Lucas soon discovered that because he had released it from the coffin on which he had drawn the Soul-Calming Talisman and Soul-Burying Talisman, its soul seemed unable to replenish itself. As the fighting wore it down, its soul was soon exhausted and dissipated.
Lucas frowned in puzzlement. Normally, a soul like this would be drawn to the Undead Realm after death. Yet now it had not been received there and had simply dissipated. Although Lucas did not know whether this was because he had refined the soul or for some other reason, this attempt at corpse refining had clearly failed.
Seeing his boss frown, the little bear Anton said, "Boss, this wasn't my fault. I barely used any strength before it fell apart and stopped moving."
Lucas reassured him, "This isn't your fault."
Lucas wondered whether it was because it had been a fifth-level magical beast. It was common knowledge that reaching the seventh level marked a major threshold. After the seventh level, the soul would evolve into a liquid state, but the soul of the magical snake he had refined was still mist.
Lucas had read Coiling Dragon. In that book, even newly born undead had souls in the form of soul fire. In other words, even the lowest-level undead had souls that had taken on substantial form. Yet what exactly had prevented the zombie he had refined from developing that kind of soul fire?
Perhaps the snake he had found before had been too weak. Lucas decided to try again. As it happened, he had now broken through to become an eighth-level warrior, so he could certainly find an eighth-level magical beast for another attempt.
Lucas took the little bear Anton to look for an eighth-level magical beast. Such beasts were not easy to find here. Besides, the soul-burying coffin Lucas had prepared was rather small, so large dragon-type magical beasts were out of the question. He could only look for magical beasts such as lions or tigers, whose size would be just right.
After searching for quite some time, Lucas found an eighth-level magical beast, a Saber-Toothed Tiger, on a mountain not far away. Now that he was an eighth-level warrior, he naturally defeated the lone Saber-Toothed Tiger with ease. Following the same familiar routine, Lucas brought it back to the cave with the spatial rift where he had refined the corpse before.
Lucas followed the same procedure as before, burying it in the coffin and drawing the talismans, then returning every two months to replenish them. Two years later, Lucas opened the coffin as usual. This time, he personally fought the Saber-Toothed Tiger zombie that charged out. He discovered that its attacks consumed its soul, just like those of the snake zombie before it.
Because its soul was liquid, it was consumed more slowly than the previous one. But it still had not developed soul fire, so its soul had no way of recovering on its own. Once it had been depleted to a certain point, it simply dissipated into the world. Nor did any guiding light from the Undead Realm appear! What Lucas did not know was that, at this point, the four Higher Planes of the Edicts, including the Netherworld, and the seven planes of the elemental laws had not yet entered the Coiling Dragon Universe. Thus, there was no possibility of the souls of the dead being guided into the Undead Realm!
The undead of later ages possessed soul fire because they underwent a baptism while the guiding light of the Undead Realm brought them there. There was no Undead Realm now, so there was no guiding light.
Lucas also knew that, at this point, his corpse refining could essentially be declared a failure. As he saw it, the path forward was to find a way for the undead he refined to condense soul fire as well. Alternatively, he could inscribe runes on their souls, giving them the possibility of absorbing elements through their souls to strengthen themselves. But neither was within Lucas's current capabilities, so he would now have to find ways to study souls gradually.
After all, inscribing runes on a soul and inscribing runes on a stone were two entirely different things. Stone had form; souls were formless. Inscribing soul-controlling runes on something formless was like painting on a raw egg stripped of its shell, while still ensuring that it could hatch into a chick.
If Lucas had that kind of ability, he could probably have become a god through the Death Edict. Seeing that all four years of experiments had ended in failure, Lucas cleared away some of the corpse-refining materials in the cave. After tidying up, he planned to stay here until he broke through to become a ninth-rank warrior before heading out to gain experience. After all, there were elemental tides here, making it easy to absorb the elements between heaven and earth to strengthen his battle qi.
On this day, Lucas smoothly broke through to become a ninth-rank warrior. He was only twenty-eight years old. He was confident that he could break through to the Saint level before forty. After all, he had already comprehended Heavy as Light and Wielding Something Light as Though It Were Heavy. In addition, he had already gained an introductory understanding of the Death Edict, so he was quite certain that he now needed only to comprehend the force of heaven and earth to reach the Saint level as a warrior as well!
The little bear Anton had also grown rather quickly over the past few years and was now a level nine magical beast. This left Lucas filled with envy and jealousy. He had trained desperately, while that glutton Anton had become a level nine magical beast just by lying around. Lucas had only given him a thorough drilling during those years in his tribe. Over these past few years, however, Lucas had been busy experimenting with refining zombies and had neglected Anton's training, so Anton had retained his gluttonous nature quite well.
Having reached the ninth rank, Lucas decided to leave this place, return home for a visit, and then travel the continent to gain experience. Now that he was at the ninth rank, as long as he did not encounter a Saint-level magical beast, his life would not be in much danger!
At this point, the little bear Anton said to Lucas, "Boss, let's get some more honey to eat."
Lucas nodded. After getting honey once again, they had a barbecue. Once Lucas had eaten and drunk his fill, he set off for home with the little bear Anton.
One day, as Lucas and the little bear Anton passed through a patch of grass more than half a meter tall, their surroundings were unusually quiet. He vaguely felt that he and Anton had unknowingly entered the territory of a dangerous magical beast. Without making a fuss, Lucas asked Anton, "Try sensing around. I think something might be following us."
Lucas was not a mage, so he also understood that his perception was far weaker than that of the little bear Anton, who possessed a magical beast's animal instincts. He had Anton carefully sense their surroundings. Sure enough, after sensing for a moment, the little bear spoke to him through Soul Transmission. "There really is a magical beast following us? But it's too fast. I don't know where it is either."
Lucas asked, "Can you tell what kind of magical beast it is?"
Before you continue