Turning back the clock five minutes...
The Burns Court.
Burns V was resting with his eyes closed inside the court, doing his utmost to restore his damaged strength.
Right at that moment, wearing a whale-silk robe and a crown of kings, he suddenly opened his eyes from his deep contemplation.
The soul pressure in his gaze was like a raging furnace, unleashing a terrifying aura that flooded in all directions.
“I have received the message you sent,” Burns V spoke slowly as a curtain made of white bones materialized in front of him.
Upon the curtain, the battle between Leon and the undead generals in the Endless Bay was displayed in full.
However, only the figures of the necromancer and the undead rogue were visible in the projection.
There was no sign of the undead priest.
This was because the recorder of this footage was the undead priest himself!
Burns V stared solemnly at the white bone curtain, watching the figure in the golden priest robes. With black hair and black eyes, every gesture of his exuded unbridled arrogance.
Under Leon's combat power, which far exceeded the early Gold rank, the necromancer and the undead rogue were killed one after another.
They had failed to inflict even the slightest injury on Leon.
And the recorder—the undead priest—was equally powerless to resist.
He could only use his connection to Burns V to burn his entire soul to nothingness, barely managing to send the footage of his final moments back to the court.
Burns V stared at Leon's figure on the screen, his expression turning slightly serious.
“A genius. Even in my era, he would be considered a peerless genius.” Burns V's cold voice echoed throughout the court.
He acknowledged Leon's talent and combat power.
Even as a legendary king of the old era, at the same age or rank, he would not have been Leon Douglas's match.
With the capabilities Leon Douglas was currently displaying, he was bound to achieve great things in the future.
Burns V had heard many rumors regarding this in the past.
But now, Burns V finally acknowledged them.
“A pity, what a pity...” Burns V stared at Leon in the curtain.
Had this been a thousand years ago, he would have personally taken action to deliver a thunderous strike, crushing Leon Douglas in his cradle.
Leon's talent was sky-high, but before that talent could be converted into actual combat power, he would still be nothing in front of Burns V.
However, this was no longer the era of a thousand years ago when the Burns Court was at its peak and his own strength was at its zenith.
Today, he was openly guarded against by the Heron Empire and the Nightmare Empire.
And in the shadows, a hidden and powerful force was watching his every move. Even the timing of his resurrection...
...might have been influenced by that hidden force!
As a result, he had been resurrected prematurely, before he could fully restore his peak strength...
“Someone, make ten thousand copies of this recording stone and spread them far and wide,” Burns V ordered after capturing the footage from the curtain.
Soon, an undead royal guard respectfully took the recording stone and left to find craftsmen to replicate its contents.
Half a day later, recording stones bearing the title Leon Douglas's Combat Strength Unveiled had spread across the entire Dusk Sea.
Before long, the neighboring territories of the Dusk Sea—the Heron Empire, the Caruso Highlands, and the Nightmare Empire—also laid eyes on the contents of the recording stones...
...
In the Endless Bay.
Leon slowly opened his eyes from his meditation, and the Sacred Light particles swirling around his body quickly withdrew back inside.
Only a small portion of the Sacred Light particles remained outside, which was the result of the linkage between Sacred Light Meditation and Walking Meditation.
As Leon cast the Divine Art 【Refraction Distortion】, the remaining Sacred Light particles were concealed.
No further anomalies remained on his body.
Leon opened his eyes, his gaze landing first on the Shadow King.
While he was meditating, the Shadow King had harbored no ill intentions. In fact, he had guarded Leon with absolute dedication, intercepting numerous attacks from the undead below.
“It seems... he passed this test...” Leon thought to himself.
Although Leon possessed the Memory-Weaving Stringed Scepter and could listen to the Shadow King's inner thoughts...
...a person's mind could change in an instant.
He might pledge his loyalty one second, but the moment he saw Leon injured, he could very well turn on him the next.
After all, even playboys and gold diggers could express touching, sincere love while in bed or upon receiving gifts.
Yet, that didn't stop a playboy from turning cold the moment he pulled up his pants, nor did it stop a gold digger from believing that accepting a gift didn't mean she consented.
The human heart was always fickle and unstable.
As for using the Memory-Weaving Stringed Scepter to brainwash the Shadow King...
...that was incredibly difficult to pull off.
The Shadow King was, after all, a transcendent of the same rank as Leon. To brainwash him, Leon would first have to beat him half to death before using the Memory-Weaving Stringed Scepter to lock in a fixation.
It was an immense hassle.
Besides... how would such behavior make him any different from the Sage King?
Leon refused to stoop to that level.
He strove to cultivate Divine Arts and grow stronger because he wanted to change this world according to his own ideals.
But if his own heart and principles changed in the process...
...would he be the one changing the world, or would the world have changed him?
Shifting his focus back, Leon opened his Divine Art panel.
【Divine Art Casting Grade: Excellent!】
【Praying for the Gift of the God of Sacred Light EXP +30】
【Praying for the Gift of the God of Sacred Light Lv2 (294/300) → Praying for the Gift of the God of Sacred Light Lv3 (24/1000)】
【Sacred Light Meditation EXP +30】
【Sacred Light Meditation Lv2 (289/300) → Sacred Light Meditation Lv3 (19/1000)】
【...】
“Finally, it leveled up!”
Looking at Wishing Art and Sacred Light Meditation on the panel, Leon couldn't help but sigh at the hardships of life, the arduousness of cultivation, and the sheer difficulty of growing stronger...
In short:
“It hasn't been easy!”
Compared to upgrading Wishing Art from Lv1 to Lv2, the climb from Lv2 to Lv3 was significantly slower.
The same applied to Sacred Light Meditation.
Back when he was only at the Bronze rank, his Sacred Light Meditation was already at Lv2.
Yet now that he had reached the Gold rank, it was still stuck at Lv2!
Granted, this was partly because his rank had advanced too quickly, and he had been splitting his time with Walking Meditation.
But... it was too slow! Still too slow!
His leveling speed was still far too slow!
He needed to speed up. He had to accelerate.
With that thought, Leon rubbed his hands together and looked at the panel.
“Come on, system daddy, give me some awesome traits!”
【You have upgraded Praying for the Gift of the God of Sacred Light. You may choose one of the following three traits to enhance it:】
【Excess: When casting Wishing Art, you will receive even richer feedback from the God of Sacred Light, far exceeding the specific requests you make.】
【Audience: When casting Wishing Art, there is a chance to establish a direct channel to the divine realm, allowing you to present your prayer in person. Verbally delivering your prayer face-to-face not only significantly increases the success rate of ordinary wishes but also grants a glimmer of hope to special wishes that were otherwise impossible.】
【Linkage: Link Wishing Art with another Divine Art you have mastered. Thereafter, whenever you cast that Divine Art, you will receive a blessing from the God of Sacred Light, generating unique power and effects between it and its linked Divine Art.】
Rate on N.U.
