174: Chapter 174 Generous Drops! Divine Skill: Spirit Binding and Commanding Generals, and Blue Energy Orb

The scent of gunpowder smoke above the ruins had not yet dispersed, and the air was filled with the scorched scent of high-level magic elements after their collapse.

Qin Ji stood before the pile of grayish-white bone powder that Archmage Abid had turned into, the gravel beneath his feet stained dark brown by blood. With the complete fall of the Undead Summoner, those undead who had been forcibly dragged from the River Styx—King Abra, Queen Fiodingyu, and Princess Princess—saw their figures crumble inch by inch like weathered sand sculptures, eventually dissipating into void-like black smoke amidst a series of shrill wails in the night.

Since the Foundation they relied upon was broken, the Puppet naturally could not survive alone.

"It's over."

Qin Ji withdrew his gaze from the blood moon, his purple-gold pupils constricting slightly as his sight returned to the ground.

Next, it was time to harvest the spoils of war.

In this world covered by the rules of the gods, death was not the end, but the beginning of wealth transfer. The more powerful the existence, the more precious the rule fragments—that is, equipment and items—precipitated after death.

He stepped toward the corpse nearby wearing a tattered golden robe.

Golden Priest, Routwas.

As the top support of the Star Kingdom, although this guy died in a frustrating way, his net worth was definitely substantial.

Qin Ji's palm brushed over the light cluster floating above the corpse.

[Ding! You have activated Plunder... check passed.]

[You have obtained "Golden Priest Set (Crown/Robe/Leggings/Boots)" +1.]

[You have obtained the skill book "Heavenly Bath of Light" +1.]

[You have obtained free attribute points +50.]

[You have obtained gold coins +9999.]

A series of pleasant System notification sounds exploded in his ears, like the crisp sound of gold coins falling into a purse.

Qin Ji glanced at the priest set radiating brilliant golden light, his fingertips touching the sacred runes flowing on the equipment's surface, but the moment he saw the attribute panel, the expectation in his eyes cooled down a bit.

Requirement: Rank 150.

"Useless."

He casually tossed the set into a corner of his backpack.

Level 150 was an unreachable chasm for players at the current stage.

Memories of his past life flooded back like a tide—in the Late Stage of ragnarok, the experience points required for leveling up exploded exponentially. Most top-tier pro players would need at least half a year of day-and-night grinding to reach level 150. Not to mention that the free attribute points rewarded for leveling up were only five points; this extremely low input-output ratio caused Late Stage players to prefer obtaining skill books and special equipment through hunting bosses to enhance their combat power.

In this world, Rank was just a threshold; skills and equipment were king.

Within the equipment System, special equipment had the highest priority, followed by skills, and finally regular stat equipment.

Qin Ji's gaze fell on the skill book glowing with a milky white halo.

"Heavenly Bath of Light".

His fingers gently flipped open the pages, and lines of golden text came into view.

[Heavenly Bath of Light (1-Star)]

[Learning Requirement]: Priest.

[Effect]: Release a healing beam on a friendly unit, restoring (10,000 + 50% Magic Power) health points, and removing all abnormal statuses except for high-level negative effects like knock-up and curses.

[Consumption]: 100 MP.

[Cooldown]: 120 seconds.

[Proficiency]: 0/1000.

[Note]: This skill has the "Splitting" characteristic. For each star level increase, the number of targets it can affect doubles.

Qin Ji raised an eyebrow, his finger gently tapping on the page.

"Interesting."

Pure healing skills were common among the Priest class. However, the core value of this skill lay in those two words—Purification.

Healing accompanied by Purification was a life-saving divine skill.

What was even more terrifying was its growth potential.

One target at one star, two at two stars, four at three stars... and so on; if it reached ten stars, that would be 512 targets!

This was no mere single-target healing; it was clearly a perpetual motion machine for team battles.

Imagine in a thousand-person team battle, a priest raises their hand and a beam of light instantly fills the health of over five hundred low-health teammates and removes their crowd control; such a scene would be enough to make any opponent despair.

"Perverted."

Qin Ji gave a fair evaluation and solemnly put away the skill book. Although he couldn't use it himself, if this thing were to get out, it would be enough to make priest guilds across the server fight over it, even triggering a real-life Immortal Master PK.

Besides this divine skill, Routwas also contributed two regular priest skill books, but compared to "Heavenly Bath of Light", they seemed lackluster and could only serve as filler for the guild warehouse.

After dealing with Routwas, Qin Ji turned toward another light cluster.

That was where Princess Princess had disappeared.

Although the body had dissipated, as an undead BOSS who had been killed for the second time, the drops she left behind still floated quietly in mid-air, emitting an enticing luster.

[Ding! You have obtained Gold Equipment +4.]

[Ding! You have obtained "Special Equipment: Mana Orb" +1.]

[Ding! You have obtained a skill book +1.]

[Ding! You have obtained free attribute points +100.]

Hearing the words "Special Equipment", Qin Ji's originally calm heartbeat skipped a beat.

He quickly located that azure orb in his backpack.

The orb's body was transparent, as if a vast ocean was Seal inside; as he shook it, the tidal sound of waves crashing could be heard faintly.

[Mana Orb (Special)]

[Requirement]: None.

[Effect]: MP (Mana) upper limit +50,000.

[Durability]: 100/100.

The corners of Qin Ji's mouth curled up uncontrollably into a satisfied arc.

Exactly what I needed.

As a turret-type player who relied on high-frequency casting of Forbidden Spells and skills to clear the field, mana had always been his only shortcoming. Although his damage was enough to insta-kill everything, frequently consuming potions to recover mana not only interrupted his output rhythm but was also a very poor combat experience.

Fifty thousand mana.

This was simply like stuffing a miniature nuclear power plant into his body.

"With this thing, I can even throw Forbidden Spells like basic attacks in the future."

Qin Ji did not hesitate and chose to equip it directly.

Buzz！

A cool energy instantly flowed through his entire body, and the mana pool that had been parched due to continuous fighting was instantly filled with surging blue energy. That sense of fullness made him want to let out a long howl to the sky.

As for the other gold equipment dropped by Princess Princess, the requirements were uniformly Rank 200 and above, clearly prepared for the very Late Stage, and could only serve as collectibles gathering dust for now.

Finally.

Qin Ji turned his gaze to the pile of ashes belonging to Archmage Abid.

As the final BOSS of this battle, a ruthless man who had sacrificed his Soul and life to draw the gaze of a god, his drops would definitely not disappoint.

He stepped forward and fumbled through the ashes.

His fingertips touched a cold, hard object.

[Ding! You have obtained "Summoning Scepter of the Undead (Gold)" +1.]

[Ding! You have obtained the skill book "Spirit Seizing and Dispatch" +1.]

[Ding! You have obtained free attribute points +100.]

[Ding! You have obtained gold coins +9999.]

Only two things?

Qin Ji frowned slightly; the quantity was less than expected, but when he saw the attributes clearly, his brow instantly smoothed, and a flash of amazement even crossed his eyes.

First was that scepter.

Its entire body was polished from unknown white bone, and the head of the staff was a miniature skull with eternal ghostly green fire burning in its eye sockets.

[Summoning Scepter of the Undead (Gold)]

[Requirement]: Summoner.

[Special Attribute]: No Rank limitation.

[Effect 1]: Mana +5000.

[Effect 2]: Return of the Dead—You can summon beings killed by you within the last 24 hours to assist in battle. Summoned creatures retain 60% of their pre-death attributes, with a limit of 10. Limited to once per day, lasting 24 hours.

[Effect 3]: Magic Power +1000.

[Effect 4]: Health Points +10000.

[Effect 5]: Undead Summon damage +5%.

"No Rank limitation..."

Qin Ji stroked the rough bone texture of the scepter.

The value of this weapon even exceeded many Divine Artifacts of higher quality.

No level limit meant that even a level 1 alt could equip it. And that terrifying "Summon Dead" effect was equivalent to giving a summoner a personal guard unit composed of BOSSes out of thin air.

Although they could only retain 60% of their attributes, what if there were ten BOSSes of the same level?system.

"That girl Su Li has good luck."

The image of that cold-natured summoner girl who always followed behind him appeared in Qin Ji's mind. This scepter was practically tailor-made for her. In this version that he had pushed to its limits, only a trustworthy teammate like Su Li was worthy of such resource allocation.

He put the scepter into his backpack, and his gaze turned toward the final piece of loot.

It was a black skill book.

The cover seemed to be made of some creature's skin, feeling slightly cold and greasy to the touch, with four twisted characters written in blood on the cover—Spirit Seizing and Dispatch.

The moment he saw those four words, Qin Ji's fingers holding the book subconsciously tightened.

Even he couldn't help his heart racing at this moment.

If "Heavenly Bath of Light" was a divine skill for priests, then "Spirit Seizing and Dispatch" was the ultimate dream for summoners, a forbidden technique capable of changing the profession's ecosystem.

[Spirit Seizing and Dispatch (1-Star)]

[Learning Requirement]: Summoner.

[Effect]: You can forcibly capture the Soul of undead creatures and refine them into permanent summoned beasts. Current limit: 1. Summoned beasts retain 50% of their pre-death strength.

[Consumption]: 500 MP.

[Cooldown]: 30 minutes.

[Proficiency]: 0/1000.

[Note]: The Soul strength of the captured target must not exceed your own by too much, otherwise it is very easy to suffer backlash. If the target is killed by the caster personally, the success rate is greatly increased.

"It actually really dropped..."

Qin Ji took a deep breath, calming the vibration in his chest.

This was a skill that was legendary for only potentially dropping after killing those demigod-level Lich Kings in the mid-to-Late Stage of the Undead Scourge version.

For such a thing to drop in a novice transition map like the Star Kingdom, the probability was probably lower than being hit by a meteorite when walking out the door.

"Is this what they call the King of Luck?"

Qin Ji laughed self-deprecatingly.

Although he didn't have summoner talent, it didn't stop him from appreciating the beauty of this skill book.

Permanent capture.

This meant that as long as Su Li learned this skill, killing BOSSes in the future would no longer be a one-time deal. Kill a BOSS, capture a Soul, and the snowball would roll bigger and bigger.

Imagine when other players were still struggling with wild wolves and goblins, Su Li had a row of former dungeon ultimate BOSSes standing behind her...

That scene would be simply cruel.

"This harvest not only made up for my mana shortcoming but directly armed Su Li to the teeth."

Qin Ji stood up and looked around.

Besides these drops, this ruin itself was also a huge Treasure Trove.

What he was stepping on was the base of the guardians tower.

Although the tower body was destroyed, the indestructible Foundation still emitted an ancient and heavy aura.

[guardians tower (Remains/Special Wonder)]

[Attribute]: Indestructible.

Qin Ji crouched down, his palm pressed against the cold stone surface.

Since it was a piece of indestructible special equipment, even if it turned into a ruin, it must hide some unknown secret.

The moment his palm touched the ground, the [Wheel of Time and Space (Fragment)] in his backpack suddenly vibrated violently.

Buzz——！

A ripple invisible to the naked eye centered on him and spread toward the surroundings.

The originally dead ruins seemed to "come alive" at this moment. Those broken stones and fractured rebars made subtle rubbing sounds under the pull of some mysterious force.

Qin Ji was not disturbed by this sudden change; instead, he narrowed his eyes, his gaze analyzing every subtle flow of energy around him like a blade.

"As expected, it's not that simple."

He slowly stood up, the night wind making his blood-stained robe flutter loudly.

This trip to the Star Kingdom was not just as simple as killing and looting. From the intervention of the God of the Undead to the secret of the guardians tower, and then to this Wheel of Time and Space fragment in his hand... all the clues were pointing to a larger and more dangerous truth.

But so what?

In this world where data was king, as long as the health bar was thick enough and the attack was high enough, so-called conspiracies and tricks were nothing more than a joke in the face of absolute power.

Qin Ji raised his head, looking at the pale horizon in the distance.

New day was about to arrive.

And the legend belonging to the "Snow Emperor" had only just begun.

He casually brushed off the non-existent dust from his shoulder and turned to walk out of the ruins. The rising morning sun pulled his shadow very long, and that pitch-black silhouette projected onto the ravaged land like a sharp blade about to be unsheathed, its edge fully exposed and unstoppable.