"I've already heard all about the dangers of the Astral Gate from Teacher
Leilin had a smile on his lips, but his eyes were resolute.
"But if we don't communicate with other worlds and obtain their unique knowledge and resources, how can we make progress? To pursue the truth, I'm willing to give everything!"
The wizards' thirst for truth was something no other creature could match.
Upon seeing Leilin's expression,
Gilbert's underground laboratory, core area.
Circles of intricate and complex magical runes and patterns covered the surrounding walls. After just a glance, Leilin spotted several advanced sigil runes he had never seen before.
"High-grade Air Isolation Runes! And this incomplete runic pattern... I think I've seen something like it in some ancient texts from the Dark Extreme Region..." Leilin murmured in admiration while commanding the Chip to record all of these runes.
At this moment, a black luminous membrane enveloped his body like a protective suit, covering him completely without leaving any gap.
Moreover, upon entering this place, he had already undergone at least three sterilization-like procedures.
This biohazard-suit-like apparatus could effectively isolate the extraworld contamination emanating from the Astral Gate, making it essential equipment for researching the Astral Gate.
"Just from this meticulous preparation alone, you can tell how complex and terrifying the Astral Gate experiments are..."
Leilin sighed again, his eyes drifting toward the center of the laboratory.
There, a massive cluster of starlight radiated dazzling brilliance, with something faintly visible within, but even with Leilin's current eyesight, he couldn't make it out clearly.
"That's the true form of the Astral Gate. Keeping it open for a single day would bleed me dry financially..."
Leilin secretly calculated. The expenditure required for this Astral Gate was truly terrifying. Even with his wealth, the thought alone was daunting. No wonder some Morning Star Wizards had gone bankrupt from studying the Astral Gate.
"Quick! Prepare for the experiment!"
Robin, also shielded by a luminous membrane, was preparing something at an experimental bench in the corner.
In truth, their position was still some distance from the actual Astral Gate. Over there, only Gilbert was present, his eyes tightly closed as he used his Spiritual Power to probe something. Around Gilbert, a ring of golden magical symbols lay on the ground, now flashing with brilliant light.
The other students, including one elderly man who had reached Third Level crystallization power, could only obediently remain outside the runic circle, not daring to step forward.
"The Astral Gate's opening time is extremely precious. This is only the minimum duration that can accommodate spiritual-power-bearing coordinate positioning! You'll each take turns trying in a moment!"
Gilbert's voice carried over.
"Leilin, this is your first time participating in this kind of experiment. Just watch what I do first!" Robin said to Leilin beside him.
"Yes!" Leilin's eyes shone with a crystalline blue light as he stared unblinkingly at Robin's actions.
"Begin!"
Gilbert produced a golden crystal and hurled it straight into the blue flame at the very center!
Boom! The moment the golden crystal contacted the blue flame, an intense reaction erupted. Massive amounts of golden light burst outward, only to be absorbed by the blue flame.
Threads of blue energy, following specific magical circuits, spread outward and finally reached the several Third Level warlocks, forming a slightly concave mercury mirror surface with a black vortex at its center.
"This sensation! It's somewhat similar to the spatial corridor opened by the ancient Teleportation Magical Array, but the aura is far more violent and chaotic..."
Leilin continuously compared the two in his mind.
A strand of bright silver Spiritual Power emerged from Robin's forehead, rapidly taking the shape of a flower bud in the air. Magical runes flashed across its surface before it plunged into the mirror.
"This space-time positioning experiment is quite simple. We continuously throw positioning runes into the Astral Gate, hoping they'll luckily drift into some world or get picked up by some intelligent being. Generally, the odds are extremely slim—not even one success in ten thousand tries!"
"So it's just pure luck?" Leilin rolled his eyes internally, somewhat speechless. But seeing the slight pallor on Robin's face, he knew the matter wasn't nearly as simple as it sounded.
"Back then, I couldn't even use my Spiritual Power to probe the Dark Extreme Region through a Teleportation Magical Array, and now I'm supposed to use Spiritual Power to penetrate worlds! The difficulty is incomparable! Even though I've already reached Third Level, and with the assistance of a magical array, the difficulty probably hasn't decreased much..."
Pop! Suddenly, a sound like a bursting bean crackled from Robin, and he stumbled back several steps, his face deathly pale.
"Failed! My positioning Spiritual Power mark encountered spatial turbulence and has been completely annihilated!"
They were essentially sending their Spiritual Power into the gaps between worlds to drift, hoping to luckily arrive in another world.
But the gaps between worlds were also filled with dangers. Spatial turbulence and rifts were merely the most basic threats—there were even strange creatures that lived exclusively in the spatial gaps, which would not only destroy such Spiritual Power marks but might even follow the mark back and launch an attack on the wizard themselves!
That was why Gilbert needed to stand guard.
Such Spiritual Power mark destruction was extremely common. After Robin failed twice more, his face grew even paler, approaching that of a corpse.
"After this experiment, the Spiritual Power Robin has consumed will probably require several days of rest and multiple meditation sessions to recover!" Leilin thought to himself.
Like Robin, the other students in the laboratory also failed several times. Not a single one successfully found an extraworld.
But there were differences among them. Leilin noticed a female warlock with only gaseous fluctuations who, after forming five positioning marks, withdrew to rest at the side.
Robin had already reached his seventh, while the white-haired old man with the strongest aura had formed more than a dozen.
"The gap between Third Level warlocks is truly enormous!" Seeing this, Leilin sighed inwardly.
"I can't do any more! You're up!"
After failing again, Robin's face was so white that the veins beneath were visible. He quickly stepped down, and Leilin took his place.
"You understood what to do already, right? It's just a simple application of Spiritual Power—very straightforward!"
Robin stepped aside, pulled out a purple potion and swallowed it, and his complexion immediately improved considerably.
"Alright, let me try!" Leilin stepped forward eagerly. A massive amount of bright silver Spiritual Power coalesced before him into a silver-white shape resembling a plant seed.
Constructing a Spiritual Power coordinate was merely a simple application of Spiritual Power—any ordinary First Level wizard could manage it with ease.
Under Leilin's will, the silver-white seed drifted forward and touched the concave silver-white mirror surface.
Pfft! As if penetrating a film of water, the silver-white seed passed through effortlessly.
But in the next instant, Leilin's expression changed. In his perception, the connection with the coordinate was plummeting, and to maintain even that thin thread of connection, he had to expend massive amounts of Spiritual Power.
Threads of bright silver Spiritual Power dissipated ceaselessly from his sea of consciousness, and the only return was that faint, tenuous connection with the mark.
"No wonder! This experiment requires Third Level or above wizards to participate. This terrifying rate of consumption alone would turn many Second Level wizards into desiccated husks!"
Leilin sighed inwardly, and then he sensed that the Spiritual Power seed he had cast out was being tossed about like a tiny boat in a raging sea of waves, dragged along by immense forces with no ability to choose its own path.
"This really is just hitting the lottery!"
Leilin smiled bitterly in his mind. He couldn't even control the direction—what was the point? Apart from praying, there seemed to be no better option.
"Hm? Not good!"
At that very moment, two massive silver spatial waves collided with each other, and his seed happened to be caught right between them.
Leilin frantically tried to move his Spiritual Power mark, but it had no effect whatsoever. In the end, he could only watch helplessly as the two spatial tides crashed together, unleashing a massive storm that annihilated the Spiritual Power seed between them.
"Ugh!" Leilin clutched his head. The instant he lost the Spiritual Power seed, it felt as if his skull had been slashed with a knife—an excruciating pain. The Spiritual Power remaining in his sea of consciousness had dropped to roughly two-thirds.
"So if I conduct this positioning coordinate throwing experiment, I can sustain at most three attempts?"
Leilin was somewhat speechless. To improve the success rate with this lottery-like method, the only option was to increase the number of attempts. But clearly, those senior students had a greater advantage than him.
No wonder Teacher Gilbert needed so many students to help. For something like this, the more attempts made, the greater the hope—but it was never guaranteed. It seemed to be partly related to some intangible notion of fortune.
Leilin instinctively touched the leather pouch at his waist, but quickly withdrew his hand.
The Coin of Fate could only predict things below the Morning Star level. Once it involved the terrifying confrontation between worlds, even a slight backlash would likely shatter the Coin of Fate completely without yielding any result.
"You failed? That's perfectly normal! Try again!" Robin encouraged from the side.
Leilin shot him a look, then formed another Spiritual Power mark and sent it into the mirror.