Forbidden Zone

Lohr walked three miles in the direction opposite from where the dark Faith Apprentice had appeared and arrived before a small mound of earth.

He raised his right hand slightly, and earth element surged from his palm, sweeping away all the soil atop the mound and revealing a beast-hide bundle hidden beneath.

The bundle contained extremely intense divine power fluctuations, less than half as weak as the bag of divine crystals Lohr possessed.

He did not immediately pick up the beast-hide bundle. Instead, he activated the Lava Eruption Sorcery covering a three-meter radius and gave the bundle a thorough cleansing.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—crack—"

A cloud of black smoke abruptly rose from beneath the bundle, but it was swallowed by the lava in an instant.

"Not bad. You even knew to leave a backup plan. Barely passable."

Lohr offered a word of praise and waved away the Small Lava Eruption Spell.

He then picked up the bundle with a hand covered in a layer of Adaptive Rock Barrier and returned to his resting spot.

He placed the beast-hide bundle beside his own, then turned around and set up another Lava Eruption Magic Array before finally beginning to count his gains.

"276 grams of Divine Power Crystals, and 62 bottles of Special Potion." Lohr raised his brows slightly. "Tsk, this guy had hunted quite a few people."

As for Lohr himself, he had always intimidated an entire area first, then picked up Divine Power Crystals from places with particularly intense divine power fluctuations.

The advantage was that he could obtain more Divine Power Crystals while also saving elemental energy.

The disadvantage was that he obtained fewer Special Potions. After all, others did not dare run around carrying conspicuous Divine Power Crystals, but they still dared carry Special Potions.

That dark Faith Apprentice had chosen another path: killing apprentices who had already seized Divine Power Crystals.

This method was less efficient than Lohr's when it came to acquiring Divine Power Crystals, but it yielded more Special Potions.

"It's only easier during the first few hours, and you might even get yourself killed."

Lohr shook his head. "I'm not afraid of getting myself killed, but chasing people really is troublesome."

Speed was now his weak point. If he did not put down the Divine Power Crystals first, it was difficult for him to catch anyone. But if he put them down, he feared they would be stolen.

Yet these Divine Power Crystals determined whether he could afford a good flying vessel and leave the Murphy Continent. There was no room for error.

"For the next few days, I'll just wait for prey to come to me. Waiting out the seven days may be the better choice."

Lohr thought to himself, When the time comes, the higher-ups will drop three spatial equipment items into the Divine Kingdom. Every greedy apprentice will fight over them. That will be the time to reap the harvest.

Having made up his mind, he stopped dwelling on it.

He packed all 738 grams of Divine Power Crystals into a single bag, then meditated for several minutes to replenish the elemental energy he had just expended.

He then took out all the potions and drank them one tube at a time, continuing his attempt to improve his talent.

Thirty tubes...

Fifty tubes...

Lohr drank the last tube of potion, shook his head, which had grown somewhat numb from the icy sensation, and opened his panel again to look at the meditation talent section.

[Meditation Talent: Level 7+]

"It really wasn't easy. I had to drink ninety-nine bottles of potion before I could finally add a point." Lohr sighed and decisively tapped the plus sign.

[Meditation Talent: Level 7 → Level 8]

[Charge Points: 11350, 20.34% → 4557, 15.48%]

"Level-eight meditation talent is practically among the very best. On average, one day of meditation can increase mental power by 0.3 points."

Lohr smiled in satisfaction. "Without relying on any external aid, I can go from an ordinary person to a First-Circle Wizard Candidate in a year. That cultivation speed is enough."

He had no plans for level-nine meditation talent for the time being, because it was simply too difficult.

Going from level seven to level eight required one hundred bottles of Special Potion.

Going from level eight to level nine would not be enough even with ten thousand bottles. It was an enormous qualitative leap.

"Since I'm not hunting, I'll advance my Meditation Method over the next few days."

Lohr closed his eyes, sank his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness, and used mental power to connect the Fire-Earth Meditation Rune with the Small Lava Eruption Spell rune.

As time passed, a mysterious connection gradually formed between the two.

Countless fire and earth elements flowed and exchanged between the two runes.

Before he realized it, the meditation rune had gained traces of the violent properties unique to the Small Lava Eruption Spell rune.

During Lohr's meditation advancement, rabbits came charging in from outside roughly every hour.

In the end, most of them were burned to ashes by the Lava Eruption Magic Array he had left outside.

It would have been one thing if wealthy rabbits like that dark Faith Apprentice had come crashing into his tree, but these apprentices were poorer than the last.

They were almost all gamblers who had lost until their eyes turned red, clinging to fantasies of sudden wealth as they came to try their luck with Lohr. Ten of them together could not even produce one gram of Divine Power Crystals.

"What a nuisance."

Lohr opened his eyes and looked at the apprentice who had been burned to ashes, as well as the Lava Eruption Magic Array that had vanished once again. His eyes were filled with impatience.

"This won't do. The apprentices coming here don't have any Divine Power Crystals. Not only am I gaining nothing, they're slowing down my meditation advancement."

He had originally planned to advance his Meditation Method in three days. Now that he had changed his plans, he had six days instead.

But if he kept alternating between cultivation and getting up to set up magic arrays, then forget six days—even ten days might not be enough to complete the advancement.

Although Meditation Method advancement was not afraid of interruptions, every time he reentered the dual-rune synchronization state, it took time.

"Hmm, why not try setting up several more magic arrays around the perimeter?" A new idea surfaced in Lohr's mind.

Whenever he set up one Lava Eruption Magic Array, those people destroyed it as soon as they entered.

If he set up more of them, they should be able to buy him more time to cultivate no matter what.

If he set up sixty or seventy small and large Lava Eruption Magic Arrays at once, they should hold out for two days without much trouble.

No sooner thought than done.

Lohr walked out of the Adaptive Rock Barrier Magic Array and began setting up Lava Eruption Magic Arrays along the edge of the barrier.

For every three small magic arrays he set up, he placed a medium magic array around them.

After setting up three medium magic arrays, he placed a large magic array around them.

After several rounds, he returned to recover his elemental energy for a few minutes before coming back out to continue setting up arrays.

The power of these magic arrays barely reached the first circle. The difference in size only represented a difference in range.

If other apprentices entered the arrays, they would trigger the large magic arrays first, while the medium and small magic arrays inside would not be activated.

After setting up a total of seventy magic arrays, Lohr looked at the densely packed Lava Eruption Magic Arrays covering a radius of twenty miles and nodded in satisfaction.

"That should be enough. Time to go back and continue advancing the Meditation Method."

The plan to wait for prey officially went bankrupt. He activated his backup plan: using fish traps to catch fish.

Two days later.

A wolf-shaped Bloodline Wizard apprentice led more than a hundred bizarre-looking Bloodline Wizard apprentices and over three hundred Elemental Wizard apprentices toward Lohr's location.

When they were still more than one hundred and twenty miles from Lohr, they encountered a Bloodline Wizard apprentice with six spider legs growing from his back in the forest.

When the spider-legged apprentice saw such a large group walking through the forest without even the slightest divine power fluctuation leaking from their bodies, his heart seemed to stop for an instant.

Just as he was about to flee, the wolf-shaped wizard apprentice leading the group seemed to recognize him.

The moment they met, he warmly pointed west and invited him.

"Jiaolang, do you want to come over there and try your luck with me?"

He could sense extremely powerful Divine Power Crystal fluctuations in that direction, far stronger than the divine power fluctuations of those they had hunted before.

Upon hearing that familiar voice, Jiaolang halted mid-turn.

He turned back around and fixed his gaze on the wolf-shaped wizard apprentice leading the group.

When he saw that it truly was an old friend, delight rose in his heart.

But when he clearly saw the direction his old friend was pointing toward, his scalp went numb.

"No, Yajieding, don't go that way." Jiaolang urgently warned, "That place is a 'forbidden zone'!"