Chapter 378 Dacheng
Spiritual essence!

So this is the spiritual essence.

Gao De looked at the three drops of sticky blue colloid in the crystal bottle and felt a little emotional for a moment.

It was this thing that brought a brief golden decade to the city of Lagos.

The price paid was the long-term economic depression after the spiritual marrow fever and the birth of the Makoko District.

The latter has become a “cancer” that is difficult to eradicate in the city of Lagos.

However, compared to the spiritual essence itself, Gode is actually more concerned about the information revealed in Master Lupin’s words.

“The Xiuding Gang was raided and all its properties were confiscated?”

According to his understanding, in order to keep it secret, only Aldridge and his seven men knew about and were involved in the matter of the water beasts in the Makoko area.

“Yes.”

Master Lupin nodded slightly, and said directly to God without any hesitation: “They usually do small things and some shameful things. The local nobles and officials turn a blind eye to it, but since they are involved in the matter of the water beasts in the Makoko area and you have discovered the connection, we can no longer tolerate them and we must settle accounts with them.”

“No one in this kind of gang is clean. It’s just that no one investigates them on weekdays.”

It turned out to be the case.

Gao De’s mind suddenly became clear.

From this perspective, the Embroidered Nail Gang was implicated by Aldridge, but they were definitely not innocent.

People from harm.

Good.

“All the confiscated items are confiscated. This is the rule. Taking some of the proceeds and distributing them to those who have made contributions is an unwritten rule.”

“The Makoko water beast incident had a huge impact, and as the discoverer, you deserve the credit.

But the Xiuding Gang as a whole is not deeply involved in this matter, it is only related to Aldridge, so the final reward for you is these three drops of spiritual essence taken from Aldridge’s private collection.”

Master Lupin knew that Gode had just joined the Sea Sentinel and might not be familiar with the various rules and traditions of the Sea Sentinel, so he took the opportunity to give Gode some general knowledge.

“It was the most precious of all his possessions.”

Gao De observed the spiritual essence in the crystal bottle with sparkling eyes.

Before going to Lagos City, he first asked Melia for some information, so he had a certain understanding of spiritual marrow.

The spiritual essence contains extremely powerful magical power, which is equivalent to a fourth-ring wizard meditating for three days.

The most amazing thing about the spiritual essence is its extremely high magic density.

A mere drop of colloid is tiny in size, yet it can contain such a huge amount of magical power. It is not difficult to imagine how amazing the energy per unit volume is.

The two main uses of spiritual marrow are to use it as a high-level power source to drive golems and alchemical machines after purification and refining.

The second is to use it as raw material to prepare the “Spirit Burning Liquid” that quickly increases the magician’s mana.

“You can keep the spiritual marrow and find a professional potion master to prepare spiritual burning liquid, or you can sell it directly for cash, but never swallow the spiritual marrow directly.” Master Lupin reminded again, as if he noticed Gode’s fiery gaze towards the spiritual marrow.

He was very friendly to Gao De, because his mission was just to deliver the spirit essence, so his reminder was out of kindness:
“You are from another place, and you may not know much about spiritual essence. You think that since it contains such rich magic power, it is like a magic plant and can be swallowed directly.”

“The magic plants can do this because they are plants and are edible.

But the essence of spiritual essence is a mineral resource, so in addition to magic power, it also contains various impurities that are harmful to the human body. Swallowing it directly will cause great harm to the body.”

“When the spiritual marrow was first discovered, some people swallowed it alive. At first, with the help of the rich magic power of the spiritual marrow, their magic power skyrocketed.

But the good times didn’t last long. After just a few days, the people who swallowed the spirit marrow began to experience symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, fatigue, and in severe cases, they even fell into a coma and had convulsions. After examination, it was found that it was caused by the toxic and harmful substances in the spirit marrow.

“This symptom is also named spiritual marrow disease.”

“Thank you for the reminder.” Gao De nodded solemnly and put away the crystal bottle.

“There is one more thing you need to pay attention to,” Master Lupin pondered for a moment, then reminded, “In the next one or two years, you’d better not accept any missions in Lagos City.”

“What do you mean?” Gao De’s eyes flickered slightly, and he had guessed something.

Master Lupin nodded. “The water beast incident in the Makoko area was extremely serious. In order to prevent the person behind the scenes from abandoning the car to save the king, our sea sentinels launched a thorough investigation as quickly as possible. Before they had a chance to react, we investigated the entire incident thoroughly.”

It’s really fast.

Only twenty days had passed since he returned to Dorne, and now it was already time to reward people for their contributions. One could imagine the magnitude of the Sea Sentinel’s operation this time.

Master Lupin continued, “This incident involved a wide range of people. Many nobles in Lagos were involved. Some even lost their titles because of it. The impact was huge and caused a great shock in Lagos.”

“You have made great contributions in this matter and are the key discoverer. Those nobles who were punished for this matter will definitely not dare to express any dissatisfaction or revenge against our Sea Sentinel Organization.

But for a foreign sea sentinel mage like you, it is inevitable that I will hold a grudge against you. If you happen to accept the mission in Lagos City at this time…”

He paused for a moment before continuing, “Once you are on their territory, although they probably won’t be so lawless as to retaliate against you directly, it is very likely that they will secretly trip you up, and it will be extremely easy.”

“I understand.” Gao De said.

It is the same in any world. After being punished, the so-called “superior people” often do not reflect on their own mistakes, but instead deliberately think about how to take revenge.

After seeing off Master Lupin, Godard thought about it and decided to go according to his original plan and go to the Collingwood Art School across the street to take sword skills lessons.

During this period of time, he arranged for himself to calm down.

Now he has three second-class merits and no pressure of rating, so Gao De is not planning to carry out any more missions before he has mastered the sword skills and completed the construction of Leo Meng’s magic network.

It’s a good opportunity to avoid the limelight.

A month flew by.

The 9657th year of the Nolan calendar ended silently, and the 9658th year began.

A lot actually happened this whole year.

In the first half of the year, Gao De had his own place to stay in the northern border.

In the second half of the year, he gained an official status in the Plantagenet dynasty.

Two flowers bloom.

And during this month of diligent and low-key practice, Godeliomon’s progress in building the magic vein network has been steady and he has successfully crossed the mark of 200 magic veins.

By this time, the six hundred bottles of meridian-opening tincture that Master Naxi had applied for for him last time had already been sold out.

As a last resort, Gao De had to apply for approval again and apply for a new batch of Kaimai tincture.

The whole process went very smoothly. Just the next day, another 600 bottles of Kaimai tincture were delivered.

This amount of meridian-opening tincture was enough for him to complete the construction of the remaining magic veins in one go.

On the other hand, he also took sword skills classes for a month and a half. Since sword skills themselves are a process of cultivating muscle memory, Gao De never missed a day of class.

A spacious and bright sword training room.

The wooden floor glows brown under the light.

There was a faint smell of sweat in the air.

The sword instructor was agile and held a long steel sword in his hand, which he kept thrusting towards Gao De.

Every time he drew his sword, he was calm and sharp, and his sword skills were like flowing clouds and water, sometimes as swift as a tiger, sometimes as light as a swallow, launching wave after wave of attacks on Gao De.

Gao De paid close attention to the sword instructor’s every move, and with his keen perception and quick reaction, he skillfully blocked, evaded, parried and confronted again and again.

Compared to the smooth sword skills instructor’s movements, Gao De’s movements were obviously immature, stiff and rigid, but full of power.

The sword instructor seized the opportunity, took a step forward, and stabbed Gode’s chest with the sword like lightning.

Gao De’s pupils shrank, and he quickly turned sideways, while the sword in his hand rose up and accurately knocked away the mentor’s blade.

Then, he turned his footsteps and swung his sword in a smooth arc to counterattack, with the sword wind whirring. The opponent nodded slightly, with a flash of approval in his eyes, and then used his body skills to easily avoid Gao De’s attack, and took the opportunity to launch a series of quick attacks again, with sword shadows interlaced, dazzling.

It now became difficult for Gao De to defend himself, let alone fight back. In such a fast-paced confrontation, beads of sweat began to seep out of his forehead.

But his own technical level was there, and there is always a loophole. Finally, the sword instructor stabbed the sword at an unexpected angle, accurately piercing Gaode’s chest.

Gao De was unable to defend himself, and the opponent was clearly giving it his all throughout the entire process, not holding back at all. It was impossible for him to hold back in this situation.

The situation looked extremely dangerous, but neither of them panicked at all.

Keng!
The sword instructor’s sword seemed to hit some invisible shield and stopped abruptly with a dull collision sound.

【Blade Protection+】.

The instantaneous [Blade Protection +] is enough to make Gaode invincible against this kind of weapon attack.

This also allows the sword instructor to increase his strength without worry and conduct real combat exercises with Gaode without worrying about accidental injuries.

Once the intensity increases, progress will naturally be faster.

The sword instructor slowly put away the sword in his hand, performed a swordsman salute, and said with a smile: “Master Gaode, today’s sword lesson ends here.”

“Thank you for your help.” Gao De also put away his sword.

“You’re making rapid progress.” The sword skills instructor laughed.

With fixed 1-2 hour lessons every day and the sword skills instructor having some real skills, Gao De’s progress is visible to the naked eye.

“Even if you take away the bonus from the mage’s own abilities, you still have a very high talent in swordsmanship.” The swordsmanship instructor couldn’t help but praise.

“From the beginning, he made so many mistakes in his sword-holding and sword-drawing postures, yet he was able to fight me for such a long time. It’s incredible that he was able to do it after only a month and a half of practice.”

If I didn’t become a wizard, maybe I could be a great swordsman?

Gao De daydreamed in his mind.

Of course, this is impossible.

The sword immortal can still be considered, but the swordsman is not even a hair away from the wizard.

Just like his swordsmanship instructor, he is already top-notch in swordsmanship, but what use is that in front of the wizard?
A trick [Blade Guard] can destroy most of the opponent.

When it comes to cultivation, Gao De did not skimp on himself and directly booked a third-level training room in a nearby training hall for three months.

The normal rental price for a third-level training room is 10 gold per two hours.

The monthly subscription price allows you to use the third-level training room for two hours every day, and the total cost per month is 250 gold.

As long as you ensure full attendance, it is equivalent to saving 50 gold.

There was nothing much to say. Gao De waved his hand and threw out 750 Plantagenet coins, which was equivalent to throwing a shop in.

This is the mage’s ability to burn money.

Of course, Gaode’s situation is rare and is considered as advance expenditure.

Generally speaking, only a second-ring mage would rent a third-level training room.

It is extremely rare for a first-ring mage like Gao De to rent a third-level training room for daily use.

Noble mages who have the money have their own high-level training rooms at home and do not need to rent one.

How can a non-noble first-ring wizard afford this fee?
You get what you pay for.

With the help of the third-level training room, Gaode successfully condensed the 41st drop of liquid mana.

Of course, there is an upper limit to the amount of magic concentration a first-ring mage can gain from his practice.

Before the fourth-level spiritual land, the concentration of magic power and the speed of cultivation roughly showed a linear relationship.

After reaching the fourth-level spiritual land, the increase in magic power concentration will hardly bring any improvement to Gaode’s practice speed.

Therefore, it is not unreasonable that if one practices in an eighth-level spiritual land, Gaode’s wizard level can improve by leaps and bounds.

A less appropriate analogy is that the difference in experience between a hotel that costs 1 Silver Dragon per night and a hotel that costs 5 Silver Dragons per night is visible to the naked eye.

However, the experience difference between a hotel that costs 5 gold per night and a hotel that costs 1 gold per night is not that big.

Gao De, who was immersed in his training, received another piece of good news at the end of the Frost Month (January):

Got promoted!
To be more precise, it should be a promotion in military rank.

“In view of Master Gaode’s performance and contributions in the 9657th year of the Norlan calendar, after a comprehensive assessment by the Sea Sentinel Military Merit Department, it has been decided to promote your military rank.”

“.”

“Your rank has been promoted from a second-class trainee mage to a first-class trainee mage.”

Looking at the still warm promotion notification document, Gao De nodded with satisfaction.

Although it was only a small promotion in rank, it was already remarkable for a grassroots mage to have such a rapid advancement.

Moreover, the military merit requirement for an apprentice mage to be promoted to a sergeant-level mage is only a second-class merit, which he has actually achieved.

It’s just that I haven’t been a sea sentinel for a year yet, so I can’t be promoted directly.

Here we have to mention the rank promotion system of sea sentinels.

The primary indicator is undoubtedly military merit, which has the highest weight.
As long as one’s military achievements meet the standards, it is not impossible to be promoted two or three times a year.

Another important indicator is one’s own mage level.

For example, a warrant officer-level mage, in addition to meeting the military merit requirements, also needs to have a mage level of the second ring. This is a hard indicator and there is almost no possibility of exceptions.

However, the requirement for the number of years is not very strict, or it can be said that it does not exist.

The reason why Amap is stuck with the time limit is also due to special circumstances:
The first year in the Sea Sentinel is called the trainee year.

During the apprentice year, a mage’s rank will of course be that of an apprentice mage.

Generally speaking, no mage can achieve enough merit to be promoted to a sergeant-level mage in the first year, so this restriction is basically not a restriction.

But now, Gaode is stuck with this limitation.

There’s no way to seek justice for this kind of thing, you can only accept it.

Anyway, the credit is there and will not be lost, let alone reset, so Gaode is not in a hurry.

call!Suck!
The continuous breathing sound rises and falls like waves.

The long and powerful rhythm is exactly the same as the rhythm of the waves.

Gao De sat cross-legged, his body rising and falling with the rhythm of his breathing, full of rhythm and power.

His body was burning with heat.

That was the medicinal power of the meridian-opening tincture flowing, bringing heat and stinging pain wherever it went.

At this moment, inside Gode’s body, hundreds of densely packed and thick magic veins were intertwined with each other, intricate yet orderly, just like a carefully designed transportation network.

Compared to those tiny and imperceptible magic veins, these thick main magic veins, in addition to the difference in size, also flash with a faint golden glow, which is particularly dazzling in the body.

Mana is like traffic, flowing freely between these magic veins.

There is no congestion at all, and the entire journey is high-speed. No matter where in Gaode’s body is the destination, there is a corresponding direct route, allowing the magic power to arrive quickly and accurately.

At this time, Gao De was using the medicinal power of the meridian-opening tincture to open up another magic vein as thin as a hair, reshaping and expanding it, making it tougher and wider, and able to carry more magic power.

This is the 365th main magic vein he wants to construct, and it is also the last magic vein in Leomon’s magic vein network.

Li Ou Meng’s magic vein network will be completed today!
(End of this chapter)