Difficult Road

Yuli rubbed her forehead, her face full of helplessness. "Locke, you really shouldn't discuss a lady's age."

Her expression turned serious as she answered earnestly, "It's the Aging Curse. You'll soon understand the enormous gap between a Formal Wizard and a First-Class Wizard Apprentice." Deep fear appeared on Yuli's aged face, as though she had recalled some unspeakable horror. "You won't understand why the gap is so vast. Then you'll discover that, within that already enormous gap, your Mental Power becomes extraordinarily difficult to improve."

"Even meditation methods become highly unreliable."

"Year after year, my progress stagnated. Under the pressure of my wizard mentor, Harlan Vela, repeatedly looking at me with disappointment before ultimately abandoning me completely, I chose to conduct dangerous research. At the time, I was placing an Aging Curse on my own soul, then lifting it to improve my Mental Power."

"I made my soul repeatedly endure being cursed—then having the curse lifted."

Locke frowned. Even without seeing Yuli's specific methods, merely hearing her describe it made him feel it was incredibly dangerous. It was like walking a tightrope.

With the slightest loss of control, her soul would have been cursed to death by her own hand.

It was no different from taking lethal poison every day.

Yuli Burns lowered her head and sighed. "But my talent was ultimately insufficient. My experiment spiraled out of control, and the Aging Curse backlashed against my soul. I could barely save my life, but my future was ruined."

"I went from a woman passionately pursued by many male wizards to an ugly old hag."

"And that wasn't all. I was also subjected to an ongoing investigation under the White Wizard Association's Ethical Review Mechanism, because parts of my experiment violated ethical regulations."

"That made it difficult for me to find