There's a big problem with dreams in this world.

"Not just people, but also magical beasts, elves, and the like." The Pope, probably guessing what Lu Qing was thinking, replied:

"When a creature with lower spiritual power dies, its soul dissipates and becomes part of the universe, while when a creature with higher spiritual power dies, its soul leaves its body."

"Most of them are unconscious and will gradually fade away over time. Only a small number can regain consciousness and move freely, but they cannot escape the fate of fading away."

"However, some mages can meditate during this stage to strengthen their souls and become communicative spirits. A very small number of lucky ones will not have their souls dissipate."

"What about those that Your Holiness the Pope summoned just now?" Lu Qing asked curiously.

The souls the Pope summoned just now didn't seem capable of normal communication at all.

“Those are resentful souls.” After hearing Lu Qing’s words, the Pope explained, “Resentful souls refer to those souls who died filled with resentment or obsession in their lives.”

"The birth of resentful souls is strange. Some resentful souls are linked to their strength in life, while others are completely transformed from ordinary people."

"However, these vengeful spirits are all extremely powerful; some are even capable of confronting the kingdom's army head-on!"

"........."

Lu Qing recalled the aura emanating from the resentful spirits summoned by the Pope and felt that the Pope's words were a bit conservative.

"So, since these vengeful spirits are so powerful, how can I subdue them?" Lu Qing asked the Pope.

It's not like you could fight a vengeful spirit, severely injure it, and then throw away the carved elf... wooden mask.

If that's the case, it's not impossible, but Lu Qing thinks that a normal, ordinary person with the [Spirit Communication] skill would probably be no match for a vengeful spirit.

No, it's not that we should, it's that we absolutely cannot beat them!

"Give her a beating, and that's all that matters," the Pope said to Lu Qing with a smile.

0.0

"Hahaha, do you think you can just encounter vengeful spirits anytime? It's already good enough to have two at the beginning," the Pope said with a loud laugh.

"And what is a vengeful spirit?"

"They are spirits corrupted by void energy. Not only living beings, but even spirits can be eroded by the void, only the degree of corruption varies."

"Some creatures should have their souls dissipate immediately after death, but if they happen to be contaminated by the void, their souls will be preserved, but what they will ultimately become is unknown."

After the Pope finished speaking, he showed Lu Qing another skill. He raised his left hand and slowly opened his palm.

A translucent butterfly flew out from the Pope's palm, leaving a trail of dark blue in the air.

"No, this path is..."

Lu Qing observed carefully for a while before realizing that this path was a new effect of her [Spiritual Vision], which allowed her to see the traces left by the movement of spirits.

"The butterfly's soul should have dissipated after its death, but it was contaminated by the void, and its soul did not disappear."

"Because the void is not deeply polluted, it retains its original form. In contrast, it cannot have the slightest impact on reality."

The Pope stretched out his finger, and saw the ghostly butterfly in the distance struggling violently as if it had been grabbed by something.

However, this level of struggle was of no use to the Pope; in the blink of an eye, the ghostly butterfly returned to the Pope's palm.

"Focus your attention, look at it, and concentrate your mental energy on this butterfly," the Pope said, moving his palm towards Lu Qing.

Clearly, the Pope wanted Lu Qing to learn how to utilize her spiritual power, but...

"I already knew how to do that."

As her mental attributes increased, Lu Qing's ability to perceive her own mental power also improved significantly, and she was able to control her mental power long ago.

She didn't bother pretending and directly mobilized some of her mental energy, focusing it on the butterfly.

Suddenly, the ghost butterfly in the Pope's palm, which had given up struggling, began to flap its wings violently once more!

boom!

Without a sound, the ghost butterfly's body seemed to explode, turning into pure spiritual energy and dissipating into the air.

"........."

The Pope stared speechlessly at his palm, never expecting that Lu Qing would kill this ghost butterfly with her mental power.

Lu Qing hadn't expected that she would kill the ghost butterfly by using only a tiny bit of her mental energy.

"It seems Your Highness, your mental strength is naturally quite high," the Pope analyzed.

"How could it not be high? I've spent a ton of attribute points on it." Lu Qing glanced at her 50-point Spirit attribute and thought to herself.

This situation is like a university professor encountering an elementary school student, assuming that the student only knows elementary school questions, so he takes out an elementary school test book for the student to do, only to find that the student has already self-studied up to high school level courses.

"In short, just remember this feeling, practice more, and it will be much easier to control your mental energy in the future."

The Pope was surprised that Lu Qing had completed what he thought would take more than half an hour of practice in just a few seconds. He was happy but also a little annoyed.

Subsequent courses...

With less than forty minutes left before lunch, there wasn't enough time to complete the guided meditation process, so...

The Pope picked up the wooden board he had taken out earlier, then pulled out a carving knife from his pocket and said, "Next, I will teach you how to carve a wooden mask. We'll talk about the specific details later. Watch me do it once first, and think carefully about how to do it."

"Then, whose face shall we carve?" The Pope pondered for a moment, then looked at Knight Myron, who had been sitting silently to the side.

"Forget it." The Pope shook his head inwardly, then looked at Lu Qing.

"Hmm?" Lu Qing tilted her head in confusion, wondering why the Pope hadn't started yet.

"To carve Her Highness's face is rather impolite," the Pope thought to himself.

Charles didn't want to carve; he had only met his daughter, Fang Qingrou, once and didn't remember her very well, so he decided to carve Eileen's wooden mask instead.

The Pope nodded, then began carving on the wooden board with a carving knife.

------------

An unremarkable chapter

After much deliberation, I decided to publish this separate chapter.

I know, I know.

I'm such a useless person. I've said I'd update twice a week but haven't kept my promise. I feel really bad for you guys.

I feel ashamed every night before going to bed, but I still can't write anything the next day.

To be honest, I'm a little confused.

Can I really write novels?

Some people told me that instead of dragging things out, it would be better to just cut ties, but I won't do that.

I want to resume double updates!

But I just thought, I dare not make any more guarantees that updates will definitely resume, because I know I'm just a useless person.

I feel like I'm just giving up a bit, haha...

I don't know whether I should post this chapter or not, because I've posted too many similar things, but if I don't say anything, it will seem like I'm playing dead.

After hesitating for a long time, I'll post it anyway.

As for what I said above, just consider it me rambling nonsense.

No, what am I trying to say...?

Anyway, I'm sorry, I will try my best to update.

Well, if I really tried, I probably wouldn't have posted this chapter. In the end, it's because I lack willpower. I always find all sorts of excuses and reasons for myself.

........

........

........

I really don't know what else to say, so I'll stop here.

------------

Chapter 481: Breathing Inhale Inhale Outhale Outhale Outhale

The Pope skillfully manipulated the carving knife, continuously shaving off strands of wood shavings from the wooden board. His movements were quick yet steady, and the series of falling wood shavings, if not for their color, looked like snow falling to the ground.

Lu Qing carefully observed the Pope's movements, mainly watching how he carved a wooden board into the shape of a human face.

She's very confident in using daggers and knives, but if you asked her to carve a human face...

This isn't something you can learn just by having steady hands; it requires using your brain and a lot of experience.

After observing for a while, Lu Qing was somewhat surprised to find that she seemed to be able to easily understand the Pope's thoughts when he was sculpting, and gained a lot of experience from his actions.

After some thought and organization, her mental diary gave her a prompt.

[Basic Carpentry LV8-LV10]

"Huh?! Basic woodworking skills are counted here too? What about carving skills?" Lu Qing wondered.

Does that mean one can only acquire carving skills by learning how to carve stone statues?

Although she had many questions in her mind, the Pope's carving was not yet finished, so Lu Qing could only temporarily put aside her distractions and continue to observe carefully.

About twenty minutes later, the Pope finally stopped what he was doing and put the mask, which looked almost exactly like Irene's, aside.

"Did you see clearly?" the Pope asked Lu Qing.

"Yes, I saw it clearly." Lu Qing nodded.

"Now that you've seen it clearly, do you want to give it a try?" The Pope took out a new wooden board from his pocket and handed it to Lu Qing, who looked eager to try.

"Yes!" Lu Qing nodded heavily.

Although she was very curious about how the Pope managed to hide so many wooden planks in his clothes, she didn't ask any further questions.

After taking the wooden board from her hands, Lu Qing took out the small knife called "Words of Rock" that she had bought from Mo Luni's shop earlier.

Haha, a blue-quality carving knife allows the user to feel the "breathing" and "texture" of the object being carved.

Without a doubt, this was a tool that could greatly increase the speed of practicing carving wooden masks, and Lu Qing didn't think it was a coincidence.

Of course, it's not exactly a bad thing.

Her fingers traced lightly across the wooden board, and after gripping the [Words of Rock] tightly, Lu Qing felt she could examine every detail of the board in her hand.