in his early twenties. His rosy cheeks showed his excitement. These warriors who participated in the experiment were selected from thousands of candidates. They would follow the standard path of shamanic training, only honing their spiritual power and magical power, but not learning any specific techniques, until they received the summons.

Zhu Lei's heart was also pounding.

Inside the control room, the light was deliberately dimmed, leaving only a few shadowless lamps focused on the young soldier's bronze back.

A faint, strange scent, a blend of herbs and minerals, filled the air. It was a special "ink" from another world, a deep indigo dye made primarily from the warm blood of high-level magical beasts, supplemented with carefully ground bone fragments, mineral powder imbued with spiritual energy, and a plant from the northern wasteland.

These precious dyes were placed in a large, grayish-white bowl with natural bone-like texture, and seemed to be flowing slowly.

Although Dongxia's laboratory was able to analyze and synthesize most of the components, to ensure absolute safety, this first attempt, with a "master" wielding the needle, still strictly followed ancient traditions, using original materials imported from the Starry World for everything from the dye formula to the bone bowl that supported it.

Zhu Lei stood in front of the control panel, took a deep breath, and tried to calm his wildly beating heart.

He put on specially made goggles, and in his hand, a long, slightly curved, fishbone-like spirit guide needle was gently dipped into the dye in the bowl.

The needle tip is extremely fine and hollow inside, with a tiny energy-conducting circuit. This ensures that as it pierces the skin, it can precisely deliver these dyes containing special energy, gradually forming nodes in the energy channel.

Once the first line of the circuit was drawn, the veins on the young soldier's forehead bulged.

He began to feel the pain of psionic ablation.

This indicates that the first psionic channel has been established.

Zhu Lei focused his mind and concentrated all his energy on the spirit-guiding needle in his hand. He had practiced on the imitation leather countless times, and even with his eyes closed, the "talisman array" in his mind could be clearly seen.

One injection! One injection! And another!
With each circuit completed, a faint bluish light appeared beneath the soldier's skin. Though weak, it was clearly visible under the shadowless lamps and dozens of high-definition cameras.

Time passes slowly in silence.

From the tailbone to the lumbar spine, then to the broad back muscles, and then to the arms, hips, and legs... the intricate indigo patterns, like rapidly growing vines, gradually covered most of the warrior's body.

Inside the observation room outside the control room, a group of generals and experts held their breath, intently watching every detail through a high-definition screen.

Finally, the last stroke landed on the back of the warrior's neck, echoing the initial rune and forming a complete closed loop.

A huge indigo totem, covering most of the warrior's body and full of mysterious, wild beauty, was thus displayed before the observer.

The standard spiritual pressure and energy maintained in the control room seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, and began to surge wildly toward the rune array on the warrior's back!

The indigo totem suddenly lit up! The flickering light was no longer faint, but like a blue flame suddenly ignited in the night!

Countless tiny streams of light surged rapidly within the lines of the rune array, weaving and converging along predetermined trajectories.

Those seemingly chaotic and disordered nodes now shone brightly one after another, like stars gradually being lit up in a star map.

"Uhhhhhh-!"

The young soldier let out a low roar, his body trembling violently uncontrollably, veins bulging on his skin like writhing dragons, and muscles twitching wildly and erratically beneath his skin.

As the light of the rune array grew brighter, it eventually formed a clear, psionic pattern on the warrior's body, as if it were a phantom floating from the shimmering tattoos, then gradually sinking back down until it completely overlapped with the warrior's body.

Inside the control room, Zhu Lei retreated to the safety line as required, staring blankly at the miraculous scene before him. He watched the young warrior, who seemed like a war god reborn amidst the psionic flames, and an indescribable surge of emotion, mixed with a tremendous sense of accomplishment, instantly rushed to his head.

Psionic channel, open! Activate!
Thus, the first shaman of Dongxia was born!

(End of this chapter)