Entering, Stakes, and Schemes

While the Silver Magic Ring wizards were observing the other three wizarding factions, the wizards from those factions were also paying attention to the Arcane Circle.

After the airships came to a stop, the ring master-level figure leading the Silver Magic Ring team disembarked from the airships, and powerful wizards also took to the air from the airships of the other three wizarding factions.

A bald wizard in a golden robe stepped out of the airship on the Molten Crystal Lake. He had bright flame patterns on his head and held a black staff made of burning stone, with an orange-gold crystal embedded at the top, making him look instantly magnificent.

The wizard leading the Thorn Palace was a woman with a graceful figure, wearing a long robe that looked like it was woven from plant fibers, and her long hair hung down to her waist like vines, interspersed with some brightly colored small flowers and leaves.

The witch of the Thorn Palace has green skin, a healthy and vibrant green, empty hands, and a constant smile on her lips, giving off a bright and cheerful feeling like sunshine and rain.

In contrast, the wizard leading the Black Nightmare Swamp was at the other extreme.

It was impossible to see the other person's face clearly, as their features were completely obscured by a mask covered with various strange feathers. Their robes were also strange, with a pure black base and many odd white stripes that looked like wriggling worms when the wind blew through them.

His entire body exuded a strong aura of darkness and evil.

As the only Black Robe Wizard faction currently present, the Black Nightmare Swamp is clearly the most feared, with the other three Magic Airship positioned far away from it.

Four powerful wizards leading the group gathered together, enveloped in the light of Rune Array, seemingly beginning to discuss something.

Ronan heard Clemens speak.

"It seems the people from the Crimson Tower and the Thunder Council won't be coming to the Second Battlefield, and they probably won't be joining the Third Battlefield either."

"Don't they value the resources of these two battlefields?"

Ronan asked casually.

Clemens shook his head. "No, on the contrary, they always want the most."

The Crimson Tower and the Thunder Council are the two strongest of the six major wizarding forces in the south, and they were the ones who provided the Nefa Key that opened the core secret realm of the Mirror Garden.

I reckon the six major powers must have reached some kind of agreement, with the Crimson Tower and the Thunder Council focusing their main efforts on exploring the First Battlefield."

Clemens seemed thoughtful. "Looking at it this way, it's actually a good thing that I didn't make it into the first tier."

The top wizarding geniuses under these two major powers have always been a level above us; each one is a prodigy. Ordinary wizarding geniuses would find it difficult to compete with them, and their confidence would be shattered. Only a monster like Orian would dare to confront them head-on.

"That's really exaggerated?"

Ronan frowned, finding it hard to believe that such words would come from Clemens' mouth.

Once upon a time, he was also a figure standing at the top of the younger generation of wizards in the Seventh Magic Ring, with a huge gap in both talent and strength compared to the second-ranked wizard.

Clemens shook his head, offering no further explanation.

At this moment, the four wizards who had gathered in the sky to discuss matters separated and returned to their respective faction airships.

Ronan finally got a good look at the powerful wizard leading their group. He was a rugged-looking, short-bearded, and heroic man. Judging from the faint sounds coming from the surroundings, he seemed to be the ring master of the Third Magic Ring.

The Third Ring leader, who was leading the group, called everyone off the ship, paused in mid-air, and then began to guide everyone to sign Soul Contract.

Ronan listened carefully and found that the contract roughly meant that he would never keep the spoils of the secret realm to himself.

As he was deep in thought, a brightly colored, plain ring without any patterns was thrown in front of him.

Ronan reached out and caught it, discovering it was a spatial storage ring, with less than half the storage space of the one he had.

"Once you enter the Mirror Garden, anything you acquire can only be stored in this ring."

All items must be handed in upon completion. If any are lost, all rewards for this exploration mission will be forfeited.

The dignified Third Ring Master, expressionless, admonished each Arcane Circle Wizard.

Ronan's eyes flashed, sensing that this meant the spoils would be distributed uniformly. He asked Clemens, who nodded and said, "It's always the same on joint exploration missions."

Generally, your spoils will be divided into three parts: one part you keep, one part you hand over to the Arcane Circle, and the third part will be distributed among all the wizarding factions involved in the operation, based on their strength and contributions. As for individual wizards, those who perform exceptionally well will receive additional rewards.

Besides the faction in the Arcane Circle, the other three wizarding factions are also going through this process.

Ronan took the opportunity to examine each of the three wizards who emerged from the airship: the Molten Crystal Lake wizard in crimson robes, the Thorn Palace wizard in green robes, and the Black Nightmare Swamp wizard in black robes.

Most of the faces I saw were quite young, powerful, and exuded confidence; they were all geniuses and elites from various fields.

Most of them emanated mental energy fluctuations at the late stage of level two, a few at the mid stage of level two, and Ronan, at the early stage of level two, was still extremely rare.

Ronan couldn't tell whether he was happy or disappointed when he didn't see Anglie. The last time he saw Anglie, the other party's strength seemed to be at the late stage of level two.

Given Anglie's talent, being able to cross borders and kill second-level wizards at the First Level Wizard stage, he must be no ordinary person, so it is reasonable for him to go to the First Battlefield.

Just then, Ronan suddenly felt the crystal containing the Ancient Frost Hydra Bloodline inserted into his heart move slightly.

Amidst the intense pain, he sensed something and his gaze quickly locked onto a figure.

That was in the direction of the Molten Crystal Lake, a young figure wearing a red robe, whose hair was blown by the wind like flames.

As he looked over, the latter seemed to sense it and suddenly turned his head to look back.

Ronan saw a pair of rare orange eyes, which seemed to contain a great deal of heat. He made a deep impression on them and then quickly looked away.

"Igor, what's wrong?"

Among the wizards of Molten Crystal Lake, a young man with a cold and fierce look between his brows sharply scanned a certain direction.

Hearing the question from the person next to him, he looked away and shook his head coldly, "It's nothing, I just feel like there are bugs spying on me."

The inquirer was silent for a moment before speaking, "Lord Ignatius asked me to tell you before he left... During this exploration, you can unleash a portion of your bloodline's power, provided you don't kill anyone."

Upon hearing this, the young man with orange eyes revealed a strange and cruel smile, and said in a hoarse, low voice, "Finally... I can set a fire to my heart's content?"

With preparations complete, the four leaders reunited and followed the beautiful level-three witch from the Thorn Palace as she stepped out and began to chant softly towards the Mirror Lake below.

A light purple flower was growing rapidly on her chest at a speed visible to the naked eye. The petals opened one by one, and then a key about the length of an index finger emerged from it, radiating golden light.

The key handle had no bumps or patterns, yet it emitted a golden beam of light that plunged straight into the Mirror Lake.

As the golden beam of light pierced through, the tranquility of the silver lake was immediately shattered. Ripples began to appear on the once mirror-like surface, which then intensified and quickly transformed into a massive silver vortex. Powerful energy fluctuations emanated from the vortex, whipping up a gale that billowed the robes of the many wizards present.

"Go in."

It is unclear who gave the order, but wizards from the four factions began to step into the vortex one after another.

Ronan followed closely behind Clemens. As they approached the vortex, Ronan peered down into it and found it to be unusually calm, with shimmering light and barely visible gray smoke swirling around the vortex's entrance.

Ahead of them in the line to enter the secret realm were the wizards from the Thorn Palace. Ronan witnessed a handsome green-robed wizard accidentally bump into a cloud of gray smoke, and in the blink of an eye, he aged rapidly at an astonishing speed.

The wizard screamed in terror and desperately flew out of the vortex, attracting many onlookers.

"Don't stop, keep going in!"

A cold, authoritative voice rang in their ears, urging the person who had stopped to continue.

Ronan watched as the eerily aged green-robed wizard was quickly enveloped in a ball of green light by the leading witch of the Thorn Palace and then sent into the Magic Airship.

"He probably used some special method to conceal his true soul age."

Clemens shook his head beside Ronan and commented, "Almost every time an ancient secret realm opens, there are these guys who try to take chances against the Time Curse. Their souls are usually over eighty years old, and once they're entangled by the Time Curse, they'll be affected. That guy's lifespan was drained like that just now, so his soul age is at least over one hundred and twenty."

"Is this the Time Curse...?"

Ronan's eyes flickered. Bennigo had told him about the Time Curse a long time ago, but this was the first time he had seen it with his own eyes, and it was indeed unsettling.

"It won't affect us, so there's no need to worry too much."

After Clemens finished speaking, he suddenly looked at Ronan deeply, and then said softly, "Then, see you in Damien Mirror Garden."

After saying that, he lowered his body and quietly disappeared into the shimmering light.

Ronan was slightly moved. He took a step forward, gently shattering a few wisps of gray smoke, and plunged headlong into the vortex.

It felt like an eternity.

In fact, it only lasted for a brief moment.

Ronan's feet touched the hard ground, and his first reaction was to feel a slight fatigue in his body, probably a side effect of touching the Time Curse.

However, as the Vitality Orb within her body gently cleansed her, the feeling of fatigue immediately disappeared.

He opened his eyes, wanting to see what the legendary core secret realm of the Mirror Garden was like.

After seeing it clearly, he was stunned and surprised.

What appeared before Ronan was a small room of only about seventy or eighty square meters.

A simple little room.

There was no one else in the room except him.

As the last wizard of the Molten Crystal Lake disappeared into the vortex, the enormous silver vortex slowly vanished as well.

The vast Mirror Lake has regained its tranquility.

The Green Robe Witch had been controlling the Nefa Key, put away the key, but her hand continued casting spells, and she immediately began to recite another long and strange incantation.

As she chanted the incantation, the spiritual power of a powerful late-stage level three wizard surged forth, and dozens or even hundreds of semi-transparent ripples began to appear in the void on the surface of Mirror Lake.

Ripples spread, and a picture emerges in the middle.

In each scene, there is a figure; upon closer inspection, you will find that these are the young wizards from the four factions who have just entered the secret realm.

The black rings distributed to everyone before the exploration have more than just a storage function.

It also has the function of exploring the scenery within the secret realm and, incidentally, monitoring the behavior of explorers.

These mirror-like images reveal the wizards' surroundings: some are in bedrooms, some stand on strange mirrored staircases, and some appear in empty corridors. Everyone in the images is cautiously and curiously observing their surroundings.

Occasionally, when two people meet and collide, their separate water mirror images will move closer together, merging into a larger whole. "Whoosh—"

The Green Robe Witch let out a soft breath, and having finished everything, she seemed to relax completely.

"Of the three entrances discovered in the Mirror Garden, the first area leads directly to the core inheritance site, the third area leads to the Ancient Mirror Garden wizards' potion garden and experimental fields, and the second entrance here should correspond to the former living area of Mirror Garden wizards..."

The Green Robe Witch muttered a few words to herself before turning her gaze to the other two.

The bald wizard from Molten Crystal Lake, holding Burning Stone Staff, narrowed his eyes, his lips moved slightly, and then he seemed to begin communicating with someone.

The Third Level Wizard from the Black Nightmare Swamp, wearing a feather mask, stood still. On the other hand, the valiant middle-aged man from the Arcane Circle side didn't even glance at the three of them and walked straight towards his own Magic Airship.

He sat down directly in the air above the airship, closed his eyes, and seemed to be thinking or meditating.

This action continued for a while before being interrupted.

"Caloni".

A gentle voice softly called the heroic man's name. The man opened his eyes, and the Green Robe Witch who had been in charge of opening the secret realm was now smiling and standing in front of him.

"It's been a long time since we last met... Would you like to chat for a bit?"

The imposing man's face betrayed no emotion. He nodded and said, "This exploration will probably last for quite a while."

The Green Robe Witch quickly took out some oddly shaped and fragrant fruits and casually tossed them into the air in front of the two of them, where they floated. Then she took out two long-necked wine bottles and handed one to Caloni.

"They've started again."

The Green Robe Witch picked up the wine bottle, took a graceful sip, glanced to the side, and whispered to the dashing man Caloni.