Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

"I'm sorry for dissecting Zoroark's heart..."

Hughes smiled faintly, seemingly unaware of the increasingly heavy heat emanating from his body.

"But I think... uh... I've discovered something interesting."

"Clang—"

With that, Hughes loosened his grip, and the crystal ball in his hand fell to the ground, slowly rolling towards the edge of the platform.

"Gurgle gurgle..."

But the crystal ball suddenly stopped, then flew into the air and headed towards Datan.

"Whoosh...whoosh!"

"Click—"

The crystal ball shattered instantly the next second. This was not intentional on Datta's part, but rather because the immense mental power he possessed far exceeded the crystal ball's limits.

Fortunately, the contents recorded inside the crystal ball were still transmitted into his mind through this wisp of spiritual energy.

"..."

Datan remained silent for a moment, seemingly reviewing the contents.

——!

Soon after, his eyes suddenly narrowed, and he abruptly raised his hand.

"Ugh—!"

The next moment, Hughes's feet suddenly left the ground, as if he had been firmly held up by the other party's mental power.

"You're quite brave..."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Datan reached out and pushed something out of thin air.

Immediately afterwards, Hughes' body moved backward, directly detaching from the floating platform.

"Gulp, gulp..."

At this moment, beneath his feet was scalding lava, from which billowing black smoke was constantly rising.

His body was firmly imprisoned here, and he could not move anywhere except his mouth.

But this is not some kind of spatial means, but simply, spiritual power that has been completely solidified.

"How did you find out?"

Datan stopped moving at this point, but a hint of anger flashed in his eyes.

The contents of this document are the greatest secret that the Heruno family has kept hidden for thousands of years: the true secret of the Heart of Lava.

Deceiving the resources of the Golden Ring Crown is a capital offense.

If this secret were discovered by the Golden Ring Crown, the Heruno family would most likely be completely wiped out.

Thinking of this, he immediately used his mental power to grab Hughes by the neck, making it difficult for him to breathe, and even his speech became intermittent and halting.

"It's what I just mentioned... dissecting Zoroark's heart..."

After being choked, a struggle flashed in Hughes' eyes, but he quickly calmed down.

Just as he had suspected, the Heart of Lava of the Heruno family was a complete hoax from beginning to end.

This sorcery can indeed temporarily lavaize their hearts, and subsequently activate special states such as the Lava Body.

While not as powerful as true elemental bodies, they still significantly enhance their elemental resistance and elemental repair capabilities.

But that's all.

As for the so-called ability to "continuously transform into magma", it actually relies on another method, namely the element conversion device.

Every newborn member of the Herunor family is sent to a specific place during infancy to live for a period of time.

This place was enveloped by a large element processing device.

The element processor can precisely operate according to the "laws" of various attribute transformations, so this place is always filled with the "laws" of the fire element.

At the same time, a miniature witchcraft device was implanted in the hearts of these newborns. The device had only one function: to receive the "laws" of the outside world.

During this period, the witchcraft tools receive "patterns" and continuously affect their hearts.

Over time, their hearts became a system that continuously operated according to the laws of fire element transformation.

Simply pour magic into it, and without any control, the heart will automatically convert the magic into magma.

And because the Lava Heart can temporarily molten the heart, the magma produced in the heart cannot harm them, but can be used by them instead.

Thus, it became the family's sorcery, which was publicly known as "Heart of Lava".

Of course, everything comes at a price.

One of the problems is the extremely high mortality rate, with up to 60% of newborns dying painfully during this period because they cannot withstand the influence of the "regularity".

Secondly, it is uncontrollable.

The heart constantly operates according to the "law" of fire element transformation, but they cannot stop it.

This also means that once their hearts come into contact with magic, they will automatically turn it into magma.

Therefore, unless the Lava Heart is kept active, their hearts will be burned through by the lava.

This means that before becoming a wizard apprentice, they must undergo a small-scale biological modification to isolate their hearts so that they do not automatically absorb free magic from the outside world.

However, the most serious consequence is the loss of lifespan.

Since the heart is constantly working at high speed, members of the Heruno family generally only live to be sixty or seventy years old, as long as they are still in the apprenticeship stage.

Only by becoming a formal wizard and undergoing a physical transformation can this problem be barely resolved.

Even so, the average lifespan of formal wizards is still far lower than that of normal wizards...

At the same time, Datan's face darkened abruptly upon hearing that Hughes had dissected the hearts of his own family members.

Such blasphemous behavior made him immediately prepare to kill the other party.

But just as he raised his hand, Hughes suddenly spoke up:

"Lord Datan, I'm sure you're aware of the relationship between Barossa and Lord Valerenga."

As soon as he finished speaking, Datan's raised hand suddenly stopped.

Seeing this, Hughes knew he had made the right bet, and immediately spoke up:

"Given my relationship with Barossa, I'm sure you wouldn't think I couldn't get in touch with Lord Valerius."

"Are you trying to threaten me?"

Upon hearing this, Datan scoffed:

"Heh, now your life is in my hands. I can easily extract your ant-like soul and use it..."

"I... have already placed the same crystal ball somewhere, as well as... those two hearts that I studied."

Hughes clenched his teeth, completely ignoring the barely concealed anger emanating from the second-level wizard opposite him.

"If I die now, or if my consciousness is invaded, these things will immediately appear, and Lord Valerius will immediately know the truth... know that the Herunor family lied..."

"That's enough!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Hughes's suspended body swayed violently and was pulled back onto the platform.

"Thump—!"

"..."

Across from him, Datan ignored Hughes, turned around, and gently closed his eyes as if lost in thought.

The two remained silent, locked in a stalemate on the platform for several hours.

"So..."

After a long while, Datan turned around, and the murderous intent in his eyes had noticeably faded a little.

Clearly, faced with evidence that could bring down the entire family, he ultimately chose to back down.