Target

"Huh? That's strange, I clearly remember it being here, so why is it gone?"

One by one, he carefully rifled through the spatial bags. Of the three bags, the one originally belonging to Dean was slightly larger, about one and a half cubic meters, while the other two were each one cubic meter.

The volume didn't seem all that large, but the miscellaneous odds and ends stuffed inside were still quite tedious and messy. Especially after being rummaged through by someone who didn't know how to organize, it looked like a dog had gnawed on it.

After sweeping through them several times, Xuan Ye finally confirmed that his eyes had indeed played tricks on him. He had mistaken the sand-attribute magic cores from the Desert of the Dead for earth-attribute ones. After all, before he finished reading those related books, he couldn't tell the difference between sand and earth attributes, which left him feeling rather annoyed.

So-called sand attribute wasn't a separate system; it was merely a branch of the earth attribute. It could support most of what earth-attribute magic cores could do.

In fact, for specific, designated purposes, sand-attribute magic cores had even more effective benefits—like crafting 'Quicksand Art' scrolls, or configuring the baptismal potion for physical-type cultivators to condense their Inner Mansion Core. Since the baptismal potion had no attribute requirements and only needed pure power, it was of no practical use to Xuan Ye at his current stage.

As someone who had already stepped into the Professional Rank and condensed a Professional Core within his 'Perception' Inner Mansion, his current primary goal was to confirm his own path and complete the solidification of his profession!

Naturally, this meant he had to consider the ritual materials for opening the Earth Star Palace. Because he had already condensed one Inner Mansion Core, the difficulty of opening a Star Palace was greater, and the materials required for the ritual were also more troublesome.

Ordinarily, a top-tier apprentice preparing to advance and open a Star Palace could use a derived sand-attribute magic core to open the Earth Star Palace without issue. There was no difference in success probability compared to a pure earth-attribute core. The only consideration was that after a successful breakthrough, they would need to spend a bit more effort purifying the core.

But that wasn't enough for someone aiming to undergo a special profession change. They had to use pure attribute magic cores—earth, fire, wind, water, light, or dark—and the auxiliary materials were also a whole basket more.

Currently, he did have one pure-attribute magic core in hand, a light-attribute one. It seemed to belong to that ill-fated Paladin lady. In terms of price, it was even higher than a pure earth-attribute core, but it was utterly useless right now.

Although his goal was to surpass the Barrier Master, with the series of related knowledge reminders about the Eyes of Lawbreaking he had earlier, Xuan Ye still planned to start from the Barrier Master direction. He would open the Earth Star Palace as his first Star Palace, then extend to condense cores for other Star Palaces.

As for the ritual itself, relying on his current half-baked magical attainments, with the assistance of the Soul Database, he should barely be able to set it up himself. But when it came to materials, he couldn't just conjure them out of thin air.

Given his current location, even if he went out to hunt magic beasts and got lucky with a magic core drop, it would still be sand-attribute. If he headed further northwest, he'd reach the Riftwind Plains, which mainly produced wind-attribute magic cores.

For now, the only way to obtain an earth-attribute magic core in the short term was to try his luck in Stanrosai City. As the largest human settlement nearby and the only city, there should be traveling merchants bringing goods not produced here for trade.

It was just that the trouble he carried made him a bit conflicted.

The Kende Family, huh. The third-largest force in Stanrosai, the second-largest family. The entire clan had seven—no, now eight—Professional Rank Experts. The family head was even hailed as the city's number one genius back in the day, a Professional Peak Expert. They also had a Bloodline Power of considerable practicality, and now they had certainly obtained the Talent Rune provided by his own family.

Given his current strength, if he were discovered, it seemed the outcome would be rather grim.

From his battle with Ye Man, Xuan Ye clearly understood that if the opponent didn't know his capabilities, relying on a sneak attack and catching them off guard, he had a decent chance of taking down a Three-Star Professional Expert. Especially now that he had inscribed a full five 'Bright Eyes' runes!

Although it didn't boost his absolute power, with the stability of all runes increased fivefold, his control over his own strength had been greatly enhanced.

Originally, he was just a half-baked part-time Ranger. With finer control over his power, his combat effectiveness improved significantly, making his moves easier to execute. Not to mention the extreme enhancement of dynamic vision from the 'Bright Eyes' rune itself, and the yet-to-be-determined boost from his Bloodline Power.

However, all of this was predicated on a successful ambush and the enemy not knowing his abilities!

Otherwise, once his tactics were figured out, facing a Three-Star Expert who had condensed three Inner Mansion Cores and had his physical attributes greatly enhanced three times, the absolute disadvantage in hard stats like strength and speed would be truly dangerous.

Moreover, the Kende Family had that big boss family head, and plenty of other Professional Rank manpower under him.

Somewhat troubled, he touched his head, which had already grown back hair. Feeling the dog-chewed texture, he snapped back to reality. Why worry so much? A simple disguise should be enough. With his hair this messy and unkempt, he looked like a completely different person.

In the eyes of the Kende Family, he had always been just a small fry. They wouldn't mobilize the entire clan to hunt him down. Did he really think he was some big shot? Unless they knew his current progress, who would bother with a little fish that slipped through the net?

With his current strength, he ranked in the top fifty in Stanrosai—no, actually, the top thirty. If he was a bit careful and cautious, he should be able to complete the material exchange.

As for the money to buy the materials, the cash and materials on these few people were already enough. And also...

He needed to go see the families of the fallen teammates from Luo Luoji's Scavenger Squad.

Even the father of this body's original owner, if he had the chance, he should consider inquiring about him.

But relatively speaking, having never interacted with them, Xuan Ye's feelings for Luo Luoji and the others were actually deeper than for this 'never-met' cheap father.

Having made his decision, he, who had been sitting cross-legged on the ground, didn't make any visible movement. He just deeply exhaled a breath of stale air, and a gentle breeze spread out, rushing toward the stone blocking the cave entrance.

'Mage's Hand'

The most common and practical low-level spell. Its spell model structure had only three rune syllables, easily mastered even by apprentices. It was one of the few spells he knew. A true expert wouldn't use their hands to push a door! After all, he was at least a top-thirty expert in Stanrosai. Without the bearing of a master, what difference was there from a salted fish?

And then, the stone wobbled a bit and stopped moving. He strained his face into a grimace, but it wouldn't budge.

Well, using a fine manipulation spell meant for grabbing spell materials and experiment supplies to move a boulder—it was only natural that it couldn't push it...

Thanks to Soft Candy, lhh857, and fellow bookworm So-and-So for the tips.

Also, because of the new book period and the new book rankings, I need to control the update speed. Due to longer chapters or other reasons, there might occasionally be a single update during the new book period. Please forgive me in advance. It's all my fault for miscalculating the word count when I updated before, wiping tears.