The first ray of sunlight pierced through the thin purple mist of the morning wasteland, only to be blocked by a massive shadow at the center of the outpost.
It was the thousand-pound Mana-Suppressing Stone.
Lu Cen stood bare-chested, his abdominal muscles gleaming with a cold, metallic hardness in the dawn light. He extended his right hand, dragging his silver-boned index finger across the pillar's surface.
Screeeech—Screeeech—
Using no blade, Lu Cen relied solely on the hardness of his finger to gouge a line of massive characters into the indestructible stone:
"MAGIC IS A LIE. PAIN IS THE ONLY TRUTH."
Stone shards flew. The raw, physical sensation of the carving made Sylvie's teeth ache just watching.
"Are you insane? This is the equivalent of tearing away the Empire's last shred of dignity."
Sylvie had traded her opulent Saintess gown for a suit of form-fitting, dark green tactical leather. The gear was designed for sprinting and power, accentuating her graceful yet powerful lines.
Lu Cen glanced back at her, his eyes lingering on her bracers for a second. "Those clothes suit the scent of blood and soil much better."
"Cut the talk," Sylvie said, tightening her belt. "Viscount Buck has fled. He'll be back with reinforcements."
Lu Cen let out a cold laugh. He tore a strip of red cloth from Buck's ruined magic carpet and tied it to the top of the pillar.
[System Notification: Extreme Limit Academy physical defense network initialized.]
[Instruction: Issue a "Global" taunt to attract high-concentration mana sources.]
"Batu, hang this at the canyon entrance."
Lu Cen tossed out a wooden board covered in writing, his tone as casual as if he were handing out breakfast.
The board read: CHALLENGE DECREE: Defeat any student of the Academy, win 100 gold coins. Lose, and your staff becomes a weight plate.
The old man, Batu, took the board. A flash of excitement crossed his cloudy eyes as he laughed and walked into the mist.
The Twist: Within half a day, the news spread to the nearby mining towns. The arrogant wandering mages and mercenaries weren't enraged; they were ecstatic, rushing toward the outpost. In their eyes, this was just a discarded noble throwing away money.
By afternoon, a chaotic mess of footsteps accompanied by various elemental fluctuations forcibly crashed through the Academy's flimsy gates.
"Which one of you is Lu Cen? Get out here and die!"
Leading them was a one-eyed mage, clutching a staff embedded with a fist-sized mana crystal. He radiated the violent aura of a Tier-3 Lightning Mage. Behind him were over twenty oddly dressed casters, greed flickering in their eyes.
Lu Cen didn't move. He sat by the pillar, fiddling with a "heavy dumbbell" Ah Er had just lugged over.
"Ah Er, go test your new footwork," Lu Cen said without looking up.
The boy, Ah Er, stepped forward. Though still thin, the sound of his feet gripping the ground was incredibly heavy, like a piece of heavy machinery.
"You're looking for death!" the one-eyed mage roared, thrusting his staff forward. "Lightning Strike!"
However, the expected purple thunder did not materialize. The crystal at the tip of the staff flickered once, then died like a lightbulb with a cut wire.
"What's happening? My circuit is broken?!" The mages discovered with horror that upon approaching the black pillar, the aether in the air had become exceptionally heavy. It no longer obeyed their will, instead clinging to the ground like stagnant water.
[System Notification: Mana-Suppressing Pillar generating "Physical Inertia Interference." Current spell success rate dropped by 90%!]
"In this place, your staves have only one purpose."
Lu Cen stood up, every step landing in sync with the mages' heartbeats. "And that is to increase my weight load."
Ah Er shot forward like a released arrow, instantly plunging into the group of mages. There were no incantations, no light shows—only the dull thud of flesh on flesh and the crisp sound of shattering bones.
These "glass cannons," accustomed to long-range duels, were as fragile as paper dolls before muscle and fist. One mage tried to chant an instant fireball but was silenced as Ah Er's simple hook-kick shattered his jawbone.
CRACK!
Lu Cen walked up to the one-eyed mage. Before the man's terrified gaze, he casually snatched away the priceless lightning staff. He exerted his strength, twisting the hard staff as if he were wringing a wet towel.
A tiny, pale-blue crystal fell from the break. Lu Cen caught it.
[System Alert: High-purity "Godly Evolution" substance detected! Composition analysis: Sanctified Waste extract.]
[Synchronization increased to 15% due to high-concentration crystal absorption!]
Lu Cen's pupils shrunk to pinpricks. He stared at the blue shard in his hand, a bone-chilling coldness racing up his spine. The staff cores that Imperial mages took such pride in were actually refined from people with his exact constitution. Every time a staff glowed, it meant someone like him had been drained dry.
"Cedric... is this what you meant by 'Storage Pile'?"
Lu Cen whispered to himself, the silver fire in his eyes beginning to spread across his entire body for the first time.
Sylvie walked over, her face pale as she looked at the shattered remains of staves being used as stools by the students.
"Lu Cen, do you feel it?" she asked, her voice trembling. "The heartbeat beneath the ground... it's getting faster."
Lu Cen looked down. From the cracks beneath the stone pillar, silver, vessel-like metal roots had begun to grow. They were greedily sucking up the faint, residual mana leaking from the fallen mages.
On the system interface, his mother's voice rang out again, but this time it carried a desperate, tragic beauty:
"Cen'er... destroy the pillar... It isn't a foundation. It's... a nail for the Great Altar!"