Forbidden Meditation

Undoubtedly, Forbidden Spells are incredibly powerful.

Correspondingly, the price Wizards pay to cast them is also extremely heavy.

Cultivating Magic is inherently about trading one's body for power. The greater the power, the more easily the body breaks down. Yet, even so, Wizards still yearn for this power—you don't have to use it, but you must possess it.

If the yearning and pursuit of knowledge is a scholarly attitude and ideal, then using forbidden magic to intimidate enemies and solidify family status is a goal based on reality and pragmatism. When ideals and the objects of reality align, what reason do they have not to touch this power?

Moreover, learning is endless. No one knows the true extent of the Mystic's path.

If quantitative change leads to qualitative change, and endless Magic allows one to transcend mortal flesh and embark on the Divine Path, will they regret not cultivating Forbidden Spells?

They certainly will.

But there are no regrets in this world.

Therefore, they must learn Forbidden Spells. This is also one of the necessary conditions for a Wizard to reach the seventh rank and become an Archmage.

And The Beginning of Forbidden Spells teaches Wizards how to induce self-devouring reactions in more parts of their bodies, serving as a prerequisite for all Forbidden Spells. It is not a spell, but a form of Meditation with a broader "width."

The self-devouring reactions guided by conventional Meditation are limited to those cells in the body that store reserve functions. Their very existence is to be consumed and release energy by the body at critical moments. Even if they are all depleted, it won't cause significant harm to the Wizard themselves. At most, they might look thinner or a few years older, but it's not fatal.

But Forbidden Meditation is different.

Taking the desert Sean saw for the first time as an example, if it were Forbidden Meditation, eating only half a cactus wouldn't be enough, far from it. It would expose you to harsher environments, inducing or forcing you to consume everything you can see. The cactus is just one of them; there are also stones, sand, a passing camel, a flying bird, or even the sun in the sky.

As for how to eat it...

That's the Wizard's own business.

If you can't pluck the sun from the sky, you will never be able to fully master this power.

And consuming these things that shouldn't be consumed translates in reality to self-devouring reactions occurring in various critical parts of the body, releasing energy.

The conversion efficiency remains the same, still determined by your Meditation depth. However, the quality of the energy converted is different. Compared to ordinary Meditation, it has increased significantly. Even a Newborn Wizard can temporarily gain immensely powerful Magic far exceeding their rank through this method.

However, a slight misstep could lead to a restart.

Sean's memories contain many such examples.

Some Wizards might have simply wanted to unleash their power, using a hand, a leg, or a kidney to win a battle. But they lost control, and unleashing their power turned into exploding their bodies, turning a narrow victory into a mutual destruction.

Both died quite unjustly.

This shows that The Beginning of Forbidden Spells is a terrifying piece of knowledge.

"The more you know, the more dangerous you become"—this saying applies equally to the study of Mystic.

But Quill guessed correctly.

Sean was indeed the kind of person he thought he was—the more dangerous something was, the more he wanted to try it.

The moment Sean saw The Beginning of Forbidden Spells, his eyes lit up. It was a gaze full of anticipation for new knowledge. The passion and desire in his eyes were even more intense than when he had lifted Elvily's blanket in his dream. The heavy burden on his shoulders, as if from a rich woman, seemed to vanish.

At this moment, Sean's eyes were only on this book.

For him, who currently possessed countless powerful spells but lacked the Magic to cast them, there was no greater treasure with such benefits. Crucially, it didn't conflict with conventional Meditation—Forbidden Meditation is still Meditation. It not only expands the width of self-devouring but also deepens its intensity. In other words, cultivating Forbidden Spells and increasing basic Magic can be done simultaneously.

It's no wonder the Hall of Truth became a sacred place in the hearts of all Wizards during the Scholar Era. This book alone is enough to establish its status in the academic world.

Because of this, most Mystics and Archmages at that time came from the Hall of Truth. In a way, The Beginning of Forbidden Spells directly elevated the potential of low-level Wizards, granting them more possibilities to become Archmages in the future.

Children must be nurtured from a young age.

If there are no geniuses, the Sanctuary cultivates them itself.

Sean suddenly felt that perhaps he wasn't as stupid as he used to be?

To be honest, he had already learned many spells through dreams. In this regard, the knowledge he possessed might even exceed that of some high-level Wizards. Therefore, he hadn't held much expectation for the third floor of the Sanctuary, mostly wanting to create something to give to Kate, so she wouldn't have worked for nothing.

Elvily had to be given something too, of course.

After all, she was potentially his sister-in-law's sister.

But Sean hadn't expected that the third floor would give him such a huge surprise. He was now increasingly interested in the floors above, especially the top floor, the Divine Path...

"Could it be that the end is not after the tenth rank?"

Can humans truly break free from the shackles of mortal flesh and become gods looking down upon the world?

Sean realized he might have been thinking too far ahead and quickly stopped his thoughts.

As he said, he wasn't someone who aimed for the impossible.

However... everyone has curiosity. So, Sean's eyes darted around. He walked up the stairs and cautiously extended a foot, stepping onto the fourth floor of the library, wanting to see if he could sneak in.

But trying led to death.

The moment his right foot stepped forward and landed on the fourth floor, a pressure several times stronger than that on the third floor suddenly bore down like a mountain, crushing his extended foot and lower leg into dust. It turned into specks of light and dust, merging into the air, adding to this spiritual world.

The pressure was so violent and sudden that Sean didn't even feel pain. It was like being hit by a bullet; the first sensation was numbness, not pain.

But Sean couldn't help but gasp sharply.

His foot was gone in the blink of an eye. It looked thrilling just to watch.

He remembered the Wizard who was blown away by the statue in the plaza earlier.

"Just you wait, I'll be back!"

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Sean decisively turned around, jumped down the steps, took out The Beginning of Forbidden Spells and some books recording True Formulas, and hopped off to the dormitory.

These books couldn't be brought back to reality. After all, they were mental constructs. Furthermore, based on what he had learned recently, they couldn't even be taken out of the Sanctuary and could only be read within it.

But it didn't matter. Since he was the only one on the third floor, he could read them wherever he wanted, in whatever position he pleased.

And unlike Sean's gains and excitement.

Outside Floris Hospital.

The orderly, who was getting into the driver's seat of the car to head to Old Sigel City, suddenly felt his eyelid twitch, causing him to pause his seatbelt-fastening motion.

He couldn't help but look at Quill, who was sitting in the back seat, reflected in the rearview mirror, and said hesitantly, "Dr. Quill, I have a bad feeling."

Quill: "Oh?"

The orderly explained, "My eyelid is twitching badly."

Quill chuckled lightly, "That means you're about to get rich. It's quite accurate. I'm considering giving you a bonus after we catch Sean this time."

The orderly: "But it's my right eye that's twitching."

"Your right eye, huh." Quill said "Oh" again and continued, "That's feudal superstition, don't mind it."

The orderly: "..."

"Drive," Quill said with a casual smile. "Once we bring our writer Mr. back, your eyelid won't twitch anymore."

The orderly seemed to want to say something more, but after hesitating for two seconds, he ultimately didn't speak, nodded, and said, "Okay."

He stepped on the accelerator, and the black sedan sped away, heading towards Old Sigel City, ninety-seven kilometers away.