The Memory Material deep in the passageway rippled.
Like a stone tossed into a calm lake, ripples of dark blue spread out from deep within the walls.
Ian stopped.
His fingertips brushed against the wall, and a clear "call" came through the icy touch.
It wasn’t a sound, but a resonance that reached straight to his soul.
In his Sea of Spirit, the pale golden points of crystallized light were spinning at an unprecedented rate.
With every rotation, the resonance grew stronger.
"Down there..."
Ian looked toward the stairs spiraling downward.
The end of the staircase was shrouded in a dense, dark blue mist, and deep within it, starlight faintly flickered.
Pure, vast, and carrying the final lament of a civilization.
"Ian, that feeling... It’s so awful, caw."
Gaga tucked its head in, its feathers puffing up slightly.
"It’s like something has been crying for countless years and can’t stop..."
"It’s the lingering will of the Star Spirit Race."
Ian walked down the stairs.
With every step, a dark red liquid oozed from the surface of the stairs.
Like coagulated blood being reawakened, it snaked along the cracks in the stone.
Within the Memory Material on the walls, the images grew more frenzied.
Countless Star Spirits were melting, screaming, and tearing each other apart, finally freezing into twisted sculptures.
After about three hundred steps, the path ahead suddenly opened up.
The entrance to the third level was not a door.
It was a "wound" torn in space.
Turbulent currents of dark blue energy churned at the edges of the rift, like a sore that would never heal.
In front of the rift stood a bald, muscular man over two meters tall.
"Blood Blade" Bazaar.
Bazaar had his back to the entrance, looking down at several charred corpses on the ground.
The corpses wore the gray robes of the Withered Council, their chests pierced through by a sharp blade.
Dark red crystals had formed around the edges of the wounds—the "Blood Coagulation Curse," unique to Bloodline Witchcraft.
"Tsk. Subordinates of that old bastard Selas..."
Bazaar spat, his blood-red eyes sweeping over the corpses.
"A clean death, at least."
He suddenly turned around.
His gaze, like a physical blade, cut through the turbulent energy and locked onto Ian, who had just stepped off the stairs.
"So you finally came."
Bazaar grinned, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth.
"I waited here for three days, slaughtered a few batches of scum who tried to get in... just for you."
He slowly turned.
He raised his right arm, the crimson veins on his skin bulging one by one.
Blood seeped from his pores, coalescing in his palm into a two-meter-long, dark red greatblade.
A viscous, seemingly living bloody light flowed along the blade’s edge.
The Blood Boiling Blade.
A Level Two Bloodline Talent Witchcraft, a Rule Weapon condensed from his own Essence Blood.
It naturally suppressed shadow, undead, and plant-based abilities.
"Little whelp."
Bazaar’s blood-red eyes stared intently at Ian.
"The blood debt from the Sleeping Underground Palace will be paid today."
Before his voice had even faded,
HUMMM!
A ring of crimson light exploded outward with Bazaar at its center.
Within a hundred-meter radius, the air instantly became viscous and scorching.
It was like being thrown into a pool of boiling blood. Every breath carried the metallic tang of blood.
The Blood Boiling Domain.
The Core Talent of a Level Two Body Refining Wizard. Within the Domain, all non-Bloodline Energy would be repelled and weakened.
Within it, Ian could clearly feel the circulation in his Sea of Spirit slow by at least thirty percent.
The Energy Structure for his Frost Ash Beam became unstable, and the casting range of his Gravity Collapse Ball was compressed to within three hundred meters.
Even the Jade-like Radiance of his Furnace Body Tempering Skill dimmed slightly under the Erosion of the Bloodline Rule.
’So this is... the power of a Level Two Wizard’s Domain at its peak.’
Ian’s expression turned grave.
But he didn’t stop walking.
At the same time, he sent a Dark Transmission to Gaga, telling it not to come out for now.
This was the most formidable opponent he had ever faced.
But he felt no fear.
"Bazaar,"
Ian said calmly, his voice sounding somewhat muffled in the Blood Boiling Domain.
"You can’t kill me."
Bazaar froze for a moment, then threw his head back and roared with laughter as if he’d heard a joke.
His laughter, like a broken gong, caused the surrounding energy turbulence to churn violently.
"You think killing a few Level One pieces of trash gives you the right to be arrogant in front of me?"
He raised his Blood Blade.
The bloody light on its edge erupted, forming a twenty-meter-long dark red arc that tore through the air, aimed straight at Ian’s face!
Its speed was incredible.
The speed and explosive power of a Level Two Body Refining Wizard were on full display.
It crossed a hundred meters in an instant!
Ian’s pupils contracted.
The moment Bazaar lifted his foot,
Ian took half a step to the left with his right foot, his body tilting left like a willow catkin.
The dark red arc grazed past his right shoulder, the wind from the blade stinging his cheek.
A three-meter-long trench blasted open in the ground, sending stone fragments flying.
"Quick on your feet."
Bazaar sneered, swinging his Blood Blade horizontally. A second arc of light immediately followed.
This time it was a horizontal sweep, sealing off any escape to the left or right.
But Ian had no intention of dodging again.
The instant the arc flew toward him, he raised his right hand.
Fingers spread, his palm aimed at Bazaar’s chest.
ZZT!
Three energy threads, as fine as hairs, burst from his fingertips.
Two were ice-blue and one was golden-red. They instantly spiraled together upon leaving his hand.
They formed a slender, pale purple beam that tore through the viscous Blood Boiling Domain, piercing straight toward Bazaar’s chest.
Frost Ash Beam: Extreme Compression Mode!
It arrived in an instant!
Bazaar’s expression changed slightly.
He could sense the danger from the beam.
’Its Energy level is average, but that bizarre trait of Ice and Fire Interweaving...’
"You dare to fight back?"
He roared in fury, bringing his Blood Blade back to defend. The bloody light on its edge condensed into a dark red Shield.
The beam struck the Shield.
KSSSHHH!
Frost and fire erupted simultaneously.
A thick layer of ice instantly formed on the Shield’s surface, only to be shattered by extreme heat the next second.
The chaotic fluctuations from the clash of ice and fire made the Shield’s Energy Structure tremble violently.
But... it didn’t break.
The Bloodline Shield of a Level Two Body Refining Wizard had withstood the blow head-on.
"Is that all you’ve got?"
Bazaar grinned, raising his Blood Blade again.
But Ian’s attack was far from over.
As the first beam hit, he had already raised his left hand.
He made a grasping motion with his five fingers.
Above his palm, a black dot the size of a Rice Grain silently appeared.
Gravity Collapse Ball: Extreme Penetration Mode!
The black dot shot out, tracing a nearly invisible trajectory through the air.
It flew with precision toward Bazaar’s right shoulder joint.
He didn’t aim for the thickest part of the Shield over the chest, but for a relatively vulnerable connection point like a joint.
Bazaar’s pupils shrank abruptly.
He could feel that the destructive fluctuations emanating from the black dot were suddenly much stronger than the previous beam’s.
"Damn it!"
He forcibly twisted his body, sweeping his Blood Blade in an attempt to shatter the black dot.
But the black dot was too fast.
In the instant his Blood Blade swung down, it had already made contact with his right shoulder armor.
HUMMM!
An invisible Gravity Field suddenly erupted.
The space within a three-meter radius began to collapse inward.
The dark red armor on Bazaar’s right shoulder emitted a cringe-inducing cracking sound.
As if squeezed hard by a giant, invisible hand, fine cracks appeared on the armor’s surface.
"ROAR!"
Bazaar roared, the bloody light around him flaring intensely.
He activated his Blood Boiling Domain at full power, its dark red Bloodline Rule frantically resisting the gravitational turbulence.
CRACK!
The armor finally gave way under the dual pressure, shattering into more than ten pieces.
But Bazaar’s right shoulder was merely shredded flesh; the bone remained intact.
The physical body of a Level Two Body Refining Wizard was terrifyingly tough.
"You little bastard... You’ve pissed me off."
Bazaar’s eyes were bloodshot, killing intent seething in his blood-red pupils.
He stomped his foot hard, and the ground beneath him exploded in a spiderweb of cracks.
The muscles all over his body swelled again, and dark red, scale-like patterns appeared on his skin.
Crimson Fury: A Level Two Body Refining Secret Technique!
His Power, speed, and defense were all enhanced.
"Die!"
He charged forward like a wild bull, his Blood Blade leaving a dark red afterimage as he slashed at Ian for the third time.
This time, he was at least fifty percent faster!
A cold glint flashed in Ian’s eyes.
’I know my chances of winning a head-on confrontation are less than twenty percent.’
’Empowered by his Domain, a Level Two Body Refining Wizard’s physical toughness is far beyond what I imagined.’
’What’s more troublesome is...’
’I can feel a cold, deathly aura rapidly approaching from deep within the passage to my left.’
’Someone from the Withered Council.’
"Gaga,"
he whispered through their Soul Link.
"Get ready to retreat."
"Understood, caw!"
The black Raven flapped its wings, its body melting into the shadows on the wall and disappearing.
Ian retreated rapidly, pointing his right index finger at Bazaar.
Entropy Change Domain: Full Power Deployment!
HUMMM!
A pale purple Domain with a hundred-meter radius erupted from him!
Within the Domain, the temperature began to fluctuate wildly.
One moment it was frigid, and ice crystals formed on the bloody light around Bazaar.
The next second, it soared to several thousand degrees. The ice crystals shattered, and the bloody light was fiercely eroded by the intense thermal energy.
The Entropy Change Domain and the Blood Boiling Domain clashed head-on!
The two Rules clashed and tore at each other wildly in the confined space.
The stability of the Blood Boiling Domain was forcibly disrupted, and Bazaar’s movements clearly faltered for an instant.
In that single instant, Ian turned and charged deep into the rift.
"Trying to run?!"
Bazaar roared, raising his Blood Blade again.
But without looking back, Ian waved his right hand behind him.
Three walnut-sized Crystal Balls flew from his sleeve, tracing arcs through the air to land precisely in three dead zones around Bazaar.
Black Hole Potion: Modified Version!
HUM! HUM! HUM!
The three Crystal Balls exploded simultaneously, their internal, triple-layered energy vortexes spinning wildly.
Three miniature, three-meter-diameter gravitational Singularities suddenly formed, trapping Bazaar in the center of a triangular formation!
"What is this?!"
Bazaar’s expression changed, alarm bells screaming in his mind as he frantically slashed his Blood Blade at the Singularities.
The dark red bloody light collided with the gravitational turbulence, erupting in a piercing shriek.
’I know three Black Hole Potions won’t be enough to kill him.’
’At most, they’ll only trap him for five seconds.’
’But five seconds is enough.’
He charged into the energy rift, his figure swallowed by the dark blue turbulence.
"You little bastard... you won’t escape!"
Bazaar shattered the last Singularity, his blood-red eyes fixed on the rift.
He had never been so furious.
A Level One Wizard actually escaped from him unscathed?
What was even more terrifying was...
That strange Ice and Fire Domain, that instant-cast Gravity Witchcraft, and those three bizarre Crystal Balls at the end...
Every one of those abilities had crossed the threshold of Level Two Witchcraft.
Especially that Domain.
It could actually interfere with a Level Two Domain!
"I have to kill him..."
Bazaar gritted his teeth and charged into the rift, Blood Blade in hand.
"Otherwise, he’ll become an endless source of trouble!"