Chapter 53: Domain
Moving slowly toward the Saint Family estate, Cole deliberately kept his movements light and controlled.
Every step landed carefully against the stone pavement, his weight distributed so that even the faintest sound was minimized. The streets around him had already grown considerably quieter, but that didn’t mean they were safe. With the entire city tense and the Saint Family under attack, Cole had no intention of giving anyone a chance to trace his movements.
After walking for some time, he finally decided to take a short break.
His gaze swept across the surrounding buildings before settling on an abandoned structure standing quietly beside the road. The building was covered in a thick layer of dust, with several windows shattered and weeds growing through cracks in the stone walls. Judging from its appearance, no one had entered the place for months.
Perfect...
A faint light flashed within Cole’s eyes.
This was exactly the kind of place he needed.
Without wasting another moment, Cole approached the abandoned building and pushed open its half-rotten door. The hinges immediately produced a faint creaking sound that echoed through the empty interior, causing Cole’s brows to subtly tighten.
He paused.
After carefully observing the surroundings for several breaths and confirming that no one was nearby, he finally stepped inside.
Dust floated lazily through the thin rays of moonlight entering through the broken windows. Old furniture lay scattered across the floor, covered beneath thick layers of gray dust, while spiderwebs stretched from one wall to another like thin silver threads.
Cole moved deeper inside.
He deliberately avoided disturbing anything unnecessarily.
If someone happened to investigate this place later, he didn’t want them finding obvious traces of his presence.
After checking every corner and confirming that the building was truly abandoned, Cole finally found a relatively clean area near the center of the room.
He sat down cross-legged.
His back straightened.
His hands rested naturally upon his knees.
Then...
His eyes slowly closed.
His entire consciousness began sinking inward.
Generally, every trained wizard began their journey by using low, no-grade spells.
These spells required no spirit nodes because the spirit of an ordinary wizard was simply too fragile to withstand the burden of constructing them. Their spiritual foundation had to gradually strengthen before they could begin manipulating genuine spell structures.
Everything changed once one reached the Moon Wizard Realm.
At this stage...
The strength of one’s Spirit had finally reached the threshold required to construct and maintain actual spell nodes.
Cole quietly recalled the information contained within the Memory Crystal.
His breathing gradually became slower.
Then slower still.
His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm, each breath seemingly synchronizing with the subtle flow of mana surrounding his body.
In...
Out...
In...
Out...
The world outside gradually became distant.
The abandoned building.
The silent streets.
The tension hanging over Blessed Moon City.
The Saint Family.
Trisha.
Even the mysterious attackers...
Everything slowly faded from his consciousness.
For this brief moment...
There was only him.
And the path before him.
Cole’s mind became completely still.
His thoughts turned toward the knowledge he possessed regarding the first major realm of the wizard path.
The Moon Wizard Realm.
A realm where the fragile spiritual force of ordinary wizards transformed into something capable of supporting genuine spell structures.
A realm where Spirit became the foundation upon which powerful spells could be constructed.
Cole carefully recalled every detail.
The requirements.
The structure.
The process.
The dangers.
Nothing was overlooked.
As his thoughts continued flowing...
The atmosphere around him gradually changed.
The air within the abandoned building seemed to become heavier.
The dust particles floating beneath the moonlight began sinking slowly toward the ground, as though an invisible weight had suddenly descended upon them.
Even the loose fragments of debris on the floor trembled faintly.
Cole paid no attention.
His entire consciousness remained focused inward.
His first task...
Was to carve the nodes.
Then...
He would allow mana to flow freely through the newly constructed spiritual pathways.
His breathing became even steadier.
His consciousness descended deeper into his body.
Then...
Badum!
A powerful heartbeat echoed within his chest.
Badum!
Another followed.
His dantian pulsed rhythmically like a war drum.
With every beat, a surge of mana flowed outward.
It traveled through his veins like a powerful river breaking through its banks, spreading from his dantian into every corner of his body.
At first...
The rhythm was relatively slow.
The mana completed only around thirty circulations every minute.
For an ordinary cultivator, such a speed would already have been astonishing.
But Cole wasn’t satisfied.
His consciousness became even more focused.
The world around him seemed to disappear completely.
His breathing became almost imperceptible.
His heartbeat remained steady.
The flow of mana gradually accelerated.
Thirty circulations...
Thirty-one...
Thirty-two...
The increase was barely noticeable at first.
Yet as Cole’s concentration reached an unprecedented level, the speed continued climbing.
The mana coursing through his body became increasingly smooth.
The faint resistance that had existed within his pathways began disappearing piece by piece.
His entire body seemed to enter a strange state of perfect harmony.
The dantian pulsed.
The mana flowed.
The Spirit moved.
And deep within Cole’s consciousness...
The first faint outline of a spell node slowly began to take shape.
When the circulation speed finally reached sixty circulations per minute...
Something suddenly changed.
An invisible force quietly spread outward from Cole’s body.
There was no explosion.
No dazzling light.
Yet the space around him seemed to tremble faintly, as though an invisible sphere had silently expanded from his body and enveloped everything within several meters.
Cole’s figure remained completely motionless at the center.
Even without opening his eyes, he could clearly sense the existence of that mysterious sphere.
It was as though his consciousness had suddenly expanded beyond the boundaries of his physical body.
Every grain of dust floating through the air...
Every tiny crack within the old wooden floor...
Even the faint movement of air brushing against his skin...
Everything became extraordinarily clear.
A strange thought naturally surfaced within his mind.
A domain...
The realization caused a faint ripple to pass through Cole’s consciousness.
This was a domain belonging solely to a wizard.
Unlike the physical strength cultivated by the Knight Path, a wizard’s power was deeply connected to Spirit.
When their spiritual force reached a certain threshold, it could begin influencing the surrounding world, forming a unique domain centered around the wizard himself.
And Cole...
Had just created his first domain.
The moment the domain completely stabilized, Cole suddenly felt an indescribable sensation.
It was as though he had been severed from the outside world.
The sounds of the city...
The movement of the wind...
The distant footsteps...
Everything disappeared.
His perception abruptly shifted.
The next moment...
Darkness swallowed his consciousness.
Then...
Grey fog appeared.
Endless grey fog.
It stretched in every direction, rolling restlessly through a seemingly boundless space.
There was no sky.
No earth.
No walls.
No obvious beginning or end.
Only thick, restless mist continuously churning around him.
An eerie heaviness pressed against his consciousness.
The sensation was strange enough to make ordinary people instinctively panic.
Yet Cole didn’t feel fear.
Instead...
His eyes widened slightly.
"This is..."
His voice echoed strangely through the grey mist.
"My spiritual space...!"
A faint excitement appeared within Cole’s eyes.
According to the information he had obtained, once a Nascent Trained wizard successfully advanced into the Moon Wizard Realm, they would gain access to their spiritual space.
This was the true inner world of a wizard.
A place directly connected to their Spirit.
A place where spell models could be constructed and stored.
A place that would continue developing alongside their spiritual strength.
Cole couldn’t help but look around.
The grey fog seemed almost alive, continuously drifting through the empty space.
He instinctively wanted to explore further.
What exactly was hidden within this strange world?
Was there a boundary?
Could the fog be manipulated?
Would the spiritual space change as his Spirit became stronger?
Countless questions immediately appeared in his mind.
However...
Cole quickly suppressed his curiosity.
There would be plenty of opportunities to investigate later.
Right now...
He had something far more important to accomplish.
The Lightning Arrow spell.
Cole immediately recalled the instructions contained within the Memory Crystal.
His consciousness sank deeper into the grey fog.
His spiritual force slowly gathered.
Then...
He began shaping it.
The first node.
The spiritual force condensed beneath his will, gradually forming a mysterious point of light within the empty space.
It looked insignificant.
Yet Cole could clearly feel how much precision was required to maintain it.
A slight fluctuation...
And the entire structure could collapse.
Cole remained completely focused.
He carefully stabilized the first node before extending his spiritual force toward another position.
The second node slowly emerged.
Then...
The third.
The three nodes gradually formed a triangular arrangement.
His will became the knife.
His Spirit became the blade.
And the empty spiritual space became the canvas upon which he carved the spell model.
Time slowly passed.
Cole’s consciousness remained completely immersed in the process.
The grey fog continued rolling around him.
The three spiritual nodes gradually became brighter.
Thin strands of spiritual force connected them together, forming an increasingly complicated structure.
At first...
The triangle was nothing more than a vague outline.
Then...
The lines became clearer.
The nodes stabilized.
The entire structure slowly approached completion.
Ninety percent...
Ninety-five percent...
Ninety-eight percent...
Finally...
Almost ninety-nine percent.
A faint triangular formation floated quietly within the grey fog.
Lightning occasionally flickered across its surface.
Every time the structure pulsed...
A phantom appeared within the center of the triangle.
A lightning arrow.....