Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

With that, Barossa snorted and flew right past Hughes, heading straight for the Spire of Ten Thousand Edges.

"Whoosh—!"

"..."

In the air, Hughes watched the rapidly departing dark figure, a cold glint flashing in his eyes.

He didn't set off immediately. Instead, he looked down at the blood energy remaining on his left hand, and then looked up at the sky, which was now a mess because it had become a battlefield.

"Buzz—"

A moment later, a flash of silver light appeared, and his figure vanished from the spot.

The residence of Wiesholm.

"Buzz—"

Inside the basement, a flash of silver light suddenly appeared at the teleportation point, and then Hughes's figure appeared from it.

He did not choose to return to the academy, since the ball of blood energy in his hand would definitely trigger the academy's alarm, so he had to deal with it first.

Then, Hughes went to the element processing device he had just purchased and slowly placed his left hand into the device...

"..."

Meanwhile, in the spire of Valerius

At the top of the spire, Valerius stood before the crystal window, gazing silently at the scenery outside the academy.

"Whoosh..."

Suddenly, a dark shadow appeared behind him, and when the shadow dissipated, Barossa's figure was clearly revealed.

"Lord Valerius."

Barossa said respectfully, with a hint of fear in his eyes.

"..."

As soon as he finished speaking, a moment of deathly silence fell over the surroundings.

A few seconds later, Valerius slowly closed his eyes and then spoke:

"I saw the battle just now..."

His tone was low and unreadable, as if he were stating something very ordinary.

"You've lost."

Upon hearing this, a look of surprise flashed across Barossa's face.

"No, no! Lord Valerius."

He stood up, and his speech became a little more hurried.

"Hughes and I didn't reach a decisive victory, but I was clearly holding back. After all, this is near the Myriad Peaks Spire, and if the blood energy is too..."

Before he could finish speaking, Barossa's face suddenly froze.

"Ugh... Ugh!!"

The next moment, his face changed drastically, and he immediately knelt down, vomiting a large amount of blood.

"Splash, splash..."

Blood gushed out in large quantities, quickly soaking a large area of ​​the floor and even spreading to Valerius's feet.

Moreover, the surface of this pool of blood was also surrounded by wisps of scarlet blood energy, making it look extremely eerie.

At the same time, as the blood energy in his body continued to drain away, Barossa's body also began to change.

"Buzz..."

The next second, crimson blood began to flow from his five orifices and gradually covered his face.

Blood completely covered his face, and even seemed to writhe on his face as if it were alive.

"Waaaaah..."

After a few sobs, the blood slowly receded, but what was revealed was no longer Barossa's aloof face, but a standard male vampire's face.

This is clearly what Aldec looks like in real life.

His skin was very pale, and his scarlet eyes were filled with a sense of bewilderment.

Two tiny, sharp teeth peeked out from his upper lip, prompting him to instinctively stick out the tip of his tongue and lick them lightly.

"I'm back to normal!"

Aldek, realizing what was happening, immediately let out a cry of surprise, but what followed was not joy, but a deep sense of panic.

"Lord Valerius... why... why did you suddenly remove my disguise?"

His ability to perfectly impersonate Barossa is certainly not simply due to the [Disguise] technique of the Illusionist faction.

The other person's personality, memories, the aura of the symbolic blood, and even the fluctuations of their soul are all indispensable.

This involves a series of complex procedures, and Bevik even personally participated in them.

Therefore, his disguise has been destroyed, and without Bevik's help, he will not be able to disguise himself again in a short period of time.

Meanwhile, Valerius slowly turned around.

When he opened his eyes again, his pupils had turned a striking crimson.

"No winner? No... hehehe."

He chuckled softly, his tone full of disdain.

"You lost, and you lost badly, Aldec."

Upon hearing this, Aldek was immediately horrified and exclaimed:

"What?! How is that possible?"

At that time, the two forces were evenly matched. One's blood energy could erode the opponent's frost, while the opponent's frost could also freeze one's blood energy.

Therefore, even if one's body is covered in frostbite, it cannot be considered a defeat, let alone a complete one.

On the other side, Valerius stepped forward slowly, a faint mockery on his face.

"Putting aside the fact that from beginning to end, Hughes never used another school of witchcraft that he was good at—spatial witchcraft."

He looked at Barossa's still-healing frostbite and a hint of disgust flashed across his face.

"He probably only used less than half of his own magic power, and as for his mental strength... he's even suppressing it while fighting you."

"What?!"

Upon hearing this, Aldek was deeply shocked, his face filled with disbelief.

He did hold back, but that only means he didn't use stronger blood magic and released the modified blood energy too late.

But in the end, his own magic power was almost completely exhausted, with less than 10% remaining.

During battle, the mana pool system's recovery function is pushed to its limit.

But to his utter surprise, Hughes had been deliberately holding back from beginning to end, even suppressing his own "stats" while fighting him.

Thinking of this, Aldek's eyes shifted.

At this moment, even he himself suddenly realized that a trace of unconcealable fear had quietly mixed into his jealousy and hatred for Hughes.

"Damn it... that guy was playing me."

On the other side, Valerius clearly noticed a flash of fear in Aldek's eyes, and his disappointment deepened.

"I originally just wanted you to test Hughes, to see if he was worthy of being 'her' servant."

As he spoke, he suddenly flashed and instantly appeared in front of Aldek.

"But unexpectedly, I discovered another problem, an even more serious one!"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Aldek lowered his head in silence, his previous dissolute demeanor completely gone.

Although Valerius didn't finish his sentence, he knew what the other person wanted to say: that he was too weak.

Although Hughes later became "her" servant, his strength must have been much greater than that of an ordinary wizard.

But if he couldn't even match a wizard from a declining family, how could he possibly contend with the younger generation of the Five Rings family?

Not to mention the wars that followed.