Deep in the Magic Beast Mountain Range, Lin Yun found a naturally formed cave in a secluded valley.
Vines and shrubs concealed the entrance. If not for Bebe's keen sense of smell, he would never have found it. The entrance was so narrow that only one person could squeeze through sideways, but beyond it, the space opened up into a stone chamber about ten zhang across. Several cracks in the ceiling let in faint light, illuminating a flat rock in the center.
"This will do." Lin Yun looked around and nodded with satisfaction.
The chamber lay deep in the mountains, far from the main trails, and there were no traces of high-level magical beasts nearby. Most importantly, the surrounding rock contained a special mineral that could weakly block the leakage of magical auras. It wasn't completely foolproof, but it was the best place he could find.
Bebe jumped down from his shoulder and circled the chamber, sniffing here and there with his little nose. Then he chirped twice, as if to say, "Not bad."
Lin Yun smiled and took out several Crystal Cores from his Space Ring, setting up a warning spell at the entrance. If anyone or any magical beast approached, he would sense it right away. He then arranged several simple concealment arrays around the chamber to minimize the spread of necromantic energy.
Everything was ready.
Lin Yun sat cross-legged on the rock in the center of the chamber and took the black Stone Stele from his Space Ring.
The Stone Stele was only palm-sized and cool to the touch. Its uneven surface was covered in tiny, densely packed runes. They resembled no known script, but seemed more like ancient markings, glowing with a faint black light in the dim chamber.
That black was unusual—not the gloomy black of Dark Element magic, but a profound darkness that seemed capable of swallowing all light. Staring at it too long gave him the illusion that his soul was being drawn inside.
Bebe seemed wary of the Stone Stele. He jumped down from Lin Yun's shoulder and crouched in a corner, his little eyes fixed on it as he let out a low hiss.
"It's all right, Bebe," Lin Yun reassured him. "Just keep watch at the entrance for me."
"Chirp." Bebe answered, then ran to the entrance and crouched on a rock, keeping a wary eye on the outside.
Lin Yun took a deep breath, placed the Stone Stele in front of him, closed his eyes, and slowly extended his Spiritual Energy into it.
The instant his Spiritual Energy touched the Stone Stele, Lin Yun's consciousness was abruptly pulled into a strange space.
It was an endless darkness.
Not the darkness of night, but an absolute, pure darkness without a single trace of light. Lin Yun felt as if he had sunk to the bottom of the sea, with the immense pressure all around him crushing his consciousness.
Then something began to flow in the darkness.
It was neither wind nor water, but something more fundamental—the power of death. Like an invisible river, it flowed slowly through the darkness, soundless yet everywhere. Lin Yun's consciousness was swept into it and carried along with the current.
He saw death.
Not one particular scene of death, but death itself—the end of all things, the end of life. He saw flowers wither in autumn, beasts die in the winter cold, old people breathe their last in bed, and warriors fall on the battlefield, their blood soaking into the earth. Countless scenes of death surged toward him like a tide, each so vivid it left him breathless.
Lin Yun felt his consciousness being torn apart.
The pain, despair, and resentment in those scenes of death cut into his soul like countless blades. He wanted to scream, but no sound came out; he wanted to flee, but there was nowhere to go. The river of death carried him ever deeper.
Then he saw the other side of death.
Withered flowers bloomed again in spring. Dead beasts became soil that nourished new life. The old man's soul left his decaying body, and the warrior's blood made the land more fertile. Death was not an end, but the beginning of another form of existence.
Lin Yun suddenly remembered what Doehring had once told him.
"The Law of Death is one of the three Supreme Rules. It governs not destruction, but reincarnation. All things that live must die, and through death, life can begin anew. Death is not the opposite of life, but a part of it."
At that moment, he faintly touched the essence of the Law of Death.
The river of death no longer caused him pain. He began to distinguish its different tributaries—some were pure endings, some were processes of transformation, and some were the destination of souls. Each tributary represented an aspect of the Law of Death, and each contained endless mysteries.
No one knew how long it had been—perhaps days, perhaps weeks—before Lin Yun emerged from that strange state.
He opened his eyes and found himself drenched in cold sweat, but his mind was exceptionally clear.
The black light on the Stone Stele seemed to have dimmed a little.
"So this is the Law of Death..." Lin Yun murmured, a glimmer of understanding in his eyes.
The inheritance was not over.
After resting briefly, Lin Yun once again extended his Spiritual Energy into the Stone Stele. This time, what he saw was not the river of death, but souls.
Souls.
The most mysterious part of a person was also the soul.
From the perspective of the Law of Death, the soul was no longer an abstract concept. It was something that could be sensed, analyzed, and even touched. Lin Yun "saw" his own soul—a sphere formed from countless points of light, each representing a memory, an emotion, or an experience. Fine threads of energy connected the points, forming an extraordinarily complex web.
His soul was brighter and more solid than an ordinary person's. The points of light were densely packed and orderly, while the energy threads were thick and resilient. This was the result of his accumulated experience across three lives, as well as the Small Cauldron's tempering.
At its core was an even brighter light—that was his true self, the source of all his memories and emotions, the very thing that made "Lin Yun" who he was.
The power of the inheritance in the Stone Stele began to guide him, teaching him how to sense souls, touch them, and affect them.
He learned Soul Perception—releasing his own soul power to sense the souls of others within a certain range. This perception went deeper than the probing of Spiritual Energy. It could reveal not only a soul's location and strength, but also its emotions, fragments of its memories, and even its "color." Kind souls were warm hues, evil souls were cold and dark, and the souls of undead creatures were a lifeless gray.
He learned Soul Soothing—using his soul power to touch another soul and soothe its pain and confusion. This technique was especially effective against undead creatures, since most were driven by resentment. If he could soothe their resentment, he could weaken or even dissolve them.
He also learned the Soul Barrier—shaping his soul power into a defensive wall to resist soul attacks. He had learned his lesson in his battle with Morton, and now he finally had a systematic method of defense.
These were only the most basic of fundamentals.
The inheritance in the Stone Stele told him that, at an advanced level, necromancy could even accomplish Soul Extraction—drawing a dead person's soul from their corpse—or Soul Refining—refining an extracted soul into pure soul power for absorption. These were the most powerful techniques available to a Necromancer, as well as the most dangerous. Throughout history, the powerful Necromancers had all rapidly increased their strength by absorbing the souls of others.
But the inheritance also contained a stern warning: absorbing other people's souls would make one's own soul impure, leaving it vulnerable to the resentment of the dead. Only Necromancers with immensely powerful souls and exceptionally strong wills could control such power. A reckless attempt would only turn them into mindless undead.
Lin Yun had no intention of taking that path for now. He chose another—allowing his soul to grow naturally through insight into the Law of Death. This path was slower, but safer and purer.
After mastering the basic uses of the soul, the inheritance entered its next stage—Undead Summoning and Undead Enslavement.
These were the best-known abilities of a Necromancer, and the most rudimentary manifestations of the Law of Death.
Undead Summoning involved using soul power to communicate with the Undead Realm and summon its inhabitants into the mortal world. The Undead Realm was a Supreme Plane governed by the Law of Death, the final destination of the souls of all the dead. Countless undead creatures dwelled there, from ordinary Skeleton Soldiers and Corpse Demons to powerful Undead Knights and Bone Dragons, and even the legendary Undead Monarchs.
The key to summoning lay in the strength of one's soul power and the depth of one's understanding of the Law of Death. The stronger one's soul power, the higher the level of undead one could summon; the deeper one's understanding of the Law of Death, the more stable the summoning process and the more obedient the summoned undead.
The first time Lin Yun tried to summon something, he managed only to call forth the lowest-level Skeleton Soldier. It was a humanoid creature assembled from a few white bones, with a faint Undead Fire flickering in its eye sockets. It could barely stand, and fell apart after taking a couple of steps.
He didn't lose heart. He tried again and again, failing each time. Skeletons that fell apart, rotting Corpse Demons, Zombies missing limbs... After every failure, he carefully analyzed the cause. Had his soul power been unstable? Was his understanding of the Law of Death still too shallow? Had he mispronounced a syllable in the summoning incantation?
By the second month, he could finally summon a level-six Corpse Demon reliably.
This Corpse Demon was more intact than the one he had encountered in the Magic Beast Mountain Range. A thin layer of bone armor covered its gray-white skin, and the Undead Fire in its eye sockets shone more brightly. It stood motionless before Lin Yun, waiting for orders.
"Attack." Lin Yun gave his first command.
The Corpse Demon swung its claws, leaving three deep gouges in the stone wall.
"Defend." His second command.
The Corpse Demon withdrew its claws, crouched down, and turned its bone armor toward the direction Lin Yun indicated.
"Disappear." His third command.
The Corpse Demon's body turned into a flash of gray light and vanished into the air—it had been sent back to the Undead Realm.
Lin Yun nodded in satisfaction.
Undead Enslavement was another branch.
Rather than summoning creatures from the Undead Realm, Undead Enslavement involved refining the corpses of the dead in the mortal world into undead creatures. Corpse Demons, Zombies, and Skeleton Soldiers were all products of Undead Enslavement. Compared to Undead Summoning, its advantage was that undead could be created in large quantities and did not require a continuous expenditure of soul power to maintain their existence. Its disadvantage was that the creatures it produced were weaker than summoned undead of the same level, and corpses were needed as materials.
Lin Yun wasn't in a hurry to try Undead Enslavement. For one thing, he had no corpses on hand to experiment with. For another, he felt that binding the souls of the dead was morally difficult to accept. Perhaps he would use it someday, but not now.
The inheritance continued for nearly three months.
During those three months, Lin Yun was almost completely cut off from the outside world. Every day, he meditated to recover his stamina and Spiritual Energy, studied the knowledge contained in the Stone Stele, or practiced the various techniques of necromancy. Bebe went hunting every day and brought back small animals such as wild rabbits and pheasants, dropping them in front of him.
Over those three months, Lin Yun's understanding of the Law of Death underwent a qualitative leap.
At first, he had thought death was an end. Later, he came to see it as part of reincarnation. Now, he understood it more deeply: death was not passively accepting an end, nor was it simply reincarnation. Death was a power—a power that could be understood, used, and even mastered.
Just as life had its life force, death had its power. The power of death was neither evil nor dark. It was simply a force, neutral like the forces of Fire Element, Water Element, and Wind Element. What mattered was how it was used.
And the soul was at the heart of the Law of Death.
Undead Summoning and Undead Enslavement were only the most rudimentary manifestations of the Law of Death. They were like Fireball and Wind Blade among the Seven-Element Magic—beginner-level techniques. The true mysteries of the Law of Death lay in the soul itself.
What was the soul? Where did it come from? Where did it go? Why could it hold memories and emotions? Why could it cultivate and grow? The basic theories of necromancy offered only vague answers to these questions, but through the inheritance, Lin Yun began to form his own understanding.
The soul was life's projection within the Law of Death.
From the moment each life was born, it left a projection within the Law of Death. That projection recorded everything about the life—its memories, emotions, experiences, and will. When the life ended, the projection separated from the body, becoming an independent soul that returned to the embrace of the Law of Death.
Thus, at its deepest levels, necromancy could accomplish far more than ordinary people imagined. It could do more than summon or enslave undead; it could touch the very essence of the soul and even alter its course.
Of course, that was still a very long way off.
As for Lin Yun, he had only just begun.
The light on the Stone Stele had faded completely. It was no longer the profound black that seemed capable of swallowing all light; it had become an ordinary black stone, and the runes on its surface had grown indistinct.
The inheritance continued, but its most essential part was over. The rest was for him to understand and put into practice on his own.
Lin Yun returned the Stone Stele to his Space Ring and stood up.
His body had grown stiff from sitting cross-legged for so long, but his soul was many times stronger than it had been three months ago. His soul power was more solid, and his understanding of the Law of Death had deepened.
More importantly, he had gained an entirely new understanding of the soul—not book knowledge, but insight etched into the depths of his soul.
Bebe ran over from the entrance, leapt onto his shoulder, and rubbed his cheek with his little head. He chirped twice, his voice full of concern.
"I'm fine." Lin Yun patted his little head and smiled. "I feel great."
He walked to the cave entrance and looked at the gray sky outside. Mist shrouded the mountains and forests, obscuring the distant view. But he knew that everything he needed was here in these mountains: peace and seclusion, far from the eyes and ears of the Radiant Church.
He still had far too much to digest and too many insights to absorb.
The Stone Stele's inheritance had given him a key, but the path itself was one he would have to walk, one step at a time.
Lin Yun turned and returned to the stone chamber. He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.
Bebe curled up beside him. His little body rose and fell, and soon he was asleep.
The stone chamber grew quiet once more, broken only by the occasional chirping of insects outside and the faint light remaining on the Stone Stele.
The inheritance was over.
But his true cultivation had only just begun.
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