Cultivating in the Wizard World

Countless wizards were sent to the frontlines, and countless never returned.

Those "veterans" lucky enough to retreat from the frontlines were granted a rare vacation opportunity after five years of service.

They returned to the academy to assist with admissions, serving as living examples to inspire those who came after.

Jeming remembered it clearly.

What impressed him most was a "super genius" who soared from a First Level Official Wizard to Fifth Level in just five years.

The speed of that advancement was astonishingly fast, making countless people envious.

But later he learned.

Such a "genius" was less a Lucky One and more a jinxed one.

In plane wars with other civilizations, many wizards would have their souls eroded by local natives using special means, memories altered, or even be directly possessed.

Those rapidly advancing "geniuses" were often victims whose souls were transformed by a flood of information, hence becoming possessed.

They were no longer themselves but had become vessels for shadow natives escaping the plane.

"Exactly." Clark's voice pulled him back to reality, "This thing was the guy trying to escape through possession at the time."

He shook the wriggling shadow in his hand, his tone calm as if introducing an ordinary item:

"Simultaneously, this guy was the Lord of Planes of that plane. However, due to the uniqueness of the Shadow Plane, its existence form is quite special... Strictly speaking, it's a half-creature, half-plane fusion. I've completely wiped out its remaining consciousness, leaving only the most basic instinctual spiritual essence."

Jeming stared dumbly at the shadow, the broken clues in his mind finally beginning to link together.

He suddenly looked up at the array core's fractured spiritual essence and then at the wriggling shadow in Clark's hand:

"Mentor, you want to..."

"Use its spiritual essence to replace the spiritual essence that should have been born." Clark took over, still calm, "In this way, not only can those fragmented soul pieces be integrated, but the lengthy process of nurturing spiritual essence can also be skipped."

Viola listened, her brows furrowed. She stared at the shadow, hesitantly speaking:

"Can it succeed so easily? This thing, no matter how much its consciousness is wiped out, is essentially an outsider. Can using it as the core be compatible with the plane's own spiritual essence?"

Clark glanced at her, his lips slightly curved:

"This is not simple."

He turned the shadow in his hand, his tone rare with a bit of pride:

"I've studied this transformation technology for years. And as 'raw material' for spiritual essence core, there's only this one — once used up, there won't be another."

Jeming was silent for a moment, then raised another question:

"Even so... This thing, no matter how much its consciousness is wiped, is just 'instinctual spiritual essence', right? Doesn't have real wisdom, even if fusion succeeds, does it have combat capabilities?"

Clark looked at him, the curve on his lips deepening.

That smile made Jeming's heart jump inexplicably.

Too familiar, as if seen somewhere before.

Clark didn't answer.

He just turned and walked toward the array core again.

The shadow in his hand was gently tossed, falling into the fractured spiritual essence within the array's center.

Next moment.

The array's light suddenly surged!

Jeming and Viola squinted simultaneously, but their spiritual power dared not relax.

They could clearly sense that when the shadow fell into the spiritual essence core, it ignited everything around it like kindling lit by a spark!

Those fragmented spiritual essence pieces, those newly formed soul shells, seemed to be irresistibly drawn, crazily converging towards the shadow!

They swirled, interwove, and merged like countless streams pouring into the sea, ultimately...

At the core of the array, forming a brand new, complete, yet somewhat eerie soul.

It's called eerie because although complete, it's empty.

There's no consciousness wave.

No wisdom response.

It's merely a soul's "shell."

With a complete structure and vast spiritual essence, but lacks a true "self."

Jeming and Viola hadn't yet had a chance to ask when they saw Clark perform an action making their hearts stop...

He stepped into the teleportation array at the array core's edge.

It's a very small teleportation array, only allowing one person to stand, Jeming hadn't even noticed its existence before.

Now, as Clark stepped in, the array instantly lit up, silver-white light engulfing him entirely.

Then, Clark's figure disappeared from where he stood.

At the same time, a light screen next to it automatically lit up, displaying the inner scene of the array's core.

There, in the newborn empty soul, a gray-white figure was slowly emerging.

It was precisely Clark.

He directly entered the deepest part of the soul.

Then, in Jeming and Viola's shocked, speechless gaze, his spiritual power surged like a floodgate, spreading madly through each vein of the soul!

He was...

"Old man he..." Viola sucked in a breath as she spoke, "He's replacing this soul..."

Jeming suddenly realized, almost instinctively lunging toward the rune platform in front of him:

"Assist him! Quick!"

The two simultaneously pushed their spiritual power to the extreme, fervently operating the Awakening Array, helping Clark's spiritual power to establish a connection with the newborn empty plane soul!

In nerves extremely taut, not knowing how long passed...

Finally, at a certain moment, Jeming felt his vision suddenly blur.

It was an extraordinarily marvelous experience.

He was still standing at the edge of the underground Awakening Array, his hands still pressed on the rune platform, but his view seemed to pierce through layers of rock, through the energy storm still raging on the surface, directly seeing the entire plane!

He saw the Sea of Destruction, ravaged by antimatter frenzy.

He saw the pitch-black-as-ink stream of death energy rising deep in the Chaos Secret Sect camp.

Every struggling wizard, every crumbling fortress, every force tearing the space...

He saw everything on the battlefield!

Jeming knew this meant Clark had succeeded.

Clark had become the core consciousness of the activated plane with his will.

Now, he was using his newly acquired "authority" to directly transmit everything he perceived to Jeming and Viola's minds.

Coincidentally at this moment, that death energy from the Chaos Secret Sect shot towards outside the plane.

Jeming stared at it, unable to help but be amazed.

This thing had already formed a certain "concept" prototype.

It's not just energy, nor merely emotions, but something deeper — the utilization of the "death" concept.

In a certain sense... a prototype of conceptual material.

Then, he saw the death energy stop.

Just suspended in the air like frozen amber.

At the same time, the antimatter frenzy still explosively raging also stopped.

All explosions, all impacts, all spreading destructive energy...

Everything, at the same moment, solidified like a sculpture.

That was Clark's doing.

He wielded the entire plane's power, as easily as a normal person controlling a muscle in their arm, simultaneously halting two existences capable of destroying heaven and earth!

Feeling that near-Eighth Level power, Jeming suddenly understood.

Understood why Clark's smile had seemed so familiar.

He abruptly turned his head, looking at Viola beside him.

Viola at that moment was staring fixedly at the light screen, her silver-gray eyes filled with complex light — shock, realization.

Jeming remembered.

He once saw the same smile on Viola's face.

That was during the Ice and Flame Plane. When she, leveraging feedback from the Living Plane, forcibly leaped from Third Level directly to Sixth Level.

Just before starting, the smile then shown by Viola was that very special kind.

And now, he saw the same thing on Clark's face.

Only Viola back then utilized an existing Living Plane.

Whereas Clark — he became the plane himself.

Jeming was silent for a long time, finally squeezing out a sentence:

"Hiss... What does this count as... a legacy?"

He paused, looked at the gray-white figure on the light screen, then glanced at the beside complex-looking Viola, softly adding:

"Seems... not quite right either?"

Viola didn't answer.

But Jeming clearly saw her mouth twitch slightly.