Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

While the wizards of the Thorn Ring were sizing up the other three wizarding factions, the wizards of the other three factions were also paying attention to the Ring.

After the airships came to a stop, the tower master-level figure leading the Thorn Ring team disembarked from the airships, and powerful wizards also took to the air from the airships of the other three wizarding factions.

A bald wizard in a golden robe stepped out of the Lava Brotherhood's airship. He had bright flame patterns on his head and held a black staff made of burning stone, with an orange-gold crystal embedded at the top, making him look extremely noble.

The wizard leading the Water Palace was a woman with a graceful figure, wearing a long robe that looked like it was woven from plant fibers, and her long hair hung down to her waist like vines, interspersed with some brightly colored small flowers and leaves.

Her skin was green, a healthy and vibrant green. Her hands were empty, and a smile always played on her lips, giving her a bright and cheerful appearance, like sunshine and rain.

In contrast, the leader of the Black Swamp wizard was at the other extreme. His appearance was completely obscured by a mask covered with various strange feathers. His robes were also strange, with a pure black base and many odd white stripes that looked like wriggling worms when the wind blew through them.

Exuding a strong aura of darkness and evil, the Black Swamp, as the only semi-dark witch force present, was clearly the most feared, and the other three magic airships were positioned far away from it.

Four powerful wizards leading the group gathered together, enveloped in the light of runic arrays, seemingly beginning to discuss something.

Dago heard Violet speak.

"It seems the Dark Crystal Cult and the Thunder Tower won't be coming to the second line, and I doubt they'll join the third line either."

"Don't they value the resources of these two secret realms?"

Dago asked casually.

Violet shook her head. "No, on the contrary, they always want the most. The Dark Crystal Cult and the Thunder Tower are the two strongest of the six major wizarding forces in the south. I estimate that the six major forces must have reached some kind of agreement, with the Dark Crystal Cult and the Thunder Tower focusing their main efforts on exploring the front-line areas."

He continued thoughtfully, "Looking at it this way, it's actually a good thing that I didn't make it to the front lines. The top wizarding geniuses under these two major powers have always been a level above us. They are all monstrous talents. Ordinary wizarding geniuses would find it difficult to compete with them and would have their confidence crushed. Only a monster like Barker would dare to confront them head-on."

"Is that exaggerated?"

Dargo frowned, finding it hard to believe that such words would come from Violet's mouth.

Violet was once the number one person on the Sky Island of the Silver Tower, and ranked first in the competition selection on paper. Although there are many monster geniuses hidden in the magic ring, I did not expect the gap to be so big.

Violet shook her head, offering no further explanation.

At this moment, the four wizards who had gathered in the sky to discuss matters separated and returned to their respective faction airships.

It was only then that Dago could see what the powerful wizard leading their group looked like. He was a rugged-looking, short-bearded, and heroic man. Judging from the faint sounds coming from the surroundings, he seemed to be the tower master of the Black Root Tower.

The tower master leading the group called everyone off the ship, hovered in mid-air, and then began to guide everyone to sign a soul contract. Dago listened carefully and found that the content of the contract was roughly about never keeping the spoils of the secret realm to himself.

As he was deep in thought, a brightly colored, plain ring without any patterns was thrown in front of him.

Dago reached out and caught it, discovering it was a spatial storage ring, with less than half the storage space of the one he had.

"Once you enter the Mirror Forest, anything you obtain must be stored in this ring. After you leave, you must hand it over to the tower master who led the expedition. If anything is lost, all rewards for this expedition will be forfeited."

The imposing Lord of the Black Tower, with an expressionless face, admonished each of the Ring Wizards.

Dago's eyes flickered, sensing that this meant the harvest would be distributed uniformly, and he asked Violet.

The latter nodded and said, "This is how it is every time the Magic Ring conducts a joint exploration. Generally, the harvest you obtain will be divided into three parts. You keep one part, one part is handed over to the Magic Ring, and the third part is distributed among all the wizarding forces that participated in the operation, based on the strength of each force and their contributions to the operation. As for individual wizards, those who perform well will receive extra rewards."

Apart from the Thorn Ring faction, the other three wizarding factions are also going through this process.

Taking this opportunity, Dago examined the three groups of wizards who emerged from the airship one by one: the Lava Brotherhood wizards in crimson robes, the Water Palace wizards in green robes, and the Black Swamp wizards in black robes.

Most of the faces I saw were quite young, powerful, and exuded confidence; they were all geniuses and elites from various fields.

Most of them emanated spiritual energy fluctuations at the late stage of the second ring, a small number at the middle stage, and those like Dago at the early stage of the second ring were still extremely rare.

While secretly observing, Dago suddenly felt the crystal containing the bloodline of the Despairing Winter Dragon inserted into his heart move slightly.

Amidst the intense pain, he sensed something and Dagodi's gaze quickly locked onto a figure.

That was in the direction of the Lava Brotherhood. A young figure wearing a red robe, whose hair was blown by the wind like flames, seemed to sense his gaze and suddenly turned his head to look.

Dago saw a pair of rare, fiery red eyes, as if they contained a great deal of heat. Dago made a deep impression on them and then quickly looked away.

"Obadia, what's wrong?"

Among the wizards of the Lava Brotherhood, a young man with a cold and fierce look between his brows sharply scanned a certain direction.

Hearing the question from the person next to him, he looked away and shook his head coldly, "It's nothing, I just feel like there are bugs spying on me."

The questioner was silent for a moment before speaking: "Lord Ishus asked me to tell you before he left that during this exploration, you can unleash a portion of the Overlord's bloodline power, provided you do not kill anyone."

Upon hearing this, Obadiah, with his red eyes, revealed a strange and cruel smile, and said in a hoarse, low voice, "Finally, can I set a fire to my heart's content?"

With preparations complete, the four leaders reunited and followed the beautiful third-ringed witch from the Water Palace as she stepped out and began to chant softly to the lake below.

A light purple flower was growing rapidly on her chest at a speed visible to the naked eye. The petals opened one by one, and then a key about the length of an index finger emerged from it, radiating golden light.

The key's handle had no bumps or patterns, yet it emitted a golden beam of light that plunged straight into the lake.

As the golden beam of light pierced through, the tranquility of the silver lake was immediately shattered. Ripples began to appear on the once mirror-like surface, which then intensified and quickly transformed into a massive silver vortex. Powerful energy fluctuations emanated from the vortex, whipping up a gale that billowed the robes of the many wizards present.

"You can go in now."

It is unclear who gave the order, but wizards from the four factions began to step into the vortex one after another.

Dargo followed closely behind Violet. As they approached the vortex, he peered down into it and found it to be unusually calm, with shimmering light and barely visible gray mist swirling around the vortex's entrance.

Ahead of them entering the secret realm were the wizards of the Water Palace. Dago witnessed a handsome green-robed wizard being entangled and surrounded by gray mist. In the blink of an eye, the green-robed wizard aged rapidly at an astonishing speed.

The wizard screamed in terror and desperately flew out of the vortex, attracting many onlookers.

"Don't stop looking, keep going in!"

A cold, authoritative voice rang in their ears, urging those who had stopped to continue entering the vortex.

Dago saw the strangely aged green-robed wizard quickly enveloped in a ball of green light by the leading witch of the Water Palace and then sent into the magic airship.

"He probably used some special means to conceal his true soul age."

Violet shook her head and commented beside Dago, "Almost every time an ancient secret realm opens, there are these guys who try to take chances with the Time Poison. They are usually over eighty years old in terms of soul age, and they will be affected if they are entangled by the Time Poison. Just now, that guy lost so much of his lifespan, so he probably lost at least several decades of his soul age."

"Anyone who deceives time will have their lifespan taken away by time."

"Is this the Time Poison?"

Dago's eyes flickered. Bernal had told him about the Time Poison a long time ago, but this was the first time he had seen it with his own eyes, and it was indeed unsettling.

"It won't affect us, so don't worry."

After Violet finished speaking, she suddenly looked at Dargo deeply, and then said softly, "Well then, Dargo, see you in the secret realm."

After saying that, he swooped down and plunged into the swirling vortex of light.

Dago was slightly moved. He took a step forward, gently bumping into a few wisps of gray mist, and then plunged headlong into the vortex.