Chapter 557: Power of the Sage

When Ronin's army captured the city of Bacchus and pressed upon the capital of the Tricia Kingdom, the situation on the other two fronts was far from as smooth as anticipated, the eastern front being the lone exception.

At its core, it was a matter of fractured wills; every man harbored his own designs, and the advance slowed to a crawl.

Though the main battlefield was also populated by nobles who naturally nursed their own petty calculations,

they were checked by Ronin’s formidable influence and Rydel’s terrifying might. Command remained firmly gripped in Rydel’s hands, and his subordinates moved precisely where they were bidden—a stark contrast to the forces under Ibn and Vargis.

Of course, discordant hearts were but one piece of the puzzle; a critical lack of powerful extraordinary individuals on their assigned fronts proved equally decisive.

Though Ronin had established the War Council, he had only promised to intervene if troublesome figures appeared—such as Blazing Sun Knights or Archmages; under any other circumstances, he would not easily lift a hand.

Thus, under the weight of these combined factors, the progress of those two fronts lagged far behind the main and eastern offensives.

Fortunately, those commanders harbored no grand ambitions of world conquest; had they seen Ronin nearing Dragon City while the navy pinched in from the south, they might well have turned their spears to stir up some new mischief.

The intelligence dispatched by Harmon soon found its way into Ronin’s hands.

Since Flame Wing was in no hurry and chose instead to wait for him to walk into the trap, Ronin felt no urge to rush either, immersing himself entirely in his cultivation.

The whole territory ushered in a brief period of tranquility.

Soon, four months slipped away in a flash. Cold air swept across the North Wu Territory, and even with the morning sun aloft, ordinary folk still felt the chill, loath to crawl from their quilts.

"Why not sleep a little longer?"

Blanche asked, rubbing her eyes as she curled beneath the blankets. "There shouldn't be anything urgent right now, is there?"

Since becoming a mother, the innocence on Blanche’s face had faded considerably, replaced by a mature, grounded aura.

Over the past two years, as the Duchess, she had taken part in many affairs within the territory with Ronin’s tacit approval, long since becoming an indispensable figure in its administration.

Ronin gave her a gentle kiss, threw on a coat casually, and stood up. "Go back to sleep. I have some business to attend to outside."

Blanche sat up and stretched; even after giving birth, her graceful figure remained entirely unchanged.

"Never mind, I might as well get up. I promised Irene today that I'd go to the academy to guide a batch of junior mages."

She looked at Ronin with a smile. "Want to come along? You haven't seen Irene in quite a while, have you?"

Ronin shrugged. "I saw her a few days ago when the territory’s wolf knight squad was expanded. Her roles as a military mage and a combat magic instructor at the academy suit her perfectly."

The Irene of today was already a striking young woman of twenty, her strength having reached the level of a fourth-tier Archmage; she was quite the celebrity in both the magic academy and the North Wu Territory's knight orders.

Blanche rolled her eyes. "Are you stealing tastes on the side?"

Ronin tapped her forehead. "I think you'd better go back to sleep!"

With that, he pushed open the window and flew out toward the sea.

The last time he broke through to become a Legend in the Mist City, he had deliberately chosen a remote location, yet the powerful ripples had still drawn the attention of Rydel and Sophia.

This breakthrough to become a Sage would undoubtedly stir a far greater commotion.

To avoid affecting the people within the territory, Ronin decided to conduct it over the vast, open ocean.

Before long, he stood high above the boundless sea, with neither islands nor merchant ships below.

He looked toward the east, knowing that the far end of this direction should lead to Sophia's homeland, the Crescent Continent.

"Begin the breakthrough."

Ronin withdrew his gaze and summoned his attribute panel. The 2,775 attribute points he had accumulated recently were not an overwhelming amount, but they were enough to complete the breakthrough.

As he expended 2,673 attribute points, his progress in the Legendary Archmage rank reached absolute completion.

Hum~

At that moment, heaven and earth resonated in unison, and the sea below suddenly churned into massive waves, as if gathering momentum for the event about to unfold!

Ronin inspected his inner self; the spirit-binding chains at his mana space and his sea of qi had vanished without a trace, the definitive sign of breaking through the Legendary rank to ascend as a Sage.

Just then, a sudden wave of spiritual clarity washed over him, and he instinctively looked up at the sky.

Space rippled and surged violently before tearing open a massive rift.

Ronin saw no scenery, nor did he see any people or objects—only a chaotic ocean of seven colors.

"The Ocean of Elements, the Power of the World!"

In his mind, Ronin instinctively grasped the name of this ocean.

The elemental forces were extraordinary energies born from this very ocean; the nurturing of the Plane's Heart, and indeed the existence of this world, relied entirely upon it.

Those flowing colors within the Ocean of Elements represented the "Power of the World" that sat above elemental energy, a force only Sages were qualified to invoke and utilize.

Puff~

While Ronin was caught in wonder, a flame suddenly ignited within both his sea of qi and his mana space.

Though these flames were small, they were exceptionally bright, and Ronin could not help but feel waves of warmth washing over him during his visualization.

This was the Fire of the Soul.

Ronin’s method of breakthrough granted him two distinct fires of the soul simultaneously.

Right at that moment, two vast torrents of power descended from the Ocean of Elements.

This power was ethereal and elusive, yet extraordinarily majestic and heavy.

In an instant, an endless storm of blazing fire erupted in the surrounding space!

Ronin felt his physical body, his mental strength, and his very soul being continuously fortified by it!

His fleshly form was shedding the Extreme Yuan Body at a rapid pace, transforming into the body of a Sage!

The Sage's body required a thousand years to meet a natural death; the sheer resilience of such flesh could easily be imagined.

After a long while, this reinforcement slowly drew to a halt, and everything around him gradually returned to calm.

Ronin slowly opened his eyes, a flash of brilliant light causing the sea and sky to change color.

"So this is the power of a Sage!"

Even as he marveled, he raised a fist and struck down toward the sea.

It was merely the standard intermediate combat technique, 'Fiery Punch Bombardment,' yet because his combat qi was infused with the Power of the World, the single punch caused the sea surface below to crater inward by over a dozen meters. When it snapped back, it unleashed a tidal wave a hundred meters high!

"So strong!" Ronin could not help but exclaim.

The transition from Blazing Sun to Legend was a qualitative transformation, but the leap from Legend to Sage was even more profound.

After all, a Legend still utilized their own strength and external elemental forces, whereas a Sage could command the more refined and potent Power of the World, standing an entire dimension higher in the hierarchy of power.

"With this strength, even if Flame Wing can rely on the Blazing Emblem to summon power bordering the Sage level, I have no reason to worry."

A near-Sage was, in the end, not a true Sage; unable to master forces of a higher tier, resisting Ronin would prove an immense challenge.

However, he would not grow careless; before heading to Dragon City, he still needed to familiarize himself thoroughly with his current power.

It was a pity that Sophia possessed no magic, combat techniques, or secret arts regarding Sages; after all, when she left the Crescent Continent, she had never imagined she would still be stranded here by the time she was ready to become a Sage.

Thus, Ronin could only turn his gaze back toward Carlos’s "Flame Domain."

For the past two years, he had been studying the unique power of the dragon, though with very little to show for it.

Now that he had once more received the baptism of heaven and earth, and had ignited the Fire of the Soul, he stood much closer to the source power of the world. Perhaps he might finally achieve a breakthrough?

Before mastering any new abilities, Ronin's strongest strike remained the 'Blazing Void Slash' he had learned from Rydel.

At a mere thought, he briefly abandoned his physical form, transforming into a blaze that streaked across the sky.

The immense force warped the space it traversed, distorting reality so violently that faint fissures seemed to tear at the air!

A memory stirred—tales from novels of spatial rifts. Alas, the Flame Phantom Slash had not yet reached the power to rend the fabric of dimensions.

"Hm?"

With a shift in thought, he sensed an unusual ripple emanating from the edge of the ocean—profound, icy cold.

"Could it be the turbulence of the Storm Sea?"

Lost in quiet contemplation, Luo Ning's figure soon shot through space like a meteor, vanishing toward the distant horizon. (End of Chapter)