Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Five: The Jeffery Purification Potion "Silence!"
Watching the somewhat chaotic scene,
In an instant, an enormous wave of Spiritual Power swept through the entire hall like a storm.
"This is the
Tyne pointed to a small side door.
At that moment, the scene fell into an eerie quiet.
"Very well! No one's withdrawing? Then I declare — the test begins!"
Once the timer started, the Wizards below rushed to their workstations and began processing the materials in their hands.
Leilin casually found a secluded corner. There were plenty of workstations in the hall, and no one was competing with him for one. At the moment, he even had the leisure to observe the apprentices' performance.
Since all these Wizards had chosen the Four Seasons Garden, they naturally possessed considerable expertise in Potionology. Every
"It looks like I'll have to reveal some of my true strength..."
Leilin smiled faintly, then got to work...
"Hm?"
Tyne, who was scanning the room from above, let out a sound of surprise.
"What is it?" Wade asked his companion in a low voice.
"That Wizard! The preparation technique he's using is extremely... perfect!" Tyne seemed to have searched for a long time before finding the right word from his memory.
"Look! The other Wizards may also be very skilled, but they still make mistakes. But that one's hands and movements don't have even the slightest error. His stability is like something straight out of a textbook..."
"Mm... you're right — I almost overlooked him if you hadn't mentioned it!"
Chapter: (continued) Wade watched the young man in the corner, who was concentrating intently on a piece of green plant root.
At this moment, the youth kept heating a beaker with his right hand, while the fingers of his left hand continuously emitted wisps of yellow flame that layered together, turning a vivid crimson.
"That's the Stacked Fire Method from the Black Witch Domain — an advanced skill of alchemists, and he's so proficient with it..."
Wade's face showed a look of admiration. "It seems we've found a good prospect. Let me check his name..."
With that, Wade began rifling through a stack of parchment papers, and soon found the young man's name on the very last registration form.
"Linley, is it? Hm! From Black Bone Forest Academy in the Marsh Duchy, and he's offended the local Lillitell family!"
"If that's all there is to it, we may soon be gaining a new colleague!"
Even Tyne, whose face was usually expressionless, managed to squeeze out a smile.
For Wizards of the White Witch Domain, they weren't the least bit afraid that Linley had offended people from the Black Witch Domain — after all, the two sides were hostile to each other by nature.
What they feared most was Linley offending a major local Wizard faction. That would be the truly troublesome matter.
Sometimes, in order to maintain an appearance of unity and solidarity, they had no choice but to turn away talented Wizards who were wanted by White Witch factions.
The two Wizards chatted away as though no one else was around. But the Wizards nearby who were busy preparing their potions seemed not to hear a thing, still focusing with complete dedication on completing their own concoctions.
Just then, a Wizard clad entirely in a black robe let out a cold snort. His hand trembled, and the reagent that had already turned transparent instantly became cloudy.
"You bastard. You're asking for death!"
The black-robed Wizard roared in fury, and countless black rays of light gathered in his hand as he lunged toward a female Wizard with golden hair on the other side.
"Hold it!" Wade suddenly barked, a bright light erupting from his body as the runes around the laboratory bench lit up one after another, blocking the Wizard inside.
"Sir, she—" the black-robed Wizard protested.
"I didn't see her do anything. I only saw you attempting to attack a fellow test-taker!" Wade snorted coldly. "If there's a next time, you'll be disqualified on the spot!"
The black-robed Wizard clenched his fists with what looked like extreme reluctance, and after a delay of several minutes, he finally dispersed the magical fluctuations around him with a look of bitter resentment.
"I'll kill you!"
He glared viciously at the blonde witch beside him, then picked up another set of materials and resumed brewing.
"Is this... tacit permission to act covertly?"
Lin Lei's hands didn't stop moving, but ripples of unease stirred within him.
Just moments ago, the Chip had detected a very subtle and faint wave of Spiritual Power emanating from the blonde witch, disrupting the black-robed Wizard's movements.
Potion brewing was a process that demanded extreme precision, and even the smallest mistake could lead to complete failure.
With his Spiritual Power disrupted at such a critical moment, the black-robed Wizard's potion was naturally ruined in an instant.
Although this spiritual impact was very subtle, a semi-elemental Wizard would definitely be able to sense it.
Yet these two Wizards had stopped the black-robed Wizard from retaliating.
"Does that mean the test tacitly permits covert interference, but there's a limit to how much energy can be used, and it can't be too obvious?"
Lin Lei speculated to himself.
If that were the case, the difficulty of the test had just skyrocketed. Lin Lei was genuinely shaken by just how strict and cruel the Four Seasons Garden's examination was.
"But on the other hand, the stricter the test, the greater the rewards for passing!"
He now felt a few sparks of fervent excitement.
Bang! Bang!
The earlier incident seemed to have triggered a chain reaction, as two more Wizards made mistakes while brewing their potions.
But a cold glint flashed through Lin Lei's eyes.
Through the Chip, he could clearly sense two faint traces of Spiritual Power creeping menacingly in his direction.
And their target was the nearly completed potion in his hands!
"Dragging each other down, are we?"
"Chip, activate auxiliary processing. Help me crush them!"
Leylin silently commanded. Immediately, a thread of Spiritual Power imbued with a dark aura, as fine as a strand of hair, surged forward to meet the two opposing streams.
Crack! Crack!
The instant the Spiritual Powers made contact, Leylin's energy rapidly overlapped and folded, taking the shape of a small serpent. The tiny force stacked upon itself repeatedly, and after several rotations, its power multiplied several times over in an instant!
Bang! Bang!
The two streams of opposing Spiritual Power disintegrated on the very moment they touched Leylin's.
Not only that—Leylin's Spiritual Power then surged forward along the original paths of the enemy streams, launching a fierce counterattack.
"Mm!"
"Ah!"
Two abrupt cries suddenly rang out across the hall.
The potions in the hands of the dark-robed Wizard and the blonde witch instantly crumbled to ash, and two streaks of bright blood flowed from their noses.
"Interesting! I already thought this dark-robed one's act was a bit forced. So it turns out they were accomplices?"
Leylin smirked. With his dramatic advance in the elementalization of his Spiritual Power, combined with the Chip's assistance, these two Wizards had been caught off guard and suffered a minor blow right in front of him.
The injuries caused by that Spiritual Power shockwave would likely require them to retreat and recuperate for some time before making a full recovery.
"My Lord! I forfeit!" The dark-robed man cast a terrified glance at Leylin, then immediately lowered his head, as though he dared not look at him again.
"So do I!" The blonde witch spoke up as well.
"Granted." Tyne spoke.
The two Wizards quickly bowed to Tyne and the other judge, then trotted out of the hall.
They didn't even spare a single harsh word or glare.
"Those two Wizards at least had the sense to know when to quit!"
Lei Lin, on the other hand, was quite accustomed to this.
Wizards respected strength above all else. From the brief exchange just now, he could already tell that neither of these two Wizards had exceeded 10% elementalization of their Spiritual Power — they were still very green, newly promoted Wizards.
They posed absolutely no threat to him in his current state.
Moreover, the other side understood this perfectly well, which was why they had withdrawn from the test so early. If anything, they were the ones who should have been worried about whether Lei Lin would pursue the matter further.
"Did you see that? Now that was an interesting show!"
Wade said to Tyne beside him with a smile.
"Mm, his Spiritual Power elementalization level is quite impressive. And in the area of fine manipulation, he shows truly exceptional talent!"
Tyne nodded, his expression very serious.
"I was worried before that he might be some sort of spy for another faction, but now — I doubt any organization would be willing to send someone of this caliber on an infiltration mission!"
"Is that your conclusion?" Wade blinked. This was the first time Tyne had spoken so highly of someone.
"No! It's just my speculation!" A mischievous grin spread across Tyne's usually expressionless face.
"You..."
As Tyne's colleague, Wade naturally knew that his coworker's earlier icy demeanor was all an act — in truth, the man was constantly scheming up little pranks.
And as the one who appeared to be the more normal of the two, he himself always ended up having to take the fall for Tyne.
"The Geoffrey Purification Agent! I'm finished!"
At that moment, Lei Lin smiled and raised his hand to signal.
His voice cut through the previously silent hall quite abruptly. In an instant, every Wizard in the hall cast their gazes toward Lei Lin.
In his hand, a vial emitting a milky-white glow lay resting quietly.
Wade walked up to Lei Lin, carefully stored the vial, and began recording entries on a form without pause.
"Very good! You may leave now. Come back to the reception desk at the Common Center in ten days and wait for our response!"
Wade offered Lei Lin a very warm smile.
"Thank you!"
Lei Lin smiled and bowed, then made his way out through a side door.
He understood perfectly well that the test had been passed successfully. As long as there were no issues with the subsequent identity verification, Four Seasons Garden would absolutely not refuse his admission.
Stepping outside the Common Center, he found himself in the broad passageways of the second layer of Sleepless City, where bustling streams of people flowed ceaselessly through the streets.
On the second layer, anyone who had completed their residency registration could stay long-term. Lei Lin even spotted a few ordinary people among the crowd.