Wizard: Starting from the Skill Tree-Chapter 585: The Eye of Secret Prying

The Duke’s massive Dark Race hand pressed directly on the charred center of the residual formation, no longer pursuing precise control, but rather in the most brutal manner, flooding his own boundless Magic Power and Spiritual Power into the ritual nodes that were about to collapse like a dam burst.

A strong spatial tug came, the distorted surrounding images, the ear-piercing whispers, the disintegrating spatial cracks... all rapidly receded, blurred, and disappeared like a retreating tide.

In the next instant, the feeling of solid ground came, and the air was filled with a familiar musty and dusty scent.

The Duke opened his eyes. He had returned to the stone chamber in the basement of the Wizard Plane.

Beneath his feet, the residual formation had lost all its luster, becoming an ordinary charred mark with no energy reaction, as if the passage had never existed.

All around was silence.

Only his own breathing and the faint sound of the butler Ossen anxiously pacing back and forth outside the door.

Those maddening whispers, distorted spaces, endless dust... all had disappeared. The familiar atmosphere of the Wizard Plane enveloped him, bringing an indescribable sense of security.

This was the feeling one got only after visiting another Plane and then immediately returning to the Wizard Plane.

People who had long been in the Wizard Plane found it difficult to have this experience; they didn’t know how comfortable it was to be in the Wizard Plane.

The Duke quickly dismissed the Dark Form, returning to his usual appearance. Though his face was slightly pale and his Spiritual Power greatly depleted, he had managed, perilously, to return before the ritual completely failed.

He calmed the slightly turbulent breath within him caused by forcibly activating the ritual and resisting the whispers, tidied up his Wizard Robe, and then opened the heavy old wooden door.

The butler Ossen was anxiously stationed outside the door; seeing him emerge, he quickly approached: "Wizard Sir, are you... are you alright?"

Even though he hadn’t heard any noise, he instinctively felt some unease, the source of which came from behind the door, where the Duke was.

Seeing the Duke come out now seemed to ease his unease somewhat, and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I’m fine, the issue is temporarily resolved," the Duke said calmly. "Take me to see the Earl."

Inside the study, Earl Laurent was as restless as an ant on a hot pan.

Seeing the Duke’s return, he immediately walked briskly up to him, his eyes filled with expectation and fear: "Duke Wizard! How is the situation?"

The Duke did not answer immediately, but first took a look around the richly aristocratic study before slowly speaking: "Earl sir, the main source of the problem has been found and dealt with. There is an illegal energy resonance structure in the castle cellar, essentially a dangerous ritual not properly guided and controlled.

This ritual produced an energy aberration that could invisibly draw upon living beings’ spiritual vitality, causing victims to fall into a state akin to deep sleep and ultimately perish from exhaustion."

The old gardener Hans, an ordinary person, had a weaker Spiritual Power and was long subjected to the erosion of such abnormal energy fluctuations, which resulted in his mental disorder. The bizarre scenes he saw were a twisted reflection in his consciousness of this energy pollution."

He omitted the specific information about the Nightmare Plane, explaining it with terms more aligned with the wizarding world’s knowledge, like energy aberration and energy pollution.

This was both to make the Earl understand and to conceal some information.

A normal person starting that ritual would certainly be unable to directly discern that it was the Nightmare Plane; at most, they would see it in a projection space of a certain Plane without gaining more information. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

While Earl Laurent did not have a deep understanding of sorcery, the terms illegal ritual, energy aberration, and drawing spiritual power were enough for him to grasp the severity and basic cause of the matter.

He turned pale and murmured, "Indeed... it’s some kind of evil ritual..."

The Duke nodded, giving final confirmation: "Yes. Now, the aberrational core has been cleared, and the ongoing spiritual siphoning effect it emanated has ceased. The energy environment within the castle is gradually returning to normal. In the short term, there should be no more bizarre death incidents."

Upon hearing this, Earl Laurent exhaled a long breath as if a thousand-pound burden had been lifted, showing a look of relief after a disaster and quickly said, "That’s great! Thank you so much, Duke Wizard! You are a great benefactor to the Laurent family! As for compensation..."

However, before he could finish speaking—

"No! Impossible! You’ve ruined it! You’ve destroyed my power!!"

A voice full of resentment and madness shouted from outside the study.

Immediately afterward, the study door was violently burst open, and the second son Calvin charged in like a madman.

His hair was disheveled, eyes bloodshot, face an abnormal pallid shade, and his once fairly handsome face twisted with extreme anger and a hollow feeling from losing something important.

He stared fiercely at the Duke, the venom in his eyes almost overflowing.

"Calvin, such insolence! What nonsense are you babbling in front of Wizard Sir!" Earl Laurent shouted in shock and anger.

"Nonsense? Father, it’s him! This damned wizard." Calvin pointed at the Duke, his voice shrill, "I felt it; my connection to the Eye of Prophecy is severed. It’s dead! You killed it! You stole my power!!"

"Eye of Prophecy?" The Duke’s gaze narrowed, immediately connecting it to the eyeball monster he purified with the Light Judgment. He looked coldly at Calvin, "I see. This creature connecting to the Other Plane, feeding on souls and spiritual power, was indeed something you conjured through a ritual. You call that power?"

"What do you know!" Calvin waved his arms excitedly, a sickly fanaticism emerging on his face, "It’s a shortcut to probing truth, power beyond the ordinary! I could feel my Spiritual Power growing, I could see more... more realities of the world.

Though... though it required a little insignificant price..." On mentioning the price, his gaze flickered, evidently referring to those dead servants and relatives.

To him, the dead were just some insignificant servants, and some irrelevant relatives.

Nobles had no shortage of relatives, and Calvin wouldn’t care about these things.

Upon hearing this, Earl Laurent’s face instantly became ashen, his body slightly trembling from rage and disappointment: "Calvin! You... it was really you, those people’s deaths, all because of your evil ritual?!"

"They were just too weak. Their souls sacrificed for my great journey is their honor." Calvin, already completely steeped in obsession and madness, roared at the Duke, "You’ve ruined everything! Give me back the Eye of Prophecy! Return my power!"