Physical mage, challenge me to a solo duel!

"The power of the soul is ethereal and elusive. There is an ancient saying about the three souls and seven spirits. After a person dies, the remnant soul becomes a ghost and resides in the underworld, disliking the sun and preferring the shade. There is also the saying about the primordial spirit, which is something that can exist independently of the physical body and possesses boundless power."

In the office, Chu Zhaoding faced Wang Yi and began to explain.

"We now possess magic, and extraordinary mages can be called 'land immortals,' but unfortunately, we have never seen a ghost, nor has anyone cultivated a primordial spirit. Even for forbidden mages, death is the end of everything."

Chu Zhaoding extended his right hand and tapped his temple with his finger: "I believe that the outward manifestation of soul power refers to the result of a person, under self-awareness, influencing the surroundings through the extension of their own perception and with the help of spiritual power."

"Like this."

Chu Zhaoding looked at Wang Yi, and the next moment, Wang Yi felt a tightness all over his body, as if he was being restrained by something, and slowly floated up until he was at eye level with Chu Zhaoding.

"I didn't realize you were so heavy," Chu Zhaoding chuckled. "You could call this ability telekinesis, isn't it magical?"

"You know that every time a mage advances to the Transcendent level, their body is strengthened. However, because our innate conditions are different from those of magical beasts, no matter how much a human body is strengthened, it can never compare to that of a magical beast... Generally speaking, that's how it is."

"But after becoming extraordinary, in addition to strengthening your physical strength, you will also strengthen other things, namely your soul power. As a result, you can use your soul power to build walls, manipulate objects, or perform more precise operations according to your own ideas."

"But..." Chu Zhaoding paused for a moment, "This is the general consensus in the mage community, but I have a slightly different opinion."

"Have we reversed cause and effect? ​​Perhaps it's not that our soul power becomes stronger after advancing to the extraordinary realm, but rather that we can only advance to the extraordinary realm after our soul power becomes stronger!"

At this point, Chu Zhaoding grinned and said, "Generally speaking, a mage's soul power grows very slowly, much slower than magic power. As a result, many high-level mages have accumulated magic power to the limit, yet they still cannot advance to the transcendent level."

"It is clear that the power of the soul is the key factor that determines whether a mage can become extraordinary."

"All the emotions, life and death, magic, spirit, and physical body mentioned earlier—all the opportunities and conditions for breaking through to the extraordinary—are actually related to the power of the soul."

"Do you remember my definition of 'soul power'? Three keywords: consciousness, perception, and spirit."

Chu Zhaoding began to explain one by one.

"The impact of intense emotional fluctuations on one's consciousness, perception, and spirit is self-evident. In the face of a life-or-death crisis, one can strengthen one's consciousness, amplify one's perception, and temper one's spirit."

"Magic power also has a nurturing effect on soul power, but it takes a very long time. So long that many high-level mages who advance slowly grow old, their consciousness becomes unclear, their perception becomes blurred, and their spirit becomes weak. The growth of nurturing cannot keep up with the aging process, so they naturally cannot advance until they die."

"Energy and spirit are the outward manifestation of a person's strong soul power, and a mage with a strong physical body has a soul that is difficult to decay."

"Therefore, I believe that to advance to the extraordinary level, one needs to focus on improving one's soul power."

"Being able to detect the wind whisper spell I cast shows that your perception is sharp. Being able to withstand the mental domain shows that your will is firm. Moreover, mental mages are generally not weak, and yours is only stronger. Therefore, your soul power is definitely far superior to that of mages of the same level."

Chu Zhaoding looked directly at the floating Wang Yi: "So, Wang Yi, I really want to know, before your magic power accumulates to the limit of a high-level mage, can your soul power break through the standard of a transcendent mage first? If you do, can you use the methods of a high-level mage? If you can, are you considered a high-level mage or a transcendent mage?"

"Oh, right, I forgot to mention, one of the methods of extraordinary mages is to use soul power in a simple and crude way, such as building walls and manipulating objects. It looks fancy, but it's not very effective. I'm almost exhausted just dragging you up right now."

"The other is the control over external magic."

"When we cast spells normally, we consume the magic power within our bodies. However, extraordinary mages can also infuse the spells with external magic power, which is the true source of their power."

"Magic is like firewood, and magic is like a bonfire. The more firewood you have, the brighter the fire burns. It's a very simple principle. The magic within a person is limited, while the magic outside is limitless."

"Of course, this requires very precise operation. Magic power cannot be filled in randomly. You can extinguish a campfire by mindlessly throwing firewood, but if you don't control it well, either the magic will fail or the magic will go out of control. Neither is a good thing."

"Now that I've told you the key points to becoming extraordinary, hurry up and become extraordinary."

Wang Yi remained silent. The marshal's tone was as if to say: Now that you know one plus one equals two, let's solve a quadratic equation!

Soul power isn't something that's easy to increase. He didn't absorb the original body's soul, so he wasn't born with a strong soul. It was all increased by a few passive mental magic spells.

However... if one becomes a high-level mage and absorbs more legendary-grade passive mental magic, could one elevate their soul power to an extraordinary level?

Wang Yi's heart pounded wildly, and he suddenly looked forward to the day he would become a high-level mage.

"Alright, the path to becoming a transcendent mage has been shown to you. Next, we will embark on the path to becoming a forbidden mage."

Wang Yi's pupils contracted slightly, his mouth opened wide, and his mind went blank.

No, Marshal, aren't we building our roads a little too fast?

After the initial shock, Wang Yi suddenly realized what was happening.

If the Marshal truly knows the path to becoming a Forbidden Mage, does that mean he is already a Forbidden Mage?

"I'm not a forbidden mage yet. I've only seemingly found the path, but haven't had a chance to embark on it yet." Chu Zhaoding seemed to have guessed Wang Yi's thoughts, and then calmly explained, "Because every forbidden mage's path is different, I can't be sure if my path is right or wrong before I succeed, so I'm just telling you for your reference."

"Consider this compensation for you, since I failed to keep my promise and retrieve the Queen Bee's Magic Crystal."