"Morning Star Wizard?" Leilin looked at his teacher with confusion.
"Yes, only the powerful spiritual force of a Morning Star Wizard can sustain the enormous consumption of cross-planar travel. Moreover, many dangers of alien worlds are something ordinary wizards simply cannot handle — the Morning Star rank is the bare minimum standard!" Gilbert's expression was extremely grave.
"Given your current spiritual force, even if you drained it completely dry, with the help of magical arrays and the Astral Gate, you could at most send a few fragments of information to planes near the Wizard World — and there's no guarantee they'd be fully received..."
Gilbert shook his head.
"If you truly insist on doing this, you can assist me with projection coordinate experiments..."
Through Gilbert's subsequent explanation, Leilin learned some basic knowledge about utilizing the Astral Gate.
Experiments spanning worlds were enormous in consumption, and the items transmitted also followed certain rules. In general, spiritual force information and the like consumed the least, but once anything substantial needed to be transported, consumption would multiply. As for living beings or even wizards passing through, the energy required was truly terrifying — enough to bankrupt a Morning Star Wizard!
In truth, throughout the ancient and modern eras, Morning Star Wizards who had consumed vast resources and energy only to find a barren world with nothing to show for it were far from rare.
The Astral Gate had always been a choice where danger and opportunity coexisted!
The current Central Region wizards rarely crossed over directly. They preferred to scatter spiritual force coordinates or send magical arrays from this end.
This was much like casting bait, passively waiting for the other side to pick it up.
Though the probability was tiny — less than one in ten thousand — those spiritual force tokens drifting through spatial rifts still had some chance of being discovered by intelligent life.
After that, the goal was to deceive the other party, gather information about the alien plane, and confirm coordinates. Only when the value was confirmed to be significant would the Morning Star Wizards open a true Astral Gate, crossing over in force to seize control of the alien plane!
"How does that sound so similar to what those demons do? Some kind of sinister summoning ritual!" Leilin said with some confusion.
"That's exactly what it is! Those demons and such things come from an alien plane near our own — they like to use this method to collect souls. They just hide it well, otherwise we would have already killed our way there through the coordinates!"
A flash of killing intent appeared in Gilbert's eyes.
"Then, Master! I hope to join your Astral Gate experiments!" Leilin immediately made his request.
"Very well. When I conduct my experiments, you can serve as an assistant, observing and learning from the side!"
Gilbert looked at the determination in Leilin's gaze and nodded.
...
After leaving Gilbert's villa, Leilin was in an excellent mood. Not only had he heard numerous ancient secrets today, but he had also obtained the qualification to participate in space-time experiments.
"In the future, I will definitely establish my own Astral Gate!" Leilin resolved silently.
At the very least, that Purgatory World — he would probably have to go there at least once. The bloodline issue of the Komori Serpent still needed to be resolved there.
Of course, this was also the hope of the entire Ouroboros Circle! Leilin's teacher Gilbert and the two other Morning Star-rank warlocks were all searching for the Purgatory World's coordinates like madmen.
But unfortunately, the number of worlds and planes was as numerous as the stars in the sky. With their approach of simply trying their luck, who knew how long it would take to stumble upon the Purgatory World.
However, Leilin naturally had his own plans, and there was no need to speak of them now.
"Leilin!"
As he turned a corner, Leilin heard a voice. He stopped and saw a middle-aged wizard with golden hair approaching. But this time, the composure and authority on the other's face were gone — instead he looked flustered, his energy fluctuations seemed unstable, clearly indicating he had sustained some injury.
"What is it?" Leilin naturally had no pleasant expression for the warlock who had sheltered Joey and threatened him before.
"Don't think you can run wild just because you've found a backer, you pretty boy who leeches off women!"
Wood's face was terrible, his eyes looking as if he wanted to devour Leilin whole.
"Leech off women?" Leilin's heart jolted — a bad premonition stirring.
"Wood! Are you going to start or not!"
A female voice that made Leilin's scalp tingle came from the side. Then he saw the warlock Furi approaching, leading what appeared to be a pet — a black sheepdog.
Getting closer, Leilin was horrified to discover that the sheepdog's face bore intricate black patterns, and its eyes emitted a light of intelligence — but at this moment they showed despair and madness, along with indescribable terror.
"Transformation Spell! This is... Joey!" Wizards certainly didn't recognize people by their faces — the familiar soul fluctuations immediately let Leilin identify the true identity of the sheepdog.