Xiao understood the connection between the Minor Erdtrees and the Jar-Bairns, so under normal circumstances, whenever he encountered immature Minor Erdtrees or Golden Seeds, he would not hesitate to uproot them and transplant them into the Cyber Dimension.
These young trees, which had yet to absorb the power of the laws, were rare treasures with immense potential. If cultivated properly, each one could fully grow into an Erdtree like the one at the center of The Lands Between.
Of course, Xiao's purpose in harvesting Golden Seeds was also very simple: he needed to maximize the disruption of The Lands Between's balance through every possible means, ensuring that there was no chance for The Lands Between to recover from its current predicament.
After all, only when The Lands Between completely descended into chaos and decay would the Greater Will lose interest in this land and abandon it entirely.
And that would be the best moment for Xiao to display his ambitions and strength.
If Xiao were to save The Lands Between too early, restoring order and returning it to an era governed by laws, then the first thing he would face would be the Greater Will descending to reclaim The Lands Between.
In that case, not only would Xiao gain no benefits whatsoever, but he might even become a tool of the Greater Will and be forced to cleanse the corruption within The Lands Between on its behalf.
Therefore, even if Xiao immediately gained enough power to sweep across The Lands Between and become Elden Lord, he still would not save this world.
Only when the Greater Will personally acknowledged its failure and completely abandoned The Lands Between would this world truly become Xiao's to save.
Before then, the inhabitants of The Lands Between would simply have to suffer for a little longer. Once Xiao gained control of the world, he would properly compensate them.
…
…
As Xiao continuously harvested Those Who Live in Death, the newly condensed Law of Death granted him an entirely new ability: Necromancy.
In truth, Xiao had already come into contact with some Necromancy long ago through the Vampire World after absorbing Vampire Xiao's power via the Great Firmament Arena.
However, the Blood Clan's magic had always seemed far too weak in Xiao's eyes. Compared to the Necromancers of legend who could casually unleash undead catastrophes,
the Necromancy of the Blood Clan world was more akin to curse magic, dealing damage primarily by instilling fear into enemies.
Moreover, the undead creatures it summoned were mostly skeletons that existed for only a short time, possessing extremely weak attack power. Ordinary soldiers could easily deal with several of them at once.
The only somewhat noteworthy spell was the summoning of self-destructing spiders, but even their damage output was extremely limited. The Blood Clan themselves referred to this power as "evil magic" rather than true Necromancy.
But this power, which Xiao had once overlooked, began expanding wildly like a rabid dog after arriving in The Lands Between, especially after absorbing the Law of Death from Those Who Live in Death.
Not only did it rapidly evolve, but it also directly integrated the five major schools of Blood Clan magic—Bloodthirst, Evil, Illusion, Chaos, and Frost—ultimately forming an entirely new Necromantic Great Rune.
However, compared to the name "Necromantic Great Rune," Xiao preferred calling it the Great Rune of Demonic Arts.
Because the power contained within this Great Rune perfectly matched the demonic cultivation systems commonly seen in cultivation worlds.
It was a law that refined all living beings into nourishment for oneself.
The application of this power was somewhat similar to the Serpent's law of Blasphemy, though there were also significant differences between them.
The law of Blasphemy accumulated power through constant devouring, using the resentment and corruption of living beings to completely suppress holy attributes.
The Necromantic Great Rune, however, focused on the comprehensive utilization of life itself, including flesh, souls, bones, ice, spirit fire, and numerous other applications.
One could say that it utilized every aspect of a living being perfectly, wasting absolutely nothing.
Moreover, the greatest function of the Necromantic Law was its ability to transform low-level mortal materials into higher-level materials.
It was essentially a shortcut that achieved qualitative change through quantitative accumulation.
Xiao had already thought of many ways to use the corpses of living beings as resources.
Blood could be condensed into Blood Pools, which could continuously accumulate and eventually form Blood Rivers or even Blood Seas, to heal injuries whenever necessary.
Souls could be refined into a Myriad Soul Banner and transformed into powerful weapons.
Bones could be used to forge White Bone Dharmakayas or divine artifacts, and could even be used to strengthen one's own skeleton, each application possessing extraordinary power.
As for ice and spirit fire, they were merely derivative applications born from combining souls and bones together.
The ice originated from the resentment of souls and carried piercing coldness.
Spirit fire, meanwhile, was the phosphorescent flame generated from bone residue, possessing the terrifying ability to burn both flesh and soul alike.
Of course, "Great Rune of Demonic Arts" was merely a joking nickname. Its true name was still the Necromantic Great Rune.
And the greatest function of this Great Rune was actually the ability to unleash an undead catastrophe.
It could permanently resurrect corpses using spirit fire and command them to fight on the battlefield.
At the same time, the undead could strengthen themselves by slaughtering living beings or by battling other undead.
This unique characteristic gave the undead terrifying snowballing potential on the battlefield, allowing them to grow stronger and more numerous the longer the war continued.
If Xiao wished, he could now directly use the Necromantic Great Rune to create a vast undead army,
bringing endless fear and disaster to The Lands Between, and even plunging the entire world into darkness and despair.
But setting aside whether he could withstand the combined siege of numerous demigods, even the Greater Will would never stand idly by and allow him to wreak such havoc.
If he truly dared to unleash an undead catastrophe across The Lands Between, then the descent of an Elden Meteor would not be far behind.
…
…
After unexpectedly obtaining the Necromantic Great Rune, Xiao immediately entered seclusion and began refining a divine artifact using the power of this Great Rune.
"Please, fellow Daoist, enter my W… bah, please, fellow Daoist, enter my Human Emperor Banner, and together we shall ascend!"
Xiao spoke with the bearing of an immortal sage while holding a banner-shaped divine artifact covered in blood-red patterns, from which spirit-fire skulls continuously emitted mournful wails.
"Dad, why is your Human Emperor Banner emitting so much black smoke?"
Xiao Yufeng asked curiously.
"Ignorant child, this is Human Emperor Profound Qi! If Profound Qi isn't black, could it possibly be golden?"
Xiao immediately pointed at her with a sword finger and reprimanded his "little padded jacket with air leaks."
"Then what about those skulls?"
Xiao Yufeng pointed at the skulls decorating the banner, her eyes filled with "confusion" and "puzzlement."
"Stop talking nonsense! I've already sent the Human Emperor Banner refining method to the family group chat, and I even saved a set of materials for you!"
Xiao slapped away her hand and quietly revealed a piece of news to Xiao Yufeng.
"Thank you, Dad!"
Having achieved her goal, Xiao Yufeng immediately revealed a happy smile.
She happily picked up the materials for refining the Human Emperor Banner and skipped away joyfully.
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