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The ice sizzled and turned into steam upon coming into contact with the flames, forming a large white cloud that hung over Dragon Mountain City.

Two figures were sent flying through this cloud with tragic howls.

The Chaotic Wind Brothers.

Even though they had been competing in terms of Arcana Techniques, the result was reflected on their physical body. The powerful waves of Origin Energy unleashed in the Arcana Technique had washed back over them, immediately destroying their barriers and gravely wounding both of them.

“How is this possible?” Flaming Femme was stunned as she watched the situation unfold.

Their opponent’s flaming sword was powerful, but it shouldn’t have been that powerful.

S Chen had completely steamrolled them, indicating that their Arcana Technique was at least two rings inferior.

In other words, only an Eighth-Ring Arcana Master should have been able to do this, and given how strong the Chaotic Wind Brothers were, the technique also needed to be a stronger Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique to accomplish this.

However, Flaming Femme could sense that their opponent wasn’t using any Arcana Technique stronger than five rings.

How could a Fifth-Ring Arcana Technique be that powerful?

As the clouds of steam dissipated, Su Chen’s figure reappeared.

He stood indifferently in the center, wielding a massive flaming blade.

The flaming blade in his hand had morphed slightly as well. The blade was no longer expanding, and the flames appeared to be receding. However, glowing streaks of flowing liquid that looked like lava were now covering the sword.

Lava?

Flaming Femme felt her heart jolt as understanding dawned on her. “Flowing Gold Blade!?”

Su Chen smiled slightly. “Yes, it’s the Flowing Gold Blade.”

Flowing Gold Blade was a Fourth-Ring Arcana Technique.

Yes, it wasn’t even a Fifth-Ring Arana Technique.

This Arcana Technique would create a temporary weapon from some metal. It was used for close-quarters combat, which was why the Arcana Technique was very rarely seen. However, this was not that surprising, as metal-type Arcana Techniques were primarily used by close-quarters combat specialists anyways. This was why they were a branch of rarely-used arcana Techniques.

Because Flowing Gold Blade required metal as a raw ingredient, Su Chen had gathered large quantities of metal early on.

There were a few benefits to the Flowing Gold Blade over conventional weapons. Because it was an Arcana Technique, it wasn’t affected by using it to unleash other Arcana Techniques, and certain Arcana Techniques would even have their strength boosted as a result. In addition, it had the ability to change shape based on the user’s needs, and it also contained destructive capacities.

This ability was quite a unique one, allowing the blade to destroy everything it came into contact with, including defensive barriers, Origin Tools, and even Arcana Techniques.

However, it needed to physically contact the target to destroy it, and it needed to be physically attached to an object. It would also exact the same destruction on the original object when used. Not only so, but even though destructive Arcana Techniques were extremely powerful, its practical use wasn’t very high because it was only a Third-Ring Arcana Technique.

The Flowing Gold Blade had this kind of a destructive Arcana Technique imbued inside.

It could be said that the Flowing Gold Blade was originally intended for the destruction of a target. The other two benefits were merely side effects.

This was why, even though the body of the Flowing Gold Blade would suffer the same amount of destruction as its target, it was only a Fourth-Ring Arcana Technique, so it could be reformed easily even if it was destroyed. Su Chen had no need to fear using the Flowing Gold Blade in a close-quarters confrontation, allowing him to use its destructive capabilities to their greatest extent.

Unfortunately, despite these properties, it was never valued highly because it could only be used in close-quarters combat. Very few Harpies would choose to cultivate this kind of Arcana Technique, and they were usually belonging to a Harpy suicide squad, the Fearless Shield.

Even so, it was this Fourth-Ring Arcana Technique that Su Chen was putting on full display at this moment.

One more thing needed to be mentioned about the Flowing Gold Blade’s unique properties.

First of all, the Flowing Gold Blade wasn’t an Arcana Technique with a set power. Its attack power was directly proportional to how large its main body was. The size of the blade’s body, in turn, depended on the amount of raw materials available.

In theory, with enough high-quality metal, the Flowing Gold Blade’s power could absolutely exceed that of a Fourth-Ring technique, reaching the Fifth Ring or even higher.

The Harpies had a powerful warrior unleash a Sixth-Ring variant of the attack.

However, Sixth Ring was its upper limit.

As a Fourth-Ring Arcana Technique, it took an incredible amount of high-quality metal in order to unleash this Sixth-Ring potential. There was basically no way to enhance it further.

That was where the metal-type Demonic Emperor Origin Crystal had come into use.

The Origin Crystal not only directly elevated the power of the Flowing Gold Blade, but it also opened up its upper limit. As long as Su Chen had enough metal, its power could reach that of a legendary Arcana Technique.

Su Chen didn’t have enough metal to reach that point, but he had more than enough to unleash a Seventh-Ring Arcana Technique. Since this was still not enough, Su Chen ended up imbuing the Flowing Gold Blade with the power of fire.

He was very talented at improving Arcana Techniques, and fire-type skills were his specialty.

As a result, the Flowing Gold Blade had also been imbued with traces of his Flaming Phoenix, elevating it to the level of an Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique.

Given how powerful this blade was now, it would have been surprising if their ice storm hadn’t been blasted away by Su Chen.

Most shockingly, the Flowing Gold Blade had also manifested the physical strength of Su Chen’s human body as well as the explosive energy of an Arcana Technique. This could be considered a true combination of human Origin Skills and Arcana Techniques.

Even though they had watched Su Chen blow away the Chaotic Wind brothers with a sword, they couldn’t deny that he had used an Arcana Technique to do so, so none of them suspected for a moment that Su Chen wasn’t a Harpy. They just hadn’t expected Su Chen’s trump card to be a close-quarters combat skill.

Even Flaming Femme was stunned.

This Eighth-Ring Flowing Gold Blade had completely blown her away.

She instinctively asked, “How did you do that?”

She hadn’t expected an answer, but Su Chen ended up giving her one.

“With this thing,” he said.

With a simple flick of his wrist, he dislodged the glittering crystal from the hilt of the blade.

A metal-type Demonic Emperor Origin Crystal.

Flaming Femme felt like she was about to faint.

A Demonic Emperor’s Origin Crystal!?

This guy actually had a Demonic Emperor’s Origin Crystal!

And he had embedded it into a tool so that he could improve an Arcana Technique.

Was this guy unaware of the implications of having a Demonic Emperor Origin Crystal?

That was an essential ingredient in making a legendary-tier Arcana Staff!

Even though a legendary Arcana Staff couldn’t increase the power of a Fourth-Ring Arcana Technique to that of an Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique, it could absolutely raise the power of any Arcana Technique by one ring.

Which was more important - raising the power of all Arcana Techniques by one ring, or taking a Fourth-Ring Arcana Technique to the Eighth Ring?

Sorry, the latter was still better.

At least, that was what Su Chen believed.

This was because he was not an official Arcana Master!

As a human, he would never give up on the path of increasing his own personal strength. Arcana Techniques were only used to supplement him on this path, not the goal that he pursued.

A legendary Arcana Staff was indeed very powerful, but could it be used to chop a person in half?

No, it couldn’t!

If it couldn’t, then it was worthless!

If he couldn’t use it to express his own style, then it was a waste no matter how powerful the Arcana Techniques would become.

What Su Chen wanted was to enhance the power of his own Arcana Techniques, allowing him to ignore the current system of rating the strength of Arcana Techniques.

Flowing Gold Blade was a perfect example of this.

His goal was to be able to bring a Fourth-Ring Arcana Technique to an Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique, or eventually even a legendary Arcana Technique.

As he mastered more and more powerful Arcana Techniques, he would have better ones to choose from.

Su Chen wanted to continuously elevate himself.

Flaming Femme didn’t understand this side of Su Chen. All she knew was that Su Chen had wasted a Demonic Emperor Origin Crystal, causing her heart to ache. She completely scorned Su Chen’s actions.

But whether she liked it or not, Su Chen had chosen to do so.

The Flowing Gold Blade was currently his most lethal tactic. Not only was it incredibly powerful, but no one had seen it before, so no one could link it with the human Su Chen. All his opponents realized was that this Harpy Azure Mark had done a good job of concealing his identity while dealing a serious blow to his opponents.

As the Flowing Gold Blade slashed through the air, Flaming Femme and the Chaotic Wind Brothers found it hard to bear the frighteningly intense heat from the blade.

Flaming Femme knew that they were in a bad spot. She gritted her teeth and forcefully willed another wave of flames to spring up from thin air before molding them into a particular form.

As soon as Su Chen saw the form the flames had assumed, he was delighted.

It had taken on the shape of a flaming phoenix.

Even though it was a Flaming Phoenix, its appearance was slightly different from Su Chen’s. Flaming Femme’s phoenix was prettier and more elegant, and it had three long feathers on the top of its head. Its tail was also much longer and fuller. In general, its appearance was designed to be more noble.

Su Chen’s phoenix appeared much more normal. It had no crown, and its tail was quite crude.

Su Chen’s phoenix looked like it had been modeled by an elementary schooler.

This was because the Nirvana Phoenix had been passed down from generation to generation, resulting in it being improved time and time again. When you factored in the Harpies’ pursuit of beauty, it was only natural that they tried to make the phoenix as elegant as possible. In comparison, Su Chen was the inventor and only cared about practicality, not aesthetics. His phoenix’s form was indicative of this, and he was only after the core principles. In terms of appearance, it was only natural that his phoenix was inferior to that of a Harpy Arcana Master.

However, the Nirvana Phoenix could still not be ignored. It was Flaming Femme’s trump card, and even though it was only a Seventh-Ring Arcana Technique, it was on par with an Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique. It drained a lot of her energy every time she used it. One time, a person had passed out while channeling the technique, which was why it eventually came to be known as the Nirvana Phoenix.

Su Chen’s Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique clashed with Flaming Femme’s Eighth-Ring Arcana Technique. Since they were both fire-type Arcana Techniques, all they saw was two waves of flames crashing violently into each other.

In that moment, the flames surged high into the sky above Dragon Mountain City, turning it orange.

The world around seemed to have been set on fire, as if the end of the world had come!

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