Published: March 2, 2025
The style of the Heaven-Covering Robe remained unchanged from its original design, but two intricate patterns now adorned it.
These two luminous patterns, if not observed closely, appeared identical to the material of the robe itself; at first glance, there were no special features to be seen. Yet only Wen Yu understood how much effort he had expended for these seemingly simple patterns.
The most direct manifestation of this effort was the Creation Energy currently at Wen Yu's disposal.
Compared to the radiant and sun-like collection of Creation Energy he had at the beginning, the amount Wen Yu now possessed resembled that of a candle—sufficient to create a single soul puppet, after which this meager amount of energy would be completely consumed.
Fortunately, the rewards were substantial.
The Heaven-Covering Robe was originally transformed from the Heaven-Covering Banner through the soul creation technique. When the thought of researching how to modify artifacts with soul creation technique crossed Wen Yu's mind, the first thing that came to him was naturally the Heaven-Covering Robe.
He possessed a fair number of artifacts, but overall, many of them, though powerful in effect, were somewhat redundant for Wen Yu.
For instance—the Book of Darkness.
The two fragments of the Book of Darkness still resided within Wen Yu's Spatial Ring. Ever since he obtained the Book of Darkness, it seemed he had hardly used this artifact at all. However, the fact that he seldom used it did not mean the artifact itself lacked power; rather, the Book of Darkness's functions conflicted awkwardly with Wen Yu's own skill system.
The Book of Darkness (Summoning Volume): Absorbs souls, and soul puppets will automatically generate within the Book of Darkness, with no limit to their quantity. The soul puppets feed on souls and level up through souls. When the user activates the Book of Darkness, the soul puppets will appear directly around the user, launching a soul occupation on nearby creatures or relatively intact corpses to control the target units. The level of the controlled units depends on the level of the soul puppets.
These soul puppets are different from those generated by the soul creation technique; strictly speaking, the soul puppets generated by the Book of Darkness are the certified soul puppets of the professional system. However, as for names and such… Wen Yu had never even taken the Book of Darkness (Summoning Volume) seriously, let alone its terms.
The focus lies in the effects of this artifact.
Absorbing souls.
Just the four words "absorbing souls" were enough for Wen Yu to kick the Book of Darkness (Summoning Volume) out of his combat lineup! If it absorbed souls, then where would his soul battlefield absorb souls? Where would the soul creation technique generate Creation Energy?
Perhaps the function of the Book of Darkness (Summoning Volume) was not weak, but the downside of competing for resources with his own skills was enough to make Wen Yu abandon it.
Then he examined the other fragment of the Book of Darkness.
The Book of Darkness (Curse Volume, Fragment): Absorbs souls and unleashes dark power. This page is from the upper section of the Book of Darkness, Curse Volume, hence its abilities are significantly weakened.
Current ability: When enough soul power is absorbed, the spells recorded in the Book of Darkness will take effect. Current effects are:
Suppression: Reduces the speed of all nearby creatures by ten percent.
Weakening: Reduces the strength of all nearby creatures by ten percent.
Increased damage: Lowers the defense of all nearby creatures.
Duration: 10 minutes, effect radius of one hundred meters around the user. The curse ignores levels, and the spells are triggered by the user.
Once again, it was another item comparable to a redundancy.
Aside from the unforgivable weakness of absorbing soul power, the curses mentioned in the Book of Darkness (Summoning Volume) could completely be simulated by Wen Yu using dark divine light.