Chapter 279 - 27: Surpassing Wizards, Mo Ning Overturns the Artificial Soul’s Perception

Chapter 279: Chapter 27: Surpassing Wizards, Mo Ning Overturns the Artificial Soul’s Perception

This was mainly because the Soul Spirit Water was too unique—one had to rely on deep-seated happiness to resist the contamination.

And happiness, in essence, was a power of the mind.

Although the knowledge and Witchcraft mastered by Official Wizards were powerful, when it came to control over the mind, they weren’t necessarily much stronger than a newcomer.

To a certain extent, everyone was on the same starting line.

Mo Ning reached out and took the Thunder Shadow Leopard Fang Pendant from within his gray robe, sending a wisp of Spiritual Power into it.

The information he received after touching the Spirit Seal was both shocking and, in a way, a relief—it was just as he had suspected.

[Uses Remaining—184.]

The previous count had been 95 uses, which meant it had increased by a staggering 89.

Without a doubt, this was because the Thunder Shadow Leopard’s projection had entered the dreamscape and plundered a massive amount of negative Spiritual Power, causing such a stunning surge in its number of uses.

Flower also noticed the change in the pendant and exclaimed in surprise, "How did the number of uses increase by so much?"

She then let out a surprised "Huh?" and added, "Mr. Mo Ning, I sense an extra power inside the pendant."

Mo Ning wasn’t surprised in the slightest. With a hint of joy in his voice, he said, "Yes, it’s different now."

After the Black Panther leaped in the dreamscape, it had left behind an afterimage of electric light. He had realized then that the pendant must have changed.

This was another case of the Spiritual World influencing the real world.

Mo Ning raised a finger toward the pendant. A minuscule wisp of electric light flashed at his fingertip.

Flower immediately saw a blue arc of electricity emerge on its own from the fractured leopard fang and gently touch its master’s fingertip.

In that instant, turbulent waves surged through the Artificial Soul’s stream of consciousness.

The scene before her pointed firmly and powerfully to one fact: the pendant was evolving.

It wasn’t that Witchcraft Items couldn’t evolve.

If the creator infused it with Spirituality or strengthened its Magic Patterns, the item would naturally grow more powerful.

But that kind of "evolution," in the conventional sense, was primarily caused by human intervention.

Yet the pendant Flower was observing was evolving spontaneously, without any outside intervention from start to finish.

The operative word—spontaneous!

This was unbelievable.

Flower performed a high-speed search of her knowledge base and came up with the most logical hypothesis:

"Mr. Mo Ning, perhaps the miraculous power of your Spiritual World has awakened a dormant remnant of a soul within this leopard fang."

"The Thunder Shadow Leopard is a powerful First Level Magical Beast, with strength comparable to a First Level Wizard. Even as just a remnant of a soul, it still possesses an unimaginable degree of Spirituality."

The Artificial Soul even offered supporting evidence: "A black cat appeared in your Meditation World several times before. That was perhaps this soul remnant projecting itself there."

The corners of Mo Ning’s mouth turned up slightly. "Very likely!"

His fingers caressed the rough leopard fang, and he could vaguely feel a strange sense of affinity from it.

This was a phenomenon that had never occurred before.

Mo Ning hung the pendant back around his neck and asked, "Are there any monster nests near the Cabin in the Woods?"

He planned to use monsters as test subjects to try out the new ability the pendant had gained from its evolution.

Flower immediately replied, "This is the heart of the Great White Birch Forest. There are monster nests everywhere. There’s a group of nasty Screaming Goblins just a kilometer away."

The wilderness beyond human settlements was almost entirely a world of monsters.

Although the academy controlled a vast territory, it had a mere few tens of thousands of people, the majority of whom were still Apprentices. How could they possibly have the ability to clear out all the monsters across a domain of tens of millions of square kilometers?

They could work themselves to death and still not kill them all.

The academy hadn’t cleared many remote areas for years.

The Great White Birch Forest was on the Yatu Plateau, an already remote and rarely traveled land, so it was hardly surprising that monsters roamed everywhere.

As for the Screaming Goblins—they were a subspecies of goblin modified during the era of the Second Wizard Empire.

True to their name, Screaming Goblins had abnormally thick necks with special vocal organs inside, allowing them to produce extremely sharp and piercing howls.

If an ordinary person were to hear it suddenly, their head would be rattled to the point of dizziness.

Some exceptionally talented Screaming Goblins could even use Magic Power to alter their howls, allowing them to directly attack a target’s internal organs.

To humans, these little things that loved to shriek "AHH AHH" nonstop were definitely one of the most detestable species in the wild.

Mo Ning grunted in acknowledgment and slowly stood up. "Let’s head over then."

The fierce battle in the dreamscape had thoroughly routed the Soul of Deathly Silence, temporarily suppressing its arrogant fervor.

For a short time, he wouldn’t have to worry about the contamination worsening.

"Okay!"

Flower replied cheerfully, "Mr. Mo Ning, I’ll lead the way!"

Just then, Mo Ning felt the Apprentice’s Magic Ring on his left hand grow faintly warm.

The feedback from the Rose Council on his paper had finally arrived.

A stream of information flowed into Mo Ning’s mind like a creek.

[Reward Notification: Serial No. 7-118-256, Mo Ning.]

[Your submitted research paper, *The Birch Magic Breath Technique: From Respiratory Rhythm to Spiritual Rhythm—An Important and Innovative Construction of a Simplified Magic Pool with Revolutionary Significance*, has passed its final review.]

Mo Ning’s movements paused for a fraction of a second, and a hint of a smile flashed in his eyes.

Giving a Breathing Technique its own Magic Pool, allowing an Apprentice to gain a second Magic Pool without paying a great price—he had never worried that the academy would reject the word "revolutionary" in his title.

Not only that, but the Council had also unilaterally modified the title of the paper he had written—the original "Innovative Construction" had now become "Important and Innovative Construction."

The word "Important" had been added.

This meant the paper’s evaluation had been raised by a level, and naturally, the rewards would increase accordingly.

From what he knew, even research papers by Official Wizards rarely received an "Important and Innovative" evaluation.

A profound sense of joy rose from the bottom of his heart like brilliant fireworks, completely washing away the trace of anxiety that had been lingering in his spirit.

Flower glanced at her master and observed an unprecedented spike—2.8 points.

This time, the instantaneous increase in his Spiritual Strength had reached 0.02 points for the first time.

The Artificial Soul’s stream of consciousness suffered a considerable shock; even her processing speed slowed slightly as a result.

’Is this really the final stage of digestion?’