Chapter 41: Chapter 28: Forbidden Meditation

There is no doubt that Forbidden Spells are incredibly powerful.

Correspondingly, the price a Wizard pays to cast a Forbidden Spell is also extremely heavy.

Cultivating Magic Power is, in essence, trading one’s body for Power. The greater the Power, the more susceptible the body is to collapse. But even so, Wizards still crave this Power—it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.

If the yearning for and pursuit of knowledge is a scholarly attitude and ideal, then using Forbidden Magic to intimidate enemies and secure one’s family status is a goal born of pragmatism and reality. When the pursuit of the ideal aligns perfectly with the needs of reality, what reason do they have not to reach for this Power?

Besides, learning is an endless pursuit; no one knows what truly lies at the end of the path of Mysticism.

What if a quantitative change could lead to a qualitative one? What if infinite Magic Power could allow one to shed their mortal form and walk the Divine Path, but you never learned a Forbidden Spell? Wouldn’t you be filled with regret?

You definitely would be.

But there are no second chances in this world.

Therefore, they must learn Forbidden Spells. This is one of the necessary conditions for a Wizard to cross into Tier Seven and become a Grand Mage.

And *The Beginning of Forbidden Curse* teaches a Wizard how to induce an autophagic reaction in more parts of the body, serving as a prerequisite for all Forbidden Magic. It isn’t a spell, but rather another form of Meditation with a broader "width."

The autophagic reaction guided by conventional Meditation is limited to the body’s reserve cells. Their very existence is to be digested to release Energy at critical moments. Even if they are all consumed, it won’t cause significant harm to the Wizard themselves. At most, they might look a bit thinner or a few years older, but it’s not fatal.

But Forbidden Meditation is different.

Take the desert Sean first saw as an example. With Forbidden Meditation, eating half a cactus isn’t enough—not nearly enough. It would place you in an even harsher environment, inducing or forcing you to eat everything you see. The cactus is just one part of it; there are also stones, sand, a passing camel, a bird flying by, and even the sun hanging in the sky.

As for *how* to eat them...

That’s the Wizard’s own problem.

If you cannot pluck the sun from the sky, you can never completely master this Power.

And eating these things you shouldn’t eat, when reflected in reality, means that critical parts of your body are undergoing an autophagic reaction, releasing Energy.

The conversion efficiency remains unchanged, still determined by the depth of your Meditation, but the quality of what’s converted into Energy is different. It increases dramatically compared to normal Meditation. Even a Novice Wizard could use this method to temporarily obtain powerful Magic Power far exceeding their Tier.

It’s just that the slightest slip-up could mean game over.

Sean’s memories were full of such examples.

Some Wizards might have only intended to perform a "Bursting Qi"—sacrificing an arm, a leg, or perhaps a kidney to win a battle. But they lost control, and their Bursting Qi turned into their entire body exploding. A pyrrhic victory became mutual destruction.

Both of them died rather pointlessly.

Clearly, *The Beginning of Forbidden Curse* was a terrifying piece of knowledge.

"The more you know, the more danger you are in"—this saying was just as applicable in the world of Mysticism.

But Quill had guessed right.

Sean was exactly the type of person he’d imagined—the more dangerous something was, the more he wanted to try it.

The moment he saw *The Beginning of Forbidden Curse*, Sean’s eyes went wide. It was a look filled with anticipation for new knowledge. The passion and desire in his eyes were even more intense than when he’d lifted the covers off Elvire in his dream. The heavy pressure on his shoulders, like the weight of a wealthy benefactress, seemed to vanish.

In that moment, Sean only had eyes for this book.

For someone like him at this stage, who possessed countless powerful forms of Magic but lacked the Magic Power to cast them, there was no greater treasure. Crucially, it didn’t conflict with conventional Meditation—Forbidden Meditation was still a form of Meditation. Not only did it broaden the "width" of autophagy, but it also deepened its "depth." In other words, he could practice Forbidden Spells and increase his Basic Magic Power at the same time.

There was a reason the Hall of Truth had become a Holy Land for all Wizards during the Era of Polymath. This book alone was enough to cement its status in the academic world.

That was also why most Mystic Scholars and Grand Mages of that era came from the Hall of Truth. In a way, *The Beginning of Forbidden Curse* directly elevated the potential of Low-tier Wizards, giving them a greater chance of becoming Grand Mages in the future.

You have to start them young.

If there were no geniuses, the Holy Sanctuary would simply cultivate its own.

Sean suddenly thought, ’Maybe my old self wasn’t so stupid after all?’

To be honest, he had already learned a great deal of Magic through his dreams. In this respect, the knowledge he possessed might even surpass that of some High-tier Wizards. So he hadn’t had high expectations for the third floor of the Holy Sanctuary. He was mostly just looking for something he could bring out for Kate; he couldn’t let her work for nothing, after all.

And of course, he had to get something for Elvire.

She was, after all, his quasi-sister-in-law.

But Sean hadn’t expected the third floor to hold such a huge surprise. He was now growing more and more interested in the floors above, especially the top floor—the Path of Divinity...

’Don’t tell me even Tier Ten isn’t the end?’

Could a person truly break the shackles of their mortal form and become one of the Gods, looking down upon the mortal world from on high?

Sean realized he was getting ahead of himself and quickly reigned in his thoughts.

As he’d said, he wasn’t one to aim for the sky.

It’s just... everyone gets curious, right? Sean’s eyes darted about before he walked up the steps, cautiously extending one foot, and setting it down on the fourth floor of the library. He wanted to see if he could sneak across.

He tested his luck, and it nearly cost him his life.

The instant his right foot crossed the line and touched the floor of the fourth level, a pressure several times stronger than that on the third floor crashed down on him like a mountain. It instantly crushed the part of his leg that had crossed the line, from foot to calf, into fine dust. The motes of light scattered and dissipated into the air, adding another brick to the foundation of this Spiritual World.

The pressure was so violent and sudden that Sean didn’t even feel any pain. It was like being shot; the first sensation was numbness, not agony.

Still, Sean couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

His foot was gone in the blink of an eye. Just watching it was an intense experience.

He was reminded of the Wizard who had been sent flying by the statue in the square earlier.

"Just you wait! I’ll be back!"

Seeing that it was a lost cause, Sean decisively turned around, jumped back down the steps, and retrieved *The Beginning of Forbidden Curse* along with several books recording Truth Techniques. Then, he hopped his way to the dormitory.

These books couldn’t be brought back to the real world. They were, after all, spiritual constructs. Furthermore, based on what he had learned recently, they couldn’t even be taken out of the Holy Sanctuary and could only be read within its walls.

But it didn’t matter. He was the only one on the third floor anyway. He could read wherever he wanted, in whatever posture he pleased.

In stark contrast to Sean’s successful haul and excitement, an orderly was just getting into the driver’s seat of a car at the entrance of Florist Hospital, preparing to drive to Old Segal City. Suddenly, his eyelid began to twitch, causing him to pause as he was fastening his seatbelt.

He couldn’t help but look at Quill, who was sitting in the back seat, via the rearview mirror. He said with some hesitation, "Dr. Quill, I have a bad feeling about this."

Quill: "Oh?"

The orderly explained, "My eyelid is twitching uncontrollably."

Quill chuckled lightly. "That means you’re about to come into some money. It’s quite accurate, really. I was just considering giving you a bigger bonus after we catch Sean this time."

"But it’s my right eye that’s twitching," the orderly said.

"The right eye, huh." Quill said "oh" again. "That’s just old-world superstition. Pay it no mind."

The orderly: "..."

"Just drive," Quill said with a carefree smile. "Once we have our dear writer back in custody, your eyelid will stop twitching."

The orderly seemed to want to say something more, but after hesitating for two seconds, he didn’t. He just nodded. "Alright."

He stepped on the gas, and the black sedan sped off, heading for Old Segal City, ninety-seven kilometers away.

...