Chapter 416 Actually, I Forgot to Let Him Do This

After a series of support spells, the White-robed Cleric once again left Shaoke's room and rested in the outer room. Meanwhile, Shaoke began his official advancement work in the chamber.

The advancement to the Tenth Tier required relatively less time. This time, the mage directly used a special method to modify the existing Nine-pointed Star Magic Array. He condensed a small Ten-pointed Star Magic Array using his mental power. Then, after a series of spells and gestures, the Ten-pointed Star Magic Array slowly merged into the original Nine-pointed Star Magic Array.

When the mage completed this task, the entire meditation space shook violently. This tremor nearly shattered the meditation space, but fortunately, the mage, at great personal cost, released a large amount of silver light and used a special technique. After countless magic scripts burst forth from the fully crystallized structure, the violent spatial turbulence gradually subsided. Of course, this was also due to the assistance from the White-robed Cleric.

The mage took a brief breath, then summoned the White-robed Cleric from outside to assist him. When the Cleric received Shaoke's signal, she was overjoyed. The completion of the first step meant that most of the mage's advancement to the Tenth Tier was finished. Many mages had died at this first step due to the shattering of their meditation space.

With the Cleric's help, streaks of golden light flowed through the mage's meditation space. The mage manipulated these golden lights to quickly repair the cracks in the ground and the altar. He had to mend these cracks as quickly as possible; otherwise, once the next phase began, he would be even more occupied. Of course, failure to complete the crack repairs could also lead to failure in advancement.

Over the following days, the mage continuously worked on repairing the cracks. When this task was about halfway done, the entire Nine-pointed Star Magic Array underwent a remarkable transformation. This change made the mage's repair work even more arduous, but it was a spontaneous process of the entire meditation space.

The slowly rotating Nine-pointed Star Array expanded with each rotation. At this time, the mage not only had to expend immense energy filling the cracks but also had to use vast amounts of mental power and magic to reinforce the newly expanded regions. Fortunately, with the Cleric's help, the mage managed to persevere.

The White-robed Cleric quickly recast the support spells as soon as they faded. After several days of work, the White-robed Cleric appeared very exhausted, yet she felt everything was worthwhile to safeguard her husband's safety. Though not adept at expressing emotions, she conveyed this with a smile.

As time passed, the Nine-pointed Star Array spun faster and faster. Due to the numerous cracks on the ground, the mage could only focus on swiftly repairing the cracks wherever transformations occurred. The Nine-pointed Star Magic Array also began to slowly change its shape. After a month, the continent within the meditation space had fully transformed into a Ten-pointed Star Magic Array. At the moment of this formation, thunder from above and fire from below appeared in the meditation space, along with violent gales and black holes that began to wreak havoc.

Despite all this, the mage persisted, expending enormous amounts of mental strength and magic. After the Ten-pointed Star area expanded to over ten times the previous Nine-pointed Star area, Shaoke's altar added another layer, becoming a ten-layered altar. Just as the altar was completed, countless magic script stars fell from the sky, heavily crashing into the newly formed ground. Each impact created a large hole in the earth. The mage did everything he could to maintain the ground's solidity, trying to delay its complete destruction as long as possible.

Time passed bit by bit. Every night when she slept alone, Mage Roman, busy outside, couldn't suppress her worry and would come to rest outside Shaoke's room. Until one day, when her unusual behavior was discovered by Anling and the others, she had to tell the children about their father's current situation.

"Mom, you should have told us earlier," said Anling, usually calm but now suddenly agitated. She knew that the chance of a Nine-rank Mage advancing to the Tenth Tier was extremely low—often less than one percent. She was truly afraid that if her father failed this time, she would never see him again. "At least we should have seen Father one last time," Anling said, her voice choked with tears.

"It's nothing," Roman said softly, comforting her three daughters. She hadn't expected Anling to be so emotional.

"We should trust Xueye. He will surely succeed in his advancement," the Female Mage said, hugging her three daughters tightly. Then she led them to stand outside the room, quietly waiting for the mage's advancement.

After more than a month, the meditation space had no solid matter left except for the ten-layered altar. At this point, Shaoke began to chant the incantations slowly according to the method of advancement. One by one, magic scripts issued from his lips and floated quietly outside the altar. After each segment of the chant, the suspended scripts merged into the surrounding void.

The mage continued chanting for an entire day before stopping. When the incantations ended, countless magic scripts and phrases suddenly appeared from the void, all merging into the mage's altar. Under the influence of these magic scripts, the altar, now entirely crystallized, underwent a drastic change. This was the final step of the mage's advancement. If everything succeeded, he would become a Tenth Tier existence; failure meant eternal annihilation.

Under the effect of these magic scripts, the altar began to change from the first layer. Land formed from mental strength and magic appeared on the topmost layer. When that layer was fully covered, the second layer underwent the same process.

For nine full days, except for the bottommost layer, all other parts of the ten-layered altar underwent transformation. The altar then began to rotate rapidly, and countless light points from the void streamed into it. This change continued for a while before everything came to a halt.

After an unknown period, the mage awoke from the post-advancement insights. When he opened his eyes, two floating Ten-pointed Star altars slowly rotated before his eyes. The two mages in his sight stepped back slightly, then together they stepped forward again.

"Father, you're awake," Mo said nervously, looking at Shaoke. She couldn't determine if this man before her was still her father. His withered body, strange eyes, and the dangerous aura he exuded all made the young girl feel very uneasy.

The mage nodded to indicate that he was fine. Then he stood up and headed outside, looking for a place to bathe and rest properly.

"Father, why was the final advancement time different from what Mom told us?" On the way, Lan Wei'er, who had been silent, suddenly turned to Shaoke and asked. "Can you tell me about it?" Saying this, the female mage linked her arm through his, pressing her soft body tightly against his withered form.

Originally, at the final stage of advancement, as long as his altar absorbed enough light points from the void, all changes would stop. The strength he gained from the advancement depended entirely on his performance during the process. Unlike previous advancements, once one successfully reached the Tenth Tier, their power would almost never change thereafter. Any advanced meditation method would be less effective than his meditation. A thousand years of meditation would be inferior to even a single day's extension during the time when the entire meditation continent was being destroyed.

At that time, when the altar had absorbed enough light points and was about to stop, a new change occurred. Silvery-white rays flew out from the altar, heavily striking the void and then exploding. Each explosion of silver light brought countless light points rushing into the altar.

These light points merging into the altar caused it to shake violently. Small cracks began to appear on the altar. As time passed, more and more light points gathered inside the altar. Although this meant that after the advancement, the mage's power would be immense, if the altar shattered now, he would die. At that moment, the mage had to release all his mental energy to stabilize the wild light points within the altar.

When the mage felt his altar could no longer hold on and thought he was about to die, countless arcane fires, driven by the silver light, suddenly smashed into the bottommost layer of the altar. Then, numerous light points, along with arcane fire and silver light, merged into this final layer.

At that point, the arcane fires, silver lights, and light points suddenly fused together to form the ground. Just as the ground was formed, the images of over a dozen Giant Beasts composed of golden light suddenly roared, absorbing everything in the space—arcane fire, silver light, and light points from the void. After being absorbed by the giant beasts, their forms solidified, appearing almost real.

Strange plants began to grow from the ground, while countless light points continued to pour from the void into the altar, but all were absorbed by the final layer. After a full month in the real world, the void finally stopped sending large numbers of light points into the altar. Gradually, it all faded away.

When no more light points merged into the altar, the void suddenly erupted with countless spell structures and incantations, heavily crashing into the crack-ridden altar. Seeing this phenomenon, Shaoke knew that his advancement was successful. After observing for a while longer, he withdrew from the meditation space.