Hovering in midair, Lu Jun inspected his body once over, then said indifferently, "Forget it, there are no concrete side effects. Once I leave Africa, what can they do to me?"
Mother Medusa was indeed shrewd. She knew that any hidden move with harmful effects would not affect a powerhouse like him; on the contrary, it might allow him to trace the curse back to its source and unravel it. Thus, she only left a harmless mark, intending to act in the future.
This was a wise decision. If there had been any damage, Lu Jun's Ancient King's Armor Robe and the Parthenon Divine Soul would have activated on their own to protect him, using an Emperor-level status to excavate the curse.
A moment later, after collecting the essences and corpses, he descended from the air and arrived before Lu Mei and the other woman.
After experiencing a great battle, both of them carried sharp auras. Their magical energy was exhausted, and they were sitting cross-legged with eyes closed, meditating to recover their magic.
Lu Jun's gaze fell on Jun Yaijin, and he nodded unconsciously.
She had followed him for some time now, always working without pay, obedient and capable, enduring hardship without complaint, gradually earning his trust.
If they returned to Jiuzhou, he could consider investing a Star Ocean Heavenly Vein in her to help her break through in cultivation.
With the scorpion tribe dealt with, it was time to reap the rewards.
Buzz buzz buzz!
Lu Jun stood above the Taibai ore vein. With a thought, a streak of black-gold sword light shot out from the crown of his head, soaring skyward and hovering in the void above the mining area, sword cries ringing endlessly.
The Tai'a Divine Sword was extremely excited, as if foreseeing a crucial evolution about to come. By absorbing this Taibai Xin Metal vein, its killing power would rise to a higher level.
Perhaps it would become yet another magic system in Lu Jun's hands capable of fighting across tiers.
Before long, the black-gold dragon-patterned sword rapidly expanded in the void, growing inch by inch into a towering giant sword the size of a small mountain, roughly thirty-six meters long, floating above the mountain range with overwhelming pressure.
Then, driven by its artifact spirit, the Tai'a Divine Sword erupted with a powerful metallic magnetic suction, as if forming a black hole, swallowing countless metallic particles from the air.
At the same time, the Taibai Domain was released. Rings of platinum ripples spread out, enveloping the region. The platinum glow illuminated the mountain peaks brilliantly, like a divine purified land, with a chilling aura piercing the sky.
Crack crack!
Immediately afterward, the mountains throughout the Taibai ore vein split apart and shook violently.
Threads of white divine radiance rose from the fissures, carrying a unique sharpness, converging upon the Tai'a Divine Sword that blotted out the sky above. They seeped inch by inch into the sword body, tempering and refining the natal magic tool.
Lu Jun revealed a delighted expression. The Tai'a Sword was automatically refining the Taibai Xin Metal, requiring no extra attention from him.
However, his brows soon furrowed as he received a message from the artifact spirit.
Because the amount of metal being devoured this time was far greater than before, the refinement process would be slower than the previous two times, requiring at least one month to complete.
"Guarding it for a whole month, huh? That's a bit slow. Hopefully nothing unexpected happens."
Lu Jun murmured to himself. Thinking of the scent mark on his body, he was mentally prepared.
But it didn't matter. He feared no challenge.
The Taibai ore vein gradually fell silent, and the three of them quietly cultivated.
Lu Jun was the busiest of all. While controlling the stars of the Curse Element at the Super Tier, he also took time to refine the corpses within his undead space.
And of course, the most important task was upgrading magic with essences.
Holding over a thousand Servant-level essences and more than a hundred Warrior-level essences, Lu Jun was flush with wealth. His first step was to use fourteen Warrior-level essences to upgrade the Life Element and Death Element Basic-tier spells to Level Five.
They were brought in line with the other six elements, once again achieving the feat of all elements reaching Basic Tier Level Five.
"False Life? Command the Dead?"
Lu Jun digested the effects of the two new skills emerging in his mind, feeling quite appreciative. Each was highly practical, no weaker than Metal Element's Spirit Awakening, Space Element's Thought Control: Phasing, Psychic Element's True Name Foresight, Curse Element's Thousand-Mile Soul Lock, and so on.
False Life allowed the caster to grant the target a layer of life shield, similar to a false HP effect. Even after suffering fatal damage, one could forcibly survive for a period of time through the blood volume propped up by healing light.
It was also extremely helpful in normal combat. When damage was taken, the first life force consumed would be the False Life buff on the body.
At Lu Jun's current Life Element cultivation, the vitality contained in a single layer of False Life was equivalent to that of a Warrior-level demon.
This meant that any mage buffed by Lu Jun would instantly transform from a fragile body into a tank with the sturdiness of an ox.
As for Command the Dead, it expounded upon the true essence of the undead domain. This move caused no harm to the living, but it exerted powerful intimidation upon undead creatures.
All undead below the Commander level were directly controlled, while even Monarchs were greatly affected, their strength sharply weakened.
"Not bad. Each has its own use in a specialized field."
Lu Jun was satisfied. Although the two abilities were of limited use to him personally, at critical moments they could still deliver a decisive finishing blow.
Next, he focused his attention on the six major elements. Aside from the Water element, whose Advanced magic had already reached Level Four, the Curse, Psychic, and Summoning elements had none.
There was no need to deliberate either—he would raise them all to Advanced Level Four, after all, the Space-Time element and the Metal element were still hovering around Advanced Level Two.
Boom boom boom!
In one breath, Lu Jun guided nearly a thousand Servant-grade Soul Essences from within the White Tiger Pendant into his spiritual world.
The vast and boundless soul energy leaked just a trace into the outside world, yet it caused the void within a hundred zhang to distort, as a chaotic and disordered mental force field descended.
Lu Mei and Jun Yaojin, who were in secluded meditation, were startled awake and had no choice but to retreat far away. From a distance, they gazed at Lu Jun, who was being tempered within a furnace formed of a vast sea of dark-blue flames.
Lu Jun himself was unaware of this commotion, fully immersed in the process of guiding the power of soul essences to elevate his star rivers.
A single star river contained 343 star units. Excluding the 49 Level Four star units that had already been upgraded, the three elements that needed Servant-grade Soul Essences required only about 882 in total—more than enough.
Within the dark cosmos, a resplendent dark-blue star river suddenly descended. Nearly a thousand soul essences adorned the firmament, resembling an eerie starry sky, every star radiating a dark-blue glow.
Among them, the black-red Star Sea, the deep-blue Star Sea, and the moon-white Star River eagerly devoured this enormous surge of energy, each star unit shining brilliantly as it grew and sublimated.
Two to three days later, the Curse, Psychic, and Summoning elements were all promoted to Advanced Level Four!
Lu Jun awakened, the corners of his lips curving upward. His cultivation and combat power had surged noticeably—this round of improvement was significant. As for the remaining one Monarch Soul Essence, two Monarch Fragmented Soul Essences, ten Commander Soul Essences, and over eighty Warrior Soul Essences, he would deal with them later.
Just as he was about to comprehend the changes brought by the Advanced magic of the three elements, his elder sister Lu Mei approached, her pretty face solemn as she said, "There's a bit of an unexpected situation."
"What happened?!"
Lu Jun rose to his feet, standing atop one of the few mountain peaks in the mineral vein that had not been destroyed by Monarch-level combat. Looking down into the countless ravines below, he saw a hill of flesh and blood piled up from over a thousand snake-scorpion corpses still emitting heat.
His sister slowly explained, "I'm not entirely sure either. While you were in closed-door cultivation, groups of snake-scorpion clans suddenly began rushing in from all directions, trying to launch attacks on you."
"We saw that you were at a critical stage of cultivation and decided not to disturb you, so we took care of them along the way."
"But instead of stopping, this situation only grew more intense."
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