From Wizard Apprentice to Conqueror of Myriad Worlds

Three in the morning.

The night was black as ink.

Mo Ning awoke from the deep slumber of the Snake Sleep Technique.

He rolled out of bed, quickly put on his novice’s blue robe, and walked straight to the floor-to-ceiling window.

It was pitch-black outside, and he could only make out some dark shadows.

But Mo Ning knew that the scenery changed at precisely three in the morning.

One of the five new maps, the Great White Birch Forest, had already appeared outside his window.

Mo Ning took a deep breath and infused his Spiritual Power into the exquisite brooch in his hand—the spatial item, Walking into the Painting.

"HUMMM—"

The brooch vibrated gently.

A strange phenomenon occurred—the entire world began to shake along with it.

The walls trembled slightly, the Ink Tube Pen on the desk rolled gently, and the Magic Energy Lamp fixed to the wall also quivered, its light and shadows dancing around the room.

The scene was rather unsettling, as if an earthquake was happening.

Mo Ning couldn’t help but swallow.

He ignored his apartment, his gaze locked on the floor-to-ceiling window before him.

Everything was shaking ceaselessly, yet the large floor-to-ceiling window stood perfectly still before him.

A second later, something even stranger happened.

The glass seemed to have vanished.

Just a moment ago, he could see a transparent barrier in front of him, but now it was gone.

Mo Ning blinked hard. ’Am I seeing an illusion?’

But it wasn’t an illusion.

"WHOOSH—"

A chilly wind suddenly rushed in through the opening.

The wind carried the crisp, distinct scent of the wilderness, a mixture of soil, decaying leaves, and the faint aroma of birch bark.

The temperature in the apartment dropped several degrees in an instant, and a fine layer of goosebumps rose on Mo Ning’s skin.

He immediately felt a wave of warmth surge from within his novice’s blue robe, blocking out the chill.

The goosebumps quickly subsided.

Though it was just a novice’s uniform, the blue robe had quite a few functions, one of which was automatic temperature regulation.

Then, the warm, yellow light of the Magic Energy Lamp streamed through the frame of the floor-to-ceiling window, illuminating the Birch Forest outside.

The trees stood ramrod straight, one next to the other, like rows of silent soldiers.

Fallen leaves blanketed the ground. Some of them tumbled gently in the wind, drifting from one spot to another as if stirred by an unseen hand.

It was all so magical that Mo Ning was stunned for a second.

The Sharp-eared Female Apprentice, the Nasha Witch Spirit, saw a different scene—the glass of the floor-to-ceiling window was rippling like the surface of water.

But Mo Ning saw a completely different picture.

Mo Ning gazed at the gloomy Birch Forest as all sorts of thoughts flooded his mind.

They finally settled on a single sentence: May you find your own unique splendor in your distant explorations.

This was the message that came with the reward when he first obtained Walking into the Painting.

At first, he had thought it was just a well-intentioned blessing, that the Wizard who created the puzzle hoped he wouldn’t remain cooped up in the academy.

Now, he was growing more and more certain. ’This sentence, nine times out of ten, hints at a follow-up quest.’

After a moment’s hesitation, Mo Ning stepped through the floor-to-ceiling window.

The forest floor outside was perfectly level with his apartment, and his Sheepskin Boots made a crisp crunching sound on the fallen leaves.

The leaves tumbled gently in the wind, but an invisible barrier seemed to lie between the apartment and the forest, and not a single one ever drifted inside.

After he had taken about a dozen steps, his surroundings were plunged into darkness, as if someone had drawn a black curtain.

Mo Ning was startled, and his heart began to pound heavily in his chest.

He subconsciously looked back.

By the extremely faint starlight, he could see that the floor-to-ceiling window was gone, and his apartment had vanished without a trace.

In its place stood only a stone stele, about half his height, standing forlornly in a pile of fallen leaves like a forgotten gravestone.

Being all alone in a deserted wilderness, it was hard not to feel a sense of panic.

Mo Ning suppressed the panic rising in his heart and reached into the pocket of his blue robe, pulling out a Lantern.

This was the Magic Energy Lantern he had purchased from Dawa’s Grocery List for 10 Black Tower Points, powered by a Low Level Magic Stone.

It was also the lighting tool he had prepared for this trip into the Great White Birch Forest.

Besides the Lantern, he had bought a lot of miscellaneous odds and ends, spending nearly 100 Black Tower Points. His account balance had shrunk to 3,048 points.

Never mind novices, even full-fledged Apprentices would be reluctant to spend money like that.

But for Mo Ning, it was simple: ’If you’ve got the money, you can afford to be reckless!’

He gently pressed a rune on the side of the Lantern, and a warm, yellow ray of light spilled from the lampshade, spreading a domain of brightness before him.

Mo Ning let out a breath, his panic subsiding considerably.

The light also illuminated the stone stele.

The stele was a rather rare shade of dark red.

It stood there silently, its surface mottled and covered in fine cracks, like the wrinkles on an old man’s face.

Moss crept up from the cracks in its base, obscuring most of the stele’s lower half.

Mo Ning immediately noticed faint, blurry Secret Spirit Text on the stele’s surface, the characters eroded by wind and rain beyond recognition.

An ordinary person seeing such an inscription could only sigh in helplessness.

For him, however, it was simple.

The Eye of Truth activated silently, swiftly stripping away the blur from the fuzzy Secret Spirit Text, repairing and restoring it.

Soon, the inscription became clear again.

"Cabin in the Woods."

Mo Ning read it aloud in a low voice.

A faint smile touched his lips. ’Just as I thought.’

Those four words didn’t surprise him in the slightest.

Back when he was solving the Divination puzzle hidden in the landscape painting, he had noticed that the clues were intricately linked to the Divination Chess game, *Tower Push War*.