Lara turned away from the Crimson Will Lotus and faced the group. "The Core-Reforging Lotus is still our priority. Everything else can wait until after we secure it."

  Adrian nodded along with the others, though his gaze lingered on the crimson lotus below for a moment longer.

  Willforce recovery had always been his bottleneck. Every time he created a divine concept, it drained him, forcing him to rest for even an entire day if he pushed it too much. If that recovery time could be shortened, his cultivation speed would increase dramatically.

  But Lara was right. Priorities mattered. The Everlasting Pill Sect was still active somewhere on this planet, and Adrian had no idea what they were planning at this moment.

  The group resumed their flight, leaving the Crimson Will Lotus behind.

  As they advanced deeper into the garden, the mana density continued to rise steadily. Plants containing three hundred thousand mana units appeared. The orderly rows grew denser, with each plant separated by precise, deliberate spacing that clearly reflected careful planning rather than natural growth.

  Adrian's Source Eyes picked out the underlying formation beneath the garden floor, a vast network of channels distributing essence evenly across every plot.

  Minutes passed.

  Then, without warning, a lance of green-gold light erupted from the ground and shot toward the group.

  Everyone reacted instantly, scattering to evade it. But the light bent mid-flight and pursued them. Lara cast a spell, and a crimson fireball formed in her left hand before she hurled it toward the incoming lance. The two collided mid-air, annihilating each other and leaving nothing behind.

  In the very next instant, another lance surged upward from the ground.

  "It seems we're close to the core zone of the garden," Lara said, her tone clipped as she prepared another spell. "The defensive formation is attacking us simply for entering this area."

  Torvain's eyes gleamed. "That means we're on the right path. We just need to push forward."

  Lara nodded. "Yes. Everyone, use divine spells and keep moving."

  She cast another spell as she spoke, intercepting the next lance mid-air.

  They pushed forward together, but the deeper they went, the more numerous the attacks became. Multiple lances of green-gold light erupted simultaneously from the ground, converging on them from different directions.

  Torvain and Maelis cast spells similar to Lara's, intercepting the lances aimed at them. Torvain's spell manifested as a condensed sphere of dark crimson essence that detonated on contact, whilst Maelis summoned arcing blades of crimson light that carved through incoming attacks.

  Marivelle followed suit, her spell taking the form of a dark blue fireball that burned with eerie intensity.

  Adrian watched carefully as a lance shot toward him. He materialized his Source Blade and slashed at it. His strike cut through the lance, but this one was far stronger than the one he had faced earlier whilst testing the formation mind. Instead of dispersing cleanly, the impact triggered a violent explosion, as though the lance itself were a bomb.

  The shockwave slammed into Adrian, throwing him backward through the air. Pain flared across his chest and arms where the blast struck him. He stabilized himself mid-flight, dismissing the blade with a flick of his wrist.

  He immediately understood the problem. Using his Source Blade was too close-range. Even if he cut through the lance, the resulting explosion still damaged him.

  He observed how the others handled it. Their spells met the lances at a distance, far enough away that the resulting explosions did not harm them. Some of the surrounding plants were scorched by the blasts, but that could not be helped.

  Adrian needed a long-range offensive spell.

  His thoughts turned to Starbreaker.

  Adrian didn't possess a divine spell like the others. He only had normal arcane spells, and even those were limited when it came to offense. Temporal Veil and Breath of Life were support and utility spells. When it came to offense, Adrian had always relied on Starbreaker.

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  His philosophy had always been simple. He did not want hundreds of offensive spells. He wanted one spell capable of dealing with everything. That was why he had fused all his arcane concept knowledge into a single spell structure, creating Starbreaker as a pure Source spell. Over time, he had continuously refined it, updating its construct as his understanding of arcane concepts improved. Until now, it had never failed him, not even against Stellar Lords.

  But would it work against divine spells, especially high-level ones?

  There was only one way to find out.

  Another lance surged toward him, tearing through the air with a high-pitched shriek. Adrian cast Starbreaker. A sphere of white-grey light condensed between his hands, pulsing with the weight of every concept he had comprehended. The surface rippled, unstable, threads of shadow and gravity, and many other of his arcane concepts coiling within its depths. He launched it toward the incoming lance.

  The sphere collided with the lance, and both forces pushed against each other in mid-air. Green-gold light flared against white-grey radiance, neither yielding. A moment later, Adrian's spell dispersed, fragments scattering like ash, whilst the lance continued toward him. He was forced to cut it again with his Source Blade, suffering another close-range explosion.

  The shockwave struck him hard, heat scorching his robes and pain lancing through his ribs. He clenched his teeth and steadied himself, dismissing the blade.

  Lara noticed and shouted whilst intercepting her own attack, "Why are you using a low-level divine spell? These lances are high-level spells!"

  Her fireball detonated against an incoming lance, the explosion blooming safely ahead of her.

  She genuinely could not understand what he was doing.

  Adrian didn't respond, but her words sparked realization. So Starbreaker was considered a low-level divine spell now? Why?

  From his understanding, divine spells were categorized by mastery. Low-level divine spells corresponded to roughly twenty-five percent mastery of a divine concept, whilst mid-level divine spells required at least fifty percent. These spells were typically used as milestones for progression. When an Early Rule Stage cultivator mastered a mid-level divine spell, they would naturally advance to Mid Rule Stage, as the mastery of their divine concept would increase, and that would result in more authority.

  Right now, Adrian didn't know his exact mastery over Source, but if he thought of his source as a divine concept, then his mastery over it could be said to correspond to Low-level?

  Maybe that was why Lara felt his spell as a Low-level divine spell. But fundamentally thinking, wasn't the difference just power?

  A mid-level divine spell was stronger than a low-level one because it contained more energy and a more refined divine concept to counter. So maybe Lara thought his spell was a Low-Level divine spell because it had less energy?

  If so, what if the solution was simply adding more energy? If he poured more energy into his spell, could it reach the same level?

  This was only a theory, but he could test it immediately.

  They continued pushing forward as lances kept erupting. The ground trembled beneath the barrage, plants swaying violently in the wake of each explosion. Torvain cursed as three lances converged on him simultaneously, forcing him to cast twice in rapid succession. Maelis adjusted her flight path, weaving between blasts.

  Another one targeted Adrian. This time, he halted mid-air and cast Starbreaker again. The white-grey sphere condensed between his hands, and Adrian focused on its energy content.

  He sensed the mana flowing into it. By rough estimation, the spell was currently consuming only a few hundred mana units.

  That explained a few things. Back in the Milky Way, even Stellar Lords only possessed a few hundred mana units in total. Adrian's single spell had nearly matched their entire reserves, which was why it had seemed overwhelmingly powerful against them.

  He could also feel that the mana consumption had increased compared to the past. Earlier versions of Starbreaker had required less mana. Now, he had recently integrated his Devour arcane concept knowledge into the spell's structure, and it seemed the energy the spell was consuming had also grown due to it.

  This showed that his spell grew with him. Even so, it still wasn't enough to counter a high-level divine spell.

  So Adrian simply fed it more mana to test his theory.

  Five hundred.

  Seven hundred.

  One thousand.

  The sphere swelled in his palms. The white-grey light intensified, casting shadows across the garden rows.

  He stabilized the spell at roughly one thousand mana units and released it.

  The condensed white-grey sphere streaked forward and struck the incoming lance.

  This time, there was no collision on impact. The lance vanished completely, erased without leaving a trace!

  Adrian smiled. This was his Starbreaker that erased other spells.

  His theory was confirmed. High-level divine spells were not fundamentally different in nature; they simply carried more energy and a refined conceptual structure to make them much stronger. For now, Adrian had simply balanced that by adding more mana into his spell. If his Source became purer and stronger in the future, he might achieve the same result with five hundred mana units or even less. For now, his purity was limited, so brute force was the answer.

  The others stared, swallowing hard.

  Maelis leaned toward Lara and whispered, "What was that spell just now?"

  Lara didn't answer immediately, her gaze locked on Adrian.

  In her entire life, she had never seen a spell erase a high-level divine spell so completely. Even an ultimate-level spell wouldn't simply make another spell vanish like that. They typically collided, clashed, and detonated.

  So what… was Adrian wielding?

  "I don't know," Lara replied at last.

  Ahead of them, another wave of lances erupted from the ground. Adrian raised his hand, and white-grey light condensed once more.