Chapter 74

After the Rebirth Altar was abandoned, the cave where it was located was blocked off. Led by an elderly human named Green Wood, the group arrived in front of a cave that was integrated with the mountain rocks.

"Lord Huang Tong Dragon, the Rebirth Altar you mentioned is very likely here. In the past, the demons wouldn't let us get close, so I can't be sure if it is exactly it. My lord, did you come from Lich City?" Green Wood asked, probing.

"We came from the World Transit Station," Negris replied casually.

"World Transit Station?" A somewhat distant name; Green Wood could no longer remember where he had heard it.

Confirming that a cave indeed existed behind the soil layer, they started digging. Green Wood said diligently: "My lord, let me go call some people. This area has been buried for too long and is hard to dig."

But by the time he called people back, a large cave entrance was already open there. Green Wood, who had been gone for less than five minutes, stood there stunned: "Wha... what happened?"

Why would they need to call people to dig a hole? Now the Little Zombie is a human-shaped digging beast. With two hoes on its hands, it can dig a large pit for storing grain in an hour—easy and convenient.

However, this old soil was too hard and difficult to scrape. Ang went up and stomped a few times, and after loosening it with the Soil Loosening Spell, it was easy to dig.

Entering inside, they saw a Rebirth Altar that was basically still intact, except for a few broken stone pillars next to it.

The construction quality of the Undead Empire is quite good, including the World Transit Station. A thousand years of time did not leave too many traces. If it were the human world, it wouldn't take a thousand years; in one or two hundred years, it would be damaged beyond recognition.

Next to the Rebirth Altar, Negris saw a small teleportation array. Upon careful inspection, there were even fresh energy fluctuations remaining on it. Clearly, this small teleportation array had been used in the short term.

"That's right, it's here. Those two Black Knights came from here. They didn't use the Rebirth Altar but used the teleportation array to be projected from another plane. This is a full-function teleportation array with a passive beacon function. As long as you know its location, you can project directly like a projection array. Those Black Knights are very familiar with this place," Negris said.

After checking, it also discovered a passage leading to the top outside the valley, which clearly had traces of being forcibly opened by someone, and it was very fresh. From those fresh traces, Negris also sensed some aura of holy light.

"That skeleton was an angel, and it was teleported from here? Were those two Black Knights chasing the angel? What's going on? The relationship is so complicated," Negris calculated based on the existing information and immediately felt a headache. How could these Black Knights and the angel seem to be on the same side?

Just as Negris was agonizing, a fluctuation suddenly came from behind. Turning its head to look, it was so scared that it cursed on the spot: "Ku Ba Da, what are you doing!"

In the short moment it was checking the situation, Ang and the others had actually propped up the broken stone pillars of the Rebirth Altar and then started the Rebirth Altar.

Is that how you do things? Isn't this equivalent to a horse breaking its leg and just setting the leg to keep running?

"You are crazy. The stone pillars are broken, and the energy circuit is also broken. Can it run again just by propping it up? Are you kidding me? If the energy cannot get a circulation path, it will easily explode... ex... explode."

Negris's voice grew smaller and smaller because it saw the propped-up stone pillars actually light up. The magic patterns on them started from the base and slowly extended upward, crossing the broken positions until the top of the pillars, and the explosion it spoke of did not come.

Negris almost bit its own tongue. In disbelief, it leaned in to look closer. The broken stone pillars had indeed lit up, and energy was flowing through them. Looking closer, where were there any traces of breakage?

"Ku Ba Da, automatic repair technology. No wonder the construction quality of the Empire is so good. I guess they all adopted automatic repair technology; as long as it runs, it can automatically repair cracks." Negris scraped a mark on a blank space on the altar with its small short claws, then watched as the mark faded and disappeared.

"You knew the altar had an automatic repair function, right? That's why you dared to be so bold," Negris asked Ang with a smile, feeling relieved.

Ang tilted his head blankly and continued to input soul crystals into the Rebirth Altar.

"Uh... I guess he didn't know; he's just bold," Negris scratched its head, feeling somewhat agitated.

The Rebirth Altar uses soul energy. A single operation does not require much energy, but having been abandoned for a thousand years, especially with several stone pillars broken and countless hidden cracks, Ang spent several times the soul energy to get it running.

The ghostly blue light diffused from the center of the altar, spreading to the edges like ripples, and surged into the six stone pillars. The stone pillars lit up simultaneously, responding with the other stone pillars, weaving a hexagram pattern.

The hexagram lit up to the limit and then dimmed. The light retreated from the stone pillars and contracted from the edges toward the center of the altar—expanding and contracting, repeating like this.

Taking out the soul of the Ghost Warrior he had hooked outside the control room a few days ago, Ang put it into the altar.

Ghost Warriors, like Black Knights, are man-made undead creatures. The difference is just that one has wisdom and one does not, just like the difference between a zombie and a lich.

The ripples spread to the edges and surged into the six stone pillars. Because there was a soul on the altar, the stone pillars that lit up to the limit did not fade away, but each emitted a beam of light, shooting onto the Ghost Warrior's soul.

"Quick, take this opportunity to engrave your soul brand," Negris said.

The Ghost Warrior's soul has already been materialized once. It does not need to go through the rebirth process; it only needs to replenish soul energy to possess a physical body again and become a Ghost Warrior.

However, this is a process of being reborn, and there is a chance of failure. Even if it succeeds, the memory will be cleared.

But it doesn't matter to the Ghost Warrior; they don't have wisdom to begin with, so whether they retain memory or not is unimportant. When the memory is cleared, it is also when the soul is most fragile, which is just right for engraving the soul brand.

Under Negris's urging, Ang slapped a soul brand onto it. The Ghost Warrior fell down with a plop, rolled twice on the ground, and then thick black smoke rose up.

These black smokes twisted and swayed, condensing into a shadow holding dual blades—it was exactly the Ghost Warrior Ang had seen before.

The Ghost Warrior had no wisdom, and even its memory had been cleared, so naturally, it didn't remember its previous mission and just stood there blankly.

Negris chuckled: "Got a Ghost Warrior for free. Come, I'll teach you one of the most practical uses of a Ghost Warrior—Armorization."

Following Negris's guidance, Ang guided the Ghost Warrior to attach to his body, constantly adjusting and constantly armorizing.

Both Ghost Warriors and Black Knights have the ability to materialize. When they materialize and attach to the body surface, they become armor.

However, no one would use a Black Knight to armorize because Black Knights have wisdom, and having them attached to the body feels weird. Ghost Warriors don't have this concern.

After some adjustments, Ang had an ugly piece of armor on his body, as if lumps of mud had been smeared on him and solidified.

Negris covered its face: "Do you really have no aesthetic sense at all? This is too ugly. Adjust it, adjust it to look better."

Ang tilted his head. Is it not good-looking?

"Stop, stop, stop. Have you ever seen anyone else wear armor? Just adjust it according to the one you've seen; any one of them is better looking than your 'mud'."

Adjust it according to someone else's? Ang tilted his head, recalling those people he had seen with armor, while controlling the Ghost Warrior to adjust.

One could see sharp spikes emerging, drooping, and sticking to his body, then another circle of spikes emerged and drooped again. Like this, they leaned against each other layer by layer, extending all over Ang's body, especially on his two shoulders and under his armpits, appearing particularly thick. Finally, on his head, a... straw hat was armorized.

"Ku Ba Da, what kind of armor is this!? This is a scarecrow's coir raincoat! A coir raincoat!" Before the straw hat was armorized, Negris couldn't quite tell what it was, but once the straw hat appeared, the style changed drastically.

"I've seen it," Ang said, the implication being 'you told me to adjust it according to what I've seen'.

"What about a heavy armored swordsman? Or a heavy armored shield bearer would also work."

Ang tilted his head: "Not good-looking."

"Hey, not good-looking? Can this coir raincoat and straw hat be... good-looking?" Negris's voice grew lower as he spoke, and after finishing, even he became unconfident.

A coir raincoat is made of bundles of straw tied together and draped over the body, yellow and black, with many straw stalks sticking out—it is indeed not good-looking.

But the one on Ang's body was armorized by the Ghost Warrior; the straw was virtualized. After sticking to him, it became one, with nothing sticking out, and it was pitch black, more like the arrangement of fish-scale armor, which was actually quite good-looking.

Negris hesitated for a moment and signaled Ang to remove that ugly straw hat and put on the magic steel helmet that Lan had sent before. The style was immediately unified.

"This looks much better," Negris praised.

Ang also felt it was quite good. He patted the rib area of his chest and abdomen. Now he didn't have to worry about sitting too close to the Angel Skeleton or the Huang Tong Dragon and getting stuck by their wings.

The Little Zombie came over, poked Ang with its finger, and pointed at itself: "Ao."

Ang nodded, started the Rebirth Altar again, and took out the soul of the Black Knight.

However, when thrown into the altar, that soul hissed and escaped: "Don't, don't refine me, I surrender, I surrender!"

Surrender? Ang tilted his head. He didn't need a surrender; he just needed to get a set of armor for the Little Zombie. He grabbed the Black Knight's soul and threw it back in.

"Don't refine me, I will agree to any conditions you have, please, a soul oath, I offer you a soul oath, don't refine me!" The Black Knight wailed and ran out of the altar, a flame of soul oath popping out impatiently.

Seeing him crying so miserably, Negris couldn't bear it and said: "Forget it, forget it, accept his soul. It's equivalent to engraving a soul brand. Anyway, he is already a Black Knight; it makes no difference whether he goes through the altar refinement or not."

"Yes, yes, no difference, accept my soul. Let me armorize if you want me to armorize, let me virtualize if you want me to virtualize, any posture is fine." The Black Knight's tone was incomparably humble.

No difference? Alright then, Ang accepted the soul oath.

The Black Knight let out a long sigh of relief and said with lingering fear: "Are you all so barbaric when treating prisoners now? You don't even give a chance to surrender? You want to refine me without even asking a question? Don't you want to ask for some valuable information or something?"

Negris chuckled: "Do you have any information about farming? If not, then it doesn't count as valuable."

The Black Knight blankly 'looked' at Negris for a long time: "Farming? Are you serious?"

Negris nodded. He now understood Ang's temperament thoroughly. As long as it wasn't information about farming, he didn't think it was valuable. The information about the Rebirth Altar wasn't even as valuable as fertilizer.

Although he was somewhat skeptical, the Black Knight still said: "Speaking of information about farming, I actually do have some."