Cruelty and Coldness

Of course, this Black Magician probably had no intention of occupying an entire Complete Rule Plane.

Rather, after smuggling himself through the space crack, he intended to plunder wantonly on the other side.

Any creature above Level One, regardless of which plane it inhabited, inevitably stood at the pinnacle above countless mortals.

The extraordinary powers they wielded could level cities and destroy nations at a stroke.

Black Magicians were even a band of thugs whose destructive power surpassed that of ordinary magicians.

They might not, like the magicians in those Holy Towers, casually form legion formations and summon magic capable of wiping out an entire continent, but their individual combat ability was undeniably formidable.

Though this Black Magician's words revealed his greed and lack of reason, as his voice fell, both the other Black Magician and Magician Andis could not help but show a trace of longing and temptation in their eyes.

Still, it was ultimately nothing more than wishful thinking. How could they so easily stumble upon a Complete Rule Plane?

The Wizard World's many Holy Towers and Knights' Halls never ceased exploring the starry sky year after year, but unfortunately, those Complete Rule Planes had either already been directly occupied by Wizard Civilization or had long since been brought into the Wizard Alliance.

How difficult was it to find an unexplored, virgin blank plane!

Forget a Complete Rule Plane—even a resource Demiplane was an incredible stroke of luck for the Black Magicians of the City of Mozhsuobula to encounter.

The only concern was that if the other side of that Time-Space Rift turned out to be a Broken Plane with little value to exploit, then all their joy would have been for nothing.

In fact, the possibility of it being a Broken Plane was far greater, because such planes were the most numerous in the Star Realm to begin with.

While the three Black Magicians conversed in low voices, the Grade Assessment on the training ground was already more than halfway over.

The battles between Low-Level Apprentices and Entry-Level Apprentices had ended long ago. Only a handful of Intermediate Apprentices and Advanced Apprentices were still competing.

Within the Advanced Apprentices' battle area, the commotion was the most astonishing.

As a place provided by the Black Wizard Academy for apprentices to test magic, the training ground's sturdiness naturally went without saying.

Yet even so, great swathes of deep craters appeared amid the clashes between those Advanced Apprentices.

From time to time, ripples of elemental energy also flashed through the air above the training ground.

These were reactions caused when the magic released by the Advanced Apprentices collided with the magical barrier suspended above the training ground.

Since the three Formal Black Wizards presiding over the Grade Assessment were idly chatting instead of doing their jobs, in order to prevent the Advanced Apprentices' battles from harming innocents or causing excessive damage to the training ground—

A total of seven Owl Academy Supervisors flew to the perimeter of the training ground, guarding against accidents that might occur at any moment.

By now, more than twenty Entry-Level Apprentices had been killed or injured, seven Low-Level Apprentices had died, and even two Intermediate Apprentices had fallen.

Only among the Advanced Apprentices, despite their stronger attacks and more devastating magic, had no one died, precisely because these Owl Supervisors were watching over them.

"I think Lady Qiongni was still too merciful when raising these little fellows."

"If they followed the apprentice elimination rules of the Black Domain in the Western Islands, they should all be thrown into the Magic Beast Forest or the Underground Corpse Cave for trials."

"Only little fellows who survived and possessed ten skulls of apprentices at the same level, or Magic Beast Cores, should receive the corresponding rewards, instead of letting these little fellows issue challenges at will like they are now."

"What are they doing, playing house?" Magician Andis, who gave off an icy air, ignored the low-voiced conversation between the two Black Magicians and suddenly spoke.

Andis's words made the surrounding temperature and atmosphere two degrees colder.

Even the two Black Magicians were somewhat stunned.

The two of them had committed crimes and been wanted by the Holy Towers before becoming Black Magicians.

Unlike Andis before them, who seemed to have been a Black Magician from his apprentice days and was rumored to have come from the Western Islands.

Although after becoming Black Magicians, they had gradually stopped taking human lives seriously, and over the years had casually crushed quite a few weak apprentices to death.

But the cold cruelty and dark laws packed into Andis's every word still left these two Black Magicians somewhat unaccustomed.

One of the Black Magicians gave an awkward chuckle and said, "If we truly followed the Black Domain's Apprentice Elimination Mechanism, I'm afraid not even one-tenth of these little fellows before us would survive, would they?"

"Humph. What need is there for trash to live?" Andis snorted coldly.

This Black Magician could not help but feel a headache coming on. As a Formal Black Wizard, he knew something about the Wizard World and the Black Domain.

He shook his head and said, "The Black Domain can sustain this Apprentice Elimination Mechanism because the Western Islands have enough island continents to provide them with an endless stream of apprentice candidates."

"Even relatively small island continents have several human nations. The population base is right there."

"Look at our Underdark... Hehe, though it is said to have once flourished in ancient times, this place is ultimately in the heartland of the Wizard Continent."

"Not to mention the Bairen Empire, a top-tier power of the Wizard World, right beside us—even the several nearby Holy Towers and Knights' Halls are beyond our ability to provoke," the Black Magician said.

Surviving in the cracks between so many powers was no easy matter.

Not to mention that Black Magicians were not tolerated by the Wizard World's major Holy Towers and Knights' Halls.

Every trip to the Surface World to abduct people and plunder wealth was certainly lucrative, but it was often accompanied by danger.

Maintaining this magic academy's basic operations with several hundred apprentices was already the result of the three deans' efforts.

If they completely copied the Black Domain's rules, these few apprentices would probably soon be reduced to only two or three survivors.

That would run contrary to the three deans' original intentions. These apprentices were all of great use to them...

The Black Magician's rebuttal made Andis's eyes narrow. Faint ice crystals formed within his pupils, causing the two Black Magicians facing him to shudder.

If they had previously still harbored doubts about Andis's strength, they could now conclude without question that he truly was a peak Level One Magician, the kind on the verge of breaking through to Level Two.

For only the Elemental True Body characteristic possessed by Second-Level Magicians could carry such a chilling sensation.

This Master Andis also had some connection to Saine and Lina.

Two months ago, when Scarface Qiao Ke and Saine clashed on Black Street, one important reason was that Qiao Ke had hoped to use the Grade Assessment to enter Andis's notice and become one of his disciples.

And among all the Intermediate Apprentices of the Black Wizard Academy, only the powerful Lina, who temporarily had no mentor at the time, was his greatest competitor.