Nolan didn't take the gamble of whether the dark shadow could reach him or not. Dodging seemed impossible at this point, so he immediately activated his Golden Barrier.
"Boom!"
A sound like shattering glass echoed as the dark shadow shot out from the pool and crashed into the golden, semi-transparent barrier.
Cracks immediately began to spread across its surface.
Damn, that strong?!
Lying against Eula's soft, voluptuous thighs, Nolan absentmindedly played with the hem of her skirt while marveling at the sheer power of that shadowy figure.
The Golden Barrier of the "Lumine's Sword God" was known for its extreme durability—under normal circumstances, it wouldn't break from a single hit.
Taking advantage of the brief moment before the shield fully shattered, he maneuvered the Lumine's Sword God to sidestep the attack and slashed at the shadow with a golden sword aura.
The moment the sword aura appeared, it vanished from sight, completely bypassing the constraints of space, reappearing silently right in front of the shadow.
It was much faster than the shadow itself—there was no chance for it to dodge.
"Screech!!!"
A piercing, agonized scream echoed through the cavern.
Nolan activated his Golden Eye of Judgment to get a clear look at the shadow. It was about the size of a regular Green-Eyed Crow, but its body was marked with majestic golden patterns.
Level 92?!
That was on par with the Boss-Tier Shadow Bear from the shadow bear territory!
No doubt, this had to be the leader of the Green-Eyed Crows. When he had used his barrier for defense earlier, he had sensed that the crow's attack carried mental energy.
This energy felt extremely familiar—exactly like the one he had encountered at Wuwang Hill from that previous flock of crows.
So… these crows were from that same group?!
Hiding underwater for an ambush? How cunning!
Realizing this, Nolan's excitement grew as he gazed at the wounded crow leader.
Time to settle that old grudge!
He gave the Green-Eyed Crow leader no chance to recover. His golden sword aura spread out, transforming into countless tiny swords that rained down in a dense barrage.
A full-on bullet-hell attack, leaving no room to escape—a guaranteed fatal strike!
"Screech!"
The crow leader, writhing in pain from the gash across its abdomen, was clearly intelligent enough to use ambush tactics. Among demonic creatures, it was one of the smarter ones.
Seeing the golden invader conjure up an overwhelming storm of swords, it knew that if it didn't find a way to evade, it would die here in its own nest.
But the attacks were simply too fast. By the time it realized what was happening, they were already upon it—no chance to dodge.
Faced with imminent death, its survival instincts kicked in.
Suddenly, an invisible corrosive force engulfed its body.
At that exact moment, countless golden swords materialized all around it, striking without hesitation.
And yet, what happened next stunned Nolan.
The moment his sword aura touched the golden-patterned Green-Eyed Crow, the swords began to disintegrate from the tip inward!
For a brief moment, his mind was filled with question marks. Then, a few seconds later, he realized what was happening.
The space around the crow was subtly distorted—it must have externalized its corrosive energy as a defensive layer.
No wonder my attacks are vanishing. They're getting corroded away.
That complicated things.
If the crow leader could continuously maintain this state, wouldn't that mean his attacks would always be nullified?
Such a broken ability!
Nolan pondered for a moment, then suddenly smirked.
Energy doesn't appear out of nowhere—using it depletes reserves.
That meant no matter how strong this crow's corrosion ability was, it would eventually run out of energy.
And there was no way this crow had more energy reserves than he did—after all, he had the "Battery Body" ability to store power.
Not to mention, his recovery rate was far superior.
So, let's see who runs out first.
When it came to endurance, this was his domain!
With that in mind, Nolan gathered even more golden sword energy, conjuring a relentless storm of golden blades, launching wave after wave at the golden-patterned Green-Eyed Crow.
The Green-Eyed Crow never expected this golden intruder to be so shameless! It let out an enraged screech while maintaining the corrosive force around its body.
At the same time, it opened its beak and spat out dark green flames toward the Lumine's Sword God.
Nolan could vaguely sense that these flames also carried corrosive properties. There was no way he would let the Lumine's Sword God take a direct hit.
He skillfully controlled the Lumine's Sword God, dodging while continuing his relentless offensive.
At the same time, he unleashed sword aura toward the other Green-Eyed Crows—those that couldn't fully coat themselves in corrosive power.
His character panel kept flashing notifications, informing him that he was earning Adventure EXP.
The Green-Eyed Crow leader grew even more furious at this intruder's tactics. It prepared to use its extreme speed to ram into the Lumine's Sword God and smash it to pieces!
But this time, Nolan was prepared.
He wouldn't let it get another clean hit in—especially now that the crow leader's entire body was wrapped in corrosive power. If it managed to land a direct hit, he'd be done for.
That was not an option.
Through the Lumine's Sword God, he locked onto the crow with his mental energy. The moment it started to move, he would use his sword aura to interrupt it.
And during those brief pauses, he would dodge in advance, ensuring that he never had to engage in direct combat.
Faced with such a shameless intruder, the crow leader had no means to counter.
Its rage began to cool, replaced by a growing fear as its energy reserves rapidly drained.
It knew—if this went on, it would be worn down and defeated!
"Screech!"
The crow leader let out a sharp cry, seemingly giving orders.
In the next moment, all the other Green-Eyed Crows threw themselves at the Lumine's Sword God in a desperate, suicidal attack!
Several of them were Level 80+ with mental energy abilities—if they crashed into the Lumine's Sword God, it would definitely take some damage.
Nolan thought for a moment, then made his move.
He controlled the Lumine's Sword God to activate the Golden Barrier while simultaneously deploying the Dandelion Field—a powerful healing ability.
With these preparations, even if he suffered serious injuries, he could recover immediately.
---.
Time ticked by.
The crow leader gradually realized something terrifying—no matter what it did, it couldn't land a meaningful hit on the intruder.
Meanwhile, its own energy was constantly being depleted.
Even the most ferocious of demonic beasts would eventually feel fear under such conditions.
It let out a sharp cry and suddenly turned to flee, leading the remaining crows away!
Nolan's heart sank—not good!
With the Golden-Patterned Green-Eyed Crow's speed, he had no chance of catching up if it managed to escape.
He had to take it down before it got away!
The Lumine's Sword God immediately abandoned all the other crows and focused entirely on chasing the crow leader.
While it could barely keep up, it couldn't close the gap.
Instead, Nolan continued his assault—launching space-warping sword aura that ignored distance, relentlessly striking at the fleeing crow leader.
It didn't take long before Nolan noticed something.
As the crow leader frantically weaved through the twisting tunnels, its speed was gradually slowing.
He smirked—it was finally running out of energy!
After all, the Lumine's Sword God had been bombarding it with golden sword energy non-stop.
And to survive, the crow leader had been burning through its corrosive power at an extreme rate.
If it had merely been passively releasing the power, the consumption might not have been significant.
But every moment, its corrosive aura had to actively counter Nolan's sword aura—a constant, high-intensity drain on its reserves.
At this point, it was a miracle that it had lasted this long.
But even now, Nolan didn't recklessly rush in for the final blow.
Instead, he slowed his pursuit, keeping a safe distance while continuing to whittle down the crow leader's strength.
He wasn't about to fall for a last-ditch ambush.
Nolan knew this crow was cunning—earlier, it had hidden underwater just to set up an ambush.
There was a real possibility that this entire "exhaustion act" was just another trick to lure him in.
Better to play it safe.
As time passed, the crow leader's speed slowed even more.
It reached a point where it was moving slower than a running human—something that should mean its energy was completely drained.
And yet… it was still maintaining its corrosive aura, continuing to consume Nolan's sword energy.
Even an idiot could see—this bird was faking it!
Nolan wasn't falling for it.
Perhaps realizing that its deception had failed and that it had no escape, the crow leader's rage erupted.
It suddenly whipped around and, with its last ounce of strength, charged straight at the Lumine's Sword God!
It was a final, desperate attack, determined to drag at least one enemy down with it!
But before it could even get close, Nolan smirked and immediately turned tail and ran—no hesitation whatsoever.
From an outsider's perspective, it might look like the Lumine's Sword God was suddenly on the defensive, fleeing from the crow leader's pursuit.
But Nolan knew—this was nothing more than the crow's death throes.
The crow leader simply didn't have the energy to keep this up for much longer.
Meanwhile, he himself had only just depleted his stored energy from the "Battery Body"—he still had plenty left to fight.
This battle was already over.
As expected, it didn't take long before the Crow Leader could no longer hold on. It let out a shrill cry, and the corrosive energy covering its body completely disappeared.
In that instant, Lumine's Sword God's golden short swords pierced through it like a beehive, leaving no chance for survival!
[Defeated A Powerful Enemy. Obtained 125,973 Adventure EXP.]
A notification popped up on Nolan's character panel, confirming the experience gain. 120,000 Adventure EXP—on par with the Shadow Bear Leader!
But the battle wasn't entirely over yet. The Crow's nest still had plenty of Green-Eyed Crows that hadn't been dealt with.
Without hesitation, he launched another assault on the remaining crows. However, perhaps due to their leader's defeat, these crows had lost their initial confidence.
At the sight of the golden figure, they scattered in all directions. Since Lumine's Sword God couldn't split itself, quite a few managed to escape.
"Well, I suppose I should be satisfied after taking down so many Green-Eyed Crows." Nolan thought with a hint of regret.
However, when his eyes landed on the Adventure EXP displayed on his character panel, his disappointment instantly vanished:
[Adventure EXP: 1,269,342]
One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million... After clearing out the Green-Eyed Crow's nest, his Adventure EXP had skyrocketed from around 30,000 to over 1.2 million!
This was insane!
As expected, the Beast Realm was his goldmine. If he could keep finding nests of Beast Realm creatures like this, reaching Level 100 in no time wouldn't be a problem!
Brimming with enthusiasm, Nolan decided to return to the Shadow Bear's territory to inform Albedo about the ruins left behind by his master.
And of course, there were plenty of Beast Realm Crow corpses available—perfect for making camouflage suits for smuggling operations.
Afterward, Lumine's Sword God would continue hunting magical beasts.
Only through relentless effort could he grow stronger!
As for the spatial rift here, there was no need to worry about it. Without the support of corrosive energy, it would gradually disappear on its own.
Before leaving, Lumine's Sword God took one last stroll through the ruins but found nothing else of value.
With that, it retraced its path and took off toward the Shadow Bear's territory.
Since it would take some time to reach the destination, Nolan took the opportunity to check his character panel again.
With over 1.2 million Adventure EXP, he could finally level up!
Without hesitation, he immediately spent 900,000 Adventure EXP to increase his level:
[Adventure EXP -900,000]
[Lv90 (0/900,000) → Lv91 (0/910,000)]
A long-awaited warmth surged through his body, like sunlight nourishing every cell, which rapidly absorbed the energy and strengthened.
The transformation ended quickly, and Nolan realized he had grown far stronger than before—more than twice as powerful!
For instance, his spiritual energy, which previously extended only ten kilometers, could now reach twenty without issue.
His spiritual threads had also extended beyond 200 kilometers, more than doubling their range.
His physique, strength, defense, speed, resistance, vitality—every aspect had improved significantly.
If the current Nolan had fought the Crow Leader, he wouldn't have needed such a prolonged battle.
Lumine's Sword God could easily catch up using pure speed and crush it head-on!
Even now, Lumine's Sword God's flight speed had drastically improved. After about ten minutes, it reached the Shadow Bear's territory.
The area was now bustling with over a hundred Knights of Favonius patrolling, transporting materials, and constructing a base. Everything was running smoothly and efficiently.
If not for the limited manpower, this place could already be considered a small village.
"Kaeya's management skills are quite impressive." Nolan thought with a hint of admiration as he directed Lumine's Sword God to find him.
Using Sword Intent to write words in the air, he informed Kaeya that he had made an important discovery to share with him and Albedo.
Kaeya, who had been stuck patrolling for days, was visibly excited. Finally, something new to break the monotony!
Before long, the two arrived at Albedo's lab, where he was researching Beast Realm creatures. Without hesitation, they knocked on the door.
Albedo stepped out, looking slightly surprised to see them.
Nolan didn't waste time with suspense. Controlling Lumine's Sword God, he used Sword Intent to write in mid-air, explaining everything he had discovered.
Upon learning about the ruins of his master's laboratory, Albedo's expression remained composed, but a subtle urgency flickered in his eyes.
Sensing his interest, Nolan decided to hand over the experiment records found in the ruins.
As for Sucrose, he could ask Albedo for a copy later.
With that settled, Lumine's Sword God resumed its exploration, while Nolan instructed Eula and Amber to halt their current tasks...
—
(End of Chapter)
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