A Plan
‘Huh? Things are going much more smoothly this time!’ Leylin was amazed for a moment, and then fell back into silence.
In the middle of that thought, his spiritual force symbol had entered turbulent space again. An eastern wind soon picked it up, sending it forth into the distance.
What awaited it in the distance was a terrifying fire whose aura was slowly but surely increasing.
Through the response from the symbol, Leylin vaguely saw an incomparably enormous world. Surrounding this world was a membrane of sorts.
“Really? Is Lady Luck on my side?” Although Leylin had his doubts, he continued to dash forwards with his spiritual force.
“Who is it? This is the Blazing Flame King’s territory, get lost!”
A loud rumble was heard, and Leylin felt a powerful aura that caused his symbol to crumble apart.
*Thump thump!* Leylin stumbled a few steps backwards, blood oozing out from both his nostrils.
“What happened?” Robin immediately stepped towards Leylin and supported him.
“I seem to have discovered a world, but was blocked at the edge and attacked by a self-proclaimed king!”
“Oh! That is the Fiery World! It is under the control and protection of the Monarch of Blazing Flames, Breaking Dawn Magus Aragorn!” Robin’s expression showed both understanding and indignance.
“They were already under his subjugation! “ Leylin remarked with his eyes opened wide.
“Yes! A few of the famous Breaking Dawn Magi here have already attacked and conquered some worlds with horrifying accomplishments. We even suspect that it is the spoils of these wars that have allowed them to enter the Breaking Dawn realm…”
“Afterwards, the Breaking Dawn Magi and their subordinates will protect the conquered world, stopping us from spying on them. On top of that, the guardians and other Radiant Moon Magi use their spiritual force to invade unconquered ones, at the same time destroying our spiritual force symbols!” Robin’s smile was forced and bitter.
“Therefore, avoiding probes by those formidable powers and camouflaging our spiritual forces until the time is right are topics that are very valuable for research!”
“Ah! “ At this moment, the rank 3 old man looked as if he had provoked something, stumbled backwards and looking upwards, shouted :”Be careful, it is heading this way!”
*Ji Ji!* An unpleasant sound transmitted out from the mirror in front of him.
A huge tentacle stretched out from within the mirror. It appeared to be some species of octopus, but without suction pads on the pure black tentacles, it looked extremely illusionary.
“Intimidating Gaze! Toxic Bile!”
Despite facing possible death, the rank 3 Warlock showed no fear. He extended his domain and under his manipulation, Toxic Bile manifested itself and became a trident, piercing through half the body of the black octopus-like creature.
*Peng!* The mirror shattered into pieces as the octopus succeeded in squeezing its way through. It’s skin was filled with eyeballs all over, making it a horrifying and gross sight.
*Phush phush!* The highly toxic black poison fork had pierced straight into the body of the octopus, yet no injuries were inflicted.
“Innate skill of virtual transformation! This is most common attribute among the living creatures in space!”
Leylin momentarily remembered what he had recorded.
Soon after, a huge ball of pitch-black smoke was puffed out from the mouth of the octopus and started to attack in the form of infrasonic waves. Leylin immediately retreated to a distance.
The old man yanked the crystal crucifix that he wearing and held it up in front of himself.
*Thud!* Beneath the octopus’ black tentacles, the crystal crucifix proved to have no effects and it was penetrated through easily.
The octopus came face to face with the old man and pounced on him. Countless big and ferocious teeth started appearing beneath.
“A pretty good creature!” However, the octopus did not came into contact with the old man’s face. It was grabbed firmly by yet another palm.
*Snap! Snap!* Multiple sharp teeth were gnawing on the hand, producing a spine-tingling sound, yet there seemed to be no effect at all.
“A space creature! One that has not been seen before! This experiment is indeed valuable!”
Gilbert was full of smiles as he manipulated a layer of blue flame in his hand to cover the entire octopus.
After the ignited flame shrunk considerably, what remained in Gilbert’s hand was a blue crystal ball with a black octopus swimming within it. It looked like a pocket-size ornament.
“And these too!” Gilbert took a deep breath.
A huge hurricane was generated, and Gilbert sucked up the smoke that the octopus had puffed out into his stomach.
In a flash, the smoke that had caused them so much trouble vanished into the thin air.
“Truly a Morning Star Magus!” Leylin exclaimed with a tense gaze.
“Great! It’s all thanks to Lucian for this successful experiment. I will remember your contributions. As for the rest of you, everyone will get ten thousand contribution points!”
Gilbert then declared the conclusion of the experiment. Looking at his expression, Leylin was sure Gilbert couldn’t wait to lay his hands on the newly captured strange creature for experiments.
“The astral plane might be dangerous, but the gains are rich too!“ Leylin felt gloomy from the bottom of his heart.
While walking out of the laboratory, Robin smiled and turned to Leylin to make introductions: “This is Lucian, and this is Kesha, they are both my fellow students!”
Lucian was in fact the old geezer who was in the Crystal Phase. As for Kesha, she too was a rank 3 and Leylin gave both of them a respectful greeting.
Lucian and Kesha extended a warm welcome to their new junior before leaving. Both of their spiritual forces had been exhausted considerably and they needed to rest and restore their strength. especially Lucian; he was almost seriously hurt in the process hence he was in a dull mood.
Leylin understood Lucian’s feelings, but he was left speechless after he had to adopt nine more purification processes after the appearance of the strange creature.
At the trading hall of the clan, bright twinkling lights were being emitted from the huge screen. Some fixed assignments and resource exchanges appeared on it from time to time.
Leylin intentionally looked for the poster selling the life seed. Little did he expect to see there were many messages left under it. That it was a popular item for sale left Leylin speechless.
He only looked at the messages for a short while before turning elsewhere.
After numerous promotions to a higher position, the processing capabilities of his brain had strengthened immensely. He was now comparable to a regular computer. With just a few glances, he could assimilate the information that he needed from the huge screen easily.
“Rank 3 Vapour Phase spell formation, a must-have item for supplementing the vitality and strength of a Rank 3 Magus. Sale price: One hundred thousand contribution points!”
This was exactly what Leylin needed now.
Cultivation of a Rank 3 Magi was to further compress and concentrate the already small spiritual force seed.
Firstly, the bright silver spiritual force would be turned into vapour, after which it would enter the liquid phase and finally crystallisation.
At the final stage, all of the spiritual force would be condensed to a single point, the point mass. This was the raw material required for advancing to become a Morning Star Magus!
Leylin was currently stuck at the beginning stage of rank 3 and had not even entered Vapour Phase.
“With the help of this spell, together with medication and the right meditation techniques, it should only be a matter of time before I enter the Vapour Phase!” Leylin reckoned.
There was a door for every stage within the 3rd Rank. And once a Magus reached the Hydro Phase, they would be allowed to experience entry into the astral gate independently with the assistance of the Magi tower.
Of course this wasn’t a door built specially for the astral plane. It was built for eventual interplanar exploration in the future.
“Mentor Gilbert might be willing to trade the astral gate blueprint with me for a favourable price! However, it will be very difficult to acquire the astral stone...”
According to his Mentor, the so called astral stone was a necessary material when building a astral gate. The origins of the astral stones were unknown, and the Morning Star Magi kept them within their own circle. Thus, it was seldom seen outside.
Experiments on interplanar travel depleted the energy within these astral stones, and they would then have to be replaced. Thus, Morning Star Magi didn’t have enough of them on hand for their own use, leave alone selling them outside.
Given their sky-high price, even if Gilbert were willing to sell some to him, Leylin wasn’t sure he had the financial capabilities to buy them.
Leylin skimmed over the screen at a lightning-quick pace, looking out for anything associated with experiments on the astral plane. Unfortunately, high-grade research like that would not normally be put on sale. Even the rare piece was immediately gobbled up for a very high price!
Leylin stroked his chin in contemplation. ‘Looking at the current circumstances, interplanar travel was a hot topic in the central continent. Although the weaker Magi did have some knowledge of it, most of it was still a big secret!
‘It isn’t realistic to expect to buy a astral stone, and the Vapour Phase spell formation is expensive as well. It’s a better idea to slowly accumulate contribution points as I grow my spiritual force!’
Leylin thought about the ten thousand contribution point reward that Gilbert had handed out today, and exclaimed that such extravagance was indeed worthy of a Morning Star Magus. A few more visits to his experiments and Leylin would be able to afford the Vapour Phase spell formation.
It was a pity that most Magi believed in the principle of equal exchange. Leylin’s income today was a payment for the help he rendered, and there was a bonus due to there being gains from this experiment. Gilbert was not one to just randomly reward his students some points.
‘I need to accumulate contribution points, and get a hold of some spiritual force potions that work for rank 3 Warlocks!’ Leylin set these two short term goals.
“It would be the wisest, most compatible and safest way through potions!”
Leylin looked at the screen. There were many highly paid requests for Potion Masters to concoct various potions. There were also contracts available for long-term patronage.