[Lord of Abundance] Chapter 23: Sacred Relic

 Chapter 23: Sacred Relic

Because he had misjudged the enemy’s strength, his defensive magic was shattered with ease. The Green Armored Bear could only watch helplessly as that terrifying strike hurtled toward its head.

Sensing the imminent threat of death, it raised both forepaws to shield its head, curling its body and exposing its back.

It intended to rely on the toughest part of its body—its armored back—to withstand the fatal blow.

Kun shook his head inwardly.

With the vitality of a quasi–second-tier magical beast, taking a direct hit from a third-tier warrior was usually survivable.

But its opponent was Dawn—someone honed to the very edge of peak third-tier.

If that strike landed cleanly, the bear might live… but only barely.

Why were warriors all so hot-tempered?

Sure, one swing would vent his anger—and impress his disciple—but who was going to plow the fields afterward?

Who was going to contribute to the territory?

Those thousands of acres—was Dawn going to farm them himself?

A coral staff appeared in Kun’s hand.

Without chanting a single spell, he simply used his immense mental power to manipulate the air around the bear.

The sword-light Dawn unleashed shrank rapidly, like snow under the midday sun, dissipating visibly. By the time it struck the bear, less than a third of its original power remained.

Boom!

Blood splattered.

A massive wound tore across the bear’s back—but only shallow. Though it bled, its bones and organs remained unharmed.

—

“My lord! How did you do that just now? For the sake of all the years I’ve devoted to protecting you, please enlighten me!”

Dawn’s gaze burned with intensity as he looked at Kun—the young lord he had watched grow up.

No spell, no incantation—yet his full-force attack had been neutralized so effortlessly.

Dawn had a strong intuition: if he could grasp that principle, his battle qi could take a major step forward.

For a warrior like him, whose technique had been refined to near perfection and whose strength had reached its peak, advancing further was incredibly difficult.

That step… might be the key to breaking into the fourth tier.

Kun pointed at Li Tianyun.

“Too troublesome to explain. Ask him.”

Li Tianyun, suddenly feeling as though he were being stared down by something even more terrifying than the giant bear, gave a wry smile.

“I guess… air pressure?”

Kun neither confirmed nor denied it—effectively an acknowledgment.

The laws of the world might differ, but truth remained truth, no matter the world.

In a sense, Blue Star was truly a treasure trove for mages.

It lacked magic—but precisely because of that, its knowledge often bypassed the superficial “laws” and went straight to underlying truths.

And that was exactly what Eternal Radiance Continent lacked.

—

Kun walked over to the injured bear.

The beast bared its teeth, glaring viciously at the tiny human before it, as though it might lash out at any moment.

Kun paid it no mind.

A healing spell fell upon the bleeding wound. Fresh red flesh sprouted visibly, knitting the injury closed.

He understood well: magical beasts, especially mature ones, were inherently violent.

You couldn’t win them over with kindness.

But making them submit?

Simple.

Be fiercer.

Be stronger.

—

“Abundance Magic—Golden Law!”

A slender, pale hand rested lightly on the bear’s massive head.

The bear’s pupils shrank.

It instinctively tried to rise—but couldn’t.

It felt as though a mountain pressed down on its skull.

No matter how it struggled, that “mountain”—no bigger than a hand—would not budge.

—

What was the Golden Law of the biological world?

The law of the jungle.

The strong devour the weak.

This self-created fourth-tier spell allowed Kun to temporarily alter a creature’s position in the food chain.

An ant could be elevated to an elephant.

A mouse could be granted the status—and power—of a lion, making cats instinctively fear it.

This wasn’t mere imitation.

It was a complete transformation—of aura, strength, soul, and ecological hierarchy.

—

No longer suppressing his magic, Kun’s golden eyes glowed faintly.

Though he stood looking up at the massive beast, his gaze was one of absolute dominance—

like a dragon observing prey trembling beneath its claws.

“What do I look like to you right now?”

He was genuinely curious.

Magical beasts saw more than humans.

Some perceived mana. Some even saw souls.

With Golden Law cast upon himself…

Was he a tyrannosaur?

An ancient dragon that had lived for millennia?

Whatever it was—

he was unquestionably an apex predator.

—

The bear couldn’t answer.

But under that overwhelming pressure, it obediently lowered itself, resting its head on its paws in complete submission.

—

“Good. From now on, stay here.”

“No harming people. No destroying buildings. No stealing livestock. No—… hmm, I’ll add more rules later.”

“In short—behave yourself. Or I’ll skin you and turn you into a rug. Understood?”

Kun pressed its head down three times with a dull thud, thud, thud.

The bear’s single eye welled with a murky tear.

Did it understand?

Did it have a choice?

Life was hard… even for a bear.

—

Satisfied, Kun clapped his hands and summoned Old Tate.

“Have the construction team build it a shelter. Nothing fancy—just something to block wind and rain.”

“And get the craftsmen to make a harness.”

“All the land under my name—this thing will plow it.”

“As you wish, young master,” Old Tate replied. Then he added, “Oh, right. The letter you sent to the capital has received a reply.”

“The wind falcon also brought something else. It’s in your study.”

—

Kun’s eyes lit up.

“Finally! I thought after just a few days apart our revolutionary friendship had already gone stale. At least she still has some conscience.”

Kun didn’t have many friends.

One and a half, to be exact.

One was Li Tianyun.

The other half… was his cousin in the capital.

The same cousin who had spent a fortune on a dragon egg hoping to become a dragon knight—

only to hatch a toad and get laughed at for an entire year.

—

Back in his study, Kun found a gold-sealed letter and a small cylindrical container.

He ignored the cylinder for now and opened the letter.

—

“My dear little Arlan, how have you been? Have you missed your beautiful, gentle—”

Kun skimmed the first page and tossed it aside.

All nonsense.

—

“I got what you wanted. Took quite some effort.

“The royal treasury didn’t have it, so I went to the Central Cathedral. You know—important figures are buried in the cemetery behind it.

“Unfortunately, the bishop stopped me at the entrance. Refused to let me in.

“Yes, I accidentally blew up the cathedral once—but that was an accident! Not intentional!

“Do you really have to hold a grudge like that?”

—

Kun’s expression darkened as he read on.

“…So I went to a few other churches.

“And while the Light Church bishop wasn’t looking, I snapped off one of the legs from the altar relic.

“It has six legs anyway. No one will notice…”

—

“You lunatic!”

Kun’s hand trembled.

He slowly turned his gaze toward the small cylinder.

Now he knew exactly what was inside.

—

A “leg”?

That was no ordinary object.

That was a sacred relic of the Light Church—the Golden Scarab, said to be bestowed by the Goddess of the Sky.

And she had snapped off one of its legs—

and sent it to him.

—

“This is going to get me killed…”

He exhaled slowly.

But then his expression turned strange.

“The bigger the trouble… the safer it might be.”

—

His cousin’s ability to cause trouble was practically in the “heroic tier.”

Yet somehow, she always stayed just within a tolerable limit.

Big trouble—but never fatal.

That was why he had done business with her for so long.

But this time?

This crossed the line.

Unless—

“Someone told her to do this.”

—

Kun leaned back, thoughtful.

“There’s been tension with Altolia lately… are we heading for war?”

—

In the end, he picked up a quill and began writing a reply.

He had no choice.

The territory needed money.

And his bloodline potion research couldn’t stop.

Sacred relics left behind by fourth-tier beings couldn’t be measured in gold—

but without gold, he wouldn’t even have the chance to obtain them.