Generally speaking, the rule a wizard chooses to study upon advancing to the third level is the most private and core secret of that wizard.
It concerns the wizard’s future development direction, combat style, and even the ceiling of their entire wizard career.
However, given Senior Sister Viola’s notoriously vile personality, known to all, there was no need to speculate what rule she would choose.
Without a doubt, Viola had chosen the “agony” rule!
This rule, in the wizard world, was a relatively niche branch.
It was quite peculiar; if used purely for combat, its direct boost to combat power wasn’t particularly great.
Especially against battle-hardened beings with wills like forged steel, the effects of this rule would be further diminished.
However, when facing certain special creatures, this rule exhibited an exaggerated auxiliary effect.
For example… the living Flame and Frost Plane before them.
Enemies of this type—born powerful, with lifespans tied to the plane, and of the elemental creature variety—likely had never experienced “agony” since their inception.Its existence was the rules and power themselves, overlooking the births and deaths of countless beings within the plane, yet never inserting itself among them.
Conversely, when encountering continuous, soul-origin-deep agony for the first time, this powerful living plane would undoubtedly suffer a tremendous impact.
Its battle rhythm would be disrupted, its power mobilization delayed, and even its control over its own rules would develop flaws!
After understanding this, Jie Ming also realized another thing.
Thus, Master Augustine’s command for the wizard camp to self-destruct wasn’t merely to inflict heavy damage on the opponent.
It served a deeper purpose—to allow the opponent to feel the most “primal” agony!
As long as it experienced agony for the first time, as long as a crack named “agony” was left on that indestructible “shell,”
Viola could use her law, like a maggot gnawing at the bone, to make this living plane continuously endure this unprecedented torment.
Jie Ming looked at Viola with some surprise, a hint of disbelief in his eyes.
He never imagined that this senior sister, clearly only a third-level wizard in strength, would occupy such a crucial strategic position in a battle of this magnitude.
But after grasping this, he couldn’t help but complain: “Senior sister, with such an important mission, you’re actually slacking off here with me?”
Viola waved it off nonchalantly: “Who said I’m slacking? I’ve been working hard the whole time!”
She paused, then explained: “The rule influence was successfully applied to the opponent from the very start. After the living plane felt agony, its agony emotions became a precise coordinate; as long as my mental power persists, it will forever lock onto that big fellow.”
“No matter where I am, as long as I can still lock onto it, I can continuously inflict agony on it. Being here or in the command room makes no difference.”
While chatting with Viola, Jie Ming kept monitoring the battle situation on the light screen.
The mutual bombardment between the two behemoths continued unabated, each energy clash enough to make the void tremble.
The ship plane’s main cannon, after a round of cooling, completed recharging once more.
A destruction beam even thicker and denser than before tore through the void, precisely striking the living plane’s massive “magma mouth.”
The terrifying energy erupted instantly, abruptly halting the surging magma torrent and even leaving a deep, bone-visible charred wound on its “lips”!
Under the influence of the agony law, the living plane suffered even greater pain than before.
In pain, the living plane let out an even more furious silent roar.
Its “red and blue eyes” spun rapidly, two starkly different yet equally lethal elemental catastrophes—like entwined giant dragons—slamming viciously into the ship plane’s shield.
The shield’s glow flashed wildly, the entire ship plane emitting a groan of overburdened strain. Countless wizards at their respective nodes rapidly adjusted the arrays, exerting all their effort to maintain energy output.
Watching the various data and changes on the light screen, as time passed, Jie Ming’s expression grew increasingly grave.
Because he discovered that, although Viola’s “agony” rule was continuously taking effect, the ship plane seemed to be gradually, irreversibly falling into a disadvantage!
The living plane’s terrifying recovery and adaptation abilities were gradually manifesting.
It was beginning to grow accustomed to the agony, even finding a new battle rhythm within the pain!
Its attacks became more ferocious and more precise!
Viola, at his side, showed no surprise at this development, as if she had anticipated it all along.
Looking at the gradually suppressed battle situation on the light screen, she explained calmly: “Although ‘agony’ works well on this kind of creature, …my level is still too low, after all.”
She sighed, continuing: “For higher beings of this caliber, if the applied rule power isn’t strong enough, even if they’re initially unaccustomed to agony and affected, they’ll quickly adapt later on.”
The wizard advancement standards were not just conditions for promotion but also the upper limit of a wizard’s power exertion.
For a third-level wizard to advance to fourth-level, besides the mental power issue, rule mastery must reach 1%.
Conversely, no matter how much actual rule mastery a third-level wizard had, they could at most exert rule power infinitely approaching 1%.
This was an ironclad rule of the wizard system, the basis for rank divisions.
“So… you’re planning to advance to fourth-level wizard here?” Jie Ming looked at Viola, instantly understanding her intent.
“Yes, and no.” Viola nodded first, then shook her head.
Jie Ming couldn’t help but swallow, watching her expression, for in those silver-gray eyes flickered an unprecedented, near-mad ambition and resolve.
She smiled lightly, the smile carrying excitement and a hint of madness that made Jie Ming’s heart clench:
“This time, I plan to advance straight to sixth-level wizard in one go!”
Jie Ming’s pupils contracted sharply!
He could hardly believe his ears.
Advancing from third-level in one leap, skipping fourth and fifth levels, directly to sixth?!
Even though he had anticipated that his senior sister might attempt something drastic, hearing her actual plan still shocked him.
This was simply a pipe dream!
“Impossible… wait…” Jie Ming instinctively wanted to refute, but then something occurred to him, and he looked at Viola in astonishment. “You’ve actually fully comprehended the agony rule already?!”
Viola didn’t answer his question directly; instead, she slowly drew a vial of potion from her clothing.
This vial of potion emanated a bright and pure golden light, like holding a miniature sun, dazzling to behold!
Within the exquisite crystal bottle, the golden liquid flowed slowly, as if containing the mysteries of the world.
Viola gazed at the potion, and on that face usually tinged with mischief and sickness, a rare expression of helplessness appeared.
She muttered to herself: “For this thing, I’ve shouldered over a thousand years of debt!”
But Jie Ming recognized the potion.
He had seen records of it in high-level databases.
It was… the “Soul Sublimation Potion.”
It was the most suitable potion in wizard civilization for boosting mental power during advancement!
Its effects were extraordinarily potent, forcibly “sublimating” the user’s soul to the next, or even the level after that, in a short time without any side effects, meeting the mental power requirements for advancement.
Though after the drug’s effect wore off, the user’s soul essence would regress.
But if advancement succeeded during that period, the soul’s sublimated essence would be retained, permanently expanding the upper limit and potential of mental power!
Afterward, through prolonged meditation, the mental power ceiling gap created by the advancement could be refilled.
This potion could maximally satisfy advancement up to sixth-level wizard.
So theoretically, if Viola’s comprehension of the “agony” rule was profound enough, it was indeed possible to use this potion’s power to complete the heaven-defying leap from third to sixth level in one go!
However, Jie Ming was skeptical that Viola could have fully comprehended the “agony” rule ahead of time.
After all, rule comprehension grew increasingly difficult toward the end; even geniuses needed vast time for accumulation and epiphany.
Viola admitted honestly: “Though I’m indeed a pervert, and my understanding of ‘agony’ far surpasses the ordinary, the end of a rule isn’t so easily touched.”
She candidly acknowledged that she hadn’t fully comprehended and mastered a small portion of the agony law’s core rules.
“But…” Viola pivoted, her eyes gleaming with confidence. “This difference isn’t something to worry about.”
Her gaze turned once more to the living Flame and Frost Plane roaring in agony on the light screen.
“The reason lies in it!”
“A creature as special and powerful as this, when feeling agony, can in turn provide me with immense benefits!”
“Every bit it suffers from my rule feeds back to me a sliver of new insight into the essence of ‘agony’ from its vast soul and rules, deepening my comprehension of the ‘agony’ rule!”
“The stronger my rule becomes, the more agony it feels! The more agony it feels, the stronger my rule becomes!”
“This is a perfect cycle!”
In other words, Viola dared to entertain the idea of directly advancing to sixth-level wizard precisely because she had encountered this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The living plane before them was both her enemy and the best “supplement” for her path to the rule’s end!