Lu Cang raised his hand again.

Another thousand souls entered the body of the Thousand Army Ant Mountain.

THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP!

The rhythm of the thumping grew faster and more intense!

It thundered like war drums, and the ant swarms sprayed out like pouring rain!

WHOOSH!

Lu Cang flew out of the cave.

He soared into the sky and gazed into the distance.

All he could see was a murky gray tide of Demons surging, converging on this one location from every direction.

’Gather them, then use the Thousand Army Ant Mountain to convert them...’

’In that case, couldn’t I just eliminate the Demon tide?’

’This might be a good direction for research, but it’s also possible someone else has already researched it.’

Lu Cang mused.

Power itself isn’t frightening. A Ritual that can gather a Demon tide can also be used to eliminate it.

And now, it had even been converted into his own power.

By Sacrificing less than twenty thousand souls, the Thousand Army Ant Mountain was now generating hundreds of thousands of souls per second.

Lu Cang returned to the Seal.

From his Storage Space, he took out a desk and a reclining chair.

He arranged the books he had borrowed and bought on the desk, settled into the reclining chair... and opened a copy of *Basic Ritual Studies*.

When the Demon tide gradually grew thinner—

Lu Cang would inject five thousand souls into the Ritual.

It was like adding a lump of coal to a dying fire, making it flare up once more.

...

’There’s really so much to learn about Demons...’

「In the span of an afternoon.」

Lu Cang had read over ten more books.

His reading speed was not as fast as a Scholar’s, but it wasn’t slow either.

Moreover, Lu Cang felt he had thoroughly understood the meaning of every book he read.

By the time he had read most of the books,

Lu Cang also took the opportunity to raise his Skill Proficiency in the Demon Quenching Stream. Although he could have used Soul Sacrifice to increase it, he still diligently practiced a few sets.

The Demon Quenching Stream consisted of eleven different Combat Skills.

What made it most unique was that this Combat Skill didn’t necessarily require a certain Warrior Level, but rather a certain Mage Level.

Just as the Magic Tier System dictates, ordinary Combat Skills have level requirements; for example, a Level 3 Warrior cannot master a Tier Four Combat Skill.

The Demon Quenching Stream, however, accepted either Mage or Warrior Levels, with the prerequisite that a Warrior must possess Magic Power to learn it.

This conveniently saved Lu Cang the trouble of changing his Profession to Warrior for the time being.

The First Form was Quenching—using one’s physical body to make Magic Power more pure. Pure Magic Power is the key to casting Magic efficiently.

In turn, Magic Power could nourish the physical body, making it stronger.

The Second Form was "Demon-Piercing Sweep/Downward Chop/Upward Kick." With these various Kicking Skills, Magic Power would condense in his leg as he kicked, slashing out like a scythe.

Only after learning this Combat Skill did Lu Cang understand the feeling.

So this was how Sword Qi and Long-range Slash Skills were unleashed.

The Third Form was ’Penetrating Demon Piercing Body,’ which imbued all melee attacks with a magic-penetrating effect.

...

At Lu Cang’s current Level, he could only unlock the Combat Skills up to the Ninth Form. The remaining Tenth and Eleventh Forms required a Level 4 Mage to learn.

However, during this time,

Lu Cang had also trained this set of "Demon Quenching Stream" Combat Skills to Level 301, evolving every form he learned in different directions.

’In other words... whether it’s for Combat Skills or general Skills, is the cap on my Skill Proficiency Level determined by my Mage Level?’

’No, it might be based on my highest Professional Level. It just so happens that my highest-level Profession right now is Mage.’

He injected another five thousand souls.

The Ritual still radiated a powerful attraction, but... it failed to draw in much of a Demon tide.

’Sigh...’

Lu Cang left the cave and gazed into the distance.

All he saw was that the surrounding air was crisp and clean, with only a few wisps of foulness materializing out of thin air.

’It’s so... perfectly clear now.’

According to the books, the Demon tide is spontaneously generated for unknown reasons...

But since a Demon tide almost always exists in the wilderness, it was like claiming water is created from nothing when the entire world is an ocean.

How could you tell which water was newly created?

But now, the Demon tide in the air had been drained completely dry.

The foul presence that materialized from nothing was now perfectly visible.

’I actually sucked it dry.’

From his afternoon of experimentation, Lu Cang had come to roughly understand the effect that the number of sacrificed souls had on the Ritual.

To be more precise, the Ritual gathered the Demon tide within a certain Range and drew it toward the Ritual’s location.

It also acted as a catalyst.

It catalyzed the spontaneous generation of the Demon tide, but the Effect was minimal.

Adding more souls would drastically increase the power and Range of its attraction.

Over the course of the afternoon, he had initially been able to harvest over four hundred million souls per hour. Unfortunately, the Demon tide was eventually drained, and the conversion rate slowed.

In just seven hours, adding to his original reserves, he had harvested three billion souls.

Thinking of this number,

Lu Cang couldn’t help but think of a certain notoriously infamous Mage.

’Heh... have I become Meiser?’

A chill ran down his spine.

He had to kill ants like this just to reach three billion.

That man had directly Sacrificed three billion living people.

Truly horrifying.

Lu Cang returned the desk, reclining chair, and all the books to his Storage Space.

After a full day of studying,

he had finally met the perfect promotion conditions for the Decryption Scholar.

All told, he should have accumulated 20 promotion points.

Three billion souls should be more than enough to handle most emergencies...