Chapter 421: Stone Golems

Up to this point, Wu Qingsong’s grasp of the Book of the Dead was still at a very rudimentary level.

The spells he was most proficient with were merely the summoning methods for zombies and skeletons. The most powerful undead creature he had ever summoned was the corpse mage, Boulder.

As a sacred artifact of the Batiz, the Book of the Dead contained countless powerful summoning spells—Eternal Liches, Bone Dragons, Dark Knights, Death Icons, Blood Beasts… Even just hearing the names, Wu Qingsong could imagine how terrifying their power must be. But due to various limitations and constraints, he had never had the opportunity to explore the more advanced undead magic in depth.

Now, for the first time, he finally had the time, the reason, and the means to begin that research.

With only a single zombie at his disposal, he constructed a simple lifting device using trees from the ruins. Charlotte helped him braid ropes from the bark of a common local tree. Together, with the strength of two horses, they began hoisting the shattered pieces of the Death Icon’s remains, dragging and separating them for analysis.

Three days later, they had finally cleared away most of the fractured boulders. At last, the Death Icon’s core was revealed.

A massive obsidian sphere, a full meter in diameter, its surface was covered in complex arcane arrays and embedded with numerous soulstones. It had been badly damaged—perhaps from a catastrophic impact long ago—and now lay shattered into over a dozen pieces. Fortunately, it hadn’t been reduced to dust, and the majority of its magical formations were still intact enough to be reconstructed.

Naturally, the best material would be obsidian, but Wu Qingsong lacked the tools to properly carve such a hard material. So he settled for practicing on more ordinary stone instead. 

After all, he wasn’t aiming to recreate a powerful Death Icon right away. His current goal was much more modest: the far weaker stone golems. The granite was common throughout the ruins and would suffice.

“You’re going to carve that many arrays into such small stones?” Charlotte asked in astonishment.

The arrays etched into the Death Icon’s core were densely packed and dizzying to look at. She couldn’t believe such intricate formations could be miniaturized to fit on much smaller cores.

“Not all of them,” Wu Qingsong said. “Stone golems only require a portion of what’s here.”

Ideally, he would’ve liked to take the entire shattered core back with him for further study. But for now, the priority was to identify the relevant formations and understand how they connected and functioned.

If he had the Book of the Dead in hand, he could’ve cross-referenced it for faster results. But under these conditions, he could only rely on his blurred memory and a methodical, almost scientific approach. He broke down the complex magic arrays piece by piece and attempted to reassemble them into new configurations.

Once again, his unwavering mental resilience and indestructible spiritual force proved invaluable. 

After several days, he had tested more than a dozen different combinations and began trial runs.

Half of them produced no reaction. Three combinations caused the stone cores to explode—fortunately, Charlotte had been standing far enough away to avoid injury. Three other configurations yielded promising reactions, causing loose stones around the cores to gather into coherent forms, though none yet resembled humanoid shapes.

Wu Qingsong carefully recorded the shared arrays from those three successful trials, then continued refining and recombining.

Working over ten hours each day in relentless focus, Wu Qingsong finally identified the configuration he needed. In the process, through hundreds of failed attempts, he had memorized the entirety of the core’s array system.

He embedded three new soulstones into each of the two stone cores. Then, after tearing off a sliver of his own soul to fuel them, he linked his spiritual power to the arrays. The crushed stones surrounding the cores began to stir.

The rubble slowly gathered and fused. Piece by piece, stone merged with stone—until finally, two humanoid figures over two meters tall stood silently before Wu Qingsong and Charlotte.

“Let’s see what they can do,” Wu Qingsong said, glancing at Charlotte.

Over the past few days, Charlotte had shown enough sincerity. She didn’t have the strength to help shape the stone cores themselves, but she’d been useful in carving arrays. While Wu Qingsong focused entirely on his experiments, she had quietly taken over most of the camp work without complaint.

She wasn’t used to doing such things. But she was willing—for Wu Qingsong’s sake. Even if he knew her intentions weren’t entirely pure, his heart had begun to soften.

He still wouldn’t accept her feelings. But he no longer rejected her companionship.

Under his command, the two stone golems made simple movements. Unlike skeletons, ghouls, or zombies, who retained faint physical memories, these golems were driven solely by magical arrays. Their movements were clumsy, only capable of performing basic tasks unless directly guided by Wu Qingsong’s will. They were also slow, but incredibly durable and powerful.

The very stone fragments of the Death Icon, which the zombies couldn’t even budge without winches, the golems could now move with ease. If he’d had one earlier, much of their labor would’ve been effortless.

But Wu Qingsong didn’t stop there. He continued testing, refining the array combinations, and experimenting with different core sizes. As long as a core could house the full array and hold enough soulstones, it was viable. Stronger stone yielded better results, of course.

By the time he finally decided to stop, he had created nearly twenty stone golems of varying shapes and core types. He kept the ten most effective ones and shattered the rest, retrieving the soulstones embedded within them.

Now, the time had come to uncover what secrets lay hidden beneath the lake.

Wu Qingsong told Charlotte to fall back. He left a zombie to guard her, then issued commands to the stone golems, sending them toward the lake’s edge.

All ten formed a protective wall in front of him. Two of them stepped forward and waded into the lake.

Their heavy bodies sank instantly, stirring up clouds of sediment. Then, following Wu Qingsong’s spiritual guidance, they began trudging step by step into the depths of the lake’s center—slowly, but with unwavering purpose.