An hour later, a light invisible spell knife appeared in Locke's hand, inscribing complex spell runes in mid-air.

Locke had already consumed all the magical resources he purchased previously. Under the support of this magical power, he was inscribing spell runes at the magic pressure structure level of his soul.

At the same time, before Locke were two bottles of advancement potion, one was a gift from the academy, the other was given to him by formal wizard Urien Rich as compensation for tutoring his grandson.

This counted as an investment.

Locke chose one bottle and drank it. Immediately, a mass of flames seemed to appear before his eyes. Those flames were drilling into his cells, squeezing every drop of potential remaining in his body, beginning to help him rapidly increase his mana.

"Bang~"

Flames began burning from Locke's body surface. Immediately after, with lightning speed, Locke's entire person entered a mass of flames, as if undergoing burning at the stake.

At the same time, the amethyst matrix Locke took out from his astral ring floated in the air above, continuously displaying numbers: 801, 811... 900...

"Ah!" Pain from deep in his soul penetrated Locke's mind. That was life's instinct resisting and fearing overdrawing the future and only caring about the present. But Locke controlled himself with reason, preventing himself from circulating mana and strengthening magic pressure to resist the Sacrifice Potion's effects.

The fire source of fire elemental magic began burning all over his body.

It seemed to be because the potential contained in his body was too intense.

Locke also activated all the ancient bloodlines on his body. The spell model stars in his sea of consciousness released bright starlight, rotating around the main body of his sea of consciousness—Locke's soul.

And Locke used the invisible spell knife to point at these stars, using them to outline his soul-level magic pressure structure.

'The elements are slightly losing balance. I can't let fire elements burn like this, otherwise it will cause my own physical elements to become unbalanced. Even if I advance to formal wizard, I'll become a guardian wizard, or suffer the fate of that speed painter's first wife.'

'But don't be afraid, I have potions! I also have superhuman drug tolerance!' Locke quickly took out a potion for stabilizing elements that he purchased at the auction from his astral ring and drank it. The flames on his body surface gradually extinguished.

Locke breathed a sigh of relief. The spell model in his hand had already been outlined halfway. He glanced at the number 999 on the amethyst matrix and involuntarily quickened his speed.

'The reason wizards must inscribe First Circle defensive magic at the magic pressure level of the soul to form a permanent defensive field, besides gaining a constant powerful defensive magic, the most important reason is to strengthen the wizard's soul stability.'

'Magic pressure exceeding one thousand has already surpassed the height originally achievable by the human soul. Powerful magic pressure will suddenly shatter like a burst barrel, with magic pressure continuously flowing outward, like an explosion phenomenon.'

'In other words, the pinnacle of apprentice level was originally the limit of the human soul.'

'Becoming a First Circle wizard means crossing the limit of the human soul and achieving transcendent accomplishment. So-called formal wizards are existences that have transcended the essence of the human soul!'

Locke's eyes became determined. He had to speed up. If he couldn't completely inscribe the permanent defensive field before his mental power broke through one thousand, it would become very troublesome.

The human soul couldn't possibly carry this much magic pressure and at this moment, his body was still burning potential and lifespan. His image in the mirror visibly aged.

White hair grew on his head, his beard grew wildly, wrinkles began appearing on his skin, his pupils became turbid, and his vitality was no longer vigorous.

He changed from a youth under twenty years old into the appearance of a middle-aged to elderly person in an extremely brief time, and was still continuously aging.

'Crack~'

The invisible spell knife in Locke's hand suddenly broke, shattering into seven pieces and falling to the ground, melting into invisibility like ice.

But... Locke murmured, "Completed."

"The spell model of Forest Sanctuary inscription is complete."

"I succeeded!"

The next moment, the core of his sea of consciousness, the solar radiance representing his consciousness core brightened by at least a hundred times. The spell models of all the magic he had learned previously transformed into stars orbiting it one after another.

Like a solar system.

At the same time, in this stellar system, a permanent magic field spell model slightly smaller than the self-consciousness core "Sun" also appeared in this stellar system, positioned like "Jupiter."

This gave this spell stellar system in the sea of consciousness an unprecedented completeness.

This crude spell stellar system gained sufficient detail and therefore transformed from original circular motion to spiral elliptical rotation, similar to true galactic rotation trajectories.

'Crack... crack...'

The vast magic pressure that only formal wizards possessed appeared on Locke's body, and the level of this magic pressure was still continuously strengthening. The magic pressure belonging to a formal wizard covered the entire research institute like dark clouds.

Immediately, electric sparks appeared in countless corners of the research institute.

Some life forms still alive in the nutrition tanks emitted fearful whimpers in unconscious comas toward the formal wizard.

That was the fear of higher-level life forms from life instinct.

That was ancient survival philosophy, instinct remaining in these organisms through countless years, used to force them to flee from the vicinity of excessively powerful existences.

"Much smoother than I imagined. Perhaps the accumulation on my body is really too profound, so one bottle of Sacrifice Potion was sufficient to safely push my mana toward 1000."

A profound blue spell radiance emanated from Locke's eyes. Wood elements began falling as green magical rain in a small area above his head because of excessive concentration.

Locke felt somewhat wistful. "Even the advancement speed was somewhat too fast. If I hadn't inscribed Forest Sanctuary magic several times in advance using the virtual simulation device platform, my spell model inscription speed might not even have kept up with my mental power progress speed, leading to breakthrough failure."

"Even endangering my life."

"Everything must have balance. Too much of a good thing becomes poison. Poison can sometimes also become a good thing."

"The world is like this, being a person is like this, doing things is even more so. Adding and subtracting, balanced and orderly, natural heavenly principle, cycling endlessly."

After this experience, Locke's understanding of natural balance deepened further.

At this time, green spell radiance emanated from Locke's eyes, a highly condensed natural energy.

A basic natural energy protective shield formed around his body.

That was the most basic power of Forest Sanctuary.

At the same time, the Sacrifice Potion's effects hadn't completely disappeared yet, because huge potion potential lurked in Locke's body, especially the large amounts of spinal fluid and Beholder Lord Potion he drank previously, plus the large pile of magical resources bought at the auction.

At this moment, almost substantialized natural energy formed around Locke. That natural energy shot skyward, flew into mid-air, rotated once in mid-air, then dove downward again, crashing onto Locke.

In a corner of the central control room, golden radiance appeared on the surface of a cone-shaped crystal standing on the ground. At the same time, a Lantern Grass bloomed beneath this crystal.

After Locke's mana broke through 1000, it was still rapidly growing, 1100, 1200. He naturally entered the state of advanced meditation method, and the advanced meditation method automatically reached the fourth level.

He became closer to the natural primal force plane in the void and naturally more easily obtained more natural primal force infusion.

Moreover, because of the Three-Eyed Tiger Cat ancient creature bloodline on his body, for some unknown reason, the natural primal force plane particularly favored him. Therefore, at this moment, it continuously reverse-infused him with natural primal force, taking the opportunity to rapidly strengthen his magical power.

The Executioner's Hammerhead Mushroom seed previously hidden on Locke rapidly absorbed the surrounding substantialized natural primal force energy, forcing this natural primal force energy to condense into wood element fibers. It absorbed these wood element fibers, causing itself to rapidly grow mycelium, sclerotia, and prop up fruiting bodies. The mushroom cap continuously enlarged and expanded until it became as large as a hammer.

At the same time, as Locke became a formal wizard, his natural lifespan automatically increased, growing toward five hundred years. The bit of lifespan lost previously became insignificant.

So he regained his youth, and even his appearance looked younger than before.

Originally he had already become an adult, but now looking at him, his face actually carried a bit of childishness.

This was because his lifespan increased substantially, causing his relative age to become much younger.