Five bottles of Li Xin Water were lined up on the floor, the silver liquid shimmering with a captivating luster under the light.

Pei Ze picked one up, popped the cork, and tilted his head back to down it in one go.

As the liquid entered his stomach, a surging, vibrant life force instantly erupted within him.

For a moment, Pei Ze felt as if his entire body was brimming with power.

"Such potent life energy."

Pei Ze clicked his tongue in amazement. This life energy was even more concentrated than what he had experienced when he advanced to Legendary Knight.

After steadying himself, Pei Ze downed the remaining four bottles of Li Xin Water. He then picked up two Crystal Balls, each sealing a Substitute Spirit, and placed them in his mouth.

With all preparations complete, he finally closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and began his breakthrough.

The process of forming a Spirit Crystal sounds simple—it’s just a matter of continuously compressing one’s Spiritual Power until it crystallizes. In practice, however, it is extraordinarily difficult.

Otherwise, so many people wouldn’t get stuck at this stage.

As Pei Ze focused on the formless, intangible Spiritual Power deep within his mind and began to compress it with his will, a silver-white flame suddenly ignited on the surface of his body with a SIZZLE.

The flames burned fiercely, yet they produced no heat, no smoke, and no sound. They simply burned in silence.

In a way imperceptible to the naked eye, the life force within Pei Ze’s body was rapidly converted by the silver flames into a strange, unknown energy, which supported his efforts to compress his Spiritual Power.

The life energy that had filled his body began to diminish, slowly but steadily.

At the same time, as the compression of his Spiritual Power progressed, an intense pain seemingly from the depths of his soul suddenly erupted in his mind. It was as if someone were viciously hammering his soul and his head with a sledgehammer.

Pei Ze’s brow instantly furrowed, and the process of compressing his Spiritual Power nearly came to a halt.

Fortunately, his will was strong enough that he managed to endure it.

But the intense pain came and went quickly, soon vanishing without a trace.

No, it hadn’t vanished. It had been transferred to the Substitute Spirits.

Inside one of the two Crystal Balls in Pei Ze’s mouth, the translucent humanoid figure began to writhe, tumble, and struggle violently. Its face contorted in a silent scream, as if it were suffering from unimaginable agony.

The flames burned without a sound, the Spirit Body shrieked in silence. Everything proceeded in quiet stillness.

As time ticked by, the Spiritual Power deep in Pei Ze’s mind was gradually compressed. It changed from formless and intangible to tangible and solid, transitioning from a gaseous state into countless droplets that then gathered to form a mass of pale silver liquid.

Eventually, slivers of silver crystals began to appear within the liquid.

During this process, the first Substitute Spirit inside the Crystal Ball finally succumbed to the damage and turned to ash, vanishing completely.

The pain then transferred to the second Substitute Spirit, and the silent screaming began anew.

An unknown amount of time passed. Just as the life energy from the Li Xin Water was about to be depleted and the second Substitute Spirit was reaching its limit, Pei Ze’s mind suddenly jolted. With a resonant hum, a silver crystal finally took form.

Pei Ze’s spirits lifted, and he quickly focused his mind to perceive it.

In the star-like expanse of his mind, a magnificent, multifaceted silver crystal hovered in the void.

It had thirty-two faces in total, each a perfect hexagon with a six-pointed star pattern inlaid in the center.

The entire crystal radiated a captivating light, more beautiful than the most precious Gemstone in the world.

’So this is the Spirit Crystal.’

Pei Ze "looked" at the silver crystal, his heart filled with joy and satisfaction.

The formation of the Spirit Crystal meant he had successfully advanced to become a Wizard, his life essence having evolved to a higher level!

From this day forward, he was no longer a mere pawn to be manipulated by others. He now had the qualification to truly control his own destiny!

"Hooo..."

Pei Ze opened his eyes, spat out the two Crystal Balls, and let out a long sigh of relief.

He turned to look at the clock on the wall, a look of astonishment flashing in his eyes.

"Seventy-five days have passed already?"

Pei Ze was secretly amazed.

Normally, forming a Spirit Crystal only takes about ten days.

A Wizard Apprentice cultivating an Advanced Meditation Technique would need more time, but at most just over a month.

Yin Xue, for example, took thirty-two days.

Pei Ze had estimated that with his thirty-two Will Runes, he would definitely need more time—probably around two months. He never expected the process would take a full seventy-five days.

’Good thing I set aside some extra time.’

Pei Ze stood up and stretched. Despite sitting motionless for seventy-five days, his body wasn’t sore at all. On the contrary, it felt full of power.

His mind was also crystal clear, and his perception was noticeably sharper than before.

It was as if the world had previously been covered by a thin veil, and now that veil had been lifted.

’My perception of Energy Particles is much clearer, and my ability to manipulate them has more than doubled.’

Pei Ze snapped his fingers. A wisp of electricity immediately appeared at his fingertip with a CRACKLE.

With a casual point of his finger, the electric arc shot out in an instant, striking a nearby crystal target with a BANG.

’Type: Lightning’

’Power: 52.3 Degrees’

"Pure manipulation of Energy Particles... its power already surpasses that of the Lightning Rune. So this is the power of a Wizard!"

An expression of awe appeared on Pei Ze’s face.

"Omniscience, scan my current status."

[Spirit ???]

[Constitution ???]

"Hm?"

Pei Ze was taken aback. ’Why are they all question marks?’

The Eye of Omniscience quickly sent its feedback.

[Life essence has changed. Please set a new unit of energy.]

’A new unit of energy?’

Pei Ze frowned slightly. A thought suddenly struck him, and he took the Wizard’s Handbook from his dimensional pouch.

He sat down cross-legged on the spot and began to flip through the thick book.

This time, he slowed down considerably, scanning and thinking as he read.

It took him over an hour to commit the entire contents of the handbook to memory.

’I see. After becoming a Wizard, not only does one’s physical essence evolve, but one’s Spiritual Power also undergoes a sublimation due to the high degree of compression, fundamentally changing its nature.’

’That’s why the old attributes for Spirit and Constitution are no longer applicable.’

’Wizards created a new unit of energy to quantify their strength, and this new unit is called the Energy Level.’

With this understanding, Pei Ze immediately thought:

"Omniscience, based on this data, convert my current attributes to the new unit of energy."

The data in his vision suddenly blurred, then quickly sharpened again.

[Spirit 5.12]

[Constitution 4.35]

"Only just over five..."

Pei Ze muttered to himself.

According to the Wizard’s Handbook, Wizards who have formed a Spirit Crystal are collectively known as Crystal Wizards.

Crystal Wizards are divided into three levels, from lowest to highest.

A newly advanced Wizard is a Level 1 Wizard.

Only by forming a second Spirit Crystal can one advance to become a Second-level Wizard.

Those who form a third Spirit Crystal are Level 3 Wizards.

Furthermore, each level is subdivided into Gaseous, Liquefied, and Crystallized stages, based on the state of the Spiritual Power within the Spirit Crystal.

Only after the Spiritual Power in the Spirit Crystal has been fully crystallized can one begin to construct a second Spirit Crystal and enter the next stage.

"So I should be at the Level 1 Gaseous Stage right now," Pei Ze said to himself.

It is worth mentioning that through long-term experimentation and statistical analysis, Wizards have quantified the amount of Spiritual Power corresponding to each stage.

This data is closely related to the number of faces on the Spirit Crystal.

For example, a Wizard who advanced using the Universal Meditation Technique forms a twelve-faced Spirit Crystal. The amount of Spiritual Power it can hold is limited, making it easier to reach a state of fullness and begin liquefaction.

For such Wizards, their Spiritual Power generally only needs to reach 12 to transition from the Gaseous to the Liquefied stage.

However, a Wizard who advanced using an Advanced Meditation Technique, like Yin Xue, forms a twenty-four-faced Spirit Crystal. It can contain far more Spiritual Power than an ordinary Wizard’s, so naturally, more is needed to reach a state of fullness. They need to reach a full 24 to enter the Liquefied stage.

’In other words, my Spiritual Power needs to reach 32 before I can enter the Liquefied stage.’

Pei Ze glanced at the thirty-two-faced silver crystal deep in his mind and was suddenly struck by the feeling that he had a long and arduous road ahead of him.