Chapter 173: Divine Energy Carrier
Whoosh!
The wind swept through the forest, stirring up a wave of verdant green.
A few leaves fluttered down to the ground.
Evans sat beneath a tree, his face pale and his demeanor somewhat listless.
After an unknown period, his expression suddenly shifted, and he turned his head toward an empty space on his left.
There, a figure had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere.
It was Hunter, whom he hadn’t seen in quite some time.
"Didn't you leave the Southeast Region? Why did you come back?" Evans asked.
Hunter spoke in a low voice, “What about that kid from the Kessler Family who was following you?”
"What is it?" Hunter's tone remained indifferent.
"You still have the Key to the Star Tower, right?"
"Why are you asking about that?" A hint of emotion finally stirred in Hunter's voice. "Do you want to take back the Star Tower Key?"
Evans shook his head. "Not me."
The moment he spoke those words, Hunter immediately sensed that something was wrong and quickly retreated.
But in the next instant, several scarlet beams of light suddenly shot out from all directions, striking his body almost simultaneously.
With a pop, Hunter vanished abruptly, like a bursting bubble.
"Mirror Image Clone, huh? He’s quite cautious."
A man in a grey robe appeared out of thin air.
"It doesn’t matter," he said.
Another man in a green robe slowly emerged from a tree trunk about ten meters away.
His skin had the same brown color as the trunk, marked by crack-like fissures, making it look like he was encased in a layer of dry, cracked bark.
"The Mirror Image Clone can't separate too far; he’s still in this forest. From the moment he stepped in, he was doomed to be unable to escape."
As if to verify the green-robed man’s words, a dense rustling sound suddenly arose from four or five hundred meters away, reminiscent of countless leaves falling.
Looking up, countless branches rose to the sky as if alive, whipping and flailing wildly in the void.
Amid the branches that filled the sky, Hunter dodged left and right, desperately trying to break free from the encirclement.
"As if a switch had been flipped, over a dozen figures burst from the surrounding woods, encircling Hunter.
Watching this unfold from beneath the tree, Evans let out a deep sigh and closed his eyes.
A moment later, a resentful roar echoed in the distance before quickly fading away.
Those who had participated in the attack retreated, and the leader—a man with ordinary features and scales covering his cheeks—couldn't hide the glee on his face.
"That guy really did have the Star Tower's Key, and four of them at that, even more than we anticipated."
"Now we just need one more to complete our collection."
The green-robed man nodded in satisfaction, then turned to a gaunt, somber-faced man and asked in a deep voice, "Fabio, what information did you extract from Hunter's soul?"
The man called Fabio weighed the Soul Crystal in his hand and replied in a raspy voice, "That guy put up a fight. I had to use some force, and his soul was severely fragmented. I didn't get much information, but I did manage to gather what we needed."
"It's just as you suspected: the Eternal Life Society has been destroyed, and Secret Forest Hut was behind it."
"However, Secret Forest Hut is now down to only six members. Oh, scratch that—now that this unfortunate fellow is gone, it’s down to five."
"They all possess the Star Tower Key, especially one Other: a Wizard Apprentice named Su Nan, who likely has more than one."
The scaled man licked his lips, "Then let's target Su Nan."
Fabio interjected, "I think it would be wiser to choose another target."
The green-robed man raised an eyebrow, "Why is that?"
"Hunter's memories reveal that Su Nan is quite powerful—Saulo died at his hands, and he commands a formidable force known as the Star Alliance. If we attack, even if we take him down, we would likely suffer casualties."
Hearing this, the others nodded in agreement.
"An Other: a Wizard Apprentice who can kill Saulo is no pushover. Let's avoid him."
"We only need one more Key, so it doesn't matter who we target."
"Let’s switch targets."
They certainly didn't want to become the 'casualties' Fabio had mentioned."
The green-robed man, who seemed agreeable, said, "Then let’s change our target."
The Evans nearby felt a pang of regret upon hearing this in secret.
If these people had attacked Su Nan, they might have fought to a draw, giving him a chance to escape.
Unfortunately, they were too cunning and cautious.
At that moment, the green-robed man turned to Evans and asked, "Evans, what is the location of the Star Tower?"
Evans replied, his expression bitter, "I’ve said it many times: I can only roughly sense the general area where the Star Tower will appear. I can't be any more precise than that."
The scaled man snorted coldly, saying, "An area spanning three to four hundred kilometers is far too broad for what you've sensed!"
"I can’t help it! This sensing ability is tied to my power level. If you could help me break through to the Fourth Circle Legend realm, then I could sense it more clearly."
The scaled man narrowed his eyes, fixing his icy gaze on Evans.
Evans met his gaze unflinchingly.
The green-robed man interjected, lightening the tense atmosphere between the two, his tone softening slightly.
"Evans, we signed a Vow Contract. As long as you help us enter the Star Tower, we won’t cause you any trouble afterward, and we will even assist you in breaking through to the Fourth Ring Legendary Knight. It would be in our best interest for you not to entertain any other ideas."
Evans sneered inwardly but maintained a façade of oppression and helplessness.
"I understand."
In the year 1266 of the Starlight Calendar, during the Thunder Moon, the construction of the Talent Crystal Model progressed much faster than Su Nan had anticipated.
Inside the Meditation Room, as he ‘looked’ at the profound and intricate three-dimensional crystal in his mind, Su Nan couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief.
He had finally completed it!
Next was the moment to verify his conjecture.
Su Nan took a deep breath, opened the Magic Cube, and silently chanted to place the Talent Crystal Model within. To his great disappointment, the Magic Cube didn’t react at all.
"It won’t work?"
Su Nan furrowed his brows.
"As expected, lacking a rare metal as a carrier, the Talent Crystal Model cannot be synthesized using the Magic Cube like the Magic Pattern Core."
Although disappointed, Su Nan had already mentally prepared for this outcome and had devised a corresponding solution.
"Since the problem lies in the lack of a carrier, if we can find a suitable carrier for the Talent Crystal Model, wouldn't that enable us to use the Magic Cube to synthesize and enhance it?"
Su Nan decided to give it a try.
However, choosing the right type of carrier required great care.
First and foremost, this carrier needed to perfectly match the Talent Crystal Model without damaging its structure.
Secondly, the carrier had to be absorbable by Su Nan himself.
After all, he would later need to reabsorb both the carrier and the Talent Crystal Model into his mind, then separate the carrier while keeping the Talent Crystal Model intact.
To achieve this, the carrier needed to be compatible with his Spiritual Power.
Only in this way could the Talent Crystal Model be perfectly separated.
"The Magic Pattern Core is the original model; it can perfectly match the Talent Crystal Model, but it cannot be absorbed into the mind."
"A gem won't work; it's not a perfect match."
"Soul Crystal consists of pure energy; it can match perfectly and be absorbed into the body, but it cannot be assimilated by Spiritual Power."
After considering all his options, a sudden flash of inspiration struck Su Nan.
What if he used Divine Energy? That might work!
First of all, Divine Energy could be absorbed into the mind and could be perfectly assimilated by Spiritual Power.
Secondly, Divine Energy is pure, free from impurities or pollution, so it wouldn't damage the structure of the Talent Crystal Model.
The more Su Nan thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.
It just so happened that his Spiritual Power had reached a bottleneck at 60 points and could not grow any further, so he didn't need to absorb Divine Energy anymore. He had accumulated a lot of Divine Energy over the past two years, making it perfect for an experiment.
Acting on his thoughts, Su Nan hurried to the laboratory, extracted one standard unit of Divine Energy, and solidified it.
Soon after, a beautiful golden rhomboid crystal appeared in his palm.
Next came the crucial part.
Su Nan focused his mind, carefully separating the Talent Crystal Model from his body.
The entire model resembled a silver multifaceted crystal, displaying extreme symmetry and beauty.
If one were to observe it with a magnifying glass, they would discover that it was composed of countless minuscule runes.
Su Nan meticulously fused the model with the Divine Energy Crystal, watching intently as the two gradually merged, finally fusing completely and changing to a bronze-like hue.
After carefully checking and confirming the perfection of the fusion, Su Nan couldn't help but smile slightly.
However, that smile quickly faded as he hurriedly placed the crystal into the Magic Cube. No matter how flawless the fusion was, it would be useless if he couldn't store it in the Magic Cube.
Fortunately, the result met Su Nan's expectations; the crystal successfully appeared within the Magic Cube.
Seeing this, Su Nan let out a long sigh of relief, a genuine smile of joy spreading across his face.
As long as he continued to construct Lower Level Talent Crystal Models, he would eventually be able to synthesize a Super Talent Crystal Model that surpassed the Upper Level—something truly unprecedented!
“I just wonder how many Lower Level Talent Crystal Models it will take?”
If it were a single-digit number, it would be manageable; a few decades would suffice to gather them all.
But if it were dozens, it could take two hundred years to construct them.
However, Su Nan wasn't overly concerned. In about half a year, the day of the Star Tower’s appearance would arrive; perhaps it would contain resources that could accelerate the construction of the Talent Crystal Model. Going there might yield significant gains.
If worse came to worst, he could always synthesize fewer models at that time.
With his understanding of synthesizing the Talent Crystal Model, a weight was lifted from Su Nan’s heart, and he felt much more cheerful.
After converting all of the stored Divine Energy into crystals, he finally left the laboratory.
“It’s a pity there's not enough Divine Energy; otherwise, I could try to enhance the Spell Model.”
The Spell Model was also constructed from Spiritual Power, allowing it to fuse with Divine Energy.
If he had enough Divine Energy Crystals, he could enhance all of his existing Spell Models.
To date, the total number of spells Su Nan had mastered had surpassed two hundred.
Considering the entire Starlight Continent, he was confident that no other Wizard Apprentice had mastered more spells than he had.
After all, not everyone had the same Golden Finger as he did.
In addition, over the past five years, Su Nan had also successfully mastered three Metamagic Techniques—Spell Delay, Spell Lengthening, and Spell Expansion.
Including these three, he had mastered all seven Metamagic Techniques.
Even among Formal Wizards, not many achieved this level of proficiency.
It could be said that in terms of mastery of Metamagic Techniques, Su Nan already had an edge over some Formal Wizards.
“Magic Pattern Core has reached level 5,” Su Nan muttered, patting his chest in satisfaction. After achieving 58.65 points of Spiritual Power, he had synthesized a level 5 Magic Pattern Core. However, as he had anticipated, a level 6 Magic Pattern Core required over 60 points of Spiritual Power. He couldn't fuse a level 6 Magic Pattern Core before advancing to the Wizard stage. In fact, even after advancing, he wouldn’t need to fuse Magic Pattern Cores anymore.
If he could successfully synthesize a Talent Crystal that surpassed the Upper Level, its power would undoubtedly exceed that of a level 6 Magic Pattern Core and would likely yield even more powerful effects. At that point, Magic Pattern Cores would naturally become 'obsolete.'
Lost in thought, Su Nan found himself eagerly anticipating the completion of the Talent Crystal. "Next, we just have to wait for the Star Tower to open."
Time passed quickly, and soon it was October. Su Nan had expected Night Owl to hold another Secret Forest Cabin Gathering a month or two before the appearance of the Star Tower, but unexpectedly, there had been no announcements at all. Then, halfway through the month, an unexpected guest suddenly arrived.
Upon receiving a report from Karolina, Su Nan made his way to the Reception Hall. As he entered, he spotted Rose sitting on the sofa, who looked up as she heard his approach.
"It’s been a while, Su Nan," she greeted.
"A rare guest indeed," he replied.
Since their last gathering five years ago, Su Nan hadn’t seen Rose. Despite the Thorn Flower Principality and the Starry Sky Empire being in a honeymoon phase—working closely together against the Azure Gold Empire—the two of them had not crossed paths. He certainly hadn’t expected Rose to seek him out now.
Su Nan took a moment to carefully observe Rose. He noticed that her soul aura had deepened significantly, indicating that her five years of seclusion had been fruitful. Unbeknownst to him, Rose was also surprised to see him. She sensed some inexplicable change within Su Nan; just his presence seemed to exert a faint pressure that resonated deep within her soul.
He appeared even more enigmatic, like a deep, still pool—so profound that one couldn't see through to the bottom. A thought suddenly flashed in Rose's mind.
Su Nan couldn't he already be beginning to construct the Talent Crystal Model?
The thought startled even her.
Just then, Su Nan suddenly spoke, interrupting her reverie.
"What brings you here?"
"I'd like to stay here for a while. Would that be welcome?"
Snapping back to reality, Rose quickly gathered herself and said jokingly.
Su Nan's expression remained calm as he stared at her intently.
Seeing his demeanor, Rose's smile faded, and she sighed, saying:
"Alright, I'll be honest. Things haven’t been peaceful out there lately. I want to stay here for a while to avoid trouble, and when the Star Tower appears, I'll set out with you."
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