Picking Up Attributes From Today - Chapter 230
Chapter 230: Summoning Dead Souls, A Devil Contract
At a cultivation level like Meng Lei’s, one could already pick up and master things at an extremely fast rate. Puhaman needed only to provide a simple explanation of Dead Souls Magic’s foundational principles, and Meng Lei got it right away.
Dead Souls Magic principles were actually very simple:
Through the use of their spiritual power, Dead Souls Magicians would connect to the Dead Souls Plane and build a Dead Souls channel, through which they would then summon spirits of the dead and undead beings to battle.
There were three main points:
– Connecting to the Dead Souls Plane
– Building the Dead Souls channel
– Summoning the spirits of the dead and undead beings
“The first point is the most important one. It is representative of whether a beginner possesses a magic talent for Dead Souls Magic or not.”
A smiling Puhaman said, “Not even one in 10,000 can connect to the Dead Souls Plane. They’re even rarer than geniuses who have magic talent for the ten different elements. This is also the reason why Dead Souls Magic is gradually becoming a lost art.
“But don’t you worry, Master. Even if you don’t have magic talent for Dead Souls Magic, I can let you connect to the Dead Souls Plane all the same!”
Puhaman connected to the Dead Souls Plane in the unseen world, as he explained.
A short while later, a pitch-black dimensional vortex appeared out of nowhere. It gave off a strong aura of death, as well as that of spirits of the dead.
“Master, the Dead Souls Plane that I’ve connected to is Hell, which is one of the three major high-end Devil planes. You can mark the place with your divine spirit. This way, you can connect directly to Hell by following the divine spirit mark in the future,” said Puhaman with his finger pointed at the Dead Souls channel.
“I’ll give it a go.”
Meng Lei directed the power of his divine spirit through the Dead Souls channel, and then, he sent a divine spirit mark into Hell and concealed it.
With his half-deity divine spirit, the divine spirit marks he made were nearly eternal and indestructible. As long as nothing unexpected happened, it could stay in Hell for eternity.
This meant that he could use the divine spirit mark to connect to Hell any time he wanted to.
“Try it again, Master!” Puhaman said after he closed the Dead Souls channel.
Meng Lei closed his eyes. Then, with the divine spirit mark as a bridge, he indeed managed to easily sense the presence of Hell.
“The first step is complete.
“Next, we’ll build the Dead Souls channel. This is no problem for Master at all because it’s a test of the Dead Souls Magician’s spiritual power.”
Puhaman then gave Meng Lei a brief explanation about the main points of building a Dead Souls channel. Meng Lei had a strong and powerful divine spirit, so he successfully built a Dead Souls channel right on the first try.
“The third step is to summon the undead.
“Summoning is typically separated into two types—compelled summoning and contractual summoning.”
Puhaman explained, “As long as your spiritual power is powerful enough, you’ll be able to forcibly summon undead beings who are weaker than yourself and make them battle for you.
“The legions of undead that were summoned during the large-scale war had exactly been summoned through compelled summoning.”
Meng Lei nodded slightly to that.
“The second type is contractual summoning.
“If your spiritual power is too weak, or if you wish to summon powerful undead beings yet are unable to forcibly do so, you’ll need to send your subconsciousness to the Dead Souls Plane and enter a contract with those powerful undead beings.
“I once had an Undead Skeletal Dragon that was a half-deity. It was exactly through a contract that I had managed to summon it over here to help in the battle!”
Puhaman looked at Meng Lei and said, “Master, you have a powerful divine spirit, so summoning undead beings weaker than a half-deity shouldn’t be a problem for you at all. As for the half-deities, you’ll probably need to make a contract with them for it to work.”
“I’ll try the compelled summoning first.”
Meng Lei didn’t go right into summoning powerful undead beings. After all, the reason why he was learning Dead Souls Magic was only that he wanted to use it as a stepping stone to study Devil Magic, so what was he supposed to summon such strong undead beings for?
Then, he built the Dead Souls channel and forcibly summoned the undead.
Thud!
A two-meter-tall skeleton with a bone saber in its hand walked out of the Dead Souls channel. It gave off a strong aura of death, and a ball of will-o’-the-wisp blazed quietly in its skull.
“You’re really too impressive, Master! This is merely your first time summoning, yet you’ve managed to summon a Fifth-Grade Skeleton General! This is practically unprecedented in history and will never be again seen in the future.
“My feelings of admiration toward Master are endless and eternal like the gushing rivers. They are like the overflowing Yellow River, beyond control once the floodgates open!”
Astonishment and wonder filled Puhaman’s eyes as he sucked up to Meng Lei fervently.
“Fifth-Grade…”
Meng Lei was rather embarrassed. He couldn’t resist glancing at his half-deity subordinates, upon which he discovered that all of them had rather strange looks on their faces and were trying to hold back their laughter…
“Cough, cough!”
Meng Lei let out a few coughs of embarrassment. Then, he paid those guys no further heed and continued to summon the undead.
A Sixth-Grade Hell Mirage Fox, an Eighth-Grade Demonic Ram General, a Saint Domain-level Hellhound…
Meng Lei’s comprehension of Dead Souls Magic deepened further and further. After summoning a limits-level Saint Domain Undead Skeletal Dragon, he finally stopped his Dead Souls Magic experiments.
It was sufficient by this point.
Then, Meng Lei moved ahead and delved into the main topic. He asked, “Puhaman, are you familiar with Devil Magic?”
“Devil Magic?”
Puhaman was slightly taken aback. He replied, “Although Devil Magic is identical to Dead Souls Magic and are both classified as summoning magic, I really am not familiar with it.”
“I’d like to summon a Devil.”
Meng Lei said aloofly, “The existential planes that Devils live in are probably the Demon Realm and the Abyss, right? Do you have any means of connecting me to the Demon Realm or the Abyss?”
Puhaman replied with a troubled smile, “Master, I’ve also studied Devil Magic in the past before, but unfortunately, I don’t have the talent for it.”
Meng Lei was rather disappointed to hear that. He asked, “In that case, I can only slowly open up my senses and see if I have any talent for cultivating Devil Magic?”
“That seems like the only way,” replied Puhaman with a wry smile.
“Alright! I’ll give it a go, then!”
Meng Lei had only just gotten ready to open up his senses when the Spider Goddess, who had been watching detachedly from the sidelines, suddenly spoke up. She asked, “Are you that interested in Devil Magic?”
“Somewhat, I guess.”
Meng Lei cast a glance at her.
The Spider Goddess was somewhat disappointed. Nevertheless, she said, “If you can set me free, I have the means to let you connect to the Demon Realm and leave a divine spirit mark there.”
“Really?”
Meng Lei raised an eyebrow.
“Of course!”
The Spider Goddess gave him a confident smile.
Meng Lei couldn’t help but chuckle. As expected of an ancient spirit that had lived for 50,000 years. Although her combat prowess was merely mediocre, she was well-read, experienced, and knowledgeable. She wasn’t just a good-for-nothing.
“Alright, say it. If you tell me the solution, I can overlook your sin of bargaining just now,” said Meng Lei dispassionately.
“You—”
The Spider Goddess was livid. “Can you be any more shameless?”
“Mind your status, Rose!”
Meng Lei gave an icy snort before he said, “You’re my servant now. Everything you own—including your experience, knowledge, and so on—belongs to me! And this includes your loyalty as well! To think a servant like you actually dares to bargain with me, your Master! You’re pretty full of yourself!”
“Argghhhh!”
The Spider Goddess was close to going crazy. If it were possible, she really wished she could smash Meng Lei’s head into smithereens with a hammer. He was simply too wicked, too hateful, and too goddamn infuriating!
“I, Rose, must have been blind! Why did I submit to someone like you?”
The Spider Goddess flung a sheepskin parchment before turning her back to him. She didn’t want to see that face of Meng Lei’s at all right now!
Meng Lei caught the parchment and asked curiously, “What’s this?”
“A Devil contract!”
With a muffled grunt, the Spider Goddess said, “As long as you sign that Devil contract, you’ll be able to summon Devils all the way from the Demon Realm. You can then take the opportunity to leave your divine spirit mark in the Demon Realm, and that would do.”
“A Devil contract…”
Meng Lei stared at the parchment manuscript. Strange-looking text, as though messy, illegible drawings, were written on it. He couldn’t read them at all. He asked, “Can you read this, Puhaman?”
Puhaman shook his head and replied, “Master, these words are written in the Devil language. I can’t read them, either.”
“What about the rest of you?”
Meng Lei then turned to the others.
The rest of the half-deities also shook their heads.
“Take a look at this for me, Dodola!”
Meng Lei went into the Tower of Time.
“What’s this?”
Dodola reached out and took the parchment manuscript from him. “This is a Devil contract! And not just that, it’s even a master-servant Devil contract. Where did you get this?”
“A master-servant Devil contract?”
A jolt went through Meng Lei as he asked, “What do you mean by that?”
“Y’know, a master-servant contract’s a master-contract servant. Once you sign this contract, you’ll become the Devil’s servant, upon which you’ll then gain part of its power. It’s tantamount to selling your soul to the Devil in exchange for power.”
With a shake of its head, a laughing Dodola scoffed. “I didn’t think that those Devils’ ways were still this inferior and immature. Can’t they come up with something new instead?”
“Selling your soul?!”
A cold glint flashed past Meng Lei’s eyes, and he disappeared from the Tower of Time. “Rose, do you know the content of this Devil contract?”
The Spider Goddess shuddered fiercely as she stammered, “N-no, I don’t! All I know is that this is a Devil contract. I don’t know the content at all!”
“How dare you lie again!”
Meng Lei abruptly flung out the Gods-Slaying Spear with a cold snort, which instantly pierced through the Spider Goddess’ chest and nailed her down onto the ground.
This sudden turn of events stunned everyone. In a daze, all the half-deity subordinates stared at Meng Lei, whose visage was cold and frosty, before subsequently turning to the Spider Goddess who had been nailed to the ground. Their brains had short-circuited somewhat.
What kind of situation was this? Why had they suddenly come to blows for no reason?
“W-what are you doing?”
Blood spurted out of the Spider Goddess’ mouth as she glared at Meng Lei furiously.
“If you dare to do this again, the Gods-Slaying Spear won’t be piercing through your chest anymore, but your head!”
Meng Lei let out an icy snort. Then, to Puhaman, he ordered, “Get me a Dark Fairy!”
“Yes, Master!”
Despite his puzzlement, Puhaman didn’t dare to probe. Soon, he brought him a Dark Fairy.
Meng Lei released the power of his divine spirit, took control of the Dark Fairy, and then made him sign the Devil contract.
The moment the contract took effect, the parchment manuscript carrying the Devil contract self-immolated and turned into a Devil mark, which landed in between the Dark Fairy’s brows.
Practically at the same time, a cloud of incredibly thick and dense blood-red mist descended from the skies and converged to form the hologram of a Devil with spikes on its back and whose body was a blood-red color throughout.
An evil, bloodthirsty, and savage aura emanated from the Devil hologram. Though not very strong, it nevertheless still greatly discomforted all the half-deities present.
Devils!
Deities!
They were natural enemies!
“Who was it that summoned the great Bloodseeker, Lord Barry Adrian Edmund Ives Harlow Disreali Esmond Collins?”
The Devil hologram spoke in a low, deep, and drawn-out voice. Then, its gaze fell onto the Dark Fairy kneeling on the ground, and it yawned.
“My lowly servant, was it you that summoned the great Bloodseeker, Lord Barry?”
The Dark Fairy had long since wet himself from fear. Where was he supposed to find the courage to answer the Devil’s inquiry?
However, not only was the Devil hologram not displeased, but it was even highly satisfied with the Dark Fairy’s reaction.
“My lowly servant, as long as you listen to Lord Barry obediently, Lord Barry will bestow upon you great power and eternal life—”
“Hmph!”
A cold snort reached the Devil at this point.
Slightly taken aback, the Devil hologram turned around, rather displeased. Upon which, it was then scared witless. Even its voice was trembling somewhat as it exclaimed, “H-half-deities!”
“How dare a puny little Saint Domain Devil make up such hocus-pocus here?” Meng Lei snorted and said, “Get lost!”
“Yes, yes!”
The Devil hologram vanished without a trace right away, lest it was a step too slow and ended up being killed by Meng Lei.
Puhaman came right up to them. As he stared at the Devil mark in between the Dark Fairy’s brows, a somewhat skeptical Puhaman asked, “Was that a master-servant contract just now, Master?”
“Yeap!”
Meng Lei nodded slightly.
“That goddamn wh*re! How dare she harbor thoughts of harming Master!? This is unforgivable!”
Puhaman flew into a rage. “Master, what’s the point of leaving a bane like her alive? Why don’t you bestow her upon me and let me turn her into an Undead Knight?”
“You can deal with her any way you want if you can kill her,” replied Meng Lei aloofly.
“Ha… Haha!”
Puhaman cast a glance at the Spider Goddess before he gave an embarrassed smile. “I was just joking! Just joking!”
“Wussy!”
