Badge in Azure Chapter 884 - Golden Heart (Part 1)

Chapter 884: Golden Heart (Part 1)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
That time around, there was no resistance on the winged skeleton’s part. The refining of the golden zombie had finally been completed. The golden heart harnessed great power and was sending them to every corner of his body. He could finally control his own powers freely. With that heart, he would be able to control any technique like human warriors, instead of relying on brute force in battles.
His spirit battle axe could finally be fully utilized!
The winged skull hesitated for a moment before summoning a jade skeleton to seek out Saleen’s aura while he led the ancient warriors towards the right. Absorbing even more soul aura would allow his own heart to grow even more. What a strange evolution that the heart would not turn him into a human!
When the winged skeleton did not discover the traces of the enemy, he became emboldened and would turn the skeletons of magic beasts within a few miles of his path into ashes. The bones of the body that he had put together began to grow darker in color. It was originally the color of jade, but then, it looked like jade that had been discarded by mages for tens of thousands of years.
Amidst the dark colors, new spirit magic patterns were beginning to form. The patterns were extremely similar to those on the golden heart, except that they were finer in detail and formed three-dimensional structures that were interconnected in the bones.
Ancient warriors followed closely behind the winged skeleton while sorting out the materials that had been left behind by the skeletons of the magic beasts. Although these ancient warriors were grade-9 soldiers, they did not even have a single spatial equipment. When they obtained the gigantic whale horn or the scales of some magic beasts, they could only pass them on to the winged skeleton, who would casually open the death dimension to store the items.
The ashes of the skeletons of the magic beasts were sucked into the death dimension by the Underwater Storm that the winged skeleton created. The ashes were high quality materials for death magic.
The winged skeleton was a close-combat spirit of the dead and also a death mage. After absorbing the soul of a death mage and devouring the soul flame of a spirit king, by then, the winged skeleton was extremely familiar with spirit alchemy.
They spent an entire day walking slowly like that when an emptiness suddenly appeared in front of them. All the skeletons of the magic beasts had already been turned into ashes. The winged skeleton stopped and let the jade skeleton go ahead and scout.
Very soon, the jade skeleton returned and reported while bowing. “Master, it is Nailisi’s aura.”
The winged skeleton did not give any orders immediately, so the twenty-four ancient warriors stood upright behind him like puppets and did not make a sound. Soldier assessed his body. Only his feet were still dark gold in color. The rest of the bones in his body had already turned dark green in color. The magic patterns in the bones were no longer shiny and had turned black instead.
That was what a normal skeleton looked like! The winged skeleton grinned and checked the golden heart in his body. When the golden heart was formed again, it did not try to produce flesh and muscles on the body. It instead transformed itself into a state that suited the winged skeleton. Thirty-six golden tubes that looked like blood vessels grew out from the golden heart and latched onto the bones in his chest.
The entire chest cavity was occupied by the golden heart. Between the bones, spirit energy had already merged into a significantly heavy fluid that was slowly flowing within.
The winged skeleton stood there and took out a soul bead from death dimension. It was made from the human soul shards that he had been gathering for a long time. He did not mention it to Saleen. What he did was considered normal in the death dimension but was frowned upon on the Myers Mainland.
The winged skeleton removed the crystal mask and swallowed the soul bead. Once it entered the golden heart, it was quickly broken down into pure energy. The energy within the winged skeleton’s body finally achieved a breakthrough from a state of saturation. The dark gold color on his feet faded quickly and was absorbed into the golden heart.
A grand and majestic sound came from the golden heart. It was as if millions of war drums were being played together at the same time. The sound was being contained within the chest cavity of the winged skeleton. He could feel his soul flame burning ferociously. In his eyes, a second color appeared amidst the black flames.
A white flame appeared within the winged skeleton’s soul flame. The flames of both colors tangled together as they each tried to devour and repel the other. Finally, the winged skeleton’s soul flame became twice as robust and turned into a flame that was between black and white.
Finally… the winged skeleton had become a spirit king!
The winged skeleton could not hide his joy. After becoming a spirit king, his death dimension would expand, and he would also be able to carry more powerful spirits with him. Back then, the Three Kings were able to lead tens of thousands of spirits into battle. The winged skeleton predicted that he would be able to match up against two spirit kings in one go. Besides, he was a creature that was soul-bonded to Saleen so on the Myers Mainland, he would not be restricted by the rule of power.
The rule of soul bonds would override the rule of power.
Spirit Kings might not be grade-10 creatures, but their combat abilities definitely surpassed that of grade-9 spirits of the dead. Even Nailisi’s three-faced bone demon form would not be a match for a Spirit King, even though she had already devoured the soul flames of two of the Spirit Kings.
If Nailisi was able to gather all eight types of abilities and fully develop them, then there would be a chance that the powers of the two Spirit Kings could be increased and become her own abilities. Nailisi would never advance and would be stuck at grade-9 otherwise.
The winged skeleton looked towards the Imperial City of the Abyss. He vaguely felt fear, as if there were countless powerful spirits that were even more terrifying than a Spirit King. He could not understand why he felt that way even though he had just evolved.
The winged skeleton shook his head like a human and tried to suppress the fear in his heart.
He took out his double-sided giant axe. He was only two yards tall but was wielding such a huge axe. He looked like he might be having a hard time. Only the winged skeleton knew that after he obtained the body of the golden zombie, his strength had increased by one-hundred times. Without the body of the golden zombie, the winged skeleton would always be restricted by his race and would never be able to become a truly powerful spirit of the dead.
The golden zombie was a material that Judikaka had intended to use to change his fate and become a real human. In order to capture and develop the golden zombie, Judikaka paid a heavy price. His lands were more barren than the Purgatory Desert and his men were helpless against the invasion of the abyssal plane.
The golden zombie needed to feed on spirits of the dead, just like the Mechanical Soul. The only difference was that the golden zombie’s soul flame did not burn as it was controlled by Judikaka all that while. In the end, the winged skeleton was the one that reaped all the benefits.
The materials of the double-sided giant axe were of high quality, but they were in the abyss, any material from the whale horn that could be found on the ground was already more valuable than any material used to make Soldier’s battle axe.
The winged skeleton thought about it. Instead of destroying the original double-sided battle axe, he took out tens of whale horns and began to refine a new weapon. The whale horn of the single-horned white whale was its most powerful weapon, but it would eventually degenerate as time passed.
Only single-horned white whales of at least grade-12 would possess whale horns that could last for tens of thousands of years.
Saleen could only refine grade-9 whale horns and while the winged skeleton was not as proficient as Saleen in alchemy, he was able to handle materials of higher grades because they were inherently spirit materials.
It was not as if the winged skeleton was intending to refine some ultimate weapon. He only felt that he was still lacking in his attacking abilities. If he was to face a gigantic fully-constructed puppet and he gave his best shot, the latter would only suffer a crack on its body. A crack like that could be completely repaired in an hour.
That was when the winged skeleton managed to absorb part of Judikaka’s memory. He allowed the ancient warriors to group around him as he began to refine his weapon.
Thick strands of whale horns were being split into thin and soft materials. They only existed in such a state for an instant as the winged skeleton spouted a mysterious language that was known as the Sound of Dead Sea.
In the instant when the materials were soft and gentle, the soul flames of the winged skeleton shot out and made the shape of the materials permanent. As he began to piece the materials together, he used less than a minute to refine a hammer that was two yards in diameter.
The winged skeleton’s soul flames returned back to his eye sockets while he weakly sat on the ground. The entire process that took less than a minute was more tiring than Saleen refining equipment for a few days and nights consecutively.
The hammer was hexagonal in shape like a simple beehive. In the middle of the white hammer was a button that could be latched on with a metal chain to turn the weapon into a Meteor Hammer.
There was only one magic array in the interior of the Meteor Hammer, which was the same one that the winged skeleton used to create Bloodstone. Since the materials of the single-horned white whale were of such high quality, the magic array would also be able to create Bloodstones that were even purer.
The winged skeleton rested for a while before taking out a broken dragonshard and swallowing it, fusing it into the golden heart. He regained his energy very quickly and the soul flames in his eyes gradually stabilized.
The winged skeleton took out another few whale horns. Some of them were left behind by newer grade-9 single-horned white whales that probably only died a few thousand years ago. He used a quicker method to create a nine yard long chain and a three yard long handle for the hammer.
The ancient warriors observed all of it in silence and only the jade skeleton was watching with excitement. The remnants of intelligence of the ancient warriors were even lower than those of the spirits created by the winged skeleton.
It was unfortunate that the winged skeleton could not afford to waste soul flames after he advanced. He would have been able to create even more spirits of the dead with intelligence. The winged skeleton sighed in his heart before putting the jade skeleton away. He had no intentions of allowing the jade skeleton to battle anymore. He decided that he should find ways to help the jade skeleton advance and only use it after it had advanced into a grade-9 spirit.
The winged skeleton rested for a while. The dragonshard in the golden heart has completely digested and he had regained his energy. It seemed a bit of a waste to use the broken dragonshard that way. If he had chosen to absorb the energy of the broken dragonshard little by little, it could have been used repeatedly. Although it was not comparable to a complete and perfect dragonshard, it was still more powerful than a grade-9 magic nucleus.
Hmm?
The winged skeleton seemed to hear a piercing scream from far away in the same direction as all the skulls of the magic beasts were pointed. The feeling of fear in his heart became even more intense the golden heart merely pounded a few times violently before becoming normal again. The winged skeleton immediately calmed himself down and strode in the direction where the sound came from.