"He actually depleted all of his spiritual power at once, forming a corrosive attack that covers the entire arena!"
The old wizard beside Leilin stroked his beard with some surprise. "It looks like Gehr has improved quite a bit! But unfortunately, this method consumes far too much spiritual power — he's destined not to pass the next round of selection!"
"Not necessarily!" Leilin smiled and pointed in a direction. "Look!"
"Oh?" The second-rank wizard glanced over and broke into a grin. "He actually used a precious spiritual power recovery potion? That's the kind of thing that can save your life at critical moments!"
In one corner of the venue, Lombard's hand trembled, nearly dropping the potion bottle.
"Again! Again!" His expression darkened.
Leilin chuckled inwardly. His observation had already reached a level that even Lombard couldn't detect, so he kept directing the nearby second-rank wizard's attention toward the man, piling pressure on him.
Having teased him enough, and afraid of overdoing it, Leilin deliberately redirected the second-rank wizard's attention. "By the way, would you be interested in visiting my laboratory after the competition? The fish from the Nature Alliance's specialties has certain effects even for second-rank wizards, you know…"
On the other side, Lombard breathed a sigh of relief. "That's right! Green-robed Gehr was originally weaker than Fire Scorpion. Even though I tried my best to hide it, I still attracted attention. I'll have to be more careful from now on…"
"Sorry, coming through!"
At that moment, a wizard squeezed through, looking very much in a hurry.
"What are you doing?" Lombard shoved the person away, and then both of them froze.
Although the other person was in disguise, Lombard recognized Weilin at a glance, and Weilin likewise recognized his former companion.
The two stared at each other, but since neither could speak the truth for their own reasons, they tacitly swallowed their words and didn't try to expose the other's identity right away.
"Number 188! Number 188!" On another arena, the referee was growing impatient.
Weilin's body twitched, and he immediately headed over. "I will stop you!"
As he passed Lombard, Weilin said softly.
"Then I'll be waiting!" Immediately after, he heard the other's reply.
As the matches progressed one by one, some of the original wizard geniuses made names for themselves, drawing gasps of amazement from the crowd.
Leilin had already identified several key figures in his mind.
"Lilina from the Southern Domain, Heilong from the Voodoo Swamp, along with Weilin and Lombard, and their subordinates and friends — those will be the final standings of this Wizard Genius Tournament."
With his experience as a second-rank warlock, it was easy for him to spot the so-called "geniuses."
Under normal circumstances, these geniuses would each be the "protagonist" of their own time and place, capable of stirring up storms. But here, they were completely out of their depth.
"The final champion should be either Weilin or Lombard!" Leilin concluded with certainty.
"Truly worthy of being a convergence point of the Dark Extreme Domain's power of fate — their strength has skyrocketed beyond words. I suspect both of them have already touched the threshold of the second rank?"
Leilin was secretly amazed. At this rate of improvement, let alone Lilina and Heilong, even Ailin and the other "fake" geniuses whom Leilin had given artificial cheats to were worlds apart.
The initial elimination rounds proceeded quickly.
By nightfall, nearly half of the large number of registered participants had been eliminated, and some of the classic battles had become well-known among the wizards — some were even recorded on film to be selected and collected by the various major schools.
Weilin, Lombard, and the several seed candidates Leilin had his eye on all made it through the preliminaries as expected, and their names had even begun to spread.
They had gained a small reputation among the wizards at the venue.
Names like "Heilong," "Lilina," and "Gehr" had finally reached the ears of the second-rank wizards.
…
"The power of fate has become even more concentrated!"
When resting that day, Leilin walked to the window of the luxurious room specially prepared for him and gazed at the sky.
During this brief respite, how many undercurrents were surging?
Inside a contestant's room, several black-robed wizards were threatening Heilong from the Voodoo Swamp: "Tomorrow, if you encounter our young master, you must forfeit! Otherwise…"
"Get lost!" Heilong raised an eyebrow.
"What did you say?" The wizards flew into a rage.
"I said get lost! Didn't you hear me?" Heilong shot to his feet, his eyes turning blood-red.
A dark, crimson magical aura erupted violently from his body.
"There are supervisors from major schools here — how dare you…"
The other wizards clearly hadn't expected him to be so stubborn and so explosive, ready to attack at the slightest disagreement.
Boom!
Several streams of wizardry light exploded inside the room, the shockwaves rolling outward and smashing the surrounding walls to rubble.
"What's going on?" A patrol squad of wizards rushed over. They represented the authority of the organizers, backed by numerous second-rank wizards — their support was rock-solid, so they naturally held themselves straight.
The black-robed wizards exchanged glances and saw helplessness in each other's eyes. "We're in trouble."