In the massive cavern of the rock wall, as three dragon claws slammed down, threatening to strike Shi Feng, a flood of images flooded his mind—segments showing him exactly how to use the Blade Domain.
In that instant, centered on the Abyssal in Shi Feng's hand, an invisible wave of power suddenly spread outward. Its speed was so great that in the blink of an eye, it blanketed a five-hundred-yard radius.
Boom… boom… boom…
As the wave expanded, the entire cavern shook violently. Terrifying shockwaves echoed through every corner, and even massive boulders standing as tall as a man in the distance were blown out of the cavern and sent plummeting into the bottomless abyss.
Yet the three Dark Wyrmlings overhead, the very cause of this scene, now stared wide-eyed with disbelief at Shi Feng, who should have been on his last breath beneath their claws.
"So this is a peak Tier 4 inherited domain?"
Shi Feng gazed at the three colossal claws less than a yard from his body, his heart filled with amazement.
At this very moment, all three dragon claws had been halted in midair by a giant magic sword three or four meters tall—as if an invisible wall had risen between them. Three magic swords formed a triangular formation encasing him completely, holding all three dragon claws firmly at bay outside.
System: Blade Domain deployed successfully. Skill completion rate: 65%. Mastery requirements not met. Skill can be used again in thirty seconds.
"65%! Looks like the gamble paid off!" Shi Feng's eyes swept over the system notification, and he let out a deep sigh of relief.
He had never been confident about learning a Tier 4 magic skill. After all, he had never truly mastered a Tier 4 magic skill in his previous life—let alone a top-tier or peak-tier inherited one. Simply being able to use it at all was already incredibly fortunate.
In his previous life, it had taken him a full ten minutes just to barely activate a high-tier inherited Tier 4 magic skill. Now, even though he was already a master of domain manipulation, he still didn't feel particularly confident that he could learn a top-tier or peak-tier inherited Tier 4 magic skill within an hour, given that he had never studied one before.
And to solve the problem at hand, ordinary magic skills focused on offense, speed, or defense simply wouldn't work. The only possibility was a domain magic skill.
Domain magic skills combined both offense and defense, and were group combat skills at that.
Moreover, there was one critical factor that gave him the confidence to tackle the most difficult one—the Blade Domain—and that was his magical talent, the most important foundation for wielding any domain-type magic skill.
Previously, his magical talent had been unremarkable. When it came to controlling mana, he wouldn't have dared to dream. But after obtaining the Soul Mark of the Sacred Sculpture Devourer, his magical talent had been elevated to an astonishing level in both mana manipulation and elemental control.
It was precisely because of all this that he had chosen the hardest skill to learn—the Blade Domain.
And it seemed he had made the right choice.
Achieving a 65% completion rate on his first use not only demonstrated sufficient power from the Blade Domain, but also left enormous room for improvement in a short time. After all, magic skills improved fastest during their initial learning phase. As time went on, progress would slow unless one struck upon some form of inspiration or made a clear leap in personal skill.
Based on his past experience learning magic skills, reaching 65% on the first use meant that with continuous practice over the course of an hour, pushing past 80% would be no problem at all. How far beyond 80% he could go depended entirely on personal aptitude.
"Don't get cocky, human! A Tier 4 magic domain may be formidable, but without a Tier 4 body, you have no way of unleashing its true power!" the leading Dark Wyrmling sneered at the relieved Shi Feng.
As it spoke, the Dark Wyrmling swept its tail, and space itself shattered. The magic sword that had been blocking the dragon claw was instantly shattered to pieces.
The other two Dark Wyrmlings, witnessing this, immediately followed suit, attacking with their even more powerful dragon tails instead. This forced Shi Feng to desperately reconstruct the magic swords to hold his defense.
For a moment, the magic swords—like a barrier of arcane energy—were constantly being broken apart and then reformed, leaving Shi Feng absolutely no opportunity to do anything else. Each reconstruction drained a fraction of his mana reserves. In less than twenty seconds, the mana visibly radiating from Shi Feng's body had already thinned by more than ten percent, growing noticeably fainter. It was easy to predict that within four minutes, Shi Feng would be completely unable to sustain the Blade Domain once his mana was fully exhausted.