Cycle of Destiny

Chapter 53 An Unusual Promotion

Back at the hotel, Harry began to reflect on his meeting with Veronica.

In Veranica's words, the goddess is a perfect and benevolent person. This is not hard to understand—as a lobbyist, she would naturally praise her employer to the skies. And as one of the church's representatives, her public image is certainly impeccable. But what kind of person she truly is, perhaps only she herself knows.

This time, Harry understood that he absolutely could not allow that goddess to have any dissatisfaction with him.

Regarding the bracelet, he wanted to know who told the goddess that they could help find it. Also, he wanted to know what he should do if he agreed to help her search.

All these answers will only be known at tomorrow's banquet.

As for now, Harry has more important things to do.

The abundant magic contained within the antler-like spine inside his belly began to emanate, and a solid warmth rose from his stomach. He immediately sat cross-legged on the bed and called out Xiao Bei's name.

Even before going to "The Lion King's Heart," Harry had told Beckham about his breakthrough through eating. Last time, Harry had figured it out entirely on his own, and he wanted to know if Beckham, a high-level magician, would guide him this time, and the effect would be even better. Beckham happily agreed.

So when Harry felt the magic, he called out to Beckham.

As Harry's voice faded, a white figure appeared in the center of the room, floating silently in the air.

"Shall we begin?" Xiao Bei's voice was calm and clear. "This time, with my guidance, the process will be different. Now, close your eyes, introspect, but don't rush to guide the energy. First, feel its natural flow path."

Harry closed his eyes. Unlike last time, he didn't immediately try to "grab" the warm currents with his mind, but instead relaxed his mind and purely sensed them. He could feel the warm energy spreading from his stomach throughout his body like many tiny streams, permeating his internal organs and flowing to his limbs.

"Can you feel it?" Xiao Bei's voice rang directly in his mind. "Energy has its own flow; it will first flow to the attribute area with the highest affinity in your bloodline. Last time you forcibly gathered them together, which was useful, but a lot was wasted in the fight. Now, you only need to focus your consciousness on the greenish-blue wood attribute energy and the fiery red fire attribute energy. Just abandon the energy of other attributes."

Harry's heart skipped a beat. He carefully sensed it, and sure enough, when he stopped trying to gather all the energy, he could feel an increase in the flow of energy. Among this energy, the greenish-blue wood-elemental energy flowed the smoothest, followed by the fiery red one, while the other elements were completely imperceptible.

"Now," Xiao Bei instructed, "control them. Imagine your consciousness space is a calm lake, and your mental energy is the whirlpool in the center of the lake. Slowly increase the suction of the whirlpool, allowing the energy to flow to the center of the whirlpool on its own, following the direction of attribute affinity. Yes, just like that, slowly and steadily."

Harry adjusted his method. He no longer actively controlled it, but instead created a slowly rotating gravitational point deep within his consciousness. The effect was immediate. The energy scattered throughout his body seemed to have found its home, automatically converging towards that point at a faster speed and with much less resistance than when he had deliberately guided it last time. The main stream of cyan energy, mixed with some fiery red, gradually flowed into the main channel.

"Very good." Xiao Bei's affirmation reassured him even more. "Pay attention to the crack at the bottom of your consciousness space. The rate at which it leaks energy is constant. What you need to do now is not to use more energy to plug it, but to make the rate of injection far exceed the rate of leakage, and use the rapidly replenishing energy to 'wash away' and 'reinforce' the barrier structure around the crack."

Harry did as Beckham instructed. He precisely directed the gathered energy flow into the consciousness space, no longer aiming to fill it all at once, but maintaining a stable input that was slightly faster than the rate of loss through the leak. He clearly "saw" that the newly injected magic not only filled the space, but the gentle pressure generated as it flowed did indeed make the previously somewhat flimsy barrier structure around it a little more solid as it passed over the small crack.

"Now, the space is almost full," Xiao Bei's voice rang out at the right moment. "Can you feel the pressure from the barrier? Don't fight it. Distribute your mental energy evenly along the inside of the barrier, like a soft yet resilient lining. Then, continue to steadily input energy, allowing the pressure to act evenly across the entire barrier from the inside. Imagine blowing a uniform ball, rather than hammering a single point."

Last time, Harry relied on brute force to withstand the pressure until the barrier reached its limit. This time, following Beckham's instructions, he evenly distributed his mental energy. As the magic filled the space again and the expanding pressure surged, it was dispersed throughout the entire spherical barrier by this layer of mental energy. The pressure continued to increase, but it was no longer a dull, suffocating pain concentrated in a few points; instead, it was a holistic, controllable tension.

"Now." Xiao Bei's voice carried a rare sharpness. "The barrier's elasticity has reached its limit. Continue to input the last burst of energy—use the smoothest flow of wood and fire attributes you gathered just now. Keep it steady, don't explode."

Harry focused his mind, channeling the last, purest stream of blue-red energy. The instant the energy touched the saturated space, the uniform pressure reached its peak.

"Snap..."

A soft, clearer, and more steady sound than before reverberated deep within his consciousness. It wasn't like the tearing sensation of a membrane being forcibly stretched open, but rather like the pleasant sound of some kind of resilient material being stretched evenly. Harry felt the barriers of his entire consciousness space gently and steadily expand outwards, and the newly expanded area was immediately and smoothly filled with the long-awaited magic, without any obstruction or vibration.

Promotion complete! Level 4 Mage!

But the process is not over yet.

"Don't stop," Xiao Bei said immediately. "The space has just expanded, so we can continue. Use the remaining energy to slowly inject it, following the method I just taught you. Don't try to fill it up; the goal is to moisten and nurture the new barrier, making it thicker and laying the foundation for the next expansion."

Harry steadied himself, controlling the lingering magical energy in his stomach, which transformed into a gentle stream that continuously flowed into the newly expanded space. He could feel that this energy wasn't piling up roughly, but rather like spring water seeping into the soil, evenly nourishing every part of the space, especially the newly formed boundaries, allowing them to quickly stabilize after expansion, and even subtly acquiring a resilient texture that it hadn't had before.

When the last bit of external energy was absorbed, Harry slowly exited deep meditation.

He opened his eyes.

The world was presented to him with unprecedented clarity.

The grain of the wood on the window frame, the slight trembling of the spider webs in the corner of the wall in the airflow, the faded lettering on the shop signs across the street below... every detail is crystal clear.

The faint sound of distant dock bells, the rustling of pages turning in the next roommate's book, and even the subtle sound of one's own blood flowing through the body, all entered the ears in distinct layers.

This was more than just the enhanced perception expected of a fourth-level mage. He felt his mental energy was exceptionally refined and easily controlled, his consciousness space was full and stable, and that sense of saturation seemed to be not far from the boundary of the next expansion.

After his last promotion, he felt like he had climbed a steep flight of stairs and needed to catch his breath. This time, however, it was like steadily walking down a gentle slope and standing on a wide-open platform, where the path leading to the fifth level was already visible.

He looked at Beckham, his eyes filled with gratitude and amazement.

Xiao Bei smiled and nodded: "You relied entirely on your own exploration before, so the results were definitely not as good as this time. Your current state is much more solid than that of a typical newly promoted level four mage, approaching the level of mid-level four. Keep accumulating experience, and the threshold of level five won't be too difficult for you."

Harry clenched his fist, feeling the smooth, natural flow of abundant magic within him. The same advancement, but different processes and results. The difference between having guidance and not having it was so vast!

Afterwards, Harry told Beckham about his previous speculation that the goddess might be the murderer.

"...I refused her last time. That bracelet must be very important to her, and it's quite possible she would kill me out of anger. Besides, assigning a high-level assassin wouldn't be difficult for her. Even if what Veronica said is true, and she is indeed a very kind person, I still think she is likely the one behind the murder. For someone like her, it's not difficult for an angel and a devil to coexist in one body. She can provide shelter for disaster victims, but when she's angry, she can certainly make some people pay the price."

Xiao Bei didn't comment on the possibility that the goddess might be the murderer. She pouted, looking thoughtful.

"You can have a good talk with her. She wants your help, so she'll definitely be willing to tell you a lot of information."

Then Harry asked Beckham if he knew anything about the bracelet. Beckham didn't answer directly, only saying that the goddess should tell him.

Harry realized that Beckham didn't seem to want to talk about the topic, so he didn't press the matter further.