Kaelan looks at the unconscious human criminals lying on the rocky ground, their bodies still and defenceless beneath the open sky.
He raises his hand and waves it lightly, and a resin-like substance spreads outward, flowing over their bodies like a living layer.
The material encases them completely, keeping them alive yet unable to awaken.
It preserves them.
Until he finds a solution.
Kaelan's gaze lingers on them as his thoughts deepen.
He needs to find a way to hold souls if he wants to study them.
Without that, everything else becomes meaningless.
In theory, the solution is simple.
If he understands the Law of Soul, then he can interact with it, control it, and preserve it.
But the problem lies in the beginning.
He cannot understand the Law of Soul without researching it.
And he cannot research it without first being able to hold a soul.
A contradiction forms.
A closed loop with no entry point.
Kaelan narrows his eyes slightly.
The Law of Soul is not like elemental laws or other laws that manifest in physical forms.
There is nothing visible to observe.
Nothing tangible to experiment on.
It exists beyond ordinary perception.
He begins to think.
What is a soul?
A soul is essential to life.
It houses the True Spirit.
Without it, life cannot exist.
Yet without life, a soul has no meaning.
When life is conceived, a soul forms.
When life ends, the soul does not remain.
It returns to the Great Way of Reincarnation.
Kaelan's thoughts slow.
Then, suddenly, a faint smile appears on his face.
He has found a direction.
A way to touch the Law of Soul.
If the soul is born through life and returns through death, then its foundation must lie between the Law of Life and the Law of Death.
These two Laws are the key.
Without hesitation, Kaelan sends a message.
It travels instantly.
He contacts Veena and the Green Lightning Wizard.
His request is simple.
Gather every piece of research related to the Law of Life and the Law of Death.
Send everything to him.
After sending the message, Kaelan remains where he stands.
His thoughts shift once more.
Back to the crows.
If he wants to elevate them, to transform them into beings capable of becoming wizards, then the Law of Life will be essential.
Any true transformation must begin from the root of life itself.
He reaches a conclusion.
Without the Law of Life, such a transformation cannot even begin.
Time passes quietly.
A few hours later, Kaelan lifts his gaze toward the east.
He senses an approaching presence.
In his perception, it is not Veena who approaches.
It is death.
Her aura carries the edge of finality, a sign that she stands on the verge of advancing to the Great Wizard realm.
Veena descends from the sky and lands beside him.
She says nothing at first.
Instead, she takes out a space bag and hands it to him.
"Everything is inside it."
Kaelan accepts the bag.
His spirit slips inside, scanning its contents.
Hundreds of papers.
Books.
Memory crystals.
A vast collection of accumulated knowledge.
He withdraws his perception and holds the bag firmly.
Veena watches him.
"Are you going to comprehend the Law of Life and the Law of Death?" she asks.
Kaelan nods.
"Yes," he says, "I want to comprehend the Law of Soul through them."
Veena's eyes narrow slightly.
"Law of Soul?"
She pauses for a moment before continuing.
"I also want to comprehend the Law of Soul, but I have not been able to find a way."
She looks directly at him.
"When you succeed, can you share that information with me?"
Kaelan nods without hesitation.
"Okay."
Veena studies him briefly, noticing the impatience beneath his calm exterior.
"I will leave it to you," she says.
Without waiting for a response, she rises into the air and flies toward the east.
Kaelan watches her figure disappear into the distance.
Then he lowers his gaze.
He opens the space bag and takes out all the materials one by one.
Papers scatter across the ground.
Books stack beside them.
Memory crystals glimmer faintly.
He begins to sort them.
Separating.
Organizing.
Preparing.
The path toward the Law of Soul begins here.
Kaelan organises the materials into two separate groups, one belonging to Life and the other to Death.
He begins with the Life group.
As he goes through the materials one by one, patterns begin to emerge, fragments of understanding aligning into structured knowledge.
From the collected research, he identifies the known paths within the Law of Life.
Path of Vitality.
Path of Mutation.
Path of Life.
Path of Blood.
Path of Proliferation.
Path of Resonance.
Path of Form.
Path of Symbiosis.
Path of Memory.
Path of Adaptation.
A total of ten paths are recorded.
Kaelan studies them in sequence, absorbing the theories, the experiments, and the partial comprehensions left behind by others.
He does not rush.
Each concept is broken down, examined, and reconstructed within his mind.
His comprehension deepens steadily as the fragmented research begins to connect into a broader framework.
While Kaelan immerses himself in understanding, far away, Wang Hui continues his own progress.
He finally integrates the Hide Spell into his Blood Nourishing Formation.
The moment the integration completes, a subtle transformation occurs.
Even without actively activating the formation, his aura disappears.
It is not concealment through effort.
It is a constant state.
The formation remains passively active at all times.
As mana circulates through his body, it continuously refines his blood, sustaining the effect naturally.
There is no interruption.
No fluctuation.
His presence becomes indistinct.
The next step in his plan forms clearly in his mind.
The Blood Burning Spell.
He obtained its runes from the Mandrill he killed.
Within the wizard world, most runes and spells originate from beasts, their bodies carrying inherited abilities shaped by evolution and environment.
Through the Blood Source Formation, Wang Hui extracts the Mandrill's inherent spell.
He sits down and begins to meditate.
His consciousness sinks inward.
He enters his spirit space.
It stretches endlessly, an empty expanse beneath a sky filled with constellations.
There, using his spirit as the medium, he begins to draw the runes.
One line at a time.
Careful.
Precise.
He repeats the process again and again, reinforcing each rune until it stabilises.
Gradually, the structure completes.
The Blood Burning Spell takes form.
At the moment of completion, the constructed runes rise upward, ascending into the sky of his spirit space.
They settle among the stars, forming a new constellation.
Another piece of power becomes part of him.
But forming the spell comes at a cost.
His spirit is consumed in the process.
The exhaustion is immediate.
He withdraws from meditation.
His eyes open briefly.
Then he collapses into sleep.
Days pass.
When he wakes again, his spirit has recovered.
In a forest clearing, he stands facing his next test.
A late-level Magic Boar.
Its body is massive, its muscles thick, its presence heavy with raw strength.
Wang Hui does not activate the Blood Nourishing Formation.
Instead, he casts the Blood Burning Spell.
His heart begins to pound.
Faster.
Stronger.
Heat surges through his body as his blood begins to boil.
A phantom crimson flame flickers around him, wrapping his form in a violent aura.
The Magic Boar snorts and charges forward, tearing through the ground with unstoppable force.
Wang Hui does not retreat.
He steps forward.
His muscles tighten, hardening like steel.
At the moment of impact, he raises his hands and meets the charge head-on.
The collision resounds through the clearing.
The boar's momentum halts.
Wang Hui's feet dig into the earth, but he does not move back.
With a sudden twist of his body, he drives his fist downward onto the boar's skull.
A dull crack echoes.
The beast staggers.
Before it can recover, his second strike lands against its neck.
Bone fractures beneath the force.
The crimson flames intensify, pulsing with each beat of his heart.
He continues.
Relentless.
Each punch carries explosive power.
The boar's massive body trembles under the assault.
Ribs collapse.
Spine bends unnaturally.
Burn marks spread across its skin where his fists land, the phantom flames searing into its flesh.
The beast tries to resist.
It struggles.
But the gap in power becomes absolute.
With a final strike, Wang Hui smashes his fist into its chest.
The impact shatters what remains of its structure.
The Magic Boar collapses.
Its body is broken.
Its bones are crushed.
Its skin is scorched.
Silence returns to the clearing.
Wang Hui stands still for a moment.
Then he releases the spell.
The crimson flames vanish.
Immediately, weakness spreads through his body.
His limbs feel heavy.
His breathing turns uneven.
Blood loss takes its toll.
But the effect does not last.
His circulating mana begins to convert into blood, replenishing what was lost.
The weakness fades.
His strength returns.
He stands upright once more.
The test is complete.