Chapter 6: Sudden Change

  Francis finally sent Marco away and returned to his own room after settling Anton Goodes.

  Today is not suitable for meditation, summoning Dis from the space has consumed a lot of my spiritual power. Francis lying on the bed is ready to sleep well, as for spiritual power, Francis doesn't have any good way to make it recover quickly, can only wait for it to recover slowly!

  For mages, spiritual power is the most fundamental. A mage who has exhausted their spiritual power is basically a useless person. Mages communicate with magical elements between heaven and earth through spiritual power, of course, they can only communicate with those that match themselves, such as Francis, who can only communicate with light magic elements. They gather these communicated magic elements in their own body. To put it simply, spiritual power is like an invisible net that captures the various magic elements around the body, filters out what's not needed, and pulls in the desired elements! After gathering enough, they start compressing, and when compression can't be compressed anymore, they reach the bottleneck of their current level. If they break through this bottleneck, they can upgrade to the next level. Therefore, the number of mages distributed by level is like a pyramid, with high-level mages being very few in number. After all, it takes a lot of base numbers to produce a high-level mage! Of course, upgrading is no longer a problem for Francis now, as his extremely high spiritual power (comparable to Dis) can compress and purify magic power just by accumulating it to the bottleneck. It's only a matter of time before he becomes a high-level mage. However, having high spiritual power isn't just beneficial in this way. In daily life, if one's magic power is depleted, others may need a long time to recover, but Francis can do so with just a slight movement of his spiritual power. As for the reason, it can only be said that Francis' net is much larger than others, and he can catch what others can't in just one go. Moreover, his speed at casting and retracting nets is much faster than others. Therefore, those mages with high spiritual power can quickly rise to high levels, which is what's meant by "genius"!

  The next day, Francis woke up naturally and washed up. He found a short shirt in the house and was about to go out into the yard to stretch his limbs. Ah, after merging with Saiyan genes, if he didn't move every day, his body would feel very uncomfortable!

  "Good morning, young master!" Di had been staying in his room and heard the sound of the door opening, so he came out to greet him.

  "Oh, it's Deece! You're early too! I was just about to go out into the courtyard and get some exercise. Come along!" Francis suggested.

  "Is the courtyard okay? This environment isn't suitable for you to move around, but the woods behind the town are not bad! You do some warm-ups first and we'll set off later." Diess seemed to have already made up his mind.

  "Hey! What's going on?"

  "Your training isn't over yet! Now it's time for some real training!"

  "Hmm...alright! But at least let me finish breakfast, okay?" Francis still had some reservations about Dis's training.

  "No need, we can just have breakfast in the forest! The forest covers a large area and there's plenty of food to be found. Wilderness survival skills are also very useful at critical moments!" Dais said without hesitation, cutting off Francis' thought that they could drag things out for a while longer.

  "Really!... Alright then, I'll go and say hello to Marco first!"

  "No need, the steward left at dawn! You were still asleep then, and he didn't disturb you before leaving!" said Marko. Dais was also not as stiff as yesterday, probably because of Marko's care for Francis, which made Dais have some good feelings towards him.

  "Alright then! Let's head out to the outskirts of town directly, and as for warming up, we can just jog to that grove of trees! How about it, Dis?" Francis reluctantly agreed.

  "Exactly what I meant!"

  In the forest outside the town, Francis kept hitting a giant tree that was a bit difficult for ten people to hug together. He looked up and couldn't see the top of the tree, thinking to himself: such a big tree on earth is considered a national treasure, but in this place, it's as common as grass.

  "Hey mister, you're spacing out!" said Dee, who was meditating with his eyes closed. Every time he meditated, Dee would switch to informal language.

  Ahh! You're Dis, right? Is it okay to close your eyes like that? You're not Shahg... Francis weakly glanced at Dis and muttered in his heart.

  "After striking the large tree two thousand times, we will officially begin today's cultivation!" Di said slowly as he opened his eyes.

  "Ah! Isn't it?!... Alright, I get it!"

  Under the sunset, Dais walks into town with Francis on his back... carrying a giant Cancer box in his hands.

  "Dis, if we train like this every day, I won't be able to take it!" Francis said weakly. "Shouldn't our training volume be reduced a bit?"

  "Master, isn't it because you're hungry that you have no strength?" Dis ignored Francis' complaints and directly stated the reason for Francis' lack of energy.

  "Alright, alright! Let's go eat now..." Looking at the unwavering Dis, Francis decided to vent his frustration on food.

  "Clippity-clop, clippity-clop..." The sound of horse hooves came over.

  Francis turned around on Dice's back to see a horse slowly walking towards the town, with someone lying on its back. The person's face couldn't be seen clearly, and there was an arrow stuck in his body. The horse stopped at the entrance of the town, and several people immediately came forward to help the person off the horse.

  "Master, aren't you going to take a look?"

  "Dis, eat first, eating is urgent! This matter has nothing to do with us! That guy didn't die, he just fainted from a long time of tossing about and lost too much blood!" Francis said in a low voice, completely without the merciful and loving heart of a bright mage. For Francis, the only thing worth caring about in this world was Old Marko; he wasn't the Virgin Mary, didn't have the energy to care about trivial matters. As for Dis, Francis didn't think that the life force of a Saint Warrior like Xiao Qiang needed his concern at all.

  "Good heavens! Isn't this Sim? How can it be like this, hurry and get some water, quick!"

  "Sim, Sim, how are you? Go find the pastor quickly!" "Oh! It's really Aunt Anli's Sim! Didn't he go to Mog City with the merchant group today?"

  "Hurry, hurry... the merchant group was attacked by mountain bandits... so many people died! Li De... and Ji... Li, as well as everyone else... all dead, so many of them! Ah..." Sim woke up from his coma only to deliver another piece of bad news before fainting again.

  "My goodness! Jili!" An old aunt fainted, Jili must be her family member. The people around were also in a commotion, "Quickly go and find all the pastors, prepare the horses! Quick... young man come with me!" A voice from the crowd stabilized the masses, it was the town mayor.

  "Ah... young master!..." Dais felt his shoulders, grasped by Francis, were about to shatter!

  Francis jumped down from behind Dais and ran desperately towards the road outside the town. Dais didn't say a word, immediately followed him, feeling that Old Marquis should be in trouble! But Master... Dais quickened his pace to catch up with Francis.

  The sky was growing darker, Francis lowered his head and ran wildly. He didn't dare to think randomly or stop, he was afraid that his thoughts were true, and what he saw when he ran past would be... but he also didn't dare to stop, he was even more afraid that Marco, who could have been saved, would be because of his own slowness...

  How infuriating, I'm so slow! When will I finally get there? Mark is still waiting for me! How infuriating! Francis, running at incredible speed, kicked up a whirlwind on the flat ground!

  Marco... Scenes of old Marco taking care of Francis from childhood flashed through his mind: Francis, who was scolded by his father for making mistakes, knelt on the ground and cried, while old Marco hugged him and shielded him in front of his father, kneeling down to plead for him! ... After his father's death, Francis, who had been depressed all day, hung his head and didn't speak, was made to laugh by Marco's ghostly appearance! ... When he was just reborn, he felt old Marco's rough hands and saw the tears flowing from his turbid eyes! ... All of this was for him. Although many were scenes from memories, whether it was the original Francis or the current one, he always regarded Marco as a parent and enjoyed Marco's love. Thinking of this, Francis' tears could no longer be held back... Marco, wait for me!

  Francis lifted his head and desperately swung his legs, squeezing out the little strength left in his body! Damn it, why! So weak, even running is so slow! Damn it! "Damn it!" A loud roar! Francis' body crackled with a burst of energy, and his blood flow accelerated instantly. His speed suddenly increased by a lot! And behind him, Dice immediately fell back!

  What, how could it be even faster than before! In Dis's astonished gaze, Francis suddenly accelerated and was about to disappear in front of him! Dis's heart stirred slightly, and the holy garment behind him instantly dressed on his body at the speed of light.

  A surge of power burst forth from within! Francis accelerated with all his might! For some reason, he felt that Marco was waiting for him up ahead. Faster, faster! Just a little bit further and he'd arrive. A group of people appeared before his eyes, hastily rushing towards the town, Francis immediately stopped and took a look, it was a merchant caravan, but there was no Marco, these people didn't have many injuries, they should be fleeing in the chaos.

  "Have you seen Marco? The Marco from the caravan?" Francis grabbed a man and lifted him up to ask.

  The person who was caught had no idea what was going on, only that a gust of wind blew by and he was suddenly grabbed, just as he was about to shout loudly. But looking into the pair of bloodshot eyes in front of him, he immediately shut his mouth: "I don't know... I didn't see anything!" Francis tossed him to the ground and turned to look at the others. The crowd took one look at him and immediately took a step back, shaking their heads in unison. After all, Francis's sudden appearance was quite frightening - the wind blew and suddenly there was an extra person! Francis took another look, not wanting to waste any more time, and once again sprinted off, instantly disappearing from everyone's sight.

  "Who is that?" the guy who was slammed to the ground, shaking all over, asked after being helped up! Francis was a homebody, and even neighbors had hardly seen him, everyone shook their heads.

  Suddenly a flash of golden light, the guy who was helped up was lifted again

  "Have you seen a blond-haired youth?" Dais asked with a scowl.

  The guy who was caught again saw a golden light in front of him and fainted directly! Dis casually threw him to the ground, turned his head to look at the crowd. Seeing that ferocious face, the crowd took another step back. Looking at Dis's increasingly impatient expression "In the front, just passed by!" A voice came from the crowd, the owner of the voice seemed to dare not face Dis directly.

  Just after he finished speaking, Dais disappeared before everyone's eyes. A golden light flashed and then everything was gone.

  "Who is that?"

  "I don't know!"

  "It's gold on his body!"

  "Shrek, you're so brave! You actually dared to talk back to that guy! Duce is dizzy!"