Chapter 27: Open the Door If You Dare

In the process of prying the door with a crowbar, Xiahou Yan deeply realized a truth: a crowbar had its limits.

After shoving the crowbar into the gap beside the iron door, the Lord used every ounce of his strength to push it. Yet, he failed to loosen the massive iron block deeply embedded in the stone wall even a fraction. The Magic Runes sparkling on the iron door seemed to mock the Lord’s weakness.

At that moment, a series of Huaxia idioms describing those who overestimated their own strength flooded Xiahou Yan’s mind—idioms like a mantis trying to stop a chariot or a dragonfly trying to shake a stone pillar. He quickly realized he was currently playing the role of the insect.

Seeing the Lord panting from exhaustion, Alice and Lawrence, who were well-versed in Martial Arts, also stepped up to try. Likewise, they failed to budge the Magic Secret Gate on the wall in the slightest.

Only Master Laurie had anticipated this outcome. He leaned casually to the side and curled his lips. "Give it up. This door was definitely placed under a Magic Restriction by Senior Adrian. With his formidable strength as an eighth-tier Grand Mage back in the day, let alone you, even Sir Gawain wouldn’t be able to pry it open."

Sir Gawain was the Captain of the Imperial Guard for His Majesty the Emperor, and a renowned strongman of the empire.

"Good heavens," Xiahou Yan panted heavily. "Then what do we do? Are we just going to be stopped here by an iron door?"

Master Laurie also frowned. "There must be a way to break this restriction, but it certainly won’t be through brute force. It has to be Magic. As everyone knows, only Magic can defeat Magic!"

Only Magic could defeat Magic? Xiahou Yan suddenly thought of something. "You guys, step back! Get further away!"

"What’s wrong?" Master Laurie asked in confusion, seeing how serious the Lord sounded.

"I’m going to try using Undead Magic to open this door!" Xiahou Yan gritted his teeth. "But I’m afraid of friendly fire, so step further back!"

Master Laurie pondered for a moment. Since Senior Adrian had also studied Undead Magic back then, this was right up their alley. The Lord’s Undead Magic might actually produce a miraculous effect! Given the importance of the matter, the master didn’t dare to neglect it. He led the three Guards up the stone steps, putting a distance of four or five meters between them and the Lord and the Secret Gate at the bottom.

Xiahou Yan stared at the iron door in front of him and took a few deep breaths.

He hadn’t finished reading the entirety of the massive, obscurely written *Essentials of Necromancy*, but he still remembered one other Magic besides the Resurrection Technique and the Corpse Control Technique. The reason he remembered this Magic was very simple: it was the last Magic recorded in the book.

Much like a web novel reader skipping over chunks of filler plot to go straight to the finale, the Lord had flipped directly to the last page of the *Essentials of Necromancy* out of curiosity last night. There, he saw this grandmaster-level Magic, placed at the very end by the Magic Book’s author as the grand finale.

Its name was Death Finger.

Facts proved that the magical effect of "Death Finger" truly lived up to its transcendent status as the crowning jewel of the entire book!

Unlike fire, frost, or other incredibly common Magic Factions, the vast majority of Spells in Necromancy focused on manipulating corpses. There was very little direct offensive Magic. However, "Death Finger" was the sole exception—and an exceptionally powerful one at that.

The effect of "Death Finger" was simple: it caused the target to die instantly! The shorter the description, the stronger the effect. The ancients truly didn’t deceive him.

However, the flaw of "Death Finger" was just as obvious as its power.

First, the chanting time for "Death Finger" was agonizingly long and tedious, which basically meant it was useless in actual combat. In a one-on-one duel, by the time the Mage buried their head in reciting the Spell, the enemy would have already scattered their ashes. Meanwhile, in a military combat scenario where the Mage had the protection of Guards and an army, allowing them to chant lengthy Spells in peace, area-of-effect damage Magic that could effortlessly reap thousands of lives was far more highly sought after than this single-target ultimate skill!

Second, "Death Finger" required the Caster to point their finger at the target to guide the direction of the Netherworld Magic Power’s impact. Setting aside the risk of accidentally pointing at the wrong person, if the target was moving at high speed, it was highly questionable whether the Mage’s finger could even keep up!

Historically, the few Necromancers who had the courage to use "Death Finger" in actual combat almost all accidentally dropped this terrifying ultimate move onto a random grunt standing next to the target...

Consequently, despite its terrifying one-hit kill power, "Death Finger" was recognized by the Magic Realm as practically useless. No matter how powerful a Rocket launcher was, if there was never a chance to fire it, it was no better than a pebble shot from a slingshot.

However, Xiahou Yan felt that facing a motionless iron door that acted like a punching bag was the perfect opportunity to practice "Death Finger." Furthermore, this Magic belonged to the highest tier within Necromancy. If this door happened to have been programmed with an instruction like "only open when sufficiently strong Necromancy is recognized," then "Death Finger" would be the most fitting choice!

Xiahou Yan’s right hand pointed rigidly at the center of the iron door, and he began to recite the Spell for "Death Finger." The Spell wasn’t long. For Eliot Igor’s brain, which had been tempered by extensive Magic education, memorizing it in its entirety was no problem at all.

The truly infuriating reason why "Death Finger" required an extremely long chanting time was that it demanded the Caster to recite the Spell word-for-word exactly thirteen times before it would take effect!

As Mr. Xiahou recited the Spell thirteen times aloud, he simultaneously cursed the ancestors of the Spell’s inventor thirteen times in his heart.

As the final syllable of the Death Finger Spell emerged from the Lord’s hoarse throat for the thirteenth time, an intense Magic Power fluctuation suddenly erupted in the air! A massive phantom of a Divine Spirit appeared above the Lord’s head!

Xiahou Yan glanced upwards, unsurprised to find that it was indeed his old acquaintance—dear Lord Yama.

While the Lord was entirely used to this, it was Master Laurie’s first time closely observing the phantom the Lord had summoned!

Staring at the black-robed figure in the sky, Master Laurie’s mind went completely blank! Even if you killed Master Laurie, he still wouldn’t believe that the Death God who controlled Netherworld Magic Power looked like this!

He thought, "Where is the black cloak? Where is the scythe? Where is the pale, Ghost-like face? Why is this phantom wearing a bizarre hat with a curtain of beads hanging from it? Who in the world is this guy?! Who?!"

Before the utterly shell-shocked Master Laurie could snap out of it, the phantom in the sky shattered into dust and vanished into the void. A thin, gray ray shot out from the tip of the Lord’s index finger, instantly sinking into the iron door.

As the Netherworld Magic Power shot into the door, Master Laurie was inexplicably astonished to hear a pretentious, deep voice suddenly echo through the air:

"AHEM, AHEM... Welcome, strange Undead Mage... I am Grand Mage Simon Adrian, the explorer of the Netherworld, the conqueror of death, the Lord of a Thousand Corpses, the King of Ten Thousand Spirits... HAHAHAHAHA..."

After a burst of cringeworthy, exaggerated laughter, the voice cleared its throat and continued:

"AHEM... Er, what you are hearing now is actually a recording left behind by Simon Adrian. Regrettably, I am not home at the moment! However, my Magic Laboratory always welcomes the arrival of a fellow Necromancer and believer in the Death God!"

Recalling the "Death God" phantom from just a moment ago that bore absolutely zero resemblance to the genuine Death God, Master Laurie thought sourly about how Adrian actually claimed in his message that the Lord was a "fellow believer in the Death God."

He thought, "Senior, I’m afraid you really got the wrong person this time..."