"Boom!"
Bright orange-red light slammed against the hazy white barrier, emitting a blinding glow.
Rolling waves of fire unleashed terrifying heat, distorting the void under the heatwaves, causing crackling sounds as if something was screeching in agony.
However, when everything quieted down, the spinning red lotus staff flew back into a delicate, fair hand, and the hazy light that enveloped the ancient city seemed unaffected.
It still looked as thin as a layer of gauze, yet it appeared to possess the most indestructible protective power in the world.
"Boom!"
Morille's face turned pale as she crushed the fairy figure in her hand, scattering it into a rain of light. She turned to the old woman in black beside her and shouted, "Vivian, I order you to break it! I need to get in!"
Vivian, the old woman in black, shook her head. "Sorry, Miss Morille, I can't do it. There may be only a handful of people in the Upper Ring continent who could. After all, this was the magical barrier personally set by the legendary sorcerer Helaams."
"Then tell me why I can't get in! Why can that bitch Serena enter so easily?" Morille screamed, wildly waving her staff like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum.
Vivian's temperament was very gentle. She explained to Morille with a soft gaze, "Because you are not from the South, you cannot enter. Helaams would never leave such an obvious flaw. Since this is a legacy left in the South, only wizards born in the South have the right to compete. Otherwise, his legacy would be meaningless. As for why that girl from the Alba family could enter…"
Vivian paused for a moment before continuing, "Perhaps she has some tool or secret magic that can bypass the spell's judgment, or perhaps… she has some South blood in her veins. You probably forgot that Serena Quichen Alba was found by the Life Court's wizards when she was ten years old. Because of this, she has been looked down upon and excluded by the current Alba royal family."
Morille froze in place. After a moment, she gritted her teeth and spoke to Vivian, "You've known this all along, haven't you? You knew I'd be kept outside, but you deliberately didn't tell me! Damn you, Vivian, you annoying old hag."
Despite Morille's harsh insult, Vivian's face showed no anger. Instead, her eyes softened even more.
She spoke to Morille in a way that felt like coaxing a child, "I just didn't want you to lose interest after knowing the truth. If you really want to get in, we can return. Perhaps we can still catch the gathering in the Central region."
"Shut up. I don't want to hear your voice right now."
Morille looked like a snarling, irritable little beast. She waved her arms in frustration and said impatiently, "Do you think I care about competing for the legacy of the Sorcerer King? The fragments of that legacy are barely enough. It's impossible to gather all of it! What I care about is Serena! That annoying bitch who's even worse than you."
Morille muttered angrily for a while, then suddenly her eyes lit up as if she had come up with an ingenious plan.
"I suddenly think it's actually pretty good that I'm kept out. At least… Serena can't get out either."
"Vivian, my dear Vivian, you'll help me stop those annoying fools who try to block my fun, right?"
Vivian gave Morille a loving and indulgent look. "Of course. As long as our dear Morille is happy and enjoys herself."
"You're the best Vivian in the world!" Morille burst into a string of joyful laughter, and with a "boom," she exploded into a flash of sparks and disappeared.
"Ronan, you're in, right?"
"Yes."
"Remember to take out what I gave you before. It'll help you find members of the Blue Mist Society within the city. Try to stay there as long as possible. Opportunities like this don't come often. Good luck."
"Same to you."
Ronan cut off the communication with Orrion, then took out a badge-like object from his space ring and casually slipped it into the inner layer of his Titanium armor.
After doing all that, he finally had time to look around.
He now found himself in what appeared to be an ancient garden.
Surrounding flowerbeds were neatly arranged with strange flowers in shades of blue, purple, red, and white, all colorful and unnamed. The air was filled with a intoxicating fragrance.
Countless glowing specks, like fireflies, danced around the garden, shrouded in a thin mist, creating a scene full of hazy and dreamlike colors.
Ronan absentmindedly picked a small flower from beside him and began to rub it between his fingers, surprised to find it was a real flower.
He tried to capture some of the glowing specks floating in the air, but when he reached out, they slipped right through his fingers.
As Ronan pondered his next move, the fairy who had led him into the Fairy City suddenly flew out from the flowers and darted to his face.
"Alu sss..."
The delicate, figurine-like fairy held Ronan's nose, her mouth uttering a string of odd, difficult-to-pronounce syllables. It sounded like a spell or perhaps like she was saying something to Ronan.
Once she finished speaking, the fairy looked at Ronan with a gaze full of affection, as if gazing at a lover, then gently kissed the tip of Ronan's nose.
"Boom!"
After the kiss, the fairy exploded into a burst of light and quickly dove into Ronan's forehead.
"Vroom——"
In that instant, Ronan felt a mystical contract forming, and his soul power grew significantly.
Just as he furrowed his brows in confusion, Ronan suddenly noticed that the glowing specks of light, which had been randomly floating around him, began to move toward him like moths to a flame, merging into his body.
During this process, Ronan clearly felt his soul power slowly growing.
"This is the benefit of staying here longer, as Orrion said?!"
Ronan realized this and his eyes shone with strange brilliance.
Soul power was the foundation of everything, and any method or tool that could enhance soul power was invaluable to a wizard, especially to him now.
"The last part of the soul power I need to advance from level two to level three might be completed here…"
Ronan took a deep breath, his body moving quickly through the garden.
His speed was so fast that he left behind blurry afterimages, his form constantly changing positions.
Moments later, he had absorbed nearly all the glowing specks drifting around the garden.
At this point, Ronan noticed that thin wisps of gray smoke were beginning to form on his body, like the faint smoke rising from dry leaves burning.
He didn't know what it was, but it was undoubtedly related to the fairy that had exploded and made some sort of contract with him.
He speculated that this might be one of the competition's rules, though he couldn't be sure yet.
Once the glowing specks in the garden were completely absorbed, Ronan felt his soul power grow further, and the gray smoke on his body became thicker. It was now becoming more noticeable.
He decided it was time to move on.
At the entrance of the garden, ahead of him, Ronan saw a beautiful archway carved from stone, adorned with lifelike vines.
He habitually examined the patterns on the vines. As he passed through the archway, he caught sight of a figure about twenty meters ahead of him, mirroring his every movement and expression.
Ronan locked eyes with the figure, and an eerie stillness filled the air.
But in less than half a second, the figure darted towards him.
"Haha, I didn't expect to encounter a second-level wizard."
The man, with a short beard and a near-middle-aged appearance, laughed as he quickly began chanting a spell. He held a black short staff in each hand, and his magical energy began to surge rapidly.
However, before he could advance much further, a figure appeared in front of him like a ghost.
The man's pupils shrank, but he smiled in delight. He revealed a vicious grin, and the short staves in his hands clashed together in front of his chest.
"Thorns!"
The powerful mental energy field of a third-level wizard surged, forming a golden circle made of countless sharp golden spikes. The vast power of his magical domain expanded.
But the silver-armored figure, with its face completely covered in silver metal and only its brilliant blue eyes exposed, didn't even dodge.
It merely gave him a cold glance before raising its right hand high. From the edges of its arm, clear, crystalline green flames erupted.
Under the sunlight, the silver and green flames intertwined, making the entire arm gleam like a sharp, slender scimitar.
The arm rose to its peak, then—
It slashed down fiercely!
"[Breaking Spell, Light of Dissolution]!"
The cold voice rang out.
"Crack, crack, crack—"
The golden thorn circle, empowered by three forces, shattered under the silver-green blade's vertical strike, crumbling with ease.
"What?!"
The man's eyes widened in disbelief.
His body, once charging forward, instantly retreated, golden light erupting from his body, and his magical domain expanded like a roaring tsunami.
Under the "silver-green scimitar," however, he was as fragile as paper thrown into the air to be torn apart.
The "scimitar" pierced through and reached the man in an instant, and nothing could stop its momentum. All the energy and spells shattered beneath its edge.
The man's expression turned horrified, and it seemed he finally understood why a second-level wizard appeared here.
He tried to escape, but it was too late.
As the "scimitar" neared him, the green flames on the silver arm began to fade, and just as the hand opened to press against his face—
"Boom, boom, boom—"
The two figures pulled at the air, creating blurry streaks, accompanied by a series of air-bursting explosions, like firecrackers.
A dark silver metal wall suddenly rose, and the rapidly moving figure crashed into it, halting with a deafening sound.
Ronan slowly loosened his grip, expressionless, looking at the unfamiliar third-level wizard whose head had been pressed into the silver metal wall made of "Titanium."
The man had fallen unconscious, his limbs twitching slightly in a dazed manner.
Ronan had been careful; although life and death didn't matter in the competition, he hadn't intended to kill the man—just to compete.
"The power of [Breaking the Spell] seems to be getting even more terrifying," Ronan murmured as he looked at the thin gray smoke swirling around his silver armor.
His mind drifted to the rules of this contest.
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