Chapter 33: Opening the Seal?

Chapter 33: Chapter 33: Opening the Seal?

Another three days passed with no new Apprentices arriving. At the edge of the rift valley, seventeen people were scattered across the rocks, while the fog continued to writhe within the chasm.

Luna Xiya stood at the very front. "We won’t wait any longer. I assume we are the last ones here. Now, we need to figure out a way to break the seal."

After a long silence, a tall Apprentice from the Mechanical Heart Laboratory held up three fingers. "Three questions."

"Please, go ahead."

"First, how strong is this seal, and how do we open it? Second, how do we trust one another? Third, once it’s open, what happens if there aren’t enough mushrooms to go around?"

Luna Xiya looked at him but didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she took out a blueprint and passed it around.

"To answer your first question: The seal is incredibly strong. One person alone cannot open it. However, I have prepared an Array. If we link everyone’s Spiritual Power together and focus our attacks on a single point on the seal, we can break it. You can all review the simulations I’ve drawn up."

She wasn’t in a hurry. Only after everyone had finished looking did she continue, "As for your second question, we sign a Contract!

"It will be bound by the Wizard’s Will. Whoever violates it will suffer a backlash to their Spiritual Power. A minor infraction results in a coma, while a severe one triggers their Protective Talisman. Is that enough to establish mutual trust?"

The tall Apprentice nodded.

"And the third question. It doesn’t matter if there aren’t enough Hallucinogenic Mushrooms to go around, because this assessment tests our abilities, not the quantity we gather. It will be enough for the examiners to see that we cooperated to break the seal."

Silence fell again after she finished speaking. The wind blew up from the depths of the rift valley, carrying the scent of fungal mycelium.

The short-haired girl with the hanging bear doll yawned, while something shifted beneath the Red Robe’s garments.

Chen Shang stood at the edge of the crowd, gently rubbing his fingers together.

"Agreed." "Fine." "Let’s sign it." Voices chimed in sparsely.

Luna Xiya pulled a roll of animal skin from her robes and unfurled it. Its surface was densely carved with Runes.

She bit her finger and pressed a bloody fingerprint onto the hide. The others walked over and left their prints one by one.

When it was the Red Robe’s turn, he stood before the animal skin but didn’t reach out.

"I’m not signing."

Everyone’s eyes turned toward him. Luna Xiya frowned. "Why?"

The Red Robe’s voice was hoarse. "I’m fine with cooperating, but I refuse to tie my own hands. I won’t accept any restrictions that force me to give up my right to attack."

Luna Xiya stared at him and remained silent for two seconds. "So you want to retain the option to attack the others while we cooperate?"

Her tone was heavy, attempting to pressure him with a sense of moral superiority. But no one chimed in to agree with her.

Chen Shang noticed a few people’s lips move without making a sound, but their silence was a stance in itself.

Luna Xiya waited for a few seconds. When no one spoke up to help her, she sighed and pulled the animal skin back.

"It seems everyone here is quite confident in themselves. Then let’s change the terms. Before the seal is broken, no mutual attacks are allowed. After the seal is broken, every man for himself."

The Red Robe nodded. This time, he was the first to press his bloody fingerprint down.

The others followed suit in order, leaving Chen Shang for last. As he pressed his finger onto the hide, he felt a faint trace of Spiritual Power drill in through his fingertip. It felt like a microscopic thread, tying itself deep within his Sea of Consciousness.

The Contract was established.

"Let’s go," Luna Xiya said, turning around. She was the first to step into the fog.

The fog was thicker than it appeared. Up close, it was a milky white and incredibly viscous, reducing visibility to less than three paces.

The tall Apprentice from the Mechanical Heart Laboratory took out a palm-sized Round Disc. It hovered above his head, emitting a steady white light that pushed the surrounding fog three feet away.

The short-haired girl didn’t use any device; the mist naturally parted around her. From beneath the Red Robe’s garments, several long, slender tentacles extended, probing the way through the fog.

There was also someone completely shrouded in Black Fog. The fog enveloping their body blended seamlessly with the ambient mist, making them utterly indistinguishable.

Baal followed closely behind Chen Shang, taking out his Protective Shield Device and clutching it tightly in his palm. Chen Shang scattered Ben Bo’Erba around his vicinity, using Water Manipulation to resist the fog.

An Hourglass later, the fog suddenly thinned out, revealing a wall right in front of them.

Some Apprentices gasped at the sight. This wasn’t a wall at all; it was clearly a living entity made of countless interwoven mycelium threads. The threads varied in thickness—the thin ones resembled hair, while the thick ones looked like strange snakes. Their colors ranged from milky white to dark brown, layered upon one another and slowly writhing. It was an absolute nightmare for anyone with trypophobia!

Right in the center of the wall was a fist-sized gap. The mycelium around its edges glowed faintly. Inside the gap, it was pitch black; nothing could be seen.

"This is the seal for the Hallucinogenic Mushrooms!"

Luna Xiya stood before the wall and took a silver-white Round Disc out from her robes. It was only the size of a palm, its surface densely engraved with Runes, and over a dozen tubes extended from its edges.

She pressed the Round Disc against the wall. Eight thin needles shot out from the disc’s edges, piercing into the mycelium. The fungal threads twitched once before falling still.

"This is a Spiritual Power gathering Array. We will all grip a tube with our hands and continuously pour our Spiritual Power into the Round Disc. Do not stop."

She was the first to place her hand on it. Seeing the others hesitate, she sighed. "We’ve all signed the Contract, so what are you still worried about? Does anyone here actually have the ability to defy the Wizard’s Will? If any of you feel uneasy, you can come up and inspect it."

At the mention of the Wizard’s Will, many dropped their hesitation. They inspected the device once more before placing their hands on it one after another.

Chen Shang pondered for a moment, then exchanged a glance with Baal. The two of them gripped the tubes in unison.

Once everyone was ready, Luna Xiya stood before the Round Disc. Her hair drifted in the fog, moving like aquatic plants swaying in the water. Then, her lips parted slightly, as if she were silently chanting something.

The Round Disc lit up. The silver-white Runes ignited one after another, spreading from the edges toward the center like a flaming ripple.

The gathering Array had been activated! Following that, everyone’s Spiritual Power began to be siphoned. At first, the process was slow, but it rapidly accelerated. It felt less like a transfer and more like a forceful extraction!

"What’s going on?!" someone yelled, his voice catching in his throat. He tried to pull his hand back, but his palm felt glued to the tube, completely immobilized.

He attempted to cast Witchcraft, but his Spiritual Power was depleting far too quickly and had become too unstable to be released.

"My hand—!"

"I can’t move!"

"It’s sucking out my Spiritual Power!"

Screams and the sounds of struggle mixed together. People tried all sorts of methods to break free, but nothing worked. Their hands, pressed against the Round Disc, were like butterflies pinned to a wooden board.

Luna Xiya smiled. Her body began to undergo a rapid Transformation.

Her skin turned a pale blue, and her hair grew greener, resembling moss after a heavy rain. Her eyes lightened in color, and as her fingers elongated, fine mycelium threads seeped out from them.

The mycelium crawled along the edges of the Round Disc, entwining with the silver-white Runes like intertwining vines.

"You little Apprentices actually thought you could capture me?"

She tilted her head, gazing at the immobilized crowd. The corners of her mouth curled up, revealing a row of dense, snow-white teeth.

"Once I eliminate all of you, I’ll be able to officially join the Pan-Wizard Alliance. This is the promise the Master Wizard made to me!"