125: Chapter 125 Twenty Giant Pythons Acquired

As the python's momentum faltered.

The second volley commanded by Chuan Yun landed.

5%... 3%... 1%...

Tian Ming raised his hand.

Mind Whip!

-1375!

Suddenly.

The body of the Ancient Spirit Giant Python stiffened violently, then stopped writhing.

After swaying twice, its massive snake body crashed to the ground.

Boom!

Dust filled the air.

Ding!

[Battle Victory!]

[Kill: Ancient Spirit Giant Python (Relic Guardian Beast · Legendary) × 1]

[Battle Rating: S (Utilized mechanism weakness, perfect tactical execution)]

[Triggered "Miracle Treasure"!]

[Generating Undead Relic Chest...]

"Good! Hahaha!"

Looking at the long-lost "S" rating, Xu Qin couldn't help but laugh out loud.

[Talent "War Gift" triggered! Quantity of all loot × 20!]

[Final Acquisition:]

[Ancient Spirit Giant Python Skeleton × 20]

[Legendary-grade Skill Book "Python Emperors Heavenly Might" × 20]

[...]

Seeing "Ancient Spirit Giant Python Skeleton × 20", Xu Qin's breathing grew heavy.

Twenty snake skeletons.

Each one could be resurrected into an eighty-meter-long undead giant python.

And twenty legendary-grade skill books.

"My goodness, 20 legendary-grade skill books?"

Xu Qin pursed his lips, forcing himself to calm down.

But he couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from curling up.

"Twenty giant pythons, plus eighty giant dragons... I should be the overlord of the newbie village now."

Xu Qin took a few deep breaths to settle his emotions.

"No rush."

"First, I need to implant the holy relic into the Lords Hall."

He maneuvered the Floating City to slowly descend into the ruin plaza.

After personally moving the Snake God Holy Stele back to the Lords Hall.

Hum!

A pale golden light spread out.

Ding!

[Snake God Holy Stele has been implanted!]

[All Lord's units' HP permanently +15%!]

["Snake Shedding" passive activated!]

[This ruin has been marked as the Lord's territory.]

[Bind as a branch city?]

Xu Qin clicked [Bind].

Ding!

[Ruin branch city bound! Please name it.]

Xu Qin thought for a moment and entered four characters.

[Ancient Spirit Holy City].

He turned and walked back, opening the command panel.

An S rating is truly something; one battle directly increased his experience by 160 points.

He was only 43 points away from level 20.

Xu Qin sat down on the bone throne.

He opened his inventory and found the chest emitting a golden light.

[Undead Relic Chest × 1]

"Let me see what kind of treasure it is."

Xu Qin rubbed his hands and clicked [Open].

Hum!

Golden light burst from the chest, illuminating the entire hall in a warm yellow hue.

Three seconds later, the light subsided.

A new item appeared in his inventory.

[Myriad Spirit Pact (Legendary)]

[Type: Soul-binding item (one-time use)]

[Effect: Bind to a converted undead unit or hero, granting it the "Lord's Empathy" trait permanently. When the Lord takes fatal damage, the unit takes the damage instead and self-destructs. This trait has no distance limit and can be triggered multiple times (while the bound unit is alive).]

[Restriction: Can only bind one unit. Cannot be changed after binding.]

Xu Qin's mouth instantly formed an "O" shape.

"Good, what a good thing!"

He stood up from the bone throne abruptly.

Lord's Empathy means,

As long as the bound unit is alive, he, Xu Qin, cannot die!

"Does that mean I have an extra life?!"

Xu Qin paced back and forth in the hall excitedly, forcing himself to calm down.

Then... a new problem arose.

Who should he bind this item to?

Tian Ming?

No!

Tian Ming is the brain of the entire army, a trusted right-hand man.

What about Dragon Bone, it has high HP?

Also no.

Dragon Bone is the core damage dealer.

If it blocked a blow for him one day and shattered, that would be a huge loss.

Besides, this thing can only block damage once.

He couldn't count on that 8% Snake Shedding effect.

As it stands, this kind of one-time item is best bound to a cannon fodder minion.

"No rush..."

Xu Qin stopped pacing,

"I'll think about it properly after finishing other tasks."

He put away the pact,

and turned to look at the pile of golden, glittering skill books in his inventory.

[Legendary-grade Skill Book "Python Emperors Heavenly Might" × 20]

Xu Qin clicked on the description.

[Python Emperors Heavenly Might (Legendary · Active)]

[Effect: After activation, all enemy units within a 100-meter radius centered on the user have their Attack Power reduced by 60% and Defense by 50%. Lasts 30 seconds. Cooldown 300 seconds.]

[Applicable Targets: Hero / Lord]

Before opening it, Xu Qin had already made a plan.

That was to give one to every hero.

Then, he saw the [Applicable Targets] column.

"Huh?"

"A Lord can use it too?"

"I can learn it too?"

Xu Qin's eyes widened slightly.

Afterward, he threw his head back and laughed.

"Hahaha! I finally have a skill too!"

From the first day he arrived until now,

He, Xu Qin, the Lord of Calamity...

Besides a battle spear, he knew nothing.

Enter the fray himself?

That was impossible.

But now.

He immediately took a skill book from his inventory and clicked [Use].

Golden light surged into his body.

In the personal section of his command panel, the skill changed from "None" to [Python Emperors Heavenly Might].

[Python Emperors Heavenly Might (Active): 100-meter radius, enemy Attack -60%, Defense -50%, lasts 30 seconds. Cooldown 300 seconds.]

Xu Qin looked at this icon and nodded with satisfaction.

"From today on, whoever dares to get close will first have to eat a domain from me."

Although he would likely still not enter the fray himself.

But what if?

What if someone raided his home one day?

With this skill as a fallback, he could at least hold on for a while longer.

Furthermore, since he could learn the first skill.

That meant there would be a second, a third... countless skills he could learn.

As long as he kept clearing ruins, he would keep getting stronger!

"Alright, let's learn the skills first."

Xu Qin waved his hand and took out another 8 books from the 19 remaining.

Tian Ming, Dragon Bone, Savage Bull, Blade Guard, Jackal Hunter, Chuan Yun, Tietang, and Shadow, one for each.

The remaining 11 books were thrown into the treasure vault.

"When new heroes join, I'll give them skill books as onboarding gifts; it'll be very impressive."

...

After distributing the skill books, Xu Qin came to the Resurrection Platform.

The 20 Ancient Spirit Giant Python skeletons in his inventory were thrown in one by one.

The dark purple beam of the Resurrection Platform lit up.

Fifteen minutes later.

On the Combat Readiness Platform, twenty skeletal giant pythons, each over eighty meters long, awakened one by one.

Dark golden bone scales covered their entire bodies, and dark purple soul fire burned in their hollow eye sockets.

Xu Qin stood at a high vantage point, looking down and checking them one by one with satisfaction.

"Not bad, not bad, about the same size as that living one..."

Suddenly, he noticed one of the pythons.

That python was a size thicker than the other nineteen.

The patterns on its bone scales were more complex, and there was a bone horn curving backward on each side of its head.

Most importantly,

In its eye sockets, there wasn't just ordinary dark purple soul fire,

but a pair of dark purple slit pupils.

An undead with pupils made of fire?

Xu Qin walked forward to observe it carefully.

The python also turned its head, looking at him with those slit pupils.

"Hiss..."

The python let out a low hiss.

Xu Qin opened the command panel to check.

The panels of the other nineteen giant pythons were standard templates.

But for this one, there was an extra line of small text in the top right corner of the panel.

[Note: This unit contains residual, faint fragments of "Ancient Spirit Bloodline · King's Memory".]

"It looks like this one is the original remains."

Xu Qin stroked his chin, looking at those slit pupils.

"Since you are so unique..."

He opened the promotion interface of the Hall of Valor and selected this purple-eyed giant python.

"The eighth hero, it's decided to be you."