He had to kill a god-level expert to save Yeru?
Hearing Siehler say this, Lin Lei felt a surge of pressure.
"Yeru, right now..." Lin Lei thought of Yeru, whose soul had been implanted with a Soul Seed and was now completely under the command of that mysterious god-level expert, and felt a wave of frustration and fury. "I don't care who that god-level expert is—I will kill him!"
For Yeru's sake—to bring back the Yeru he once knew.
To let Yeru recover his true self. He had to do it!
"Lord Lin Lei? If I may ask." Siehler chose his words carefully and said, "Lord Lin Lei, you and Lord Fain killed two silver-robed men together. I wonder if you obtained anything from their corpses—for example, spatial rings..."
"I did get a spatial ring," Lin Lei said with a nod, glancing at Siehler. "But I gave it to Wotton. He can give it to whoever he wants. Why do you ask?"
A spatial ring might be quite precious to the king of a kingdom.
But for an ordinary Saint-level powerhouse, it was relatively common. For someone of Lin Lei's caliber, obtaining a spatial ring was extremely easy. He hadn't paid much attention to the spatial rings recovered from the silver-robed men's corpses in the end—the two silver-robed men had two spatial rings in total, and Lin Lei and Fain had each taken one.
"Lord Lin Lei, you should examine it first and see what exactly is inside that spatial ring," Siehler said solemnly.
"Alright."
Lin Lei followed Siehler's advice and immediately sent someone to fetch Wotton.
Wotton arrived in the rear garden before long. On the way, he was still somewhat worried: "My brother values brotherhood above all, but Yeru... he must be feeling terrible right now." Wotton was concerned for Lin Lei, but when he actually saw his brother, he noticed something different.
Lin Lei didn't look sorrowful at the moment. On the contrary, his brow was slightly furrowed and his gaze was resolute, as though he was wrestling with something.
"Brother, you called for me?" Wotton asked immediately.
"Didn't I give you a spatial ring? Have you given it to anyone yet?" Lin Lei asked urgently.
Wotton smiled. "Not yet. I was planning to give it to Nina in a few days. Nina and I have been married for so long, and I've never given her a truly precious gift."
"Have Nina come here right now. Let her drip blood on it and claim it as her own, and let's see what's inside this spatial ring," Lin Lei said in quick succession.
Wotton was surprised—why was his elder brother in such a rush?
Soon, Nina arrived. Upon learning what Lin Lei and the others wanted, she promptly dripped blood on the ring and took it as her own, then poured out every single item inside.
Among them were some clothes, various ores, and other miscellaneous objects. Most conspicuous of all was a crystal ball.
"That's it." Siehler's eyes lit up the moment he saw the crystal ball.
Lin Lei, Wotton, and Nina all looked puzzled. To them, the crystal ball merely emanated a strange aura—what function it served, they had no idea. But Siehler recognized it at a single glance.
Siehler held the crystal ball in both hands. The material inside was different from the outer shell; sunlight that entered the crystal would be distorted and focused at its core.
Siehler channeled his mental power into the crystal ball, carefully probing its interior.
"This crystal ball has already been forged and refined," Siehler said, choosing his words to keep it as simple as possible. "Its current function is to absorb unprotected souls within a certain radius around it. Roughly ten meters or so."
"Collecting souls?" Lin Lei's heart jolted.
He understood now.
Why the Dead City incident had happened. Those silver-robed men must have held this crystal ball in one hand while they slaughtered with the other. When they killed someone, that person's soul would naturally be absorbed by the crystal ball. An entire Blue Lion City—nearly a hundred thousand souls—had been collected just like that.
"What would they collect souls for?" Wotton asked, stunned. Nina was equally shocked.
Siehler explained: "Collecting large quantities of souls serves several purposes. First—the Necromancer arts were inherited from the God of Death. Those who cultivate the path of Necromancy typically seek to become gods through the Laws of Death. Among the Laws of Death, the greatest expertise lies in the domain of the soul."
"By consuming large numbers of souls, one can execute certain special attacks," Siehler continued.
"This... the Laws of Death, they're truly..." Lin Lei felt a chill of discomfort.
He knew of the seven elemental laws—Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Lightning, Light, and Darkness. But Death, Destruction, Life, and Fate were the four Grand Laws. Laws and Grand Laws were two different concepts—Grand Laws were the fundamental rules by which heaven and earth operated.
The Laws of Death governed "death" itself.
"The greatest purpose of collecting souls, in truth, is to refine and absorb them to strengthen one's own soul," Siehler said, never one to shy away from shocking statements.
"Strengthen one's own soul?" Lin Lei was genuinely stunned.
Back then, Di Lin had told Lin Lei that there were two paths to becoming a god. The second path involved forming a God Avatar, but the cost was splitting one's soul in half. The soul was a person's—indeed, any living creature's—most fundamental essence! Even after becoming a god, if the divine body was destroyed, it could be reconstructed from energy.
But if the soul was destroyed, death was certain.
During the process of cultivation, the soul would gradually grow stronger as well.
"Refining vast numbers of soul—absorbing them to strengthen one's own soul?" Lin Lei found it hard to believe.
"Yes. But the refinement of souls is extraordinarily difficult," Siehler sighed. "It requires a profoundly thorough understanding of the soul. Even I cannot manage it. I imagine only a god-level expert who has mastered the Laws of Death could pull it off. Experts who have become gods through other Laws would find it nearly impossible."
Lin Lei nodded to himself.