Sovereign of the Ashes

Gongsun Wudi’s words only made Sein feel more embarrassed.

After all, during their earlier fight, he had already used both the Faceless Mask and the Magic Cube—two world-class secret treasures.

And yet, he had still been thoroughly suppressed by Gongsun Wudi.

Once the gap in strength reached a certain level, equipment alone could no longer make up the difference.

Even so, Sein had still held back to some extent. He had not summoned Fermera to assist him.

That said, the sparring session with Gongsun Wudi had benefited him greatly, especially when it came to combat techniques.

In the past, Sein had never intentionally trained his close-combat abilities.

The body tempering technique he practiced was passed down from the Verdant Flame Faction, mainly intended to strengthen vitality and physical resilience.

It seemed that even when Gregory fought enemies head-on on the battlefield, he never relied on any particularly refined combat techniques.

Instead, he simply combined elemental power with his overwhelming punching force!

That violent fusion of raw power and pyro elemental power was how most beings viewed members of the Verdant Flame Faction.

Gongsun Wudi’s smile was beautiful, but she rarely smiled.

Even the faint curve that had appeared at the corner of her lips during her conversation with Sein quickly disappeared.

As a result, many people’s first impression of Gongsun Wudi was that she was cold and distant.

Most of the ministers in the Dawn Empire regarded this Princess Guardian with deep reverence.

Only within the military did Gongsun Wudi receive wholehearted admiration and support from the empire’s soldiers and generals.

That was because Gongsun Wudi could lead them to victory.

And after every war of expansion, the spoils were distributed with remarkable fairness.

From the highest-ranking generals down to ordinary soldiers, nearly everyone in the military firmly supported her.

Although Gongsun Wudi and the current emperor of the Dawn Empire were siblings, they were actually half-siblings.

The current emperor, Gongsun Wuji, was born to a mother from the Li Clan, while Gongsun Wudi’s mother came from the Ximen Clan.

Because of this, the Li and Ximen clans had become the two most influential families in the Dawn Empire aside from the imperial family itself.

When Sein first arrived in the Rongyue Star Domain, the general Ximen Feixiao he met was, strictly speaking, Gongsun Wudi’s cousin.

Sein stared at the unique lotus flame in his hand and gradually sank into deep thought.

Whenever he encountered something with high research value, he tended to become like this.

Seeing that, Gongsun Wudi did not distract him. She also remained where she stood, quietly reflecting on the insights she had gained from their recent battle.

After a long silence, Sein suddenly spoke.

“Where did you find this unique lotus flame?”

“Why do you ask?” Gongsun Wudi replied curiously.

“I want to visit the place where this lotus flame originated,” Sein said, excitement flashing in his eyes. “Could you take me there?”

Gongsun Wudi looked at him for a moment before slowly nodding.

***

The Dawn Empire’s territory was enormous.

No wonder this powerful world civilization had never joined the Magus Alliance, despite maintaining friendly diplomatic ties with the Magus Civilization.

After all, even Titan World, the strongest plane within the Magus Alliance, might not possess as many complete planes as the Dawn Empire.

Once the Dawn Empire joined the alliance, no matter how good the relationship between the two civilizations was, it would still have to follow the alliance’s rules.

The Magus Civilization would never allow one of its allied worlds to expand and develop without limits.

This was not a matter of friendship, but of order and regulations.

At present, the Dawn Empire controlled two large star domains, more than ten medium-sized star domains, and tens of smaller ones.

The number of complete planes under its control had likely surpassed four thousand, perhaps even more.

What surprised Sein slightly was that such a vast civilization had produced only two Rank Seven overlords.

However, the Dawn Empire possessed an astonishing number of Rank Four and above beings.

Just the powerhouses Sein had personally seen or sensed already surpassed the scale of most large-sized worlds within the Magus Alliance.

Could it be that the Dawn Empire preferred distributing resources among large numbers of mid and high-tier beings instead of concentrating everything on a handful of top-ranking powerhouses?

Or perhaps the Dawn Empire had only recently risen to the level of a large-sized world civilization and was currently in a stage of explosive growth.

During such a period, the number of mid-tier beings would naturally surge to its highest point.

As for higher-tier beings, breakthroughs into the overlord realm were never easy. Time, accumulation, and countless other factors were all required.

Sein could not help but speculate about it.

The destination of Sein and Gongsun Wudi’s journey was a large star domain under the Dawn Empire’s control.

The dense elemental energy filling this star domain made an elementalist like Sein feel especially comfortable.

At the center of the star domain was a large-sized plane, which was also their final destination.

Sein had originally assumed Gongsun Wudi would simply send someone to escort him here. To his surprise, she had personally accompanied him the entire way.

Before them stretched a vast, seemingly endless sea of molten lava. This was the place where the Dawn Empire had first discovered the Pure Fire Lotus.

“Special law-imbued fire lotuses like these are extremely rare. Even with luck, one might only appear once every few thousand years,” Gongsun Wudi explained.

“The one I gave you was offered to the imperial family five hundred years ago by the transport commissioner of this plane,” she added.

Titles such as guard general, grand general, grand chancellor, and transport commissioner were all positions Sein had only come across after arriving in the Dawn Empire.

Within this vast civilization, strength alone did not determine one’s status. A complex bureaucratic system had been fully integrated into its hierarchy.

Moreover, the Dawn Empire’s official ranking system was incredibly intricate, and the advancement paths for civil and military officials were somewhat different.

The only thing they truly shared was the use of Dragon Qi.

Sein looked down at the endless sea of molten lava below and said, “I want to go down and investigate. It may take some time.”

“Go ahead. I’ll wait nearby,” Gongsun Wudi replied with a nod.

Sein nodded back before diving straight into the blazing sea of lava beneath them.

The Magus Civilization’s understanding of planar nodes and the manifestation of laws was enough to leave most beings in awe.

Although Gongsun Wudi was far stronger than Sein, she still could not help but inwardly marvel at the abilities he had displayed during the war in Rongyue World.

After entering the lava sea, Sein quickly identified the location of the planar node by analyzing the surrounding elemental fluctuations.

It was a strange cavern overflowing with pyro elemental energy.

As he continued deeper inside, Sein was somewhat surprised to realize he was not the first person to discover this convergence point of pyro elemental laws.

Within this place where flames gathered, he could clearly sense traces left behind by others who had once cultivated here.

Faint remnants of laws still lingered along the cavern walls.

Having already gained some understanding of the Martial Civilization, Sein concluded that the person who once trained here had to be at least as strong as him, perhaps even stronger, for their traces to remain after all this time.

Moreover, it seemed that the individual had not simply been cultivating. They had most likely been trying to absorb the immense power contained within this pyro elemental law node itself!

Sein, however, had not come here to absorb that power. His goal was purely research—to study the deeper mysteries of this law and incorporate them into his own understanding.

At the very least, his presence would not damage the law node itself.

Still, his surprise faded quickly. After all, it had nothing to do with him.

After a brief moment of thought and setting up another layer of magic ward around himself, Sein soon immersed himself completely in his research and exploration.