Chapter 163: A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix! An Effortless Crush! Massive Improvement!-I Can Cast Unlimited Forbidden Spells(Sixteen Demons)

The structure of the rune Yishen inscribed was actually extremely simple, its complexity not even reaching a thousandth of Nicole's when she used them.

However, the power contained within it was terrifying.

This was also the first time Yishen used power originating from the Heart of the Magic God, unleashing a "skill" relying purely on the energy within his body without any digitalized processing whatsoever!

"Whoosh!"

The rune burst open. There was no terrifying sound of an explosion, only a silent shockwave.

Then, at least four or five exotic beasts tumbled down from the sky.

Bleeding wounds appeared on the bodies of several other beasts; the energy vibrations had directly injured their internal organs!!

Within Yishen's field of vision, dense arrays of damage numbers popped up in the external environment, ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions. It could be said that merely utilizing a fraction of the power from the Heart of the Magic God had inflicted horrifying damage upon these exotic beasts!!

"Goodness gracious, what kind of skill is that??"

"Wiped out so many exotic beasts with just a single skill? You've got to be kidding me??"

"Totally unable to scan any information. It doesn't seem like an elemental skill. The Black Mage is getting more and more absurd."

"I feel like it might be something newly acquired from the Human Emperor's Tomb. Otherwise, these exotic beasts wouldn't have caused such a massive commotion."

The explorers who were preparing to evacuate watched as Yishen dispersed the exotic beasts with a single move.

They couldn't help but plunge into shock once again.

Originally, the Black Mage was already immensely powerful in their minds. But because they had been driven in here by the exotic beasts and knew the true strength of these creatures, the comparison only elevated their impression of the Black Mage to an even higher level!

Standing behind Yishen, Nicole was also secretly startled as she looked at the damage dealt by Yishen's rune.

That rune was simply a basic operational method Nicole had casually mentioned to him earlier when Yishen asked; she hadn't even taught him the governing laws of execution.

Yet, relying solely on the most fundamental energy, he had already managed to produce such a terrifying effect. Right now, even Nicole had no idea what kind of monstrous anomaly this fellow was.

When she had confronted Yishen earlier, she had only been baffled as to why this guy could endlessly regenerate his state. But looking at it now, Nicole realized that this fellow didn't know how to use his own power at all; he had just been messing around blindly, and yet he had managed to fight her to a standstill.

Of course, the power Nicole had unleashed then was also restricted. To avoid digitalized detection, there was an upper limit to the abilities she used.

Yet, upon witnessing the vast, boundless energy inside Yishen's body, she even felt that not even her complete form would necessarily surpass the purity of this energy!!

A single rune had blasted apart a portion of the exotic beasts.

However, these exotic beasts had thick hides and tough flesh. Though a few had plummeted, they were not completely dead.

Other exotic beasts, possessing even greater strength or special talents, still surged toward Yishen's direction.

At the forefront in the sky was a massive mass of flames, its true form being a phoenix. As the phoenix cried out, bizarre soundwaves rippled through the surroundings.

Nicole raised a hand to form a barrier, protecting her aura and Yishen's from leaking out.

Yishen condensed another rune, but unfortunately, the difficulty of this rune was too high. It dissipated before Yishen could finish forming it, leaving him with no choice but to retreat to the next best option and deploy ordinary skills and forbidden spells.

The Gate of Inferno and the Rift Wind Array were deployed. Although they formed a wall of fire, they failed to halt the advancing pace of these exotic beasts.

Once the exotic beasts closed in, they launched fierce attacks directly at Yishen. Yishen used several consecutive Flash spells to widen the distance, but he was quickly surrounded again, plunging into the swarm's collective assault!!

The attack methods of these exotic beasts varied wildly. Yishen's shield was shattered in an instant, though he rapidly condensed a new one, thereby mitigating the first wave of attacks.

Ordinary skills fell far short of the energy from the Mage's Heart. If he did not use the power of the Heart of the Magic God, Yishen felt it would probably be very difficult for him to break through their assault.

Yishen cast his gaze toward Nicole. She had mentioned teaching him runes earlier, but looking at the present situation, it seemed that would need to be brought forward.

"There are 713 types of most basic rune circuits in total. I can teach you the ten simplest and most effective ones first; you can give them a try." Nicole caught Yishen's intent, though she felt a bit helpless. She hadn't expected Yishen to start fighting before he had even learned to control his own energy.

She waved her hand, and ten special patterns materialized in front of her. Yishen's pupils constricted slightly as he looked at them.

Simple as they were called, these things were actually extremely complex 3D geometric circuits. Even the simplest one possessed at least 18 energy nodes.

Yet, Yishen inexplicably felt that these things would be useful to him!

He rapidly replicated these rune circuits in his mind.

Soon, the first rune slowly took shape in front of Yishen. The flow of energy within it was very strange. Although they were all irregularly arranged and combined, after circulating and colliding through the rune, they surprisingly formed a fireball-like energy entity!

Not only that, but Yishen could also use his consciousness to control the direction of this fireball, and even the magnitude of its power!

Yishen channeled the power within his body into this pattern, regulating an amount of power roughly three to four times greater than the mark he had released the first time, pushing it to the limit of what this small rune could bear.

While the energy was somewhat unstable, Yishen directly hurled a burning fireball outward! Although called a fireball, its size was actually half the height of a person, and its color was a transparent gold!!

"Swish!!"

The flames scorched directly into a gigantic crow beast, piercing a hole straight through its wing.

The flames did not stop. Yishen continued to control the fire, directing it to attack the distant phoenix.

The phoenix similarly spewed red flames. The two strands of energy converged, directly creating a terrifying shockwave! Heaven and earth seemed to tremble in awe!

"Runes are an amplification and bonus to power." After casting his first combat-ready rune, Yishen began to gradually grow interested in these special patterns. The energy inside his body had always been chaotic, but through this unique method, it could be gradually unleashed.

The skill bonuses provided by this method were completely different from the skills on the digitalized panel; he could completely perceive that this was his own power! Yishen finally understood a little why Nicole kept saying that only one's own power felt real.

Only when utilizing runes to control his magic could Yishen truly feel that this was magic rather than a "skill"!!

The golden fireball was just a beginning.

Immediately afterward, Yishen tried several other rune circuits.

He successfully replicated some, but others were too difficult due to the short time frame, failing during the energy convergence process and requiring much more practice.

Yet, simply relying on these few successfully mastered basic runes, coupled with the powerful energy bonus from the Heart of the Magic God, he had already gained the upper hand amidst the swarm of exotic beasts!!

At least four or five exotic beasts had already perished around Yishen.

After their deaths, Yishen picked up the glowing loot drops and simultaneously used Spell Research to decompose them on the spot.

By this point, he was thoroughly enjoying the fight. Under the reinforcement of such strength, he no longer cared if others discovered that he could decompose monster corpses!!

[Ding! You have performed a special decomposition on the target. Through this research, you have gained a total of: Intelligence +3478, Stamina +3299, Strength +1993, Special Illustration: Might of Bifang]

[Ding! You have performed a special decomposition on the target. Through this research, you have gained a total of: Intelligence +1278, Stamina +1699, Strength +3393, Agility +2938, Special Illustration: Might of Dangkang]

[Ding! Your Human Emperor Bloodline has received a certain enhancement]

[Ding! You have acquired Bifang's innate skill: Blessing (Grade A)]

[Ding! You have acquired Dangkang's innate skill: Winds and Clouds Stirring (Grade A)]

As Yishen fought, he acquired more and more things. Not only did his attributes improve, but his proficiency with combat runes also grew stronger and stronger.

In a mere thirty-odd minutes, Yishen had reversed the situation, shifting from defense to offense against these surging exotic beasts!

The phoenix, leading dozens of exotic beasts and the flock of birds split from them, launched an assault on Yishen.

Initially, Yishen still needed to dodge, but later on, he actually gained the ability to go toe-to-toe with them directly!! He even began chasing down the phoenix to attack it!

The phoenix was indeed much harder to deal with than the other exotic beasts, but Yishen spent a solid ten-plus minutes of fierce attacks, grinding it down to death!

Following the phoenix's demise, the remaining exotic beasts on the battlefield were few and far between!

Though still drawn by the Human Emperor's Tomb, they began scattering in all directions.

The largest azure dragon among them had vanished without a trace, leaving only a pitiful four or five stray beasts on the field!

With these threats resolved, the entire world returned to peace once more. The Human Emperor's Tomb had completely disintegrated, and all of them reappeared on the plain hills near Suizhou. Wildfires burned in several spots across the sky and earth—doubtless the aftermath of the battle.

The explorers who had been hiding earlier were now struck dumb with speechlessness, their hearts filled with insurmountable awe. This was the first time they had ever witnessed a divine figure descending from the heavens, capable of single-handedly fighting off so many lord-level monsters.

Some individuals began transmitting the news back.

Meanwhile, certain hidden factions in the shadows also began to harbor dark premonitions.

Originally, everyone merely assumed the Black Mage was a lucky individual who had acquired special power, becoming just another top-tier explorer in this world.

But looking at it now, this Black Mage was likely an existence capable of altering the geopolitical landscape of the world!!

The battle concluded, and Yishen's aura finally calmed down.

Having fought for so long, his spirit was also slightly fatigued.

"Your power is truly special. You fought for so long, yet I couldn't sense any depletion of energy within your body at all," Nicole remarked from the side, looking at Yishen with a completely different gaze now.

Although the few runes Yishen had learned were simple ones, the fact that he managed to wipe out these exotic beasts purely through the sheer intensity of his energy was proof enough of the terrifying nature of the power inside him.

Even more terrifying was that throughout such a prolonged battle, Nicole discovered that the energy aura within Yishen's body had not fluctuated wildly at all.

It was as if expending all that magic was merely taking a tiny ladle of water from a vast sea, or perhaps he had already completely regenerated it.

For a creature of human size to possess that caliber of power within their body completely defied reason.

Nicole had also subsequently noticed that Yishen seemed capable of directly decomposing enemies to absorb their power. This method of absorption had similarly shocked her.

One had to know that energy conversion took time.

She could actually slowly convert certain energy resources into her own power—such as controlling the minds of those two venerables earlier, or adopting special methods to absorb their power.

However, that required preparing many things in advance, as well as time to slowly assimilate those external forces.

Yishen was different.

Yishen clearly devoured and decomposed external power in an instant.

This was an ability completely on par with the formidable power within his body!!

"Mm, feels alright. Thanks." Yishen stretched his limbs. This battle had been truly satisfying.

Furthermore, after learning how to utilize the energy of the Heart of the Magic God, his physical combat techniques, awareness, and energy control had all ascended to an entirely new tier.

Though he probably could have figured these things out eventually on his own, the woman before him could be considered one of the mentors who had enlightened him, so Yishen expressed his gratitude candidly.

"Still, you'd better be careful yourself. Raising a ruckus like this in the secret realm makes it very easy for you to be targeted by digitalization."

"There was no shortage of geniuses in our era; we even created gods ourselves. But if something exceeds the control of digitalization, it will use other methods to restrict and strike you down," Nicole said. This was why she hadn't intervened earlier.

She could suppress energy dispersion in small-scale actions, but Yishen's commotion earlier had been too massive, even impacting the entire secret realm. Nicole even suspected Yishen had already been targeted by digitalization.

"Can't be helped. What comes will come," Yishen nodded. Toward the tail end of this battle, he had indeed harbored a somewhat ominous feeling that he had gone a bit too far.

In such a massive secret realm, not only had he taken all the benefits, but he had also directly disrupted the historical progression.

He was somewhat worried about being treated as a "bug."

Yet, alongside his worry, Yishen was also curious about whether the digitalized power spoken of by Nicole and the Lord of Moonlight was truly that formidable. If it was an existence capable of influencing an entire civilization, Yishen would sooner or later delve deeper into investigating it.

"What are you going to do now then? Aren't you afraid of being found if you stay with me?"

Yishen asked with a smile. Nicole had intended to use his power to evade digitalization, but she hadn't expected him to stir up such a huge fuss.

Nicole glanced at Yishen and said, "That's fine. Truth be told, this is merely a guess on our part anyway."

"You count as one of the current digitalized explorers. Even if they want to find trouble with you, they will most likely use their own methods, such as introducing a more powerful civilization."

"I don't know who 'they' are, but this kind of entity should have its own rules of operation," Nicole stated.

The commotion at the Human Emperor's Tomb was even greater than anticipated. After the secret realm collapsed, Yishen opened his communicator to find that his message logs had skyrocketed to hundreds of entries.

He roughly replied to a few critical ones and then chose to head back toward Jinmen.

He had absorbed far too many things this time and needed a good period to digest them properly.

As for Nicole, pursuing what she needed, she chose to follow Yishen back.

Per her agreement with Yishen, she would teach him some runes over the coming period.

In exchange, Yishen needed to provide energy to stabilize the chaotic magic within her body and subsequently help her locate world nodes.

(End of this chapter)