Chapter 28: The Effort to Rent Out the Space

[Player: Zhu Liu Giant, Title: None]
[ID: DS-54370681-157, Gender: Male, Affiliation: Yang City Third High School, Class of 42973, Level: Lv0 (8 stars)]
[Attributes: Strength: 4, Agility: 3, Constitution: 5, Spirit: 6, Status: Good]
[Affinity: Yin attribute magic/physical affinity, nature magic affinity, water attribute physical affinity]

Upon returning to his own room, Liu Zong noticed that his attributes had changed. Where his name had previously been replaced by a number, there now appeared his true name. On the left wall, once reserved for storing various resources and supplies, a unique frame had appeared. Within it was not an item turned into a card, but the shadow of a long spear, thick as a thumb. The right wall mirrored this, but the frame there contained the corpse of a Cang Dragon floating in a violet void.

These were Liu Zong’s two greatest rewards from this latest dungeon: [Zhu Liu Giant’s Scorched Spear] and [Zhu Liu Giant’s Dead Cang Dragon].

Barely settled, Liu Zong was already eager to deal with the matter of the dead Cang Dragon. Originally, he had planned to enter the school’s rental space together with the dragon, but his involvement with the Titan artifact had delayed him by at least three days. The biggest time sink was the soul fragment hidden deep within his own soul.

At first, he had no idea such a fragment existed within him, and so had taken no special measures. Only after drinking in that bar and sensing its presence did Liu Zong understand why he had grown as he had over the years.

Players are not overly anxious about soul fragments appearing in their souls; such occurrences are rather common. Some necromancers even craft soul fragments from others to strengthen their own souls. Liu Zong’s case was rare, but he could sense that his constitution had become attuned to both yin attribute magic and physical power due to the martial arts foundation within the soul fragment. The original soul owner must have been exceptionally skilled.

Yet, for all the guidance, Liu Zong would not let the original owner’s life overshadow his own. Of all the ways to handle soul fragments, none involved becoming the fragment’s original master.

Players’ approaches to soul fragments generally fall into three categories: fusion, devouring, and assimilation.

The most common is devouring, which occurs when the player’s soul is stronger than the fragment. Absorbing it makes all its contents theirs, though it can leave gaps—especially if the fragment is damaged. The more broken the fragment, the greater the risk of missing something.

Assimilation is growing step by step along the fragment’s path, following its methods. This provides a clear route, minimizing the risk of straying, and allows the player to grow on their own without turning into the fragment’s original owner. However, the suitability of the path for the player remains uncertain.

Fusion is the most challenging. The player learns from the fragment but doesn’t simply copy; instead, they interpret it in their own way, gradually transforming everything within the fragment into their own. This requires immense resolve, but most players encountering a superior fragment choose this path, seeing it as a beacon of hope.

Liu Zong, too, chose fusion after realizing there was a soul fragment deep within him. He knew he was still young and already had the chance to reach Lv4; living for ten thousand years was not out of the question. Thus, he saw no need to follow the fragment’s path entirely. He would forge his own way, making the most of this opportunity.

For three days, Liu Zong worked to mend the soul fragment, maintaining a balance between it and his own soul, minimizing losses should he fall in the game. Only after completing all this did he return to the school’s rental space for yin attributes. He was anxious, for he still had no idea how much of the dead Cang Dragon he had managed to bring back.

Pressing his hand to the shadow of the Cang Dragon in the violet void, his surroundings changed in an instant. His tiny two-square-meter room was replaced by a vast space.

This space was suspended in the void, surrounded by endless darkness, with no sense of up or down. The enormous Cang Dragon corpse and the blocks of seawater and stone were exactly as they had been, floating in the void.

Countless violet streams of energy gathered from all directions, swirling slowly around the dragon’s body. Liu Zong could see that these energies were incompatible with the dragon; the corpse neither absorbed nor rejected the yin attribute energy, much like oil floating on water.

Liu Zong understood this perfectly. The Cang Dragon was still just a corpse, its attributes not yet adjusted. For it to neither absorb nor reject the energy was already a good sign.

This was a fortunate circumstance for Liu Zong. His level was still too low, and he had much to learn. Although he had a plan for dealing with the dragon, it would take time. If the dragon began absorbing the yin attribute energy on its own, it might develop consciousness, which would complicate Liu Zong’s control and potentially bring disaster.

The current situation was ideal. He had time to handle and adjust everything slowly, and through study and effort, he could transform the dragon’s corpse into his own domain.

With these thoughts, Liu Zong circled the dragon’s body once more. In fact, the moment he brought the corpse back, the system had already calculated the total amount of resources he had retrieved, but Liu Zong preferred to verify this himself.

The Cang Dragon before him measured ninety-three meters from head to tail, with a body nineteen meters at its widest and fifteen meters tall. Most of its body had already turned to stone, pushing its total weight past two hundred tons.

He had brought back nearly one hundred tons of bone, another hundred tons of seawater, and a stone that had been wedged against the dragon—ten meters tall, twenty meters long and wide, weighing close to forty tons.

All these things now formed a single mass. Liu Zong’s task was to separate them.

This task could only be done by Liu Zong himself. Though the school’s rental space allowed others to enter, all yin attribute players knew that when creating their own undead or servants, every step must be handled personally. Otherwise, no one could guarantee their servant wouldn’t be compromised and taken over by someone else.

Liu Zong had already decided: he would stay in the rental space for months, organizing and categorizing the dragon’s corpse before venturing out.

The easiest to deal with was the seawater, which floated in the void without even gravity. Liu Zong fetched a massive barrel and carefully guided the seawater to the far end of the space.

The gathered seawater resembled a giant dark red sphere. To move all the water, Liu Zong spent three full days.

Once finished, he did not pause. He surrounded the water sphere with various materials, purchased equipment and magical arrays to process the water, and poured all his remaining magical mercury into it, working tirelessly to establish a self-sustaining cycle.

This was far more complicated than simply moving the water. Any mistake required starting over. It took Liu Zong a week to complete.

Afterward, the water still looked like a sphere, but a closer look revealed it had divided into three distinct layers.

The outermost layer had become a faint dark red mist. The middle layer shimmered with points of mercury, while the core appeared as semi-solid jelly.

This jelly was the heart of the entire array. Once formed, it could function automatically, converting ordinary water, yin attribute energy, and some magical mercury into the middle layer’s mercury-infused liquid when energy was sufficient.

This liquid was called soul mercury, the most vital fluid for the undead, used in energy transmission for large undead creatures—akin to the blood of ordinary life.

Using soul mercury for energy transmission resulted in an extremely low consumption rate, nearly zero.

The outermost dark red mist was called soul mist, a gaseous byproduct expelled during soul mercury production.

For yin attribute players, everything could be utilized. After much research, they devised ways to make use of this mist, with the so-called Dark Canopy as the most basic product.

Adding toxic gases was simple enough; some even managed to disperse ordinary spirits within the mist, making it a crucial defensive measure for undead cities.

Liu Zong’s soul mist was still basic, far from suitable for crafting a Dark Canopy. For now, he simply collected it, intending to decide its fate later. His focus now was on processing the Cang Dragon’s corpse.