Wizard: Starts with Advanced Meditation

And so, amidst the surging blood, Sotadia's hands were completely restored, and even his fingernails grew back.

"Haha...you're finished!"

A barely perceptible red glint flashed in Sotadia's eyes, and his expression grew increasingly ferocious.

As soon as he regained feeling in his hands, Sotadia didn't hesitate and threw a blinding ball of lightning at Hughes, while he quickly lunged toward the gauntlets not far away.

Hughes did not use Frostbolt to block the lightning ball, but instead used the Frost Cage he had prepared beforehand on himself.

In an instant, the temperature inside the barrier plummeted, and with a crackling sound, thick ice crystals began to condense on the ground.

But Sotadia was not the target of this spell. The next second, it was Hughes who began to be covered in white frost. Then, ice crystals condensed and spread on his body at a visible speed.

Despite being constantly engulfed by the piercing ice crystals, Hughes remained expressionless as he was completely covered by the ice crystals, turning into a hard ice sculpture.

"Hiss—hiss—"

As soon as the ice sculpture took shape, the lightning ball slammed heavily onto him, but it only caused a few scattered sparks of lightning to erupt on the ice crystals, leaving not a single dent on the surface of the ice sculpture.

Hughes remained expressionless inside the ice sculpture, while Sotadia paid no attention to the situation in the distance, preoccupied with retrieving his magical artifacts.

Just as he bent down to pick up the gauntlet from the ground, a flash of icy blue light suddenly appeared in Hughes's crimson pupils.

Suddenly, all the scattered ice crystals lit up with an ice-blue light, more dazzling than ever before, followed by a series of deafening explosions.

"Boom—boom boom—boom boom boom!!!"

Just as Sotadia put on his gauntlets, the explosion reached his ears, and he was slammed backward by a wave of icy blue air.

With a muffled thud, his back slammed hard against the barrier, and a sweet, metallic taste immediately filled his mouth.

Sotadia struggled to lift her head, but all she saw was a blinding, icy blue halo. A chilling energy wave instantly swept across the entire barrier, shattering the ice crystals that had just formed on the ground.

Without the surface compression energy, those ice crystal segments still unleashed terrifying power, and the blue energy wave immediately swept towards Sotadia, instantly engulfing her.

He was blasted to the ground, the energy flow constantly impacting his body. The protective lightning on his body was quickly dispersed, and some lightning bolts exploded from it.

Even Hughes was affected, but he was protected by the extreme cold cage. The energy flow continuously impacted the ice sculpture, and although huge cracks appeared in the ice crystals, the energy flow did not affect Hughes inside.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—whoosh whoosh whoosh!!!"

The energy flow continued to surge within the barrier, and the compressed energy released by the ten ice crystals lasted for several minutes.

As the tide of elemental energy dissipated, Sotadia's frozen body was revealed, lying quietly on the ground.

His body was covered in white frost, his skin had been frozen into a stiff purple, and deep, bone-revealing wounds crisscrossed the area, the blood inside of which had long since stopped flowing and frozen into dark red ice shards.

"boom--"

After a long while, the ice crystals enveloping Hughes suddenly shattered, and a somewhat frozen hand trembled as it reached out.

"Bang--"

With his other hand outstretched, Hughes pushed himself up from the ice crystal.

"Splash—"

Hughes breathed on his hands and then quickly stood up from the ground.

"Phew, so this is what it feels like to be in an extremely cold prison."

Because elements frequently move around in their bodies, even apprentices have developed some resistance to the element they specialize in.

But inside, Hughes felt an unprecedented, bone-chilling cold. Fortunately, although it was cold, it was sturdy and, being far away, it barely shielded Hughes from the elemental impact.

Hughes looked into the distance. Sotadia was still lying on the ground, not moving. Unfortunately, his gauntlets, which could control and compress lightning elements, were already shattered and could not be repaired.

Hughes had not yet mastered the ability to generate compressed ice element constructs; he could only barely condense a few wisps of light that attached to the ice crystals.

However, this time Hughes was careful. When he constructed the ice crystal rod, he deliberately made each section hollow and filled it with compressed energy.

Because of the ice crystals encasing them, Hughes was still able to control them all with the help of the ice crystals. When Sotadia picked up the gauntlets, they all detonated like grenades.

The simultaneous eruption of the ten ice crystals was something even a beginner apprentice like Sotadia couldn't withstand. It was a pity about the pair of gauntlets, but it was a necessary sacrifice to lure Sotadia over.

Hughes dared not rush forward and could only sense Sotadia's life force from a distance.

"Oh no..."

With a furrowed brow, Hughes sensed the vigorous life force emanating from Sotadia. He was not dead; on the contrary, he was accumulating some kind of energy, waiting for the right moment to erupt.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!!!"

Without hesitation, three spinning ice spikes instantly condensed in front of Hughes and shot towards Sotadia.

Sudden.

"boom--!!!"

Suddenly, a dense crimson light erupted from Sotadia's body, enveloping him completely like a ball of blood-red flame, and the incoming ice spikes were instantly shattered by the crimson light.

Sotadia slowly rose to his feet, each breath causing a surge of blood-red light to rise and fall in his chest, as if new life force was flowing through his veins to his limbs and bones.

The white frost that had formed on the skin's surface melted instantly, and the purplish-black frostbite marks healed and faded at a visible speed, revealing a healthy glow to the exposed skin.

"Click—click-click—squeak—squeak squeak"

The sounds of flesh writhing and bones cracking and reforming came from his body, and his body gradually became more upright, not inferior to even body-refining wizards.

"Sizzle—sizzle sizzle—"

Lightning erupted from Sotadia's body once more, but... this time the lightning was incredibly crimson, clearly streaks of blood-red lightning composed of blood energy.

"I'm quite surprised too... Magic can actually be converted into blood energy used by vampires... It seems that wizards are indeed very skilled, and there's a reason why they can recruit so many races."

Sotadia said softly, his voice hoarse. Although he was not as old as Sotadis was back then, one could still sense his greatly diminished vitality.

"The Tunotian family is probably finished... With such a commotion, even if the Golden Crown didn't detect it, the forces near the Loken Plains will report the situation here."

As he spoke, Sotadia suddenly looked up. The sky was now shrouded in blood, with blue and purple light intertwining in one area, seemingly resisting the blood energy.