"Forbidden zone?"
Yajieding couldn't help but curl his lips when he heard the term.
"Jiaolang, are you saying there are apprentices over there who have mastered pseudo-first-ring witchcraft?"
"I have to tell you something. Our team has already killed two apprentices like that before."
"Their Divine Power Crystals are with the boss now. If we plunder more Divine Power Crystals, the boss will give us more Contribution Points after he gets out."
Jiaolang swallowed and said with some difficulty, "Yajieding, I don't know whether there are apprentices over there who have mastered pseudo-first-ring witchcraft."
"But there is definitely a freak over there who cannot be judged by common sense. He set up countless magic arrays. Anyone who takes even one step inside will be burned to ashes."
Thinking of the pillar of fire that had shot into the sky when another apprentice triggered a magic array a day ago, his heart trembled.
At the time, he had secretly sworn that he would never go near that place again for the rest of his life.
"Magic arrays? Hahahaha!"
Yajieding burst out laughing. "Jiaolang, even magic arrays set up by apprentices who have mastered pseudo-first-ring witchcraft can only reach 0.9-ring power at most."
"Any wizard apprentice skilled in defense could go in and wreck havoc at will."
"Come with me, Jiaolang. This opportunity is hard to come by. If we don't take a gamble now, when will we?"
"No, Yajieding. That freak's magic arrays definitely possess first-ring power." Jiaolang's face was filled with terror. "Believe me. Don't go!"
"Don't joke around, my friend." Yajieding's mouth twitched. "Since you aren't going, forget it."
Yajieding did not believe a word he said.
To set up a magic array with first-ring power, one had to master 1.3-ring witchcraft.
Could an apprentice master 1.3-ring witchcraft?
At least in his understanding, he had never heard of such an outrageous apprentice-level spell.
If he had never heard of it, then it did not exist!
At that moment, Yajieding even suspected that Jiaolang did not want to see him doing well and was deliberately misleading him because he did not want to see him rise to prominence.
Once prejudice took root in his heart, no amount of persuasion could change his mind.
Jiaolang continued trying to persuade him, but all he received in return were cold expressions.
Helplessly, he could only watch as his best friend led a group of wizard apprentices toward that forbidden zone.
One hundred and twenty li away, at Lohr's secluded cultivation site.
"The meditation rune model and the Small Lava Eruption Spell model have finally achieved initial compatibility."
Lohr looked at the two models in his Sea of Consciousness, their elemental release and absorption patterns gradually becoming aligned, and smiled in satisfaction.
At this point, his future path had essentially taken shape and could no longer be changed.
What he needed to do next was deepen their connection and make the absorption and release patterns of the two runes fully synchronize.
"The magic arrays have been in place for two days. They should be close to dissipating on their own. Time to replenish them."
Lohr opened his eyes and looked at the magic arrays arranged around him.
The Adaptive Rock Barrier Magic Array closest to him now had only a pale yellow light screen left, while the Lava Eruption Magic Array Group outside was in somewhat better condition.
After all, unlike the Adaptive Rock Barrier Magic Array, they had not remained activated the entire time.
Even so, the inactive Lava Eruption Magic Arrays were more than half as dim as when they had first been set up.
Their current power was probably only 0.9-ring at best.
"Tsk, these fish are useless. They only wore out a little over twenty magic arrays in two days."
Lohr looked at the more than forty Lava Eruption Magic Arrays that remained intact, somewhat disappointed.
He had painstakingly set up so many magic arrays, yet fewer than half had been triggered.
Still, the activation of more than twenty magic arrays had not yielded nothing.
Divine Power Crystals lay scattered across the ground.
Lohr stepped out of the Adaptive Rock Barrier Magic Array, picked up seven or eight Divine Power Crystals, and weighed them in his hand.
"Only around thirteen grams altogether. So poor!"
He casually stuffed the Divine Power Crystals into his pocket, then began dispersing the magic array group whose energy had mostly leaked away.
About two minutes later, he had completely dispersed the magic array group and began setting it up again.
This time, he still planned to set up seventy Lava Eruption Magic Arrays.
Whether they would all be triggered or not, it was always better to be prepared.
About thirty minutes later, the new round of magic arrays was complete.
Lohr inspected them once, nodded in satisfaction, then set up an Adaptive Rock Barrier Magic Array within a hundred meters of the center.
After that, he sat back down on the charred beast-hide carpet and continued integrating the two witchcraft models for synchronization.
Half an hour later.
The wolf-bloodline wizard apprentice Yajieding arrived outside the Lava Eruption Magic Array Group with more than a hundred bizarre-looking Bloodline Wizard apprentices and over three hundred Elemental Wizard apprentices.
Looking at the magic array group stretching for more than twenty li, Yajieding sneered disdainfully.
"How afraid of death must this person be to waste elemental energy setting up such a huge magic array group?"
"Pfft~ He probably has to spend half of every day maintaining this magic array group just to keep it intact!" A red-haired girl covered her mouth and laughed.
"I've seen cowards before, but this is the first time I've seen someone this afraid of death."
"This has really broadened my horizons."
Every wizard apprentice agreed with Yajieding and the red-haired girl, feeling as though they had witnessed something truly eye-opening.
After letting everyone laugh for a while, Yajieding asked, "Who is willing to go up and test this magic array group?"
The most troublesome thing about a magic array group was that it could not be triggered remotely with witchcraft.
Someone who met the threshold set by its creator had to enter it before it could truly activate.
"I'll go." A Bloodline Wizard apprentice standing nearly five meters tall and resembling a giant bear stepped forward.
"Good, Marek. Go clear out these magic arrays. I'll be waiting to celebrate your success." Yajieding smiled.
"Roar—"
Marek roared and charged into the magic array without hesitation.
His fur could completely withstand 0.9-ring witchcraft, so he paid this magic array group no mind at all.
Boom—
Three hundred meters after Marek stepped into a large Lava Eruption Magic Array, blazing magma erupted without warning, covering an area a thousand meters wide.
"No, impossible! Ah—"
The instant the magma surged up, he suddenly discovered that his prized mimicry fur was so utterly fragile.
In less than a second, it was burned through by the blazing magma.
Then the magma engulfed his true body, corroding every inch of him until nothing remained.
"How is this possible?" Yajieding stared blankly at the scene before him, his mind utterly empty as disbelief overwhelmed him.
Jiaolang had not lied to him. This magic array group truly possessed the power of first-ring witchcraft.
Behind him, the wizard apprentices no longer laughed and joked as they had moments ago.
They all stood there dumbly, plunged into dead silence.
Magic arrays, first ring, apprentices.
No matter how hard they racked their brains, they had never imagined those three words could be connected.
Before you continue