Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

Dargo stood quietly in place, observing the carnival called "Selection" with a cold eye.

He waited for a long time.

As the guiding wizards from the three major schools gradually led their chosen geniuses and disappeared into the sky in streaks of light, only his solitary figure remained on the vast surface of the Spirit Mirror Lake.

Finally, a gaunt old man flew out from the Deep Sea faction's camp.

The old man had a sharp nose like an eagle's beak, and his eyes were as cold as if he were looking at a stone.

He didn't even bother to say anything, just waved perfunctorily to Dago, signaling him to follow.

Without any hesitation, Dago followed steadily.

The old man led Dago and slowly descended onto the smooth, mirror-like surface of the Spirit Mirror Lake.

He raised his unusually long, sickly gray-white fingernails and casually swiped them across the surface of the lake.

"Sizzle—"

A sound like a sharp blade cutting through leather rang out.

The bottomless lake water was violently pushed apart to both sides by an invisible force, revealing an oval-shaped water curtain hole that was about the height of a person.

The old man darted away like a slippery eel, disappearing directly into the hole.

Dago stopped in front of the cave entrance.

Before stepping into the unknown, he seemed to sense something and turned to look back at the sky.

He saw that the noisy lights above Lingjing Lake had all subsided.

Meanwhile, the three gray-robed figures, who held a transcendent status and were like gods, lowered themselves and walked towards Juventus, who were sitting on the throne.

The world over there was radiant with light, while he was merely a pawn on the verge of being swallowed by the dark depths of the ocean.

Dago withdrew his gaze and stepped into the hole in the Spirit Mirror Lake without hesitation.

Upon entering, a set of steps made of some kind of black gel appeared before us. Surprisingly, these steps extended diagonally upwards.

Ascending the black steps, the surrounding walls are all made of thick, translucent crystal.

Beyond the crystal wall lies the true underwater world of the lake.

The icy, bone-chilling water shimmered with a hazy, eerie blue light. Some strange, deep-sea creatures, resembling fish but not quite, with menacing teeth, swam back and forth along the crystal walls, their greedy eyes fixed on the people inside the passage.

Dago followed silently, feeling as if he were traversing the esophagus of a treacherous deep-sea monster.

"Does this mean I've been officially accepted into the Spirit Mirror Lake sect?"

As Dago pondered to himself, his gaze naturally fell on the old man's back in front of him.

The old man's back was hunched high, and beneath his wide robes, it looked as if a huge tumor was hidden, or perhaps he was carrying some kind of heavy living thing.

And between the skin and flesh of the back of his neck, several crystal-clear thin tubes were actually embedded.

A ghastly green liquid flowed from those thin tubes, rising and falling eerily between the skin and flesh with the old man's heavy footsteps.

Without warning, the old man suddenly stopped moving.

He stood a few steps higher, slowly turned around, and looked down at D'Ago.

It was only at this moment that Dago realized with a start that one of the old man's eyes was actually fake.

His deep-set left eye socket contained no eyeball, but rather a horrifyingly soft, slightly wriggling spherical plant root.

"You're in luck, kid."

The old man's voice was unpleasant, with a metallic, cold quality.

"Because your soul is so rotten that none of those picky guys outside would even give you a second glance, and I happen to be in need of a potions assistant to help me out."

Dago's eyes flickered slightly in the dim light, but he did not reply.

The old man didn't seem to expect an answer, so he turned around and continued climbing upwards while muttering in his unpleasant voice.

"Remember, my name is Heliodo. You don't need to add those fancy honorifics, just call me by my name."

"Also, don't expect me to be merciful and waste the school's precious resources to fill the gaps in your shabby soul aptitude. The path of a wizard is entirely up to you to forge with your own life. Whether you can advance depends entirely on your own destiny and ability."

"Of course, I've always kept my personal and professional life separate. If your performance in the lab satisfies my discerning old eye, I'll also give you a little reward or compensation through my fingers."

Heliodo sneered, "Your brain must be pretty smart to get a seven-star rating in the Tower of Knowledge... Make good use of it, don't disappoint me."

The old man's voice echoed back and forth in the narrow, claustrophobic crystal tunnel, rambling and carrying a condescending sarcasm.

Combined with his hunched back and that plant-shaped fake eye, he really did resemble an old beaver with a strange personality, who had lived on the seabed for so long that he was almost toothless.

Dago remained silent, silently analyzing and dissecting each of his words.

This wizard from Mirror Lake named Heliodo is undoubtedly a powerful figure above the fifth ring.

The group of high-ranking officials from the three major schools who were selecting people outside just now were almost all at this level.

There are over fifty people who are at the Five Rings level!

Even just a glimpse is enough to show just how unfathomable the foundation of Spirit Mirror Lake, as an enduring and colossal wizarding force.

"To serve as a potion-making assistant for an old monster from the fifth ring..."

Although this deviated from Dago's initial expectations of remaining invisible and developing quietly, it was still a decent result for him to temporarily gain a foothold under these circumstances.

Before they knew it, the two had reached the end of the black steps beneath their feet.

What appeared before Dagger was a fairly spacious, but still dimly lit, circular room.

The entire room is also made of translucent crystal, with the walls and ceiling seamlessly connected, forming a huge inverted bowl-shaped structure.

The room was extremely cluttered.

Various unknown monster organs, glassware covered in suspicious slime, and herbs emitting a pungent odor were piled up haphazardly in the corner.

The only thing that seemed somewhat regular was an old-fashioned brass wall clock nailed to the wall.

"Tick-tock—tick-tock—"

The hands of the wall clock were moving at a steady pace.

As soon as Dago stepped into the room, his gaze was still taking in the messy furnishings.

Suddenly!

The ticking of the wall clock was stretched out infinitely in Dago's ears until it disappeared completely!

He felt as if he had been violently shoved into a transparent jar filled with highly concentrated industrial glue by an invisible giant hand!

The air that was originally flowing around them rapidly twisted and deformed, becoming viscous and stagnant.

The terrifying pressure made it almost impossible for him to even lift his eyelids.

The flow of time seemed to have sank into a quagmire at this moment, slowed down infinitely.

A suffocating feeling, like ten thousand tons of deep-sea water suddenly crashing down, transformed into a tangible hammer, relentlessly pounding against Dago's mental barrier wave after wave!

In his line of sight, a curved, withered, and sharp hand, like the claws of an eagle, was growing larger and larger in Dago's pupils at an eerie speed!

It's Heliodo!

That old madman actually made his move without any warning!

Dago was shocked and instinctively wanted to create a mental field for defense.

But his spiritual power had barely penetrated less than an inch from his skin when it was mercilessly crushed and extinguished in an instant by that overwhelming force!

Dago watched helplessly as the deadly hand came straight for his face.

His body was completely imprisoned, and the neurons in his brain were flashing wildly in the face of a life-or-death crisis.

He had no time to retaliate; all he could do was unleash a desperate roar from the depths of his consciousness: "Arazan! Attack!"

The deepest part of the spiritual space.

The golden ladybug that had been lying in wait clearly sensed this extremely penetrating and malicious probing.

Without the slightest hesitation, it quickly took off.

"Bang!"

A soft, soul-shaking explosion.

The golden ladybug exploded, turning into a thick, yet hazy, golden mist!

The fog spread out at an incredible speed, completely obscuring and concealing five of the ten core soul crystals within Dago's spiritual space!

Immediately afterwards, the golden mist sank rapidly.

"Buzz—"

An ancient soul wave spread out, like the most sophisticated safe, tightly sealing away all the core secrets that must never be known to outsiders, including Dago's past life memories and the existence of the panel.

After Arazan completed this smooth and fluid camouflage maneuver, it immediately mobilized a torrent of camouflage mental energy, cooperating with the external pressure, and rushed into Dago's body.

This force traveled through Dago's limbs and bones at incredible speed, pausing briefly at his heart to simulate a violent tremor of shock and backlash before quickly retreating.

The change came like a thunderbolt and ended just as quickly.