Tilroggzak's affair had sounded the alarm for Li Wen. She could bargain with a tiger, using the advantages of her previous life to deceive demons into helping her, only because, as a player, she would not be slain in a demon's rage after being exposed and meet true death.
But last night had been different. It had not been a threat of death, but the near interruption of her advancement ritual.
Every ritual carried a chance of failure, especially an advancement ritual that determined the transformation and ascension of life.
Every advancement along any Path required spirituality. It was an innate aptitude of life, determining the upper limit of one's transformation and ascension, even the upper limit of the Paths one could walk.
If an advancement ritual failed, it would very likely deplete spirituality. In her previous life, Li Wen had never been able to advance to Stage Four because she had lost too much spirituality.
Generally speaking, failures in Stage One advancement rituals were relatively rare and depended mainly on the accuracy of the Ritual Array. Yet after defeating Tilroggzak yesterday, Li Wen still felt a lingering fear.
She did not know what the consequences would be if the Witch Disciple advancement failed. Even The Final Codex had not made that clear. During her previous life in the Strategy Group, Li Wen had learned of many powerful yet demanding Paths. Their advancement failures were usually nothing special: either they threatened one's life, forcibly bestowed terrifying negative extraordinary traits, or worse, completely deprived one of the chance to advance along that Path.
That was unacceptable to Li Wen.
All her hopes, even the hopes of the Strategy Group, and indeed the hopes of everyone in the entire world, rested on the End Path.
If her advancement failed and she could