"A pity. Just a little bit more."

  Pierce shook his head slightly.

  If he had Overcharged the Focus Magic Tattoo just now as well, he might have been able to severely injure the opponent.

  Casually casting Levitate on himself and buffing with Wind Runes, Pierce quickly gave chase.

  The two engaged in a high-speed pursuit through the sky, one fleeing, one chasing.

  Andrej glanced back. Seeing the young Wizard actually pursuing him, his expression instantly turned incredibly ugly.

  "Damn it!"

  That single strike just now had thoroughly terrified him.

  With just one blow, over eighty percent of his defensive divine artifacts had been destroyed.

  If they were to fight head-on, he would absolutely be no match.

  No wonder he was able to destroy an entire fortification single-handedly.

  Andrej's expression shifted continuously before he quickly made a decision. He took out a vial of potion and downed it.

  The next moment, intense fluctuations of divine grace emanated from him. Andrej's flight speed suddenly skyrocketed, and he shot off into the distance like a meteor.

  Pierce frowned slightly. He decisively fused with Silver Star and increased the number of Wind Runes buffing him to the limit of twenty, pursuing relentlessly.

  Even so, his speed was still slightly slower than his opponent's. He could only watch helplessly as the distance between them gradually widened.

  Before long, a valley filled with buildings suddenly appeared in his line of sight.

  Andrej shot into the valley like a streak of light and disappeared.

  Pierce abruptly halted his advance, raising an eyebrow as he looked at the valley in the distance.

  From within that valley, he could sense numerous fluctuations of divine grace.

  "Could it be..."

  Pierce took out his magic map and opened it. Unsurprisingly, this was the exact location of the Mithril resource point.

  "To think the Mithril resource point would be garrisoned by a Rank 4 Priest."

  Pierce clicked his tongue. It seemed the Turins were absolutely determined to hold this place.

  Taking one last, deep look at the valley, Pierce turned and left.

  He had just been through a battle and consumed a significant amount of energy. It wasn't suitable to assault a heavily guarded resource point right now.

  Furthermore, without an army or a mining team on hand, even if he conquered the resource point, he wouldn't be able to hold it, let alone mine the Mithril. The losses would outweigh the gains.

  As for the Rank 4 Priest who had escaped, Pierce didn't particularly care.

  A Rank 4 Priest wasn't a Rank 2 Wizard; killing him wouldn't yield much loot anyway.

  If it hadn't been for testing his strength after breaking through to the Liquid Phase, he wouldn't have chased him this far to begin with.

  Returning to Fortification No. 17, Pierce called for Sophia and Payne to mount the Giant Eagles, and they set off back to Red Maple City.

  Astral Calendar, Year 14524, November 23rd.

  The optimization of the Bloodline Mark was finally complete.

  The optimized Bloodline Mark was no longer restricted by bloodline shackles. Even if one hadn't inherited the corresponding ancient creature's bloodline, they could still use it.

  Moreover, crafting it no longer required a High-Tier Wizard with the same bloodline to take action. As long as one had the blood of a lifeform possessing the corresponding bloodline, it was sufficient.

  In other words, Pierce didn't need to find a true ancient creature. As long as he obtained the blood of a Wizard who had inherited an ancient creature's bloodline, he could extract a Bloodline Mark from it.

  "Good thing I saved some of Zachary's blood."

  Pierce immediately headed to the laboratory. He brought out Zachary's blood and began crafting the Bloodline Marks.

  More than an hour later, three blood-red marks adorned the back of his right hand.

  "It's a pity I used up some of the blood for experiments earlier, otherwise I should have been able to make one more Bloodline Mark."

  Pierce rubbed the marks on the back of his hand, sensing the power contained within.

  These optimized Bloodline Marks were different from the original ones. Using them wouldn't allow him to transform into the corresponding ancient creature's form. It would only grant him the power of the ancient creature temporarily.

  Furthermore, the intensity and type of power largely depended on the strength level of the entity the blood came from.

  These three Bloodline Marks derived from Zachary, when activated, would significantly enhance his Physique and grant him a layer of black scale protection that could drastically reduce damage from Shadow-attribute energy.

  Although he didn't know the exact magnitude of the enhancement, judging from the intensity of the energy contained within, it certainly wouldn't be weak.

  "Now I have another trump card."

  The corners of Pierce's mouth curled upward slightly.

  "If I get the chance, I need to hunt down more ancient creature bloodlines."

  Finding true ancient creatures was out of the question; they were virtually extinct. Even if he could find one, with his current strength, it would be impossible to deal with it.

  However, although there were no ancient creatures, the Multiverse was still home to many entities that had inherited their bloodlines—not just Wizards, but various magical creatures as well.

  Although the bloodline concentration in the latter was mostly very low, sometimes even too weak to manifest, as long as the quantity was sufficient, he could concentrate and refine it step by step until it reached the minimum standard for crafting a Bloodline Mark.

  Recovering from his joy, Pierce wiped a hand over the back of his right hand, and the Bloodline Marks vanished instantly.

  Omniscient Eye, scan my current status.

  [Mental Energy: 34.36] [Physique: 21.04]

  Upon returning to Red Maple City and handing in the mission, Pierce had immediately exchanged for five Sprouts of the Holy Spirit.

  However, because he needed to expend mental power to accelerate the optimization of the Bloodline Mark, he hadn't consumed the Sprouts of the Holy Spirit these past few days. Instead, he had continued to use Resonance Potions to supplement his cultivation of the Visualization Technique, so his mental energy hadn't increased by much.

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  As for his extraction target, Pierce had already made his selection over these past few days. It was a magical creature known as the Thunderbeast.

  Thunderbeasts were born with immense, infinite strength comparable to the Giant race, and inherently possessed the ability to manipulate lightning. Their combat prowess was incredibly formidable.

  An adult Thunderbeast was capable of fighting a Rank 2 Gaseous Phase Wizard head-on.

  Whether in terms of abilities or sheer strength, the Thunderbeast perfectly met Pierce's requirements.

  More importantly, Thunderbeasts weren't particularly rare.

  Within the territory of the Thunder Theocracy in the Turin Plane, there happened to be a considerable number of Thunderbeasts.

  Considering that Aurora City was currently at war with the Thunder Theocracy, it was highly likely that some Wizards had captured Thunderbeasts.

  "The two war castles located within the Thunder Theocracy's borders... I believe they are Gale City and Silent Blue City."

  "I'll send Sophia and Payne to those two cities first to take a look. If they have Thunderbeasts, I can use Merit Points to exchange for them later."

  Pierce quickly formed a plan in his mind.

  Omniscient Eye, based on the available data, deduce the technique for extracting Thunderbeast bloodline to enhance oneself.

  [Task Created: Deduce Technique for Thunderbeast Bloodline Extraction and Enhancement. Estimated requirement: 187.5 Mental Energy Levels.]

  Not bad. The required energy wasn't too high.

  However, considering he was about to start consuming the Sprouts of the Holy Spirit and would need to use his mental power to eliminate the corruption of the Power of Faith, he had to put this task on hold for now and slowly accelerate it later.

  It didn't matter much anyway, since he hadn't obtained the Thunderbeast yet.

  Pulling his thoughts back, Pierce opened his palm. A glob of liquid metal flowed out and hovered slightly above his palm.

  Over the past few days, he had gradually fenced off all the loot he had acquired recently, converting it all into Magic Stones.

  Aside from setting aside five to six thousand Magic Stones for emergencies, he had spent almost all the rest on purchasing rare metals, gathering enough to form eight standard units of the Silver Star metal composite.

  After absorbing them all, Silver Star had been reinforced to a +15 rating. It was now very close to the eighteen standard units required for its next evolution.

  "Tier 3 Magic Tools drain mental power immensely. Even though Silver Star has been optimized and its consumption is relatively low, I still need to reach the Crystalline Phase at minimum before I can use it as a conventional weapon."

  Generally speaking, only Rank 2 Wizards could freely control Tier 3 Magic Tools.

  If a Rank 1 Wizard—even one at the Crystalline Phase—forcibly tried to manipulate a Tier 3 Magic Tool, their mental power would be drained dry in a matter of moments.

  The reason Pierce was confident he could use a Tier 3 Magic Tool normally upon reaching the Crystalline Phase was twofold: First, after multiple optimizations and enhancements, Silver Star's consumption was lower than an ordinary Tier 3 Magic Tool.

  Second, his Spirit Crystal was much larger than other Wizards'. By the time he reached the Crystalline Phase, his total mental energy capacity would likely be no weaker than an ordinary Rank 2 Wizard's.

  But even without evolving to the Tier 3 level, the current +15 Silver Star was already incredibly powerful.

  Particularly because the number of Elemental Runes it could bear had increased.

  Pierce had tested it. Under normal conditions, the current Silver Star could fuse a maximum of fifteen Elemental Runes. In this state, the mental power consumption was only slightly higher and remained within a tolerable range.

  But once it exceeded this number, the mental power consumption would skyrocket.

  For every additional rune, the consumption increased by at least thirty to forty percent.

  The absolute limit was eighteen. Exceeding this number risked causing Silver Star to collapse and be destroyed.

  As for Pierce himself, his body could bear a maximum of ten Elemental Runes.

  However, because he had awakened the Power of Lightning and the Power of Fire, his body had a much higher tolerance for Lightning Runes and Fire Runes. He could bear a maximum of twelve of these two specific runes.

  Combining the two, when fused with Silver Star, he could currently buff himself with twenty-seven Lightning Runes or Fire Runes simultaneously under normal conditions.

  If he disregarded mental power consumption, he could push it to the absolute limit and buff himself with thirty Lightning Runes or Fire Runes.

  In this state, his raw power would be entirely comparable to a Rank 2 Gaseous Phase Wizard.

  If he were to Overcharge his Magic Tattoos on top of that, Pierce was confident he could kill a Rank 2 Liquid Phase Wizard head-on!

  For Wizards, fighting above one's rank was a near impossibility.

  Whether it was the number and power of the spells mastered, the gap in mental energy levels, or the accumulation of trump cards and contingencies, everything dictated that low-tier Wizards could almost never defeat high-tier Wizards.

  Take Rank 2 and Rank 1 Wizards, for example. The former only needed to cast a Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, and the latter would instantly be left helpless.

  Only an anomalous Wizard like Pierce—whose combat power remained freakishly strong even without spells, and whose mental energy capacity vastly exceeded his peers—could manage to fight, and even kill, above his rank.

  "Once I acquire the Thunderbeast and extract its blood to enhance my body, allowing me to bear even more Elemental Runes... I won't even fear a Rank 2 Crystalline Phase Wizard."

  A surge of excitement rushed through Pierce's heart.

  It took him quite a while to calm down. He then cast a Message spell, calling for Sophia and Payne.

  "Sophia, you go to Gale City. Payne, go to Silent Blue City. Check the Exchanges there and see if you can find this magical creature."

  When the two arrived, Pierce got straight to the point, tossing each of them a parchment scroll detailing the Thunderbeast's information.

  "Yes, My Lord."

  Sophia and Payne immediately complied. Seeing that Pierce had no further instructions, they turned and left to carry out their tasks.

  Pierce used the Omniscient Eye to probe their statuses and nodded inwardly.

  After returning from destroying Fortification No. 17, he had given them another 50 Merit Points each.

  It seemed they had both exchanged for a significant amount of cultivation resources during this period, and their strength had grown considerably.

  Both of their Physique attributes had surpassed 6 points.

  Payne, in particular, had reached a Physique attribute of 6.89.

  It seemed it wouldn't be long before they both broke through to Tier 2 Legendary Knights.

  One had to remember that Pierce himself was currently only at the Tier 2 Legendary realm.

  However, even among Tier 2 Legendary Knights, the disparity in strength could be like heaven and earth.

  A newly advanced Tier 2 Legendary Knight might only have a Physique of seven or eight points.

  But a Tier 2 Legendary Knight at the very limit, on the verge of breaking through, could have a Physique exceeding twenty points.

  For example, Pierce's current Physique was as high as 21.04 points.

  "The feeling of saturation in my body is becoming increasingly obvious. Breaking through to Tier 3 Legendary should just be a matter of days."

  Pierce clenched his fist, a contemplative look on his face.

  A Tier 3 Legendary Knight was an existence capable of clashing head-on with formal Wizards.

  Not just because of their formidable Physique, but more importantly, because upon breaking through to Tier 3 Legendary, a Knight could awaken a second Elemental Power.

  Of course, this point held little significance for Pierce.

  After all, he had already awakened dual Elemental Powers from the start.

  Although he could theoretically awaken a third Elemental Power when the Omniscient Breathing Technique broke through to the fifth layer (which corresponded to advancing to Tier 3 Legendary), Pierce didn't intend to do so.

  He was more inclined toward a second option—using the surge of energy during the breakthrough to reinforce either his Lightning Elemental Power or his Fire Elemental Power.

  Essentially, this meant enhancing his body's affinity and capacity for a single Elemental Power.

  When it came to awakened Elemental Powers, more wasn't necessarily better.

  Rather than pursuing quantity, it was better to elevate quality.

  Given his combat style, he primarily relied on a single Elemental Power most of the time anyway.

  Pierce intended to directly reinforce his Lightning Elemental Power during his breakthrough. This would also increase the maximum number of Lightning Runes his body could bear, yielding an immediate and obvious boost to his overall strength.

  Stretching lazily, Pierce stood up and walked out of the stone house, preparing to go purchase materials for brewing Resonance Potions.

  He would be going into seclusion to focus on cultivation for the next period, which would require a large number of Resonance Potions. It was the perfect time to brew a fresh batch.

  To Pierce's surprise, on his way to the shop, he actually bumped into a familiar face.

  The other party quickly noticed Pierce as well, a hesitant expression appearing on his face.

  "What's wrong, Ian?" The companion beside him noticed his expression and asked in confusion.

  "Nothing. Just saw someone I know."

  Ian answered in a low voice. He hesitated for a moment before finally walking over to Pierce.

  "Lord Pierce, it's been a long time."

  Seeing the poorly concealed awkwardness on Ian's face as he forced out the word "Lord," Pierce couldn't help but chuckle inwardly. He didn't expose him and casually asked:

  "What brings you to the Planar Battlefield?"

  "I came to train." Ian didn't seem to want to elaborate.

  But after a moment's thought, Pierce understood.

  This guy was likely provoked by Gwendolyn, which sparked the idea of coming to the Planar Battlefield to train.

  Speaking of which, he had no idea which war castle Gwendolyn had run off to. What was she up to right now?

  Pulling his thoughts back, Pierce asked again, "Where is Senior Sister Yuna? I remember she's in Red Maple City too, right?"

  "My cousin is currently garrisoning a resource point. I just came back to purchase supplies," Ian said.

  Hearing that Yuna was doing well, Pierce was relieved. He didn't say much else, simply nodding at Ian before turning to leave.

  Watching Pierce's retreating back, his companion said with deep interest, "So that's Pierce? Master Morven's other disciple?"

  "Yeah." Ian nodded, his expression complicated.

  "He's certainly very young. I heard he destroyed two Turin fortifications entirely on his own. His strength is almost on par with a Rank 2 Wizard. As expected of the most outstanding genius Aurora City has seen in the past century."

  Ian's expression grew even more complicated. He interrupted his companion, saying, "It's getting late. Let's hurry back."

  His companion's attention was immediately diverted, and the two hurriedly made their way out of the city.