Chapter 85

If everything were normal, with Zhu Lingwu's current soul power, it would take a great deal of effort to make these two Wuchang ghosts his sub-souls.

Zhu Lingwu would need to gradually weaken their soul power, or absorb it into his own, until their soul power was so weak that they could no longer resist his will. Only then could he erase their self-awareness and control them as his sub-souls.

However, these Wuchang ghosts also possess self-intelligence and would not be like those naive wandering souls, allowing Zhu Lingwu to plunder their soul power at will. A great battle might ensue.

In fact, Zhu Lingwu's own soul power is not much stronger than that of these two Wuchang ghosts. Zhu Lingwu has never encountered such a situation before and has never competed with powerful ghosts that have undergone cultivation.

If a real battle were to break out, Zhu Lingwu, this half-baked lich, might not be able to defeat these two Wuchang ghosts. But now things are different. These two Wuchang ghosts are completely at Zhu Lingwu's disposal, like women who have taken off their clothes and willingly come to bed to serve.

Therefore, Zhu Lingwu does not need to weaken and absorb all the soul power contained in their soul bodies. If he did so, it would be a waste. If they returned to the Xuanming Ghost Head, they might not even be able to control the Xuanming Ghost Head and the Xuanming Ghost Claw. It would take another ten to twenty years of refinement to make them usable again.

Zhu Lingwu only needed them to voluntarily move their consciousness out of their soul bodies and hand it over to him. Then, he could inject his own copied consciousness, erase their self-awareness, and transform them into his sub-souls.

Zhu Lingwu had never had sub-souls with such powerful soul power before. These two Wuchang ghosts are the first sub-souls he has ever possessed that have significant soul power. Zhu Lingwu quickly sensed their differences.

Zhu Lingwu had long suspected that although he considered himself a lich, he had never been able to create skeleton soldiers or other undead creatures because the soul power of his sub-souls was too weak.

Of course, there is also a possibility that skeleton soldiers and other undead creatures are not as easily created as described in novels, where a few magic spells can turn rotten bones into skeleton soldiers. Instead, they require special methods of refinement and the addition of other magical materials.

This might involve the so-called art of magical artifact creation or alchemy. In Zhu Lingwu's previous world, these ideas were merely theoretical.

Now, after obtaining the Xuanming Sect's knowledge of artifact refinement from Meng Yashi's memory, Zhu Lingwu vaguely felt that perhaps the Xuanming Sect's method of refining ghostly artifacts is the same as a lich's method of refining undead creatures.

This is just a different interpretation of the same concept. Additionally, the powers used might be different. True liches use magical power, while the Xuanming Sect uses the techniques of cultivators.

Regardless, now that he has obtained these two sub-souls with significant soul power, Zhu Lingwu feels that he has finally truly experienced the power a lich should be able to control.

So, after completely transforming these two Wuchang ghosts into his sub-souls, Zhu Lingwu feels as if he has gained two additional bodies. This feeling is completely different from when he released his sub-souls to gather information like electronic eyes.

The information transmitted by those sub-souls through soul thoughts is intermittent, and unless they are very close to him, there is no need to release sub-souls to observe things that are already close.

Now, however, it is completely different. The sub-souls formed by these two Wuchang ghosts are completely in sync with Zhu Lingwu's will. Moreover, Zhu Lingwu can control them to observe himself from a third-person perspective, which feels quite strange.

According to legend, liches usually hide their main souls in their life-bound soul boxes and only send their sub-souls to wander the world or practice various lich spells. This might be the feeling they experience.

It is no wonder that liches are said to be indestructible as long as their life-bound soul boxes are not destroyed. Killing their sub-souls is meaningless to a lich and might even alert the lich to an attack.

However, Zhu Lingwu now has a slightly new understanding of the lich's condition. Liches use their sub-souls to do things, but these sub-souls cannot be too far from the lich's life-bound soul box.

There is definitely a distance limit between the sub-souls and the lich's main soul, which allows for complete synchronization and the ability to command them with a single thought.

As the distance between the sub-souls and the main soul increases, their connection will weaken. If the distance is too great, problems might arise in their connection. They might still be able to sense each other's existence and use soul thoughts to summon each other.

Over time, these sub-souls might develop independent personalities and become independent entities, as they still possess intelligence. Whether it is the self-awareness Zhu Lingwu copied to them or their original consciousness, it is sufficient for them to have intelligence.

Of course, no matter what achievements these sub-souls may have, as long as they return to the main soul, they will have no resistance and no secrets.

At this moment, Zhu Lingwu even imagined a scene in his mind: in a strange black forest, a towering bone mage tower stands. Countless skeleton mages perform various magical experiments in different areas of the tower.

At the base of the tower, countless skeleton warriors pile different bones on various magical arrays. As the magical arrays glow, new skeleton soldiers stand up, like robots, and immediately begin their assigned tasks.

In the core secret place of the tower, a black-glowing box is hidden, containing the lich's life-bound soul.

On top of this life-bound soul box, a magical crystal ball is placed. Through this crystal ball and the information dissemination function of the bone mage tower, the lich's life-bound soul can sense other liches, who are wandering the world, hidden under black cloaks, with bodies as dry as mummies.

Well, this is entirely based on the novels Zhu Lingwu has read. This is only for liches who have lost their physical bodies and exist only as powerful souls.

For the current Zhu Lingwu, such thoughts are meaningless. If he really created such a bone mage tower, high-level cultivators would likely use dazzling spells to turn it into a pile of bone ash.

Zhu Lingwu's current situation is somewhat unique. His main soul exists within a living body. For Zhu Lingwu, the most important thing is to enhance his own strength and turn this living "life-bound soul box" into a powerful fighting machine.

So, after considering the potential future uses of this soul ability, Zhu Lingwu pulled his thoughts back to reality.

No matter what, the most important thing now is to send these two Wuchang ghosts, which he has controlled as sub-souls, back into the Xuanming Ghost Head and to sense the strength of the "skeleton soldiers" he has summoned. This is the most important task...