Ancient Wizards: A Little Progress Every Day

In the silent forest, a figure lay quietly on the grassy ground.

Sunlight streamed through the gaps in the tree branches, illuminating his pale, handsome face. Morning dew slid from the tips of the leaves, dripping onto his dry, cracked lips.

With a few slight twitches of his lips, Dago awoke from his coma.

"Cough cough."

Dago struggled to sit up, and the next moment he couldn't help but press his hands to his head.

It looked as if countless tiny insects were hiding between his eyebrows and below his temples, jumping and throbbing as if they were about to burst through his skin at any moment.

At this moment, he felt as if countless pieces of information and knowledge were being forcibly stuffed into his mind, and that they were still being continuously stuffed into it.

This incredibly vast flow of information seemed to contain an ancient and complete tradition, but the tradition was still being passed on, and he could only decipher a small part of it.

"Lingling...heart."

Dago took a deep breath, enduring the throbbing pain in his brain, and slowly stood up from the grass.

The dense free energy particles filling the surrounding environment announced that he had left the Spirit Space. Dago examined himself. The blue conch inside his body was still there, but the energy sphere was dim to the point of being almost dry, emitting a small amount of life energy to slowly repair the damage to his body.

The Ancient Blue Demon Body elevates Dago's Blue Demon Body to another level of strength, but it also consumes an enormous amount of life energy.

Dago took out healing potions from his personal spatial ring and poured them into his mouth one after another.

As his condition gradually improved, Dago's brain slowly regained its ability to think.

"How long was I unconscious?"

Dago's last conscious thought before falling into a coma was of himself being enveloped by a membrane of light released by the golden ladybug and leaving.

He didn't know exactly how long the process took; he only knew that Evaque was still inside when he left.

Dago's eyes flickered a few times, then he spread out his mental energy, quickly determined a direction, and moved swiftly.

But before he could take more than a few steps, a strange movement came from between his eyebrows.

Dago felt the massive torrent of knowledge pouring into his mind suddenly stop.

Immediately afterwards, a beautiful golden ladybug the size of a fingernail flew out from between his eyebrows, fluttering its translucent wings, and hovered quietly in front of him.

The glow emanating from the golden ladybug illuminated the surrounding jungle in a serene and hazy atmosphere.

Dago stopped in his tracks, staring intently at the ladybug before him. After a moment, he calmly uttered a name: "Arazan Dillinfascola Cakingston."

He clearly remembered the dark silver tailless dragon's final, furious roar, and the name it kept cursing was this one.

As he spoke, the golden ladybug's wings fluttered slightly, and a piece of information flooded into Dargo's mind.

"The traitor of the Gorinilon Shaman, and a former guardian of the Temple of All Souls."

Dago frowned, silently reciting the fragmented information conveyed by the golden ladybug. His eyes flickered, and finally he looked up. "I understand. But I need to confirm one thing now... my friend is still in danger."

He tried to bypass the golden ladybug in front of him to find the entrance to the Spirits' Realm that Evaqui had led him into.

The golden ladybug made no attempt to stop him, but a scene immediately appeared in Dago's mind.

The scene depicted is the view from the stone statue plaza on the fifth level of the Spirits Space.

Dago spotted Evaque in the frame immediately.

His face was pale, and he leaned tightly against the stone statue of the wolf shaman.

A white beam of light descended from the top of the Wolf Witch's statue, firmly protecting Evaque within. Despite the dark silver tailless dragon, which the golden ladybug called Golini, tearing and roaring wildly from the outside, it could not break through the white beam of light's defense.

"Yes, Evaque passed the Wolf Witch Chief's test and received his inheritance. He should be able to receive protection. I was just worrying about him for nothing."

Dago relaxed slightly, but the next second he saw the tailless dragon suddenly abandon its attack on the white pillar of light, turn around and roar at the remaining seven stone statues in the square.

It seemed to be loudly proclaiming something.

Dago frowned, and the next moment his pupils contracted sharply.

He saw the white beam of light hanging from the wolf shaman statue suddenly retract, and before Evaqui could react, the tailless dragon opened its mouth and spat out a ball of milky white light, then pounced on Evaqui.

Caught off guard, Evaque was struck by the massive dragon shadow, which instantly transformed into countless viscous black liquids that desperately burrowed into his mouth, nose, and pores all over his body.

Dago's drooping hands clenched tightly, and then he saw the milky white ball of light that the tailless dragon had spat out earlier split into six in mid-air, flying towards the other six stone statues except for the dragon shaman Bahafus.

The scene abruptly ends there and disappears.

"call--"

In the silent jungle, Dago stood quietly, and after a few deep breaths, he regained his composure.

"So, it made some kind of deal with them, and Evaqay was sacrificed to his most revered shamanic spirit?"

The golden ladybug hovered silently, offering no response.

Dago was silent for a moment, then spoke in a low voice, "So, tell me where I should go now?"

The golden ladybug flew towards Dago and disappeared back into his brow. All the surrounding light receded, as if nothing had happened.

"All spirits... the tailless dragon Golini, the chief sorcerer."

Dago muttered these words to himself, and after a moment, he turned around and ran off into the distance.

"Click-clack—"

In the swamp filled with black liquid, the water level dropped rapidly, and the dried-up, faceless black stone statue reappeared. In a moment, countless cracks appeared on the stone statue, and finally, with a "bang," it exploded into countless fragments.

The void shattered by the stone golem, and a pair of rough, dark hands gripped the two sides of the void crack, slowly prying it open. Evaqui's figure, accompanied by incessant cursing, squeezed out from the opening.

"Only an idiot would think that person would come back!"

"He abandoned everyone long ago! Only a fool would think he could find the answer, and only an utterly stupid person would believe that once he finds the answer, he'll come back with it to save everyone!!"

"A bunch of stubborn old fogies! Your brains, along with your bodies, have long been corroded away by the passage of time. Your wisdom is gone, leaving only rotten silt behind!!"

"Evaqui" emerged step by step from the spatial rift, his face contorted.

At this moment, his body was still strong and majestic, but his demeanor and temperament seemed to have changed completely. There was an indescribable gloom and coldness between his brows, and the surrounding environment became gloomy under his influence.

"Even that old fox Arajan is starting to fear his own demise and is planning his escape route. He used to be one of Arajan's most loyal followers."

Evaqui's face darkened, and as he thought of his "defeat" in the Spirits Space, his face became resentful and distorted.

If someone hadn't interfered and stolen the body he had already chosen just as he was about to succeed, he wouldn't be in this situation, having to mortgage a third of his soul just to barely get a body that can walk freely.

The condition of his physical body doesn't matter; the key issue is that he is now bound to those foolish sorcerers in the Spirit Realm. If he can't find a way to "rescue" the others from leaving, he will have no choice but to die along with them as the Temple of Spirits collapses!