Chapter 900: Soul Control! Corpse Command!
In this battle—
Ling Zhan did not accept the idea of surrender or taking prisoners.
The reason was simple.
The Final Demon Extermination Campaign was about complete annihilation.
As long as they were of the Ten Thousand Demons, they must be purged.
Only dead demons are good demons.
At this moment—
When Ling Zhan's words fell—
The three Demon Emperors' expressions turned to utter despair.
Even if they wanted to use some technique to escape the layers of array formations, they were powerless.
Silenced throughout—the ever-calm Ling Zhan would never give them the chance to escape.
This left the Demon Emperors feeling utterly stifled.
If they had died in a direct, honorable fight against Ling Zhan, it wouldn't have been so bad.
But now, Ling Zhan had bound them with arrays, continuously applying silence so they couldn't use any skill or talent.
They could only endure the attacks with their bodies.
It was torture, plain and simple.
The demon soldiers below actually had it even worse than the three Emperors.
They did nothing, yet a series of overwhelming arrays descended on them like mountains, crushing them to death instantly.
Billions of demon soldiers, in that moment, were like tiny ants—swept away in a single stroke and turned to dust.
Well…
That was only to be expected.
At this level of combat, numbers no longer made any difference.
It was like a world-class powerhouse facing off against a group of level-150 Professionals.
Even if the level-150s were all fourth-tier and coordinated with defensive tactics, it would be meaningless.
The opponent's stats were simply overwhelming.
Any defense would collapse instantly.
In just five minutes—
The demon troops within the fortress were falling in waves.
From above, the fortress looked completely filled with their corpses.
And then—something even more despair-inducing happened…
The battered corpses of those demon soldiers suddenly stood up on their own!
Looking at Ling Zhan—
'Soul Control'!
'Corpse Command'!
One was a beginner skill unique to the Necromancer class!
The other was a general skill obtained in a dungeon!
It's worth noting—
Ling Zhan had specifically used poison to take down the demon soldiers.
Even though the Ten Thousand Demons had high resistance to debuffs, the poison buffs Ling Zhan applied were so high-level, they couldn't resist.
As a result, most of these demon soldiers died from poisoning.
Also—
Ling Zhan didn't destroy their original soul essence.
The prerequisite for 'Soul Control' was the preservation of the soul essence.
If that was gone, there would be no soul to control.
Some people wonder: soul essences have no stats or power inheritance—so what's the point of controlling them?
The answer: they're extremely useful.
Because once controlled, the soul essence inherits part of the caster's stats.
Only 'Corpse Command' depends on the corpse's former strength and condition.
'Soul Control' allows the controlled soul to inherit 50% of Ling Zhan's attributes.
That's already an insane stat.
And 'Soul Control' has no limit on the number of souls it can command.
Even if each soul only had half of Ling Zhan's stats, they'd still be formidable—and with overwhelming numbers.
At present—
There were three hundred million demon soldiers in Amos Fortress.
With both 'Soul Control' and 'Corpse Command' active—
300 million corpse puppets.
Plus 300 million soul puppets.
Combined…
That was 600 million troops!!
And even more outrageous—
Ling Zhan could also buff his allies!
Ether City and other media once fiercely opposed Ling Zhan leading an SSS-level mission.
Largely because they thought the Demon Slaying Legion lacked numbers.
If they'd had 100 million troops, no one would've doubted it.
But that was wishful thinking.
There were few top talents to begin with—gathering even ten thousand was impressive.
The Demon Slaying Legion had only 7,200 members.
That was one of the key reasons why many media outlets opposed the Kingdom's plan.
But the reason Ling Zhan dared to come alone—was precisely because of these two skills.
He, Ling Zhan, had no troops.
But that didn't mean he couldn't create them!
Others assumed he hadn't captured and claimed the camps, towers, and fortresses he conquered—
because he lacked manpower.
But that wasn't it.
Ling Zhan didn't want to alert the enemy.
Because once the Lemoris Fortress noticed surrounding strongholds falling, Red Phoenix Demon Venerable would be alerted via his fortress map.
He wouldn't even need the magic eye reports to know there was an invasion.
In fact—
Every camp, tower, and fortress already conquered by Ling Zhan was guarded by tens or hundreds of thousands of corpse and soul puppets.
He just hadn't officially claimed the territory.
Once the battle for Lemoris Fortress began, all regions would be claimed!
Completely cutting off Lemoris Fortress's supplies!
And severing its emergency teleport functions!
As the central hub for managing all camps, towers, and fortresses, Lemoris Fortress had the ability to teleport to any of them in crisis.
This effectively gave Red Phoenix Demon Venerable an escape route.
But the always-prepared Ling Zhan would never allow him the chance to flee.
"Ah!!"
At this moment—
The Steel-Slashing Demon Emperor, after enduring all the arrays, used up his final life and let out a blood-curdling scream before succumbing to poison.
Ling Zhan had deliberately preserved his corpse and soul essence.
He reached out and pulled—
Under the effect of 'Soul Control', he dragged out the Steel-Slashing Demon Emperor's soul essence.
Swish!!
The soul essence, once extracted, immediately tried to escape.
But Ling Zhan simply clenched his hand.
Buzz!!
A spatial prison formed instantly, sealing the soul essence completely.
At the same time, an overwhelming control force descended on the soul.
"No!!"
The Steel-Slashing Demon Emperor realized—his soul was about to be transformed into a puppet!