Mu Chen listened intently, committing every point Electrolux made to memory: how to construct the contract, the frequency of his spiritual power output, and the path for converting Soul Power.
Necromancy was entirely different from the Soul Skill system of the Douluo Continent. It relied not on Soul Rings, but on the union of spiritual power and death energy.
This energy was exceedingly scarce on the Douluo Continent, but here in the Undead Half-Plane, it was an inexhaustible resource.
"Then start by summoning the most basic kind of undead: an Undead Skeleton Soldier. Use your spiritual power as a guide, pierce the spatial barrier, and stamp your Will Imprint onto the nearest undead creature. Remember, don't use brute force. Use your will to suppress it. Undead creatures only recognize the strong. The more forceful you are, the more obedient it'll be. If you hesitate even for a moment, it'll turn on you."
Mu Chen stood up, took a deep breath of the gray air, and began circulating his spiritual power.
His spiritual power was among the best of his generation. A transmigrator's soul was inherently more resilient than a native's, and after years of cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill and Purple Demon Eye, his Sea of Consciousness was far broader than that of a Soul Master at the same level.
Now, he gathered his spiritual power into an invisible thread and sent it spreading outward from himself.
He sensed it soon enough. The nearest Undead Skeleton Soldier was less than fifty meters away, hiding behind a rock half as tall as a man. Its skeletal fingers gripped a rusty iron sword as it peered in his direction through empty eye sockets.
A ball of ghostly green Soul Fire flickered in the skeleton's eye sockets, its light wary and hostile. It sensed the intruder's presence, but also felt something emanating from him that filled it with fear.
It was Electrolux's Spatial Imprint—the mark of the Undead Half-Plane's original master.
Mu Chen gave the Skeleton Soldier no time to hesitate.
His thread of spiritual power shot out, slipped precisely into the skeleton's eye socket, and plunged straight into its ghostly green Soul Fire.
The Skeleton Soldier let out a silent shriek, its entire frame trembling violently as its iron sword scraped against the rock with a shrill screech.
It tried to resist, its Soul Fire flaring wildly as it attempted to drive out the invading spiritual power.
Mu Chen increased the pressure.
His Will Imprint came crashing down, bearing the spiritual pressure of a forty-fifth-level Soul Ancestor.
Under that crushing force, the Skeleton Soldier's resistance crumpled like paper. Its Soul Fire shuddered and shrank into a tight ball, then slowly settled. Its hostile ghostly green glow faded to a docile pale green.
The contract was complete.
"Come here," Mu Chen said.
The Skeleton Soldier stiffly turned around and clattered over.
Its steps were clumsy, as if it might fall apart at any moment, but its pale green Soul Fire remained fixed steadily on Mu Chen, docile and loyal.
It stopped three paces in front of him, dropped to one knee, and bowed its bare skull.
"Not bad." A hint of approval entered Electrolux's voice. "For your first summoning, you suppressed your target remarkably quickly. Your spiritual power is stronger than I expected. This Skeleton Soldier belongs to you now. It'll obey any order you give it without question. You can make it fight, blow itself up, or stand still for ten thousand years. It won't hesitate. That's the terrifying thing about necromancy. We don't have to worry about morale or loyalty. Every undead creature is an extension of its master's will."
Mu Chen looked down at the Skeleton Soldier kneeling before him and fell silent for a moment. Then he raised his head and gazed toward the indistinct skeletons in the distant mist. A deep glint flashed in his blue eyes.
"One isn't enough," he said.
Electrolux paused. "What are you planning?"
Mu Chen didn't answer. He focused his spiritual power again, but this time he didn't send out a single thread. Instead, he divided it into dozens and spread them in every direction at once.
He locked onto dozens of targets simultaneously: Skeleton Soldiers hiding behind rocks, wandering across the wasteland, or standing motionless beside the dry riverbed. In his field of perception, dozens of balls of ghostly green Soul Fire lit up at once, forming a dense array of glowing points.
Electrolux's voice rose sharply. "Kid, are you trying to get yourself killed? Summoning this many undead creatures at once will overload your mind and knock you unconscious on the spot! Even at level forty-five, your spiritual power has its limits—"
Mu Chen ignored him.
Dozens of Will Imprints came crashing down at once.
The Skeleton Soldiers let out silent wails, and dozens of balls of Soul Fire shuddered violently in the same instant.
Mu Chen's spiritual power spread like a vast net, covering them all before snapping tight. A fierce mental backlash rebounded from every marked target. Dozens of tiny sparks of resistance converged into a substantial impact and slammed straight into his Sea of Consciousness.
Mu Chen grunted. It felt as if a red-hot iron needle had pierced the space between his brows.
Then his will bore down. He didn't overwhelm them one by one; he used the power of his entire Sea of Consciousness to crush them all at once, like the tide swallowing stones on a beach, grinding down every resistance without distinction.
In the same instant, dozens of Soul Fires shifted from ghostly green to pale green.
Dozens of Skeleton Soldiers emerged from their hiding places at once, the clatter of their bones merging into a single rattling chorus.
They came before Mu Chen and knelt on one knee in unison. Dozens of rusty iron swords stood planted in the black earth like a crooked forest of gravestones.
Electrolux fell silent.
On the old face within the gray orb, the curve of his mouth shifted from approval to an emotion too complicated to name.
The silence stretched on. At last, the old voice spoke again. This time, he sounded less like a teacher assessing a student and more like someone stating a fact he could hardly believe himself. "With spiritual power like yours, and a foundation of Soul Power to match, you're exceptionally well suited to learning necromancy. You summoned dozens of Skeleton Soldiers in one go just now. It was a shortcut, since my Spatial Imprint helped suppress their resistance, but accomplishing even that much is more than enough to make me see you in a new light."
Mu Chen didn't stop. He walked over to the kneeling Skeleton Soldiers and rested his hand on the skull of the nearest one.
It felt cold and rough beneath his fingers, its surface riddled with fine cracks—the marks left behind by time.
"Keep going. I haven't reached my limit yet."
Electrolux didn't stop him. The Necromancer Holy Mage understood now: this blue-haired, blue-eyed kid wasn't an ordinary apprentice. He didn't need to be taught step by step.
He needed to find his limits, then push past them with everything he had.
Mu Chen closed his eyes again.
This time, he expanded his spiritual power's range to its limit.
Five hundred meters, one thousand meters, fifteen hundred meters. The wider his perception spread, the faster his spiritual power drained away. He could feel his Sea of Consciousness gradually drying up, while his once-abundant Soul Power began to drain away at an accelerating pace.