Convict stopped in front of the door.
He pulled out his communication letter from his waist and pressed it into a groove on the side of the doorframe.
A circle of dark red light illuminated the surface of the communication letter, and the runic patterns inside the door panel simultaneously accelerated their rotation.
Three bands of energy light illuminated sequentially from the edges to the center: the outermost was pale gold, the middle was deep blue, and the innermost was dark silver.
The stone door slid open silently.
Behind the door was a hall so vast that Ethan's pupils constricted slightly.
The hall's dome hung at least a hundred meters overhead, its surface covered by a constantly shifting energy light screen.
Billions of light bands of different colors flowed within the screen, weaving, intertwining, splitting, and recombining to form a dizzyingly complex three-dimensional pattern.
The pattern slowly rotated, each rotation stirring up a visible energy ripple in the air. The ripples spread down from the dome, causing a fine layer of goosebumps when they brushed against the skin.
The hall's floor was paved with large, translucent stone slabs, embedded with countless dense runic arrays.
The runes were not static; they slowly moved within the slabs like living things, changing color after every short distance.
From pale gold to deep blue, from deep blue to dark silver, from dark silver to emerald green, cycling endlessly.
Quite a few people had already gathered in the hall.
A quick glance revealed at least five or six hundred.
They gathered in small groups of two or three; some stood before the circular counter in the center of the hall, some leaned against the stone pillars along the walls, and others simply sat cross-legged on the stone floor, resting with their eyes closed.
Their attire varied: some wore cloaks, some robes, some were bare-chested, revealing muscular physiques and full-body tattoos, while others were wrapped so tightly that only their eyes were visible.
Each person exuded the energy fluctuations characteristic of an Official Wizard.
Behind the circular counter in the center of the hall, dozens of humanoid constructs made entirely of translucent crystal were busy at work.
Convict tilted his head toward the left side of the hall. “Come on, let's go register first.”
The three of them walked through the hall.
Some passing wizards looked up and glanced at them, their eyes lingering on Convict and his two companions for a moment before moving on. Occasionally, a gaze would fall on Ethan, but only briefly before losing interest.
The crystal construct responsible for reception behind the counter had its core crystal light up in its chest. “Please present your communication letter.”
Convict took out a palm-sized dark blue-green crystal chip from his storage ring.
The chip's surface was engraved with Blood Bone Tower's Thorn Crest, and extremely faint blood-red light patterns flowed along its edges.
Secret Eagle also took out her communication letter, and the two crystal chips were pressed one by one into the grooves on the counter's surface.
A row of pale gold runic patterns appeared on the counter's surface.
The patterns spread outwards from the edges of the grooves, intertwining on the counter's surface to form a few short lines of text.
【Blood Bone Tower Academy, Three Rings Academy, confirmed.】
【Leader: Convict (Second-Tier Wizard). Members: Secret Eagle (Second-Tier Wizard).】
【Accompanying First-Tier Wizard: Nature (First-Tier Wizard).】
The crystal construct took out three thumb-sized translucent core crystals from under the counter, with faint silver light patterns flowing inside them.
It pushed the core crystals toward them individually. “These are your temporary access permits. Please activate them with your mental power. While at Jingyuan Academy, these permits serve as identification.”
Ethan took the core crystal and probed it with his mental power.
The faint silver light patterns inside the core crystal suddenly lit up, rearranging themselves under his mental power's touch, and condensing into a tiny Blood Bone Tower emblem on the crystal's surface.
“Registration complete. Living quarters have been assigned, and the villa location has been recorded in your access permits. The trade fair can be attended at any time; please check your permits for specific times and venues. The exchange tournament will officially begin in three years, and the schedule will be announced uniformly then.”
Convict picked up his communication letter, put it back into his ring, and led the team toward the other side of the hall.
Behind the archway was a row of small teleportation arrays, each only two or three meters in diameter, with pale gold array patterns slowly flowing across the stone surfaces.
Convict chose the leftmost one. After the three of them stepped onto it, the array patterns automatically activated, and a pale gold light engulfed everything.
Ethan's feet landed on soft grass.
The grass blades beneath his feet were deep green, feeling like a thick carpet when stepped upon.
Scattered among the grass blades were tiny white flowers, their petals the size of rice grains, emitting a faint fragrance. He looked up, and a vast estate unfolded before his eyes.
In the center of the estate stood a three-story stone building.
The stone building's exterior walls were constructed from large, dark gray stone blocks, their surfaces adorned with extremely faint silver patterns that echoed the light patterns of the energy dome overhead.
On either side of the stone building was a small grove: a coniferous forest on the left, and a broadleaf forest on the right. Several winding gravel paths could be faintly seen leading deeper into the woods.
Behind the stone building was a lake, its surface smooth as a mirror, reflecting the energy dome in the sky. Along the lake's edge grew a ring of waist-high reed-like plants, but their plumes were pale gold, scattering tiny motes of light when they swayed gently in the breeze.
The concentration of energy particles in the air was astonishingly high.
A fine tingling sensation spread across Ethan's skin.
It was the sensation of energy particles actively burrowing into his body. No meditation or active guidance was needed; simply standing there and breathing caused a large amount of energy particles to surge down his trachea into his lungs, bursting in his alveoli and transforming into a warm current that spread throughout his limbs.
This concentration was at least a dozen times higher than that of Blood Bone Tower.
Cultivating here for one year was equivalent to cultivating at Blood Bone Tower for over a decade.
Convict was already walking along the gravel path toward the stone building. “Don't just stand there gawking. This is only the Three Rings Academy's living quarters; the energy concentration is considered low here. Wait until you get a chance to enter Jingyuan Academy's core area—that's what a true Elemental Tide feels like.”
Secret Eagle followed behind him. “I stayed at this estate the last time I was here. The stone building has dedicated meditation rooms, where the energy concentration is thirty percent higher than outside. The first floor has the reception room and dining room, the second floor has the bedrooms, and the third floor has meditation rooms and laboratories.”
The three of them entered the stone building.
The floor was paved with a dark wooden material, warm and elastic underfoot, with extremely fine energy patterns faintly visible flowing between the wood grains.
Embedded in the walls were several fist-sized core crystals, emitting a soft, pale gold light.
In the center of the living room was a circle of wide leather chairs, and on the low table in front of them, three tea sets were already arranged. Steam rose from the teapots, and a faint herbal fragrance wafted from their spouts.
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