Necromancer: A New Era

As the stone giant told the story, a tragic story slowly unfolded before Tang Yue.

In the distant past, the Stone Elemental Clan lived in a peaceful and vast land. With minerals as their bodies and souls as their hearts, they breathed with the earth and lived with the passage of time. Among them, a stone giant named Yanqiong was originally an ordinary member of the clan, but because of an accident, he embarked on an extraordinary road of destiny.

One day ten thousand years ago, the originally peaceful sky suddenly tore apart, and various powerful energies continued to collide and fight in the sky. The aftermath of this war in the sky tore the earth apart, and the origin of the world wailed in silence. Although the Stone Elemental Clan did not directly participate, they also felt unprecedented fear and shock. Many years later, when the sky returned to peace again, the tribesmen thought the disaster was over, but for the Rock Dome, its disaster had just begun.

During an unintentional outing, Yan Qiong discovered a huge soul crystal. This crystal exuded an alluring light, as if it contained endless power. Out of an instinctive desire for the ore, Yan Qiong went forward to check it out and reached out to touch it. The moment it touched the crystal, the crystal turned into a ball of light, drilled into its body, and disappeared.

This sudden change made Yanqiong panic, and he was afraid that he had been cursed by an unknown curse. After investigating, the elders of the tribe simply told him that it was just an illusion caused by indigestion due to eating too much. Although Yanqiong was uneasy, he could only choose to believe it under the comfort of the elders and the ignorance of the tribe members.

However, one day hundreds of years later, the soul crystal in Yanqiong's body suddenly awakened a special power. This power was strong and dark, and it constantly eroded Yanqiong's soul. It ran wild in the tribe, lost all reason, destroyed many places, and even killed nearly half of the low-level tribesmen. When the elders finally took action to control it, Yanqiong, who had woken up, was deeply shocked by what he had done.

Carrying the guilt and hatred of its people, it chose to leave the tribe and wander alone. The soul crystal had no consciousness of its own, but it was like a time bomb, which would trigger Yanqiong's rampage every once in a while. During the long years of wandering, Yanqiong's soul continued to grow stronger under the destruction of this power, but what made it desperate was that the soul crystal was also evolving as it grew.

This pain and torture lasted for countless years. In the early days, it would only erupt once every few hundred years, but it has become more and more frequent in the past hundred years. Now it erupts every few days, and the rock dome is almost unable to bear it. It is afraid that one day it will completely turn into an irrational killing machine.

Tang Yue looked at this guy in shock. The Stone Elemental Clan, whose soul power was originally weak, could actually withstand the erosion of this soul crystal, and it lasted for nearly ten thousand years!

You know, the formation of soul crystals requires that one possesses a powerful soul during one's lifetime, which can only be crystallized by special power.

Even if there is no will involved, this is definitely not something it can resist.

At that moment, Tang Yue had a deep respect for the tenacity of the stone giant in front of him. After ten thousand years of suffering, in order to protect the safety of the tribe, carrying the guilt towards the tribe, it wandered alone outside, struggling hard for survival on the one hand, and resisting the endless torture from the depths of its soul on the other.

"Human, I have told you my past. Can you please spare my life?" The stone giant stared at Tang Yue with his huge eyes, and there was an imperceptible pleading in his voice, "I need to survive, return to my tribe, and make up for the mistakes I have made."

Tang Yue could feel this deep sincerity. He had never thought of killing the stone giant. What he was curious about was the soul crystal on the stone giant that was full of mysterious aura.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." Tang Yue said softly, "I just want to know why you suddenly regained your sanity at this time?"

The stone giant thought for a moment and replied, "Perhaps it was because of the dark magic you just cast. Although the attack power was not strong, it contained a trace of power that could touch the soul. It was this power that awakened me."

Tang Yue fell into deep thought after hearing this, "Soul attack is effective against it, so will it be effective against the soul crystal as well?" Thinking of this, he raised his hand, and a ball of deep dark flame jumped out from his palm. He walked slowly towards the stone giant, and the ball of dark flame continued to grow in his hand, which amazed the stone giant.

"Try and see if you can withstand this power." Tang Yue said in a deep voice, "Before I try to refine the consciousness in the soul crystal, I hope you won't collapse first."

As he finished speaking, the Dark Flame in his hand became more and more turbulent. The stone giant carefully felt the throbbing deep in his soul, which was the warning from the soul crystal in his body when it sensed danger.

"My friend, your fire seems to be really effective." There was a hint of surprise in the stone giant's voice, "I can feel that it is afraid."

Tang Yue moved and instantly jumped onto the huge body of the stone giant. Even though the stone giant was lying on the ground, its height was more than ten meters. He came to the soul crystal on the stone giant's chest and stared at the crystal that exuded a strong soul aura. In his spiritual space, his soul body also felt a throbbing, this crystal was obviously extraordinary.

"I am going to help you remove this crystal now." Tang Yue said loudly, "But this process will make you suffer the pain of burning your soul. Are you willing?"

The stone giant was delighted when he heard this. "Do you have a way to take this crystal stone? Please don't hesitate to do it. After tens of thousands of years of torture, my soul has become extremely tough."

After receiving the stone giant's reply, Tang Yue no longer hesitated, and he used all his strength to activate the Dark Flame Technique. The Dark Flame fireball in his hand grew bigger and bigger, and his body slowly floated up under the full burst of mental power, ready to meet the next challenge.

At that moment, the Dark Flame Technique in Tang Yue's palm condensed into an extremely large fireball, and he threw the fireball at the towering stone giant. Although the fireball seemed to float away lightly, it contained Tang Yue's vast spiritual power. He concentrated on manipulating the Dark Flame Technique, allowing the flames to wrap around the stone giant's body like a thread, gradually compressing the activity space of the consciousness body in the soul crystal until it completely retreated back into the depths of the crystal.

The stone giant had originally not taken Tang Yue's attack seriously, but now it groaned in pain. The pain that burned its soul made it scream miserably. How could it have known that this was the secret technique that the god of death used to torture prisoners in the past? If it had known this earlier, how could it have felt so relaxed and happy before?

The screams echoed in the stone valley, and the burning that followed him like a shadow gradually blurred the stone giant's consciousness. The soul power it had accumulated over thousands of years seemed unable to resist this human with only rank 8 strength at this moment.

Tang Yue concentrated on controlling the flames. When the consciousness of the soul crystal completely retreated back into the crystal, he suddenly shouted, "Now is the time. Use all your strength to break free from the constraints of the crystal!"

Before he finished speaking, Tang Yue had already flown to the crystal stone. He stretched out his hands and hugged the crystal stone tightly, trying to drag it out. The stone giant ignored the burning pain in his soul and tried his best to cut off the connection with the soul crystal stone.

At the moment they succeeded, Tang Yue held the Soul Crystal and sat on the broad shoulders of the stone giant. He breathed heavily and dispersed the flames around him. The stone giant's body regained its calm amidst the trembling. A powerful force surged in its body, and it was finally freed from the torture and suffering of ten thousand years!

"Human," the stone giant said in a low and solemn voice, "I, Stone Dome, swear to Mother Earth that you will always be my precious friend!"

Tang Yue felt the stone giant's sincerity and gratitude. He smiled brightly and responded, "My name is Tang Yue, and I am willing to be your loyal friend!"

"Pa pa pa pa pa pa pa……"

However, just when they relaxed their vigilance, dozens of adventurers who looked like mercenaries suddenly walked out of the valley in the distance. Among them, an elf man in gorgeous clothes applauded their fighting.

Seeing this, Tang Yue frowned and felt uneasy. He quickly put away the soul crystal in his hand, took out the staff and prepared himself.

The leading elf man noticed Tang Yue's actions and his eyes narrowed slightly, a hint of viciousness flashing across them. However, he maintained his elegant manner and said politely, "My friend, your methods are truly amazing. I wonder if I have the honor to communicate with you?"

Tang Yue keenly noticed the strange look in the other person's eyes. He calmly replied, "I'm sorry, I have important things to deal with right now. If you don't have anything else to do, I'm leaving with my friends."

The mercenaries behind the elves started to shout in dissatisfaction after hearing this. One of them, a human knight, stood out from the crowd and pointed his sword at Tang Yue, saying bluntly, "My master is giving you face so he calls you his Excellency. Don't be ungrateful!"

A cold light flashed across Tang Yue's eyes, but it disappeared in a flash. He remained silent, just staring deeply at the elf in front of him.

The elf who called himself Osman Kaslet, as the prince of the Southern Alliance Empire, maintained his innate elegance and introduced himself to Tang Yue. He waved his hand to stop his men's impulse, and then spoke politely: "I am from the light elf clan, Osman Kaslet, you can call me Osman."

Tang Yue seemed quite indifferent and just gave his name briefly, "Tang Yue."

Although Osman felt that the man's arrogant attitude made him unhappy, he remained polite and explained his purpose: "Tang Yue, I noticed that you just got a crystal stone, which aroused my great interest. To be honest, we came here many days ago and fought fiercely with the stone man, severely damaging it. Just when we were about to gather our strength to give it a fatal blow, you got there first."

Tang Yue sneered and said nothing, watching Osman's performance quietly.

Osman seemed quite generous. He took out a pile of gold coins and scattered them on the ground, piling them up into a small hill. The golden glitter attracted the greed in the eyes of the mercenaries behind him. "Here are 100,000 gold coins. Consider it as compensation for your hard work."

However, the elves remained unmoved and kept a close eye on Tang Yue to prevent him from escaping.

Facing this pile of tempting gold coins, Tang Yue just looked at Osman jokingly, laughing in his heart. He knew very well that this crystal stone was crucial to his breakthrough in cultivation, so how could he hand it over easily. "You want to exchange the crystal stone for this little money? You underestimate its value."

Osman's face suddenly darkened. He had never expected Tang Yue to be so difficult to deal with. "Then how much do you want?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Tang Yue smiled contemptuously, "You can't give me what I want."

Osman was furious, "If you don't accept my toast, then you'll have to drink a penalty! Come on!" The mercenaries behind him heard his words and rushed towards Tang Yue.

Tang Yue's figure flashed, and a precious spiritual power gem appeared in his hand.

In the distance, Osman's eyes narrowed, his greed undisguised. This human had so many good things.

Tang Yue waved lightly, and a powerful spiritual force burst out instantly...