Boom!!!
Meteorites exploded across the horizon, unleashing torrents of fire that rained down upon the earth.
Each droplet of that fiery rain carried the destructive force of over a thousand degrees!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
It was as though the world were ending! The ground trembled, the sky wailed, and even the void itself seemed unable to withstand the onslaught, as massive spatial rifts opened up only to be swiftly annihilated!
The two leading Third-rank Crystalized Wizards didn't even manage to complete a single sentence before they were blown to smithereens beneath the rain of flaming meteors, and the massive explosions continued to spread outward.
With the city at its center, the vast surrounding area instantly became a hellish sea of fire!
The numerous Thorn Hammer Wizards had not the slightest power to resist beneath the fiery deluge, and could only watch in despair as the flames swallowed them whole—since the range of the world-ending fire rain was so impossibly vast, any attempt at escape was reduced to a cruel joke!
After one wave of fire rain had fallen, the entire Thorn Hammer wizard army had been completely annihilated. Apart from the city where Kasso remained unscathed, everything around it had been reduced to hell—crustal depressions churned with molten lava, as though in an instant the landscape had been transformed into an ocean of magma!
Snap!
The image abruptly cut off, and Leilin remained frozen in an expression of shock, unable to recover for a long while.
"In the area where Lord Kasso cast his spell, a cluster of active volcanoes later formed. They erupt several times almost every year, and all living things within hundreds of miles have suffered devastating effects, rendering it a dead zone…"
"So this is what happens when the power of magic pushes the manipulation of natural laws to its absolute limit?" Leilin murmured.
"Since this incident, all the Morning Star Wizards in the Central Region jointly signed a Peace Accord, stipulating that barring extraordinary circumstances, Morning Star killing techniques must not be used on the Central Continent, and especially not on such a devastating scale!" Robin said with a bitter smile. The destructive range of these Morning Star killing techniques was simply too terrifying—if left unchecked, after just a few major wars, there would be nowhere left on the Central Continent habitable enough to sustain life, and it would inevitably be destroyed once more as it had been in ancient times.
"Hah…" Leilin let out a long breath.
The scene he had just witnessed had genuinely shaken him.
Although he had previously possessed some fragmented memories from the Scorpion Man, Morning Star creatures and Morning Star Wizards were fundamentally different. All he had been able to perceive from those memories was their monstrous physical strength—the ancient war at the end had been far too high-level for him to properly comprehend.
But now, a Morning Star
"How can Fourth-rank magic produce such a terrifying effect? Even combined spells shouldn't be able to achieve this!" Leilin muttered to himself.
"Haha! That is the Morning Star Wizard's combined killing technique—an ancient taboo! How could it possibly be compared to those trivial combined spells! An ordinary combined spell that can amplify power by a hundred percent is already at its absolute limit! But a Morning Star killing technique's amplification is at least tenfold or more!" Robin shook his head, looking thoroughly dismissive.
"That can't be right—ordinary spells couldn't possibly sustain that level of consumption! Unless…" Leilin's eyes lit up as something suddenly occurred to him.
"Correct! You figured it out immediately! Indeed! Only by using innate magical techniques that consume relatively little from the Wizard yet produce far greater power can a Morning Star killing technique be formed! And the ancient advanced Meditation Methods were designed by the ancient Wizards through extensive experimentation as the most suitable innate magical techniques for combining into Morning Star killing techniques, then consolidated into the Sea of Consciousness!"
Robin directly revealed the full details.
"An advanced Meditation Method must have at least four layers—and that is precisely why! Only Wizards who have cultivated their innate magical techniques step by step according to an advanced Meditation Method can combine them at the Fourth-rank to form a Morning Star killing technique! That is why the fourth layer of an advanced Meditation Method is its most valuable part!"
"What about Wizards who use Greene's Water to consolidate their innate magical technique templates?" Leilin suddenly asked, then immediately realized he had asked a rather foolish question.
"Greene's Water combined with innate magical technique templates? Is that the advancement method from your homeland? We have that practice in the Central Continent as well… Fortunately, Junior Brother, you didn't choose that path!" Robin wore an expression that clearly said Leilin was very lucky.
"The combination of a Morning Star killing technique is built upon precious experience accumulated over countless generations of experimentation by the ancient Wizards. Those Wizards who consolidated their innate magical techniques using all sorts of haphazard methods—if they can avoid those techniques actively counteracting each other, they've already had incredible luck. And they want to combine them into a killing technique? Dream on! I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they blew themselves up!"
Leilin's expression grew solemn, naturally understanding the immense difficulty of designing a magical killing technique from scratch—even with the Chip, he had little confidence in accomplishing such a task. Those Wizards could only cry themselves to death.
At this point, a smile appeared at the corner of Robin's mouth. "Speaking of which, we actually do have a few Morning Star Wizards like that in the Central Continent. Because their innate magical techniques had already been consolidated far too early and there was absolutely no way to change them, they later lucked into advancing to the Fourth-rank—yet they possess no Morning Star killing technique at all. In fact, due to the excessive internal consumption among their innate magical techniques, they are only marginally stronger than Third-rank Wizards, and are considered a disgrace among the Central Continent's Morning Star Wizards…"
"Then based on what you've been saying, the Morning Star killing techniques formed by advanced Meditation Methods are all fixed?" Leilin suddenly thought of another question. "Then what killing technique does our Comoin's Eye Meditation Method combine into once it reaches the fourth layer?"
"Your conjecture is spot-on! The Morning Star killing technique of every advanced Meditation Method is fixed, because a Wizard's innate magical techniques are generated according to the advanced Meditation Method and therefore will not change! You can tell which advanced Meditation Method a Morning Star Wizard practices simply from the killing technique they employ!" Robin nodded. "As for the Morning Star killing technique of our Comoin Giant Serpent Warlocks—it is the Ultimate Transformation Spell!"
"The Ultimate Transformation Spell?!" Leilin was somewhat puzzled.
"Yes! In fact, almost all Warlocks, upon advancing to the Fourth-rank, produce a Morning Star killing technique that is largely similar—the effect is something akin to the Eternal Transformation Spell!"
"The progress of a Warlock consists of continuously purifying the bloodline and reshaping the body, drawing ever closer to the origin of one's bloodline. So upon reaching the Fourth-rank, we can even use the Transformation Spell to simulate a true Ancient Creature—and unleash its full might!" Robin said with excitement.
"You mean to say, once a Comoin Giant Serpent Warlock reaches the Fourth-rank, he can freely transform into an ancient Comoin Giant Serpent?"
Leilin merely had to recall the Scorpion Man—another creature of the Morning Star level—and the terrifying physical strength and power he had possessed. If that were further augmented by a Warlock's intellect and magical techniques…
"That would be truly terrifying…"
Ancient bloodline creatures were already incredibly powerful, and Morning Star-level behemoths were foes that even Morning Star Wizards dared not provoke lightly. Once augmented by a Warlock's own strength, the degree of terror would be beyond imagining. Just the thought of it sent Leilin's pulse racing.
"So that's how it works. No wonder the consolidated spells of advanced Meditation Methods cannot be altered, and each layer is fixed—it's because this is the optimal combination designed by the ancient Wizards, capable of producing zero internal counteraction, and when paired with the Locus Power that Morning Star Wizards have condensed to its absolute limit, it generates a terrifying qualitative transformation!"
In that instant, Leilin thought of the crimson Spiritual Power core crystal within his own Sea of Consciousness.
After advancing to the Third-rank, the original crystal had formed into a complex three-layered inlaid structure. The third layer—the Warlock's crystal—was far more condensed and intricate, bearing more complex Runes that had given rise to his innate magical technique: Fear Intimidation!
And the Runes of Fear Intimidation, combined with the preceding Runes, had already formed an extraordinary crimson symbol—missing only the very center point before it could unleash its full power!
"This must be the prototype of my Fourth-rank Morning Star killing technique!" Leilin sighed.
Suddenly, he felt a measure of relief that he hadn't actually followed the Chip's calculated fourth layer of the Comoin's Eye Meditation Method.
Although the Chip's theoretical model was already highly refined, most advanced Meditation Methods of the Underdark lacked a fourth layer. The only one—the Dragon King Divine Power—was specifically designed for the Dragon race, containing no mention of this aspect at all. Without knowing better, Leilin could very well have fallen into this trap.
Had that been the case, he would have lost this precious opportunity and become one of those miserable Morning Star Wizards who had advanced to the Fourth-rank without a Morning Star killing technique—a fate that would have made him the laughingstock of his peers!
However, now that he understood the principle of combination, having the Chip recalculate might well produce the true fourth layer content.
With this thought, Leilin immediately issued a command in his mind: "Chip! Based on my Warlock innate magical technique template, calculate a Fourth-rank innate magical technique. You may incorporate the Eternal Transformation Spell as a reference point."
"Task established! Commencing calculation. Estimated completion time: 158 years and 9 months!"
As usual, the Chip produced a figure that seemed astronomical.
Leilin rolled his eyes. Whenever the Chip was tasked with calculating something above its current tier, it invariably required enormous amounts of time to brute-force the result.
This also confirmed his earlier suspicion—for a Wizard to design a viable killing technique combination entirely on their own was essentially an impossible feat.
"In that case, those Wizards who used Greene's Water… unless they had the resolve from the very start to destroy their Spiritual Power core and gamble on the hope of starting their cultivation over, they're condemned to be cannon fodder for life…" Leilin suddenly let out a sigh. The world of Wizards was truly riddled with pitfalls and dangers.
"All right, let's head out! That covers the introduction to matters concerning the Morning Star Wizard level. Additionally, although this material isn't classified at an especially high level of secrecy, it circulates only among the upper echelons of each faction…"
As they were about to leave, Robin suddenly turned back to address Leilin.