Chapter 409: Cang Xu’s Limit
Deep in the sea.
A massive school of grouper fish raced forward in fury, relentlessly pursuing their enemy ahead.
They had only one adversary, another grouper fish.
Yet this silver level grouper was utterly bizarre, possessing only a fish head. Its body and tail were gone.
Not only that, but this grouper head radiated an intense undead aura.
It was precisely this unmasked negative energy that provoked the grouper school's fury and pursuit.
The grouper head charged forward, plunging headlong into a white underwater forest.
This was White Hair Trench.
Within the White Hair Trench thrived a unique species of coral polyps. These polyps could parasitize the surfaces of living organisms, multiplying and growing. Their accumulated excretions formed a soft, white coral.
These soft white corals formed long strands that swayed with the currents, resembling strands of white hair.
The white hair coral polyps typically parasitized sea beasts. But when a massive sea beast perished on the ocean floor, vast numbers of white hair coral polyps continued to draw life-sustaining nutrients from the carcass.
In underwater graveyards where many sea beasts died together, large colonies of coral polyps often thrived.
The soft corals produced by these polyps gathered to form forests of white hair.
Generally, these white hair forests were coral clusters posing no threat to marine life that entered them.
However, the grouper head, radiating an aura of the undead, was an exception.
The white coral was the excretion of coral polyps, still under their control and possessing a certain degree of offensive capability.
Being living organisms, the polyps naturally abhorred the negative energy emanating from the grouper head.
Even though this silver level grouper head charged into the white hair forest, it immediately triggered a violent uprising among countless polyps.
White hair coral lashed out from all directions, overwhelming the grouper head.
The grouper head couldn't withstand even two seconds, exploding on the spot.
Yet the grouper school drawn by the head showed no less fury, charging en masse into the white hair forest.
The white coral polyps' revolt showed no signs of ceasing. Driven by biological instinct, they couldn't obey orders to stop.
Each white, soft coral lashed viciously at the grouper, immediately provoking a counterattack from the school.
Thus, a fierce battle erupted.
The white forest lashed at the grouper as if they were enemies, brutally whipping and killing large numbers of them.
The vast grouper school counterattacked with racial magic.
Their primary racial magic was petrification.
Strand after strand of white coral hair was turned to stone. Amidst the chaos, they were either snapped by other strands or shattered by colliding groupers.
The fierce battle raged for over ten minutes.
The final outcome was the complete annihilation of the grouper swarm. The white hair forest also suffered heavy losses. Its former lush splendor vanished, leaving the white hair sparse and thin, with some areas completely bald.
Though the white hair coral colony emerged victoriously, it was clearly a pyrrhic victory.
A ghost ship silently surfaced.
On it were Jian Gui, Cang Xu, and the others.
The grouper head from earlier was actually the deceased skull of a grouper controlled by Cang Xu.
By exploiting living creatures' aversion and rage toward the undead, he had successfully lured a grouper swarm into the white hair forest, igniting the clash between the two colonies.
Now came the cleanup.
Over a dozen ghosts leapt from the ship, most of them gold level!
They charged directly into the white hair forest.
The forest erupted again, lashing out at the ghosts.
White hair corals dealt physical blows, but these ghosts were immune to physical attacks, suffering no harm.
Only racial magic could truly harm these specters.
But the white hair coral polyps lacked such innate abilities. Their greatest combat capability was manipulating the white hair coral to lash out.
More seasoned polyps could also control soft corals to entangle and strangle enemies.
Considering that white soft corals were essentially coral polyps' excretions, in a sense, these polyps were fighting with their own feces.
A group of “shit-manipulating” little experts.
Beyond this, the white hair coral polyps possessed no other combat abilities.
Coral polyps were a type of insectoid and lacked any racial magic.
This lack was not a disadvantage but rather an advantage.
As parasites, these polyps relied on inhabiting other life forms to survive and reproduce.
Their hosts were typically massive sea beasts possessing racial magic. They could passively absorb elements from nature to form magic crystals, using various racial magic against enemies to dominate the food chain.
If white hair coral polyps could cast racial magic spells, it proved they possess magic crystals within their bodies. Regardless of the quantity of magic crystals, they inevitably clashed with the sea beasts they parasitize, causing issues like magic interference and magic repulsion.
Under such circumstances, the host sea beast prioritized purging the coral polyps from its body to ensure its own safety and survival.
This effectively eliminated the coral polyps' primary habitat for survival.
Thus, mastering racial magic becomes a catastrophe for these white hair coral polyps.
Watching the ghosts effortlessly kill the last coral, the undead ronin Ku Feng stood at the bow of the ghost ship and sighed, "If it were the grouper school's petrification spell, it would be much harder to deal with. Ghosts or skeletons hit by petrification would likely not survive. But these white hair corals? They let us slaughter them without any resistance at all."
This wasn't to say Jian Gui's crew lacked means to break petrification.
Where there's petrification, there's naturally a spell like “Dispel Petrification.”
Even though most were necromancers, they always carried generic spell scrolls for contingencies.
Cang Xu, being a penniless wretch, naturally possessed none. But Jian Gui most likely had scrolls for dispelling petrification. He even carried a spare spellbook!
Yet the reality was this: for the vast majority of skeletons and ghosts afflicted by petrification, the necromancers chose not to rescue them.
The reason was simple - cost.
While casting a spell like Dispel Petrification wasn't particularly costly, the magic power and spirit expended were renewable resources. But for necromancers, they could create more skeletons and ghosts at a much lower cost.
They would only intervene to save high-quality skeletons or ghosts if they were petrified.
Xiao Wang Zi now stood beside the undead ronin Ku Feng, his voice tinged with regret. "This flat seabed terrain would be perfect for my heavy cavalry to charge across. Alas, in this battle, Lord Jian Gui forbade me from joining the fray."
Since eradicating that herd of ramhorn turtles, Xiao Wang Zi had amassed a vast number of ramhorn turtle skeletons. These skeletons were natural heavy cavalry. Xiao Wang Zi particularly cherished this small cavalry unit, longing daily to deploy them.
Yet the complex and unique underwater environment rarely offered a stage where these ramhorn turtle skeletons could truly showcase their strength.
Cang Xu offered reassurance from the side: "Xiao Wang Zi, when we rescue Qi Ling, we'll likely face pirates. Then, will your ramhorn turtle squad really lack a place to prove itself?"
“Before that, we should focus on leveraging our strengths, gathering as many resources as possible to bolster our own combat power and increase the success rate of this rescue mission.”
“Xu Jia is absolutely right.” Jian Gui materialized as well.
Over these days, the necromancer's crew had launched numerous raids across the White Hair Trench, significantly bolstering their combat strength.
Initially, Jian Gui had to merge with the ghost ship to control the battlefield.
Now, the frequency of such merges has noticeably decreased. Relying on their vast legions of ghosts and skeletons, they could now confront most undersea beast swarms head-on.
In truth, many engagements didn't even require direct confrontation.
Take the recent battle, for instance. Deploying just one of Cang Xu's silver level death heads had secured a massive advantage.
Most sea beasts possessed little intelligence.
In this regard, the advantage of sentient races was starkly evident.
After brief communication, the necromancers began cleanup.
Though numerous, skeletons and ghosts possessed low intelligence and were unsuited for this task. Thus, such meticulous work requires the necromancers' personal attention.
Several summoning spells coalesced a swarm of grouper ghosts onto the battlefield. Alongside them were countless, teeming little ghosts of coral polyps.
These tiny spirits were so feeble that many dissolved into nothingness the moment they materialized. Like bubbles bursting, they vanished without a sound.
Insect souls were inherently fragile, and after death, the success rate of summoning them was far lower than for other lifeforms.
However, Jian Gui soon intervened personally, carefully preserving and gathering these insect ghosts.
“I want all these coral polyp ghosts,” Jian Gui declared.
This request puzzled Cang Xu. But he quickly heard Xiao Wang Zi explain: “In the advanced soul aspect inheritance, there exists a specialized insect soul transformation spell capable of altering insect swarms into ghost hordes... This ghost horde is like an elemental conglomerate, capable of coalescing and dispersing at will. They're far more troublesome than ordinary modified ghosts."
“Advanced soul aspect inheritance...” Cang Xu sighed inwardly.
He yearned to possess such inherited knowledge. Yet, inheritance of this caliber had always been guarded by the orthodox undead factions.
With his lowly bloodline, Cang Xu was utterly unworthy of Jian Gui's recognition, let alone obtaining such inheritance.
He could only drool with envy.
Still, in this hunt, Cang Xu's spoils were second only to Jian Gui's.
This was mainly because he had sacrificed a silver level grouper death head.
After clearing the battlefield, the necromancers worked together to properly neutralize all traces of undead energy in the area.
Finally, they boarded the ghost ship and vanished silently into the dark depths of the ocean.
On the ghost ship, Cang Xu returned to his cabin and began processing the newly acquired grouper heads.
He didn't use the Head Creation Spell to directly create death heads, opting instead for some basic preliminary processing. Then, he placed these processed grouper heads in a corner of the cabin.
The cabin corner was already piled high with undead materials.
These undead materials shared a common trait: they were all heads of some marine creature.
None of them had been refined yet.
Cang Xu selected several heads from the pile and placed them before him.
After a moment of meditation, he cast the Head Creation Spell upon them.
After several attempts, the silver level undead materials were depleted, yet Cang Xu gained nothing.
No matter, plenty of silver level skulls remained in the hold's corner.
After two rounds, Cang Xu finally obtained a brand-new silver level death head.
Higher level death heads carried lower success rates.
But Cang Xu had plenty to spare. He charged ahead relentlessly, knowing that persistence would eventually yield success.
The White Hair Trench teemed with sea beasts and schools of fish, yet Cang Xu's haul remained meager. Xiao Wang Zi and Jian Gui fared much better than him.
Thus, Cang Xu's stock of silver level death heads returned to its peak, reaching five.
Beyond that, he possessed 48 iron level death heads and 122 bronze level ones.
This represented the absolute limit Cang Xu could currently command.
This burdened him with immense mental strain.
The strain from death heads was far less than that from ghosts or skeletons. But remember, Cang Xu was only an iron level magician.
His mental fortitude was weaker than that of a silver level magician.
The relief spells, Burden Alleviation Spell and Karma Reduction Spell, offered him little help now.
Since acquiring these spells, Cang Xu had used them nearly every day.
The benefits gained from them grew increasingly faint.
The Karma Reduction Spell lessens the erosion of negative energy upon him, preventing the extinction of his humanity. This spell was most effective when used at intervals, as the erosion from negative energy was cumulative.
The Burden Alleviation Spell lessened the mental strain his undead minions imposed upon the necromancer. This was the cornerstone of a necromancer commanding an entire army single-handedly.
Without the Burden Alleviation Spell, the number of death heads Cang Xu could control would plummet by at least two-thirds.
But now, even the Burden Alleviation Spell's effect on him had become barely perceptible.
During these days deep beneath the sea, Cang Xu's personal combat prowess had also expanded tremendously. But having reached this point today, he understood he had hit his limit.
His bloodline firmly constrained him.
“I've already touched the ceiling. Unless my bloodline becomes superior...”
Though his bloodline mutation was still ongoing, Cang Xu had abandoned all expectations for his own bloodline.
He could distinctly sense the bloodline mutation was nearing its final stage.
His cultivation efficiency showed no significant change, having even weakened slightly.
The trajectory of the bloodline mutation was clear. Cang Xu had already foreseen its outcome, neither good nor bad, merely maintaining the status quo. Strictly speaking, it had slightly diminished his innate talent, though the reduction was so minimal it was almost imperceptible. It could be considered on par with his previous state.
Cang Xu accepted this outcome swiftly.
Bloodline mutations were inherently unpredictable. Most resulted in deterioration; only a rare few brought improvement.
This differed from bloodline awakening.
Bloodline awakening typically yielded positive results. Essentially, it involved the bloodline concentration achieving a quantitative accumulation, reaching a qualitative leap through gradual change.