RE: LORD OF TIME

After returning from the Aether Affinity Test, Lucas secretly investigated everything William had told him.

Although he believed that a simple peasant like William wouldn’t have the guts to lie to him, having grown up among nobles where deception was the norm, Lucas had learned never to trust anyone too easily.

As such, before taking any action, he thoroughly investigated the information William had given him.

And without any surprise, he found that everything William had said was true.

The giant crater had indeed appeared out of nowhere. Baron Xing’s guards had searched the area extensively for the culprit.

There were even many absurd rumors circulating among the townspeople, such as the crater being the result of a couple playing a little too wildly out there.

Although he couldn’t find any information regarding the hidden treasure William had mentioned, he didn’t think William had lied to him.

After all, William had already told him that Baron Xing was suppressing this news.

Moreover, in order to avoid alerting Baron Xing that he was investigating the crater, Lucas had gathered the information in secret.

As such, it was only natural that he couldn’t uncover the complete story behind the incident.

Once he was certain that William hadn’t lied to him, Lucas patiently waited for nightfall.

When midnight finally arrived, he quietly slipped out of the manor and headed toward the crater’s location.

Lucas was seventeen years old this year and had already reached the peak of the Star Warrior Realm.

Normally, people would assume that as the sole heir of a Count’s family, Lucas should have already broken through to the Star Commander Realm.

After all, people usually began cultivating at the age of sixteen, and Lucas was already seventeen.

But in reality, breaking through to the Star Commander Realm wasn’t an easy task.

With an abundant supply of cultivation resources, reaching the peak of the Star Warrior Realm wasn’t particularly difficult.

However, simply piling up resources wasn’t enough to break through to the Star Commander Realm.

To advance from the Star Warrior Realm to the Star Commander Realm, a cultivator first had to reach a certain level of control over Aether Energy.

Without sufficient control over Aether Energy, it was impossible to break through.

The minimum requirement for advancing to the Star Commander Realm was the ability to channel Aether Energy outside the body, even if only for a brief moment.

It was similar to how William had used Aether Energy to coat his weapons before breaking through to the Star Warrior Realm.

However, coating a weapon with Aether Energy was far more difficult than merely releasing it outside the body.

With Lucas’ high-grade Aether Affinity, breaking through to the Star Commander Realm wasn’t particularly difficult.

The premise, however, was that he actually put in the effort to improve his control over Aether Energy.

Unfortunately, his attention was focused on other matters, causing him to remain stuck at the peak of the Star Warrior Realm.

Under the cover of darkness, Lucas silently moved through the quiet streets of the town, carefully avoiding every patrol of the town guards.

Around half an hour later, the crater he had heard about finally came into view.

When he saw the crater, even Lucas couldn’t help but be stunned by the sight before him.

"The skill used here was definitely an extremely powerful area-of-effect skill. Ordinary skills couldn’t possibly create destruction on such a massive scale..."

Lucas muttered as he stared at the enormous crater.

He reached into his storage ring and took out a Light Pearl, which illuminated an area roughly ten meters around him.

"Let’s see whether there really is a treasure hidden here."

As he spoke, he also took out a wooden staff with a crimson gem embedded at its tip.

Lucas wasn’t foolish enough to believe that he could easily find something Baron Xing himself had failed to discover.

The reason he had come here was because he possessed his own method of searching for hidden treasures.

The wooden staff in his hand had been crafted from the wood of a two-hundred-year-old Amber Tree, a tree famous for its exceptional Aether conductivity.

The crimson gem embedded at the top was a modified Energy Crystal, the same type of crystal used during the Aether Affinity Test.

However, unlike ordinary Energy Crystals, this modified crystal didn’t detect Aether Energy.

Instead, it was capable of sensing the fluctuations emitted by artifacts and other treasures within a certain range.

Holding the staff in his hand, Lucas slowly walked around the crater.

However, after searching for several minutes, he still found nothing.

Frowning slightly, he jumped into the crater and continued searching.

Surprisingly, after only about a minute, the crimson gem atop the staff suddenly glowed faintly.

Lucas’ eyes immediately lit up, and he hurried toward the direction indicated by the crystal as its glow continued growing brighter.

When he reached the edge of the crater, the crystal began blinking repeatedly.

Lucas immediately stopped, staring at the ground beneath his feet with greedy eyes.

"That thing is buried here..."

Without wasting another second, he immediately began digging.

Hidden on top of a nearby tree, William watched everything unfold, his eyes narrowing slightly.

He could clearly tell that Lucas’ entire attention was focused on digging up whatever was buried underground.

William’s gaze shifted slightly before landing on the storage ring worn on one of Lucas’ fingers and he silently took a deep breath.

Without making the slightest sound, he carefully approached Lucas from side.

Barely thirty seconds after he started digging, Lucas finally uncovered something and his eyes lit up with excitement.

Bending down, he brushed away the remaining soil with his hand and a small bronze bell appeared before his eyes.

For a brief moment, confusion flashed across Lucas’ face because he felt as though he had seen this bell somewhere before.

He picked it up and instinctively focused on it, intending to inspect its information through his status window.

However, the very instant he concentrated on reading the bell’s details, his awareness of his surroundings dropped to its lowest point.

Before he even had the chance to see what the bell actually was, an icy sense of danger suddenly enveloped his entire body.

"Who—?!"

Lucas instinctively turned toward the source of the danger.

But what entered his vision was a razor-sharp sword slash streaking toward the hand holding the bell, its blade gleaming with an icy light.

He quickly tried to retreat. However, although he managed to shift his body slightly, he couldn’t completely evade the attack.

Woosh!

A sharp slicing sound echoed through the silent night as the blood sprayed into the air.

Four fingers flew across the air and landed on the ground, with one of them still wearing a storage ring.