How can you become stronger if you don't build up bonds?

Quilon, a sixth-tier mage.

He finally revealed his name.

Since he dared to give his name, it means he is not afraid of retaliation from others against his social connections.

Normally, a mage reaching rank 6 is equivalent to reaching level 60.

However, this statement is not accurate, as the boundaries between rank and grade are blurred in the world of magicians.

The "rank" of a mage specifically refers to their mastery of different magical levels.

If one can master several sixth-tier spells, then even a mage at level 50 or so can be called a sixth-tier mage, and he will most likely break through to level 60 soon.

Admittedly, mages whose rank is higher than their specific level have more potential and their combat abilities are more unpredictable.

However, on an objective scale, even if a level 50 mage can master seventh-tier spells, his magical circuitry still cannot undergo a qualitative change.

The Kuilong in front of us is clearly in this situation.

Unless Green sends a message, he will definitely not reach level 60.

As long as he doesn't reach level 60, none of the transformative content he mentioned earlier can be implemented.

The more he talks, the more it shows that the cost of taking action is extremely high.

Lin Wei didn't need to guess which aspect of the cost it was.

And most importantly—

Neither Green nor this Quilon ever mentioned any significant improvement in self-defense capabilities after a mage reaches level 60.

So what if you, Que Long, really reach level 60?

Knight Gun A doesn't hurt you, right?

"Your Highness is indeed much more resolute than I imagined—"

Since that's the case, Kui Long won't stand on ceremony. Kui Long really wants to see what kind of trump cards His Highness is hiding—”

Kui Long's wooden face was amused by Lin Wei's words. He stopped counting the ten seconds and instead commanded the fists around the protective shield to smash down immediately.

*Bang!* *Bang!* *Bang!*

One dull thud after another rang out, and ripples spread across the protective shield that Shuliya had erected.

Her mana was rapidly depleting again, but instead of simply taking hits and defending, she manipulated the vines underground to split into three groups.

While disrupting Quilon's offensive rhythm, he attempted to rescue the two knights who were surrounded.

At the same time, the five giant wind eagles in the sky also unleashed their innate spells, targeting the stalagmite that had trapped Yare and made it unable to move.

"It's no use, it's no use—"

Neither the direct attacks of vines and thorns, nor the poison of temporarily blooming flowers, have any effect on me!

The gap in strength between us is beyond your imagination—

Kuilong did nothing more than follow Shuliya's example and erect three protective shields.

One line protected themselves, while the other two surrounded the earthen prison.

Compared to Shuliya's constantly trembling and fluctuating green shield, his earthen-yellow shield remained completely still.

"It's almost time."

The luster flowing across the green shield had faded by eight or nine tenths, a sign that Shulia's mana was running low.

"Your Highness, Shulia hasn't lost yet..."

Shulia, still a warrior—!

A long, crystal-clear whip gradually formed in her hand, and her robes transformed into a set of beautiful and practical flowing rattan armor.

As the equipment was fully generated, an astonishing aura emanated from her.

"Magic circuit amplification?! You're a body temperer?!"

The surprise in Kuilong's voice was undisguised.

"Not only that, you also mastered the magic of shaping ahead of time. Is this a unique talent of the nature mage path?"

If you were at the sixth rank today, Kui Long would turn around and leave without daring to entangle with you.

Unfortunately, the young lady was only at the fourth level of strength, which was far too much of a gap between her and Kui Long.

Those who specialize in body tempering are not particularly adept at defensive combat.

After his initial surprise, Quilong once again revealed his usual sullen smile.

"It's time, Your Highness. You should return the small bottle and the orchid spider. Kui Long still has a long way to go."

Kui Long's eyes lit up as he looked directly at Lin Wei.

"Yes, the time is almost up. There are only 30 seconds left until my ten-minute time limit, but that should be enough."

A slight smile appeared on Lin Wei's lips.

"Your Highness, are you perhaps referring to Hu...?"

Kui Long's expression suddenly changed drastically halfway through his speech. He turned his head sharply, and before he could even raise his right hand halfway, a spear carrying a terrifying impact and moving at a speed too fast to react to appeared in front of him.

The tan shield was pierced mercilessly with almost no resistance to the spear.

At this extreme speed, Quilon had no chance to cast spells, nor any room to dodge.

The hurled spear had a clear target: Quilong's head!

The power of that shot was enough to tear his soul to shreds!

No amount of defense could keep up.

In a single instant, Quilong realized this despairing truth.

An unprecedented shadow of death instantly enveloped Quilong.

"Sizzle—"

The spear pierced through Kui Long's brow, which was covered with forehead wrinkles, with only a faint shattering sound.

Clearly, Quilon's skull had not been reinforced and was no different from a piece of paper in the face of a rapid gunshot.

Kui Long's body fell backward limply.

Within ten paces, Ayre's gun is fast; beyond ten paces, Ayre's gun is both accurate and fast!

Lin Wei didn't understand why he had such a perfect aim when throwing a gun; such accurate shooting and throwing were clearly the talents of an archer.

But today Lin Wei truly understands.

All he needs to do is throw the gun hard; the rest of the lucky charm buff will naturally explain it.

This is the lich slayer, Are. How could a top-tier knight who can annihilate liches be lacking in combat intelligence and experience when fighting mages?

Everything before was just him feigning weakness, waiting for Kui Long to be careless before striking him down in one fell swoop.

The moment Quilong fell, Shuliya transformed into a streak of green light and rushed towards Quilong's corpse.

The vine whip in her hand changed again, with countless serrations emerging from it. In just two seconds, she rushed to the side of Kui Long's corpse.

The next second, Quilon's corpse was torn to pieces, blood and chunks of flesh splattering everywhere. Shulia's whip strike was textbook perfect; her cuts completely destroyed Quilon's magic circuits without getting stained with any blood.

There has always been a type of self-destructive magic in this world that can cause one's own magical circuits to explode, which is one of the underlying logics of a lich's self-destruction.

Although the scene of Shuliya dismembering Kuilong was a bit horrifying, Lin Wei actually found it somewhat enjoyable to watch, given Shuliya's pure and lovely face.

"Don't let your guard down, Kui Long might not be completely dead."

Lin Wei calmly gave instructions to his subordinates.

Shulia seemed somewhat puzzled, but Yare, who had already escaped from the distance, shared the same feeling.

This is the intuitive feeling given by the Lucky Star buff.

Even if Kui Long isn't completely dead, he's definitely been severely injured.

Because the shattered body in the distance must be his.

Without a physical body, one loses the magical circuits.

Although there is an extreme alchemical method called "human transmutation" in this world, which allows one to create an extra physical body as a backup.

But Lin Wei didn't think that Kui Long was in this line of work; he was probably just a pure earth elemental mage.

Lin Wei was only concerned with whether his soul had escaped or not.

Magicians excel in spirit and intellect, and high-ranking magicians usually possess one or two methods to protect their souls.

Furthermore, the souls of high-ranking mages can also store some mana, thus maintaining a certain level of combat power.

However, lacking a physical body and magical circuits, its combat power is like water without a source, making it difficult to create any significant waves.

"Are, release Zoreni first, then work with her to search for Quilon's remnant soul."

"yes!"

Without Quiron's continued control and reinforcement, the earthen cell trapping Zoreni is becoming increasingly unstable, and even without Are's intervention, Zoreni could escape on her own.

But right now, Lin Wei is racing against time.

Arre walked up to the earthen prison, clenched his right fist to activate the magic circuit in his body, and punched a large hole in the earthen yellow shield and the prison.

"Are you alright, Zoreni?"

Yare reached out and pulled her out of the earthen cell.

"I'm fine, sorry for holding everyone back..."

"Don't say such things, Zoreni. His Highness didn't say you were a burden. Alright, first, help me put the knight's lance away."

"Okay." Zoreni pursed her lips, somewhat touched.

When the two Holy Judges fought together, Zoreni always served as Are's support.

With her various assistance, Are essentially has a second profession: "Javelin Thrower".

In just three seconds, Zoreni made Are's knight's lance fly back on its own.

Along with the knight's lance, several pieces of crystal-clear shards flew by.

"Your Highness, I found some crystal shards near the tip of the knight's lance."

"Can you tell what it is?"

"There are some remnants of soul energy on it, which belong to Quilon. He may have used this special crystal as a soul shield. I have seen something similar inside a lich's skull before."

"Oh? You mean he had this crystal implanted directly into his brain?"

"Perhaps...so be it."

Zoreni also found it strange to do so.

"I'll study this; you search for Quilon's whereabouts."

"yes!"

Zoreni made the crystal float to Lin Wei's front, while she herself activated various perception and detection skills on the spot.

Shulia also used the little mana she had temporarily regained to control a vine to enter the ground, not to catch Queron, but to investigate the movements deep underground.

Lin Wei, on the other hand, held the crystal shards and examined them over and over.

Crystals that can integrate into the brain must be a very high-grade material.

But given Lin Wei's experience, he had never heard of it before.

Take it back and let Green see it.

But just as Lin Wei was about to put away the crystal fragments, he suddenly felt a blur before his eyes.

This is a dizzying mental spell!

His remnant soul is contained within these fragments!

But the high resilience of 86.5% quickly brought Lin Wei back to his senses.

He instinctively wanted to throw the crystal shards away, but then decided to keep them for now.

He wanted to see what tricks Kui Long could pull off with just a remnant of his soul.

After confirming that Lin Wei had been "dizzy", two earth spikes immediately emerged from in front of and behind Lin Wei, pointing directly at Lin Wei's heart!

"Your Highness, be careful!!!"

"Your Highness————"

Zoreni and Shulia reacted almost simultaneously, with Shulia's scream being the most piercing.

His Highness's heart will be pierced...

At that moment, Shuliya's heart felt so cold it was almost frozen.

The heart? Yes, yes! You have to aim for that vital spot!

Seeing that the earth spikes were aimed at his heart, Lin Wei almost laughed.

If Kuilong really chose to attack some other part of his body, he was actually a little afraid of the pain.

Lin Wei had already activated the "Mana Extraction" technique, and this time his body was more fragile than a sheet of dough.

The two incoming earth spikes were naturally deemed "ineffective" and disappeared on the spot.

That's how "nemesis" works; the higher the damage an enemy deals, the weaker they become.

"You have a full-invisibility shield?!"

Kui Long’s incredulous voice came from the crystal shard in Lin Wei’s hand.

Lin Wei caught Shuliya as she lunged at him.

"It's alright, Shuliya. How could I possibly confess so easily?"

Lin Wei smiled at her while wiping away her scattered tears.

In some ways, Shuliya really is a crybaby.

Lin Wei grew to like her more and more.

"No, it's not just a full-invisibility shield, it also has top-tier mental armor! You weren't stunned at all, you were just faking it!"

Lin Wei casually tossed the fragment in his hand into the air: "Any other tricks up your sleeve, Mr. Quilong, a sixth-tier mage?"

"Not only that, the knight was also hiding his strength. He didn't use any magic loops when he charged! That's why he caught me off guard later!"

A highly skilled Body Forging Knight, with magical circuits amplifying his offensive capabilities, plus the blessing and support of a priest...

That knight's lance was also made of the finest materials for exorcising demons and destroying souls. All of this combined brought his strength to the sixth rank..." Kui Long was still pretending to explain.

"Why do you keep explaining?" Lin Wei finally asked the question.

But this time, Kuilong didn't respond; he continued talking to himself:

"I was too careless. I never imagined a knight could unleash such a terrifying ranged attack..."

"I can't take it anymore, Zoreni, get him some sacred fire to warm him up."

Lin Wei threw the crystal shards over.

"Yes, ma'am."

Zoreni chanted quickly, and a ball of sacred fire appeared immediately.

Although the Holy Flame is nominally a special attack against evil attributes, it is equally effective at burning souls.

Lin Wei knew that only a small part of Kui Long's remnant soul was hidden in the fragment, but as long as this part of the remnant soul did not become independent, the pain could be transmitted to it.

"Ahhh—" Sure enough, a painful scream came from the sacred flame.

"The training in the Earth Element form is not yet complete... The advancement plan has been disrupted..."

Ahh—

The physical body is destroyed beyond repair...

Ahh—

The power of the four elements cannot reach perfection simultaneously before advancement... thus preventing the advancement to a four-elemental archmage in the most perfect form...

Unforgivable... Everyone must perish... Activate the other three soul crystals...

Activate the other three soul crystals... Instantly advance... Instantly take revenge...

For some reason, upon hearing the remnant soul of Kui Long in the sacred flame screaming and muttering to itself, Lin Wei suddenly had an extremely ominous premonition.

This is the strongest warning from the Lucky Star buff!

Everything Kuilong said is true.

He's actually a four-elemental mage?

He actually wanted to advance to the sixth rank with the perfect power of all four elements!