It contained a variety of miscellaneous items, few of which were of any interest to Bai Xiaochun. After all, it was the bag of holding of a mere early Foundation Establishment cultivator.
However, what did interest Bai Xiaochun was the collection of bone slips. Much like jade slips, they could store information, and after skimming through the group in the bag of holding, Bai Xiaochun found three that were of particular interest.
The first bone slip contained a map of the immediate area. After studying it for a while, Bai Xiaochun still had no idea where he was. There was absolutely nothing on the map that indicated how far away the Great Wall was.
“Well that doesn’t help much....” he thought nervously. With that, he moved on to the second bone slip, after which his eyes glittered, and he looked over at the grave mound.
“Your name is Bai Hao?” he murmured. The second bone slip had some detailed information about the identity of the dead young man, including some dying words he had inscribed. [1]
His name was Bai Hao, and was a bastard son from one of the local aristocratic necromancer clans. Apparently, he wasn’t very well liked in the clan, and had provoked the ire of the wrong people, who plotted against him. That was what led to him perishing when and how he did.
From what Bai Xiaochun could tell, the necromancer clan in question wasn’t considered to be spectacularly famous.
“Aristocratic necromancer clan....” After some more thought, he moved on to the third bone slip, which contained the most intriguing information so far. It was a detailed description of necromancers, with information he had wondered about back at the Great Wall.
Essentially, it was a basic primer to necromancy!
Even the first few sentences left Bai Xiaochun completely shaken.
“Necromancy is an amalgamation! Necromancers use the foundation of spirit enhancement, medicine concocting, and equipment forging as the basis of necromancy!”
Bai Xiaochun had long since noticed that there was something strange about the spirit enhanced treasures wielded by the Wildlanders, and had come to his own conclusions about why that was. Now, the information in this bone slip corroborated his previous speculations. After going on to read through the rest of the information, he was left stunned.
At that point, the Wildlands didn’t seem as profoundly mysterious as they had before. All of the various clues suddenly fit together to form a complete picture.
The lowest of the low in the Wildlands were the savage tribes. The giants had been the last to become civilized, and were treated mostly like servants. They actually worshipped the soul cultivators, and viewed them as protectors of sorts.
Soul cultivators occupied a much higher position than the savages, and were not very different from ordinary cultivators. The only difference was that they couldn’t practice cultivation with the spiritual power of the Heavenspan River, and instead had to rely on the soul vitality provided by the necromancers.
In the sprawling Wildlands, there were far more savages than soul cultivators, and yet, the soul cultivators couldn’t be described as few and far between. They had their clans and powerful organizations, and there were also many who were like rogue cultivators.
As for the necromancers, they were like the nobility of the Wildlands. Any necromancer of any sort occupied a very high position. Not only could they produce the soul vitality that soul cultivators needed to advance their cultivation, but they could also forge magical items and bless such items with spirit enhancements!
Because of that, necromancers were extremely important to the Wildlands as a whole.
Of course, necromancers had their own ranking system based on fire. The truth was that although Wildlands necromancers resembled the spirit enhancers from the lands of Heavenspan in some ways, they were actually very different.
In the lands of Heavenspan, spirit enhancers would search for fuel to make multi-colored flame. However, the necromancers didn’t need any fuel. Although they also experienced a similar issue of having a high failure rate, they didn’t need to rely on fuel; they worked directly with the flame itself.
Of course, such flames didn’t exist on their own. Necromancers used different types of souls and special methods to conjure them!
Anyone who could conjure one-colored flame was considered an initiate necromancer. Upon being able to conjure four-colored flame, one was promoted to the journeyman rank. Seven-colored flame was the standard to become a master necromancer.
Most necromancers in the Wildlands fell into those three ranks.
Ten-colored flame was the absolute peak for master necromancers, and not very many necromancers could reach such a level. After going beyond that level, necromancers would experience a period of transformation, after which, they were ranked according to the denominations of terrestrial, celestial, earthly, and heavenly!
Being able to conjure eleven-colored flame made one a terrestrial necromancer! In the Wildlands, any terrestrial necromancer was a person who could dominate the lands wherever he went.
The next level beyond that was the celestial necromancer, of which there were even fewer. In any of the necromancer clans, a celestial necromancer occupied the highest of positions, similar to that of a grand elder or the reserve powers. After all, the hallmark of celestial necromancers was the ability to conjure fifteen-colored flame!
Earthly necromancers were legendary, and in all of the Wildlands, there were only three. To become an earthly necromancer, one had to conjure eighteen-colored flame!
The highest level of all was that of the heavenly necromancer. From ancient times until now, not a single one had ever appeared, and they were considered only a theoretical rank. After all, to reach the heavenly rank, one had to conjure twenty-one colored flame!
1. Bai Hao’s surname is the same as Bai Xiaochun’s, which means “white”
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Chapter
566: Necromancy and Spirit Enhancement Are The Same!
“Necromancy and spirit enhancement are basically the same thing....” Bai Xiaochun murmured to himself as he looked at the information in the bone slip. From what he was reading, all of the various types of multicolored flame in the Wildlands were produced by necromancers, a fact which caused Bai Xiaochun’s heart to leap with excitement.
After generations of experimentation and research, the formulas for everything from one-to fourteen-colored flame had been well-established. In fact, there were multiple variations on how to conjure each of those types of flame.
Such formulas weren’t exactly secret within the Wildlands. Although not every necromancer had the skill to use all of the formulas, all of the aristocratic necromancer clans had the formulas in their records.
However, the formula for fifteen-colored flame was a tightly-kept secret that not even mid-level necromancer clans had access to. Only the large clans and other major powers had them.
As for sixteen-colored flame, that was a secret among secrets.
In any case, because of all these factors, when it came to spirit enhancement, the Wildlands existed on a far higher level than the lands of Heavenspan.
The information in the bone slip made it clear that simply possessing a certain level of flame didn’t guarantee success in using it to perform a spirit enhancement. The more colors in the flame, the higher the chances of failure. That was one area in which there was no difference between the Wildlands and Heavenspan cultivators. Also similar was how failure led to complete destruction of all the materials involved. From what Bai Xiaochun could tell, that was a sort of equalizer between the two sides.