After leaving the desert, Leo did not return to Tiyama City but headed for the next location. Gru's training plan was to use harsh natural environments to force Leo past his limits and lay the foundation for his path as a body refinement wizard.
There were eight locations near Tiyama with harsh conditions suitable for Leo's training. His trip through the desert had confirmed that the training was viable, but it had also left him with more questions.
Especially after his body had improved by 50%, Leo already sensed that many of the planned environments had lost their original effectiveness. He expected that after training in two or three harsh environments, the surroundings near Tiyama City would no longer provide any stimulus for him.
As his body grew stronger, ordinary harsh environments could no longer trouble him. With his inhuman physique, Leo could simply laugh them off.
As Gru had once mentioned, once body refinement wizards reached the pinnacle, living in space with their physical bodies was a trivial matter. Of course, even Gru could not reach that level.
Crossing the universe in the flesh. What a prospect!
Like taking toxins over a long period to stimulate cellular activity, passive stimulation from harsh environments was also a long-term form of training. But as his strength increased, fewer and fewer natural environments would meet his needs, and he would have to simulate them with various wizard arrays to achieve results.
Gru was already at that level. Very few natural environments could stimulate his physical body, so all his training used custom-made wizard arrays!
As for training with wizard arrays, Leo could only entertain the thought for now. It cost far too many wizard coins, more than a poor man like him could afford.
Even Gru, a Level Two Body Refinement Wizard, had to work to earn money!
That sort of money-burning training would have to wait until he struck it rich!
As he traveled, fierce winds howled around him. Leo's speed had already soared to nearly 300 miles per hour. He ignored the terrain, charging headfirst through trees and rocks in his way, instantly carving a path where none existed.
After his body grew stronger, Leo had become much more reckless. Any unlucky wild beast he encountered could be torn apart with a casual tug!
Having a hard head really was that unreasonable!
But in the middle of his headlong charge, Leo suddenly stopped and looked gravely toward a spot several kilometers away. The wilderness and forest had long since blocked his view, leaving him unable to see anything, yet he stared over with a solemn expression, as though his gaze had crossed the obstacles and seen an alarming scene.
"There are strong aura fluctuations, somewhere between a peak Wizard Apprentice and a Level One Formal Wizard."
"Hide somewhere far away. If Level One Formal Wizards really are fighting, a single shock wave could kill someone with your strength."
Benji had sensed it too. The instant Leo stopped, he urged him to hurry and get away.
If First-Level Wizards really were fighting, even this brief stop could expose Leo. Before he could approach, they could come over and casually kill him.
Leo did not move. Instead, he knitted his brows and carefully sensed the area. If a fight really was underway, the aura fluctuations should have surged like the tide.
But there was none of that there. It was as silent as stagnant water.
His senses could not be wrong. The aura really was not fluctuating!
"Go, now. Curiosity will get you killed. You're not the Lord of Fate. You won't find treasure everywhere you go."
Benji feared Leo would give in to his curiosity and go take a look. When he had first begun cultivating, he too had been curious about the world of cultivation. It was a mistake all newcomers made.
He had always wanted to get close to those at higher levels and see what made them different. In the end, that brainless behavior had taught him a profound lesson and shown him that the gulf between levels was as impossible to cross as a wall of bronze and iron.
His outcome had been relatively good. How many newcomers had failed to control their curiosity and died on their very first step?
There was nothing wrong with being weak, but one had to face reality!
Faced with Benji's attempts to stop and dissuade him, Leo acted as though he had heard nothing. Not only did he fail to retreat far away, he charged straight toward the source of the aura fluctuations instead.
"You..."
Benji stopped trying to persuade him. He knew that once Leo made up his mind, no one could stop him. Rather than waste time trying, he was better off thinking about how to resolve a crisis if they really encountered one.
He covered the several kilometers in a few breaths. Leo's long legs were practically wind-fire wheels, moving outrageously fast once they got going.
Suppressing his aura and reducing his presence, Leo carefully poked his head out to look. The original terrain at the source of the aura fluctuations was no longer recognizable. He could not tell whether it had once been forest or grassland. Either way, it now looked as though it had been repeatedly bombarded by heavy artillery for hours.
Craters were everywhere. Lingering flames, water vapor, ice blades, and the severed limbs of some unknown fierce beast covered the battlefield.
Seeing no wizards fighting, Leo quietly breathed a sigh of relief. If even the aura left behind after the battle was this powerful, the combatants definitely could not have been Wizard Apprentices. They had been Level One Formal Wizards!
Leo's expression grew even uglier, uglier than it would have been at the sight of two peak Wizard Apprentices fighting.
Tiyama was the only city nearby. When he had left a year ago, Gru had been the only Level Two Body Refinement Wizard, while everyone else had been Wizard Apprentices. Where had these two Official Wizards suddenly come from?
This was within the Purple Flame Wizard Academy's sphere of influence. Although he had heard before leaving that wizards from other academies had invaded, it was impossible that wizards from two mutually hostile groups had invaded at the same time. Thus, one side in the battle had to include a wizard from the Purple Flame Academy.
The fighting had already gone beyond the level of Wizard Apprentices. This was not what he had been told before.
Or had some change occurred that he knew nothing about?
The many peak Wizard Apprentices in Tiyama City, the Level One Formal Wizards who had now appeared, and Gru, a Level Two Body Refinement Wizard...
A concentration of combat power like that could steamroll numerous countries on Earth.
Leo felt a wave of urgency. In this region where the situation was unknown, he was definitely the weakest. If he encountered anyone with ill intentions, they certainly would not make things easy for him.
If I deactivate the quadruple Gravity Rune Array, my attack power can reach 350 points, 50 points higher than a year ago. My defense can probably ignore attacks below 50 points.
If I encounter an opponent, ordinary attacks will all be ineffective. My strongest attack method is using my shadow talent to launch a surprise attack with Shadow Jump.
My methods are a little too limited. There's nothing I can do. I've spent too little time cultivating. Compared with those peak Wizard Apprentices who've often cultivated for centuries, I'm just a rookie who's barely started.
Leo silently assessed his strength. In short, he was an ordinary Wizard Apprentice. If Wizard Apprentices were divided into four levels—low, intermediate, advanced, and peak—he was currently at the intermediate stage.
Yet the weakest of those appearing in Tiyama were peak Wizard Apprentices. That was quite a gap!
Encountering wizards from the Purple Flame Academy would be manageable. They were all on the same side. But if he encountered the opposition, he would be in trouble!
After inspecting the battlefield, Leo kept to his original route and hurried toward his destination. There was no point overthinking things now. The weak had no say, so he could only hope he would not encounter an enemy.
Returning to Tiyama was not necessarily safe either. A city was too large a target, after all. Once the fighting grew truly heated, even several cities would not be enough to withstand the destruction.
Alone in the wilderness, he was a small target. If he carefully hid away to cultivate slowly and waited for things to blow over before coming out, no one could find fault with that.
The next location Leo had chosen was an active volcano. He intended to use its heat to stimulate his body's resistance to high temperatures.
Gru had once told him that a Level One Body Refinement Wizard could sleep in lava.
Leo certainly could not do that yet!
The journey was only a day and a half long, yet Leo encountered another battlefield. The aura fluctuations were already very weak, and the battle had probably occurred half a year earlier. Judging by the traces left on the battlefield, this too had been a clash between First-Level Wizards. Wizard Apprentices could not cause such extensive destruction.
If he had encountered only one site, he could still have called it a small-scale conflict. But now even he had stumbled across two battlefields. Wasn't the frequency of combat a little too high?
Leo had already made his plans. Once he reached the crater, he would immediately seal his aura, hide, and wait a while before coming out!
As for the garrison assignment and investigating the missing people and beast tide unrest, he would leave all of it to Gru. Gru had accepted the assignment anyway. What did it have to do with him?
When weak, one had to turtle up.
If he wanted to slaughter his way through all opposition, he would have to wait until he was strong enough!
He was no protagonist, nor was he some peerless expert who could fight above his level!
After some scares but no real danger along the way, he reached the crater. It was no different from volcanoes on Earth. No vegetation grew on the volcano, which was covered in scorching volcanic ash.
Looking down from the crater, he saw bubbling lava radiating terrifying heat. Even from dozens of meters away, it inspired fear!
This was an active volcano that erupted once every ten years. Only two years had passed since its last eruption, leaving eight years of dormancy ahead. In other words, he did not need to worry about a sudden eruption burning him to death.
Originally, Leo had intended to use the heat outside the volcano to stimulate his body. But with the situation now unclear, he dared not leave any traces.
He descended directly into the crater and dug a cave midway up the surrounding sheer walls to serve as his base.
As long as no wizard entered the volcano, no one would discover his tracks. Its safety could definitely reach 99%.
The lava's temperature exceeded 1,000 degrees Celsius, and even the temperature inside the crater reached a terrifying 500 degrees Celsius or more.
After digging a cave large enough to shelter in, Leo kept digging deeper. The 500-degree heat exceeded what he could endure.
Only when the cave reached twenty meters deep did the temperature fall to 200 degrees Celsius, finally reaching the limit Leo could withstand.
At 200 degrees Celsius, Leo estimated that his physical body could receive the best possible training!
Evolution. Leo could hardly wait!