The headquarters of the Alliance of Nature.
The headquarters had already been renovated. Fallen buildings were rebuilt, wizard arrays were rearranged, and even the apprentices who had perished in battle had been collected and buried.
Inside several of the buildings, subtle yet powerful energy fluctuations — like stars encircling the moon — clustered tightly around a central laboratory.
Whether it was the original apprentices of the Alliance of Nature or the newly joined wizards, when they passed by this area, they would always unconsciously soften their footsteps, showing an attitude of respect.
Inside the central laboratory.
Leilin stood beside an experimental table, gazing at several items on its silver surface, lost in thought.
These dozen or so items were quite small — green leaves, red earrings, a short brown staff, and even the black crystal that Shigeli had previously offered to Leilin was among them.
The silver surface of the experimental table was made from a special alloy — not only incredibly hard, but also highly resistant to damage from certain types of wizard experiments. As a result, it was widely used for such purposes.
At this moment, the crystalline, gleaming metal surface faintly reflected Leilin's shifting expression.
These items were, of course, all advanced Meditation Methods that Leilin had seized by force.
Although the Dark Poles Region had relatively well-preserved the inheritance of the ancient wizards, advanced Meditation Methods were far from commonplace. Some minor schools possessed only simplified versions adapted from incomplete advanced Meditation Methods — essentially beneath Leilin's notice.
A few other schools had Meditation Methods similar to the Misty Forest's advanced Meditation Methods, but with only the first one or two layers. Even after slight modifications, Leilin was able to identify them immediately.
These schools had likely originally split off from the Misty Forest's wizard schools.
This was actually not uncommon. Wizards splitting apart due to differing philosophies was an extremely normal occurrence in the Dark Poles Region. Moreover, the splinter schools could maintain relatively cordial relationships with their original institutions, forming something like branch divisions.
Therefore, although on the surface he had destroyed more than a dozen schools, what Leilin had actually managed to collect amounted to only six advanced Meditation Methods.
Of course, this rate of availability was still incomparably higher than on the South Coast, but Leilin's mood remained somewhat poor.
Because among these six advanced Meditation Methods, a full five were incomplete!
This could no longer be explained by wartime destruction alone. It was only through later examining the documents of these schools that Leilin found a more reasonable explanation.
In ancient times, the inheritance of advanced Meditation Methods was not granted all at once.
Instead, only one or two layers were transmitted at a time. After the wizards fully mastered them, the next layers would be passed down gradually.
This was partly to ensure the secrecy of high-level inheritance, and partly to prevent these wizards from being too eager for quick results.
But after all those ancient wizards perished in the Final War, a major problem emerged — there was a gap in the Meditation Method inheritance! Those high-level wizards had perished one after another before they could pass down the subsequent layers, leaving the wizards of the Dark Poles Region with no path forward!
And the Morning Star threshold was the minimum requirement for participating in the Final War. Therefore, the advanced Meditation Methods of the Dark Poles Region typically consisted of only two or three layers, missing the most critical later portions.
In ancient times, second-level and third-level wizards were considered to have just completed their apprenticeship, so they naturally did not have to participate in the great war. As a result, they survived and passed down their Meditation Methods.
But there were also some surprises.
Leilin reached out and picked up a piece of white bone from the experimental table.
This was actually also a tool for storing information, just with a rather unusual shape. The moment Leilin connected his Spiritual Power to it, a set of advanced Meditation Method data materialized.
At the beginning of the Meditation Method, an archaic layer of characters appeared, carrying a desolate and ancient aura, with what sounded faintly like a dragon's roar within.
"Dragon King Divine Power! A high-level Meditation Method exclusive to Dragon Wizards, divided into four layers: Young Dragon! Wyrm! Great Wyrm! Ancient Dragon!"
Leilin slowly read through the contents of this advanced Meditation Method.
In ancient times, "wizard" was merely a common title for the powerful. Whether it was other races, humans, or even high-energy creatures — as long as they could awaken intelligence, possess strength, and pursue truth, they could all be called wizards!
And this Dragon King Divine Power was clearly an advanced Meditation Method designed for the Dragon race to cultivate!
"According to the Chip's calculations, as well as some examples revealed within Dragon King Divine Power itself, if a Dragon race creature cultivates this advanced Meditation Method, it would have the effect of accelerating the Dragon's growth. Their growth and development would be roughly twice as fast as their kin, allowing them to enter the adult stage much earlier..."
Leilin slowly stroked the piece of white bone.
This Dragon King Divine Power had been part of the Misty Forest's collection, but unfortunately, for the Misty Forest — composed entirely of humans — it was completely useless.
Because this was fundamentally an advanced Meditation Method for another race, entirely unsuitable for the human body. Even those warlocks who possessed dragon bloodlines could not practice it!
But after Leilin discovered this Dragon King Divine Power, he considered it an extraordinary treasure.
Although he himself could not cultivate it either, within this advanced Meditation Method, he faintly glimpsed clues related to bloodline power.
Just like the Comorin's Eye, Dragon King Divine Power was a Meditation Method with very strict bloodline requirements — even stricter than those of Comorin's Eye.
This would be of tremendous help to him in refining and completing the subsequent layers of the Comorin's Eye Meditation Method.
He already had three layers of Comorin's Eye! But it lacked the most critical description of the fourth layer — the Morning Star realm. And Dragon King Divine Power happened to be able to fill this gap for him.
Moreover, the other several advanced Meditation Methods each had their own unique aspects, and could be used to enrich the Chip's database.
Regardless, even if they differed in many ways, being advanced Meditation Methods of the same tier, they would inevitably share certain similarities — and these were precisely what Leilin could use to perfect both the Comorin's Eye and the Sacred Light Candle Flame!
"However, even this Dragon King Divine Power is also missing the later layers!"
Leilin felt a slight sense of regret.
Beyond the four layers of Dragon King Divine Power, he could clearly sense that there was more left unsaid.
"In ancient legends, beyond the Ancient Dragon level lies the Primordial Dragon! A supreme being that could rival a fifth-level Great
Leilin then read the description of the fourth layer of Dragon King Divine Power: "The Morning Star realm for humans corresponds to what we Dragons call the Ancient Dragon stage. At this level, the power of the Domain has penetrated deep into our bones, and Dragon Might has been developed to its fullest extent. Furthermore, all of our Spiritual Power, mana, physical strength, and even bloodline will be compressed under the influence of natural laws into a single 'singularity.' This singularity is called 'Morning Star' by humans, while we call it 'Dragon Crystal'..."
"So the Morning Star realm is the culmination of every path a wizard can walk. Any creature of the wizarding world reaches the same state at this level. And this 'singularity,' which has compressed millions of times the quality, will obviously bring about a qualitative leap in power. That is why the gap between a Morning Star wizard and a third-level wizard is vaster than the distance between heaven and earth..."
Leilin was gradually beginning to understand.
And within his mind, the Chip was still continuously recording the contents of the advanced Meditation Methods, enriching its database.
After an indeterminate amount of time, the Chip's notification appeared directly in Leilin's consciousness: "Ding! Six advanced Meditation Methods have been archived: Dragon King Divine Power, Abyssal Breath… Meditation Method database completeness: 14.7%. Commencing simulation of wizard power tiers…"
Subsequently, the wizard power hierarchy chart in Leilin's database underwent another transformation.
Above the original first-level and second-level wizard entries, data for third-level wizards was being continuously generated. This was the Chip's most accurate assessment, derived from simulating and extrapolating across the numerous advanced Meditation Methods.
"Ding! Promotion criteria for third-level wizard: Spiritual Power reaching the critical threshold of 200, materialization at 100%, combined with Wisdom Ancient Tree essence for breakthrough attempt. Probability of successful promotion to third-level wizard: 46.9%"
"I'm a warlock — I also need to account for bloodline requirements. But my bloodline comes directly from a Comorin Giant Serpent at the fourth-level Morning Star stage, which fully meets the criteria. It would even provide a boost when my level is still low!"
"And nearly fifty percent chance — that's not low at all! No wonder Eilist was willing to act, even to the point of betrayal!"
Leilin stroked his chin.
The conditions calculated by the Chip were based on the most ordinary wizards who practiced advanced Meditation Methods. He himself was obviously not included in that template.
"Chip! If my model is used as the baseline, what is the probability of successfully promoting to third-level warlock?" Leilin asked silently.
Immediately, a three-dimensional holographic simulation vaguely resembling Leilin's appearance was projected before him, with vast streams of data flowing across it.
"Subject's probability of promoting to third-level warlock: 61.72%!"
This figure included the bloodline bonus from the Comorin Giant Serpent. After all, it was a creature that reached the Morning Star stage in its adult form, and it still provided a certain lifting force for breakthroughs at the second level.
"So it seems that my breakthrough shouldn't be the problem — the key is still in the accumulation of Spiritual Power!"
Leilin suddenly sighed, looking at his own data.
"Leilin Farell · Warlock, Second Rank · Bloodline: Comorin Giant Serpent · Strength: 21.1 · Agility: 14.4 · Constitution: 27.9 · Spiritual Power: 104.3 · Mana: 104 (Mana is determined by Spiritual Power synchronization)"
His Sea of Consciousness had only recently healed. During the period of Spiritual Power solidification, let alone making progress — being able to maintain his current level of strength was already incredibly fortunate.
It was precisely because of this that his Spiritual Power data hadn't increased in a long time.
But now that his Sea of Consciousness was fully repaired, his Spiritual Power could begin rising once more.
Leilin couldn't help but ask: "Chip, at my current rate of progress, how long will it take to reach the promotion threshold?"
After a few minutes, the Chip provided its answer: "Estimated time for the subject to reach the critical threshold: 200 years, 12 months, and 13 hours!"
"That long?!" Leilin's eyes bulged.
Although his lifespan had already been extended by advancing to become a bloodline warlock, and after reaching the second level he could potentially live for over five hundred years — but two hundred years was still an incredibly long time!