Fortunately, at the crucial moment, Lu Jun reacted in time and quickly pulled his hands back. He raised the Shock Gold Sword, as big as a door, to shield himself, covering his body completely.
With a clang, the Alpha Wolf's pounce was blocked by the Heavy Sword, but the tremendous impact was more than his slender body could withstand.
Lu Jun was sent flying. His chest tightened, and ripples spread across the deep-blue Water Shield around him as countless streams of water splashed into the air. The instant his back hit the ground, he saw four or five One-Eyed Magic Wolves pouncing on him, the pack snapping at him as they tried to tear him apart.
A powerful sense of danger rose within him. If he fell and was pinned down, even Water Shield wouldn't save him.
Suddenly, an idea struck him. He rolled across the ground, narrowly evading the Demon Beasts' vicious attack. Then he saw the Advancement Period Alpha Wolf charge again, launching into a second burst without slowing down.
Boom!
Lu Mei barely managed to act in time. She cast Level Three Earth Wave once every second and a half. A deep pit opened beneath the Advancement Period Magic Wolf, the soil churning as if it had turned into a swamp. The Alpha Wolf stumbled, its limbs sinking in and becoming firmly trapped.
Though Lu Jun had gained a moment to catch his breath, the situation remained perilous.
In truth, they could have made a clean getaway by jumping off the cliff. It would simply have made all their hunting so far a waste.
Lu Jun felt the urge to give up, but immediately rejected it. His gaze turned ruthless. If he backed down over a little difficulty like this, he might as well go home and raise pigs instead of becoming a mage.
At that moment, the Gold Nebula in his Spiritual World seemed to sense his resolve. New strength welled up in the dim platinum clouds, and their radiance suddenly surged. The nebula expanded, and his magical energy recovered somewhat.
After killing again and again, the Gold Nebula had finally risen past its threshold and reached Primary Level Three: [Golden Radiance].
Bzzzz!
Lu Jun was struck by a sudden inspiration. With a low shout, he raised the four-meter-long Vibranium Heavy Sword. Golden lines spread across its surface, followed by a layer of keen platinum light. He swung it down with all his might.
In an instant, a golden beam burst from the greatsword. Its arc was sharp and compact, shining brilliantly as it crossed more than ten meters, a piercing whistle cutting through the air.
Squelch!
The Magic Wolf ahead had no time to dodge. The beam struck it squarely in the head. The sound of flesh being cut rang out as Golden Radiance swept smoothly through it, splitting its body in two and sending blood spraying everywhere.
The Golden Radiance kept going, cutting through the bodies of two more Magic Wolves behind it before finally fading.
"What?!" Lu Mei's beautiful eyes widened in disbelief.
Lu Jun leaped into the air, his muscles bulging as he gripped the sword with both hands and brought it down hard on the Advancement Period Alpha Wolf. He unleashed Level Three Golden Radiance again. That was what made Metal Element so useful: once he summoned his Magic Tool, he could use techniques like "Size Change" and "Golden Radiance" without having to control any stars.
The Alpha Wolf struggled desperately in the collapsed mud pit below, able only to watch as the Heavy Sword descended.
The next moment, Lu Jun came down from above, the blade flashing as it slashed toward the Alpha Wolf's neck. A beheading strike carried overwhelming force!
Squelch!
Lu Jun landed on one knee nearby. Blood sprayed from behind him, reaching three meters into the air. The enormous wolf head, half the size of a person, flew high before crashing to the ground beside him, carving a deep furrow in the earth.
The massive wolf's body shuddered and spasmed a few times before falling silent, collapsing into the mud. The Alpha Wolf was dead!
He stood beneath the streams of blood pouring down, the hot liquid drenching him. When he rose, he was covered in scarlet, the reek of blood thick around him. He looked like a demon, Killing Aura soaring skyward, and he raised the wolf's head in one hand as he let out a roar.
At that instant, the seven or eight injured Magic Wolves around them whimpered in fear, cowed by him.
Perhaps they had never seen a mage like this before: fighting at close quarters with his bare body, charging alone into the fray and beheading the Alpha Wolf!
"Get lost!" Lu Jun tossed the enormous wolf head into the air and kicked it toward the pack.
At the sight, the wolves retreated step by step, looking as if they wanted to flee.
But it was too late. His older sister shouted, "Level One Wind Disc!"
Rumble!
That same gale swept across the mountaintop once more. The tornado, more than ten meters tall, swept past, flinging every wolf into the air, wounded or uninjured. They crashed down the mountainside, where they met their deaths.
Only after seeing the entire wolf den wiped out did Lu Jun drop onto his backside. He panted, his muscles aching. He had been bluffing to some extent just now; after fighting for so long and unleashing Golden Radiance twice, his Gold Nebula had long since run out of magical energy.
But when he saw the Demon Beast corpses covering the mountain, his heart swelled with satisfaction and excitement. Primary Level Three! His next step was to break through the Intermediate Level barrier.
He had reached this point two years ahead of Mo Fan, who wouldn't reach the peak of Primary Level Three in two Magic Systems until near the end of his senior year.
And the Metal Element's killing power was undeniable. Golden Radiance made up for some of its shortcomings, giving him the ability to kill at short and medium range. His future looked promising!
"An Advancement Period Servant-level Demon Beast. Even Intermediate Magic might not kill it in one blow, but I beheaded it with ease."
Lu Jun took a deep breath, ambition stirring within him. He longed to make something of himself.
On the other side, his older sister, Lu Mei, walked over with a look of shock and worry. She had to admit that the sight of her younger brother raising the wolf's head, drenched in blood, had shaken her.
It was like seeing the back of an epic hero. Only sixteen years old, already at Primary Level Three, fighting Demon Beasts in a bloody battle—who among the young could stand against him?
She took a long time to recover. Looking at her younger brother sitting on the ground, she asked, "Are you all right?"
At that, Lu Jun grinned. "The Heavy Sword blocked the attack, and Level Two Water Shield absorbed the impact. I'm probably fine. I'll get a thorough checkup at the hospital when we're back. For now, let's hurry and gather the spoils."
Lu Mei's eyes curved as she smiled brightly and nodded. "Okay!"
Before long, she took a dagger and went around finishing off the Magic Wolves. Of course, she had a Water Shield around her, just in case disaster struck at the last moment.
As Lu Mei cut up the corpses, her mind wandered. Once upon a time, for her younger brother's sake, she had given up her chance to attend a magical academy. A single woman raising a half-grown child was bound to face plenty of subtle discrimination in society.
Whether she had longed for a career in magic or a simple, ordinary life as a wife and mother, she had known the moment she made her decision that those paths were now out of reach.
She had given up so much to raise Lu Jun. And when she saw him growing up to be capable and strong-willed, a sense of loss had crept in. Her child was spreading his wings and flying away—what about her?
Only now, as Lu Jun began to repay her in earnest, did Lu Mei realize that she was still young and still had a chance. She could pick up the dream that had fallen into the dust, brush it clean, and strive for magic's highest halls.
Lu Mei kept cutting up the materials, and before long she began to chuckle softly, her voice as sweet as a silver bell.
Was this what raising someone felt like? It really was wonderful—the deep joy of planting a seed in spring and harvesting it in autumn. It was intoxicating.
She added to herself that it had to be a well-behaved, obedient, capable Five-Star Character Card like her younger brother for someone to experience this kind of happiness.
Lu Jun, resting nearby, was baffled. "What's wrong, Sis? Did you find something valuable?"
"Nothing." His older sister bent down to gather the materials, her back curving gracefully. Then she paused and turned to him with a radiant smile. "Tell me, do you think we could become Great Mages?"
Lu Jun was taken aback. Then he answered firmly, "We definitely will. We'll become Forbidden Curse Mage Gods, and our names will shine through history forever."
Lu Mei smiled. "You really do have your head in the clouds. If the two of us siblings become Super Rank, that'll be success enough!"
"Your horizons are too narrow." He pursed his lips, rested until he felt better, and stood up again. They had killed at least fifty Magic Wolves in this battle. In his sight, countless firefly-like, pale blue lights quickly gathered inside the White Tiger Pendant.
Fifty Remnant Souls in all. He didn't even need to collect them himself; they came to him automatically.
Lu Jun sent his mind into the White Tiger Pendant, and the space before him opened up. A dark-red lake, steeped in Killing Aura, appeared, with nearly a hundred Remnant Souls floating above it.
They had accumulated from the past until now.
Magic Tools contained pocket dimensions. At their peak, they could become Soul Tools, their rank comparable to Forbidden Curse magic. Even though this one had fallen in rank, it still offered the auxiliary effects of a Nebula Magic Tool and a Nebula-level Soul Vessel.
When he peered at the Golden Blood Lake, the hundred or so points of light suddenly stirred and quickly overlapped, fusing into a thumb-sized, pale blue flame. A strong aura radiated from it. It was unmistakably a complete Servant-level Essence Soul!
"Remnant Souls can be fused. Just like Mo Fan's Little Loach, the White Tiger Pendant can do it too."
Lu Jun was delighted. Although the fused Essence Soul couldn't be taken out of the White Tiger Pendant, it was still extremely useful. It could nourish stars and raise the limit of a nebula.
Normally, a mage at Primary, Intermediate, Advanced, or any other major rank could raise each spell to a maximum of [Level Three].
But if they used a Demon Beast's Essence Soul to nourish the stars, they could break through that limit and reach [Level Four]—something never seen before—or even [Level Five].
However, to raise a [Primary Level Four] spell, all seven stars had to be nourished with Servant-level Demon Beast Essence Souls. That meant spending a total of [seven] Servant-level Essence Souls.
A single Servant-level Essence Soul was worth five million. That meant spending thirty-five million, enough to buy two Spirit Seeds. A Spirit Seed for each of two Intermediate Magic Systems was standard for the prodigies of the Great Noble Families.
So nobody was willing to upgrade their stars—unless they had a divine artifact like Lu Jun and Mo Fan, one that could absorb Demon Beast Remnant Souls and fuse them into Essence Souls. Only then could someone afford to be so extravagant.
A Primary Level Four spell was equivalent to half an Intermediate Magic spell. It could instantly kill a Demon Beast of the same level and easily defeat an Advancement Period Servant-level one.
The key was that it saved magical energy. Intermediate Magic consumed seven or eight times as much as Primary Magic, so the boost in combat power was enormous.
It was said that there was an Innate Talent similar to this: all spells in a certain Magic System gained one level. While everyone else was capped at Level Three in Primary, Intermediate, and Advanced Magic, that person could reach Level Four.
And that was only Level Four. To reach Primary Level Five, he'd need seven General-level Essence Souls—140 million!
And for Intermediate Level Four... forty-nine stars, forty-nine Servant-level Essence Souls... Yikes.
Lu Jun recalled that in the future, Mo Fan had only managed to raise his Advanced Magic to Level Four, with no further progress. His Primary and Intermediate spells, on the other hand, had reached Level Five.
"I'll take it one step at a time."
He felt that, given the Metal Element's special nature, strengthening all his stars would enhance his Natal Magic Tool, the Shock Gold Sword, and give it boundless power.
But before Lu Jun could withdraw his mind, one pleasant surprise followed another.
A complete Servant-level Essence Soul rose from the Advancement Period Magic Wolf's corpse. The pale blue flame quickly settled onto the White Tiger Pendant on his chest.
Lu Jun saw two Servant-level Essence Souls bobbing in the blood-red lake.
"Hahaha, I've struck it rich!" he laughed, then turned to his older sister. "Sis, it dropped an Essence Soul! Five million!"
Lu Mei was surprised and delighted. Given the odds, this was about what one could expect, especially since the Advancement Period Magic Wolf had a powerful soul and was more likely to drop an Essence Soul.
She hurried over, then paused and asked, "Wait, where did you get a Soul Jar?"
At that, Lu Jun glanced at her. "It's a secret. Don't worry about it. We'll exchange it at the Yin Mao Building for five million. You can rent a top-grade Nebula Magic Tool for half a year and push your Earth Element to Intermediate Level."
"Tsk, tsk. Two Magic Systems at Intermediate Level by the time you're twenty-two. You're just barely a genius."
Lu Mei didn't press him. She pursed her lips and chided him, "Hmph! Who are you making fun of?"
Soon, the siblings worked together to clean up the battlefield. They extracted all the valuable materials from the Demon Beasts and finished them all off.
Worried that the smell of blood would attract another large pack of Demon Beasts, they didn't dare linger. They removed only the essential parts and hurried away.
After all, in a sense, a den of One-Eyed Magic Wolves was part of a larger group's territory. If the smell of blood lingered in the area too long, Magic Wolves from a neighboring den would come to investigate.
Lu Jun and Lu Mei each carried a pack half as tall as a person. With Wind Track cast on them, they could run with ease.
"Three million! Three million in materials altogether! The Exotic Blood and Bones from that Advancement Period Servant-level Demon Beast are worth a lot."
As his older sister walked, she counted their earnings with the look of a money-loving miser, her beautiful eyes sparkling with dollar signs.
Lu Jun smiled. That meant they'd made eight million in one trip. After deducting the three million needed to rent the Nebula Magic Tool, they could save the remaining five million. A few more trips and they'd have enough to buy a Spirit Seed by the end of the second semester of their sophomore year.
Of course, that was only because of his special circumstances. Almost no Demon Hunting Squad had a Soul Jar, so their earnings would be five million lower. And no matter how lucky they were, they wouldn't get an Essence Soul on every outing.
They followed the Wind Track and returned to the Snow Peak Mountain Outpost before long. The veteran soldiers there had grown familiar with the siblings and smiled as they nodded to them.
Only Zhan Kong stepped forward. He stared at Lu Jun, covered in blood and radiating Killing Aura, in utter astonishment. Then he glanced at the huge bundles the two of them were carrying and sucked in a breath. "You didn't venture deep into the wilderness and wipe out a den of Magic Wolves, did you?"
At the sight of him, Lu Jun muttered, "You're an officer. How come you're free every day, waiting here for us?"
Well, Zhan Kong really was free after being demoted. It was like some young master had come to the countryside to experience life.
Nearby, Lu Mei answered with a smile, sounding a bit like a parent bragging about her child. "It was all right. Thanks to my younger brother, we wiped out a whole den of Demon Beasts."
Zhan Kong looked at Lu Jun and began to question his grasp of reality. Was this a high school kid? He was so fierce, wiping out an entire den of Demon Beasts. Even the Black Vatican didn't have kids this monstrous.
And what kind of Black Vatican would be kind enough—and clumsy enough—to hunt Demon Beasts for money?
Wait, could it be... Zhan Kong's expression shifted as his thoughts ran wild. He looked at Lu Jun with a complicated gaze and said solemnly, "On behalf of the Bo City military, I thank you."
"Stationed near Bo City is a large clan of One-Eyed Magic Wolves. It has at least fifty dens and is led by a Commander-level Winged Azure Wolf. Losing a den of Magic Wolves means reducing the pressure on us by one-fiftieth."
Lu Jun pursed his lips. "You can skip the thanks. How about a real reward? Don't tell me you're giving us another little pennant?"
"You brat." Zhan Kong laughed and thought for a moment. "I can't give you money, but what if I exempt you from Winter Break Training during the winter break at the end of the first semester of your sophomore year? I'll even give you an outstanding grade."
"In my view, there's no need for you to do these childish exercises. You'd overpower everyone there and make it hard for me to do my job. I'll also keep this information confidential."
The winter break training, which began at the end of the first semester of sophomore year, was unavoidable for students at every magic high school. It was mandated by the state to cultivate mages' abilities, and it counted heavily toward their College Entrance Exam scores.
The Advanced Class usually went first. The other, regular classes might not have their training until the end of sophomore year or even the middle of senior year.
Lu Jun was overjoyed to hear that he'd be exempt from the training. After everything he'd been through, he didn't care for it anyway; it was pointless. Better to save the time and go hunting for money over winter break.
But Zhan Kong's words carried a deeper meaning. What did he mean by keeping the information secret? It was true that if Lu Jun didn't attend Field Training, he wouldn't have to show his strength in front of his classmates and instructors. He could keep his abilities hidden until college.
Wait, he looked at Zhan Kong. The handsome older man's eyes were full of meaning. Lu Jun wondered whether he had mistaken him for a Calamity Bringer and was deliberately looking out for him.
Only a Calamity Bringer could have the strength to kill Servant-level Demon Beasts at this age.
After a moment, Lu Jun couldn't be bothered to explain. This arrangement worked out fine; he could keep a low profile and develop in secret. He owed Zhan Kong a small favor. Thinking of the tragedy that awaited him in the future, Lu Jun decided that a man of such good character was worth saving.
After leaving the Snow Peak Mountain Outpost, the siblings headed straight for a hospital in Bo City to get a full checkup. There was no helping it—Demon Hunting Mages had to take this seriously. Plenty of people neglected their injuries when they were young, only for the aftereffects to flare up in middle age and leave them half-disabled.
Before you continue