Zero Wing headquarters, Guild Master's office.
Shi Feng, sitting quietly in his chair, suddenly widened his eyes, his heart filled with confusion.
Just a moment ago he had activated the final core magic array, yet the entire soul magic array had suddenly shattered. By now it had completely dissipated—he could feel not a trace of soul imprint or mana in his mind, as though the soul magic array had never existed at all. Everything might as well have been a hallucination conjured by his brain.
"What the hell is going on?"
"Did it succeed, or did it fail?"
After being unable to sense the soul magic array any longer, Shi Feng moved his body around but found no changes or discomfort. Everything felt exactly the same as before, as though it had all been nothing more than flowers reflected in a mirror and the moon's shadow in water.
From what he knew about soul magic arrays, if the activation succeeded, a player's soul would be elevated and their natural talent would improve considerably. Conversely, if it failed, the soul would be devoured by the array, causing the player's talent to plummet—and further progress would become virtually impossible afterward.
Yet right now he felt no change whatsoever. Physically and mentally alike, everything was just as it always had been. His mind felt neither sharper nor duller.
"Could this soul magic array be a sham?"
After sensing himself for a long while, the only conclusion Shi Feng could reach was that the soul magic array in his mind might have been nothing more than a fake—a special soul imprint, perhaps, and nothing else. Otherwise, the current situation was simply unexplainable.
Of course, there was another possibility: the information he had possessed from his previous life regarding soul magic arrays had been incorrect, and they never had any ability to transform a player's soul in the first place.
At that thought, Shi Feng couldn't help but sigh.
If that was truly the case, then he had taken a massive loss this time.
To reset the Heart of Augustus's cooldown to zero, he had burned a Divine Crystal. Having already given his other Divine Crystals away to provide assistance to the guild's core members, he had been left with only one as a last resort. Now that it was spent, he didn't even have half a Divine Crystal to his name…
Just as Shi Feng was feeling the sting of that loss, You Lan knocked on the door from outside and walked straight in.
"Guild Master, Melancholic Smile and the others have arrived. In addition, the three-hundred-plus disabled NPCs who are accompanying them are already at the headquarters square, ready to begin the ceremony at any moment." You Lan looked at Shi Feng's somewhat downcast expression and spoke with a note of puzzlement.
"Good. Have those NPCs wait on the second underground level for now. Tell Melancholic Smile to make her preparations as well—I still need a little time before I can head over." Shi Feng nodded.
"I'll go inform them right away." With that, You Lan left the Guild Master's office.
Once she was gone, Shi Feng wasted no time. He pulled the Inheritance Crystal that Sword Saint Crimson Eye had given him out of his inventory, intending to take advantage of the Heart of Augustus's Eternal Breath while it still lasted and learn the inheritance contained within as quickly as possible.
Divine Crystals were even rarer than Epic-tier weapons and equipment—truly the kind of treasure that came along only by chance.
Now that he had finally managed to make use of the Eternal Breath even once, he absolutely could not afford to waste it. Otherwise, he would have to wait another three months or somehow obtain another Divine Crystal.
The very instant Shi Feng channeled his mana into the Inheritance Crystal, a layer of faint white mist materialized around it. Shi Feng froze in shock.
"That's impossible! Materialization of mana…"
Mana was an ethereal, intangible force. Even when a player gained control over it, they could only manage it through feeling and imagination—and even then, only in the crudest of ways. To take that wispy, diffuse mana and compress it into a highly concentrated form was something even a Tier 4 player with rudimentary mana control simply could not do.
In general, only a player who had reached the level of High-grade Grandmaster in magic arrays could accomplish it.
And he had only barely attained the Mid-grade Grandmaster level not long ago. Yet somehow he had just leapt straight to the level of a High-grade Grandmaster? How could he possibly believe it?
A High-grade Grandmaster in magic arrays!
On the surface, this was merely an auxiliary Class within the Divine Realm, yet it was a realm that countless Tier 4 powerhouses dreamed of reaching.
Because once a player's mastery of magic arrays reached the High-grade Grandmaster level, they could effortlessly draw upon the ambient mana around them through sheer willpower alone, making that mana move as freely as their own limbs—true mastery of mind over force, a domain of one's own!