Chapter 953: Level 22 Wizard

A few days ago, Reslin, while scouting the Demon Lord forces on the Gamma Lan Plain, discovered Barazakun's secret.

This Destruction Demon King is actually an ancient giant dragon disguised through transformation!

And it is a very rare black iron dragon.

The black iron dragon belongs to the metal dragons, usually a mutation born from the union of a steel dragon and a black dragon, most of which are evil dragons that worship the Mother of Evil Dragons Tiayasis. Barazakun, when becoming the Destruction Demon King, outwardly shouts that it serves the Lord of Darkness, but in fact it is a follower of the Mother of Evil Dragons.

So, when Lei En hears "Dragon-Viewing Fortress" he finds it intriguing; it actually hints at its draconic identity.

The name Barazakun is certainly false; its true name can no longer be known.

Lei En pulls out a Soul Stone he had prepared long ago.

Immediately, a dragon soul is extracted; even in death and soul form, it still bears a snarling, clawed posture, exuding a ferocious aura.

"Even dead, still so arrogant."

Lei En clicks his tongue.

The Soul Eye scrutinizes: the black iron dragon is an ancient giant dragon over two thousand years old, its soul has undergone seven Soul Transformations and is very close to the eighth. Converted to a transcendent's rank, it is a Level 24 Peak.

Having also undergone seven Soul Transformations and being of the same tier, I can fuse with it.

Barazakun's soul elements are few compared to its power, but Lei En only intends to focus on a few of them.

First is Strength, which reaches Level 16.

For an ancient giant dragon of such massive size, having Strength this high is truly rare.

Its "True Dragon Body" is also Level 7; this is a Supreme Element that every giant dragon possesses, automatically upgrading with age.

The black iron dragon's innate element is "Steel Body"; Lei En is intimately familiar with this element. Its Steel Body has reached the Level 5 cap, but shows no sign of advancing to the legendary element "Golden Saint Body"; otherwise, I would need an extra strike to kill it.

Barazakun can exhale "Iron Rust Dragon Breath", comparable to the Nine-ring Technique!

This dragon breath is extremely destructive, like spewing a torrent of steel; its sheer weight can crush most enemies, and it blends the black dragon's acidic breath, adding corrosive and lethal poison effects. It can be unleashed simply by opening its mouth, making it very hard to defend against.

However, Barazakun has never used it in battle to avoid revealing its draconic identity.

Then there are three metal-related elements.

"Full Metal Sensing", "Activated Metal", and "Metal Domain"!

Lei En's eyes flicker slightly.

Full Metal Sensing is a superlative psychic element; without touching metal, it can sense metal within a certain range and obtain information about it. The closer the distance, the stronger the sensing, allowing discrimination of metal type, weight, density, and so on.

This element is an enhanced version of "Metal Sense"!

Lei En has possessed Metal Sense for many years; this element greatly aids him and is indispensable for crafting firearms, powered armor, and Star Destroyers.

Metal Sense is a psychic element that cannot be upgraded with energy; after countless Soul Transformations over the years, it has not advanced.

It is one of the few elements of mine that has never changed.

Lei En thought Metal Sense could not advance until he saw Full Metal Sensing, realizing he was wrong.

The greatest use of Full Metal Sensing is locating ore deposits.

Barazakun was able to find so much iron ore and build the massive Dragon-Viewing Fortress; evidently part of that is thanks to Full Metal Sensing, and another part to "Activated Metal"!

This is the second time Lei En has seen this extremely rare element; until now he thought he was the only person in the world with "Activated Metal". How Barazakun obtained it is unknown, perhaps through a strange experience that caused its elements to mutate, much like the "Mutated Slime Monster" he fused with.

Barazakun's Activated Metal is identical to his, but it possesses a far more powerful "Metal Domain".

This is a legendary element!

It works similarly to Activated Metal, but can control metal remotely without physical contact.

Within the domain, any metal that is not part of an enemy's body and is unprotected by spells or energy can be freely manipulated, changing its shape at will, making it impossible to defend against.

Metal Domain is also a psychic element that cannot be upgraded with energy; its size is linked to soul strength, so higher tiers yield larger areas. The weight of metal it can control also has a limit, determined by one's Strength—the stronger the Strength, the more metal can be controlled.

Lei En can't help but think of "Magneto".

He has already witnessed the power of Metal Domain and prepared in advance; his strength crushed Barazakun, allowing an easy victory.

If it were someone else, even a Saint Rank strongman around Thirty-level, unless they are a caster, they would likely meet a bitter end on the spot.

Barazakun possesses a Steel Body and Activated Metal, plus a True Dragon Body; merely breaking its defenses is extremely difficult.

It is stronger than the true Destruction Demon King!

To be honest, this ancient black iron dragon was terribly unlucky and met a wrongful death.

But precisely because Barazakun has so many metal elements, I was attracted to it and chose to assault the Dragon-Viewing Fortress.

It's just an evil dragon; Lei En kills it without any psychological burden.

The ancient black iron dragon's demon soul still contains over a dozen elements; it is poor at casting spells, and its teleportation relies on magical items, so these elements are essentially melee-oriented. Although a few are high-level, nearing legendary, they overlap with my own elements and are of little use.

Lei En does not rush to fuse the demon soul, first sheathing the Soul Stone.

Then he looks around.

This is Barazakun's secret lair, located inside a high peak of the Mist Mountains, about five hundred li from the Gamma Lan Plain, roughly midway between the Gamma Lan Plain and the Frogg Basin.

The entire lair is reinforced with steel and fitted with spatial seals and layers of magical traps; evidently Barazakun has poured countless effort into it.

True to a dragon's nature, it has stored the treasures it collected over centuries in the Abyss within this lair.

Now all of it is cheap for me.

A smile appears on Lei En's face; he did not kill Barazakun outright at the Dragon-Viewing Fortress, having guessed the dragon likely possessed treasure, so he deliberately slashed the Metal Domain off-center and withdrew most of his Strength, leaving it a chance to flee.

As expected, the dragon led him to its treasure!

Its corpse is also extremely valuable; an ancient giant dragon's whole body is treasure—dragon hide, bone, scales, horns, blood, tendons—each a precious alchemical material worth a fortune.

Yet compared to the treasure in the dragon's nest, this is but a drop in the bucket.

Lei En spins quickly around, instantly astonished by the scale of the treasure; Barazakun is undoubtedly the wealthiest dragon he has ever seen.

The gold alone could exceed fifty million Gold Shields!

The gold is only a portion of the total value; Barazakun is obsessively enamored with metal, having amassed countless magical metals—mithril and refined gold are common, each weighing millions of pounds, plus auric iron, argentum, extreme magic steel, Sarong dark iron, and dozens of other magical metals, virtually every metal ever named in books, all in massive quantities.

It even includes Source Crystals!

Lei En was pleasantly surprised to discover refined source crystals, piled up like a high wall, estimated at over four hundred thousand pounds.

With just these source crystals, attacking Wang Long Fortress today would be completely worth it.

Lei En directly stored the source crystals into the Nebula Ring, then made a rough estimate: the treasure's gold plus various magical metals could be worth about three hundred million Gold Shields! Although he was already rich enough to rival a nation, wealth was just a number to him, but faced with such a massive treasure, his heart still hammered a few beats harder.

He quickly calmed down.

Barazakun was able to gather so much wealth within a few hundred years, not only because it possessed All-Metal Sensing and a Metal Domain, but also because the Misty Mountains' mines were abundant.

Moreover, gold and mithril, which are highly valued in the Prime Material Plane, are worthless in the eyes of Abyss demons.

So Barazakun could easily accumulate such a huge treasure.

Wealth is sought amid danger.

Lei En now understood why Barazakun pretended to be a Destruction Demon King; the dragon's greedy nature for treasure made it take reckless risks. In fact Barazakun had already succeeded: not only had it amassed a massive treasure, but also commanded a million‑demon army, becoming the ruler of the Jia Ma Lan Plain.

It's just a pity it met me…

"Hehe."

Lei En couldn't hold back and laughed out loud.

Barazakun's treasure provided ample funds and magical metals; by creating more Thundercast Celestial Soldiers, the output of power armor surged, the efficiency of building Star Destroyers could increase severalfold, even allowing multiple Star Destroyers to be constructed simultaneously.

"Drop the dumplings!"

Lei En seemed to already picture the scene of a Star Destroyer dropping dumplings.

"Hmm…" he stroked his chin, thinking: "Just building the hull isn't enough; we also need an Iola Core. The teacher is already forging a second Iola Core; I must start work myself, and immediately assign a team of Thundercast Celestial Soldiers to this task."

"The battle at Wang Long Fortress is almost over."

Lei En, through the Dark Angel, kept full awareness of the battle; after Barazakun left, the demon army lost its lord's command and presence, morale collapsed quickly, and they began to rout.

In reality, even if Barazakun stayed at Wang Long Fortress it would be of no help; the Dark Angel was slaughtering the demon army outright.

Demons of high rank and above possessed mature minds, could assess situations and weigh gains and losses, unlike mid‑ and low‑rank demons who were fearless and would launch suicidal charges against unstoppable foes. Without the demon lord's suppression, they immediately retreated.

The Dark Angel blocked the throne hall's exit, allowing no demon to escape.

Ai Luo Ti Xi Ya resolved to stage a bloody slaughter, proclaiming that Wang Long Fortress had a new master, and only then could the remaining demons surrender.

There are three hundred thousand demons in Wang Long Fortress; at least half must be killed!

This will take time.

Lei En did not rush back; he simply had Reslin teleport back to Wang Long Fortress, watching from the shadows to prevent any mishap.

He stayed in the Dragon Nest Hall, sat on Barazakun's corpse, and entered meditation.

Soon his mind steadied, and he placed the Soul Stone on his forehead.

The ancient black‑iron dragon's demon soul was extracted, entered the Soul Space, and emerged at the roots of the World Tree with a silent roar.

"Hm."

Lei En felt contempt, instantly triggered a Soul Vibration, forcing the dragon soul to submit.

The ancient black‑iron dragon's demon soul was extremely powerful, but even at its strongest it could not match Lei En; lacking rank advantage, it was repeatedly defeated by Soul Vibrations, grew downward at the base of the World Tree, and finally became a thick root.

After Holy Soul Ascension of the Wizard, the fused New Demon Soul no longer turned into branches, but became a root.

This was the third Saint Rank demon soul he had fused.

Each additional root enlarges the whole World Tree, adds another outer layer to the Soul Space, and brings the next metamorphosis a step closer.

Lei En opened his eyes, a relaxed expression on his face.

"Level 22 Wizard now."

He felt quite pleased, but had no surprise at the smooth fusion; the ancient black‑iron dragon's soul frequency was very close to his, giving a success rate above ninety‑five percent and an extremely high compatibility, making failure almost impossible.

Having just reached Level 22 Wizard, Lei En immediately poured energy to fill the third tier, entering Soul Ascension State.

"As long as there's a suitable Saint Rank demon soul, you can upgrade anytime."

Lei En shook his head.

He doesn't see many demon souls worth his eye, and fewer that are suitable. With his current strength, merging one or two demon souls is of little use; level gains mean little unless he obtains a truly powerful, rare legendary Element.

The newly fused ancient black‑iron dragon, though its Metal Domain seemed strong, actually added little combat power for him.

Time Stop combined with Space Freeze, and the battle ends as soon as that set is unleashed.

Metal Domain is rarely usable.

Its sixteenth‑level "Strength" stacks with his own Strength Element, raising it to Level 18. That's a marginal gain, because he can always boost Strength to Level 20; whether it's Level 17 or 18 makes no difference.

What's truly useful is the All-Metal Sensing.

However, there's a snag: only the main body possesses All-Metal Sensing, it can't be copied to a clone; to find a mine he must go himself.

With only himself, efficiency is certainly low and will consume too much time.

Lei En couldn't think of a better solution for the moment, so he settled for this temporary measure.

He rose and surveyed the Dragon Nest Hall again; the place is extremely concealed, well‑located, perfect as a secret base in the Misty Mountains, where he could create a batch of Thundercast Celestial Soldiers, set up a cross‑plane teleport array, and establish a production line on site.

"The treasure stays here."

Lei En teleported back to the Star Destroyer, seized the time to create Thundercast Celestial Soldiers. The minutes he spent fusing demon souls and upgrading were all used to strengthen the Dark Angel, so he couldn't maximize the efficiency of energy and time usage.

In the frantic casting of Creation Art and Core of the Brain, one after another Thundercast Celestial Soldiers stepped off the operating table.

Two hours later.

When Lei En created another hundred Thundercast Celestial Soldiers, and seven or eight Dark Angels reached full form, and pushed the "My World" activation progress bar to about 30%, the battle in Wang Long Fortress ended.

The demons had been slain to the point of terror, collectively surrendering to Ai Luo Ti Xi Ya.

The succubus, stepping on blood, ascended the steel throne, declared Barazakun dead, and became the new demon lord of Wang Long Fortress!

(End of Chapter)