Chapter 144: Advancement Ritual (1)
"Uncle Toby, I've come to apply for library access."
Lynn visited the service center to process his library application, and higher-tier wizards soon arrived to verify his qualifications.
Library access quotas were highly coveted, especially for an Apprentice. However, Lynn's wizard tower quickly passed verification, and his application was swiftly approved.
He was granted seven days of library access, along with a small card issued by the administration.
The black card was hot-stamped with arcane golden patterns, and right in its center sat a demon's eye.
Surrounding the eye was the faint, illusory outline of a library.
Following the instructions he had been given, Lynn injected his mental energy into the card.
The eye on the card seemed to come alive. An illusory vertical pupil drifted just above its surface, and Lynn felt as if he were being scanned from the inside out.
Then, the surrounding scenery began to shift. Still sitting in his chair, Lynn watched in shock as the desk in front of him melted away. The walls collapsed layer by layer like tumbling building blocks, and the somewhat narrow room was pushed outward, expanding continuously as towering bookshelves rose from the ground one after another.
As this thought flashed through his mind, the bookshelf in front of him rolled sideways like a turning gear. When it stood upright again, the books resting on its shelves were completely different.
If one had not yet decided which path to take, they could opt for a universal transformation ritual to avoid restricting their future potential.
Advanced Grass Trial, Elemental Life Transformation Ritual, Gene Lock Release Ritual, Lich Transformation Ritual, Flesh Demon Transformation Ritual, Astral Life Transformation Ritual.
Lynn flipped through them one by one. Three days passed, and he had roughly skimmed almost every book on the massive shelf in front of him.
As he copied down the Divine Human Transformation Ritual, Lynn noticed an interesting detail. In essence, this ritual was not actually meant to turn a person into a god.
Through extensive dissection, wizards had discovered that every breakthrough unlocked the innate potential of the human race. In the process of breaking these genetic locks, one might even open the pineal gland and awaken a sixth sense—the ability to foresee danger.
One simply needed to follow the prescribed steps, which saved a great deal of effort. If they reached the end of that path, they could always forge a new route of their own.
To a wizard, a god was merely another higher lifeform. In their eyes, there was no fundamental difference between gods, demons, angels, dragons, titans, or similar creatures.
Lynn tested his surroundings and realized his mental energy had been restricted; he could not commune with any of the ambient energy in the air.
These bookshelves were only three meters tall, filled with tomes of various styles.
Lynn's eyes flickered.
Aside from the Gene Lock Release Ritual, there were similar options like the Perfect Human Sublimation Ritual and the Divine Human Transformation Ritual.
Selecting many of these transformation rituals would place certain restrictions on a wizard's future progression. Yet, at the same time, these straightforward rituals represented direct paths to the summit of power.
He only had seven days. Aside from finding a suitable advancement ritual, he needed to look up the topics he had noted down in advance. He just didn't know how much he would actually be able to find here.
Lynn now understood how to use this library.
Raising his head, Lynn looked at the titles resting on the shelves before him: Elemental Divine Body Transformation Ritual, God Body Transformation Ritual, Holy Spirit Transcendence Ritual, and Twenty-Eight-Winged Transcendent Dream Angel Sublimation Ritual.
After reading through several of them, Lynn found that the tiers of these transformation rituals varied greatly. Some even required complex prerequisites, making them entirely unsuitable for his current level.
At the Tier 1 stage, this ritual required only ten wisps of divine power and a single wisp of divinity.
However, a god was indeed an excellent material—their entire body was a treasure.
Gathering his thoughts, he knew he couldn't waste any more time here. Library access quotas were notoriously scarce. This library held the entire collection of the demon wizard academy, including advanced wizard knowledge that he normally had no opportunity to study.
It was no wonder that sublimation rituals were divided into different tiers. The mental energy of wizards varied by level; those who reached a higher tier could endure much more powerful transformation rituals.
Was this library arranging the books in front of him based purely on his thoughts? It was truly marvelous.
Take, for instance, the Gene Lock Release Ritual he had just seen.
I just need to look at transformation rituals that are suitable for me right now.
Since Lynn already possessed one wisp of divinity, he only needed to collect ten wisps of divine power to gather the core materials. As for the rest, they were not particularly rare and could easily be purchased in Demon City.
These were all rare materials.
Even after filtering them down, Lynn found that he still had plenty of paths to choose from.
The text detailed how wizards, during their dissections of humans, discovered that those who practiced knight breathing techniques or other physical cultivation paths could push their bodily strength to an entirely new limit.
A flash of realization crossed Lynn's eyes. Was this why wizards pursued ever-greater mental energy? By strengthening the soul, they could endure greater power without losing their sense of self.
After comparing the various options, Lynn finally settled on the Divine Human Transformation Ritual. To a wizard, a god was an exceptionally perfect biological material in every regard.
For any wizard, such an outcome was completely unacceptable.
There were parchment scrolls, bone fragments, and standard paper books. There were even iron plates bound together with rings, and crystal boxes neatly displaying leaves covered in text.
Furthermore, most transformation rituals had strict mental energy requirements. The books explained exactly why: if a wizard lacked the required mental energy and forcefully attempted a transformation ritual beyond their limits, there was a high probability they would lose their sense of self, even if the ritual succeeded.
If a wizard absorbed a large amount of divinity from a single god, they faced a massive risk of contamination. Fortunately, wizards had discovered a solution: by simultaneously utilizing multiple, conflicting sources of divinity and filtering them through a specialized magic array, they could minimize the contradictions before proceeding with the transformation ritual.
Because of this, it was highly recommended not to use the divinity of a powerful god for one's first Divine Human Transformation Ritual. Using the divinity of a weaker god was much safer.
Once he was certain he had memorized every detail and the corresponding array for the Divine Human Transformation Ritual, Lynn moved on to searching for his other items of interest.
Seven days passed. Sitting on the floor with a Bone Book in his hands, Lynn felt the tome gradually fade away as the surrounding space continuously folded and collapsed inward.
Lynn's vision blurred. His eyes were exhausted, yet they carried a hint of joy. He had found the information he was looking for, meaning the idea he had been harboring might actually be viable.