「A few days later.」

When Ian went to the great hall to exchange for materials, he saw members of the Silver Ring cordially guiding and chatting with several Level One Wizards.

It was clearly the initial outreach before a recruitment attempt.

Yet despite his name being on the Merit Points board and having once triggered an unusual phenomenon, no one had approached him.

In all his interactions, the Wizards of the Silver Ring remained polite but distant.

He stopped letting it distract him and poured all his energy into his practice.

At the same time, he began to systematically study the knowledge he had acquired and refine his combinations of Witchcraft.

According to the Wizard Level classifications, a newly advanced Wizard was a Level One Vaporization Wizard. When their spiritual vapor became difficult to expand any further, they reached the Middle Stage.

After that, when their Spiritual Power was condensed to a certain degree, it would begin the process of Liquefaction; this was the Level One Late Stage.

To break through to Level Two Wizard, one needed to completely "crystallize" the liquefied Spiritual Power and thoroughly fuse it with their Will Rune. In other words, they had to use the crystallized Spiritual Power to envelop and elevate the Will Rune.

The pure Spiritual Power Origin contained within the Eye of the Gazer was refined, strand by strand.

It merged into his already liquefied Spiritual Power, making it ever more condensed and potent as he steadily progressed deeper into Liquefaction.

In terms of Witchcraft, his current focus was fusing the Crystal Energy Barrier and the Energy Shield. Both were Attributeless Shields, suitable for the vast majority of combat situations.

He had already achieved preliminary results, creating the Floating Crystal Guards, which had been a great help to him.

Now that his power had increased significantly, he believed the fusion process would accelerate dramatically.

Over the next half-month, the Seventh War Zone’s cleanup operation swept through the region like a hurricane.

With the combined efforts of numerous Level One Wizards, the Demon Nests in the surrounding areas were uprooted one by one.

Demons of Tier One and above that had become even slightly established were mostly eliminated.

Only a few scattered, insignificant corrupted beings still clung to life in the dark corners.

The spearhead of the front line began to point unwaveringly toward the deepest parts of the earth—the true source of the corruption and the Demons.

The order to assemble was issued soon after.

Only a handful of Level One Wizards and essential logistical and defensive forces were left to guard the Seventh War Zone garrison.

All other Wizards of Level One and above mobilized.

They were heading to the Eastern General War Zone, where Wizards from the four great war zones would converge to form a final encirclement around the Demons’ core lair.

Clearly, the Demon Hunting war had reached its final stage.

As a Lone Wanderer with no fixed organization, Ian naturally had no chance of being assigned the relatively safe and easy garrison duty.

’Tonight, I’ll complete the final fusion of the two Shields.’

He sat cross-legged on a Meditation cushion, banishing all distracting thoughts.

Tomorrow, he would move out with the main army to the Eastern General War Zone to participate in the final encirclement. Before then, he had to push his defensive capabilities to their absolute limit.

The defenses of his Ring of Overlapping Peaks were already showing signs of strain. Faced with the Spiritual Shock or powerful Witchcraft of a Liquidation Wizard, its three-layered Shield wouldn’t last long.

He recalled how the torrent of spiritual energy from the Thousand-Eyed Soul-Stealing Demon in the Withered Forest had instantly torn his Shield apart, and he inwardly shook his head.

With his eyes slightly closed, the Rune structures of the Crystal Energy Barrier and the Energy Shield, like two precise and complex three-dimensional Star Maps, slowly unfolded and overlapped in his consciousness.

’The Crystal Energy Barrier has already completed its Secondary Limit-Breaking. Its Witchcraft Model is stable, and I can cast it instantly.’

’Although the Energy Shield hasn’t undergone Limit-Breaking and its model is ephemeral, its principles of structural optimization—especially the logic behind its energy flow efficiency and adaptive regulation—are still incredibly valuable for reference.’

Ian’s path forward was clear.

He no longer tried to crudely splice the two together. Instead, he would use the stable framework of the Crystal Energy Barrier as the foundation.

He would dismantle and refine the ingenious structures from the Energy Shield—concepts like "dynamic energy distribution" and "instantaneous weak-point reinforcement"—and integrate their essence into the foundation.

His Spiritual Power, like the most dexterous of carving knives, began to reconstruct the foundational model.

First was the reinforcement of the primary barrier.

The original hexagonal crystal structure was further optimized. The units became smaller, the arrangement denser, and the Energy Circuits were changed from simple parallel connections to a complex interwoven mesh.

This increased the Shield’s overall strength by about thirty percent, and its resistance to attacks like Piercing and concussive strikes was significantly enhanced.

Next, Ian cleverly grafted the mechanisms for predicting impact points and instantly converging Energy from the Energy Shield’s model onto his Crystal Energy Barrier.

When it was attacked, the crystalline units around the point of impact could instantly receive a greater supply of Energy.

The localized defense would temporarily skyrocket, while other areas maintained their base level of protection.

This greatly improved the Shield’s "intelligence" and longevity.

Next came the complete overhaul of the Floating Crystal Guards.

With a flicker of his will, twelve palm-sized crystal Shields materialized around him.

This was the new quantity he had determined through continuous analysis, but he wasn’t satisfied with just that.

As he infused them with Spiritual Power, these Crystal Guards began to shrink and deform rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, the twelve Crystal Guards shrank into twelve miniature hexagonal crystal cones, each the size of an embroidery needle with edges as sharp as blades.

They were completely transparent, with liquid silver light flowing within them. They floated silently in the air, gathering and scattering at his will.

Ian directed them with a thought.

The twelve Crystal Cones suddenly scattered, like a living swarm of silver bees, zipping and weaving through the room at high speed along unpredictable, agile trajectories.

Due to the changes in their size and structure, their speed was more than double that of the previous Crystal Guards.

"Go."

A Crystal Cone shot forward, silently embedding itself in an alloy target post.

There was no violent explosion, only a faint HISS.

It left an extremely fine, clean hole through the post, its edges smooth as glass, displaying terrifying Penetration Power.

’The offensive capability is sufficient, but the most important part is the ’shield-replenishing’ mechanism.’

Ian recalled all the Crystal Cones, letting them circle his body once more.

He simulated a scenario where the primary Shield took a heavy blow, causing a localized dissipation of Energy.

With another thought, the three Crystal Cones closest to the damaged area flared with brilliant light, then... silently dissipated.

They actively disintegrated, transforming into three streams of pure crystalline Energy that flowed precisely into the damaged nodes of the primary Shield.

The area that had been dim and on the verge of collapse quickly regained its luster.

Its structure reformed, and its strength was now even a fraction greater than before it had been damaged.

’It really works!’ A sharp glint flashed in Ian’s eyes.

’The Crystal Cones are formed from the condensed Energy of the primary Shield, so they share the same origin.

When needed, they can instantly ’return to their source’ to replenish the primary Shield’s energy or repair damage.’

’And because of their minuscule size and extremely streamlined structure, this process of dissipating and replenishing is almost instantaneous, leaving no opening for an enemy to exploit.’

He repeatedly tested the repair effects of different numbers of Crystal Cones replenishing the shield under varying degrees of damage.

He also optimized the energy feedback path to ensure the process was smooth and efficient, placing the minimum possible strain on his Spiritual Power.

Finally, a completely new Shield System took shape in his consciousness.

The core was the enhanced Crystal Energy Barrier: high strength, instant-cast, and capable of dynamic energy distribution.

Its auxiliary component was the miniature Floating Crystal Cones. He could normally maintain twelve, up to a maximum of thirty-six at once.

They were minuscule, incomparably sharp, and could gather and scatter at will.

They served three major functions: autonomously blocking Witchcraft, launching flexible attacks, and dissipating to replenish the primary Shield at critical moments.

Its core mechanism was to use the primary Shield as the root and the Crystal Cones as the branches.

The branches could separate from the root to fight, or, when the root was damaged, transform themselves into nourishment to sustain it, creating a three-dimensional, self-sustaining defense that integrated both offense and protection.

’It’s done.’