This had been an extraordinarily long and tumultuous day.
When Lynn returned to his guarded fortress, the sky was still shrouded in gloom. Thick clouds seemed to be cast over the heavens, blocking out all light.
There was not the slightest hint of dawn on the horizon. The night had yet to recede it was still the silent hours of the latter half of the night.
Cold air seeped in through the cracks in the windows, bringing a biting chill.
Throughout this night, Lynn's emotions had ebbed and flowed like tides.
In just one day and night, he had experienced dramatic ups and downs.
He had worked with Grand Wizard Yude and the others to ambush members of the Star Hunt Society, only to have Qi, whom he had been wary of all along, come knocking on his door instead.
Fortunately, he and Qi managed to reach some kind of agreement, allowing for temporary peace between them.
Moreover, later that night, Qi took him to a temple somewhere in Mystra, where Lynn gained an immense amount of faith energy, significantly enhancing his mental power.
Upon returning to his laboratory, Lynn dismissed Sonya, shut the doors and windows tightly, and handed over control of the entire lab to Yfgríd.
He stood by the window with his hands behind his back, gazing silently at the somber night outside.
The cold wind howled against the glass, letting out faint wailing sounds. His expression fluctuated in the dim light as if recalling the series of dramatic events that had unfolded in just this short day.
Finally, he slowly opened his palm, revealing a delicate green crystal that began to levitate gently. It was as clear as jade and emitted a fresh, vibrant aura this was the Azure Sky Spirit.
Now, after absorbing a massive amount of faith energy, the Azure Sky Spirit had regained some of its vitality. A soft green glow pulsed within, like the rhythmic beating of a heart.
Lynn gazed at the crystal with a trace of reverence.
He could distinctly sense the immense power contained within like a slumbering beast, coiled within the crystal, waiting to awaken and unleash an apocalyptic storm.
If this energy were to erupt all at once, even a Third Level Grand Wizard would be instantly obliterated. Only a Morning Star Wizard might barely withstand it.
And this was merely the Azure Sky Spirit's current, partially restored state.
After all, in its true form, the Azure Sky Spirit was at the Radiant Moon level. If it were ever fully restored, its unleashed power could easily destroy this entire plane of existence.
The so-called Radiant Moon represented the brilliance of the full moon, shining alongside the stars.
In the hierarchy of wizards, Morning Star Wizards were already considered top-level beings, capable of commanding starlight and mastering elemental forces.
But Radiant Moon Wizards were like the eternal moon distant, mysterious, and utterly beyond the reach of mere starlight.
If a Morning Star was just a flickering point in the night sky, then the Radiant Moon was the celestial body that reigned supreme above all.
The weapons, artifacts, and treasures wielded by Morning Star Wizards were classified as Morning Star-grade items.
But beyond the Morning Star Wizards stood the Radiant Moon Wizards.
Above the scattered starlight, the moon reigned eternally.
The gap between Morning Star Wizards and Radiant Moon Wizards was as vast as the difference between Starlight and Moonlight an insurmountable divide.
The artifacts and relics used by Radiant Moon Wizards were accordingly known as Radiant Moon-grade treasures.
Given their extreme rarity and formidable power, such items were often granted the honorary title of Holy Relics.
And the Azure Sky Spirit was, without a doubt, a genuine Radiant Moon-grade Holy Relic a treasure so precious that even a mighty empire like the Divine Nature Theocracy would consider it their ultimate trump card.
What's more, this Holy Relic was fundamentally connected to the godhood of a long-deceased Primordial God!
Lynn felt waves of emotion surging through his heart.
What kind of terrifying power would a Radiant Moon-grade Holy Relic forged from the godhood of a Primordial God possess in its prime?
At present, the Azure Sky Spirit had regained a portion of its energy. The soft green glow pulsating within the crystal exuded an aura of boundless vitality, carrying an undercurrent of overwhelming power.
Lynn focused his senses. Even in its current state, this power could effortlessly annihilate a Third Level Grand Wizard and might even seriously injure a Morning Star Wizard in a confrontation.
And this was perhaps only a fraction possibly less than one-tenth of the Azure Sky Spirit's full potential.
If it were to be completely restored, what kind of unfathomable force would it unleash?
Even Radiant Moon Wizards would have to tread carefully before such a force.
At this thought, Lynn suddenly chuckled softly and shook his head with a wry smile.
Restoring the Azure Sky Spirit to its full power?
Easier said than done!
Even with Qi's support from the shadows, the difficulty of this endeavor was akin to ascending the heavens.
After all, they had only been able to seize fragments of faith energy through sporadic raids, relying on secrecy and the element of surprise to succeed.
But if they continued for too long, the Goddess's faction would inevitably take notice. Once they strengthened their defenses, harvesting faith energy again would be as perilous as seeking sustenance from a tiger's mouth.
Lynn lightly licked his lips, his eyes flickering as he muttered to himself:
"I hope we can gather enough faith energy before the Goddess's forces react… If I can use this opportunity to break through to the Second-Level Wizard stage, then…"
The mere thought of advancing stirred a fiery anticipation in his heart.
The path of advancement for official wizards was fraught with difficulty, with the accumulation and transformation of spiritual power being particularly crucial.
But now, with the Azure Sky Spirit in his possession and the power of faith as an additional catalyst, it was as if he had an unceasing tide of energy propelling him forward on his path of magic.
"A Radiant Moon-grade Holy Relic… truly unmatched in power…"
Lynn clenched the crystal in his hand, feeling the profound, mysterious force surging within it. A wave of emotion swept through him.
Yet, his thoughts quickly shifted, his gaze deep and unreadable as he murmured:
"I wonder what's happening with Maple Tree right now…"
Lynn extended his spiritual power, attempting to reach into the deepest core of the Azure Sky Spirit, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not touch that unknown realm.
Maple Tree seemed to be in deep slumber within the core of the spirit, showing no signs of awakening anytime soon.
"Faith energy…" Lynn whispered as his thoughts raced once more.
His understanding of divine civilizations had deepened. Through his discussions with Qi, he had learned more about their nature.
In divine civilizations, for a being to ascend to godhood, they had to refine a divinity shard.
Though divine seats were innately fixed and predetermined, gods could still perish. When that happened, their divinity would remain intact.
If a legendary figure from a divine civilization obtained such a divinity shard and successfully refined it, they could ascend from mortality to godhood.
And now, in his own hands, Lynn held a genuine divinity shard one that had once belonged to a supreme deity!
"If I could fully refine it… become a god?"
A blazing ambition erupted in Lynn's eyes, and an unexpected thought took root in his mind.
Faith energy was the cornerstone of divinity and with the power of the Azure Sky Spirit at his disposal…
If he could cultivate a group of devoted followers, he would essentially control a wellspring of endless energy.
His spiritual power would grow exponentially, and breaking through to higher realms would become inevitable his future, limitless!
However, Lynn quickly regained his composure, a contemplative glint flashing through his eyes.
"Unfortunately, the origins of this thing are highly troublesome… After all, it is the divinity shard of a supreme deity."
He sighed inwardly, his thoughts churning at high speed as he recalled the hidden history behind the origins of natural wizards.
As it turned out, Qi's civilization, before its downfall, had once engaged in a brutal war against a divine civilization ultimately managing to slay a supreme deity.
That deity had fallen from the ranks of the divine and perished within the boundless Sea of Worlds.
Over time, the slain deity's remains were discovered by the pioneering wizards of Lynn's civilization.
They had used the deceased deity as the foundation for their research, giving rise to the path of natural wizards merging the might of divinity with the forces of nature to forge a unique magical system.
Thinking of this, Lynn's expression grew complicated.
"The Godblood Pill has marked me as a defier of the gods, but in reality, as a natural wizard, I have been consuming the essence of a fallen deity all along…"
Looking back now, Lynn couldn't help but feel a sense of irony.
From the moment he became a natural wizard, he had been bound to the divine civilizations in an unbreakable conflict.
Their fates were intertwined in an inevitable struggle that could only end with either their destruction or his own.
"Am I destined to be the enemy of divine civilizations?"
Lynn shook his head slightly, the corners of his lips curling into a mocking smile.
Scoffing at himself, he dismissed the thought from his mind.
"Forget it. For now, I should focus on stabilizing my strength."
Narrowing his eyes, he traced his fingers across the surface of the Azure Sky Spirit. The emerald glow rippled beneath his touch, like waves stirring upon a tranquil lake.
"To unlock the full potential of the Azure Sky Spirit, I must at least reach the Third-Level Wizard stage first…"
Though ambition burned within him, Lynn remained cool-headed, knowing that haste would only lead to ruin.
In truth, he still harbored some lingering doubts about the Azure Sky Spirit.
What puzzled him the most was why Qi had not simply seized control of it from him.
With Qi's abilities, such a feat should have been effortless and easily done with barely any resistance.
And yet, Qi had not done so. Instead, he had chosen to negotiate and establish a contract with Lynn, treating him as an equal.
This was highly unusual.
Qi had never explained his reasoning, seemingly unwilling to discuss the matter in depth.
Lynn could only infer from the clues available to him that perhaps it was related to their environment.
When they were inside the [Landscape], Qi had simultaneously wielded control over both the Golden Scales and the Azure Sky Spirit.
But now, they were in the external world, a realm under the dominion of the Weave Goddess, subtly linked to the divine civilizations.
If in such circumstances, Qi still held control over the Azure Spirit and the Golden Scale, it might trigger some kind of special reaction.
It could even directly attract the attention of the Divine Civilization. After all, the permanent loss of a main god from the Pantheon was a humiliation for the gods.
The death of that main god was precisely caused by the Golden Scale, an artifact of an even higher level.
That supreme weapon had completely ended the existence of a conceptual deity who wielded both the authority of life and nature…
"The Goddess of Life and Nature, Shantia."
Lynn gazed at the Azure Spirit with deep thought. The radiance within the crystal suddenly became brighter, pulsing rhythmically like a heartbeat.
The moment he uttered Shantia's name, he experienced an illusion, as if the azure glow carried a greater sense of vitality, even breathing faintly.
Lynn's heart skipped a beat, but he quickly smiled and dismissed the anomaly.
"So, the Golden Scale is the truly terrifying existence…"
He murmured to himself, recalling the vision of the Golden Scale hanging in the void.
To slay an almost immortal conceptual deity through sheer force of higher authority and power…
Such a supreme artifact was truly an absolute bane to the gods.
Time stretched and contracted like an elastic band, sometimes packed tightly with unfolding events, other times slipping away like grains of sand through fingers.
Since Lynn had reached an agreement with Qi, half a month had already passed.
During this period, Lynn returned to the quiet life of guarding his fortress, as if the entire world had slowed down.
No one disturbed him. There were no mundane affairs to handle. Even the spies from the goddess' faction seemed to have vanished without a trace.
Each morning, Lynn awoke to sunlight filling his study, then entered his laboratory to continue his research on the Azure Spirit and refine his power.
At last, he could lower his guard for a while, immersing himself completely in experimentation and cultivation.
No sudden threats. No prying eyes of extradimensional beings. Everything felt peaceful and steady.
Yet, Lynn did not waste a single moment in this calm half-month.
Using the war points he had accumulated, he purchased a batch of rare metallic materials and personally repaired the severely damaged Gray Hawk Armor.
During the restoration process, he not only deepened his understanding of mechanical craftsmanship but also restored his armor to peak condition.
At the same time, he did not neglect the refinement of his mental strength.
Each morning, he sat cross-legged and practiced the Azure Sky Meditation Technique.
In his spiritual world, the vast blue void stretched endlessly like the firmament, rippling with ethereal light.
As the meditation technique circulated, his mental strength condensed and compressed, as if wisps of mist were slowly solidifying into form.
Originally, his spiritual domain could only hold 125 points of mental strength.
However, his actual mental strength had already reached 130 points, causing an overflow like an overfilled lake spilling beyond its banks creating subtle signs of instability.
But after half a month of relentless refinement, he had successfully compressed his mental strength, making it more condensed and compact.
The phenomenon of overflowing mental strength was finally brought under control, and from the outside, his presence no longer carried any traces of disorder or instability.
At that moment, Lynn's cultivation had fully stabilized at the mid-stage of a First-Level Wizard, with his mental strength perfectly aligned at 130 points.
He let out a long exhale, feeling the fullness and cohesion of his power, a satisfied smile appearing on his lips.
"Next…"
Lynn's gaze sharpened, his mind already forming a plan.
He needed to continue training, further compressing his mental strength while gradually increasing it to 150 points, reaching the peak of the mid-stage.
Once he achieved 150 points of mental strength, he would experience the initial signs of materialization perhaps even beginning to vaporize a portion of his spiritual energy.
At that point, if he could completely transform his spiritual domain into a vaporized state, he would be on the verge of breaking through to the late stage of a First-Level Wizard, laying the foundation for advancing to Second-Level Wizard.
Just as Lynn was preparing to continue this steady rhythm cultivating while waiting for Qi's signal to launch the next faith-harvesting operation A mechanical construct, a black iron-winged raven, pierced through the magical barrier and silently landed on the laboratory window.
Its blood-red eyes flickered with cold light, and its claws clutched a bound scroll.
This was unusual, as mechanical wizards rarely used written messages; most communications were conducted via long-distance transmission links.
Seeing this, Lynn frowned slightly. With a small wave of his hand, the scroll unfurled midair, revealing lines of bold and powerful ink strokes.
The letter came from Lynn's direct superiors.
It was from the Eastern War Zone of the Thirteenth Dimensional World War Fortress No. 13.
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