Chapter 122: I Haven’t Ascended High Enough Yet

There were some things that couldn’t be reversed once they were started.

Li Daohong was very clear about the consequences of his heinous actions. Given his royal status, he had no need to go to such great lengths to create this supposed ‘trump card.’

The real reason he had done this was, in the end, still because of the excitement it gave him.

Li Daohong had suffered tremendous humiliation at the hands of others, causing his heart to become incredibly twisted.

Even though he had become a genius and regained his high status, the torment he had suffered before that greatly affected him. His personality had been molded by that experience, and that twisted aspect of his personality was integrated into his being.

Many people thought that Li Daohong's revenge had been complete with his complete change in personality.

However, they were wrong.

That kind of revenge was merely the tip of the iceberg. No one would have expected that that was Li Daohong holding himself back quite a bit.

He was secretly even crazier!

This twisted insanity was what had given rise to the fiend pennant he was currently wielding.

He had not constructed these fiends as a trump card. Rather, it was born out of his pure desire to torment other living creatures, watch them writhe, and have them howl in his hands. In other words, he enjoyed their suffering.

Their use in combat was merely secondary.

When the fiends were released from the pennant, a shadowy chill seemed to permeate the surroundings as the sounds of horrifying shrieks and howls filled the air.

These fiends furiously clawed at Su Chen. To Su Chen’s surprise, he discovered that his Flowing Gold Blade actually couldn't do anything to these fiends. Even the effects of his shadow flames were limited.

"Su Chen, be careful! Fiends are made of concentrated sinister energy and they exist in a state in between reality and illusion. Only the power of Yang energy can deal with them. Your Shadow Flames don't have enough Yang power and thus won't be able to destroy them," Li Chongshan called out.

The Shadow Flames were primarily corrosive in nature, so they were actually considered Yin-type flames. They could be used to burn most physical creatures, but it was obvious that they weren't very effective against these fiends.

This was quite problematic, as it was one of the worst possible matchups. It could be said that the Flowing Gold Blade was also being countered by these fiends.

Under these kinds of circumstances, even Su Chen had fallen into a disadvantageous situation.

"The power of Yang energy, huh?" Su Chen pondered for a moment before saying, "Then I can only use this."

As he spoke, he pulled out a Lifesource Candle and set it on fire before placing it inside of him. Then, he pulled out a thunder Origin Crystal and began to absorb it.

Flames were definitely classified as Yang energy, but so was thunder and lightning.

Lightning, which was vicious and savage in nature, was the perfect counter against these ghostly fiends. As a result, it was an even better choice than fire.

Because Su Chen cultivated the Thunder Blade, his comprehension of the element of thunder was passable. However, the Thunder Blade was not sufficiently powerful enough to deal with these fiends.

As such, Su Chen wasted no time and immediately started increasing the amount of thunder essence in his body.

Su Chen absorbed the abundant power in the thunder Origin Crystal, and through the help of the Lifeforce Candle, his mastery of thunder temporarily reached the Seventh Ring.

His clones were still flipping through the books all the while.

Su Chen had found yet another way to utilize the clones ⁠— studying the techniques and using that knowledge in real-time.

Now that his mastery of thunder had reached the Seventh-Ring level, he started forming a small ball of lightning at his fingertips.

“This is……” Li Daohong stared at Su Chen’s hands in shock.

Seventh-Ring Arcana Technique, Descending Lightning.

A thick column of lightning slammed violently into Li Daohong’s fiend pennant from the sky.

All of a sudden, the situation had gotten much livelier. Lightning and thunder crashed down continuously onto the fiends, causing them to howl and shriek in intense pain.

The fiends’ sinister aura began to surge as they did their best to resist the power of the cascading lightning strikes.

Surprisingly, this column of lightning was unable to fully destroy the fiends despite the fact that his attack was elementally effective. Instead, he was only able to barely draw even.

Was a Seventh-Ring Arcana Technique still insufficient to deal with these fiends?

Su Chen very quickly realized that this was partly because of just how many fiends Li Daohong had collected and partly because he had only just ascended to the level of Seventh Ring.

That rate of ascension was simply too rapid.

He had actually been at the Fifth Ring a day ago. Ascending two rings in a single day was far too rapid, so it was only logical that his ability to fully draw out the power of these stronger Arcana Techniques was limited.

That wasn’t a particularly worrisome problem, though.

Since a Seventh-Ring Arcana Technique wasn’t enough to deal with the fiends, then what about an Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique?

Su Chen didn’t really care about how much mastery he had over a particular Arcana Technique. As long as he could deal with his opponents, that was good enough for him.

The Lifesource Candle continued to burn as the energy in the thunder Origin Crystal continued to evaporate.

People with lots of money could afford to act this wastefully. No matter what kind of tactics their opponents possessed, they could just throw money at the problem to resolve it.

Boom!

His aura surged wildly yet again, a sign that Su Chen had managed to break into an even higher realm.

He had reached the Eighth Ring!

“How is this possible?” Li Daohong shrieked.

Even Inigo was startled by Su Chen’s meteoric surge in aura as an expression of disbelief surfaced on his face.

Everyone present was stunned.

The opponent had become an Eighth-Ring Arcana Master in the blink of an eye.

Was this some kind of sick joke?

Were Arcana Masters really that cheap?

Not at all.

Actually, they were very valuable.

Su Chen had burned through dozens of Lifesource Candles and a number of thunder Origin Crystals to achieve this effect.

The amount of money he had spent today was roughly equivalent to the total wealth of a small country.

As Su Chen reached the Eighth Ring, another violent wave of lightning surged from his fingertips.

Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique, Electromagnetic Storm.

This was not the end of his attacks.

Su Chen then used a single-target thunder Arcana Technique.

Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique, Thunder Execution.

As a single-target Arcana Technique, Thunder Execution didn’t cause as much widespread damage as Electromagnetic Storm, but its energy was much more concentrated, giving it much more penetrative strength.

As the two Eighth-Ring Arcana Techniques flew through the air, it appeared as if the fiend pennant was on its last legs.

The tens of thousands of fiends howled in despair.

Just as they were about to be wiped out, however, Li Daohong sprang into action yet again.

He actually pulled out another item.

This time, he pulled out a yellow gourd, out from which flowed a stream of sand.

This stream of sand transformed into a wall, directly blocking Su Chen’s Thunder Execution. Even Su Chen was startled by this move.

Even though Thunder Execution was powerful, it had been stopped in its tracks by this wall of sand.

“This guy still has more trump cards?” Su Chen was very amused.

“I’m from an imperial family. My treasures are unlimited, and I have all kinds of skills at my disposal. Do you really think you are worthy of killing me?” Li Daohong said arrogantly.

When Zhu Chenhuan saw the gourd Li Daohon was holding, he blurted out, “River of Sand Gourd…… So you were the one who wiped out the Level Waters Sha Clan.”

The Level Waters Sha Clan was an incredibly philanthropic clan that had helped countless individuals through hard times. Unfortunately, three years ago, their clan had been completely slaughtered by some evil thieves due to the River of Sand Gourd. Evidently, the River of Sand Gourd was an earth-type Origin Tool that could spit out large quantities of sand. These rivers of sand were highly malleable and ideal for earth-type Arcana Techniques since they would enhance their effects. This was obviously true, given how easily the wall of sand was able to block an Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique.

However, killing a philanthropic clan for the sake of this treasure was quite abhorrent.

Su Chen’s expression sank. “You are far too evil to let live.”

“You need to be able to kill me first!” Li Daohong guffawed loudly. “I’m from the imperial family, and I have an unlimited amount of treasure. Just how will you deal with me?”

“Hmph, it seems like that’s all you know how to say. You want to compete in terms of wealth? Fine, let’s dance!” As Su Chen spoke, he continued to pull out Lifesource Candles nonstop.

Weren’t they just competing in terms of wealth? It remained to be seen who needed to fear whom.

Su Chen didn’t need advice from Zhu Chenhuan to know what kind of Arcana Technique he needed to master this time.

Wind-type!

Wind techniques were extremely effective against earth techniques. Su Chen’s mastery of the wind element was already at the Sixth Ring, so he only needed to ascend two rings.

Su Chen didn’t bother hiding the Lifesource Candles this time and lit them right in front of Li Daohong eyes before beginning absorbing its power.

“Lifesource Candles? Are those Lifesource Candles?” Li Daohong couldn’t believe his eyes.

Lifesource Candles were treasures of the human race. The Harpies also were very familiar with them, so they also couldn’t help but stare at Su Chen in disbelief when they heard that he had Lifesource Candles on him.

Li Daohong yelled hoarsely, “So you have Lifesource Candles! But…… But…… Even with Lifesource Candles, you shouldn’t possibly have been able to ascend that quickly! Could it be…… How many Lifesource Candles do you have!?”

Su Chen smiled slightly as he humbly bragged, “Not that much, only 161 in total. Once I ascend to this next ring, I’ll have used up around half of my stock.”

Li Doahong was completely stunned.

How could Su Chen possibly have so many Lifesource Candles?

And he was using them in this extravagant manner here?

He was insane!

His boasts earlier about his wealth now seemed like a joke in comparison.

Li Daohong’s wealth wasn’t even worth mentioning in the same breath as Su Chen’s.

Actually, most of the treasures he had earned had come from betraying his moral compass. It had nothing to do with his actual ability to make money.

Even Inigo fell into despair when he heard this response.

Just what kind of an opponent were we fighting?

They were already on the back foot, and now their opponent was throwing even more money at them.

And it seemed like Su Chen didn’t care in the slightest.

And really, Su Chen didn’t care.

He had gathered a large number of treasures but was never able to find an opportunity to use them. Even now, he still felt a headache coming on whenever he thought about how to best use the treasures in his hands.

What were the Lifesource Candles worth in comparison?

He still had two untouched vials of Desolate Beast blood and a single Origin Beast Origin Crystal that he hadn’t been able to use yet.

And now, the Divine Feather was about to fall into his hands as well. If Su Chen didn’t spend his treasures a bit more extravagantly, it was entirely possible that he would amass a stockpile of treasures so large that even an entire lifetime wouldn’t be enough to use it all up.

Su Chen was probably the only person who could be frustrated by having too much money.

At this moment, his mastery of wind had reached the prerequisite level. However, the clones hadn’t yet found what they were looking for, so Su Chen could only wait.

Li Daohong, however, was extremely agitated.

Haven’t you already reached a high enough tier? Why are you not attacking yet?

Have you not ascended enough?

How far do you want to go before you attack?

What? Eighth Ring wasn’t high enough? You want to go to the Ninth Ring?

Li Daohong felt like crying.

Su Chen was completely unaware of Li Daohong’s inner turmoil. He was still waiting for his clones to find something useful in those books.

Waiting like this was quite irritating. Though, perhaps only he was able to fight and study at the same time, right?

Su Chen felt incredibly stifled as he burned time with Li Daohong by carefully controlling the wind and thunder Origin Energy in the air and continuing to pressure Li Daohong.

Su Chen’s hands were occupied, and the thunder and wind energy had nowhere to go. To deal with the situation, Su Chen started to form elemental balls behind himself with the building energy, one above each wing.

One of them was a ball of wind, and the other a ball of thunder.

This was one of the most basic elemental combinations. It wasn’t particularly powerful, and Su Chen was only really using it to set up for a powerful Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique in the future.

However, he was gathering these two balls for an awfully long time now. Most normal people wouldn’t be able to keep them contained for that long.

Thankfully, Su Chen’s consciousness crystal allowed him to multitask much more easily.

At that moment, however, a strange sensation suddenly began to wash over Su Chen.

It was as if something was quietly tugging at him.

No, it was more accurate to say that something was tugging at the elemental balls behind him.

As Su Chen traced that feeling back to its source, his attention was drawn to the Wind Spirit Totem at the very front of the temple that was beginning to glow faintly.