Chapter 604 - 363: Indestructible Skin

Chapter 604: Chapter 363: Indestructible Skin

Muddy Ant Mountain provided a trillion souls every day.

In the past few dozen days, Lu Cang had accumulated tens of trillions of souls, and he had barely spent any.

He had enough to summon Bai several hundred times.

However, Bai was simply too uncontrollable. He was still shaken from the experience of the last Summoning.

’And I don’t even know if there are any other side effects.’

Besides, it would take an entire sea region down with it every time.

Lu Cang felt his grudge against the Moon Sea wasn’t that deep. Under most circumstances, it was best not to summon Bai...

The Death Spell, Void Nether, coalesced at the tip of his staff.

This Death Spell, an evolution of Spirit Burst, was the one Lu Cang was most comfortable using.

Whenever his Mage or Death Priest Level increased, the first new Magic Lu Cang would learn was always this type—a pure spell of destruction fueled by sacrificing souls.

HUMMM—

An incredibly violent fluctuation formed within the six Cores.

In addition to the six Cores, twelve motes of Source shot out from six directions around Lu Cang.

"Who’s there?!"

At the very instant the fluctuation occurred, Lu Cang sensed a vast and terrifying Qi rise into the sky!

It was like a blazing sun hanging high above!

In that moment, Lu Cang felt an almost irresistible pressure from the Magic Power!

Far up in the sky, a bald man covered in Runes appeared. Behind him, countless Runes symbolizing Arcane Magic rotated, imprinting themselves upon the Void, flickering in and out of sight.

However...

Lu Cang had already made his move!

Almost simultaneously, terrifying clusters of light ignited all across the island!

Void Nether, compared to the previous Death Spells like Purification, Soul Condensing True Burst, Convergence Burst, and Spirit Burst, had no special properties. It was simply... more powerful.

So powerful that...

BOOM!

In an instant, the world was filled with nothing but wandering souls dancing through the air. It was as if his sense of hearing vanished in that moment.

WHOOSH!

All across the island, every Skin Taker within his Perception melted like wax in an instant!

Only the towering figure in the sky remained standing.

The Runes spinning around its body had actually isolated it from the blast.

Altheus.

The strongest Mage in the Moon Sea thousands of years ago, a Level 8 Root Mage.

Lu Cang stared at his body.

He was like a miniature sun, and his Date of Death was a full three hundred-plus years away.

’So short...’

Having recently faced monsters with Dates of Death thousands of years in the future, seeing someone with only three hundred years left felt incredibly short.

’This is the normal lifespan for a Level 8 Reincarnator...’

The same limit that even An Zheng could not escape.

To break free from this limit, one had to either stop being human and become a Demon, find a way to reach Level 9, or ascend to godhood.

Otherwise, they could only struggle to survive by searching for Longevity treasures.

Like the Longevity Flower, the Fountain of Eternal Youth, and so on...

But the Effect of these items was limited. Their efficacy diminished greatly after the first use.

...

"You..."

WHOOSH!

Lu Cang’s Perception flared.

SWISH!

In another instant, he vanished from his spot!

CRACK—

The moment after Lu Cang disappeared, the ground where he had just been standing—a hide—shot up, almost engulfing him completely.

"Oh?"

Lu Cang felt the feedback from the Void Nether detonation.

Destruction. It had certainly been wrought. But... it also seemed like it hadn’t, not really.

The aftershock of Void Nether didn’t last as long as the Magic of previous Tiers. It dissipated completely within the brief span of two breaths after being cast.

It vanished like a blast wave.

And yet... after the aftershock faded, the island itself had somehow retained its shape.

In contrast, the surrounding sea had been blasted away, leaving a massive spherical cavity. He stood on the island as if inside this hollow void.

Only the island, himself... and four other people remained.

’The texture of this hide is so familiar.’

Lu Cang remembered.

This hide was Aertemi’s Immortal Hide...

No matter how you tried to kill her, she wouldn’t die.

An enemy that couldn’t be killed by conventional attacks.

TAP—

In the next second, Lu Cang felt immense pressure from four directions.

"Lady Aertemi was right after all."

"She had her reasons for ordering us to stand guard here."

"It seems we’ve hooked a big one."

"With such power, he’ll surely make a fine hide."

Four sentences came from three directions.

The Mage covered in Runes had also descended to stand directly in front of Lu Cang, the patterns of Arcane Magic flowing within his eyes.

’This person’s Root Magic must be specialized in the path of Arcane Magic.’

Arcane Magic was the path Lu Cang had the least contact with.

Compared to other Magic like Element, Mind, Space, or Summoning, which required observing the world and drawing corresponding thoughts and conclusions, Arcane Magic was different.

Arcane Magic leaned more toward a kind of extremely pure... theory.

It didn’t rely on any experimentation or observation, only on infinite deductions based on the most fundamental axioms.

That was Arcane Magic.

It was also known as the most complex, difficult, and headache-inducing branch of Magic for Mages.

But fortunately, Arcane Magic was an optional branch; one didn’t have to learn it.

Moreover, at a basic level of mastery, its strength wasn’t necessarily much greater than other types of Magic, so Lu Cang hadn’t studied it extensively.

He had only completed some studies on Arcane Magic under Iz’s urging.

For example, *High Level Arcane*, *Arcane Analysis*, *Arcanum*, and others...

Even with his Spiritual Strength and the bonus from being a Decryption Scholar, studying this stuff still gave him a massive headache.

If one had to name a particular advantage of Arcane Magic, it was that it could often serve as a powerful tool for studying other forms of Magic.

And, in a duel between Mages, an Arcane Mage might easily understand another’s Magic, but an ordinary Mage would have a hard time deciphering an Arcane Mage’s spells.

Thinking back now, he hadn’t touched Arcane Magic since leaving Kernoya and Iz’s supervision.

He just hadn’t expected to run into a Mage specializing in Arcane Magic here.

And an Arcane Mage who researched fundamental Runes, at that.

’But what a pity... it’s just a hide.’

Behind him was a Disciple of An Su—Lu Cang could feel the scent of souls drifting from him. To his right was a Warrior shouldering a single-edged sword, radiating a murderous aura.

As for his left... there was nothing there, but Lu Cang felt a bone-chilling cold at his back.

’The Assassin is about to make a move on me.’

"Kid..." the Warrior on his right began to speak.

But before he could finish his sentence, Lu Cang vanished in an instant!

Azure Sky Stream—Eighth Move·Movement—Instantaneous Pause

BANG!

An extremely fast streak of light shot away from the spot in a flash!

Yet, even at that extreme speed, Lu Cang saw an unhurried figure appear right in front of him, perfectly in sync with his own movement.

It was the Warrior wielding the single-edged sword.

"What’s the hurry?"