Chapter 205: Can

Negrilis's eyes widened instantly; he snatched the shard, turning it over in his hands, then exclaimed in shock: "This is—this is Chaos Black Crystal! This is Chaos Black Crystal!"

Ang tilted his head; Lu Se stretched his neck, looking puzzled: "What's Chaos Black Crystal? What's it used for? A gem? Is it more valuable than the gem on my Dragon-Grain Secret Silver Filigree Enchanted Earth-Forged Enhanced Piercing Two-Handed Sword?"

As he spoke, Lu Se drew his two-handed sword to show it off.

Negrilis's forehead darkened: "You don't need to say the full name every time. Just say 'two-handed sword'—everyone knows."

"No," Lu Se refused. "That way you won't feel its power."

Negrilis took a deep breath: "Fine. Then this shard is from the body of the Undead Sovereign—the Eternal Lord of the Infinite Dead Lands of the Abyss, Immortal, Unyielding, Eternal, who punches the Light Gods and stomps on the Lords of All Realms."

Lu Se stared, dumbfounded: "A shard from the Undead Sovereign?"

"Yes. Can you feel its power?"

Lu Se shrank his neck and nodded like a quail.

A shard of the Undead Sovereign? Why would a demon god have a shard of a Sovereign? Did the Sovereign die?

"Ask it what this is. See if it knows." Negrilis said to Ang.

Ang carved the question onto a spirit bean; the other side threw back a stone: "Tasty."

"This demon god's definitely a glutton—everything's tasty. Ask why it doesn't eat this."

"Can't bite."

Four more spirit beans came, along with a fifth clutched in the tiny claw—but this wasn't a level-up bean. It was a different kind.

"This demon god has a good memory—it remembers we don't want level-up beans anymore. Ask what kind of bean this is," Negrilis said.

Ang reached out, but when he pulled his hand back, it was empty. He opened his palm for Negrilis to see.

"No more spirit beans?" Negrilis instantly understood.

Ang nodded.

"No, you had over a hundred left before. You must've planted them again somewhere." Negrilis glanced at the spirit bean plants in the Square of Gods. "Fine, no more beans. We've got enough level-up ones. Give it another divine shard—see if it has more black crystal shards."

Ang placed a divine shard as instructed. The tiny claw grabbed only three handfuls of new beans and tossed them over—no black crystal shards.

"Could it be there's only one shard? It couldn't bite it, so it just threw it to us?" Negrilis speculated.

He exchanged a few more divine shards for several handfuls of new beans—about forty total—then placed another divine shard. The demon god's tiny claw reached out… and got stuck.

Before, the rift had been wide enough for the claw and its entire arm to pass through. Now, inexplicably, the rift had shrunk. The claw couldn't even push out a fist—only two stubby toes squeezed through, short and fat, like tiny scissors.

Unable to reach through, the claw retracted. The rift vanished.

Placing anything else on the demon god's palm was useless—the tiny claw never appeared again.

"Could this rift have an energy limit? Once it's used up, it won't open again?" Negrilis speculated.

With the demon god's claw unable to reach through, there was no way to verify it right now. They set it aside and turned their attention to the black crystal shard.

"Are you sure it's really a Sovereign's shard?" Lu Se whispered. He didn't know why he whispered—he just lowered his voice instinctively.

"How should I know?" Negrilis also lowered his voice: "I've never seen a broken Undead Sovereign. But the color and texture look right."

"Can we test it? Hit it with a hammer?" Lu Se suggested.

"Are you insane? What if it breaks? Without the Sovereign's soul energy infused, even if it's real Chaos Black Crystal, it might not survive a hammer strike," Negrilis said.

"Then what do we do? You can't just say it is or isn't. We have to know—did the Sovereign really die?" Lu Se said seriously.

Negrilis scoffed: "Even if it's Chaos Black Crystal, the Sovereign isn't necessarily dead. Does a shattered body mean death? You underestimate the Undead Sovereign."

"Yes, yes, yes—but we still need to find a way to verify it…" As he spoke, Ang suddenly reached out and took the black crystal shard.

He clenched it in his palm. Soulfire erupted around it, engulfing and burning the shard. After a while, Ang suddenly flipped backward, rolling over in a somersault, then landed steadily.

Why did he do a somersault? Negrilis and Lu Se stood frozen, murmuring: "What are you doing?"

"Can't change," Ang said, then jammed the black crystal shard into the palm-fissure of the Hand of Passage.

Negrilis perked up—he understood what Ang was doing. He was trying to use Ultimate Transformation to become the being the black crystal belonged to. But he couldn't.

What did that mean? Ang could transform into Bone of the Strong and even the Dragon God—but not into this black crystal. Didn't that mean…

"Maybe you lack affinity. Keep it on your body first—get close to it, become familiar. Only you can verify whether this is truly a Sovereign's remains," Negrilis said excitedly.

Ang nodded, gathered the new beans, and shoved them into the Palace of Rest.

But as the Hand of Passage reached into the Palace of Rest, strange changes occurred—leaving Ang frozen.

Negrilis noticed his anomaly and asked urgently: "What's wrong?"

"It's melting… melting into my hand… and, and, and…" Ang stalled, unable to describe it.

Negrilis grew frantic. He retreated into his body and flew over to look.

When he reached the lone bone hand, he saw the black crystal shard slowly melting into the bone.

Negrilis also sensed something odd. He turned toward the Palace of Rest—and saw another palace igniting with flame.

No need to doubt anymore. Even if this shard wasn't from the Sovereign, it was definitely from the Undead Empire.

It resonated with both the Palace of Rest and the Hand of Passage—not only merging into Ang's Hand of Passage, but also activating a third palace: a building shaped like a crown.

The Palace of Rest consisted of five structures: one main and four subsidiary. The main hall was the Necropolis Temple, where Ang's Necrotic Godhood resided atop its peak.

Next was the Brass Book Tower, sealing Negrilis. Then came the Palace of Bone Rock, where Bone Rock's skeleton had been found.

Beyond the Brass Book Tower and the Palace of Bone, none of the other areas could be entered—including the main hall.

Everyone knew the current Palace of Rest was incomplete. Many things were needed to restore it to its original state—like Deathly Essence, which balanced the deathly aura within the palace.

Also, the Necropolis. No one knew why it was missing, or how to restore it. After all, the Necropolis held countless slumbering undead beings.

Finally, the third palace had opened. Now, only the last subsidiary palace and the main hall remained.

To explore the new place, Ang dragged in the little angel, the little zombie, and Lu Se, then walked toward the crown-shaped palace.

As they walked, Negrilis asked: "Do you know whose crown this belongs to?"

Ang shook his head.

"Only someone immensely powerful could build their own palace here—like Bone Rock, or the God of Knowledge," Negrilis said, emphasizing his own name.

Unfortunately, the three showed no reaction. Lu Se, however, enthusiastically exclaimed: "Wow, the God of Knowledge is so powerful!"

Negrilis, smug, continued: "Also the Lich King and the Death Saint. This crown belongs to the Lich King Du Luo."

Ang nodded.

"Du Luo, the Lich King, was also powerful—but not as strong as Bone Rock, so he's not well-known. And because he's not well-known, I don't know much about him."

Lu Se had been straining to listen, only to hear this—he couldn't help sneering: "Just say you don't know. Why pretend he's obscure?"

Ang nodded.

Thus, the group entered the Lich King's palace.

Compared to Bone Rock's humble palace, Du Luo's palace had the look of a real palace. The entrance was a grand dark-style door, carved from precious metal with intricate patterns.

But the carvings depicted wailing human faces and twisted souls—so vivid and detailed, they seemed ready to come alive.

Inside, bas-reliefs, gold and silver, statues, ornaments, painted beams and carved rafters—all luxurious, yet not a single thing moved.

In the main hall, it resembled an opera house's foyer. A row of pipes lined the front—likely amplifiers for some kind of instrument.

To the left stood a soul harp; to the right, a set of steps. If there were harmonies, performers probably stood on those steps to accompany.

Seeing this, Negrilis suddenly remembered: "Wait—I recall Piero… Anthony told me Du Luo was a Soul Conductor who loved music."

"Music? Like sacred hymns? Or the grunts cowmen hum?" Lu Se asked. His understanding of music was limited to the Church of Light's hymns—things like "Hallelujah—Messiah—Posia."

Or the grunts cowmen made while dancing. Compared to those, Lu Se preferred their dances—something called tap dance, with fast rhythms and clear beats, so fun even spectators wanted to join.

Unfortunately, ordinary people needed special shoes to produce cow-hoof rhythms.

The Brass Dragon shrugged. Asking him about common knowledge was fine. Asking about music? That was cruel.

Even the God of Knowledge didn't understand. None of them knew what the equipment was for.

The only thing they could identify was a tall hat and a conductor's baton on the main stage table. The little zombie dashed over and grabbed them.

"That must be the conductor's hat and baton," Negrilis said. No sooner had he spoken than he saw the little zombie place the hat on its head.

It was just a hat—so what? Negrilis didn't care. He was about to say something when Ang darted over and slashed his palm down on the zombie's neck, severing its head.

"Ang, you're insane—" Negrilis started to yell, thinking Ang had lost his mind—until he saw the zombie's head on the ground, covered in a black, sludge-like substance that writhed, devouring all skin and flesh until only the bare skull remained, now wearing the hat again.

Lu Se gasped, touching his own forehead and cheeks in relief. Damn it—he'd seen the hat too. If the zombie hadn't grabbed it first, he would've picked it up and put it on his own head. Then the hat would've devoured his skull.

The headless zombie stretched out its arms, staggered drunkenly, stumbled in circles, and bumped into the little angel.

Normally, the little angel would've punched it in the face. But this time, it didn't strike. Instead, it caught the zombie's arm and cried out.

The zombie instantly froze in place.

Ang used Pollination Art to blow the hat away, then picked up the zombie's head, found a suitable joint, replaced it, and reattached it to the neck.

Then he used Purifying Beauty Art, activating skin growth from the neck upward, restoring the face's flesh—though hair wouldn't regrow anytime soon.

The new skin was tender. Lu Se couldn't resist poking it, envious: "So much softer. Better than any face mask."

Thud! The zombie punched him in the cheek.

While others played, Ang picked up the hat curiously.

The moment it touched his bone hand, it melted into a puddle, wriggling like jelly, climbing up his arm.

Ang summoned soulfire at his elbow, intending to block its ascent—but the jelly immediately clung to the soulfire, stopped climbing, and began greedily absorbing it.

"It's absorbing soulfire! It feeds on soul energy? What is this thing?" Negrilis exclaimed.

"You don't recognize it?" Lu Se asked. "Feeds on souls? Isn't that a Soul Eater?"

"Soul Eaters don't look like this… No, you're right. It's not a Soul Eater—but it's modified from one," Negrilis said.

"Ha! Told you so!" Lu Se puffed out his chest.

Negrilis murmured in confusion: "Who was so cruel as to turn a Soul Eater into a hat and leave it here?"

"Could it be the Lich King Du Luo?" Lu Se asked.

As they speculated, Ang had already poured vast amounts of soul energy into the hat. At first, the hat clung to his arm to drink it; later, Ang directly fed it.

As for soul energy, Ang has plenty—he hasn't used the Rapid Death Aura lately, so he's accumulated a huge stockpile; let's see how much it can absorb.

A massive amount of soul energy surged in, flooding the Soul-Eating Monster until it continuously shrank, shrank, shrank, rapidly retreating back into its original hat shape.

Ang still didn't stop; soul energy continued pouring in, causing the Soul-Eating Monster's entire body to burst into flames.

Soon, the hat let out a "urp," like a burp, while sending out a message of agony: I can't take any more…

PS: Double vote tickets, double joy