Even though he had created so many ingenious Small Spells, when it came to sheer Power, none of them could surpass Spirit Burst.

Spirit Burst was a Magic tailor-made to convert a Sacrificed soul into destructive force.

Its only drawback was... it was slow.

Its activation time made it too easy for enemies to dodge.

But now...

He could hide a fully charged Spirit Burst inside a corpse, triggering it the moment an enemy attacked the body!

BOOM!

A massive crater, five hundred meters in radius, was blasted into the ground!

Lu Cang had already created distance, watching from afar as a Soul Light ascended to the heavens and a corpse with tattered wings plummeted to the earth.

Yes.

’The effect is quite good, as expected.’

’Using Death Substitute all the time was already underhanded enough.’

’But now, after Death Substitute swaps me with a corpse, that corpse can hide a Magic spell. This is the height of deviousness.’

’And the hidden Magic can even be the "slow" to activate Spirit Burst.’

Needless to say, Lu Cang was very satisfied.

’Winning with brains and strategy—this is the true way of a Mage.’

With the Bloodthirsty Needle Bee dealt with, there were nine left...

The rest of the lesser monsters had basically been cleared out.

Lu Cang frowned as a sharp pain suddenly shot through his mind.

An area-of-effect spiritual attack.

A wave of continuous dizziness washed over him.

"Brother Chi Cheng... trouble. Please take care of that one."

SWOOSH!

The moment the words left Lu Cang’s mouth.

The pain sweeping through his mind instantly vanished.

Looking up, he could see the Demon in the distance—the one that stood tall like a giant flower with countless eyes growing from its center—had been sliced into an unknown number of pieces.

"Thanks!"

’Fighting ten Nation Destruction Level Demons at once is still a bit too much.’

’Dealing with those that use Magic or physical attacks is manageable.’

’Though their attack Range is huge, it’s not enough to completely annihilate the entire area.’

’As long as there are corpses scattered around, I can maneuver around them.’

’I can wear them down slowly until they’re dead.’

’It’s just the undodgeable, area-of-effect sonic and spiritual attacks that give me so much trouble.’

’Death Substitute only swaps my position with a corpse before an attack hits, allowing me to dodge it.’

’It doesn’t transfer the damage to the corpse, much less make me immune to it.’

’It seems I still need to research some ways to defend against spiritual attacks.’

Lu Cang mused to himself.

At the same time, another Spirit Burst was already glowing...

[Sacrifice Soul — 5000]

After numerous experiments, Lu Cang had finally reached a conclusion.

The Power of Spirit Burst did indeed increase with the number of souls Sacrificed.

However, the rate of increase was subject to diminishing returns.

Assuming every single one could hit...

...ten consecutive Spirit Bursts using 5,000 souls each would be far more powerful than a single Spirit Burst using 50,000 souls.

BOOM!

Lu Cang was struck by a giant black blade, and his body—a corpse—crumbled to dust.

At the same instant, Lu Cang’s real body appeared behind the King of the Yin-Pole Ancient Corpse, which wielded the giant black blade.

’Oh, right, this one’s weakness is the back of its neck. It’s finished if I sever its spine.’

He had swapped places with the corpse of a Demon that had been blasted into the air by a Wind Roar.

VMMMM—

A Spirit Burst began to glow from within the gaps of the enemy’s armor.

BOOM!

It exploded in a single blast!

The armor was blown apart!

[Spirit Burst: Sacrifice Soul — 5000]

Immediately followed by a second, a third, and a fourth!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The burning of souls made Lu Cang’s heart ache...

But the damage dealt by the Spirit Bursts was remarkably effective. Along with the Spirit Bursts, Lu Cang also mixed in Magic like Deep Curse Arrow, Soul Wound Curse, Soul Tearing, Dark Erosion Stripping, and Dark Decay to Weaken its Defense.

After a few blasts, he was already hitting its spine.

WHOOSH!

The giant black blade swung around!

A Soul Blade Storm, like a black whirlwind, slashed toward Lu Cang!

Lu Cang swapped positions with a corpse!

He then dodged a strike from a Molten Rock Burst... followed by a pursuit of several hundred Wind Blades, swapping his position with corpses more than ten times.

But throughout this process, Lu Cang’s own assault never ceased.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM—

Roughly twenty more Spirit Bursts continuously bombarded its spine!

Finally, its spine completely snapped!

The giant, armored Undead’s head, no longer supported by its spine, came crashing down to the ground.

’I can win.’

’But... my souls.’

Lu Cang checked his soul count; he only had a little over three hundred thousand left.

He had saved up quite a bit over the past half-month on the road, but he had already squandered nearly two hundred thousand souls in a single day.

’It really is... hard to accumulate souls.’

’Fighting ten at once is definitely a bit beyond my current capabilities. Even if I can kill them, it costs too many souls.’

’Good thing I brought Brother Chi Cheng along.’

"Brother Chi Cheng, I’ll leave the rest to you."

Lu Cang found an opening and retreated behind Chi Cheng.

Chi Cheng hefted his Heavy Sword onto his shoulder.

"Haha, no problem."

SWOOSH!

Chi Cheng suddenly vanished from his side. Before Lu Cang’s naked eye could even register what had happened, he saw the mountain-like Nation Destruction Level Demons before him all freeze in place at the same instant.

Then, they slid apart, falling in neat chunks of flesh.

And Chi Cheng stood in the very center of the field, his Great Sword on his shoulder, standing proud and alone.

’What a showoff...’

After this battle, Lu Cang had a rough understanding of the power of a Nation Destruction Level Demon.

They had immense destructive Range, and a Defense Power so high that it would take a Spirit Burst fueled by over one hundred thousand Sacrificed souls to kill one, even when hitting a weak point.

Not to mention their Speed, size, and strength...

An ordinary Level 4 Adventurer would be gravely injured, if not killed, by a single direct hit from one of them.

Even a Level 4 Defender probably couldn’t withstand two or three direct attacks.

Even a Level 5 Adventurer’s team would likely struggle to suppress them easily.

’It seems that if I’m going to explore a Dungeon alone in the future, I absolutely cannot Sacrifice too many souls, lest I end up in such a dangerous situation.’

’At my current strength, Sacrificing 3,000 souls should be enough... That should only spawn a single Nation Destruction Level Demon. Even if something unexpected happens, dealing with two at once wouldn’t be too difficult.’

"What a bountiful harvest!"

"Hm?"

"I estimate we’ve got a haul worth two million Gold Coins."

"You took care of those two yourself, so they’re all yours."

’Chi Cheng is also fast at butchering the corpses. Is it because most Warriors are also Gatherers, or just that Warriors are generally more efficient at this kind of work?’

’But these mountain-sized corpses really are impossible to store without a large enough space...’

Luckily, Lu Cang had bought quite a few Storage Magic Tools.

And for anything that didn’t fit, Chi Cheng could help store some.

With that, his earnings from this trip had already reached 1,500,000 Gold Coins.

He had truly struck it rich.

’At this rate of earning money, I should be able to afford anything. I need to get a full set of protective Magic Tools.’

’And that damn Divination Master’s Divination doesn’t seem so expensive anymore. As expected, when you’re poor, everything feels like a waste of money.’

’Once you have money, nothing seems like a problem.’

...

After leaving the Dungeon, Lu Cang took out the Pointer.

He had been traveling in this direction for a while, and he wasn’t far from the next Dungeon he’d accepted a quest for—one with ant-type Demons.

Having used up so many souls, it was time to replenish his stock.