90 Soul Fire (1/2)

As he thought about it carefully, no more than half an hour passed before the magic symbol started darkening again. If they couldn't remain for more than half an hour, then how was Bane able to defeat the Highland Shrine?

Finding out that the stone tablet was the Sage Chapter didn't clear up Lin Yun's questions. Instead, it only added more difficult ones.

'Could this Sage Chapter be defective? There is no way…'

Besides the problem of the Ultimate Spell's power, the stone tablet completely fit the description of Bane's Sage Chapter. If it was a defective item, wasn't the power difference too high? But if it's wasn't a defective item, then why was the power of the Ultimate Spell lacking?

'It should have had the power of a 4th Rank Spell normally, but it couldn't even reach the 3rd Rank. The difference is too great. It's a whole entire Rank, from Great Mage to Mage…

But Lin Yun suddenly remembered after being puzzled for a long time. 'Hold on, Undead Essence!'

He had been able to activate the Sage Chapter because of a piece of Undead Essence.

'Indeed, it has to do with Undead Essence.'

He hadn't thought about it at first because he had considered it to be an ordinary Component, but from another point of view, if the Sage Chapter was considered as a Magic Tool, it would need mana to work. Every Magic Tool needed a source of mana to function. Even an Extraordinary Magic Tool like the Book of Death was no exception.

'Wouldn't the Sage Chapter also need power to function?'

Lin Yun had already understood most of it by this time. The Sage Chapter needed energy to function, but that energy wasn't mana, it was Soul Fire, the Soul Fire of the Undead!

Undead Essence itself was the material remaining after Soul Fire was cooled down.

He had been able to activate the stone tablet because of the remaining Soul Fire within the Undead Essence, but the amount was too low, and because it had come from a lowly Skeleton Warrior. It wasn't enough to transform the Flaming Hand into an Ultimate Spell.

'There might have been other reasons that I do not understand yet, but I should be pretty close.'

After thinking about it, Lin Yun fished out a piece of Undead Essence from his pocket. He wanted to use that self-made tool to pour more energy into the stone tablet.

But there was something wrong with the Undead Essence he just pulled out. The previous Undead Essence had smoothly awakened the Sage Chapter through the three miniature arrays. But this time, the Undead Essence only approached the Sage Chapter before a small Soul Fire could be seen separating from the essence and entering the Sage Chapter, followed by the Undead Essence turning into black dust, which scattered into the air.

Lin Yun didn't do any of that intentionally. The Sage Chapter had been the one in control.

'Could it be that the Undead Essence not only provided power to the stone tablet, but also awakened the Sage Chapter?' Lin Yun felt that this was quite a reasonable assumption. The Sage Chapter he had gotten from the Death Garden had actually been in some sort of slumber. Although he had induced some sort of reaction with his Flaming Hand, it had only been an instinctual reaction.

The Sage Chapter only started awakening when he took out the Undead Essence and fed it to the stone tablet, revealing some of its power.