Wizard: Start with Biological Transformation to Grind Experience - Chapter 562 - 21: Reunion at the Tower of Decay
Chapter 562: Chapter 21: Reunion at the Tower of Decay
The sensation of being pulled by the space vortex suddenly disappeared, replaced by a solid feeling beneath his feet.
Lynch steadied himself, his deep eyes sweeping across the surroundings instantly.
He found himself in a grand and ancient circular hall. The floor was made of a peculiar dark gray wood, covered with dense, annular patterns, giving a contradictory sensation of warmth and cold underfoot.
The dome of the hall was exceedingly high, shrouded in darkness, supported not by stone columns, but by countless coiling, writhing black roots, as if alive and slowly crawling. Faint dark green energy veins flowed across the roots’ surfaces, resembling decaying blood vessels.
The air was thick with a unique aroma, a mix of ancient wood, decaying earth, and pure magic power, a characteristic scent of the Decaying Wood Domain.
The walls of the hall were not solid, but composed of flowing energy barriers akin to liquid jade, on which twisted runes occasionally surfaced, alongside fleeting kaleidoscopic fragments of forests, deserts, and swamps, clearly connecting to various areas of the Trial Road.
This is…
The Tower of Decay?
Though not explicitly stated, Lynch had an inkling that this must be the core hub of the former Decay Elder’s Witch Domain, the Decaying Tower.
Lynch’s gaze quickly locked onto two figures already present in the hall.
Close to the energy barrier on the left was Jeraf of the Jade Tower. Still dressed in his simple gray robe, his white hair meticulously groomed, he was looking up at the runes flowing on the barrier, his brows slightly furrowed, as though trying hard to decipher something. The aura around him was more condensed than before, imbued with a hint of desolation, evidently indicating substantial gains from the previous trial.
Meanwhile, in the center of the hall, on a throne-like elevation naturally formed by the giant roots, the Dark Emblem Witch Master, Sophia, was leisurely swinging her legs.
She maintained her innocent and lively girlish appearance, with twin ponytails resting on her shoulders, but the light shining in her big eyes was more spirited and unfathomable than before. In her hand, she played with a wisp of dark green energy that had escaped from the black roots, which wrapped and frolicked over her fingertips like a live snake, yet it could not harm her in the slightest.
The moment Lynch stepped into the hall, Sophia’s gaze swept over like the most sensitive detector. Her face immediately broke into a sweet smile, her voice crisp: “Ah! Saphiro, you finally came! You’re much slower than others!”
Jeraf also turned his head at the sound, his deep gaze falling on Lynch, nodding slightly in greeting, “Saphieros Wizard.”
His voice was steady, carrying an imperceptible hint of scrutiny. He could sense that the Lord of Fiery Flame before him had become even more restrained and… dangerous—like a seemingly calm but storm-laden deep pool.
Lynch nodded in return, his gaze calmly sweeping over the two, “Witch Master Jeraf, Witch Master Sophia. It seems the two of you have made quite the progress.” His voice was flat, with no discernible emotion, yet his composed demeanor made a flicker of playfulness cross Sophia’s eyes.
“Hehe, not bad~” Sophia gracefully leapt down from the “throne,” bouncing over to not far from Lynch, tilting her head with her big eyes twinkling with curiosity, “Saphiro, that place you went earlier… was it a lifeless, all-gray-and-white sandy desert?”
Lynch’s eyes flickered slightly, not denying: “Desert of Decay.”
“As expected!”
Sophia clapped her hands, her little face showing a “just as I thought” expression, “I went to the ’Decaying Swamp,’ all sticky, stinky mud everywhere, and loads of slippery, biting little cuties~” As she spoke, she made a disgusted face, but her eyes were filled with excitement, as if discussing interesting toys.
Jeraf chimed in, his voice carrying a hint of gravity: “I arrived at the ’Withered Forest.’ There… the decay power twisted the flow of time, where trees cycled between flourishing and withering in an instant, attacks containing the dual erosion of time and decay, very difficult to deal with.” He looked at Lynch, “I suppose the Desert of Decay isn’t a good place either?”
Lynch said blandly, “Endless Sea of Sand, accompanied by deathly silence, Rule Steles stood tall. Break the stele, and one can advance.” He spoke succinctly, not revealing the details of how he deciphered the steles to gain Rune Knowledge, but highlighting the key point.
“Rule Stele…” Jeraf nodded thoughtfully, “It seems that every trial site is interpreting the true meaning of ’Decay’ in different ways, testing our understanding and control of it.”
Sophia blinked, moving closer to Lynch, lowering her voice with a hint of craftiness: “Hey, Saphiro… that ’see-through everything’ feeling around you has gotten stronger. Did you find some ’treasure’ in the desert?” Her spiritual power, like the finest probe, silently sought to touch the edges of Lynch’s perception.
However, just as her spiritual power approached, it encountered an invisible, intangible, yet incredibly intricate web! This web was not a solid barrier but a pervasive ’field’. Her spiritual tendrils seemed trapped in countless small coordinate grids, with every minute fluctuation and intention instantly captured, analyzed, and reacted to!
Lynch hadn’t even deliberately used [Spiritual Focus] to purify his spiritual defense; merely the passively deployed [Grid Circuit] full-field perception had taken all of Sophia’s probing into its grasp.
His grey eyes turned to Sophia, gaze calm and unruffled, yet carrying a kind of piercing clarity: “Does Witch Master Sophia’s curiosity know no bounds?”
Sophia’s smile froze slightly, then blossomed even more dazzlingly, nonchalantly retracting her spiritual tendrils: “Oh no, got caught~ Saphiro, you’ve become even more remarkable!”
Yet in her heart, she was secretly alarmed.
This perception ability, as a late-stage Mystical Level practitioner, she of course could recognize it at a glance, was definitely the officiating of the twelfth Mystical Circuit, the Grid Mysticism!
For a moment, Sophia was utterly shocked. On the mudflat, Lynch clearly did not have this ability; could this be a sudden advancement in this short period of time? But how long has it been?
Jeraf also keenly noticed the invisible clash just now, his gaze towards Lynch becoming more profound. Lynch’s sudden change was also entirely beyond his expectations.
Just as the atmosphere among the three turned subtle, an energy barrier on the right side of the hall suddenly fluctuated violently!
“Buzz——!”
A pure white figure, with a sharp momentum, tore through the barrier like fabric and landed heavily on the hall floor! It was Anderson, the Witch Master of the Pure White Tower!
