A vast invisible field spread like a flood, instantly enveloping Richard and Ulysses. The fog formed by death energy swallowed the man and bird like a beast.
The erosion of death energy was like a sharp needle, gradually penetrating through the creature’s skin and entering its energy cycle. As the energy cycle expanded, the erosion of death would burrow into the creature’s body and soul like a parasite.
"This method is not simple."
Richard calmly raised a barrier, which was blessed by the Life Rule, constantly clashing fiercely with the gray death fog, emitting a "sizzling" sound.
"Gah, seems like we’ve encountered a hunter."
Holy Light shone in Ulysses’s eyes, and the Ghost King hidden within the death fog had nowhere to hide from his gaze. At the same time, Richard’s Eye of Truth also saw the master of this domain.
It was a creature resembling a jellyfish, with a semi-transparent gray body that appeared like a canopy on the upper part, and full of tentacles on the lower part. Richard saw clearly that those tentacles were filled with Death Rule and Soul Rule. With Richard’s current strength, getting hit by these tentacles would be a grave ordeal for the soul, no matter how well the body held up.
"In a dimension like the Ghost Soul Dimension which is unwelcoming to outsiders, there are basically hunters. These creatures specialize in hunting beings from other dimensions, especially visitors from the Material World."
As soon as Ulysses spoke, several semi-transparent tentacles silently attacked from the fog, striking harshly at Richard’s energy barrier.
The energy barrier shattered.
Richard frowned slightly, his figure flickered, weaving through the barely perceptible gaps between the tentacles.
"Not to be underestimated indeed," Richard said as he swung his magic wand.
In the next moment, a massive energy wave erupted like thunder.
Richard’s form suddenly enlarged, the Balance Hand Wand in his hand released a complex magic array that enveloped the entire domain, countless tiny runes flowing gently within the array.
In the death fog, numerous transparent tentacles entwined Richard’s body like vines. The death energy potent enough to poison a native World Master injected through the tiny barbs on the tentacles into Richard’s body, attempting to strangle this terrifying witchcraft in its cradle.
But unfortunately, it underestimated Richard’s body.
Bone scales, like porcelain, covered Richard’s entire body, with dense skin like rubber hidden beneath. His cellular framework had become a sophisticated compound, and his organelles underwent great changes, enhancing his metabolic ability and making his life energy more vigorous.
Throughout this century, Richard did not cease Life Editing, and after countless changes, his body’s defense had reached the limit for a human being. To continue strengthening, he must introduce foreign life core fragments or write a desired segment as needed.
In front of this body, the death venom of the Ghost King was merely a joke. They only corroded Richard’s scale armor, but were blocked outside by the enchanted skin membrane—Richard was an Alchemy Wizard, and enchantment was his forte.
In the next instant, the head of Richard’s wand suddenly transformed into a fierce and majestic dragon head. From the dragon head, a dragon’s roar erupted like a roaring sea.
Ten-Ring Witchcraft, Dragon’s Lament.
Under the dragon’s roar, the space cracked, showing web-like fissures. The death fog eroding Richard and Ulysses was blown away, and the enormous domain vanished under this lament, leaving only a Ghost King with its body constantly contorting.
"Gah... next time you release this thing, give me a heads up,"
said Ulysses, who was dizzy from the Dragon’s Lament on Richard’s shoulder.
Noticing the state of the Ghost King, Richard again waved the Balance Hand, and a radiant beam shot out from the tip of his wand, instantly evaporating half of the Ghost King’s body.
Watching its gradually dissipating limbs, Richard slightly sighed in relief.
"It’s resolved. Now for that crown..."
Rumble rumble rumble...
The intense shaking startled Richard, just finishing the battle, he immediately linked this shaking to the fight just now.
"What kind of method is this?"
Energy surged like a tide into the Eye of Truth, trying to find the cause of the tremor. But he soon abandoned this action—he saw the cause of the tremor.
A shadow, resembling a continent, rose from the ground, upon which countless unnameable entities that would make an ordinary person faint at a glance were frantically writhing. And above the Heavenly Vault, a gigantic black-robed figure emerged from an earth-slicing fissure.
The black-robed figure was towering, the blood-stained wand in its hand gleamed with countless lights. Trusting his intuition, Richard recognized those lights as the Power of Mystery roaming between dimensions. The Power of Mystery, which an ordinary Curse Wizard needed a ritual to wield, seemed tamed, obediently coiling around the wand.
The thought crossed both the person and the bird’s mind simultaneously.
Once again, the same thought crossed the minds of the man and the bird.
But at this moment, the entire Ghost Soul Dimension was like a lake where a pebble had been thrown; while those ripples had no impact on the Ghost Soul Dimension, the disturbance of the Power of Dimension was enough to prevent Richard and Ulysses from leaving this dimension.
Without hesitation, one person and one bird fled at full speed into the distance. Although Richard felt that the black-clad figure seemed a bit familiar, very much like a Wizard, even if it was a Wizard, this was not a place they could stay.
The black-robed figure glanced at the two fleeing individuals, as if he could see through the colorful eyes of fate, his gaze fell on Richard.
"Oh, a Great Wizard-level Destiny Entanglement Body... Hmm? What a curious destiny."
The black-robed figure waved his magic wand, and a mysterious power transformed into a mark, silently traversing space to land on Richard. Neither Richard himself nor Ulysses noticed this.
Then, the black-robed figure focused his attention on the unnameable entity before him. With a wave of his wand, an enormous magic array capable of covering a continent suddenly appeared in the air. Those colorful mysterious powers transformed into curious-shaped runes, turning into the rune nodes of the giant magic array.
The space within the magic array solidified, time stopped, seeming to become a world within a world. The unnamed entity engulfed within it also became still, and countless mysterious powers turned into chains that bound the entity, drawing space inward.
This turned out to be Sealing witchcraft!
Seemingly sensing its doom, the huge unnameable entity moved its body suddenly, causing the entire sealed space-time to tremble along with it.
In the next moment, an unimaginable massive force erupted from the entity’s body, instantly tearing open a large gap in the seal. Immediately after, the body of the unnameable entity suddenly dissipated, and a black light shot out from it, heading straight towards the black-robed figure.
The black light was blocked by the wand.
"It turned out to be a fake, this thing is getting trickier and trickier."
The black-robed figure waved his wand, and the enormous Sealing magic array instantly dissipated, with those mysterious powers returning to the wand. He shrank in size, looking in the direction where Richard had fled.
In the next moment, Richard saw a black-robed Wizard appear before him.
"Little one, what is your name? I don’t recall among the one thousand two hundred and sixty-three Great Wizards of the Wizard Civilization, someone like you."
Richard halted, looking at the incomprehensibly terrifying Wizard before him, his mind racing.
"Did not participate in the war, but was hunting some terrible creature between dimensions..."
An image suddenly flashed in Richard’s mind, about a meeting on diplomatic strategies with the Gods Civilization, where the Curse Crown attended in the form of an avatar.
"Crown Throne, I have only recently ascended to a Great Wizard. You may call me Richard."
A flicker of curiosity passed under the Curse Crown’s hooded face.
"Using your real name as a title, aren’t you afraid of curses?"
"...Crown Throne, I just haven’t registered a title yet."
The Curse Crown sized up Richard, and then shifted his gaze to Ulysses on Richard’s shoulder.
"It’s surprising that the World Master of an alien civilization is traveling with you, it seems a lot has happened in the Wizard Civilization while I was away."
No answer came from the person and bird, though the Curse Crown exuded no aura, the instincts of both alerted them to extreme peril.
This being before them could absolutely kill them with ease.
The Curse Crown returned his gaze to Richard.
"Richard... the name sounds familiar, are you Jialong’s... student?"
"No, no," Richard said hastily, "I’m just a Deputy Dean under the Dean."
"Deputy Dean? Never mind, it’s not important."
Beneath the Curse Crown’s hood, a pair of colorful eyes fixed on Richard.
"Your destiny is peculiar, clearly we’ve never met, yet our fates are entangled. Your future seems destined, yet constantly changes. In you, I seem to see my... Which school are you from?"
"Crown Throne, I am from the Alchemy School."
"Add a school, when you return to the Wizard World, seek out the Rune Great Wizard, he will induct you into the Curse School."
"Ah? Yes, Crown Throne."
Facing a request from a Crown Throne, Richard evidently lacked the power to refuse, especially an order that didn’t seem to harm his interests.
The Curse Crown patted Richard’s shoulder, and the mark left on Richard appeared on his right palm.
"Joining the school is merely a precaution, you aren’t required to do anything, nor participate in the Curse School’s alliances. This mark will transfer curses from you, consider it as prepayment."
Having said that, the Curse Crown waved his wand, a door leading beyond dimensions opened, and stepping through it, his figure quickly vanished from Richard’s sight.