Wizard: My career panel has no upper limit

Chapter 338 The Heart Seeking the Dao
Ron stared at the silvery, mirror-like surface of the star.

His mental energy, like a probe, cautiously touched its edges.

Suddenly, the mirror surface began to ripple, like lake water tossed with pebbles.

However, this fluctuation is irregular and more like the unstable operation of some ancient machine.

A chaotic and fragmented wave of consciousness emanated from it.

It is not a complete thought process, but rather fragments of memory accumulated over countless eras:

Seeking the Way... at a Price... the Truth... blood and bones...

An eternal thirst... the curse of knowledge...

Observe...Record...Witness...

These fragments of consciousness surged through Ron's mind like a tidal wave, each carrying different emotions and memories.

Some came from ancient observers, some from devoured seekers of truth, and some from souls lost in the pursuit of truth.

This so-called "Scholar Star" is actually a huge memory repository, collecting fragments of consciousness that have come into contact with it over millions of years.

And now, it is selectively pouring the key parts of these fragments onto Ron according to his own memory bank.

The first clear image appeared.

Ron finds himself in a clean laboratory.

The walls were made of pure white stone, and the air was filled with a faint scent of herbs.

This place looks more like a medical facility than a terrifying laboratory.

In the center of the room, a tall, middle-aged man was carefully examining his right arm.

He was Alexander King, the legendary figure known as the "Merciful Alchemist".

“Today is the seventy-third attempt,” Alexander said calmly to a mirror, his voice devoid of pain, only displaying the focused concentration characteristic of a scholar.

"The nerve conduction efficiency in the right arm has increased by 12%, but the activity of the muscle fibers has decreased. The potion formula needs to be adjusted."

Ron saw that Alexander's right arm skin had an unnatural translucent appearance, and pale blue liquid was flowing from the blood vessels.

Whenever he moves his fingers, the internal energy circuits can be clearly seen shimmering.

“Pain is the price of progress.” Alexander took out a syringe filled with green liquid and, without hesitation, plunged it into his carotid artery.
"What does personal suffering matter as long as the feasibility of this path can be proven?"

After the injection, Alexander's entire head began to change.

The skin gradually becomes transparent, and the brain inside the skull becomes clearly visible.

Even more terrifying, certain areas of the brain were replaced by miniature alchemical devices, with those metal tentacles digging deep into the brain tissue like parasites.

Upon seeing this, Ron felt an instinctive sense of nausea and fear.

That is the instinctive reaction of humans to the distortion of their own body, a protective mechanism engraved deep in their genes.

But he forced himself to continue observing, striving to analyze the principles behind this transformation from an academic perspective:

"The mechanization of the nervous system... such precision was an unprecedented breakthrough at the time. Although the cost was heavy, the level of technology was truly astonishing."

The scene shifts, time flies, and we arrive at the same laboratory hundreds of years later.

At this point, Alexander was no longer recognizable as his original human form.

His entire body became translucent, and his internal organs were replaced by various complex alchemical devices.

The most terrifying thing is that he remained completely conscious.

"It's a success...it's really a success..." His voice had transformed into a strange tone, a mixture of mechanical and biological sounds.

"I am now a living alchemy factory... capable of directly synthesizing any potion I have mastered... as well as various enchantments and alchemical creations. This is the ultimate form of alchemy..."

Ron noticed that although Alexander was cheering for his "success," his eyes had completely lost the emotional spark that a human being should have.

That empty gaze was like some kind of highly complex machine simulating human reactions.

"Judging solely from the results, it was indeed a success, but from Alexander's individual perspective, it was a complete failure," Ron thought to himself.

"However, this self-modification technology is indeed worth studying. If the degree of modification can be controlled to avoid completely losing humanity..."

The memory fragments shifted again, and this time the scene dealt an even greater blow to Ron's psychological defenses.

He arrived at Lance Hewitt's private laboratory.

Contrary to what is described in history books, the environment here is not dark and terrifying, but rather orderly.

Exquisite artworks hung on the walls, fresh flowers were placed on the desk, and even soothing music was playing softly.

But this warm and cozy environment only made what happened next seem even more chilling.

Lance is talking to a boy who is about ten years old.

The child had wet, curly hair and scales and fins on its body, and seemed to be a hybrid sea monster.

His large blue eyes were filled with trust in this "uncle".

"Tell your uncle what your dream is?" Lance squatted down, his voice full of sincere concern.

"I want to become a sorcerer like my father, to protect our city and drive away those abyssal monsters."

The boy answered innocently, his eyes sparkling with pure joy.

"What a beautiful dream." Lance gently stroked the child's hair.
"You will contribute to helping more children like you realize this dream, and your peaceful sleep will save countless lives, making you a true hero."

What happened next gave Ron a strong mental shock.

Lance led the siren boy, who trusted him completely, to the operating table by the hand.

After completely immobilizing him using anesthetic runes, he began what he called "life research."

Throughout the entire process, Lance maintained a gentle smile, constantly comforting the terrified boy.

"Don't be afraid, this is just a short process."

You will soon enter eternal sleep, where there is no pain, no fear, only endless peace.

Even more appalling, in addition to those bloodline fusion experiments, Lance would also meticulously record every reaction of the other party during the experiment.

This includes the degree of fear, the manifestation of pain, and the entire process of loss of consciousness.

It's as if he's engaged in some kind of morbid artistic creation, pursuing a distorted kind of perfection.

Ron felt a wave of intense nausea wash over him.

As a modern person, he could not understand this indifference to innocent lives.

However, he also noticed the ingenuity of Lance's experimental techniques.

That precise control over the flow of life energy and the deep understanding of organ function truly represented the highest level of bloodline science at that time.

"Don't let emotions cloud your judgment." Ron forced himself to calm down.
"I need to learn the technical principles from it, rather than getting bogged down in moral judgments."

History has already happened; all I can do is ensure that this knowledge is used in the right direction.

The fragments of memory continue to circulate, but the content becomes increasingly dark and distorted.

Elena Moonshine's emotional treasure trove was revealed to Ron.

It was a magnificent underground palace with a dome tens of meters high and countless transparent containers embedded in the surrounding walls.

Each container holds extracted, purified emotions, where abstract concepts are transformed into tangible entities.

Love manifests as a pink sphere of light, gently pulsating within the container;
Hatred was a swirling black mist, constantly crashing against the container walls;
Fear was like silver snakes, writhing wildly in the liquid.

What chilled him to the bone was that these emotions still retained some of the original owner's consciousness.

Ron could hear them crying, pleading, and cursing:
"Please... let me go back to my child... I want to feel his love again..."

"I want revenge! I want to kill that witch! She stole my anger, and now I can't even hate her!"

“Fear…fear is everywhere…I no longer know what safety feels like…”

Elena stood in the center of these containers of pain, a look of ecstasy on her face.

She gently stroked each container, as if admiring her art collection:

"What pure emotions...what perfect extraction...each one is the essence of the human soul..."

She turned to a container filled with a deep blue liquid, which represented a mother's love for her child:

"This maternal love is so intense, so selfless... I want to turn it into the most perfect medicine so that those who have lost their loved ones can feel the warmth of being loved again."

But what Elena didn't realize was that her "charitable" actions were based on the complete plunder of the original owner.

After losing the ability to love, that mother became an emotionally cold, empty shell.

Ron had completely adopted an observer's perspective, silently watching everything unfold.

If Lance's cruelty stems from a certain twisted logic...

Elena's behavior, then, was nothing short of madness built on self-deception.

She thought she was doing good, but in reality she was creating more suffering.

Ron has become accustomed to detaching himself and analyzing from a purely technical perspective:
"The materialization of emotions... if this technology can be improved, it may be used to treat psychological trauma."

For example, extracting the patient's fears and pain without harming other emotions...

The contents of the memory fragments became increasingly insane. Ron witnessed Eggles Lakor's descent into depravity during his quest for the Philosopher's Stone.

This once-respected great wizard, in order to obtain eternal life, built a factory specifically for collecting "pure souls".

Tens of thousands of young children from different races were imprisoned in cramped cells.

Their innocence and hope were gradually extracted and used to refine that legendary stone.

The most terrifying thing is that the children must remain conscious during the extraction process.

Because only the innocence of a conscious state possesses sufficient vitality.

Even more appalling is Damian Pucci's laboratory.

This mad alchemist pushed the modification of living organisms to its extreme.

His laboratory was like some kind of surreal nightmare:

Some of the experimental subjects were modified into living organ culture dishes.
Their abdominal cavities were emptied and various rare organs were implanted inside, but their brains remained clear, and they endured unimaginable pain day and night.
Some were fused together into multi-headed monsters, with the heads of three or four people forcibly spliced ​​onto one body.

Their consciousnesses were in conflict, and they were constantly torn apart mentally.

Some were even made into tools that possessed partial consciousness.
For example, a talking table, a thinking chair, a weapon with human memories...

As Ron comes into contact with these increasingly dark memories, he feels his mental defenses being subjected to unprecedented attacks.

The screams of the victims echoed in his ears, and the distorted images flashed repeatedly before his eyes.

His empathy was protesting vehemently, demanding that he stop this "learning".

But at the same time, reason also reminded him that this knowledge did indeed contain extremely valuable information.

"I am neither a judge nor a savior," Ron repeatedly reminded himself.

"I cannot change the past, but I can make sure that the knowledge I have learned can be used for a clearer and brighter purpose."

As this psychological adjustment progressed, Ron found that his emotional reactions were gradually diminishing.

Faced with those horrific scenes, he no longer felt excessive disgust and anger, and began to observe with a more objective and calm attitude.

This change worried him somewhat.

Am I losing the empathy that we, as human beings, should have?

But reason told him that it was necessary to restrain such emotions.

If one is swayed by emotions every time they encounter this kind of knowledge, they will be unable to learn truly effectively.

A true seeker of the truth must be able to transcend personal feelings and preferences and approach all knowledge with a purely objective attitude.

The last memory fragment is about an ancient alchemist named Victor Asmodeus.

In his pursuit of "perfect artificial life," this person created an artificial being capable of mimicking the characteristics of any living organism.

To test the realism of these artificial beings, Victor designed extremely cruel experiments:
He would have the artificial body absorb an individual, and then have it have various intimate contacts with the individual's relatives or loved ones, observing whether the experimenter could detect any differences.

The subjects of the experiment included various human emotions such as family affection, friendship, and love.

He meticulously recorded the despair and pain of real people when they discovered the truth, treating it as "data".

Most appallingly, Victor would even have the artificial body marry and have children with a real person.

Then, when the children are adults, they are told that their "father" or "mother" was just an artificial creation.

Finally, let the artifact destroy itself in front of the child.

Such psychological trauma often completely destroys a person's mental world.

Faced with this madness, Ron's heart had become unusually calm.

In his view, these are just data points, samples used to understand the development trajectory of ancient alchemy.

"Testing the authenticity of artificial life...this idea does have its value."

If we can improve the experimental methods, we can obtain enough data without using real people..."

[Advanced Potions (Mastery) Experience +1]

[Material Transmutation (Proficient) Experience Points +1]

[Bonus: Magic (Proficient) Experience Points +1]

Bloodline Shaping (Proficient) Experience Points +1

……

Almost all skills related to the Triad Wizarding Arts are slowly gaining experience points.

These improvements undoubtedly tell Ron that his perseverance in the mental trials has yielded fruitful results.

After all the memory fragments finished playing, chaotic fluctuations once again emanated from the scholar Xing's shattered consciousness:
Observation complete... Record updated... New observer confirmed...

Calm... rational... transcending constraints... meeting standards...

With these fragmented pieces of consciousness, Scholar Star suddenly burst forth with a dazzling silvery-white light.

The light surged into Ron's consciousness like a tide, bringing with it an unprecedented ability to integrate knowledge.

He felt as if his brain had undergone a qualitative upgrade, with a huge improvement in his thinking speed and logical ability.

[The Scholar Star has been activated, gaining the additional trait: Heart of Seeking the Way]

The Heart Seeking the Way:
1. Improved learning speed
2. Knowledge integration ability significantly enhanced
3. Expansion of Consciousness Space Capacity
4. Can quickly grasp the basic theories of related fields.

[The Hermit Star and the Scholar Star resonate, the Intellectual Constellation is 66% activated]

[The Observer Star still needs to be lit before the Intelligence Constellation can be fully activated]

Following this, breakthroughs in astrology also occurred:

[Astrology (Beginner) Experience Points +1]

[Breakthrough! Astrology (Beginner 50/50) → Astrology (Proficient 1/100)]

[Gain the additional trait "Premonition Star"]

[Predictive Star: Ability to predict the future by observing changes in celestial phenomena; the accuracy of the prediction is related to the practitioner's level of astrological skill]

When Ron opened his eyes, he found that his perception of the world had been fundamentally changed.

The stars in the sky are no longer just static points of light, but have become active sources of information, constantly conveying subtle hints about the future.

The various changes that are about to happen and are related to oneself are like comets gradually brightening in the night sky.

Although he cannot make specific predictions at present, he can clearly sense a keen intuition for danger and opportunity.

The most noticeable recent development is the awakening of Dale.

"Her transformation will be complete within two weeks," he made an accurate judgment in his mind.

In addition, the lighting of the two stars also brought new inspiration.

Through the resonance between the Hermit Star and the Scholar Star, he gradually gained some insight into his original rune construction.

That's not a simple energy channeling, but a means of enhancing consciousness.

With the help of the "Seeking the Way," Ron began to think about how to transform it into practical runic technology.

The complete design concept for the "Star Rune" gradually took shape in his mind:

"If we can solidify the properties of stars through runes, others can also temporarily gain this enhanced ability."

He began to conceive of the specific rune structure in his mind:

Hermit Star Rune – predominantly deep purple.

The core design is a vertical pupil surrounded by mist and intricate geometric patterns, which can temporarily enhance the user's perception and intuitive judgment.

Scholar Star Rune – predominantly silver-white.

At its core is a complex structure interwoven with pages and star patterns, which can temporarily enhance learning efficiency and comprehension.

Ron was excited about the potential applications of this technology.

Imagine his students using this rune.

How will Liss's potion-making talent be enhanced?
How high will Hermann's theoretical derivation ability reach?
Of course, this is just a preliminary concept.

True rune creation requires extensive experimentation and debugging, and also needs to consider the adaptability of different individuals.

But at least, this technological path has opened its doors to him.

Ailan noticed the change in his demeanor; her emerald green figure swayed gently in the moonlight.
“Master, your mental fluctuations... feel completely different from before.”

“Indeed, I’ve gained some…new perspectives,” Ron replied briefly, without revealing any specifics.

He could keep those bloody experimental records from ancient alchemists buried in his heart.

After packing up his astrology equipment, Ron returned to the workshop to continue handling other matters.

Tomorrow, he will begin preparing for his return to the abyss observation station.

This includes the condensation and organization of the mobile workshop, as well as the final confirmation of course adjustments.

(End of this chapter)