Richard felt as if he were a hollow vessel, and torrents of water were rushing violently into him.

It was an absolutely exhilarating feeling.

He could even sense his power rapidly rising — so much that it felt like he was already as strong as a World Realm Magus with a combat power above Tier 35.

He didn't know how many hours had passed, but it clearly wasn't that long before he suddenly lost the ability to absorb Aether.

Of course, this wasn't a problem — it simply meant he'd reached his limit.

His eyes opened, glancing at the data displayed by the System.

[Aether: 20,000/20,000 <Tier 3>] +6470

[Aether Accumulation: 35,000 <Tier 3>]

It was completely filled.

Naturally, he wouldn't be able to increase his Aether any further — unless he somehow obtained a rare, priceless item that could expand his Aether Accumulation limit.

Otherwise, it was utterly impossible to enhance his Aether through normal means.

And his Realm could not advance either.

He lacked one crucial thing — to become one with the world.

Without that, he would never evolve into a stronger being.

Still, Richard remained patient. After all, it hadn't been long since he reached the Life Aether Realm. In fact, it hadn't even been that long since he officially became a Magus.

He stood up with a satisfied smile. On the other hand, the barbarians around him gave him looks of discontent.

But he only turned to the Red Bear Tribe Chief.

"Chief, where is your wife?" Richard asked.

"Follow me," the chief replied.

He led Richard to one of the inn's rooms, guarded by five massive barbarians.

Up to this point, Richard still didn't know what kind of poison had entered the chief's wife's body, but with his Sacred Flame, he knew burning it away would be easy.

The tribe chief opened the door and entered first, gesturing for Richard to come in as well.

Inside, Richard saw a middle-aged woman who was actually quite beautiful, tall, and fair-skinned with a faint reddish tone.

She lay on the bed with her eyes closed, breathing rapidly, her chest rising and falling with each breath.

Richard noticed that along her body — or rather, her veins — there was a milky-white light glowing faintly.

It was a sight that made him frown slightly, wondering what kind of poison it was.

If that was the poison, since when did a toxin shine with white light?

Richard had a feeling this wasn't an ordinary poison.

"My wife was afflicted with the Holy Lily Poison," the Red Bear Tribe Chief said. "It's a venom created from the experiment of the Holy Light Grand Sovereign — he combined his sacred light power with the Armageddon Lily Flower. As a result, this poison possesses an incredibly pure holy nature, making it impossible to remove by normal means. It requires a special antidote. In truth, this poison is something sacred — but in reality, it's extremely lethal. Fortunately, this was an experiment conducted before he became a Grand Sovereign. Otherwise, no one could have survived it. Even then, he was already immensely powerful."

Richard, whose brows were already furrowed slightly, tightened them even more.

Something sacred — but in fact, poison.

'What the hell is this?' he thought.

If that was the case, could his Sacred Flame even burn it?

After all, the Sacred Flame only burned what was evil.

If something wasn't evil — if the poison had been altered into something holy, to the point it no longer felt like poison — then the Sacred Flame might not affect it at all.

Richard fell silent in thought, causing the tribe chief to frown.

"Boy…" The chief called him sharply, his tone cold and his voice louder than usual.

Seeing the boy fall silent gave him a bad feeling.

The thought of being deceived naturally crossed his mind.

"Ehem…" Richard cleared his throat.

He didn't allow his emotions to control him.

That would be risky — not just the risk of failure. The worst-case scenario would be if this "holy poison" could actually absorb the power of his Sacred Flame. If that happened, his reputation could be completely ruined.

Even though the barbarians were enemies of the Holy Star Kingdom — and the citizens might enjoy seeing them being deceived — Richard himself didn't want to be publicly known as a fraud, especially since many neutral observers across the Land of Humans were watching the conflict between the two territories.

"Chief, this is rather tricky," Richard finally said, "so I'll have to ask for someone's help."

"What? Boy!?" the chief roared, startling the others, who immediately rushed over.

"What's going on?" an elder from another bear tribe asked.

Even Arthur looked confused.

Richard, on the other hand, spoke just as loudly, though his tone remained calm.

"Chief, don't think I'd be afraid of deceiving you if I wanted to."

"You!?" The chief nearly stumbled backward.

"Even if I deceived you, there's nothing you could do to me. But I'll tell you this — I'm not going to deceive you, and your wife will recover from her poison. If I wanted, I could even have the Kingdom deliver the antidote right here."

His voice carried an air of authority — almost as if he were scolding the chief.

When he saw the chief about to snap again, Richard added coldly,

"If you keep talking, I'll throw you out myself."

He was confident now that his strength had increased.

With the added power of his Black Heart and Mind Attack, it was far from certain who would win in a direct fight.

His final words made the chief's — and every barbarian's — face twitch in rage to the point of distortion.

They clearly hadn't expected such insolence from a boy who looked so small in their eyes.

When had anyone ever dared treat them like this?

Though they stayed silent, their fists were clenched tight.

Richard, however, acted indifferent.

He wanted to contact the Fire Spirit Queen, but realized she hadn't returned to Purple Rose Village. She was likely still out carrying out his order — investigating whoever had placed a bounty on his head with a Tier 7 weapon as the reward.

'She shouldn't take too long. She'll probably return soon to report,' Richard thought.

It was only his assumption, but a reasonable one.

Of course, he couldn't be sure.

He looked at the tribe chief, sensing the man's growing urge to attack him.

"Chief! Chief!"

Suddenly, a Red Bear tribesman came rushing in, shouting loudly.

"There's a man outside saying he has the antidote for the Holy Lily Poison — and he's willing to give it to you for free!"

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