Chapter 360 All for Strength

"Lan Wei'er has already advanced to a Sixth-tier Mage." Mage Roman said, her daughter's rapid advancement was largely due to the top-tier Meditation Method Shaoke had given her. "She is now commanding several hundred low-rank mages in battle." With that, Mage Roman happily picked up Lan Wei'er.

Shaoke simply nodded slightly, showing no surprise at Lan Wei'er's advancement, given the significant help they had given her. Nevertheless, he still praised her warmly, which made her very happy.

Over the following days, they talked incessantly about what had happened since their separation. Mage Roman and the others temporarily paused their work, spending every day with Shaoke. This continued until the Blue-robed Mage contacted Shaoke via his staff.

It turned out that just after Shaoke had been intimate with Mage Roman, the Blue-robed Mage contacted him via the staff. Possibly due to the mage tower, the Blue-robed Mage's image couldn't appear there, so she sent a written message asking him to leave the tower and meet at a hill outside the Bloody Fortress. After informing Mage Roman and the others, the male mage went alone to the hill she mentioned, the same place where he and Mage Roman had once been pursued by people from the Desasi Empire. Now, he returned there as an Eighth-order practitioner.

"You haven't advanced?" Shaoke asked the Blue-robed Mage in confusion, wondering why she hadn't used the military's method to advance to Ninth Rank, but instead remained at Eighth Tier.

The Blue-robed Mage gave a bitter smile and finally said helplessly, "The advancement method provided by the military is too ordinary. If I follow that method, I definitely won't be able to defeat others of the same rank." She licked her rosy lips and added, "Besides, the success rate of this method is too low; if I fail, it means I'll be permanently stuck at Eighth Tier or die."

The Blue-robed Mage's words made Shaoke fall silent. He knew that the military's method wasn't a high-level method, but he didn't know where else to obtain other methods. After all, hunting down over a hundred ninth-rank mages might not guarantee obtaining those methods from their fragmented memories. He shook his head and said, "There's no other way. We have to do this."

The Blue-robed Mage glanced at Shaoke and said, "Actually, there are ways to obtain high-level Ninth-rank advancement methods, but I'm not sure if you dare to try." She gritted her teeth and stared at him tightly. For many years, she had wanted to use that method to obtain a high-level method but kept putting it off for various reasons. After that battle, she felt it was entirely possible to obtain one.

"I don't want to be easily killed by someone of the same rank in future conflicts." Shaoke replied without hesitation, then asked the Blue-robed Mage about the other way to obtain an advancement method.

"The Violet Family." The Blue-robed Mage half-closed her eyes, and her expression made Shaoke feel the kind of look often seen on the battlefield—dangerous. "In the battle of the Luanyun Empire, the only Twelfth-order being in their family has fallen. I think we can forcefully plunder their family's treasures." She then added, "We might even obtain a Twelfth-tier advancement method."

The Blue-robed Mage's suggestion made Shaoke think for a while. Finally, he asked doubtfully, "How many Eleventh-order beings are there? How many Tenth-tier beings? Just the two of us, Eighth-order beings exist?" He quickly twirled his staff. If the Violet Family only had nine-rank professionals, he would not hesitate to plunder. But since the family had once produced a Twelfth-order being, he couldn't determine how many Tenth-order beings it had. Acting rashly would definitely get them killed.

"It's not just the two of us; there are others." The Blue-robed Mage looked calmly at Shaoke. "Back in the Fallen Capital, we formed an organization. To get an advancement method, this organization would pay any price." She then added, "If possible, over a dozen nine-rank professionals could act together. As for Tenth-tier professionals, I don't think they would join such a small organization."

"The Violet Family has an Eleventh-order professional who could completely destroy us." Shaoke rolled his eyes helplessly, not understanding why the Blue-robed Mage had chosen this target. "If there were two, they might even plunder our souls and burn them over Arcane Fire for a thousand years."

"We're just hoping that the high-order beings of the Violet Family have died in large numbers. Even if most of us die and only one person escapes with the advancement method, everything we do won't be in vain." The Blue-robed Mage raised her voice to counter Shaoke's idea, emphasizing that if even one person survived, they could copy the methods and deliver them to their descendants or family.

"I'm not taking part in this operation. I don't want to die like this now. I'd rather wait slowly, even if it takes a thousand years, to find a better advancement method." With that, Shaoke stood up and flew toward the Bloody Fortress, leaving the Blue-robed Mage standing alone on the hill for a long time, unable to understand why he had rejected her suggestion.

At Mage Roman's request, the Bloody Fortress arranged a small laboratory for Shaoke, where he could conduct simple experiments, as agreed with Mage Roman.

Mage Roman and the White-robed Cleric became busy again, still working on that magical item they had started. According to Mage Roman, it would take several more decades to finalize. Since few predecessors had made such an item, there was no reference material. Now, with the support of the Blizzard Legion and the Bloody Legion, they had gathered hundreds of Alchemists for intensive research to facilitate mass production.

Time passed quickly. Shaoke spent a large amount of time studying ancient original books, constantly contemplating the conditions of the ancient Spellcasters and learning various Spell and magic array formation knowledge. He wanted to eventually create a new spellbook, as his current one no longer provided much help. However, he still lacked a perfect preparation method for creating a new spellbook.

One day, Shaoke took out an Eighth-tier mage's head that had stored countless souls, intending to follow the method of Ancient Spellcasters and incorporate the head and its souls into his meditation space. He believed this would greatly enhance his Spellcasting ability many times over—provided it succeeded; failure would cause great harm to his meditation space.

After repeatedly studying that special method for three or four years, Shaoke finally felt confident enough to attempt it. The most important reason was that his meditation space had been fully constructed.

A ball of fire composed entirely of Arcane Fire floated in the air, acting as the sun. Countless stars formed by magic scripts and sentences were arranged in special positions under the influence of numerous mental energy threads, enhancing the stability of the meditation space. Hundreds of magic scripts continuously absorbed magic power and mental energy, rising from the altar to temper the earth.

After telling Mage Roman and the others about his plan to cultivate in seclusion for a while, the White-robed Cleric suddenly began to cry. But no matter how Shaoke asked, she wouldn't answer. Mage Roman just her eyes reddened and said nothing, silently watching him, unable to stop his idea.

"Father, you should spend more time with us." Lan Wei'er, standing beside them, hugged the White-robed Cleric, dissatisfied with Shaoke's recent behavior. She felt he had changed a lot since returning from the battlefield and that in the past three or four years, she had rarely seen him. If he went into seclusion again, she would go even longer without seeing him, which was why the Cleric was crying.

Shaoke helplessly rubbed Lan Wei'er's head, then kissed Mage Roman and the White-robed Cleric. "It won't be long. I'll finish this training session quickly." Without further words, he bid farewell to the three, prepared enough food, and closed his room to begin cultivation.

After calming his somewhat unstable emotions, the mage selected the head with the most stored souls, then used the arcane secret to transfer many more souls into it until no more could be accommodated. Then he started absorbing them following the ancient spellcasters' method.

A small altar had been prepared. The mage sat on it and chanted a spell to activate it. Countless lines of magic scripts emerged from around the altar, weaving into a large cage. Then Shaoke took out the head and began chanting again.

Segments of ancient magic scripts were condensed into solid forms by powerful mental force and magic power, slowly merging into the pitch-black head. At the same time, the mage continuously formed complex gestures, which created small arrays that also merged into the head along with the scripts.

Chilling howls came from the head, which began to bounce wildly. Black flames shot from its hollow eye sockets, making Shaoke very uncomfortable.

After chanting for a full magical hour, Shaoke abruptly ended the spell and gestures. The black head rapidly shrank and, beneath the silver light in Shaoke's eyes, flew into his meditation space.

Inside the meditation space, the head looked extremely wild, trying to fly around, but Shaoke used a large amount of mental and magical power to form arrays that firmly suppressed it. Then he controlled the head to fly toward the altar.

Everything went smoothly. The head howled as it slowly merged into the altar, settling at the lowest layer. After this, Shaoke continued to condense ancient magic scripts in his meditation space, which then quickly merged into the lowest altar. As these scripts merged, the head quieted down.

Just as Shaoke merged the last magic script into the altar, the thirty-six strange characters that had been hovering at the base of the altar, after absorbing enough mental force, suddenly emitted a golden light. They detached thirty-six identical characters, which merged into the black head. At that moment, the roar of a giant beast echoed in the mage's meditation space.

The sudden roar caused even greater turbulence in the already unstable meditation space. Silver-white light appeared from nowhere, continuously calming the violent disturbances. Starlight in the sky shot down countless beams to prevent the ground from cracking. It took half a magical hour for everything to slowly settle. Shaoke then realized that his mental energy was severely depleted, and his meditation space had visibly shrunk a bit. This was clearly due to a permanent loss of magic power and mental force.

After a quick meditation to recover, Shaoke ate some food and re-entered his meditation space. Instead of checking the altar's changes, he pondered why his meditation space had suffered permanent loss of magic power and mental force—something that only happened when releasing special spells or using special spellcasting techniques, but he had done nothing of the sort.

After resting for three days, he gave up searching for the cause, since his meditation space was still large; a slight shrinkage didn't matter much. Then he examined the altar's changes, confirming his success.

The head in the altar had begun to rotate on its own, emitting streams of black smoke that were burned away by falling arcane fire from the sky. Once no more black smoke emerged, his meditation space would undergo significant changes, which required patience. It would take about ten years to complete. Meanwhile, he had to finish the next step.

He had originally stored souls in multiple heads, but under his control, he concentrated them into eight heads, plus the one he had absorbed earlier—nine heads in total, all fully absorbed into the altar. Each layer of the altar had three heads, distributing pressure and speeding up purification. After this work, he had consumed one-fifth of the food he had stored for twenty years.

Despite finishing this, Shaoke didn't immediately end his seclusion; he planned to stay until his food ran out. Now he intended to calm down and study some spell research materials.

The idea was fine, but with seven or eight years of food left, the special summoning device in the room emitted faint, continuous fluctuations—a device used only when Mage Roman or the others had urgent matters outside. Shaoke checked and decided to end his seclusion.

"Shaoke, you should take a bath and get some sleep to welcome the guests." Mage Roman, looking tired, hugged Shaoke tightly. Being so close yet unable to see him for over ten years had become unbearable for her.

Then the White-robed Cleric arrived, but Lan Wei'er was delayed by work. The mage didn't mind, just followed the two female spellcasters to the medicinal pool for a relaxing two magical hours, then, under their gentle care, eased his physical desires. Finally, after they cleaned him up, they took him to another floor to meet the guests.

The guest surprised Shaoke—it was the Blue-robed Mage. She looked at him strangely, feeling he appeared more mysterious and eerie than last time. The stars and the pale-purple eight-pointed star magic array flickering in his eyes indicated his enhanced strength.

After exchanging pleasantries, the Blue-robed Mage came straight to the point: she wanted to revisit that ancient ruin with Shaoke to retrieve more items. She was inviting him to help.

"Can I get those ancient books and horns? They are very important to me." Shaoke didn't hide his intentions. "I think the two of us are enough to open another stone chamber like last time, don't you?" Shaoke half-closed his eyes, watching her.

The Blue-robed Mage gave a bitter nod. "As you wish. I can't find any other trustworthy professionals to help me, so it's just you and me. But any magic items I can use must be mine." She added, "Even if I can't learn those ancient scripts, some books still need to be in my possession, as I have a family." Clearly, she was thinking of her family.

They discussed for a while and finally finalized the distribution plan, which we won't detail here to conserve space.

However, they didn't go to the ruin immediately. According to Shaoke, he needed to rest here for a while, and they agreed to set off a month from that day, giving the male mage time to prepare.

As soon as the Blue-robed Mage left, Mage Roman came in, walked behind him, touched his black hair that now reached the ground, and said, "Leaving again?" She sighed, hugged him from behind, and bit his neck hard.

Her words left Shaoke at a loss for what to say. He turned and hugged her, saying, "Just exploring a ruin—the one from the Fallen Capital. I've done it before." But his comfort didn't help.

"But last time, it took you two years. I really want you to stay with me longer." Mage Roman then fell silent, letting him hold her tightly.

"It won't be too long." Shaoke kissed her forehead. "I've learned the ancient magic scripts. I believe it won't take long this time. Besides, we won't go for another month." That was all he could say to comfort her.

During that month, the two female mages tried to spend as much extra time as possible with Shaoke, going to taverns or visiting the levels planted with precious magical plants. And so the month passed quickly.

On the appointed day, Shaoke left the huge mage tower early and flew to the hill outside the city to wait. Soon the Blue-robed Mage arrived. After a brief conversation, they set off toward the Fallen Capital.

They flew at high speed, mainly because the Blue-robed Mage didn't know the Spatial Tear technique. "After that battle, many people lost their lives." Flying for a while, the Blue-robed Mage heaved a sigh to herself. "Remember Mage Meigan?"

Shaoke slowed slightly to fly alongside her. "Yes. He's now a ninth-rank mage, right?" He shook his head, feeling he was now no worse than Mage Meigan, perhaps even stronger. But because he had incorporated those heads, his meditation space's magic and mental force were insufficient to advance to Nine-rank Professional.

"No, he went back to his hometown and is now teaching young people spell knowledge." The Blue-robed Mage's words told Shaoke that Mage Meigan also refused to advance due to the mediocre method.

"The plan to plunder the Violet Family was partly provided by him." She looked at Shaoke, again inviting him to join, but he refused once more.