Chapter 270: City

“This thing seems to have been contaminated… I hope it’s not a divine trap!”

Punk frowned deeply, staring at the giant eyeball with shimmering pupils as he fell into contemplation.

From what he could sense, this fragment of law and the negative emotional energy entwined around it likely came from two different Legendary Experts. Their battle must have been earth-shattering, a fight to the death.

During the combat, the owner of this law fragment was probably severely injured or even perished. Their soul was shattered into pieces, with one small fragment flying off and embedding itself into this eyeball.

After the Legendary Expert’s soul dissipated, this law fragment remained as a remnant of the soul.

The enemy of this Legendary Expert was clearly superior, having not suffered soul fragmentation. The price they paid was merely some dispersed soul energy. A strand of this dispersed soul energy, following its master’s command, tightly wrapped around the shattered soul of the Legendary Expert and desperately eroded it, eventually creating this state where soul energy contaminated the law fragment.

Time passed, and no one knows how many years went by until today, when this giant eyeball fell into Punk’s hands. That strand of soul energy was still steadfastly executing its original command—devouring surrounding negative energy and using “evil” to erode the law fragment and everything around it.

However, even though this strand of soul energy had reached the Legendary level and was saturated with the powerful force of law, without replenishment from the Legendary Expert, it ultimately couldn’t withstand the passage of time.

By now, it had weakened to the point where it could no longer continue eroding the law fragment formed from the soul’s decay. The erosion power that could once corrode a Legendary Expert’s soul couldn’t even penetrate the defenses of a mere Master-Level Mage.

“Fortunately, this energy has truly become fragile, or I’d be in big trouble.”

Feeling that the weak erosion force couldn’t penetrate his “Alchemical Gloves” spell, Punk slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

Now he felt there was still a chance to obtain that law fragment. As long as he could deal with these entwined negative emotional energies, Punk could confidently claim the now ownerless law fragment for himself.

“But how should I handle these troublesome energies? Although their erosion capability has become extremely weak… how exactly should they be removed?”

Punk scratched his head in frustration. He was already standing beside the treasure vault, but the dragon guarding it blocked his path. Though he lacked the strength to confront this dragon directly—even in its dying state—the difference in power levels left Punk helpless.

Although the negative emotions surrounding the law fragment had become sparse and weak, they were genuine Legendary-level energy. Without the assistance of a true Legendary Spell, it would be impossible to quickly erase them using Master-Level methods.Aside from using Legendary Spells to erase negative emotions, the best method to disperse negative emotional energy was to counteract it with positive emotions. After all, although these Legendary-level negative emotions were powerful, they were essentially rootless water. Grinding them away bit by bit with positive emotions over centuries of meticulous effort would eventually cleanse them completely.

However, Punk had no intention of testing whether his own positive emotions could connect with those Legendary-tier negative emotions. His intuition warned him that doing so would be nothing short of suicidal.

“Sigh, why can’t I ever get a convenient ‘golden finger’? Every so-called ‘opportunity’ is either overwhelmingly difficult or terribly troublesome. The slightest misstep, and the golden finger turns into a colossal divine pitfall. This world is truly brimming with profound malice!”

Puck sighed helplessly, tossing the heavy Eerie Eyeball in his hand before carefully storing it in his Storage Ring.

“Since I can’t bear the burden myself… why not let someone else try? After all, generating positive emotions isn’t tied to a practitioner’s realm. Perhaps I can make use of those low-level practitioners!”

While darkly contemplating his “plan,” Punk leaped down from the canopy of a large tree. As a resourceful spellcaster, he had already sparked a flicker of inspiration in his mind within just a few minutes.

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Perfecting a plan was like writing a book—the initial outline always required the most time to refine.

For now, Punk hadn’t yet figured out how to extract the “treasure” from the Eerie Eyeball, but that didn’t halt his journey.

Traveling from the Harpy Tribe to the nearest city took Punk only about a day. Along the way, aside from avoiding a group of hurried mages, he encountered no other “unexpected incidents.” By noon the day after annihilating the Harpy Tribe, Punk had already arrived at the city walls.

Temporarily, Punk didn’t know which region of Fearun he was in or which country this city belonged to.

But at first glance, he could tell that this place was undoubtedly thousands of miles away from border nations like the Dillon Kingdom, and its prosperity far surpassed that of a barren “small city” like Doleiz.

In Punk’s perception, the city was roughly twice the size of Doleiz City, with walls encircling the structures standing over sixty meters high, constructed from simply enchanted bluestone.

This type of stone, only found in mountain rock layers, was incomparable to ordinary granite in both durability and market price. At the very least, Punk was certain that an average Formal-Level expert would struggle to breach this wall—thick enough to race carriages on—within a minute.

Judging by the city’s geographical location, it was unlikely to be a crucial stronghold of any nation. In Punk’s view, it was merely a border city.

That a border city could afford to build sixty-meter-high walls with bluestone valued at five Gold Coins per ton indicated a level of financial power typically only achievable by an Imperial Kingdom. Moreover, the ability to procure such vast quantities of bluestone further signified the nation’s prosperity and wealth.”Generally speaking, ordinary Imperial Kingdoms would have at least one Legendary Expert overseeing them. It seems I need to be more cautious and keep a low profile!”

Punk calmly adjusted the brim of his black hood before heading toward the towering city gate.

His current goal was to find an opportunity to join the “Thought of Truth.” According to his cheap parents’ memories, Punk knew this Legendary organization was often active in the central regions of the Faerûn Plane. If the teleportation magic of the Netherese Civilization was reliable, Punk’s current location should be within an Imperial Kingdom in the central part of the Faerûn Plane. Such a relatively prosperous Imperial Kingdom city would inevitably have information about Legendary organizations.

(End of Chapter)