Chapter 296 Promotion to Seventh Rank

"Mmm!" Mage Luo Man hummed softly, then shifted her body closer to Shaoke, bringing her closer to him. Finally, using a special breathing technique, she fell asleep. Shaoke rested briefly, then, still holding the female mage in his arms, entered his meditative state again.

Seven or eight days passed quickly. During this time, the mages never left the stone tower, keeping all their magical materials inside. They also prepared a large number of stone tablets, so the Sixth Tier Mages could send them messages via these tablets if needed.

During this period, Lan Wei'er's meditation space could no longer accommodate any more spiritual power or magical energy. Thus, under the care of Shaoke and the others, she successfully advanced to a Second Tier Mage.

Becoming a Second Tier Mage made Lan Wei'er very happy, as she now had new spells to choose from. However, for some unknown reason, she devoted most of her energy to studying ancient spellcasters. Since both Shaoke and Mage Luo Man had a large collection of books on ancient spellcasters, her interest was sustained.

After dealing with some tedious matters, Shaoke began his own advancement in a room within the stone tower. The Sixth Tier Mages were a bit concerned about this advancement. After all, advancing from the Sixth Rank to the Seventh Rank was something many mages could not achieve, and some even suffered permanent damage to their meditation spaces. Given this situation, several female spellcasters were especially concerned about Shaoke, including Mage Lan Wei'er. Since Shaoke had been so helpful to her during this period, Lan Wei'er felt that if she didn't show concern for him, her mother would be displeased.

When advancing from Sixth Rank to Seventh, there was no need to clear out everything in the meditation space. One only had to wait for the vortex caused by the medicines to disappear before proceeding.

Shaoke first traced the high-level magic array for advancement, then successfully embedded it into the Six-pointed Star Magic Array, forming a new Seven-pointed Star Magic Array. He completed this step very smoothly; the Six-pointed Star Magic Arrays in both spaces were successfully converted into Seven-pointed Star Magic Arrays on the first try.

After this, Shaoke proceeded to the second step, which was also the final step. He needed to use his spiritual power and magical energy to condense substantial stone blocks, using these blocks to perform some construction work on the two altars, thereby expanding the altars within his meditation space.

This step took a great deal of time and effort, as he not only had to condense these stone blocks but also embed the most powerful magic scripts he knew, as well as phrases formed from them, onto the blocks. Fortunately, there was no time limit for this final step; otherwise, Shaoke believed no one would be able to advance to Seventh Tier Mage.

Following the information obtained from the Death Mage Corps, Shaoke embedded almost all ancient magic scripts onto each stone block condensed from spiritual power or magical energy, and used these scripts to form numerous phrases. This embedding and construction work took Shaoke two full years inside the stone tower to complete. This was mainly because the magic scripts he embedded on the stone blocks were extremely powerful and numerous. Ordinary mages could only embed a dozen or so magic scripts onto a single stone block condensed from spiritual power, and even fewer ancient magic scripts. But Shaoke, using the special techniques provided by the Death Mage Corps, managed to embed hundreds of powerful ancient magic scripts on each block.

All of this caused him to be half a year behind the other mages.

After two years of construction, the altars within his meditation space had undergone a dramatic transformation. The new altars had almost the same form, but their area had nearly quadrupled. A large number of magic scripts continuously floated out from the altars along with silver light and merged into the meditation space. Under the influence of these scripts, the space underwent subtle expansions. Above the altar, Shaoke constructed a smaller altar. As soon as this smaller altar was completed, the flames condensed from silver light suddenly transferred into it. Faced with this situation, Shaoke had no ability to make any changes; he could only hope the silver light wouldn't interfere with his later work, as he could not control that silver light.

After the altars in both spaces were completed, Shaoke rested for a few days and spent some intimate time with Mage Luo Man and Mage Yisier to relieve his stress.

After resting, the mage began the final step: simultaneously igniting arcane fire in his meditation space using both spiritual power and magical energy, and maintaining it. Only then would his advancement be truly complete. The remaining work would be tedious and long-term.

Within both spaces, he gathered a mass of magical energy and spiritual power. Once this was ready, Shaoke used the ancient magic script 'Burn'. After forming a series of complex hand seals, these two magic characters condensed amid a violent spatial disturbance and fell into the light clusters of spiritual power and magical energy.

A flame the size of a fist quickly ignited, and as this arcane fire burned, the spiritual power and magical energy in the space rapidly disappeared. At this moment, the altar spun rapidly and absorbed the silver and purple arcane fire into the topmost altar. The silver light also merged violently into the two flames, increasing the mage's energy drain further.

Without even checking the details, Shaoke quickly drew the most effective recovery meditation array in his meditation space and began replenishing his spiritual power and magical energy to maintain the burning of the arcane fire.

As time passed, the two flames grew larger and began to spread across the entire altar. The arcane fire burning the altar not only gave Shaoke a headache but also triggered more violent turbulence in the meditation space. However, as the flames burned and emitted waves, the entire space rapidly expanded to four times its original size, though the silver light constantly worked to calm things down, sparing him the need to stabilize it through meditation. In just half a magic hour, the entire meditation space expanded to four times its size. When the arcane fire completely enveloped the altar, the expansion stopped. Occasionally, some arcane fire would break off from the altar and merge into the space, causing minor expansions.

The arcane fire burned on the altar, quickly etching a large number of magic scripts onto every part of the altar.

Just when Shaoke's spiritual power and magical energy could no longer sustain such widespread burning, the silver light suddenly erupted in a violent explosion, completely merging into the two flames. With the help of this silver light, the arcane fire continued to envelop the entire altar, burning upon it.

As time passed, nearly a day went by, and the arcane fire continued to burn around the altar, but Shaoke felt that the drain on his spiritual power and magical energy was not as high as expected. This made him a bit panicked, as he didn't know if he had successfully advanced or not.

According to the books from the Death Mage Corps, after burning continuously for a while, the arcane fire would shrink rapidly due to insufficient spiritual power and magical energy, eventually forming a fist-sized flame that would burn permanently on the top altar.

Unable to determine his own state, Shaoke could only continue to maintain his meditation. He gave up this effort after just over ten days.

It turned out that on the third day, the arcane fire suddenly set Shaoke's meditation recovery array ablaze and dragged the array into the altar, permanently branding it there. After the initial panic, Shaoke realized he could no longer outline that specific recovery array in his meditation space, which alarmed him at first. However, after prolonged observation, he discovered that the recovery array embedded in the altar, along with the Seven-pointed Star Magic Array, was still operating at high speed. Even without his active meditation, the altar automatically restored his spiritual power and magical energy, though at about half the efficiency compared to when he personally controlled it.

Forcing himself to calm down, Shaoke told himself that his current state was fine. He then tried another restorative meditation method, and this time it succeeded, which put him at ease. Unfortunately, when he tried other types of meditation arrays, the arcane fire did not drag them into the altar. However, it did ignite the two Seven-pointed Star Magic Arrays and the thousands of threads connecting them to the altar.

Faced with this vast arcane fire, Shaoke stopped paying attention to it. After all, it didn't cause him any trouble, and he had no way to extinguish it. Moreover, under the influence of the silver light, the flames consumed relatively little spiritual power and magical energy, so he let them burn. At the very least, prolonged burning would make his meditation space much more durable than that of other mages.

After repeatedly confirming that his meditation space had expanded to four times its original size, that the arcane fire was still burning, and that his spiritual power and magical energy were rapidly recovering, Shaoke concluded that his ascension had succeeded. At least, as far as he could tell, the Seven-pointed Star Magic Arrays had not disappeared.

When he left his room again, Lan Wei'er was sitting on a chair, quietly reading a book. Seeing Shaoke appear once more, she habitually asked, "Respected Mage Xueye, have you successfully advanced?" After speaking, she put down her book, stood up, and bowed to Shaoke.

Shaoke helplessly rubbed her little head, hugged her, and kissed her forehead, saying, "You should call me Father." Then he added, "Yes, I succeeded. You can go back to your room and rest now. Where is your mother?"