Chapter 244: Chapter 232: Frost-Ember Limit-Breaking: Entropy Change Domain
Shadow Moon Tower, specialized Witchcraft Practice Room.
The practice room spanned five hundred square meters. Its walls, floor, and ceiling were all forged from "Abyssal Resistance Alloy," their surfaces covered in dense arrays of Protective Runes.
Even a Level Two Wizard going all out in here could only be withstood for a little over ten minutes.
Ian stood in the center of the practice room. Gaga squatted in the safe zone in the corner, its small eyes fixed on him without blinking.
’Let’s begin.’
Ian took a deep breath and raised his right hand.
He opened his fingers, palm facing up.
No Spell, no gestures, just a simple flicker of his will.
BZZZT!
Three fine Energy Threads burst forth from his palm.
Two were ice-blue, bone-chillingly cold. Wherever they passed, the air condensed into fine frost flowers.
One was golden-red, searingly hot. The light around it distorted, and the temperature climbed sharply.
The three threads merged into one!
They combined into a light purple beam, spiraling with interwoven Ice and Fire Energy. It was as thick as a thumb and emanated a heart-pounding fluctuation.
HISS!
The beam’s speed was extreme; the instant it was fired, it struck the target fifty meters away.
The target was a composite energy target that simulated a Level One Liquidation Wizard Shield. Red, blue, and gray energies flowed across its surface, allowing it to simultaneously resist multi-elemental and physical attacks.
The moment the light purple beam hit the bullseye.
There was no explosion, no deafening roar.
There was only a soft "hiss," like a red-hot iron skewer being plunged into a block of ice.
Then, on the surface of the energy target, at the point of impact.
The Energy Shield on the target’s surface disintegrated and dissipated as if it had met its natural predator, revealing the Refined Gold Core within.
The beam pierced the Shield and struck the Refined Gold Core.
A thin layer of frost first condensed on the surface of the Refined Gold Core, its internal structure rapidly turning brittle.
Immediately after, the golden-red high temperature seeped in along the brittle path.
BANG!
A small flame exploded inside the Refined Gold Core, burning a thumb-sized hole through it from the inside out.
At the edge of the hole, one half was as smooth as a mirror (from the freezing cut), while the other was melted and deformed (from the high-temperature burn).
Throughout the entire process, the energy fluctuations of the beam itself were terrifyingly stable, without the slightest bit of leakage.
’Compound penetration... internal reaction...’
Ian withdrew his hand, a thoughtful look flashing in his eyes.
He could clearly feel that when he cast the Frost Ash Beam this time, a subtle "micro-circulatory system" had formed between the Ice and Fire Energy.
The extreme cold and searing heat were no longer simply juxtaposed and interwoven; they had begun to catalyze and restrain each other.
The ice made the target’s structure brittle, creating the optimal path for the fire to detonate.
The fire’s high temperature, in turn, stimulated the ice’s "Deep Tie" effect, making the freeze deeper and more lasting.
This virtuous cycle increased the beam’s power by at least 50%.
Ian looked at the data on the panel.
[Frost Ash Beam: Mastery (3178/3200)]
’The power is still a bit lacking...’
He closed his eyes and began to practice repeatedly.
Once, twice, three times...
Each time he fired the beam, he would carefully sense the changes in the Energy Structure, adjusting the delicate balance of the ice-to-fire ratio.
Ten times, twenty times, a hundred times...
Inside the practice room, the faint purple light flashed again and again, tearing through the air and hitting the target.
In the corner, Gaga’s eyelids grew heavy as it watched, its little head bobbing as it nearly fell asleep.
Until...
From Ian’s palm, three Energy Threads burst forth once more.
But this time, something unexpected happened!
The instant the ice-blue and golden-red threads began to spiral, they didn’t intertwine stably as before. Instead, they began to tremble and distort violently.
The two types of Energy, as if possessing a will of their own, madly repelled and clashed with each other.
’Not good!’
Ian’s expression changed, wanting to forcibly disperse the Witchcraft.
But it was too late.
The moment the Ice and Fire Energy collided, a tiny, unstable "Singularity" formed in his palm.
The Singularity was only the size of a grain of rice, yet it emitted a heart-stopping aura.
Within a ten-meter radius, the temperature began to fluctuate wildly.
One moment it was an extreme cold of minus fifty degrees, frost crawling across the floor.
The next second it skyrocketed to several hundred or even a thousand degrees, the air distorting and the alloy floor glowing faintly red.
Hot and cold alternated in the span of milliseconds, and the Energy Structure spontaneously destabilized.
Ian felt his Magic Power circulation stagnate, as if he was stuck in a thick mire.
’Hold... it... together!’
He gritted his teeth. The pale gold specks of Crystalized light in his Sea of Spirit surged out madly, forcibly suppressing the energy Singularity in his palm.
Crystalized Spiritual Power possessed a natural suppressive force over Low Tier Energy.
With the intervention of the golden specks of light, the clash of Ice and Fire Energy began to slow, and the distorted Energy Structure slowly returned to Order.
But the "Singularity" did not disappear. Instead, under Ian’s intentional guidance, it began to reconstruct and stabilize...
「Ten minutes later.」
Ian opened his palm.
Above it floated a light purple sphere of light the size of a walnut.
Inside the sphere, the ice-blue and golden-red energies were entangled with each other, forming a perfect triple-helix structure that rotated slowly.
As it rotated, a miniature Domain with a radius of about ten meters naturally formed around the sphere of light.
Within the Domain, the temperature was constant, in a strange "state of equilibrium."
It was neither cold nor hot, yet it made all energy structures within it feel an instinctive discomfort.
It was as if... all "Order" here would be pushed toward "disorder."
’Is this... an entropy change?’
A brilliant light erupted in Ian’s eyes.
With a thought, the sphere of light transformed into a beam and shot out!
Along the beam’s trajectory, the faint Entropy Change Domain followed like a shadow, extending all the way to the target three hundred meters away.
The moment the target was hit.
First, the Shield disintegrated on its own.
Next, traces of both freezing and scorching appeared simultaneously on the target’s surface.
Finally, a faint "CRACK" came from within the target, as if its structure had reached its fatigue limit and was collapsing on its own.
The beam itself, its momentum unabated, continued flying forward... until it hit the wall.
HISS!
The Defense Rune Array activated instantly. Countless Runes continuously disintegrated, reorganized, and were annihilated...
BEEP...! A piercing alarm sounded until the Entropy Change Domain dissipated.
Looking at the defense system that had nearly collapsed, he had a new assessment of the beam’s power.
But the small practice room limited his ability to test the beam’s maximum range.
In his Sea of Spirit, the Witchcraft panel refreshed.
[Frost Ash Beam: Limit-Breaking (1) (0/6400)]
[Limit-Breaking Effect: 1. Entropy Change Domain]
[Description: 1. The Ice and Fire Spiral begins to faintly interfere with local energy Order, turning the beam itself into a mobile, miniature "Entropy Change Singularity."
2. An accompanying Domain with a ten-meter radius is generated along the beam’s trajectory and at its endpoint. Within the Domain, the temperature fluctuates sharply, and energy structures spontaneously destabilize.
3. The Purification effect against "abnormal existences" such as negative energy, incorporeal beings, and Abyssal contamination is greatly enhanced.]
’A Domain...’
Ian murmured to himself, the corners of his mouth slowly turning up.
’This is far from its limit. I need to test it one more time.’
In the corner, Gaga was completely jolted awake by the commotion, its small eyes wide and round.
"I-Ian... that Witchcraft you just used... it was so scary, gaga!"
"Scary?" Ian dispersed the beam, walked over to Gaga, and rubbed its little head.
He gave Gaga a little wave. "Come on, let’s go find an open space outside."
Soon, Gaga was carrying Ian to a valley on the outskirts of the High Tower.
This place wasn’t far from the High Tower’s outer districts and was rarely visited, making it perfect for testing.
He took a deep breath, locked onto the cliff face of a barren mountain in the distance as his target, and raised his hand again.
A light purple spiral beam shot out silently, the Entropy Change Domain following it like a shadow.
The beam was as fast as lightning—one thousand meters, two thousand, three thousand...
Until... it struck the cliff face five thousand meters away, silently exploding in a ripple of light purple energy.
Within a hundred-meter radius of the cliff face, the traces of Ice and Fire Interweaving were clearly visible.
RUMBLE!
The mountain began to collapse, sending rubble and dust flying everywhere.
"Five thousand meters..." Ian withdrew his hand, feeling the consumption and sense of control from this cast.
’The range has increased explosively, and its power has officially crossed that threshold.’
He opened his palm. A light purple spiral beam spun slowly above it, and within ten meters, the air rippled visibly.
"Deep Red Royal Court, Withered Council... This trip to the ruins has gotten interesting."
After returning to his residence, Gaga flew out the window again to wander around.
Ian looked at the calendar hanging on the wall of the Witchcraft Practice Room. There were still fifteen days until his departure for Longgu Port.
’It’s time to go finalize the details with Alevia.’
「Two days later, in Alevia’s Magic Potion Room at Shadow Moon Tower.」
The room was filled with the mixed scent of various potions. The shelves lining the walls were packed with Crystal Bottles, Magic Potions, and finished Potions.
Alevia sat at a workbench, processing a blue, fist-sized fruit.
She wore a simple, dark blue Wizard Robe, her long golden hair casually tied up with a silver hairpin, with a few strands falling beside her cheeks.
Hearing a knock, she looked up.
"Come in."
The door opened, and Ian walked in.
Alevia put down the fruit in her hand, stood up, and her eyes lingered on Ian for a few seconds, a hint of surprise flashing through them.
"Your aura... it’s grown stronger again."
She walked to a tea table nearby, picked up the teapot, and poured two cups of tea. "Sit."
Ian sat down opposite her and took a sip from his cup.
The tea was warm, with a faint, refreshing scent of mint that soothed the spirit.
"Just made a bit of progress," Ian replied vaguely.
Alevia’s hand, which was pouring tea, paused slightly.
"A bit of progress?"
She looked up at Ian, her expression complex.
After several seconds, she slowly put down the teapot.
"It hasn’t even been two years since you advanced to Level One, has it?"
Ian didn’t respond. It was true that he advanced faster than others, and with his current strength, there was no need to hide everything.
Alevia gave a wry smile. "Back in my day, it took me a full sixty years to go from the Initial Stage of Vaporization to Liquefaction."
Even at that pace, everyone had said her Talent was astonishing, and she was even promoted to Vice-Dean of the Magic Potion Department by the Tower Master.
She shook her head, not dwelling on the topic. She took a Scroll from a drawer and unrolled it on the table.
The Scroll was a detailed nautical chart, with the locations of the "Broken Islands" and "Longgu Port" marked in the center.
"This is a map of the area closest to the Endless Sea ruins."
Alevia pointed at the chart, on which several conspicuous marks were visible.
"Longgu Port is the largest gathering point, and Order is maintained jointly by the Silver Ring, the Tide Association, and the Storm Hall."
"They are all members of the Wizard Alliance. The Tide Association worships an Ancient Deep Sea God and excels in Water Element and Summoning Witchcraft, while the Storm Hall specializes in the Wind and Thunder System and is extremely aggressive."
She paused, her finger moving to several areas marked in red at the edge of the chart.
"Here, and here... are the temporary camps of the Deep Red Royal Court and the Withered Council. Although they don’t dare to make a move openly in Longgu Port, once you leave the port, you’re on your own."
Ian nodded, his gaze sweeping over the red markers.
"What about the Silver Ring?"
"Here." Alevia pointed to a silver marker in the center of Longgu Port.
"The Silver Ring is the most powerful Wizard Organization on the Anoroya Continent. Its Inheritance is ancient, and its foundation is deep. They’ve sent three Level Two Crystalized Wizards this time, so they remain the strongest force in this ruin exploration."
"What about the Outer Island factions?"
"Many." Alevia drew a circle on the chart with her finger.
"The seventeen large islands on the East Coast, with an area comparable to Anoraya, have sent at least thirty organizations.
Among them, those worthy of note are the ’Immortal Heart,’ ’Embrace of Nature,’ and the ’Shadow Blade Association’..."
She introduced them one by one, her tone calm, but Ian could hear the gravity within it.
These Outer Island factions were almost all as strong as, if not stronger than, Shadow Moon Tower.
The "Immortal Heart" and "Embrace of Nature" were particularly absurd; like the Silver Ring, they were overseen by Morning Star Wizards.
Moreover, ruin exploration was never a solo endeavor.
Allies, enemies, temporary cooperation, backstabbing... all sorts of possibilities could occur.
"What about our side?" Ian asked.
"This time, Shadow Moon Tower’s team is being led by Herman. Including you, there are eight people in total."
Ian was taken aback. "You’re not going?"
"No... I’m not going."
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