“I heard that the Masked Baron has been hideously ugly since childhood, which is why he always wears a mask.” That’s what the envious say.

“I heard the Masked Baron went through a great disaster that ruined his once-handsome face, so he wears a mask now. What a pity.” Some people express such sympathy.

“I heard the Masked Baron’s face was destroyed while saving the woman he loved…”

Rumors of all kinds kept emerging, growing ever more bizarre.

As for the protagonist, Edward White had no time to pay attention to those rumors; he was happily counting the benefits he had gained from the altar.

“A total of 2,080 life scales. That skull-splitting ghost actually dropped over a thousand life scales—what a windfall.” After silently calculating, Edward White felt a bit disappointed: “2,080 scales is 260 hours, which is about twenty days of life. It sounds like a lot, but it’s actually not much. It seems the skull-splitter is still too low-level. Even after mutating through the altar, the life scales it dropped are still too few.”

Other than the life scales, Edward White didn’t gain any other tangible items. After he put away the skull-splitting axe, it was absorbed by the sword case and disappeared without a trace. The only change was that the sword case now had a new baron-level martial art called “Skull-Splitting Axe.”

The most exciting gain for Edward White was that after slaying the skull-splitting ghost, he finally obtained the baron title of the Light Order. The life mark at his heart evolved into a life disk, something only barons possess.

The life disk was golden, like a compass, engraved with countless mysterious symbols. Four of the characters were shining, representing the three great privileges: “Immunity,” “Judgment,” and “Verdict,” as well as another called “Fate Reversal.”

There’s not much to say about the three great privileges. With Edward White’s current baron rank, his privileges only work on those without a title, so they’re basically useless to him.

But the “Fate Reversal” privilege greatly surprised Edward White. This is a privilege only those who have shattered the Immortal Crystal can obtain. Its power is simple: those with the “Fate Reversal” privilege are immune to the three great privileges of anyone one rank above them.

In other words, with “Fate Reversal,” the three great privileges of a viscount are completely ineffective against Edward White.

Besides privileges, the life disk itself is also the core of a special power. Only after obtaining a life disk can the Longevity Art truly be put to use.

By using the Longevity Art to turn the life disk, the power it releases strengthens the body, making a baron’s physical strength far surpass that of ordinary people. Once one reaches the viscount level, the power of the life disk can even be projected outward. But for Edward White, who had just become a baron, the viscount rank was still a distant goal.

Opening the combat power rankings, Edward White found that his name had finally entered the top hundred million, with the title he gave himself: “Fist Baron.”

“I once had nothing, but even empty-handed I’ll carve out my own sky.” Although Edward White also felt that Henry Lee asking him to defeat the Lord of Light was just a dying man’s madness, every time he thought of it, Edward White’s blood would involuntarily race, his body temperature rising rapidly, with a vague anticipation he couldn’t quite explain.

“This martial art is called ‘Skull-Splitting Axe,’ but it’s not an axe technique at all!” Edward White carefully studied the new martial art on the sword case and found that it had nothing to do with axes. Instead, it was a technique that activated the life disk to strengthen the palm, unleashing an unstoppable strike.

“No wonder it’s a baron-level martial art. Without advancing to baron, you don’t have a life disk, and without a life disk, there’s no way to practice this ‘Skull-Splitting Axe.’” Edward White was quite interested in “Skull-Splitting Axe,” since it was the only baron-level martial art he had.

Although “Skull-Splitting Axe” was a baron-level martial art, it was actually easier to practice than “Pain Blade Technique,” because the latter required precise control and personal judgment, while “Skull-Splitting Axe” only required using the right method to activate the life disk, channeling its power to strengthen the palm. Naturally, the latter was much simpler.

Simple didn’t mean weak. After reaching basic proficiency in “Skull-Splitting Axe,” Edward White tested its power and easily chopped through a birch stick as hard as iron with his palm. Then he found a real iron rod, as thick as his wrist, and still chopped it in half in one blow. It was even sharper than the pure white knight’s greatsword, making Edward White almost unable to believe it was really his own hand.

“A baron-level martial art truly is extraordinary.” After the excitement, Edward White hesitated a bit: “Should I go to the Daolun Society?”

The Daolun Society was a noble club founded by Count Daolun. The minimum requirement for entry was the baron title. Once you became a member, you could live in Daolun City for free forever and enjoy many benefits provided by the society—too many to count.

However, after becoming a member, you had to complete certain tasks assigned by the Daolun Society. Such clubs existed in every city, just under different names.

In the end, Edward White still chose to go to the Daolun Society. Not only could he save a large amount of life scales, but more importantly, the various martial arts within the Daolun Society were impossible for outsiders to obtain.