Chapter 161: Chapter 109: Sensation in Chenxi City, Soaring Reputation
Except for Pei Ze, all the members had arrived, their faces beaming with joy.
"I told you Pei Ze would definitely win. See? I was right," Yuan Wanjun said, looking as proud as if he had won the competition himself.
But at that moment, no one called him out on it. Everyone was all smiles.
"I can’t believe Pei Ze is so strong. I heard those three Wizard Apprentices from Red Lotus City he defeated were all elites on the verge of condensing their Spirit Crystals," Guan Ling said, her face full of amazement.
"If they weren’t elites, they wouldn’t have represented Red Lotus City in the competition," Shao Hong said with a chuckle, clearly in high spirits.
As Pei Ze’s reputation soared, their Star Spirit Society also became quite famous at High Tower Academy.
This morning alone, a double-digit number of Wizard Apprentices had wanted to join their society.
Among them were quite a few upper-year students.
Now, the Star Spirit Society’s reputation at High Tower Academy was on par with that of the three great societies: the Shadow Snake Society, the Wisdom Society, and the Rose Society.
Although their overall strength was still far from equal, as long as Pei Ze’s fame was maintained, the society would become stronger day by day and eventually catch up to the three great societies.
"I wonder what Pei Ze is doing right now?" Jiang Weifang suddenly asked.
Shao Hong paused for a moment before saying, "He’s probably preparing to condense his Spirit Crystal."
As soon as he said this, everyone in the private room looked on with envy.
Once Pei Ze successfully condensed his Spirit Crystal, he would become the youngest Official Wizard in Chenxi City in nearly a hundred years.
It went without saying just how bright his future would be.
But along with their envy, the group also felt a complex mix of emotions.
As students of the same year, and even members of the same society, the gap between them and Pei Ze was only growing wider.
Now, Pei Ze had reached a height that was difficult for them to even imagine attaining.
And they could foresee that the gap between them and Pei Ze would only continue to widen in the future.
Perhaps one day, their only connection to Pei Ze would be that they were once members of the same society.
...
While the outside world was in an uproar over the competition, the man at the center of it all was relaxing leisurely in his apartment.
After returning to Chenxi City, Pei Ze had a wonderful, long sleep.
The next day, after waking up and completing his routine daily Meditation, he finally began to take stock of his spoils from the previous day.
Sitting down in the living room, Pei Ze took out the Dream Wand and Gong Xinghe’s dimensional bag, placing them on the coffee table.
Xiaoyi came over curiously, her gaze immediately captivated by the purple Gemstone at the tip of the Dream Wand.
But after staring at it for only a few moments, she suddenly swayed and fell toward the ground in a daze. Thankfully, Pei Ze was quick enough to catch her.
"Go on, go play quietly over there."
Pei Ze placed Xiaoyi on the sofa and instructed her with an amused smile.
The little one snapped out of it and, with lingering fear, quickly moved away from the coffee table.
Pei Ze shook his head with a laugh and picked up the Dream Wand to examine it closely.
With his level of Spiritual Power, he was completely unaffected by the purple Gemstone.
Most Wizards or Wizard Apprentices actually relied on an identification spell to appraise Magic Items.
This Magic allows the Caster to learn all the magical properties of a single Magic Item, including how to activate its functions or how many more times it can release its energy.
Like Mage Armor, the identification spell was also one of the mandatory One-Ring Spells for any Wizard or Wizard Apprentice.
Pei Ze was different, however. He had mastered a great deal of enchanting knowledge, albeit specifically in the area of Gem Enchantment. Fortunately, the Dream Wand fell precisely into this category.
After a moment of inspection, Pei Ze had a clear understanding of it.
Just as he had guessed, the Dream Wand’s function was to amplify the effects of Illusion Techniques.
For a Wizard Apprentice like Xu Ke, who specialized in Illusion Techniques, the Dream Wand was tantamount to a Divine Artifact.
To Pei Ze, however, it was of little use.
After all, his knowledge of Illusion Techniques was superficial at best.
Among the Magic he had mastered, only a handful like Silent Illusion and the Hypnosis Skill had any connection to Illusion Techniques.
’Looks like I’ll just have to sell it.’
Pei Ze shook his head.
Fortunately, a rare wizarding tool like this should have no problem selling for two thousand Magic Stone Coins, which was a considerable sum.
Putting away the Dream Wand, Pei Ze then opened Gong Xinghe’s dimensional bag.
It was jam-packed with items, filling the dimensional bag’s space almost completely.
First were the Magic Stone Coins—nearly a thousand of them.
Pei Ze couldn’t help but marvel; Gong Xinghe’s personal wealth was quite substantial.
To put it in perspective, even a Wizard Apprentice from a Wizard Clan would be considered well-off with two or three hundred Magic Stone Coins.
Back when Meng Kai made that bet with Gu Lin, losing five hundred Magic Stone Coins had nearly bankrupted him.
Gong Xinghe must have spent a long time saving up these thousand Magic Stone Coins. A pity they were all his now.
Besides the Magic Stone Coins, there were also several thousand Gold Coins and a small amount of Silver Coins, but these were hardly worth mentioning.
There were also quite a few potions, around thirty or forty vials, but they were all first-tier and only worth a few dozen Magic Stone Coins.
In addition, there were some materials, which happened to include many of the rare metals Pei Ze needed.
He immediately picked them out and set them aside, then took stock of the rest, preparing to sell them all together.
’Should be worth one or two hundred Magic Stone Coins.’
The last and largest haul consisted of Magic Items.
There were six in total, four of which were Defensive Magical Items that were already destroyed.
This was not surprising. Most Defensive Magical Items would easily shatter and be destroyed if the instantaneous damage they took exceeded their limit.
That was why Wizards frequently needed to replace their Defensive Magical Items.
Of the two remaining Magic Items, one was a spell-storing Magic Staff with the Fog Concealment Technique permanently set within it.
Pei Ze had already mastered the Fog Concealment Technique, so this Magic Item was of little use to him. He casually tossed it into the pile of things to be sold.
The second item was a section of vine, a little over ten centimeters long, with a skin the color of fresh blood.
The object looked unremarkable, but upon closer inspection, one could feel it emanating dense waves of Energy Particles, at a concentration far exceeding that of a faint-glow grade Magic Item.
This section of vine was precisely Gong Xinghe’s wizarding tool.
After he killed Gong Xinghe, the vine had spun out of control and buried itself underground. Pei Ze had used Mage’s Hand to dig it up and place it in the dimensional bag along with everything else.
After inspecting it for a while, Pei Ze shook his head.
This wizarding tool was vastly different from Gem Enchantment and fell outside his scope of knowledge.
’I’ll just wait until I’ve mastered the identification spell to appraise this.’
After taking stock of everything, aside from the Blood-colored Vine and some rare metals he planned to keep for himself, Pei Ze estimated that the remaining spoils could be sold for around fifteen hundred Magic Stone Coins.
Adding that to the one thousand Magic Stone Coins in ’cash’, his savings had now surpassed seven thousand Magic Stone Coins!
’Seven thousand Magic Stone Coins seems like a lot right now, but once I advance to Wizard, any single resource will cost tens or hundreds of Magic Stone Coins, some even over a thousand. Seven thousand probably won’t last long.’
Pei Ze lamented internally.
A Wizard’s cultivation was a bottomless pit; no amount of money thrown into it would ever be enough.
This was especially true for High-tier Wizards, for whom the resources needed for every step forward were an astronomical figure beyond the imagination of an ordinary person.
Otherwise, those powerful Wizards wouldn’t be so enthusiastic about planar wars.
It was all for the sake of plundering all sorts of resources to increase their own power!
’Low-tier Wizards are active on the Plane Battlefield, while High-tier Wizards directly assemble puppet legions to invade the planes of other races. A Wizard’s growth can never escape the twin themes of war and plunder.’
After this moment of reflection, Pei Ze brought his focus back to the matter at hand.
’As for the competition reward, what should I choose?’
’The Substitute Spirit is a must. It would be best to get two of them; that way, the chances of a successful advancement will be much higher.’
As for anything else, Pei Ze hadn’t decided yet.
After all, he was currently at the critical point of his advancement and had already prepared basically everything he needed.
He would only know what else he might need after he advanced to become a Wizard.
’I should go ask my teacher.’
After thinking for a moment, Pei Ze quickly came up with an idea.
Since he didn’t know what to ask for, he decided he might as well consult Mo Weng.
He could also ask about the matter of condensing a Spirit Crystal at the same time.
Although the relevant process and key points were already in his mind, it was naturally better to receive guidance from someone with experience.
Pei Ze immediately stood up, transformed his casual clothes into a long robe, and prepared to head out to High Tower Academy.
But just as he reached the door, he suddenly sensed someone approaching outside, followed immediately by a knock.
"Junior."
