Chapter 420: Chapter 251: Is Durken Dead? _2
Lamo shook his head: “He’s in the grave and cannot be resurrected. Lord Durken said that if he were to be resurrected, it would consume a lot of soul energy. This is a closed space, and with the consumption, a lot of souls would perish. So, he decided not to resurrect himself. He asked us to wake him up if we can get out.”
Negris nodded. He might not have understood this before, but ever since Ange brought in the Liquid of Breath of Death into the Resting Palace, allowing it to freely evaporate, the level of death breath in the Resting Palace has reached saturation.
Since then, Negris realized that death breath was as vital to the undead as air to the living. Without it, the souls of the undead would wither.
If Lord Durken were to be resurrected, it would consume the limited death breath in here, and the remaining souls would wither and gradually perish due to the lack of nourishment from the breath.
However, now that Ange is here, Lord Durken is saved.
“Quick, take me to his tomb. Oh, where is Locke’s tomb?” Negris hurriedly asked, also enquiring casually about the location of Locke’s grave, perhaps he was still thinking about the toilet matter at the grave’s head.
“Lord, this way please.” Lamo made a gesture to Negris. But when he turned to Ange, he instantly kneeled down: “Lord, please!”
The attitudes towards the Bronze Dragon and Steadfast Locke were completely different.
As Lamo led the way, Negris asked, “I met an undead outside. I got this place’s coordinates from him. I heard he was a night watchman here. Is that true?”
“Yes, a guy who consorts with demons and sells souls, so he really managed to get out? I thought he was dead in the void. So, he ran out and managed to bring you, my Lord, here. In hindsight, he did a good thing. We should thank him,” Lamo said.
“Um… we killed him.” Negris replied awkwardly.
“Great, I was thinking of thanking him then killing him. Consider him lucky.” Lamo said resentfully.
Negris was scared when all the undead creatures around him woke up earlier, he didn’t look closely. As he walked further, he noticed something strange. A lot of the graves were unopened and even the grass around them was withered, with sparse breathing soil near them.
Negris pointed to the unopened graves and asked, “What’s the matter with those graves? Are they unoccupied?”
“Oh, they probably belong to some low-level undead creatures whose souls have withered and perished.” Lamo said, helplessly
Negris gave a start and flew higher, taking in the sight and began to count seriously.
It looked like a substantial amount, but after a careful count, only a little over twenty thousand undead creatures woke up. In the Land of Slumber, millions of undead creatures were supposed to be sleeping. Why did only so few wake up? Did the rest perish?
Lamo nodded, confirming Negris’s guess.
Out of a few million undead creatures, only just over twenty thousand are left? Conditions here were worse than he anticipated, nearly at the brink of extinction.
If he had arrived a few hundred years later, would the undead here resemble the situation in the Resting Palace, reduced to a mere skeleton?
Under Lamo’s lead, Ange and his group arrived at a tomb.
Lord Durken is the King of Alchemy, but his tomb lacks the flamboyance of his palace. It was simply shaped like a flask, thinner at the top and thicker at the bottom.
“This is Lord Durken’s tomb. But under the current circumstances, we absolutely mustn’t wake him if we can’t resurrect him. Oh, yes, Lord of Knowledge, do you have any preparations this time? Can we all escape?” Lamo tentatively asked.
There are several implications to Lamo’s words. Firstly, he wanted to know if Negris had any ways to get them out. Secondly, he wanted to know if there were any ways to revive Lord Durken. If there were none, then he shouldn’t be awakened, otherwise Lord Durken would be even more grumpy when he woke up.
Negris shrugged: “I don’t know if I can save all of you. We need to research. Wake him up first. Even if we want to resurrect him, we need his cooperation. If all else fails, we can bring his life box out.”
Negris’s words were noncommittal, but it couldn’t be helped. He did not share the soul contact that Durken and Lamo had, and couldn’t speak freely.
“I’ll do it.” Without waiting for Lamo, it flew to the tombstone and started knocking, “Hello…hello…hello, Durken, are you home? I’m the God of Knowledge, I’m here to visit your grave, come out.”
After waiting for a while without any response, Negris knocked two more times, then turned around in confusion.
Lamo also looked puzzled, ran over, and knocked hard on the tombstone twice. Getting no response, he jumped up in fright and without another word, began to dig up Durken’s grave, quickly revealing a Life Box.
The Life Box was a beautifully crafted magic box, which contained the heart of a lich. But when they opened Durken’s box, they found a shriveled heart that had shrunk into a small clump, along with a bunch of small parts that were supposed to be in the heart but had now disassembled.
Lamo’s face turned deathly pale, “Du… Lord Durken…has gone extinct.”
Negris felt a sense of absurd disbelief. Was the mighty and alchemical lich Durken really dead? What a joke!
Although the situation in the Land of Slumber was not good, at least more than 20,000 undead were still surviving. As the king of the liches, Durken theoretically should’ve lived longer than all souls, it was impossible for him to go extinct so early.
Even if he was really burnt out, he could still endure till the end by ruthlessly plundering the soul energy of other undead creatures.
He even didn’t have to be ruthless, because most of these 20,000 undead were without consciousness and intelligence, it was no different from picking a few cabbages to plunder their souls.
But Durken did not. Instead, he allowed himself to become extinct. It was really puzzling. Had he suffered some serious injury?
“Let me see.” Negris signaled Lamo to give him the Life Box.
Lamo handed it over, Negris studied it for a while but did not find out much. He casually handed it to Ange, and then asked Lamo: “Did he leave any legacy or last words?”
Lamo was nearly in tears, “I just knew that our Lord had gone extinct, he didn’t leave any last words. As for his legacy, it’s all here, should we… should we dig deeper?”
What a good idea, Negris immediately called the little zombie over and began to dig Durken’s grave.
Lamo was shocked by the zombie’s fast, dog-like digging. He had never seen liches quite as nimble or quick.
“My god! How did he manage that? How could his joints be so flexible?” Lamo mimicked his own stiff joints, and spoke in surprise.
Zombies are supposed to be rigid. Liches are essentially just intelligent zombies, so their movements can’t be too flexible either.
“Hehe, I’ll tell you later.” Negris laughed with a hint of mischief. Would Lamo be scared if Negris tried holy purifying abilities on him later?
Unfortunately, when they dug up Durken’s grave, there was no legacy or last words. This was normal. The precious items would be kept in the palace. Who would put them in a grave?
Negris was thoroughly disappointed. He had thought that if he found Durken, he might also discover where the king had gone. He didn’t expect Durken to die, leaving nothing but a Life Box behind. And the Life Box couldn’t speak. What should he do now?
He looked back and saw Ange was still holding the Life Box and observing it.
Negris asked, “Did you find anything? Any residual consciousness?”
“What are you still holding onto it for then? Put it down. After I bury it again, it will officially become a grave.” Negris sighed.
Ange cocked his head, looking unsure, “If the lich heart is dry, can I use it for resurrection?”
As he spoke, Ange pulled out a bottle of Concentrated Holy Worm Ash Essence.