The curtain of night hung heavy and low.

  Aurora City, within the sprawling grounds of the Spire Academy, before the entrance of Greenhouse Herb Garden No. 8.

  Yuna, her face alight with an unconcealable joy, moved with a brisk, almost weightless step through the dense plantation of magical flora. She arrived before the heavy oak door of the exclusive potion laboratory.

  Just as she raised her hand to knock, the deep, unwavering voice of her mentor, Morven, drifted through the thick wood.

  "Enter."

  Yuna paused, then pushed the oak door open, stepping inside. She bowed with deep reverence. "Mentor."

  She was in a rush to speak, but as she lifted her eyes, she caught a glimpse of Morven’s weather-beaten, ancient face. To her profound surprise, it bore a rare, relaxed expression. She froze for a fraction of a second before understanding dawned upon her.

  "It seems... you have already received the victory dispatch from the front lines, Mentor."

  Morven nodded slightly, a gleam of profound appreciation shimmering in his deep-set eyes. "I have reviewed the specific details of the duel via the communication crystal. Pierce’s performance... can only be described as breathtaking."

  Seeing that her mentor was already apprised of the entire situation, Yuna refrained from recounting the details, yet the depths of her heart still churned with an indescribable, overwhelming shock.

  Aurora City had won this colossal gamble for planar dominance, and it was almost entirely due to Pierce turning the tide single-handedly against a collapsing sky. Had he not stood alone against three, slaughtering Crimson Lotus City’s apex apprentices with the effortless brutality of a scythe reaping wheat, Aurora City would absolutely have faced a catastrophic, total defeat.

  For this world-shaking merit alone—an achievement worthy of being etched into the city-state's historical annals—the Council of Dawn would be utterly unable to justify themselves to the Wizarding populace if they did not produce a staggering, envy-inducing bounty.

  Thinking of this, Yuna could not suppress her eagerness. "Mentor, regarding the post-war rewards... has the Council reached a definitive resolution?"

  A faint smile surfaced on Morven’s withered face. He spoke with slow, deliberate pacing. "Pierce has achieved a merit that touches the heavens. The high and mighty Council naturally dares not mistreat him in the slightest. That precious resource he has been obsessing over—the Spirit Surrogate—is already a certainty, securely in his grasp. As for any additional, extraneous bounties, it will depend entirely upon his personal desires and demands."

  A brilliant, radiant joy immediately bloomed across Yuna’s brow.

  Pierce had long ago prepared the Heart-Glass Water. Now that the crucial Spirit Surrogate was secured, he could immediately enter closed-door cultivation, initiating his assault against that chasm-like barrier: condensing the Spirit Crystal.

  She silently calculated the time in her mind. Pierce... he had only just turned seventeen.

  A seventeen-year-old Formal Wizard! Looking back through the long, heavy, and ancient history of Aurora City, such an achievement was as rare as phoenix feathers or unicorn horns. The mere word "genius" was utterly insufficient to describe an aptitude this terrifying. It was the talent of a monstrous anomaly defying the very laws of reality!

  Simultaneously, the exhilarating news of Aurora City’s opening victory swept through every corner of the massive city-state like a violent hurricane, predictably triggering a city-wide tsunami of sensation.

  Countless Wizard Apprentices flooded the streets, raising their arms and cheering for this hard-won triumph.

  And Pierce’s epic, awe-inspiring performance upon that bloody arena was frantically fermented within the apprentice circles, spreading word-of-mouth at a nearly mythological speed.

  Standing alone against formidable foes! Slaying three of Crimson Lotus City’s apex elites in a row! Cementing the final victory through individual might alone!

  Such miraculous deeds, previously confined to the exaggerated, bombastic hero-epics sung by bards, had now occurred right beside them—bloody, visceral, and absolutely real. In an instant, it ignited a fanaticism and worship deep within the hearts of countless low-tier apprentices.

  Pierce, who had already possessed a modicum of fame within the Spire Academy, saw his reputation skyrocket like the midday sun following this high-level, earth-shattering duel. Overnight, he leaped to become a legendary existence within Aurora City’s apprentice circles—a name known to all, from the lowest gutters to the highest spires.

  Even the many Formal Wizards residing high in their ivory towers, who had been closely monitoring the bilateral chess match between the two cities, deeply carved this young, dazzling name into their minds.

  Outer City, North District.

  Inside a raucous tavern heavily favored by Squire Knights.

  As midday approached, the spacious oak hall was already boiling with voices, with not an empty seat to be found. The room was packed with young men and women clad in light armor, hailing from the nearby Knight Academies.

  At this very moment, across almost every coarse wooden table stained with ale foam, heated, blood-pumping discussions centered around the exact same topic.

  "Have you all heard?! Our Aurora City smashed those bastards from Crimson Lotus into the dirt during the opening planar war duel!"

  "Tch, that news is ancient! Do you know what the key point is? Rumor has it that Lord Pierce was possessed by the God of War upon that arena! Single-handedly, he continuously blasted three of Crimson Lotus's absolute top-tier elite apprentices into oblivion!"

  "By the Gods! I always knew Lord Pierce possessed extraordinary strength, but I never dreamed he was terrifying to this degree! A brother of mine serving in the Silver Legion specifically traveled to the duel site over a hundred kilometers away to see the aftermath... Tsk tsk, guess what he saw? That forest, spanning a kilometer in radius, looked as if it had been thoroughly carpet-bombed by the high-tier spell Pyroblast! Scorched earth and massive craters everywhere. It is simply unimaginable that such devastation was caused by an apprentice-level battle!"

  "If you ask me, Lord Pierce crossing that threshold to ascend as a distinguished Formal Wizard is a matter of mere days now."

  "If that truly comes to pass, it would be absolutely unheard of... A seventeen-year-old Formal Wizard. You could flip through the entire founding history of our Aurora City and scarcely find a few ancient sages who could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him!"

  "Sigh... I truly wish that one day, I might have the honor of becoming a retainer under Lord Pierce, charging into enemy lines under his banner..."

  The buzzing hum of discussion intertwined endlessly with the crisp clinking of ale mugs. The air within the entire tavern was thoroughly boiling, entirely because of the legendary youth named "Pierce."

  Sitting in a corner booth, Sophia listened to the fanatic discussions of the surrounding patrons without missing a single syllable. Her pretty, elegant face was flushed a deep, excited crimson.

  Although she had firmly believed from the bottom of her heart that, given Lord Pierce's despair-inducing, terrifying talent and potential, he would one day shake the entirety of Aurora City, she never anticipated that day would descend so rapidly, so violently.

  "It seems it will not be long before Lord Pierce truly dons the Wizard's robes representing truth and power. Once His Lordship formally ascends, we shall go to the Spire Academy to seek an audience and swear our oaths to become his retainers..." Speaking to this point, Sophia’s voice involuntarily lowered, a trace of anxious apprehension flashing in her eyes. "Only... I do not know if His Lordship still remembers the promise he made to us back in the Black Forest. With his status now towering like the midday sun, what if he deems us too mediocre and rejects our fealty? What shall we do then?"

  The more Sophia thought about it, the more uncertain she felt. Her slender, willow-like brows furrowed tightly together.

  And when her peripheral vision caught Payne sitting across from her—currently burying his face in a massive slab of roasted meat with absolutely zero regard for his image—her temper flared instantly.

  She kicked him unceremoniously beneath the table, scolding angrily, "Eat, eat, eat! All you know is stuffing meat into your belly! Did you not hear that I am discussing serious matters concerning our future destiny?"

  Payne, a man built as burly as a bear, lifted his head with a bewildered expression. He casually wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand and mumbled in a muffled, resonant voice, "But, one only has the strength to endure high-intensity aura training if one's belly is full. If we can't even eat our fill, what will we use to assault that ethereal realm of the Legendary Knight?"

  Seeing Sophia’s murderous glare lock onto him, the nearly two-meter-tall brute instantly shrank his neck as if by reflex. He very sensibly clamped his mouth shut, not daring to utter half a word of contradiction.

  Seeing Payne's foolish, simple-minded appearance, Sophia couldn't help but rub the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

  Truth be told, it was all thanks to following Pierce during the cultist eradication op and securing a massive share of Council contribution points that she and Payne had been able to exchange for exceptionally abundant, high-tier cultivation resources at the quartermaster. Through months of maddening, bitter training, both of their strengths had experienced a profound, rebirth-like leap forward.

  To this day, both had touched the ultimate barrier of the Peak Grand Knight realm. As long as they could take that excruciatingly difficult, minuscule step forward, they could entirely shatter the shackles of their flesh, emerging from the chrysalis as butterflies to ascend as revered Legendary Knights.

  However, it was precisely this minuscule step—seemingly as thin as a sheet of window paper—that acted like a Wall of Sighs bridging heaven and earth, stubbornly blocking them outside the legendary domain. No matter how hard they struggled, they could not find the catalyst for a breakthrough.

  This invisible bottleneck had become Sophia’s greatest malady and source of anxiety of late.

  After all, in this rigidly hierarchical Wizarding World, the realm of a "Legendary Knight" was practically the bare minimum entry threshold to become the personal retainer of a distinguished Formal Wizard. No high-tier Wizard would willingly squander precious resources on a mediocrity unable to break the legendary barrier—in those cruel planar wars, knights of such a caliber didn't even qualify to serve as high-tier cannon fodder.

  "Sophia, do not overthink it. I trust in Lord Pierce's character. Since he personally accepted our oaths in the Black Forest, he is absolutely not the sort of frivolous man to easily break his word," Payne said, setting down his bone and offering resonant comfort.

  "I can only hope so." Sophia let out a phantom-like sigh. Her gaze drifted out the window toward the Wizard Tower piercing the clouds, her eyes filled with a yearning for the future, tinged with a sliver of unconcealable anxiety.

  "Sparkle Tavern," Second Floor Luxury Private Room.

  The Astral Spirit Society, which had not organized an offline gathering for quite some time, had managed the rare feat of assembling its core members today.

  Aside from their President, Pierce—who currently stood at the absolute epicenter of the storm—every other member of the society was present. At this moment, every face in the room brimmed with unconcealable ecstasy and pride.

  "Haha, I said it long ago during our society meetings! With Pierce’s strength, he would definitely grind those Crimson Lotus bastards into the floor! Well? Was I wrong?" Julian held a glass of amber rum, his face glowing red with a haughty expression of shared glory. If an uninformed outsider saw him, they might mistakenly believe he had been the one slaughtering foes upon the arena.

  However, on this joyous day, no one bothered to dampen his spirits. Everyone in the private room was immersed in an innate sense of pride, grinning from ear to ear.

  "I truly never imagined Pierce had become powerful to such an unfathomable, mind-bending degree. I heard from a senior in my mentor’s laboratory that those three Crimson Lotus apprentices who died miserably by Pierce's hand were absolute elites who had already half-stepped through the Formal Wizard threshold and were preparing to condense their Spirit Crystals!" Gwendolyn had her hands clasped to her chest, sighing with a face full of marvel and worship.

  "If they weren't one-in-ten-thousand elites, how could those old fossils in Crimson Lotus City rest easy sending them out to represent their entire city in war?" Shawn chuckled, swirling his wine glass, his mood evidently soaring to the absolute peak.

  When a dragon ascends, even the sparrows in its shadow touch the clouds. As President Pierce's reputation blazed like the midday sun, the "Astral Spirit Society"—a fringe group originally playing small games within the freshman circles—had now basked heavily in his glory, achieving roaring fame throughout the Spire Academy.

  Just this morning alone, the number of Wizard Apprentices who had proactively sought them out, speaking with earnest sincerity to submit membership applications, had hit double digits! Among them were even arrogant, powerful third-year seniors who usually looked down their noses at everyone.

  As of today, the prestige and momentum of the Astral Spirit Society within the Spire Academy possessed the faint semblance of being able to stand as an equal against the three traditional, veteran establishments: the Shadow Snake Society, the Wisdom Society, and the Rose Society.

  Although in terms of overall member strength and foundational heritage they were still far from comparable to the big three, everyone knew the truth in their hearts—as long as Pierce’s undefeated, legendary reputation was maintained, the Astral Spirit Society would act like a colossal lodestone, continuously drawing in an endless stream of excellent fresh blood. Surpassing the big three to crown themselves the apex of the academy was merely a matter of time.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  "What do you all think... what is Pierce busy doing right now?" Jane took a light sip of fruit wine and asked suddenly, out of the blue.

  The smile on Shawn's face paused slightly. After pondering for a moment, he spoke in a tone laced with deep reverence, "Having just established such a monumental merit, the Council's resources have surely already been delivered. He is currently... likely sealed within an absolutely secure secret chamber, in closed-door cultivation, preparing to assault the final hurdle of condensing the Spirit Crystal."

  The moment these words fell, the previously raucous private room instantly fell silent. An irrepressible, profound look of envy surfaced on every face.

  Condensing the Spirit Crystal! That was the ultimate, soul-stirring goal of every apprentice! Once Pierce crossed that threshold, he would become the youngest Formal Wizard in the entire history of Aurora City over the last century. Just how radiant and resplendent his future prospects would be was completely beyond the limits of what these ordinary apprentices could imagine.

  Amidst the envy and pride, the hands holding their wine glasses tightened involuntarily. A complex, indescribable bitterness rippled through the depths of their hearts.

  They had all stepped through the academy gates in the same year. They had even been comrades-in-arms, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder in the same society. Yet, since when had the disparity between them and Pierce become like a continually tearing chasm—growing wider and deeper with each passing day?

  By now, Pierce was already like a dazzling, ascending star, having climbed to a terrifying altitude they could only look up to, but never hope to reach in their entire lives.

  And it was foreseeable that in the long years to come, this chasm would only become more despair-inducing as Pierce continued his relentless ascension.

  Perhaps, one day in the future, when they had grown old, and Pierce sat upon a seat in the Supreme Council of the Astral Coalition as a legendary titan, the only intersection and connection they could use to boast to others... would be the insignificant, nostalgic trivia of: "We were once fellow members of the Astral Spirit Society."

  While the outside world was thoroughly boiling and churning with tidal waves of sensation due to this world-shaking duel, the individual standing at the absolute eye of the storm was currently resting with leisurely composure inside his slightly weathered apartment.

  Having concluded the brutal planar slaughter and returned safely to Aurora City, Pierce's taut nerves had finally relaxed. He washed away the stench of blood and exhaustion, and—in an extremely rare indulgence—lay upon his soft velvet bed, sleeping soundly and peacefully.

  He didn't wake until the sun was high in the sky the next day. After methodically completing his routine morning spiritual meditation, he stretched his back and leisurely began to inventory the bounteous spoils of war harvested from yesterday’s battlefield.

  Pierce seated himself on the slightly worn leather sofa in the living room. With a gentle flip of his wrist, he neatly arranged the Staff of Illusory Dreams—radiating its eerie purple light—and the high-grade Dimension Pouch looted from Gareth’s corpse onto the walnut coffee table before him.

  "Yee-yee!" The Flower Sprite, Eve, flapped her translucent green wings, flying over curiously from her flowerpot. The little creature's pure, flawless gaze was instantly and deeply captivated by the hazy, mesmerizing luster of the purple gemstone atop the staff.

  However, after staring at that gem for less than three seconds, Eve's happily fluttering body suddenly began to sway violently in mid-air, as if she were heavily intoxicated. Immediately, her eyes drew dizzy spirals, and she plummeted straight down toward the cold floor in a woozy stupor.

  Fortunately, Pierce was quick-handed. He shot out a large hand, securely catching the little sprite—who had nearly cracked her head open—in his palm.

  "This is not a trinket you can play with casually. Be good and go to the side to eat your nectar," Pierce said with a stifled laugh, flicking Eve’s tiny forehead. He gently deposited her onto a soft sofa cushion with a warm admonishment.

  The little creature shook her head vigorously, taking quite some time to recover from that intense mental vertigo. She immediately flapped her wings and flew, lingering fear in her heart, behind a tall potted plant. Poking half her tiny head out, she kept a vigilant, wide berth from the coffee table holding that terrifying staff.

  Pierce shook his head with a chuckle. He then reeled in his focus, reaching out to grasp the bone-like Staff of Illusory Dreams, his deep gaze examining it meticulously.

  With his current terrifying Spiritual Power—far exceeding his peers and tempered a thousand times over by the Eye of Omniscience—the faint, passive mental pollution radiating from the purple gemstone was like a gentle breeze brushing his cheek; it was entirely incapable of causing any substantive impact on him.

  On this continent, the vast majority of Formal Wizards or Wizard Apprentices, when faced with unknown, high-tier magical items, could only heavily rely on the universal Divination spell, "Identify", to analyze them.

  Through magical resonance, this spell allowed the caster to read the core magical attributes contained within a single magical item, including its activation password, functional characteristics, and even detailed data such as how many spell casts its internal mana circuit could still support.

  Much like the life-saving divine skill Mage Armor, Identify was one of the core, mandatory spells for every Wizard stepping onto the path of the transcendent.

  But Pierce was an exception. He had no need to waste mana casting a cumbersome identification array. Through the analysis of his Eye of Omniscience, he possessed an exceedingly profound and obscure mastery of Enchantment lore. Although his knowledge base was primarily concentrated in the niche field of "Gem Enchantment," it just so happened that the core power source of this Staff of Illusory Dreams perfectly aligned with that exact domain.

  Closing his eyes, Pierce used his Spiritual Power to probe meticulously for a moment. A knowing arc curled his lips; he had already grasped the bottom line.

  It matched perfectly with the hypothesis born of his combat intuition on the arena—the sole, core, and powerful function of this Staff of Illusory Dreams was to massively amplify the destructive power and control effects of Illusion-school spells cast by the wielder.

  For a specialized Wizard Apprentice like Xavier, who naturally possessed the "Rage Python" bloodline and majored in mental and illusion control, the value of this staff was absolutely on par with a legendary divine artifact.

  But for Pierce, a man who had always worshipped at the altar of ultimate violent output and absolute physical defense, this exquisite, top-tier Arcane Artifact felt somewhat like a chicken rib—tasteless to eat, yet a pity to discard.

  After all, his proficiency in the domain of illusions could only be described as rudimentary. Within the massive, violent spell arsenal he currently wielded, the only fundamental cantrips that could barely scrape an association with the word "illusion" were Silent Image and Hypnotism.

  "It seems... aside from taking this thing to the black market to exchange for cold, glowing Magic Stones, it is of no other use to me."

  Pierce shook his head helplessly. Fortunately, a highly targeted, perfectly preserved Tier 1 Arcane Artifact like this was always a hot, priceless commodity in black market auction houses. Finding a channel to offload it for at least two thousand Magic Stones would be absolutely no problem. This could be considered a massive influx of wealth to solve any urgent needs.

  Casually tossing the Staff of Illusory Dreams into his personal Dimension Pouch, Pierce rubbed his hands together. Brimming with anticipation, he unraveled the arcane lock on the high-grade Dimension Pouch left behind by Gareth.

  The moment his Spiritual Power penetrated it, Pierce couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. Inside this folded space, measuring several cubic meters, lay a dense, meticulously categorized hoard of supplies radiating mana fluctuations, nearly stuffing the entire pouch to the brim.

  The first thing to catch his eye was a neatly stacked pile of Magic Stones, shimmering with a mesmerizing, deep-blue light. Pierce did a rough count; there were actually nearly a thousand of them!

  "This guy... he was practically a walking, humanoid vault," Pierce couldn't help but sigh from the bottom of his heart. Gareth’s robust personal assets truly opened his eyes.

  One had to know that in this city with exorbitant living costs, even elite apprentices backed by veteran Wizard families would consider having two or three hundred disposable Magic Stones in liquid cash to be quite comfortable.

  Recalling the past, that arrogant fellow Monkay, having lost five hundred Magic Stones in a bet with Gwen during the maze trial, was so heartbroken afterward he nearly vomited blood on the spot, effectively declaring bankruptcy.

  The thousand Magic Stones Gareth had accumulated were undoubtedly his life's savings, hoarded drop by agonizing drop by racking his brains and accepting various high-risk missions over the years. What a pity; this arrogant genius not only lost his life on the battlefield, but this staggering wealth was now forced to obediently change its surname to Pierce.

  Beside the pile of Magic Stones lay thousands of exquisitely minted imperial gold coins and a small smattering of silver coins. However, for Pierce, whose standing was now on an entirely different echelon, these yellow and white metals—which only circulated in the mundane, mortal world—were completely beneath notice.

  The number of magical potions was also considerable, roughly thirty to forty bottles, carefully sealed in custom crystal tubes within a temperature-controlled leather case. Pierce casually popped a cork and sniffed. He found they were nothing more than standard, commercially available Tier 1 Recovery and Berserk potions. Bundled together and sold to a merchant guild, they would fetch a few dozen Magic Stones at best.

  Beyond that, the corners of the Dimension Pouch were piled with heaps of unprocessed magical creature materials and unrefined ores. To Pierce's delight, among them happened to be quite a few rare magical metals essential for blending the fusion alloys to upgrade the Argent Star!

  He did not stand on ceremony. He immediately picked out all the rare metals and safely stowed them in his own pouch. As for the remaining, cluttered materials that were useless to him, he quickly inventoried them, planning to find time in a few days to bundle them off to a black market material merchant.

  "If I lump all this scrap copper and rotten iron together, I should be able to squeeze out another one or two hundred Magic Stones of residual value."

  The final, and naturally the most valuable, haul of this corpse-looting expedition consisted of the magical items imbued with transcendent power.

  Gareth’s Dimension Pouch held a total of six magical equipment pieces. Regrettably, four of them—defensive items including an amulet, two necklaces, and a small buckler—had seen their intricate internal magical circuits completely collapse and shatter under the world-ending baptism of the lightning storm last night. Having instantaneously sustained catastrophic damage several times beyond their limits, they were reduced to mere scrap.

  Pierce was not surprised by this outcome. The vast majority of Faint-aura, or even Alchemy-grade defensive magical equipment, was precisely this fragile. As long as the instantaneous destructive force they endured on the battlefield exceeded the load-bearing limit of their enchantment arrays, they were highly prone to irreversible mana avalanches, resulting in on-the-spot destruction.

  This was precisely why battle-hardened Wizards constantly needed to replace their expensive defensive gear as frequently as changing clothes.

  Only two magical items had luckily survived the disaster.

  The first was an antique-styled recording staff carved from white oak. Fixed within the staff's core crystal was the First Circle spell, Obscuring Mist.

  Considering he had long mastered and optimized Obscuring Mist via the Eye of Omniscience, this auxiliary magical item was like drawing legs on a snake—superfluous and of very little use. Pierce tossed it without a shred of reluctance into the "garbage pile" destined for cash liquidation at the black market.

  The second item was a bizarre, withered vine, merely a dozen centimeters long, its epidermis displaying a dark, crimson hue like dried blood.

  Lying quietly on the table, the withered vine looked exceedingly inconspicuous, resembling a dead branch casually snapped from a roadside bush. Yet, if one closed their eyes and carefully, meticulously peeled back the layers with their Spiritual Power, they would be horrified to discover that beneath its unremarkable exterior, it was radiating an extremely dense fluctuation of energy particles, brimming with a tyrannical, violent life force! The concentration of its mana easily surpassed the sum of all commercially circulating Faint-aura magical items combined!

  Without a doubt, this eerie, blood-colored vine was the ultimate trump card Gareth had relied upon in life—that rare and terrifying Biological Arcane Artifact.

  During the decisive battle last night, the moment Gareth’s head was severed, this Biological Arcane Artifact instantly lost its master’s mental tether, slumping like a dead snake and burying itself deep beneath the uneven, cratered earth. It was ultimately Pierce, meticulous as ever, who—while sweeping the battlefield—casually cast a Mage Hand to uproot it from the scorched earth, stuffing it into the Dimension Pouch.

  Pierce pinched the blood-colored vine, turning it over and over, probing and examining it with his Spiritual Power for a while, before finally shaking his head in helpless resignation.

  The underlying operational logic of this Biological Arcane Artifact, involving flesh modification and high-tier Golemancy lore, was worlds apart from the "Gem Enchantment" he had mastered. It completely fell into his knowledge blind spot.

  "It seems... I can only wait until I find time in the future to fully master the cumbersome Identify spell, and then slowly peel back the secrets of this thing."

  After this meticulous inventory and valuation, Pierce silently ran the numbers in his mind: excluding this currently unanalyzable blood-vine artifact and the rare magical metals reserved for strengthening the Argent Star... the remaining spoils, assuming they could be smoothly liquidated, would conservatively net him a colossal income of approximately one thousand, five hundred Magic Stones.

  Coupled with the nearly one thousand Magic Stones in "liquid cash" originally carried in Gareth’s pouch...

  Unwittingly, the liquid savings in his personal account had historically shattered the terrifying barrier of Seven Thousand Magic Stones!

  "A full seven thousand Magic Stones... holding this massive sum in hand right now truly stirs the heart, creating the illusion of having grown wealthy overnight. But once I cross that threshold and truly ascend as a Formal Wizard holding truth in my hands..." Pierce tapped his long fingers lightly against the table, a clear-headed sigh flashing in his eyes. "Once in the circles of that echelon, casually acquiring any rare cultivation resource involving transcendent laws easily costs dozens, or even hundreds, of Magic Stones. For those truly apex, peerless natural treasures, price tags of thousands or tens of thousands of Magic Stones are commonplace. These mere seven thousand stones... if tossed into that water, would likely not even produce a large splash. It won't be long before it is entirely drained."

  The Wizard’s path of pursuing truth was, in the end, a terrifying, bottomless abyss that could never be filled. No matter how many mountains of gold and seas of silver one poured into it, it would never be enough to sustain that ever-expanding thirst for knowledge and lust for power.

  Especially after stepping into the domain of High-Tier Wizards, the sheer volume of resources required to take even a grueling, singular step forward on the evolutionary ladder was an astronomical figure ordinary mortals could not fathom in a lifetime.

  If it were not so, why would those mighty Wizard powerhouses sitting above the clouds, possessing world-destroying might, act like ravenous wolves, so fanatically keen on launching one bloody, brutal planar war after another?

  In the final analysis, they did not hesitate to cross seas of stars and slaughter countless alien species all for the sake of madly plundering all resources across the multiverse! All to feed themselves, so they might walk further upon the path pursuing immortality and truth!

  "Low-tier Wizard Apprentices operate like hyenas in various meat-grinder planar battlefields, slaughtering desperately to exchange for meager advancement resources; while those High-Tier Wizard titans directly assemble sky-blotting legions of steel golems, brazenly tearing open crystal spheres to brutally invade and enslave prosperous alien planes... The growth and proliferation of the Wizard collective can never escape the eternal, bloody themes of 'War' and 'Plunder'."

  After uttering a spectral sigh regarding the fundamental nature of this cruel world, Pierce shook his head forcefully, tossing these grand thoughts—which were still slightly too distant for his current self—out of his mind. He refocused his entire consciousness on the most pressing matter at hand.

  "Regarding the reward for securing the highest merit in this planar war... exactly what sort of demands should I raise to the Council?"

  The Spirit Surrogate was absolutely the unshakable first choice. And if conditions permitted, it would be best to shamelessly ask the Council for two. In doing so, during the process of condensing the Spirit Crystal and assaulting the Formal Wizard realm, it would be tantamount to adding an exceptionally robust double life-insurance policy. The success rate of his advancement would undoubtedly experience a geometric, exponential explosion.

  As for any other precious resource quotas aside from the Spirit Surrogate, Pierce gently stroked his chin. For a time, he had no clear ideas.

  After all, he was currently at an extremely unique dual-critical point of energy and Spiritual Power, wedged in the crevice between Apprentice and Formal Wizard. At this critical juncture, almost all the core supplies and auxiliary materials he needed for his breakthrough had already been gathered through his prior machinations.

  If he wanted to know what higher-tier resource reserves he required next, he would likely have to wait until he successfully took that final step, completely fulfilling the leap in life echelon, and ascending as a true Formal Wizard. Only then would he be able to glimpse the true necessities of that brand-new world.

  "I should go seek advice from the Mentor."

  After weighing and pondering the matter repeatedly in his mind, Pierce’s eyes lit up, and he quickly made a decision.

  Since he was currently like a blind man feeling an elephant, unable to find direction, he might as well seek the counsel of the widely experienced Mentor Morven.

  Conveniently, he could use this opportunity to ask the old man for detailed instruction regarding the specific operational intricacies and potential risks of "condensing the Spirit Crystal." Although the Eye of Omniscience had long since engraved the relevant theoretical processes and critical points of the breakthrough deep into his mind, knowledge gained from paper remained shallow. If he could have an experienced veteran who had personally survived that life-and-death metamorphosis offering guidance and standing guard by his side using their own visceral experience... that would naturally be the most secure option.

  Having made up his mind, Pierce immediately stood up from the sofa. With a subtle thought, the loose, comfortable casual wear on his body rippled under the surge of mana, instantly transforming into a well-tailored, low-key, and understated dark Wizard’s robe.

  He casually straightened his collar, preparing to push the door open and head to the mentor's laboratory in the Spire Academy.

  But in the exact instant his footsteps reached the entryway, Pierce’s preternaturally sharp perception suddenly caught the sound of light, familiar footsteps rapidly approaching from outside the door.

  Immediately following, accompanied by a few polite, rhythmic knocks, a gentle, soothing voice—warm as spring water and refreshing as a breeze—called out softly from beyond the wood:

  "Junior Brother Pierce, are you inside?"