Rise Of The Infinite Sovereign-Chapter 407: Astral Weapons

Ezra was itching to test out his improved weapon.

Taking a stance, he suddenly stopped.

"This is not a good idea" he realized.

Testing his attacks on Polaim would surely draw people’s attention, and then it would be difficult for it to remain a hideout.

"I should look for somewhere else..." Ezra muttered.

Just as he started brainstorming, Zydrax intervened.

[You do realize that you can just test it in your own universe, right?]

"Ah" Ezra exclaimed.

"I forgot about that option"

Without further ado, he activated <Gatekeeper> and arrived in his universe.

"Viprus, which planets have no sign of life?"

<...planet Ketta is one of them>

Utilizing <Sovereign’s Movement>, Ezra reappeared at Ketta.

It was a barren planet through and through, red in color with nothing in sight.

Ezra nodded at the sight as there was nothing to feel bad about even if he destroyed the planet.

He got into stance and a smile formed on his face.

To get back into his groove, Ezra started with basic swings and slashes.

Doing that for five minutes, he stopped.

Now warmed up, it was time for the real attacks.

Infusing his energy into Skyfall at maximum capacity, Ezra let off a vertical wave of fire.

Like a blade, it tore through the earth, scorching it to an unrecognizable state and creating a ravine big and wide enough for a large river to form in.

"Woah" Ezra muttered.

The last time he property tested his wave of fire attack was during the Astral Beast attack several months ago.

Compared to that time...

’It’s almost doubled in size, and that offensive power is much better as well’

Looking at the progression, by rank six his fire attacks would be able to create lava.

Ezra was looking forward to it.

It was fun to be powerful.

Immediately, he infused another round of energy into Skyfall.

This time channeling his ice element, he lets off an horizontal wave of ice.

It slammed into the scorching ravine seconds after, creating a blanketing layer of ice that rapidly spread and formed over the entirety of the scorching ravine in less than a minute.

Thereafter, the heat and the cold gave rise to a lot of steam streaming into the sky.

"Hmm, while fire works almost instantaneously, ice take time to build up...alright"

He lit himself with white lightning.

Channeling it into Skyfall, he spun, before sending a slash of white lightning into the ground.

Unlike the others, the attack cascaded into a massive explosion upon touching the ground, making a blast that dug out a large part of the ground, creating a large gust of dust that blocked Ezra’s sight entirely.

Simultaneously, the crater it created was also burnt black.

"So it’s an instant attack" said Ezra.

"Now for blood..."

Making a small cut on his palm, black blood flowed out, covering the blade.

Making a casual slash into the ground, Ezra watched as black spots began to appear on the rocks in the radius of the slash.

"Poisonous, but the effects have lessened since I haven’t been drinking any poisons recently"

Then he looked at his palm, watching as the cut healed.

"My healing is more or less the same" he noted.

"Then again, it would be too much for it to keep increasing at this level"

After this, he tested how much better the applications of the elements were.

For one, when shaped into an object, they were more condensed and thus held in more energy than before.

This meant if he crafted a fire spear like before against a Nascent, it now held thirty percent more damage than it did at rank four.

Ezra smiled, clenching his fist.

’Alright, this is good enough’

But before he left, he looked over the sites of the attack, making a final check to determine how condensed it was and how that changed its unfolding effect.

While doing this...

"This is...!" Ezra exclaimed, eyes widening as he took a closer look to make sure he wasn’t imagining things.

Beyond the assessment of his firepower, there was something else and this was more shocking than everything else.

Ezra wasn’t sure of the details, but somehow, along the lines of reinforcing Skyfall with Astral Beast material, residues of Astral Energy had also been imbued into it!

How else was the ice from his attack exuding wisps of Astral Energy?

A voice resounded in his mind.

[Why am I not surprised?] Zydrax commented.

[When reinforcing items with Astral Materials, the results are either that the Astral Material is not properly reinforced and the reinforcement fails, or it is properly refined and thus succeeds]

[But every now and then, you get anomalies like this] Zydrax explained.

[Weapons that succeed the reinforcement with properly refined Astral Material but gain the ability to imbue their attacks with Astral Energy]

[We call them Astral Weapons, and wielders of such weapons don’t usually live very long]

’What? Why?’

[They are the first to be targeted on any battlefield since their attacks don’t just cause wounds and scabs, but can directly damage one’s cultivation]

[You have to be very careful of who you show that weapon to from now on, that is, if you want to live long]

[Also, sometimes, the Astral Energy residing in such weapons affects the wielder as well, damaging their cultivation base or killing them outright]

Ezra’s face turned stern at those words.

[But that’s not a problem for you, so there’s no need to worry]

[For now, there seems to be very little Astral Energy residue in your weapon, so the effect of imbuing your attacks with Astral Energy will randomly activate. I can’t say this won’t change as you grow more powerful though]

[Perhaps when you become a Constellation, you’ll be able to freely control it]

Ezra made a questioning gaze.

"Will I still be using it by the time I’m a Constellation? I mean, would it still be useful to me?"

[Originally no, but the scales of Astral Beasts are things able to withstand attacks from a Nascent. You’re the anomaly that can kill one as a fucking rank three]

"...."

Ezra felt insulted somehow.

[Anyway, since it has already been reinforced once, it shouldn’t be too much work to reinforce it again by the time you become a Constellation]

"Okay, but do I really have to hide it?"

[Nope, not at all] Zydrax responded.

[You will only die earlier, so be my guest]

Annoyed, Ezra sighed.

He had been looking forward to showing off Skyfall, but alas, it seems his aspirations would have to be put aside to preserve his life.

Lamentable, but he’d rather live long.

Done with the evaluation, Ezra exited his universe to appear back on Polaim.

It was time to head back to Centra for a second expedition.

With only a day left till the expedition, he would be cutting it close.

He suddenly paused as something important crossed his mind.

’I still haven’t thought of a name for the universe...I should make time to do that after this expedition’

With that noted, he teleported to the transit station closest to the edge of the galaxy.

It was also where he boarded the Gold Crown spaceship last time.

Feeling some pain, Ezra lamented.

’I should have left a <Gatemark> here last time’

No matter how good his regeneration was, he’d rather not need to use it.

Recovering quickly, he took a VIP card given to him by the Gold Crown transportation to ensure discounts and boarded the same spaceship, their fastest spaceship.

Like before, there was only one other passenger.

With very little waiting time, they took off on a set course for Black Quartet.

During the journey, Ezra brushed up on the information he had on this secret realm.

This secret realm was the first one discovered by the Black Dragon clan and it only allowed three thousand entrants each year.

Previously, these slots were filled by Nascents, but decades ago, it was discovered that there were no treasures within useful to Nascents anymore.

They had all been taken.

After a few more years of scouring the place only to end up with no results, Nascents lost interest.

It swiftly turned to a hotspot for Transcendents since there were still many treasures useful to Transcendents within.

One thing to note is that the fatality rate of this secret realm is higher than that of the Alchemist Tomb, roughly twenty percent of the entrants every year.

This was partly because, while Nascents still scoured the place, they had also taken lots and lots of treasures for Transcendents along with them, making it such that it was very common for more than one Transcendent to chance upon the same treasure and one of them ending up dead.

With such circumstances, the clans made the drastic decision to restrict entry.

Now, no one less than rank four was to enter.

Nascents were similarly banned from entering due to previous incidents.

Then, unlike the secret tomb that gave out only pills, this secret realm gave out weapons and armaments, along with a special kind of armor as well, though very few people have ever received the armor.

Looking over all this information, Ezra let off a ’hmm’ before closing it.

Beyond the variety of rewards and change of scenery, there was little difference between the last secret realm and this one

The only difference to Ezra was that all three thousand entrants were going to be gathered in one place after entry.

’I will have to separate myself from groups early on’

Ezra had little doubts that <Universal Concealment> would work.

And with such an ability, moving in groups would only slow him down.

So he planned, charting what actions he could take to get around any annoying circumstances.