Wizard Apprentice

The sky was dim, and a crescent moon hung like a hook.

Seeing the two of them sound asleep, Yin Ming quietly slipped out through the crack in the door and headed behind Blackstone House.

On either side of Tulip Manor lay other serf estates. Straight ahead stood Count Golden Lion's castle, while behind it stretched the endless Magic Beast Mountains.

"If I go any farther, I might run into a Magic Beast. This will do!"

Yin Ming found a hidden thicket and took the Scavenger Gourd from his robes.

It grew in the wind, becoming a massive object as tall as a zhang.

The mouth of the Yellow-Skinned Gourd opened, releasing a faint pull.

Yin Ming did not resist and was drawn inside whole.

[Name: Yin Ming (Eno).]

[Lifespan: 17/45 (99).]

[Constitution: 5.]

[Mental Power: 6.]

[Extractable: Brain, muscles, blood, internal organs, skeleton...]

[Note: This item possesses self-awareness. Any trace of resistance will result in operational failure.]

Scavenger Gourd.

It contained a complete Innate Divine Prohibition.

Its function was to maximize the utility of everything it took in.

It was not merely a machine for analysis, decomposition, and purification, nor was it restricted to dead objects.

It could completely raise the utilization rate of one's own body and achieve the purpose of improving innate talent.

"This is my current physical state. It's even clearer than a game character's stat panel."

Inside the gourd, Yin Ming's body gradually became transparent, and countless streams of information were perceived by him through the gourd.

From the gourd's perspective, Yin Ming could see blood flowing through his body, his heart pounding, billions of cells dividing, growing, aging, and dying. He could also clearly sense life slipping away with time.

Every function possessed by his body was displayed before his eyes with absolute clarity, as though it had been digitized.

"Extract!!!"

Yin Ming saw gray-black mist winding through his limbs and bones.

These were the toxins and hidden injuries this body had accumulated over seventeen years.

As two wisps of black mist spilled from his body, Yin Ming felt light all over.

Looking at the two pitch-black poison pellets that had condensed, he sucked in a breath of cold air.

Such stubborn poisons extracted from the body, then strengthened by the Scavenger Gourd, were truly terrifying.

[Lifespan: 17/99.]

His lifespan immediately changed.

The previous forty-five years had been the maximum lifespan his body could attain in its current state.

Ninety-nine years, meanwhile, was this body's true lifespan limit.

"..."

Then!

Yin Ming lightly tapped his head.

He decided to increase the utilization rate of his brain's nerve cells.

Nerve cells were not the same as mental power, but they determined the strength of one's innate mental power—namely, one's so-called wizard talent.

This was the conclusion Yin Ming had reached through countless experiments in the laboratory.

"It's rumored that ordinary people use only a mere few percent of their brains. Although there's no scientific basis for that, it still shows the brain has enormous potential for improvement. Let's raise it by twenty percent first and see!"

In an instant.

Yin Ming's thoughts became incomparably clear.

The sensation he had once possessed only with the Corpse-Liberation Immortal's blessing returned once more.

The energy stored in his body was consumed at an accelerated rate. Countless cells began to shatter and decompose, transforming into biological energy to supply his active nerve cells.

He visibly grew thinner.

If this state lasted even ten minutes, his body would consume itself to death from hunger.

At the same time, his mental power and lifespan changed again: [Lifespan: 17/18.] [Mental Power: 15.]

Yin Ming hurriedly swallowed a Grain-Repelling Pill, temporarily stopping his body from devouring itself, but the lifespan column did not change.

"Whew..."

Luckily, he had played it safe at the crucial moment.

He had not chosen to enhance his entire body, nor had he raised his brain to its limit. Otherwise, he would already have wasted away into a skeleton.

The Yellow-Skinned Gourd was only responsible for making you stronger.

As for how long you could survive after becoming stronger, that was not the Yellow-Skinned Gourd's responsibility.

"A twenty-percent increase makes life drain away hundreds of times faster. This is already burning lifespan for power!"

Taking shortcuts always required paying the corresponding price.

But as long as the price was within acceptable limits, it was a worthwhile deal.

Take the Corpse-Liberation Ascension Method. For a True Immortal like Zhu Bajie, who had feathered his way into ascension, even one glance at it was purely a waste of time.

But for an ordinary human like Yin Ming, without the Corpse-Liberation Ascension Method, he would not even be able to cultivate into an immortal.

"..."

Meditative trance!

Meditation!

His second meditation was familiar territory.

Yin Ming quickly visualized an endless vast sea.

A wild wind rose, whipping up towering waves that transformed into a hundred-zhang-high curtain of water and crashed heavily toward Mirror Reef.

The waves shattered into pieces, and countless droplets scattered back toward the vast sea. Yin Ming hurriedly used his mental power to forcibly fix each droplet onto the absolutely smooth Mirror Reef.

The tide receded!

Upon the mirror-smooth reef.

One hundred and twenty round droplets were arranged in neat rows.

Yin Ming revealed a faint smile, feeling that he had not yet exerted his full strength. "Give me a little more time, and I can raise the number of intercepted droplets to one hundred and fifty."

His mental power had reached the requirement.

The next step was the Permanent Mental Rune.

Yin Ming did not waste a moment. He immediately used his mental power to inscribe the rune.

Every stroke was as strenuous as writing while holding a brush as large as a millstone.

His suddenly enhanced mental power was not yet under perfect control, and small amounts of it always leaked away.

At this moment, Yin Ming's mental power was more than sufficient to permanently fix a rune. He simply ignored the minor leakage and sped up the inscription.

"It's done!"

As the final stroke fell, the rune's beginning and end joined together, divine light flowing across it.

In the unseen depths, elemental energy drifting between heaven and earth was absorbed through the complete rune, condensing into a tiny wisp of magic power.

The rune entered an activated state.

It would continuously transform magic power until it reached the upper limit of his current realm.

With this wisp of magic power, he had undergone a qualitative change from an ordinary person. He had truly stepped onto the path of the extraordinary and become a Junior Wizard Apprentice.

"..."

"Restore!"

Yin Ming immediately released his brain from its high-frequency state.

Maintaining his brain at high frequency for about two hours had consumed a full three months of lifespan. Only an eternally living Daluo immortal could afford such consumption.

Then needle-like pain shot through his brain, and his mental power began to plummet rapidly—fifteen, fourteen, thirteen...

In the end, his mental power stabilized at ten points. As long as the permanently fixed Mental Rune did not shatter, his mental power would not fall below ten points.

"Knights wield semi-extraordinary power. Wizards wield true extraordinary power. Once I master a wizardry spell, my safety will finally be completely guaranteed."

Yin Ming's emotions surged. Across two lives, he had cultivated for thirty-five years.

He had not condensed even a wisp of spiritual power, much less cast a true spell even once.

Now, he possessed magic power akin to spiritual power and could cultivate wizardry akin to spells. Only now did he count as a true cultivator, rather than an emotionless ascender.

"..."

The snakeskin book recorded three Zero-Ring Wizardry spells and one First Ring spell.

Wizard Apprentices could only use Zero-Ring Wizardry. The three Zero-Ring Wizardry spells were Wizard's Hand, Crimson Flame Ring, and Flesh Strengthening.