Witch Troupe and the Undead

For the little witch, this kind of injury was very easy to treat. She could simply put the soul that had separated from her body back in and then pull out the two severed soul threads and tie them into a knot. Unfortunately, this kind of rough treatment method, which could only be called "repair," was something only she could do.

Currently, whether it's the church or monks, the only thing they can do for this kind of symptom is provide end-of-life care. Even if they use their divine power to suppress the soul, the severed soul threads can't be reconnected.

On the contrary, while only beings like the Little Witch, whose world is completely different from others, can tie the soul threads, the methods of cutting the soul threads can be used by psychics, soul sorcerers, hell mages, and even psychic ritualists.

These soul essence ambers can be used by the little witch as a substitute for Yu Xu. Even if Yu Xu is really broken, as long as the soul essence ambers have not been exhausted, she can be regarded as still alive. In this way, she can put the soul back into the body and tie the soul threads into a knot without any problems.

This is also the difference between those soul-bound corpses and true resurrections. Spirit mediums cannot re-tie and reconnect the soul threads, so the corpse is still a corpse, only the soul is bound inside by magic. It's like operating a suit of armor of flesh and blood. As time goes by, this armor will still rot and stiffen like the corpse.

“It can also be used to reinforce Roach.” The little witch happily pinched a piece of soul essence amber, the white amber material was rolled into a long silver-white thread at her fingertips, and then the little witch looked at Roach. Through his seemingly intact body, the soul riddled with holes and shattered into pieces appeared before her eyes.

"Wait, what do you mean by 'reinforce'?!"

"What are you wondering about?!" the fairy looked at Roach in confusion. "Isn't this one of your racial talents?"

"I'm just an ordinary human being!"

"Who would believe that?" the fairy scoffed. Humans can't be blown up and put back together to continue using. Silver-white threads, like tentacles, wrapped around Roach, quickly drilling into his body and connecting the various parts of his soul together, just like sewing up a rag doll. The little witch carefully manipulated the threads, making Roach's soul and body even stronger.

"A physique where the spirit and body are one..." Vivi looked at Luo Qi curiously. "If I remember correctly, this kind of physique is very rare among otherworldly creatures, right? There are more things like those in the spirit world."

Like Roach, spirit beings in the spirit world also possess a unity of spirit and body. However, the difference lies in their souls; their souls are inherently their bodies. They lack a physical body in the conventional sense; their bodies are merely extensions of their souls. It's truly rare for beings like Roach, who possess a real physical body yet achieve this unity of spirit and body.

"I cherish it so much~" The little witch puffed out her chest, seemingly quite proud. The work of stitching up Roach had consumed nearly half of the soul essence, amber; the rest was carefully stored away by the little witch, who then looked at the others, "You can fix yourselves too~"

"This..." Weiwei shuddered. What does it mean that something can be repaired even if it's broken? The soul silk that had been processed into "Jade Origin" was wrapped around the little witch's wrist and preserved by her unique physique and abilities, making it look like a silver-white silk wristband.

The siege lasted for three days. During these three days, Roach and his companions arrived at the earthen slope on time to collect soul fragments. It was precisely because of the little witch's actions that the attack went so smoothly.

"What on earth happened?! What methods did these damned invaders use?!" Inside the castle, the Soul-Binding General was furious. This fortress was originally going to be the burial ground for these human scum, and the hidden smoky gray Soul-Binding Crystals scattered throughout the city were enough to completely turn this eleventh infantry regiment into a new Soul-Binding Legion.

But what was the result? Those sorcerers, just like before, made solemn promises, but in the end, it was all lies. Besides wasting enormous amounts of manpower and resources, they accomplished nothing. "If it weren't for..."

If it weren't for the fact that their magical power is still a crucial pillar in keeping the inner city intact, General Soul Binding would only want to sacrifice all those damned, boastful mages.

"This shouldn't be happening, it's impossible!" The hell mages stared at the shimmering, smoky gray crystal in front of them, completely baffled. The Soul-Binding Crystal was normal; it even contained the souls of an entire legion from the ancient Kingdom of Luster.

But why didn't the Soul Binding Array work? Originally, these souls would have been released and, under the effect of the Soul Binding Array, possessed the bodies of the human infantry who were still celebrating their victory after entering the city, thus recreating the ancient Luster Kingdom's legion as the force for restoring the kingdom.

However, the outer Soul-Binding Crystals were successfully activated, but they did not occupy any physical bodies. Humans stormed into the central city with unstoppable momentum, while the souls inside the crystals in the inner city seemed to be constantly resisting.

That's to be expected. If they were to die, from the perspective of the deceased, one could see the swirling, ghostly winds in the sky. Before the released souls could even take two steps, they would be swept away by something that looked like a green tentacle.

It was as if they had been targeted by some evil god who loved to sing. Not only were the souls of the remnants of the ancient kingdom stored in these soul-binding crystals treated the same way, but also the souls of human soldiers who died in battle.

Chapter 50 Essential Skills for Adventurers: Looting

Humanity's offensive advantage vanished completely once they reached the inner city. Large numbers of Soul-Binding Corpses and high-level undead creatures piled up inside the castle, and even when the infantry dismantled stones and wood from buildings near the castle to use as ammunition, they did not achieve much success.

In the outer city, a black horse, as dark as night, galloped at high speed through the streets, like a black light weaving through shadows, passing through the high platforms and collapsed buildings on the outskirts of the fortress, and finally stopping in front of a burning house near the city wall.

Roach dismounted from his horse and then lifted the little witch sitting in front of him down. The little girl rubbed her eyes, stretched out her right hand, and gently clenched it. The burning flames turned into countless crimson streams of light that entered her hand, transforming into a nearly solidified white ball of fire.

The little witch looked at the fireball in her hand, glancing around with a somewhat troubled expression. "Throw it over there!" Roach pointed to the inner city castle. "There's a battle going on over there. It's worth it if we blow anything up."

"Hmm~" The golden-haired witch raised her right hand high and swung it forward with force, almost tripping. The fireball drew an arc and crashed into the castle. After a while, just when Roach thought that the fireball might have been too weak, a green flame shot into the sky.

At least dozens of soul-bound corpses nearby were reduced to ashes, and the moment a soul peeked out, it was grabbed and dragged away by the still-operating magic circle. "Livia, I don't think this magic circle can be called 'Soul-Guiding'," Roach looked seriously into Livia's eyes, a look of confusion appearing in her watery emerald eyes. "It should be called 'Soul-Snatching'."

It's faster than the underworld taking away souls! If there weren't no underworld or similar facilities and institutions here, this little one's magic array would at least be considered "obstructing official business." Of course, it's also possible that she was already designated as a high-ranking civil servant in the underworld while she was alive.

"Sniff sniff~" Ignoring the two people interacting, the black horse sniffed around the house with a serious expression, then raised its hind leg and kicked the charred wall hard, revealing half of the cellar trapdoor below.

Livia extended her index finger and gently waved it, causing the bricks, rubble, and charred wood to bounce aside on their own, and the heavy trapdoor opened as if to curry favor, revealing the staircase below.

"We've found the carriage." A soft light flew over from the street corner, and the fairy landed panting on the witch's head. The little one looked up nervously, seemingly wanting to knock the thing down, but also afraid of hurting her.

"But doesn't what we're doing really count as robbery or theft?"

"We call this collecting the remains," Roach said solemnly. "And clearing the rubble. As for the remaining belongings, they're just our payment for our work." You tell me, did they even put out the fire or clear the rubble? As for the remains, those spirits already did that; they're probably burned to ashes or smashed into mincemeat somewhere somewhere now.

A few minutes later, Leslie arrived in a cargo wagon with Vivi inside.

“Here, take this.” Roach shoveled a shovel into Vivi’s hand and then put a wide-brimmed wicker hat on her head. “Wear this hat and take this shovel, and you will no longer be an ordinary person. You will not be able to enjoy any of the holidays, entertainment, or leisure of the human world. You will devote the rest of your life to the business of digging, day after day.”

"Huh!?" Vivi was a little stunned. What kind of strange opening ceremony was this? And this hat was clearly just an ordinary hat, with no magic power. Why did she say that she was no longer a mortal?

With the little witch's help, clearing the ruins didn't take too long. They cleared out a row of houses using a combination of magic, alchemy, arcane spells, and fairy tricks. They even managed to repair a few relatively intact houses using stones and wood from the ruins.

“One cellar per person, and there are probably some collapsed areas inside.” Roach was the first to go down. His steps were very steady, and he seemed very familiar with and used to digging things in the partially collapsed cellars. A small shovel in his hand was as nimble as his fingers, and he dug out the buried bottles, jars and other fragile items intact.

It was clear that he had received very professional training and was extremely experienced in digging things out of the ground and ruins. The things he dug out were taken to the little witch for appraisal. These houses were the alchemy shop from before, and the cellar naturally contained alchemy materials and semi-finished products. As for finished products, there were definitely no more.

"Chamomile essential oil... a cheap stuff that costs 3 copper coins a bottle." Weiwei carefully examined the bottle, which was still covered in dirt, and then put it into the wooden frame next to her.

As for the black horse, in order to avoid frightening the two ordinary packhorses pulling the wagons, it had already gone to guard the surrounding area. As a result, rumors of a horse-headed demon wandering the streets of the fortress at night spread among the soldiers attacking the city.

The materials for making hemostatic medicine are "healing leaf and black lotus extract". Since these two herbs mainly grow near mountain pools, the little witch didn't have many in stock. Vivi put them in the storage box on the carriage.

"Sulfur, Vibrating Crystal, Primal Crystal..." Roach was selecting the materials he needed, putting these materials for crafting advanced secret source items into his bag.

Sulfur needs to be obtained from volcanoes or geothermal springs. In the Stoll Empire, only the port city of "Snake Harbor" in the "Hot Sands Province" in the southwest has sulfur production, because there is a volcanic island not far from the city with abundant sulfur resources.

Vibrating Crystals are located on floating islands in the hollows of the far north. This extremely hard material is the best carrier for creating advanced paradigms, allowing the Mystic Source Paradigm to be used in multiples instead of being a one-time use material. As for the Primal Crystal, it is a byproduct of crystal mining. Although the Luster region does not produce crystal mines, the northern provinces do, making it relatively easy to obtain.

"That's about it. The rest are mostly useless items." For example, various wines as solvents, distilled water, and large quantities of linen and shade spider silk rolls. These two are commonly used consumables in alchemical experiments. The former is used for wiping and wrapping, while the latter is used to test light intensity and as a photosensitivity control indicator.

Shadow spider silk will start to burn as soon as it is exposed to light. The stronger the light, the faster it burns. In addition, immersing it in a reagent and placing it under bright light can test the reagent's sensitivity to light. Furthermore, shadow spider silk is essentially a product of shadow and will not affect the reagent's effectiveness.

Unfortunately, this kind of thing is useless to Roach and the Little Witch, because they both have some of the skills of the Mystic Mage, so they can make similar consumables themselves.

"Let's go, let's go, next one!" They avoided all jewelry stores and other places with valuables.

After all, the soldiers also ransacked the city under the pretext of clearing out the remaining enemies. However, since the inner city castle had not yet been captured, and under the military order, or more accurately, the threat of beheading, they only hastily ransacked the jewelry stores, equipment stores, and the like on the main road.

The military judge turned a blind eye to such behavior, since they hadn't strayed too far from the camp and attack positions, and there were indeed a few scattered undead creatures wandering along these roads that needed to be cleared to ensure the smooth passage of the supply wagons.

Roach and his men, on the other hand, targeted various material shops, warehouses, and alchemy shops. After all, everyone knew that the items in these places were extremely valuable. However, both soldiers and officers tacitly ignored these areas.

There's no particular reason. It's because these things require a considerable level of expertise to determine what is valuable and what is worthless. That's not all; you also need a significant level of knowledge to know how to handle and store them, and which ones are explosive and which ones are highly toxic.

Such specialized tasks were handled by the alchemy apprentices hired by the logistics quartermaster. Ordinary soldiers and officers would not risk their lives to see if the alchemical materials burning in the fire were poisonous, or if they would be carried away by the toxic fumes if they got too close.

Under the "protection" of the Black Horse and the Little Witch, Roach and his group circled the southwestern city wall and returned to the broken city gate, where they sorted and loaded the "excavated goods" piled up on the freight wagons onto the mobile alchemy workshop.

“Speaking of which, it’s a bit strange~” Vivi frowned, “Don’t you guys feel like we’re missing something?” “Missing what?” Fairy sat on the lamp stand, massaging her toes. Clearly, such a long journey was a great test for Fairy’s physique.

“We’re missing gold coins,” Leslie said, making a circle with her four fingers and thumb. “We haven’t found a single gold coin, only a few scattered copper coins and a small amount of silver coins.”

"Do the Soul-Binding Corpses have a habit of collecting gold coins? Or do those dead people also need money?" Roach asked curiously.

"Of course not! So, where did all the gold coins go? They couldn't have been stolen, could they?"

"Maybe the owner didn't die at all, or didn't die on the spot, but packed his valuables and ran away, and then died somewhere else." Of course, it's also possible that he packed his valuables and gold coins but hadn't even run two streets before he was turned into a soul-bound corpse by the soul-binding crystal, and the money was still on him.

"But it can't be that there isn't a single gold coin at all, it's more like..." Roach stroked his chin, thinking, it seemed more like someone was deliberately collecting gold for unknown purposes.

"What use is gold in alchemy or necromancy?" Roach looked at Livia. The girl paused for a moment, then slammed her hand on the table to signal everyone to be quiet. She then pulled out a thin notebook she had copied from her luggage.

"In alchemy, gold represents eternity, the sun, life, and God, while silver represents spirituality, soul, magic, and the moon. When creating alchemical artifacts related to eternity and holiness, a large amount of gold is often required as a direct material; while when making alchemical artifacts related to the sun and life, gold is used as a catalyst but is not consumed."

“As a branch of soul alchemy, necromancy rarely uses gold as a material, and more commonly uses black iron, which represents death, and red copper, which represents blood.” “In other words, gold is actually not very useful for bound soul corpses?”

"Don't make a sound~" the little witch said angrily, then continued to read in that pleasant but monotonous voice.

"Eternal Warrior, a high-level creation of necromancy, requires a large amount of gold, at least three powerful corpses, and a sufficiently powerful soul..."

"Wait, the Eternal Warrior?" the fairy exclaimed. "Wasn't that something lost a long time ago!?"

Because of its extremely demanding manufacturing process, its characteristics are somewhat similar to Roach's. Their souls are attached to flesh and blood armor forged from gold and bones. Even if the armor is smashed, as long as the armor is repaired, they can be resurrected.

Furthermore, thanks to the properties of gold, it is immune to almost all holy spell effects and is also unaffected by various anti-undead spells, magic, and alchemical artifacts.

Pure physical attacks are of little effect on its sturdy armor; moreover, even if it is smashed, it can be repaired and revived.

From this perspective, he can indeed be called an "eternal warrior," but if his armor is completely melted, he will be finished, just as Roach would be finished if he turned to ashes.

In addition, its soul is not bound inside like a soul-binding corpse, but has been integrated with the core forged from gold, and cannot be forced out by spiritual impact.

Does it have any weaknesses?

"Hmm~" Livia looked at the notes, then shook her head, indicating that this thing had no weaknesses, at least no obvious weaknesses. Of course, to some extent, its advantages could also be considered weaknesses, such as its repairability.

Eternal Warriors do not have self-repair capabilities. If you kill them quickly enough, an unrepaired Eternal Warrior will just be a pile of broken armor and corpses, which can be melted down in a furnace after the battle.

Meanwhile, in the castle hall, the Soul-Binding General stood before a pool of molten gold, fearlessly stepping into it. The scorching liquid instantly burned his calves, and then his entire body burst into flames within the molten gold.

Gold, as if alive, parted the burning, withered flesh, seeping into the charred bones bit by bit, eventually leaving a golden skeleton. Soul-binding mages continued to throw the bones of the dismantled corpses of powerful beings into the pool, and the golden skeleton grew even taller and thicker.

When only a tiny bit of molten gold remained in the pool, the Soul-Binding Corpse brought over heavy black iron armor and fitted it onto the skeleton. The remaining gold then adhered to it, coating it with a shiny golden shell.

"Whoosh~" Hot steam billowed out from under the open-faced helmet. "Ah, the warm breath..." The Soul-Binding General stepped onto the steps, his heavy body making the ground tremble slightly. Weapons were already prepared on the weapon rack beside him: a long halberd made entirely of metal and a heavy shield with the statues of the twin goddesses of Gurust.

In the ancient kingdom of Luster, the goddess of love and desire was a twin goddess, symbolizing the two opposing sides of desire and love. There were normal types of love, such as simple love, familial affection, and parental love, as well as abnormal and fanatical types like yandere.

Similarly, desires include normal material desires, the pursuit of fame and fortune, the yearning for a better life, the desire for knowledge and wealth, and so on. Of course, there are also those that are too extreme and dirty and terrible.

Because of the elusive duality of these two images, the people of the ancient kingdoms believed that it must be a goddess, symbolizing her unpredictable and capricious nature; at the same time, it could also be a twin god, symbolizing their contradictory yet common origins.

For the Luster people, if the twin goddesses on the shield face each other and hold up a golden cup, it symbolizes the positive aspect, namely the desire for victory and the will to protect the homeland and family. If they face away from each other, it symbolizes the negative aspects such as division, despair, and fanaticism.

The twin goddesses on the Soul-Binding General's shield stand back to back, each holding a longsword, one blade pointing upwards and the other downwards, forming the shield's sharp edge.

A cloak woven from the hair of the dead was wrapped around the general's body. This could alleviate the burning sensation from the golden core, and for the souls created into eternal warriors, they would initially feel a warmth similar to that of the living.

This warmth will gradually intensify, eventually turning into a burning pain like being burned in molten gold. Thereafter, until they are completely destroyed, they will forever endure this endless suffering.

Only cloaks woven from the hair of the dead could give them a slight coolness, thus alleviating their souls twisted by extreme pain.

The general, holding a halberd in one hand and a shield in the other, walked out of the castle. A fireball, seemingly out of nowhere, had accurately shattered the container filled with the magic of death. Now, as the veil of the dead dissipated, the power of the undead was slowly waning.

If it weren't for the fact that it's nighttime and the humans are unable to launch an attack, they wouldn't even have time to hold the ritual to create the Eternal Warriors.

More gold coins were poured into the furnace, melting into a shimmering golden liquid. The soul of the next chosen powerful knight began a new round of forging, exhausting every single gold coin collected from the fortress, yet only three eternal warriors were created.

Including the Soul-Binding General, each of these four warriors possesses their own unique skills. As undead, their endurance and combat skills are truly astonishing, enough to bring endless surprises to the human army attacking the city the next day!

As for why the little witch was able to hit the opponent's magic container so accurately, well, we all know that the little witch can directly see the form of souls and magic, and that container... that thing is the most conspicuous in the direction of the castle, so if she were to throw it, she would definitely throw it at that most conspicuous target-like thing!

Chapter Fifty-One: Martial Virtue (True) - Unbearable

The number of undead was steadily reduced under the constant bombardment of catapults and magic cannons. Learning from the previous experience of Hearthstone, the humans brought enough magic cannons. These magic cannons were purchased by Earl Lywood through the Alchemy Society, which can be said to have cost him a lot of money. If the invaders were not undead but the royal army or some other enemy, he would not have been so concerned.

But the undead are different. They have no purpose. They just keep turning living things into corpses and corpses into new undead in all directions, like a snowball rolling downhill. If you can't stop them at the beginning, then you can only wait for the whole Lywood County to be completely submerged by the undead scourge.

Just imagine the total population of Lywood County, and think about what kind of massive crowds would form in front of the defensive gates of Valley City if half of them were killed by the undead and transformed into new undead. That would keep Earl Lywood up at night.

Running away is an even worse option. The difference between a nobleman without territory and a pig is that a pig will rebel. The emperor would never hesitate to take his head off and then rebuild a new fortress at the end of the valley to block the undead. At the cost of abandoning the entire County of Lywood, he could completely eliminate a powerful nobleman in the eastern province.

After all, the political pressure you face when you launch a military campaign to attack the undead forces and reclaim your territory is a completely different matter from attacking a powerful nobleman who has done nothing wrong and taking back his power. For the former, even if the church, neighboring countries, societies, and esoteric associations don't support you, they have no excuse or reason to oppose you. As for the latter, let's have a three-month-long argument in the court first.

Thus, the Earl of Lywood spent all the money he could, and the result was that the silver-blue beams of the psychic arquebuses in the sky resembled a forest, the fireballs of the elemental arquebuses were like a hailstorm, and the even rarer giant lightsabers formed by the Church's Heavenly Wrath swept across the city walls, turning dozens or even hundreds of undead into ashes with each strike.

After the crystal storing the magic of death was blown away by the witch, it lost the protection of the Sky of the Dead. And since the Soul-Binding Crystals could not absorb enough soul fragments to create new undead units, the time when the outer perimeter of the castle would be breached was already predictable.

"Boom!" The steel gate, several tens of centimeters wide, bulged inward, followed by another heavy impact. The bulge gradually deformed and bulged under the continuous hammering, and finally a crack two fingers wide appeared on the gate.

Intense flames blew in from the crack, and the metal pillar with dragon head carvings on the lower part of the ram was pressed tightly against the crack on the city gate by the winch. Inside the arcane furnace at the end, elemental essence continuously disintegrated into surging magic power, which was transformed into terrifying magical flames that shot outward from the dragon's mouth.

In a world with magic, city defense tactics are inevitably influenced by the existence of magic, such as the Dragon Breath Ram, which is used to counter the methods used to hold city gates up by manpower or support frames.

As long as a breach is made in the city gate, fire will be blown inside, and any ambushes or wagons blocking the gate will be burned to ashes by the continuous magical flames for several minutes.

Meanwhile, the city gate and its supporting pillars would soften in the high temperature. "Keep ramming!" The infantrymen forcefully turned the winch, lowering the dragon-headed hammer and replacing it with a heavy battering ram, also carved with a dragon head and cast from a silver alloy. With the help of machinery and manpower, this multi-ton contraption was raised high. "Bang!" The softened city gate suddenly caved inward, and the red-hot supporting frame bent completely like a pretzel.

"continue!"

"Bang!" The crack in the city gate was wide enough for a person to pass through.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!" A large number of magical fire arrows shot out from the crack. The prepared infantrymen raised their shields, gritted their teeth and held on tightly, and pulled back the battering ram to prevent it from being ignited and burning under the city gate, becoming a new obstacle.

"Charge!" The castle gates were slowly pushed open, and human infantry swarmed in. Normally, the inner city would be equipped with several magical barriers and simple magical traps, much like a tower defense game, with soldiers frantically firing at the troops pouring in from the gates. But now, they could only rely on sheer numbers to fight their way through, step by step; there were no shortcuts.

However, when the infantrymen stormed into the inner city, they found scattered bones and a half-broken crystal obelisk covered in runes, clearly fallen from a height.

Its burst of magical shockwave burned the surrounding magical traps and barrier pillars into useless arcane debris, and even wiped out a squadron of undead knights deployed nearby.

"The green fire from before?" Everyone saw that huge green pillar of fire, otherwise they wouldn't have launched such a hasty all-out attack. Regardless of what the pillar of fire was, it meant that something had happened to the undead. Perhaps they had made a mistake, or perhaps their plan was about to be completed.

"Why are you standing still?!" General Karius roared, blocked at the back. The troops in front had suddenly stopped for some reason, and the knights behind couldn't get in at all. Shouldn't they be attacking the main castle building and mopping up the remaining enemies? As for those undead warriors, they could leave them to the knights who had been resting and recuperating to besiege.

Yes, a siege. Who the hell wants to fight you one-on-one? This is war, not child's play. Of course, you'd gather a group of equally strong opponents and gang up on them.

Those who have lived this long and honed themselves into strong individuals through endless battles are few and far between when it comes to martial ethics. Just kidding. Those who do practice martial ethics are often taken down by unethical "lime martial saints" when they first start out. Unless this strong individual was trained in a ring or a fair arena, what's the point of talking about outnumbering others, what "lime martial saints," or being so skilled at groin strikes? When fighting in armor, how can you not use groin strikes to break through the sturdy armor?