Wizard: My skills can be upgraded indefinitely.

Phoenix cowered behind the stone pillar, the token in his hand flashing wildly with blood-red light, and the incantation he was chanting grew increasingly urgent.

Suddenly, he looked up sharply at the cocoon on top of the altar.

The silk threads on the surface of the cocoon moved at a slower pace.

Phoenix's face lit up with ecstasy.

"It's done! The blood sacrifice order worked! It obeys me..."

He hadn't finished speaking.

Suddenly, a crack appeared in the center of the cocoon.

Inside the cocoon, there were no eyes, no mouth, only a deep, swirling dark red.

Then, a main tentacle, ten times thicker than the other threads and dark in color, slowly emerged.

At the tip of the whiskers, a slit opened, revealing layers upon layers of constantly wriggling sharp teeth.

It "looked" at Phoenix.

Phoenix's ecstatic expression froze instantly, turning into incredulous horror.

"No...no...this isn't what the records say...it...it's not being controlled...it's..."

Before he could finish speaking...

The main tentacle shot out suddenly, as fast as a black lightning bolt.

Phoenix wanted to hide, but he had been standing too close to the front while communicating the blood sacrifice order, and there was no cover around him.

The whiskers instantly wrapped around his waist.

"ah!!!"

Phoenix let out a bloodcurdling scream, like a pig being slaughtered.

The protective blood-red aura around him went out with a "poof," and his seemingly decent deep red inner armor was crushed like paper.

The tendrils tightened, and Phoenix's waist deformed and collapsed at a visible speed.

The sound of bones cracking was as dense as popping beans.

He frantically waved the Blood Sacrifice Token in his hand, trying to smash it at the tentacles.

But as soon as he raised his arm, it got tangled in another, thinner thread.

"Snap!"

With his arm bent, the Blood Sacrifice Order flew out of his hand and landed on the ground a few meters away with a clatter.

Phoenix's eyes bulged out as he stared intently at the token, making a "hoarse" sound in his throat.

The tentacles dragged him back into his cocoon.

The human face outline on the surface of the cocoon writhed violently, and a faint chewing sound could be heard coming from inside.

A few seconds later, the sound stopped.

A long, empty, deep red robe emerged from the gaps in the cocoon and floated gently to the ground.

There was a moment of deathly silence in the cave.

Then, an even more intense panic erupted.

"Phoenix...is dead?!"

"The Crimson Leader is dead!"

"Run! Run!"

On the side of the Withering Council, the gray-robed leader suddenly looked up, two ghostly flames flickering beneath his hood.

He glanced at the cocoon on the altar, then at Ian standing at the door.

A hoarse voice rang out: "Fight our way out! Kill that brat at the door who's blocking our way!"

Five or six gray-robed men turned around at the same time and rushed towards the stone gate.

The leader was two meters tall with a large frame, and he was carrying a bone knife as wide as a door panel.

He charged ahead, bone knife raised high, the blade wreathed in gray-black death energy, and slashed at Ian's head.

"Get out of here!"

The wind from the blades tore through the air, emitting a shrill, ghostly wail.

Ian raised his right hand, making a loose fist.

A walnut-sized, gravity-collapsed sphere, its internal light collapsing, was formed instantly.

go with.

The collapsing sphere flew out silently and crashed into the bone knife.

The gray-robed man grinned maliciously, his bone knife continuing its relentless thrust, intending to cleave the ball and the man together.

But the moment the blade touches the collapsing sphere.

hum!

Space distorted, and an invisible, immense force gripped the bone knife.

The gray-robed man felt as if the knife in his hand had been cutting into sticky glue; its speed suddenly decreased, and the blade began to bend and deform inward.

"What the hell is that?!"

His expression changed, and he tried to draw his sword and retreat.

late.

The collapsing sphere exploded with a "pop".

This is a rebound after collapsing inward to its extreme.

A transparent shockwave exploded.

The bone knife snapped in two with a "crack".

The gray-robed man's hand holding the knife split open, blood gushing out, and he was thrown back three steps by the shockwave.

He had just steadied himself when an invisible, intangible thread pierced through his mental sea.

"Ah!" The gray-robed man was struck as if by lightning and let out a miserable scream.

But Ian was already right in front of him.

With his right hand's five fingers joined together, the jade-like skin beneath shimmered with a lustrous sheen, like an iron cone piercing straight into his chest.

The gray-robed man roared, clenched his left fist, and unleashed a deathly aura as he charged straight at the attacker.

"Bang!"

Fists and palms collided.

The expression on the gray-robed man's face froze instantly.

He felt as if his fist had struck a piece of red-hot steel.

No, it's harder and hotter than stainless steel.

The excruciating pain of shattered bones surged up his arm, and the deathly aura dissipated with a hiss as Ian's luminous light washed it away, like snow meeting boiling water.

Ian's hand, undeterred, plunged into his chest with a "plop."

Clasp your five fingers around your ribs and pull hard.

"Snap!"

His sternum was shattered, and his heart was crushed.

The gray-robed man's eyes widened as he looked down at the bloody hole in his chest, then looked up at Ian.

"You...aren't Level 1..."

He gurgled in his throat, gushing out a mouthful of black blood, and fell backward.

"team leader!"

The gray-robed men behind them cried out in surprise.

Their captain, a master of liquefaction, specializing in death magic and melee combat, had his heart ripped out in a single encounter.

"Attack him together! Kill him!"

The remaining four gray-robed men's eyes turned red, and they pounced at the same time.

One of them unleashed three gray-black corrosive rays, aiming straight for Ian's face.

One person pressed his hands to the ground, and the ground cracked open with a "crack," revealing seven or eight pale skeletal hands that burst from the earth and grabbed at Ian's feet.

A person was muttering incantations, and a ghastly green ghost head appeared above his head, spewing out a foul-smelling poisonous mist.

The last person circled around to the side, holding a handful of poisoned bone spikes, waiting for an opportunity to launch a sneak attack.

Ian's eyes were cold.

[Crystal Energy Barrier] Fully activated, seventy-two floating crystal guards whistled out, half of them forming a shield wall in front of them, while the other half crashed into the bone hand and poisonous mist like a swarm of bees.

"Bang bang bang!"

The bone hand was shattered by the crystal guard, and the poisonous mist sizzled and corroded the crystal guard's shield, but it couldn't be broken through for a while.

Ian himself pushed off with his feet, advancing instead of retreating, and charged into the middle of the three corrosive rays.

[Mimicry] Activated!

His body color and texture instantly blended into the surrounding environment. Three rays grazed his body and struck the stone door behind him, carving out three deep pits.

Ian's true form appeared to the left of the gray-robed man spewing poisonous mist.

He brought his right index and middle fingers together, and a point of purplish-white, compressed, cold light suddenly shone brightly from the fingertip.

That wasn't just frost-white, nor was it purely high temperature.

Within the purple-white light, there are two extreme energies: icy cold and scorching heat.

They intertwined, spun, and annihilated in a spiral, emitting a faint "sizzling" sound, like ice and fire tearing at each other.

【Frost Ray - Ice and Fire Spiral】!

A pale purple beam of light, intertwined in a triangular shape, tore through the air and shot towards the gray-robed man's chest and abdomen with a piercing shriek!

The gray-robed man was startled and tried to hide, but Ian appeared too suddenly.

He only had time to turn his head slightly before a pale purple beam of light struck his chest.

"puff!"

Upon impact, ice and fire energies erupt simultaneously!

At the chest, the extreme cold instantly froze the skin, flesh, and bones, forming an ice hole the size of a bowl, its edges covered with a thick layer of white frost.

The intense heat instantly vaporized and carbonized the flesh, creating a charred hole.

The edges were still sizzling with white smoke, emitting the smell of burnt barbecue.

Ice and fire, freezing and burning, two completely opposite forms of damage, explode simultaneously on the same body!

The gray-robed man trembled violently, opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

He looked down at the ice hole in his chest, his eyes filled with bewilderment and disbelief.

Then, it fell straight down.

From the side, the gray-robed man who had attacked with the bone spike saw Ian's back turn, a fierce glint flashed in his eyes, and the bone spike stabbed fiercely into Ian's back.

But the bone spur had only pierced halfway through.

Suddenly, a pitch-black claw emerged from the shadows at his feet.

"Gah!"

The claws of the squeaky claws dug deep into his ankle.

"Ah!" the gray-robed man screamed, looking down.

A fist-sized creature emerged from the shadows, flapped its wings, and unleashed a dozen solid, bluish-green wind blades that slashed towards his face.

The gray-robed man hurriedly raised his hand to block, causing bone spikes to fly wildly.

"Pfft pfft pfft!"

The wind blade sliced ​​through the protective death aura, leaving more than a dozen deep, bone-revealing wounds on his body, causing blood to gush out.

This delay caused the delay.

Ian had already turned around, his right hand making a loose grip, and a gravity-collapsed sphere slammed into his chest at close range.

"Buzz!"

The gray-robed man's body stiffened, his chest caved inward, and his ribs, internal organs, and spine were squeezed together by an invisible force.

His eyes bulged out, and he spat out blood mixed with pieces of internal organs before falling backward.

The remaining two gray-robed figures were one who emitted corrosive rays and the other who summoned bone hands.

Seeing that two more had died in the blink of an eye, he was terrified.

"run!"

The two turned around and tried to go deeper into the cave.

But deep within the cave, the waves of silk threads had already spread.

Several bright red silk threads "whooshed" around their ankles.

"No!"

The two screamed and struggled desperately, unleashing magical attack threads.

But it didn't work.

The silk threads are not afraid of death energy at all; on the contrary, they are like leeches that smell blood, and they become more and more entangled.

"Help! Help..."

The sound stopped abruptly.

The two were dragged into the waves of silk threads and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

From the moment the leader of the Withering Council made his move to the complete annihilation of all six, less than twenty breaths had passed.

The people still alive in the cave were all dumbfounded.

Hogan and Catherine of Shadowmoon Tower had mouths agape wide enough to fit eggs.

Those from smaller factions were trembling with fear.

The few remaining wizards of the Crimson Court, their faces as white as ghosts, huddled in a corner, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Ian... single-handedly killed the entire Wither Council squad?

Several others are also experts in the liquefaction phase.

That eerie pale purple ray actually possesses both freezing and burning effects?!

How did they do that?!

This guy's a Level 1 wizard?!

Ian shook the blood off his hands and looked up into the cave.

The wave of silk threads is still spreading, and has already covered most of the cave.

Of those still alive, besides the eight or nine people from Shadowmoon, five from Crimson, and two or three from smaller factions, there are fewer than twenty in total.

Everyone crowded around the stone gate, but no one dared to rush towards Ian.

They looked at Ian, then at the trailing threads, their faces filled with despair.

"Ian..." Hogan's throat was dry as he struggled to speak.

Ian glanced at him but didn't say anything.

He stepped aside to make way.

Hogan felt like he had been granted a pardon and immediately led his men out.

Seeing this, the members of the Crimson faction and the smaller factions also rushed to squeeze out.

Ian watched these people run past him, his eyes calm.

He didn't intervene; killing them all would have had too great an impact.

The last person just squeezed through the crack in the door.

Inside the cave, the thick main tentacle suddenly turned and aimed at the stone door.

They immediately targeted Ian.