The Severance of the Path of Magic Cultivation

Isabel frowned upon seeing Melinda's nervousness. "Melinda, don't forget he's an uncivilized savage who hasn't been assimilated yet. And I'm sure you've noticed that the magical energy fluctuation just now came from him. Are you perhaps harboring some improper feelings for this little one by defending him so much?"

"Besides, do you think I'm like those decadent nobles? If we don't disguise him properly now, and this matter gets out when we return, do you think a slave under a mere baron would have a chance at survival?"

Isabel sighed deeply as she spoke.

Melinda knew at this point that she had been overly concerned. In all her years, apart from the fatherly care given by her mentor Adolf, she had only felt a different kind of care from Chen Cheng.

She would always remember the moment she put on her glasses and truly saw the world clearly, with Chen Cheng's face, a mixture of nervousness and excitement, being the first thing she saw.

"I'm sorry, Isabel. I just don't want him to be killed by us when he wasn't killed by the Magical Beast."

Isabel patted her best friend's shoulder. She knew very well what her friend had been through, and she also knew how dark the so-called noble honor truly was.

She knew Melinda was projecting some inexplicable rebellious emotions onto the little slave in front of her.

The first time she saw Chen Cheng, and saw him fearlessly question her in class, she was astonished that such a person still existed in this world.

She walked up to Chen Cheng and stripped off all his scorched clothing.

Looking at Chen Cheng's blackened and shriveled body, she frowned slightly, then began to use unique military investigation methods to examine him.

When her consciousness invaded Chen Cheng's sea of consciousness and she saw the shattered corridor of Magic Runes, her heart was startled.

She was surprised not by the extent of the broken magic runes, but by the number of magic runes inscribed within Chen Cheng's body.

While these shattered magic runes might be of lower quality, their sheer quantity far surpassed that of a typical Bronze beginner mage, reaching the level of a Silver mage.

She overlooked some of the remaining fragmented rune corridors within the shattered magic runes.

This was because those magic runes were too disorganized.

Moreover, she couldn't imagine how Chen Cheng had managed to inscribe that Gold-level magic without immediately suffering from mana overload and exploding.

However, the shattering of the magic runes this time had also almost severed his future path in magic. Clearing the shattered magic rune corridors within his body would be an extremely difficult task.

Unless a Gold Mage was willing to use their powerful mental energy and spend a vast amount of time meticulously clearing these broken magic runes for him.

However, while Isabel was contemplating, Melinda also delved her consciousness into Chen Cheng's body, and she too saw the dilapidated corridor of magic runes.

"There are too many shattered runes within him, and some runes and corridors are unheard of. His magical journey is about to end here," Isabel sighed.

At this moment, she didn't know whether to be happy or not. After all, she had felt that since Chen Cheng gave Melinda the glasses that improved her eyesight, Melinda had been less distant towards Chen Cheng.

Perhaps becoming ordinary again would dispel Melinda's unrealistic thoughts.

After all, she really didn't want her best friend to truly fall out with those people because of him one day.

Melinda also knew very well that Isabel was right. Chen Cheng was just an apprentice mage, and his mental power was insufficient to erase these magic runes.

Even if Melinda and Isabel could help, they didn't know the inscription routes for those unknown runes. If they were to randomly erase them, it was highly likely that a segment of the magic runes would be activated, leading to mana overload and death.

Thus, magic was a powerful yet dangerous entity. Those who truly studied magic and became mages belonged to the upper echelons of society.

After suffering injuries from incorrect magic practice, they could rely on their family's influence and wealth to obtain help from powerful mages.

Furthermore, their cost of trial and error was tens of times higher than that of ordinary people. They could try different elemental magics from a young age to find the attribute magic that best suited them.

The two of them took off their outer clothes, wrapped Chen Cheng, whose new skin had just grown, and prepared to take him away to the camp to receive more detailed treatment from the military doctor.

Within the cage created by the forest's Vine Dragon Withered Wood, Achilles, who had sacrificed his entire vital energy, welcomed his strongest attack accumulated over many years.

"Oh, Fire Spirit, grant me the power to burn the world—Blazing Streamer."

As Achilles finished his incantation, his robust vital energy directly formed a magic rune in mid-air, followed by a surge of powerful fire elements.

Sensing that powerful fire energy, Torey quickly retreated, holding the tearful and lip-biting Hui Dun with one hand.

By now, the only survivors were Torey and Hui Dun. Achilles had already died when the magic was activated, and the surviving knights had been killed by the Vine Dragon Withered Wood's vines while buying time.

Seeing the surging fire power, the Vine Dragon Withered Wood retracted the vines it had extended to kill the remaining Torey and Hui Dun. At the same time, it let out a roar of unwillingness.

Then, it retracted the vines forming the cage, gathering them in front of itself to form a barrier to resist the attack.

Seeing that the cage was broken, Torey immediately fled with Hui Dun.

Hui Dun, who had been looking back, saw the Blazing Streamer hit the vine barrier, followed by a booming explosion that echoed throughout the forest. Within the flames after the explosion, Hui Dun could still see the Vine Dragon Withered Wood waving its vines, full of life.

At this moment, Hui Dun was filled with immense regret, and unwillingness and hatred appeared in his eyes. Finally, due to the depletion of his internal magical energy, he directly fainted.

As Torey fled with Hui Dun on his back, the Vine Dragon Withered Wood, heavily injured by Achilles' Blazing Streamer, continued to attack the two with its vines.

Just as Torey was about to put Hui Dun down and turn back for a desperate counterattack, a fire-elemental magical energy fluctuation suddenly came from the outskirts of the forest.

Although this magical energy fluctuation was not strong for Torey and the Vine Dragon Withered Wood, the Vine Dragon Withered Wood, having just taken a hit of fire magic from Achilles, reacted instinctively.

The waving vines quickly retracted, forming a defensive barrier in front of its main vine.

Seeing this, Torey quickly seized the opportunity to escape, holding the unconscious Hui Dun tightly with one hand, and ran with all his might towards the outskirts of the forest.

"Little Chen, come here and let me see. I haven't miscalculated the parameters here, have I?"

An old man with a receding hairline adjusted his glasses and handed over a sheet of A4 paper filled with messy formulas.

"Hey, Old Ke, I remember you specialized in aerospace, right? Instead of researching things like aircraft engines and spaceships, why are you delving into medicine now?"

"Ah, you young whippersnapper, haven't you heard that all research fields eventually converge? Take your controlled nuclear fusion, for instance. It could eventually be used as a power source for long-distance space travel.

And my research into biomedical repair pods is also contributing to future interstellar voyages. Look how vast the universe is; even traveling at the speed of light, we'd reach..."

Lost in thought, Chen Cheng found himself back in his time at the research institute. Just as he was discussing cosmic development with Old Ke, a clamor shattered his pleasant dream. Chen Cheng then realized he had already died in that timeline.

A sharp pain in his head brought back memories of what happened before he lost consciousness.

Recalling the rampaging Earth Tyrant Bear, Chen Cheng instantly sobered up. Then, remembering the trump card he had used last, he immediately focused his consciousness inward to check.

Seeing the utterly shattered corridor of magic runes, Chen Cheng sighed inwardly. It was just as he had suspected; the magic energy and precision required for his trump card were far beyond what his current Variable Magic Rune could handle.

However, Chen Cheng was fortunate to have had the foresight to create the Variant Magic Rune for transport. This meant he still had a chance to salvage the situation.

He could still rely on the variable magic rune as a transporter to clear out the fragmented runes and corridors within his body.

But after Chen Cheng attempted to use it, he realized he had fallen into self-deception again.

As an apprentice mage, his psionic power was limited. He had only considered the convenience of the variant magic, forgetting about the psionic power itself.

Furthermore, these magic runes were now broken. His variable magic rune would need to be modified to grab them.

It was like the robotic arms on a spacecraft, each designed to grasp specific items. Now, his original items were broken, so the grippers of the robotic arms used for grasping would naturally need to change to be able to grasp the shattered remnants.

Moreover, even if all these conditions were met, it would still take at least half a year to truly clean out such a vast corridor of magic runes.

At the same time, Chen Cheng recognized his previous shortcomings; he hadn't considered how to deal with broken magic runes during the design phase.

However, it wasn't entirely his fault. The magical knowledge he had encountered before never mentioned the shattering of magic runes, because on the continent, a shattered magic rune signified the end of one's path.

Thinking of this, Chen Cheng silently warned himself not to lose his drive or blindly believe everything. The magical knowledge in this world also had its flaws and omissions.

As for seeking help from Melinda and the others, he still had no intention of doing so.

This was not only because Chen Cheng wanted to keep his invention a secret, but also because he deeply understood the difference between himself and them.

This difference wasn't in race or status, but in their way of thinking.

The core idea of his variable magic rune was fundamentally at odds with the theocratic ideology prevalent in their magical world.

Having read some miscellaneous books in his past life, he deeply understood how bloody the clashes between different ideas could be, often leading only to bloodshed.

In his heart, Melinda and the others were still people of this era. It had nothing to do with trust; it was simply that in this era, they were destined to be limited by it.

For example, his identity was that of a wild slave. If the noble powers here discovered that the variant magic within him was an extremely important invention, he wouldn't be met with universal acclaim but with death.