Chapter 205: Too Painful to Keep Eating

Nai Ge Li Si's eyes instantly went wide, and he snatched the fragment impatiently, holding it in his hand and examining it over and over, then said in shock: "This is, this is Chaos Black Crystal! This is Chaos Black Crystal!"

Seeing Ange tilted his head, Lu Si stretched out his neck, his face full of confusion: "What Chaos Black Crystal? What's it used for? A gemstone? Is it more precious than the gemstone on my Dragon-Patterned Steel-Core Mithril Filigree Magic-Engraved Earth-Covered Forged Gem-Enhanced Piercing Enchanted Two-Handed Sword?"

As Lu Si spoke, he drew his two-handed sword and showed it off.

Lord Nai Ge had a face full of black lines: "You don't have to say the full name every time, just say two-handed sword and everyone will know."

"No." Lu Si refused: "That way you wouldn't be able to appreciate its power."

Lord Nai Ge took a deep breath and said: "Fine, then this is a fragment from the body of the Undying Monarch — sovereign of the eight hundred trillion deathless spirits of the Endless Deathlands of the Abyss, eternal and undying, ancient and indestructible, everlasting — who punches the Gods of Light and tramples the lords of every plane."

Lu Si stared blankly: "A fragment from the Undying Monarch's body?"

"Right, can you feel its power now?"

Lu Si nodded with his neck shrunk in, like a quail.

A fragment of the Undying Monarch? Why would the evil god have a fragment of the Monarch? Did the Monarch die?

"Ask it what this is, see if it knows." Lord Nai Ge said to Seeing Ange.

He carved the question onto a spirit bean, and a stone was tossed back from the other side: "Tasty."

"This evil god is definitely a foodie, everything is tasty. Ask it why it won't eat this."

"Can't bite through it."

Another four spirit beans, and the little claw brought over a bean, but this time it wasn't an upgrade bean, it was a different kind of bean.

"This evil god has a great memory, it still remembers we don't want upgrade beans. Ask it what kind of bean this is?" Lord Nai Ge said.

Seeing Ange reached out to grab it, but when he pulled his hand out it was empty, and he spread his palm open for Lord Nai Ge to see.

"The spirit beans are gone?" Lord Nai Ge instantly understood what it meant.

Seeing Ange nodded.

"That's not right, you had over a hundred left before, you must have gone and planted them randomly again." Glancing at the spirit bean plants on the Plaza of the Gods, Lord Nai Ge said: "If they're gone, they're gone, upgrade beans are enough. How about giving it another divine spirit fragment, see if it still has any black crystal fragments."

Seeing Ange placed a divine spirit fragment as instructed, but the little claw only grabbed three handfuls of new beans and tossed them over, there were no black crystal fragments.

"Could it be that there's only one black crystal fragment? It couldn't bite through it, and since keeping it was useless, it tossed it to us?" Lord Nai Ge guessed.

He traded a few more divine spirit fragments for a few more handfuls of new beans, totaling about forty or so, then placed another divine spirit fragment. The evil god's little claw reached over, and suddenly got stuck.

Originally, through the rift, the little claw could reach through along with its arm, but for some unknown reason, the rift had shrunk. The little claw couldn't even fit a fist through, only squeezing two claw toes out — short and chubby, like a tiny pair of scissors.

The little claw couldn't reach through, so it had to withdraw, and the rift vanished.

Putting things on the evil god statue's tray was useless now, the little claw never appeared again.

"Could it be that this kind of rift has an energy limit? Once it's used up, it can't be opened?" Lord Nai Ge guessed.

The evil god's claw couldn't reach through, and there was no way to verify it for the moment, so they could only set it aside for now, and everyone turned their attention to that black crystal fragment.

"Are you sure it's really a fragment of the Monarch?" Lu Si asked in a low voice. As for why he had to be 'quiet,' he didn't know, he just instinctively lowered his voice.

"How would I know?" Lord Nai Ge also instinctively lowered his voice: "I've never seen the Undying Monarch shattered, but the color and texture look like it."

"Is there a way to verify it? Hit it with a hammer?" Lu Si suggested.

"Are you crazy? What if it shatters? Without the Monarch's soul energy infused into it, even if it really is Chaos Black Crystal, it might not be able to withstand a hammer." Lord Nai Ge said.

"Then what do we do? We can't just have you say it is what it is, or say it isn't what it isn't. This question has to be figured out — did the Monarch die or not?" Lu Si said seriously.

Lord Nai Ge scoffed: "Even if this is Chaos Black Crystal, that doesn't necessarily mean the Monarch is dead. Does the body shattering mean death? You underestimate the Undying Monarch far too much."

"Yes, yes, yes, but we still need to find a way to verify—" Just as he was saying this, Seeing Ange suddenly reached out and took the black crystal fragment.

They saw him hold it in his palm, and soul flame rose from his palm, wrapping and burning the black crystal fragment. After quite a while, Seeing Ange suddenly flipped backward, doing a full somersault, then landed steadily.

Why on earth would he do a somersault out of nowhere? Lord Nai Ge and Lu Si stood dumb as wooden chickens, muttering: "What are you doing?"

"Can't transform." Seeing Ange said, then wedged the bone-black crystal fragment into the seam in the palm of the Type of Dimensional Passage.

Lord Nai Ge's spirit lifted, it understood what Seeing Ange was doing — he was trying to use Ultimate Transformation to transform into the being the black crystal belonged to, but couldn't.

What did this mean? Seeing Ange could transform into both Jian Gu and the Dragon God, yet couldn't transform into the black crystal — didn't this mean...

"It might be that you don't have affinity with it yet. Keep it on you and get close to it first, once you're familiar with it try again. In this world, the only one who can verify whether it's a fragment of the Monarch's body is you." Lord Nai Ge said excitedly.

Seeing Ange nodded, reached out to gather up the new beans, and stuffed them into the Palace of Eternal Rest.

But the moment the Type of Dimensional Passage poked into the Palace of Eternal Rest, some strange changes immediately occurred, leaving him frozen on the spot.

Lord Nai Ge noticed his abnormality and hurriedly asked: "What's wrong?"

"It's melting, melting into my hand, and, and, and..." Seeing Ange got stuck, not knowing how to describe it.

Lord Nai Ge was frantic inside, so he simply retreated back into his main body and flew over to look.

When it flew to that lone hand bone, it immediately saw the black crystal fragment slowly melting into the hand bone.

Lord Nai Ge also noticed a trace of abnormality, turned to look toward the Palace of Eternal Rest, and saw that among the palace complex, another palace had caught fire.

Alright, no more doubts needed. Even if this black crystal fragment isn't a fragment of the Monarch, it must definitely be a product of the Undying Empire.

It resonated with both the Palace of Eternal Rest and the Type of Dimensional Passage, not only merging into Seeing Ange's Type of Dimensional Passage, but also activating a third palace — a building that looked like a crown.

The Palace of Eternal Rest has a complex of five buildings, one main and four secondary. The main hall is the Temple of the Undying, where Seeing Ange's Undying Divine Spark is stored at the very top.

Next is the Huang Tong Book Tower, which seals Lord Nai Ge, and then the palace of Jian Gu Luo Ke, where Jian Gu Luo Ke's skeleton was discovered.

Apart from the Huang Tong Book Tower and the Palace of Jian Gu, no other places can be entered, including the main hall.

Everyone knows that the current Palace of Eternal Rest is incomplete, and many things are needed to restore it to its original state — for example, the Death-Breath Liquid, which balances the aura of death within the Palace of Eternal Rest.

Another example is the Graveyard. No one knows why it's missing, nor how to restore it. One must remember, countless undead creatures slumber within the Graveyard.

Finally, the third palace has also opened. With this, only the last secondary palace and the main hall remain.

To explore the new place, Seeing Ange first dragged the little angel, the little zombie, and Lu Si inside, then they all walked together toward that crown-like palace.

As they walked, Lord Nai Ge asked: "Do you know who this crown belongs to?"

Seeing Ange shook his head.

"Anyone qualified to build their own palace within the Palace of Eternal Rest must be an immensely powerful being — like Jian Gu Luo Ke, like the God of Knowledge." When it came to itself, Lord Nai Ge Intentionally Weighted its tone.

Unfortunately, Seeing Ange and the other two had no reaction, but Loser chimed in enthusiastically: "Wow, the God of Knowledge is so impressive."

Nai Ge Li Si continued proudly: "There's also the Lich King and the Undead Saint; this crown belongs to the Lich King Duroken."

Seeing Ange nodded.

"Lich King Duroken is also a formidable fellow, but unfortunately not as formidable as Jian Gu, so he's not very famous. Because he's not very famous, I don't really know much about him either."

Loser had pricked up his ears for a long time, only to hear this kind of talk, and couldn't help but say disdainfully: "Why not just say outright that you don't understand? You have to say the guy has no fame."

Seeing Ange nodded.

Just like that, the group walked into the Lich King's Palace.

Compared to the shabby Locke Palace, Duroken Palace had a touch of palatial grandeur. Right at the entrance was a great door in dark style, the door carved from precious metal with exquisite patterns.

Only, what was carved were all wailing human faces, writhing souls; so vivid and intricate that one felt the things on it could come alive at any moment.

Entering the palace, there were reliefs, gold and silver, statues, ornaments, carved beams and painted rafters—exquisite and luxurious, yet not a single thing that could move.

Arriving at the main hall, it looked like the lobby of an opera house, with a row of wind pipes facing forward, presumably some kind of musical instrument's amplifier.

A soul harp on the left, a row of steps on the right; if there were harmonies, they were probably performed standing on this row of steps.

Seeing these, Nai Ge Li Si suddenly recalled something: "Right, I remember now, Piero... Anthony seemed to have told me that Duroken was some kind of soul conductor, loved playing music the most."

"Music? The kind of hymns? Or the kind the minotaurs usually hum?" Loser asked. His understanding of music was probably just those hymns of the Church of Light, things like 'Hallelu—Messer—Bosia' and the like.

Or the kind the minotaurs hum when they dance. Compared to the things they hum, Loser liked their dancing more—seemed to be called tap dance, right? The rhythm was brisk when they jumped, the beats clear, very fun, making onlookers unable to resist wanting to join in.

Unfortunately, ordinary people had to wear specially made shoes to tap out the rhythm of bull hooves.

The Huang Tong Dragon spread his hands—asking him about common sense was fine, but asking him about music, wasn't that making things hard for him?

If even the God of Knowledge didn't understand, others understood even less; they didn't even know what the equipment in the hall was for.

The only thing recognizable was a tall hat and a baton placed on the table on the main stage. The little zombie scurried over and took them in hand.

"These must be the conductor's tall hat and baton." Nai Ge Li Si said. The moment he finished speaking, he saw the little zombie put the hat on its head.

It was just a hat, so wearing it was wearing it; Nai Ge Li Si didn't pay it any mind and was about to say something, but saw Seeing Ange dart over swiftly, chopping a hand-knife onto the little zombie's neck and severing its head.

"Seeing Ange, are you crazy..." Nai Ge Li Si thought Seeing Ange had gone mad, opening his mouth to curse, but saw the little zombie's head on the ground covered by a blob of black liquid-like stuff, writhing nonstop, quickly gnawing away all the skin and flesh of the head, then turning back into a hat, sitting on the bare skull.

Loser sucked in a breath of cold air, fearfully touching his own forehead and cheeks, Kuabada—in fact, he had also seen the hat. If the little zombie hadn't gotten to it first, he would have picked it up and casually put it on his head, and then it would have been his head the hat gnawed.

The headless little zombie stretched out both hands, staggering about like a drunk, stumbling in circles, and bumped into the little angel.

Normally, the little angel would probably have already punched it in the eye, but this time didn't hit anyone, instead holding up its hand and letting out a howl.

The little zombie immediately obediently stood still in place.

Seeing Ange cast the Pollination Art, blew the hat away, then picked up the little zombie's head, found a suitable joint to replace, and reinstalled it onto its neck.

Then using the Cleanse Art, starting from the neck, he activated its flesh growth, regrowing the skin and flesh on its face, though the hair couldn't grow back for a while.

The newly grown flesh was a bit tender; Loser couldn't help coming over to poke it, enviously saying: "So much tenderer, works even better than a face mask."

Bang! The little zombie punched him in the cheek.

While the others were roughhousing, Seeing Ange curiously picked up the hat.

The moment the hat touched his hand bone, it immediately melted into a puddle, writhing like jelly, crawling up along Seeing Ange's hand bone.

Soul flame rose at Seeing Ange's elbow, originally intending to block the jelly's upward crawl, but who knew the jelly immediately pounced onto the soul flame, no longer crawling upward, just desperately absorbing the soul flame.

"It's absorbing soul flame, it feeds on soul energy? What is this thing?" Nai Ge Li Si said in surprise.

"Even you don't recognize it?" Loser said in astonishment: "Feeding on souls, isn't that a Soul-Eater?"

"Soul-Eaters don't look like this... no, you guessed right. Although it's not a Soul-Eater, it is something modified based on a Soul-Eater." Nai Ge Li Si said.

"Haha, right? I got it right." Loser proudly put his hands on his hips.

Nai Ge Li Si muttered in confusion: "Who is so sinister as to modify a Soul-Eater into a hat and place it here?"

"Could it be the Lich King Duroken you mentioned?" Loser said.

While they were guessing, Seeing Ange had already channeled a large amount of soul energy. At first the hat pounced onto his arm to suck, later Seeing Ange directly poured it into the hat.

Soul energy—Seeing Ange had plenty of it. He hadn't used the Quick-Death Halo recently, so a huge pile had accumulated. Let's see how much it can absorb.

A massive amount of soul energy poured in, stuffing the Soul-Eater, now like a puddle of liquid, shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, rapidly shrinking back to its original hat shape.

Seeing Ange still didn't stop; soul energy continued to pour in, stuffing the Soul-Eater until flames rose all over its body.

Soon, the hat let out an 'Ugh', like a satisfied burp, and simultaneously emitted a pained message: Can't eat anymore...

PS: Double monthly tickets, double the joy.