The young man gently placed his hand on the trunk of the water poplar tree, his fingers tracing the rough texture of the bark.
In an instant, his palm abruptly slid downward, slicing open a long, narrow gash in the tree as if it were a sharp blade.
The water poplar tree let out a piercing scream, its entire body trembling violently as leaves rustled and fell to the ground.
From the gash in the trunk, numerous strange creatures the size of a palm, with membranous wings, flew out rapidly. However, before they could get close to the young man, they were crushed and exploded by the invisible force field surrounding him.
A small, foul-smelling rain of flesh and blood fell beneath the water poplar tree, lasting for a full half-minute before it finally ceased.
The young man lifted the hem of his Wizard Robe, and an invisible force emanated, parting the bloody debris at his feet. From the hollow core of the water poplar tree, he extracted a cluster of something with a faint black glow.
It was a few peculiar mushrooms, still clinging to clumps of soil.
The young man carefully removed all the soil from the roots of the mushrooms, then, as if discarding trash, tossed the black mushrooms back into the tree trunk.
"Done."
Ronan stored the collected soil into a crystal vial and let out a soft sigh.
This was a simple task of collecting the feces of the Rotbone Bats—the strange creatures he had just killed in large numbers. They were a type of dark-aligned magical beast, somewhere between first and second tier, and they lived in colonies.
The task wasn't difficult, and for Ronan, it was just a trivial matter. The reward, naturally, wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.
Having left Spirit Lake, Ronan's main goal was to search for clues about the Holy Shrine and seek an opportunity to break through in his [Ascetic Body Forging].
As he thought this, he retrieved a black spherical object from his space ring. At its center was a slit, as if cut by a knife. When he shook it gently, it seemed to contain some liquid inside.
"It's not a perfect preservation method… Even when stored in a spatial container, it continues to evaporate and diminish over time…"
Ronan's eyes flickered as he held the black sphere and began to chant a low, intricate incantation.
This stone sphere was a discarded material from a Holy Shrine that he had unintentionally obtained while tracking the Ice Crystal Demon Serpent in White Stone Fortress. The method of preserving and searching for the next Holy Shrine came from an ancient notebook given to him by Old Wills during his apprenticeship.
The shrine waste liquid sealed inside the stone sphere could likely only be used two or three more times. Ronan hoped everything would go smoothly.
As the incantation continued, a faint ripple of Spell energy emerged. From the slit in the stone sphere, a slender, translucent black thread extended—visible only to Ronan—stretching out into the void before him.
Ronan rose from the lakeside where black swans nested and followed the guidance of the black thread, heading in a specific direction.
"This direction might allow me to complete another task along the way…"
As he traveled, Ronan consulted the "Book of Spirit Lake," planning his next steps.
"Whoosh—"
At that moment, a faint gust of wind brushed over his head, and Ronan felt as though someone was watching him.
He looked up and saw a gyrfalcon soaring through the clouds above.
The gyrfalcon cast its gaze down at him from on high, sharp and cold, carrying a hint of scrutiny.
Ronan's pace was swift, yet this sea eagle kept up with him effortlessly, even outpacing him slightly. Clearly, it was no ordinary bird.
"A third-tier sea eagle."
Ronan extended his spiritual sense, detecting the energy fluctuations of a third-tier magical beast from the sea eagle.
The eagle briefly touched his spiritual sense before flapping its wings and veering off in another direction.
Ronan didn't pursue it, instead thoughtfully surveying his surroundings.
He speculated that this might be a familiar raised by some wizard, specifically used for long-distance reconnaissance.
Such practices weren't uncommon. Many wizards had the habit of raising familiars. For instance, Heliodor had a highly intelligent white cat that could guide people and even open the doors of Rune Arrays.
Ronan didn't dwell on it, merely keeping a slightly heightened awareness as he continued on his intended path.
However, as he passed through a field of silverthread grass, the previously vanished sea eagle reappeared.
This time, it flew ahead of Ronan, subtly obstructing his progress.
Ronan stared at the majestic sea eagle's silhouette, his eyes flickering. He raised his hand, summoning several thin blue ice blades, and flicked his fingers.
"Whoosh—"
The blue ice blades cut through the air, leaving trails of frost as they shot toward the sea eagle.
One encounter could be considered a coincidence, normal.
But two encounters? That was unusual, and likely deliberate.
Ronan didn't know who the sea eagle's master was, but he had no reason to be polite to a "malicious" stranger.
The compressed ice blades, resonating with the third-tier law domain, caught up to the sea eagle in an instant. The eagle's wings trembled slightly, and streams of pale green light shot out from its feathers, condensing into a dense array of wind blades.
The collision of ice and wind blades produced sharp, crisp cracking sounds.
The ice blades Ronan had released broke through the wind blades in an instant, piercing the sea eagle's body.
"Screech—"
A piercing, pained cry echoed through the sky as a white bird plummeted downward, accompanied by the fluttering of feathers and splashes of crimson blood.
Almost instantly, Ronan felt a bone-chilling killing intent, and a cold snort rang in his ears.
Immediately after, a vast and overwhelming spiritual force tore through the clouds, descending from the sky with a sensation akin to being cut by countless blades, pressing down on him with immense force.
"Whoosh—"
The natural sunlight above quickly faded, replaced by a massive shadow falling over him.
Ronan looked up and saw a figure with flowing hair blocking the sun. The Wizard Robe billowed like the wings of a giant bird, spreading out to both sides of the sky, completely enveloping him.
"Fourth-tier Dawn."
Ronan narrowed his eyes, his gaze flickering, before his body rapidly descended.
The shadow from the sky followed him relentlessly, accompanied by raging winds that seemed intent on trapping and binding him.
"Thud."
Ronan's feet landed firmly on the ground, and without pause, he shot forward, parallel to the earth.
The silverthread grass field was engulfed by increasingly violent winds, quickly forming a whirlwind. Countless strands of silverthread grass danced wildly in the wind, as if controlled by an invisible hand, all leaning toward Ronan's direction.
"Swish—" A crescent-shaped, glass-like deep cyan wind blade sliced through layers of silver grass walls, gently piercing Ronan's mental field, almost grazing his body, and leaving a bottomless, narrow trench in the field.
Ronan's figure abruptly halted as terrifying wind blades surged toward him from all directions.
Thick particles of wind energy dispersed in the air. Ronan took a light breath, suppressing the storm pattern within him that was stirred and eager to act.
Ithium flowed like water from beneath his Wizard Robe, quickly adhering to his body.
Just as the massive wind blades from all sides were about to strike— "Pop—"
Ronan, now fully clad in silver, vanished into thin air.
"Boom!"
The colossal wind blades collided, exploding into countless raging tornadoes.
Ronan's figure reappeared far from the explosion. As soon as he landed, his body split into seven or eight identical silver figures, dashing off in different directions.
Each figure reflected a mirror-like sheen under the sunlight.
This was the effect of the newly optimized and upgraded Soul Rune of Spatial Silvering.
The distance of a single spatial teleportation hadn't increased much, but it now included a "mirror image" effect upon landing, specifically designed to confuse and aid in escape.
"Do you think such tricks can let you escape from me?"
In the sky, the figure with a Wizard Robe spread like twin wings let out a disdainful laugh, a wounded goshawk perched on his shoulder.
Looking down, he extended his right hand toward the seven or eight silver figures fleeing across the silver grass plain, his fingers splayed.
In an instant, the entire plain became a pasture of wind!
Countless wind blades emerged, densely packed and innumerable.
The long silver grass of the plain was completely shredded into dust by the countless wind blades, the deep cyan replacing the plain's original light silver, transforming it utterly into a domain of wind.
The wind blades converged, forming a massive deep cyan wave, which, under the control of the goshawk's master, the Wizard, surged and crushed across the field.
"Boom— Boom—"
On the barren plain, the soil was plowed three feet deep, and the fleeing silver figures exploded one after another.
When only one figure remained in sight, the goshawk Wizard's hair whipped wildly as he chanted with authority.
"Wind is formless. The power is mine!"
His splayed fingers suddenly clenched.
In that moment, the massive waves of wind across the plain surged, all converging to crush the last remaining silver figure.
In an instant, the tiny figure was engulfed by layers of deep cyan "waves." "It's over."
The goshawk Wizard murmured softly, his twin-winged Wizard Robe rapidly retracting. The wounded goshawk on his shoulder let out a sharp cry. The waves composed entirely of wind blades continued to stack up in his vision, but the aura around him was already calming.
However, just as he prepared to step forward to inspect the aftermath—
Suddenly, "Crack—"
A golden lightning bolt, dozens of feet thick, struck down from the sky.
The goshawk Wizard paused, abruptly looking up.
Only then did he realize that the once clear sky above had become layered with rolling dark clouds.
An indescribable, suffocating aura slowly circulated in the air.
Below, layers upon layers of towering wind waves abruptly surged upward, as if something was about to break through from beneath.
"What the..."
The gyrfalcon on his shoulder let out a restless cry. The wizard's eyes narrowed slightly as he muttered to himself, raising his hand, about to take action.
But then, a long, narrow golden fissure suddenly appeared in his vision!
"Boom!"
The fissure opened, and molten golden lava, as if forged from ten thousand tons of gold, poured out in a torrent.
A unique aura of Taboo erupted forth.
"Forbidden Magic Domain?!"
The gyrfalcon wizard instinctively blurted out, but before he could even process his shock, he saw—
The deep cyan wave formed by countless wind blades suddenly split apart, and a golden halo, more blinding than the midday sun, rapidly rose.
An indescribable surge of spiritual power swept through the void. The narrow golden fissure in the air expanded more than tenfold in an instant, and even more golden lava cascaded down from the rift, as if an eye shedding golden tears had opened in the heavens.
Within the pupil, an indescribable golden shadow materialized from the void.
Three enormous, ferocious lion heads, sixteen pairs of wings, an eagle's body, and countless chainsaw-like tentacles—a figure resembling an ancient evil god from myth emerged, cast in gold, its entire body dripping with scorching, molten golden lava! At this moment, a terrifying aura and waves of heat swept across the land, and the golden light illuminated the heavens and the earth.
The gyrfalcon wizard's pupils contracted, his expression one of disbelief as he murmured in a low voice.
"This can't be... You... You're only a third-level wizard, aren't you?"
"Don't compare me to ordinary third-level wizards."
A calm voice answered him.
At the center of the dazzling golden halo, a figure walked forward.
The figure wore an ordinary deep blue Wizard Robe, stepping on a freely flowing river of golden lava. His entire body was bathed in the radiant golden light, his robe, hair, even his eyebrows, all tinted with the noble, ancient hue of gold.
"Roar!"
Beneath the golden fissure, the ancient evil god with the head of a lion and the body of an eagle let out a deafening roar.
Countless tentacles forged from molten golden lava tore through the void, carrying with them a thick aura of Taboo, and smashed through the multiple force fields surrounding the gyrfalcon wizard, wrapping around his entire body.
The handsome young man, walking on the river of golden lava, approached the gyrfalcon wizard. He glanced at the gyrfalcon on his shoulder, now trembling in fear, and then looked at the wizard, whose face was filled with shock and disbelief, and spoke calmly, "I stand at the end of the mist."
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