Chapter 2: Chapter 2: The Ethereal Legend
Every enlightenment book was essentially a meditation method.
The Star Ring Meditation was the meditation method that came with the enlightenment book that activated Sunan's spiritual power.
The core of this method was to construct star rings in the mind.
Each star ring constructed would significantly increase spiritual power.
According to the description in the enlightenment book, as long as one successfully constructed three star rings and reached 12 points of spiritual power, one could be promoted to a second-level wizard apprentice.
As Sunan closed his eyes, his vision instantly fell into darkness, his consciousness sinking like a stone dropped into a lake, gradually descending to the silent bottom.
A dazzling starlight slowly emerged from the darkness, gradually growing into a ring.
However, most of this ring appeared illusory, with only about one-tenth being substantial.
During the meditation, light spots continuously flashed around Sunan, merging into his body and filling the illusory part of the star ring.
After an unknown amount of time, Sunan suddenly opened his eyes and woke up.
Looking at his pocket watch, almost two hours had passed.
On the panel, the Star Ring Meditation proficiency had increased by 5 points, and his spiritual power had also increased by 0.01.
"The meditation time was the same two hours, but the gains were about two and a half times that of usual."
"This is the benefit of increased mental activity."
A smile appeared on Sunan's face.
Just then, footsteps suddenly came from outside the door, followed by a knock.
"Young Master Sunan, Master Kyi has returned and asked you to go to the training ground."
Sunan came back to his senses and said lightly, "I understand."
Blackrock City was built on a mountain.
To guard against the Blackscale Lizards, the city walls were exceptionally tall and strong, with towers all around.
From a distance, it looked like a ferocious beast entrenched in the mountains.
In the very center of the city stood a vast inner castle.
Unlike the crucial city walls, the inner castle had not been repaired for many years and looked somewhat dilapidated.
Only the training ground was flat and open, showing that it had been expanded not long ago, revealing the martial spirit of its owner.
Sunan walked into the training ground and saw his elder brother Kyi standing at the edge of the field, surrounded by seven or eight strong men in armor.
These were the only knights in Blackrock City, and the last of the forces left by their father, Baron Ainest, that were loyal to the Flashing family.
"The physique of a formal knight is above 8, and a high-ranking knight like my brother can even reach above 14."
"Compared to these superhuman existences, my body is simply pitifully weak."
Looking at his physique of only 0.7, which was even worse than that of an ordinary person, Sunan couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
His predecessor was born weak and frail. Although he had also practiced breathing techniques, he made almost no progress and was not cut out to be a knight.
He had lived under the halo of his elder brother Kyi all his life. Although he didn't say it, he was actually very unwilling in his heart.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have pinned his hopes on the ethereal legend of wizards, and ended up losing his life instead.
Although there were many wizard books left on this continent, ordinary people couldn't understand the words on them, so people mostly regarded these books as a kind of antique worth collecting.
Wizards had also become legendary, mostly appearing in ancient tales.
"Brother," Sunan called out.
Kyi turned around and looked at his younger brother, a smile appearing on his sculpted, firm face.
"You came just in time. I've got what you wanted."
The surrounding knights bowed to Sunan.
Sunan's gaze turned to the cart beside them.
There were more than ten corpses placed on it.
These corpses were covered with black scales, with eagle-claw-like hands, protruding mouths, and sharp fangs.
Even though they were dead, they still exuded a fierce and ferocious aura.
They were the sworn enemies of Blackrock City—the Blackscale Lizards!
These demi-humans lived in the wildlands dozens of kilometers away.
They did not produce anything and only knew how to plunder. Every year, they would invade the villages around Blackrock City to loot and kill, making them deeply hated.
Most of the time, the Blackrock City Guard was dispatched to deal with these bandits.
"Please have someone carry these to my lab, brother."
"No problem."
Kyi summoned a soldier and gave the order, then turned to Sunan, hesitated for a moment, and couldn't help but ask, "Can you really find a way to improve the army's combat power with just these Blackscale Lizard corpses?"
Sunan smiled slightly and said, "Even if I told you now, you wouldn't believe me. It's better to wait until I show you the results, then you won't have any doubts."
Kyi sighed, "I'm not doubting you, but the legends about wizards are ethereal. Whether they are true or not has not been determined yet, so I don't have much confidence."
Sunan laughed, "Anyway, it's just a dozen Blackscale Lizard corpses. It's not a big loss even if we lose them."
Kyi nodded and didn't say anything more.
Half a year ago, their father died unexpectedly on the battlefield. The cause of his death was a mystery. Their uncle, Owen Ainest, with the support of Marquis Goldenrock, took the opportunity to seize the title of Baron Flashing and took over most of the Flashing territory.
If it weren't for fear of appearing too greedy, and the ambiguous attitude of the other three lords of Flashing territory, Owen would probably have killed them both instead of finding an excuse to exile them to Blackrock City.
Even so, the threat from Owen was still a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.
It could fall at any moment and take their lives.
Therefore, Kyi desperately practiced and tried his best to strengthen the power of Blackrock City.
So much so that he even held a glimmer of hope for the so-called wizard methods.
—Even though deep down he wasn't optimistic about it.
Listening to the conversation between the brothers, many of the surrounding knights showed disapproval.
They didn't believe that there was anything in the Blackscale Lizards that could make them stronger.
It wasn't like no one had tried lizard meat before, and it didn't make them stronger. The meat was also very unpalatable.
Seeing the changes in everyone's expressions, Sunan secretly sighed.
The people of this world simply didn't understand how powerful wizards were.
Knights and wizards were like martial artists and immortals, there was simply no comparison.
Even the most powerful legendary knight in the Astral Duchy was just a slightly larger ant in front of a formal wizard, easily crushed.
Shaking his head, Sunan didn't bother to explain. He said a few words to Kyi and turned to leave the training ground.
Returning to his courtyard, Sunan went straight to the basement.
This was the laboratory he had people clean up, specifically for his bio-modification research.
Among the pile of books left by his predecessor, apart from the enlightenment book and a few spell model books, the rest were all related to bio-modification and potion making.
Including "Biology", "Mutation Studies", "Bloodline Extraction", "Anatomy", "Neurology", "Fundamentals of Potionology", "Magical Plant Cultivation"...
It was by relying on these books, coupled with some practical operation, that Sunan successfully filled up the learning progress of potion making and mastered this skill.
In addition, the learning progress of another skill, 'Bio-modification', had also exceeded 50%.
It was estimated that it would be successfully filled up in another month or two.
"However, to master other skills or spells, I still need to collect more wizard books."
This was also one of the reasons why Sunan boasted in front of his brother.
Only by making others realize the power of wizard methods would they be more dedicated to helping him collect various resources.
Otherwise, even for the sake of brotherhood, even if his brother was willing to continue spending a lot of manpower and material resources to help him collect resources, the knights under his command would be full of complaints and not put in any real effort.
For the past two months, Sunan had been busy with this matter.
He had painstakingly mastered potion making in preparation for his next move.
Glancing at the pile of more than ten lizard corpses in the corner, he took out a "Compendium of Zero-Order Potions" from the cabinet and turned to page 284.
The page was filled with dense text and complex p
atterns.
The first line at the top was a few bold black words.
Dragon Blood Potion!
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone