Chapter 667: The Soul-Severing Needle

After more than four hours of flight, SoulfireBlade finally pointed toward a blue-stone tomb below them.

"Stone, we’re here. That’s Jasper’s Tomb."

"Mm."

The group began descending toward the tomb. During the journey, SoulfireBlade had already explained the situation in detail.

Four days earlier, SoulfireBlade and several members of his guild had been hunting monsters in the nearby forest when they stumbled upon an old system elder being pursued by a group of creatures. After rescuing the old man, they unexpectedly triggered a hidden quest: Save Jasper’s Tomb.

Jasper had been a general of the Dragon Dynasty five hundred years ago, known throughout the region as the Black-Robed Grand General. During his lifetime, he had earned a legendary reputation by suppressing bandits, crushing rebellions, and putting down occasional incursions by dark creatures.

After his death, his hometown had honored him with a hero’s burial and built his tomb here.

The tomb had been constructed according to the ancient burial customs reserved for great generals. In addition to the lavish grave goods buried within, the tomb itself consisted of three levels built almost entirely from bluestone.

Every level was filled with hidden mechanisms, deadly traps, and concealed weapons, while the passages were guarded by the Dragon Dynasty’s unique wooden tomb guardians. An ordinary person would have had virtually no chance of even making it through the entrance alive.

The old man SoulfireBlade and the others had rescued claimed to be one of Jasper’s descendants. The night before, he had dreamed of his ancestor.

In the dream, Jasper told him that five hundred years ago, during a fierce battle with a high-ranking assassin from the Ghost Race, he had managed to kill the assassin, but not before the enemy drove a strange needle into his body.

Jasper had never been able to remove it.

At the time, the needle seemed completely harmless, and since it caused neither pain nor any obvious change, Jasper had paid little attention to it. What he hadn’t known was that the strange object was a Soul-Severing Needle, a terrifying technique of the Ghost Race that had supposedly been lost for nearly a thousand years.

The Soul-Severing Needle had been forged by the Ghost Race using the poisonous essence of the Soul-Severing Flower from Soul-Fall Cave, combined with several extremely toxic minerals. Once embedded in a living body, the needle remained dormant and produced no noticeable effect.

However, after the host died, it would absorb the death energy released by the corpse along with the remnants of the fading soul.

Then, when the conditions were right, it would erupt.

The corpse would be consumed from within and transformed into a cold-blooded undead monster driven by an instinct to slaughter.

Four days ago, the Soul-Severing Needle that had remained dormant inside Jasper’s body for more than five centuries finally awakened. In a matter of moments, it devoured both his corpse and the remnants of his soul, transforming the once-famous Black-Robed Grand General into a Level 60 Golden Boss: the Black-Robed Corpse General.

Yet Jasper had not been an ordinary soldier. Even after five centuries, the body of a legendary general still retained the combat instincts that had been forged through countless battles. More importantly, a fragment of his soul had managed to escape the tomb before the transformation was complete and appeared before his descendant in a dream.

That fragment revealed what had happened inside the tomb.

Although Jasper’s body had been transformed into a Level 60 Golden Boss, there was still a chance to save him. If the Black-Robed Corpse General could be killed within five days and the Soul-Severing Needle extracted from the place where it had condensed within his heart meridian, Jasper’s body could still be restored to its original state.

But if they failed, everything would change.

Once five days had passed, the Soul-Severing Needle would erupt a second time. This time, it would completely consume both Jasper’s corpse and the last remaining fragment of his soul, causing the undead general to evolve into a Level 80 Golden Boss: the Black-Robed Corpse General King.

And once that happened, the monster would no longer remain confined within Jasper’s Tomb.

It would break out and begin slaughtering the living.

The old man naturally wanted to save his ancestor, but his family had fallen into difficult circumstances over the years. He simply couldn’t afford the kind of powerful players normally required for a quest of this level. In the end, he could only scrape together enough money to hire a Level 50 system mercenary group.

Following the instructions Jasper’s remaining soul had given him, they opened the passage into the tomb and ventured inside.

Unfortunately, the old man had severely underestimated Jasper’s Tomb.

They hadn’t even reached the transformed Jasper. By the time they made it to the third level, the group was already being overwhelmed by the tomb’s unique wooden guardians. Their defenses collapsed, and one by one they were killed.

Only the old man managed to escape alive.

Even then, his troubles weren’t over.

On his way home, he encountered a Level 60 common monster and was forced to flee into the forest. It was there that SoulfireBlade and his men happened to find him and save his life.

The old man immediately begged them for help. He promised them generous rewards in exchange for completing the quest: a complete set of war armor that Jasper had left behind, several valuable skill books, and even a treasure map that Jasper himself had spent years studying.

All he wanted was for them to enter the tomb, kill the Black-Robed Corpse General, extract the Soul-Severing Needle, and restore Jasper’s body.

As for the grave goods inside the tomb, the old man had no objections to SoulfireBlade taking whatever he wanted, provided they successfully completed the quest and returned Jasper’s body to normal.

With rewards like those on the table, SoulfireBlade naturally agreed.

They had also already settled the division of the spoils. Everything dropped by the Black-Robed Corpse General would belong to Marcus, while the treasures and other contents of the tomb itself would be divided equally between Marcus and Soulfire.

With that arrangement settled, there was little reason for either side to hold back.

The group landed in front of Jasper’s Tomb.

SoulfireBlade immediately approached the tombstone and activated the mechanism. The ancient stone shifted with a heavy rumble, and the entrance slowly opened.

The party members sprang into action. Everyone dismounted and prepared for battle while the knights moved to the front and the clerics began casting their support skills.

Marcus moved as well, removing the casual outerwear he had been wearing over his armor to reveal the pitch-black armor beneath.

The Corpse Demon Set.

Heavy, imposing, and brutally intimidating, every piece of the armor seemed to radiate a cold, oppressive presence. Once Marcus mounted the black Royal Pegasus again, the visual impact became even more striking. His figure appeared larger and more imposing atop the dark mount, while the armor accentuated the sharp, almost ferocious aura surrounding him.

His entire presence seemed to change. And then there were his weapons.

A dark longsword rested in his right hand, its appearance alone enough to make it clear that it was no ordinary weapon. In his left hand was a massive yellow shield, broad and thick enough to cover nearly half his body.

For a moment, nobody said anything, then someone finally blurted out, "Damn, that’s cool!"

Every member of Soulfire had their eyes fixed on Marcus, the sheer visual impact overwhelming.

The two knights were especially affected. They stared at Marcus atop his Royal Pegasus, then at the black armor, the enormous shield, and the dark longsword in his hands.

There was only one thought in both their minds: ’Holy hell, that’s what a real knight is supposed to look like.’

It wasn’t merely the equipment itself. It was the way everything came together. Marcus looked like he had stepped straight out of a battlefield, and for two knights who had spent their time playing the same class, seeing such a complete and imposing setup was almost impossible not to envy.

Marcus, meanwhile, had already decided that there was no point in continuing to hide his equipment.

His appearance hadn’t changed much from before. However, because Lydia was watching him so closely, he had deliberately left the Demonic Artifact, Face of Nameless Fear, out of the equation.

Even without it, though, his equipment was more than enough to make an impression.

The person most shocked by his transformation was Lydia.

The fox had been watching him like a hawk ever since they arrived, waiting for the moment he finally equipped himself so she could get a proper idea of his strength. If SoulfireBlade and SoulSync were willing to personally seek him out for help, then Stonehaven obviously had to be strong.

But Lydia had expected strength, not this.

The instant Marcus revealed the sleek black armor and that sharp, almost tangible aura of menace, the quality of his equipment and the pressure he naturally gave off far exceeded anything she had imagined.

The change was so sudden and dramatic that Lydia’s heart actually skipped a beat.

"Stone..."

She could feel it now; this knight wasn’t merely good, he was something else entirely.

Her curiosity about him had clearly not been misplaced.

Those bright, dangerously alluring eyes lingered on Stonehaven for a little longer than before, while the smile on her lips slowly deepened.

"Stone, that gear is insane!"

Even SoulSync couldn’t hide his admiration, though there was more than a little envy mixed into it. He looked Marcus up and down before laughing.

"Stone, you’ve seriously exceeded my expectations. With equipment and stats like that, I bet the ladies are lining up for you."

SoulfireBlade had just finished opening the tomb entrance when he walked over, catching the tail end of SoulSync’s words.

He took one look at Marcus and immediately sighed.

"Damn it, Stone. Comparing myself to you is just depressing. I’m the guild leader of Soulfire, and I can’t even compete with you."