CHAPTER 154: CURRENT LEVEL

The first piece detailed the happenings in Darkan, but he just skipped it. He was tired of hearing about them.

His eyes moved to the next section: the Imperial successors.

They were already stepping into the public eye, trying to curry favors with powerful families and citizens alike. Once again, all of them except the second princess and third prince remained conspicuously absent. Though it was still on a small scale at the moment, it would soon blow out of proportion, unless, of course, the emperor ended up choosing his successor before his time ended.

The report’s next section caught his attention: ’New species called devils.’ His pulse quickened as he read through, ’Sun Destroyer decimates an 8th Star outlier in one strike.’. The words struck like a hammer.

What did it mean to decimate an 8th star? 8th star powerhouses were known as one-man armies. Their signature techniques, amplified by their domains, could reshape battlefields.

Another name for them was a true grandmaster. The mountain was divided into two parts. Those in the 7th star were still below the cloud; however, those true grandmasters stood above the cloud. And it was that sort of being that was struck down with just an attack.

’I look forward to seeing it,’ Baines thought, a flicker of anticipation in his violet-flecked eyes as he scrolled to the next page.

The deteriorating relationship between Solaris, Vodal, and Lunar was no surprise. Without clear explanations for their actions, tensions were mounting, and Solaris still bore the brunt of the pressure.

Baines skipped reports of families usurping positions and succession battles, his focus landing on another critical piece: ’The thrones of Lunar have begun their succession.’

He had been seeing more information about succession battles. Maybe it was that time of the century. But the final note stopped him: The ruins of Ashenfall have vanished.

"Yes," His eyes glowed with realization. Before leaving the ruins, he’d instructed the dragons to extract the cores and treasures, which he’d unceremoniously dumped into his pocket space.

Thousands of artifacts—weapons, orbs, relics—now resided in that pocket space.

Baines had reached his room.

However, before he went on about it, he decided to check his progress, and he opened his record Eye created for him.

[STOMACH CORE: 7TH STAR - GRANDMASTER, ABSOLUTE CUT AND DESTRUCTION, AGING REVERSAL TECHNIQUE

STOMACH CORE: 6TH - CIRCLE MAGIC CULTIVATION

HEART CORE: 6TH STAR - ASHEN-ORIGIN ARTS

BLOOD DOMAIN: BLOOD PALACE

SWORD DOMAIN: RIFT

SWORD RESONANCE: 2ND STAGE

SOUL ENERGY: 7 YEARS

AUTHORITY: EXTRACTION

MASTERED TECHNIQUES:

1ST STAR TECHNIQUES: 100%

2ND STAR TECHNIQUES: 100%

3RD STAR TECHNIQUES: 100%

4TH STAR TECHNIQUES: 100%

5TH STAR TECHNIQUES: 100%

6TH STAR TECHNIQUES: 90%]

He clenched and unclenched his fist, feeling the raw power coursing through him. "If I hadn’t met the old man, the blood woman, or the Emperor, I’d be drunk on this power," he mused.

The strength he was currently feeling was intoxicating, like he could tear the world asunder.

However, he remembered his goal. The power he had wasn’t at the level he yet sought. But even with that, the power wasn’t small.

Extending his hand, he summoned a swirling vortex of concentrated energy, three times denser than ordinary aura. It was called astral energy, the hallmark of a grandmaster. It crackled around his fingers with intensity.

’I’ll soon form my 7th star and increase my aura,’ he thought, ’before I start building my inner world.’ His gaze passed absolute cut and destruction to the aging reversal.

Finally, he had reached the stage where he could see decay’s full potential and begin unearthing the true aging reversal, after all, that was what the whole technique was all about.

’I’ll also try and push my magic up,’ He briefly skimmed past his magic circle level. Honestly, all he had to do regarding that was study more, and Eye’s vast archive, absorbed from the Silent Staff, held a wealth of magical knowledge waiting to be tapped.

His gaze landed on his domain. What intrigued him was that it wasn’t rooted in decay or Absolute Cut and Destruction; it was a sort of sword domain.

Rift was a singular, devastating force. And the truth was, he wasn’t new to this skill called rift. He had done it in the past. Channeling everything he had achieved to fit a single sword.

Basically, it was a one-hit-kill domain. And its only drawback was its immense energy consumption.

’Wait, why am I complaining of energy?’ he thought, sensing the untapped sea of energy in his upper region.

’Maybe the only reason I can fit them all is thanks to sword resonance.’ He still didn’t think he understood the full extent of sword resonance, but as time went on, he would.

His gaze moved to the blood domain, soul energy, and authority.

He stretched his left hand, and a violet energy flowed with a soft hum, smooth and controlled, no longer bursting chaotically as it once had. Now it moved like his hand.

He had total control over the energy. Meaning, he could now grant his Ashen-Origin Arts to others, and names already flickered through his mind.

But it still felt a bit off how he hadn’t used it so much when it was so useful and powerful.

With a wave, he unleashed Ashenfall, and the air vanished from the room.

’It removed everything,’ Baines nodded. How he knew that was, he couldn’t breathe.

The bed, table, and lights also dissolved, consumed by the ashen energy.

And these things he had removed, he could store permanently in his ruins.

With a thought, the room transformed, mirroring the cracked, desolate landscape of Ashenfall—dark skies and barren earth; however, the storm that bridged them wasn’t present.

But he didn’t feel like he needed it because the boost to his physical abilities here rivaled the edge his blood skills had given him against the 7th Star Iron Brotherhood.

’Should I also unleash my Authority?’ His soul form could project Extraction within the ruins, but he held back. He decided against it and closed his heart core. It was unknown when next he would have to use it, but he would.

After withdrawing the ruin and ashenfall, a red energy flowed.

Blood energy.

He learnt a lot about blood energy from the blood book. It had its own vast system of progression—spells, cultivation techniques, weapon arts—it had everything, and it was too much for him to use in one lifetime.

And just from his release, he knew his proficiency lagged compared to his mastery of Ashenfall or mana.

He recalled the blood woman. Just standing before her presence, and the blood in his veins was ready to rebel against him. The energy was that wild.

’According to the book, it was a thing called blood manipulation,’ And just as it sounded, it wasn’t easy. ’Can I meet her again?’ He wondered.

Shaking off the thought, his gaze moved over to the mastered percentile of his techniques. The way it worked was, from the techniques, Eye could portray just how the skill would look in its full potential and measure what he could do in contrast.

It was exactly for that reason that he stopped trying to use the techniques of absolute cut and destruction. It just couldn’t compare.

With the number of techniques he had learnt, it seemed pointless to keep learning more as he wouldn’t use a quarter of them; however, his Origin art allowed him to learn more than one cultivation technique, and if he learned more techniques, cumulatively, they could all make his rift stronger.

’But,’ Baines sighed, glancing at his stomach, specifically his core.

Surrounding the concentrated stars of decay and the will to cut was a new flowing energy of dark gold. It was the energy from the pill that contained the Dark Sun’s degraded divine power.

’I have set up his resurrection plan now.’ It was something he did on a whim, and now it will come back to bite him.

Soon, the Dark Sun would recover enough, invite Baines to that space he had been earlier. and begin to demand things. In that space, he would be able to see the entirety of Baines without being able to hide anything. It defeated everything he wanted to be.

’I’m not strong enough to extract his authority, and I can’t expel the energy I already absorbed.’ Those were the two issues he currently faced. ’Also, the people in the empire would also begin to remember him, and eventually it can lead to me.’

Baines sighed once more. This was among the few things he was forced to care about. The last thing he wanted was to become someone’s apostle and that worried him, a lot.