"Snow Empress, has Yang Xingchen always been like this?"
Electrolux rubbed his temples helplessly. In all his time practicing Necromancy, this was the first time he had seen someone order undead skeletons to wait on him.
At that moment, Yang Xingchen was basking in the sun on a lounge chair, with several undead skeletons standing beside him.
Some fed Yang Xingchen fruit and handed him drinks, some fanned him, and others massaged his shoulders, neck, and legs.
"Now this is living!"
Yang Xingchen took a bite of the fruit an undead skeleton offered him, stretched comfortably, and continued watching the hook he had cast into the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
"Electrolux, look on the bright side. At least the first necromancer on the Douluo Continent is fairly strong, highly imaginative, and not much of a threat to living creatures."
Faced with Electrolux's question, Snow Empress fell silent for a while, as though putting her next words in order, before slowly answering him.
"Snow Empress, I never realized you had such a sense of humor."
"Thank you for the compliment."
After receiving Snow Empress's thanks, Electrolux completely shut down. His entire body turned into a ball of gray energy, and he left without a word.
Granted, Yang Xingchen had mastered most of Necromancy in just one month, but Electrolux no longer had any desire to acknowledge this disciple.
In that single month, Electrolux had already witnessed a series of events, including the first "Skeleton Football Tournament," the first "Undead Badminton Tournament," and the first "Undead Table Tennis Tournament."
Now, whenever Electrolux opened his eyes each day, his mind was filled with thoughts of what new tricks Yang Xingchen might pull with Necromancy.
Noticing Electrolux return to his Spiritual Sea, Yang Xingchen specifically took off the sunglasses he had just fished up and hurried into his Spiritual Sea to ask him about it.
"Teacher, why did you come back? Did you not sleep well last night? You're getting sleepy this early!"
Yang Xingchen politely knocked on a nonexistent door and curiously questioned Electrolux, who had turned into a ball of energy.
Faced with Yang Xingchen, who used Necromancy for everything but proper business, Electrolux's anger surged.
Yang Xingchen's existence would not shake Electrolux's standing in the field of Necromancy, but it would drag his reputation as an educator through the mud!
"If you cause trouble in the future, never tell anyone that I am your teacher!"
With that, Electrolux immediately unplugged his own network cable and fell asleep, offering no response no matter how Yang Xingchen called out to him.
"Well, there we go. I've barely learned Necromancy, and I'm already following in Great Sage Sun's footsteps."
Seeing Electrolux fall asleep, Yang Xingchen shrugged helplessly and withdrew from his Spiritual Sea to continue enjoying his wonderful life.
"Oh? I didn't think I could actually fish up something like this!"
Yang Xingchen looked with some surprise at the two skewers of candied hawthorns hanging from his hook.
But before Yang Xingchen could reach out and remove them, the two skewers on the hook flew up on their own and finally landed in Snow Empress's hand.
Having finished her research, Snow Empress could hardly wait to start eating the candied hawthorns as soon as she caught them.
"I've perfected Emperor Mirror: Thousand Illusions Without a Trace. For the sake of these two skewers of candied hawthorns, I'll teach it to you for free."
Before long, only one candied hawthorn remained in Snow Empress's hand.
Upon learning that Snow Empress would teach him the complete version of Emperor Mirror: Thousand Illusions Without a Trace, Yang Xingchen sprang up from his lounge chair without another word.
Yang Xingchen took out the Undead Soul-Devouring Pearl and ordered all the undead skeletons to assemble before him.
"Go!"
Seeing the undead skeletons lined up side by side, Yang Xingchen threw the Undead Soul-Devouring Pearl at them. Every undead skeleton it struck was drawn inside.
Yang Xingchen had yet to obtain control over the Undead Demiplane, and opening it took far too much time.
To allow Yang Xingchen to summon undead creatures instantly, Electrolux had opened up a small space within the Undead Soul-Devouring Pearl that could only accommodate undead creatures.
The undead creatures had no intelligence anyway, so keeping them in that small space had no effect on them.
"Emperor Mirror: Thousand Illusions Without a Trace!"
After half a month of Snow Empress's instruction, Yang Xingchen could now instantly form more than a hundred ice mirrors when he unleashed Emperor Mirror: Thousand Illusions Without a Trace at full strength.
The instant the ice mirrors appeared, Yang Xingchen vanished.
"Fourth Soul Skill, Upstream Flow: Time Reversal!"
More than a hundred fishing lines extended from the hundred-plus ice mirrors simultaneously, each striking another corresponding mirror.
"Reversal!"
In an instant, Yang Xingchen's figure appeared in every one of the hundred-plus ice mirrors, except that he no longer held the Space-Time Fishing Rod.
"I really returned to my previous position!"
Disbelief covered Yang Xingchen's face as he stepped out of an ice mirror on the ground.
"It can reverse my position and state by up to ten seconds. The God-Given Soul Ring the Fire Dragon King made really is heaven-defying."
Awakened by the fluctuations in space-time, Electrolux sensed the reversal of time occurring on Yang Xingchen and immediately emerged from his Spiritual Sea to examine him curiously.
"How fascinating. This is the first time I've encountered a skill like yours that can reverse one's own time. Try using it on me."
Besides wanting to experience what a space-time reversal felt like, Electrolux had asked Yang Xingchen to use this Soul Skill on him because he wanted to see whether he could glimpse the River of Space-Time once more.
His passage through the River of Space-Time back then had been the closest Electrolux had ever come in his life to the laws of life and death, undeath, and energy. It had felt as though he could touch those three laws simply by reaching out.
Although Electrolux had only comprehended them for a few breaths that time, the increase in power it brought had been enough to hasten his recovery.
If he could enter the River of Space-Time again to comprehend the laws, even for an instant, it would be enough for Electrolux to advance another step and sense the locations of his other divine consciousness fragments.
"Upstream Flow: Time Reversal!"
Yang Xingchen cast his hook and struck Electrolux, who offered no resistance. Yet even as a fragment of divine consciousness, Electrolux's essence was still at the Quasi-God level.
"Reversal!"
Snap!
The Space-Time Fishing Rod's line snapped outright halfway through the reversal!
The gap in strength between Yang Xingchen and Electrolux was too great. Even without any resistance from Electrolux, the effect of Yang Xingchen's Soul Skill was automatically diminished.
"To think it can reverse my time by thirty breaths. Xingchen, your Soul Skill truly is impressive."
Electrolux had not sensed the appearance of the River of Space-Time during the reversal, but the fact that Yang Xingchen's skill could reverse his time by thirty breaths was enough to pleasantly surprise him.
"That's not all. This Soul Skill can also freeze the time of any target it hits. The duration is about the same as the reversal."
With that, Yang Xingchen cast his hook again and struck Electrolux.
"Time Stasis!"
Immediately, Electrolux felt himself become disconnected from the world for thirty breaths. Even though those thirty breaths of stasis depended on Electrolux offering no resistance, it was still enough to demonstrate how terrifying Yang Xingchen's Soul Skill was.
"I can no longer imagine how terrifying your strength will be once you've grown and possess such methods!"
"You jest, Teacher. Until I fully turn my talent into strength, I'm just a weak Soul Master."
Yang Xingchen knew that until he possessed the strength to slay gods, Bibi Dong, Qian Renxue, and even Tang San would all be potential threats to him!
"Indeed. Today, I shall hand control of the Undead Demiplane over to you."
Electrolux checked and discovered that Yang Xingchen's current strength was already enough to bear the Undead Demiplane's "daily expenses," so he decisively chose to hand it over to him.
Ever since summoning the Undead Demiplane to the Douluo Continent, Electrolux had needed to supply it with his own spiritual power from time to time to keep it operating.
For Electrolux, a fragment of divine consciousness that needed to recover its strength, this undoubtedly added to his burden.
If he could hand the Undead Demiplane over to Yang Xingchen, Electrolux would be able to focus more fully on recovering his strength afterward.