Chapter 17: Soulfire

After drawing the Ice Demon Rabbit’s spell-like ability, Ice Spike, Li Rui was especially eager to acquire another skill.

Perhaps fortune smiled upon him, as the goddess of luck seemed to heed his call and lift her skirts. When the spinning wheel’s pointer slowly came to a stop, it did not land on a larger gray section as he had feared but precisely at the center of the blue section.

“Blue, yes!” he exclaimed.

The pointer instantly transformed into an arm that reached into the rising blue mist.

Inside were four spheres—one large and three small.

Without hesitation, he chose the large one.

[Soul Flame: Your soul undergoes a metamorphosis, transforming into a soul flame form, granting you the undead-specific passive ability, “Necrotic Vision.”

Passive Effect: Necrotic Vision—You can see souls directly, bypassing all obstacles except for spiritual entities. The range of your vision depends on the strength of the souls.

Note: Equipping the Soul Flame trait classifies you as a life-form undead. Skills effective only against the undead will affect you, but control spells targeting either the living or the undead will have their effects halved on you (e.g., “Human/Undead Immobilization” has half the duration; “Dispel Human/Undead” will only cause aversion, not uncontrollable flight).

Your soul flame will weaken over time. To maintain its existence and strength, you must continuously absorb living souls. If the soul flame extinguishes, you will die. Absorbing more souls than needed will strengthen your soul flame.]

What was this thing?

A one-for-three trade?

After reading the passive description of Necrotic Vision within the Soul Flame trait, Li Rui was genuinely tempted.

Seeing souls directly, ignoring all obstacles except spirits—wasn’t this essentially a form of X-ray vision?

This was exactly what he desired!

Especially since this trait granted powerful resistance against control spells aimed at humans and the undead, making it incredibly enticing.

Yet, after carefully reading all the details, he regrettably shelved it among his backup traits.

The reason was simple: the last drawback required absorbing souls to sustain the soul flame—a condition he currently could not meet, lacking the ability to absorb souls.

“This ability would be very useful, but unfortunately, I can’t use it yet,” Li Rui sighed with regret.

He speculated that the related abilities might be hidden in the other two smaller spheres.

“Looks like I’ll need to hunt some undead soon,” he mused silently.

“Though I can’t use it continuously, using it briefly for a second or two should be alright, right?”

After all, the traits he had were detachable, so removing one would revert him to his original state.

“The cost is that my soul weakens while burning as a soul flame… I just don’t know what consequences soul weakening might bring.”

But this was obviously not irreparable damage—after all, the soul was weakening, not missing or dead. When he later acquired complementary undead skills and absorbed some living souls—like those of chickens, ducks, cows, or sheep—his soul could strengthen again, perhaps even gaining unknown bonuses.

Seeing Li Rui efficiently dispatch the undead, the four members of Paul’s squad felt somewhat relieved.

Undead creatures alone were unsettling simply by their existence, even if they posed no direct harm.

Afterward, they packed up their camp and, together with Li Rui, set off southward along the outskirts of the Pure White City.

Along the way, to protect the novice adventurer Li Rui, the four formed a square formation, positioning him in the center.

Paul’s squad was a professional adventuring team, maintaining silence and high vigilance during the journey.

They traveled for half a day until Kate, the archer, noticed something amiss. She raised her hand vertically as a warning, and the group halted.

“There’s something coming from inside the city,” Kate said, eyes fixed on the Pure White City, ears catching faint unusual sounds.

Everyone turned toward the city, tightening their grip on their weapons.

Li Rui also looked that way but hesitated briefly before activating his trait interface and equipping the newly acquired Soul Flame trait into his blue trait slot. Using the Necrotic Vision ability, he scanned the area near the Pure White City.

The next moment, he unequipped the Soul Flame trait.

After this firsthand test, Li Rui realized that the burning soul flame caused no adverse effects in the short term, confirming brief use was safe.

But there was no time to dwell on that. After viewing the souls near Pure White City through Necrotic Vision, his expression changed drastically, and he urgently said, “There are over a dozen creatures approaching!”

Hearing this number, the four members of Paul’s squad exchanged grim looks and abandoned any doubt about Li Rui’s words.

“Move, retreat first.”

They were positioned roughly to the northeast-north of Pure White City. Upon sensing danger, they retreated three or four meters into the forest, then began jogging southeast.

Before long, they saw a horde of monsters swarming out of the city, heading toward the area they had just vacated in the northeast.

“What are those things?!”

They were about a hundred meters away from the creatures, who had not yet left the hundred-meter grassy zone between the city and forest. The squad hid in the dense woods to the southeast.

The monsters showed no sign of noticing them or changing course.

So, they slowed their pace to observe carefully.

Paul’s squad had entered this forest specifically to investigate Pure White City, so fleeing immediately was not an option.

Though over a hundred meters away, none of them suffered from poor eyesight; each could clearly make out the monsters’ appearance.

They were brains—literally.

These “brains” were not a metaphor but actual exposed brains, each with four menacing clawed limbs and four tentacles sprouting from the top.

“By Sifanas… what on earth are those things?!” Paul instinctively invoked his deity upon seeing the hopping brains.

Then, everyone’s gaze naturally turned to Li Rui.

Had he not discovered the monsters’ superior numbers in advance, Paul’s squad might have stayed to probe deeper into Pure White City, likely resulting in a fight with the dozen or so creatures.

Although small in size, unknown monsters harbored unknown dangers. This world truly had supernatural powers; who could say the monsters—like the Ice Demon Rabbit or the Wind Wolf—might not wield spell-like abilities themselves?

If facing a dozen Wind Wolves unleashing a flurry of wind blade spells, Paul’s squad would be wiped out without question.

At that very moment, Li Rui’s face suddenly contorted in horror, as if struck by a sudden realization.