Chapter 357 - 128: Lifebound Profound Corpse! Success

Chapter 357: Chapter 128: Lifebound Profound Corpse! Success

Lynch formed a sword with his fingers and pressed the tip against the center of the corpse’s brow.

His Spiritual Power extended like transparent threads, probing into the husk’s entire body, coursing through its corded muscle fibers and dense bones and joints.

Finally, these wisps of Spiritual Power all gathered in the corpse’s brain.

Once, the Abyssal Demonic Qi within this corpse had surged like a tide, and Yenogu’s remnant will had been as tyrannical as a monarch. It had entrenched itself in every blood vessel and inch of fascia, desperately trying to convert Lynch into its Abyssal Servant.

But now...

The corpse was all but empty.

There was precious little Abyssal Demonic Qi left for Yenogu. Its remnant will could only cower in the corpse’s heart, the surrounding Abyssal Demonic Qi now so thin it resembled a faint wisp of smoke.

Lynch could even sense it trembling instinctively.

’I’ve fleeced it bald!’

Lynch had finally fleeced this sheep completely bald.

"Sigh..."

Lynch sighed, a complex expression on his face—a mixture of regret, reluctance, and the feeling that he hadn’t quite had his fill.

He had been mining this "little gold mine" of Yenogu’s remnant soul for a full two or three months.

Especially lately, Lynch would finish each day thinking that its Abyssal Demonic Qi was sure to be depleted by the next.

But when the next day came...

Yenogu’s remnant will would have stubbornly squeezed out a few more wisps of Abyssal Demonic Qi, like a lemon juiced to its last drop, still trying to give its enemy one last sting.

’I have to say, that old bastard Yenogu’s staying power really is something else.’

’He’s truly worthy of being an Abyss Demon Lord; even a will fragment without any self-awareness could hold out against a Necromancer like him for so long.’

However...

It was time to end all of this.

With a flicker of his will...

Deep within his Qi Sea, the strand of Profound Yin Qi—now nearly twice as thick as it was at the start—was guided by his Spiritual Power. It traveled through his meridians, out from his fingertip, and into Grom’s corpse, silently gliding toward the heart.

There was no need for cautious probing, let alone luring the enemy in deeper.

Now, Lynch just needed to steamroll it.

Lynch directed the Profound Yin Qi forward, meeting no resistance. It easily coiled around Yenogu’s final vestiges of Abyssal Demonic Qi, sweeping them up and dragging them into the heart of its vortex.

SIZZLE~ SIZZLE~~

After just a moment...

Lynch could feel his Profound Yin Qi grow stronger by another sliver.

His "gaze" then fell upon the wisp of remnant will inside the heart.

That fragment of Yenogu’s will was now so dim it was almost transparent.

It seemed to sense the Profound Yin Qi approaching and instinctively tried to flee, but there was no escape.

In the end, it let out a "roar" of impotent rage before being easily crushed, devoured, and completely erased by Lynch’s Profound Yin Qi.

[Ding~ You have successfully refined a trace of an "Abyss Demon Lord’s remnant will." Spiritual Power +2.]

’Huh?’

’There was a bonus like this?’

But Lynch had no time to investigate it now.

At this moment, all his attention was focused on the center of Grom’s Brain Domain.

There, the Profound Yin Qi was coalescing.

According to the Corpse Refining Chapter of the Profound Yin Body Refining Spell, once a corpse has been sufficiently tempered by Profound Yin Qi, its impurities preliminarily cleansed, and its residual will completely erased, one can begin to form the Corpse Core.

The Corpse Core is the heart of a Lifebound Profound Corpse, the energy hub and command center that drives the husk, and the "new home" for his future Soul Fragment.

’Everything hinges on this.’

Lynch took a deep breath, casting aside all distracting thoughts.

He submerged all his Spiritual Power into the slowly rotating vortex of Profound Yin Qi.

Following the specific Spiritual Power frequency recorded in the methods of the Corpse Refining Chapter, he began to compress the Profound Yin Qi vortex.

Spin. Compress.

Spin again. Compress again!

The volume of the Profound Yin Qi vortex gradually shrank, but its rotational speed grew faster and faster.

When the Profound Yin Qi was compressed to the size of a thumbtip, its energy density had already climbed exponentially.

The surrounding temperature was dropping sharply.

A fine layer of white frost formed directly on the surface of the white jade sarcophagus.

The runic light on the Array was also flickering wildly, as if it were under immense strain.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Perhaps fifteen minutes, perhaps an hour.

Finally, in one instant...

HUMMM~~

A soul-deep resonance, as if from the depths of the Netherworld, boomed through Grom’s Brain Domain.

The Profound Yin Corpse Core had finally been successfully formed!

It was an energy core only the size of a soybean, grayish-white in color.

At this moment, it was quietly suspended in the center of Grom’s corpse’s Brain Domain, slowly rotating on its own.

With each rotation, it drew a trace of pure energy from the surrounding Negative Energy Array, then fed it back into the corpse’s entire body at a mysterious frequency.

This husk, which had been dead for a long time, finally had a "heart" again.

But this was not enough.

The next step was the most dangerous and irreversible part of the entire process of refining the Lifebound Profound Corpse.

Lynch had to split off a wisp of his soul and merge it into the Corpse Core.

In the Profound Yin Body Refining Spell, Lester had repeatedly emphasized the risks of this step in extremely cautious terms.

"Splitting the soul... is no trivial matter. In the case of a minor error, one’s Sea of Spirit will be shaken and their very foundation damaged, requiring several months of recuperation to heal."

"In a severe case, it can cause memory loss, a split personality, or even the permanent loss of the ability to perceive certain emotions. If one is not absolutely certain of success in this step, it is better to postpone it than to force it..."

Lynch did not postpone it.

He had waited for this day for a good two months, and he had already rehearsed it in his mind countless times.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. His Spiritual Power, like a sharp scalpel, reached deep into his Sea of Spirit and carefully sliced off a small wisp of his soul.

PAIN!

It was an indescribable pain.

It wasn’t a physical pain, but the agony of having a piece of his soul forcibly torn away, as if he had lost a part of his "self."

In that instant...

Lynch’s face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat streamed down his forehead.

He felt as if his thoughts had slowed for a moment, some of his memories had become a little blurry, and certain instinctual emotional responses had become dull.

But he did not stop.

He wrapped the Soul Fragment in Profound Yin Qi and slowly guided it into the Brain Domain of Grom’s corpse, injecting it into the slowly spinning Corpse Core.

The moment the Soul Fragment came into contact with the Corpse Core...

There was no rejection.

And certainly no resistance.

The Corpse Core was like a young beast starved for far too long. With a "GULP," it swallowed the Soul Fragment whole into its "belly" and immediately began to merge with it.

The next instant...

Lynch felt a mysterious connection form between himself and the Profound Corpse.

It was not a link derived from Spiritual Power.

Nor was it a contractual link.

It was a connection far closer and more profound than any contract or spiritual link.

At this moment, the corpse felt as if it had become a part of Lynch’s own body.

As if it were one of his own hands, one of his own legs.

The next instant...

Lynch slowly opened his eyes.

At the same instant...

Inside the white jade sarcophagus, the massive husk that had lain dormant for months also slowly opened its eyes.

...