148: The spiritual bottleneck of a formal wizard

It’s not that no one has ever thought about—conquering or bypassing this Mind Bottleneck.

On the contrary, this topic has attracted countless Wizards over the past ten thousand years to study and explore in depth.

But the results have been mixed.

Some research suggests: One should cultivate the mind diligently, minimize worldly disturbances, and keep experiences as simple as possible. It’s best to practice in seclusion to reduce the intensity of the Mind Bottleneck.

Other research suggests: One should temper the spirit, strengthen the resilience and intensity of spiritual beliefs, achieving invincible conviction. By attacking the mind with the mind, one can break through methods with force and forcefully shatter the Mind Bottleneck.

Still other research suggests: One should believe in karma, constantly forming good connections, accumulating good deeds over time, or actively engaging in activities beneficial to the restoration of the Wizarding World.

For example, rehabilitating barren lands, restoring traces of ancient battlefields, and transforming dangerous areas into places suitable for human habitation… These are the practices of some White Wizards, leaning towards the righteous path.

Although time-consuming and labor-intensive, requiring a long period of accumulation and involving significant costs, the results have proven that these methods, more or less, do have some effect.

Therefore, Wizards in the Wizarding World began to see the rise of various spiritual schools of thought… With righteous paths, there are naturally evil paths.

No matter which world, there are always those who wish to take shortcuts.

There’s a well-known maxim from Green’s hometown that says it well:

Once there is appropriate profit, capital becomes daring.

With 10% profit, it is guaranteed to be used everywhere;

With 20% profit, it becomes active;

With 50% profit, it takes risks;

For 100% profit, it dares to trample all human laws;

With 300% profit, it dares to commit any crime, even at the risk of hanging… For a Wizard,

Any breakthrough, even a minor one, can bring more than 300% profit.

As long as you can break through, your status immediately rises a level, your strength increases, and even your lifespan extends. Who wouldn’t be tempted by such an offer?

Thus, countless shortcuts were invented.

Evil God Sacrifice Method: Sacrificing various items beloved by evil gods—such as spiritual blood, pure human souls, or a Wizard’s lifespan—to evil gods, powerful life forms, or indescribable twisted entities from the native world or other realms.

Bloody Cultivation Method: Severely distorting the understanding of one’s own Mind Bottleneck, taking an unconventional path, being extremely self-centered, and adopting a disregard for life. To refine various remarkably effective human blood elixirs, they would not hesitate to extensively slaughter ordinary mortals.

Schizophrenia Method: Originating from a Wizard born with two souls, where one soul’s consciousness is trapped by the Mind Bottleneck, but it doesn’t affect the other soul’s consciousness. So, why not create a second soul consciousness? A considerable number of people have successfully broken through by intentionally inducing schizophrenia… Most of these unorthodox shortcuts are synonymous with extreme costs and extreme dangers.

But for Wizards who are stuck in place for an entire lifetime, this period of stagnation is very difficult to endure. Not all Wizards can successfully receive good spiritual education and possess a correct worldview.

There are always those with poor character who cannot resist temptation and turn their gaze towards unorthodox paths that offer greater hope of breakthrough. After all, the truth of equivalent exchange permeates every corner of the Wizarding World.

As long as you pay a sufficient price, there is no goal that cannot be achieved.

And this is also why, in this Era of Revival, even though White Wizards hold the Mandate of Heaven and have become the masters and overlords of the Wizarding World, those Black Wizards still remain like rats in the gutters, impossible to kill off or completely eradicate… As for Green,

As a White Wizard, he naturally chose orthodox methods to solve the problem.

In fact, ever since Green resolved the bottleneck of an Intermediate Wizard, for the past five years, he has consistently practiced a mind-cultivation method that combines standing meditation, Zen meditation, and meditation.

The last-minute effort made Green understand the importance of mind cultivation and also realized that these few mind-cultivation methods from his home on the Aqua Blue Star were highly effective and could play a significant role in resolving the Mind Bottleneck.

Therefore, Green spends an hour every day, morning and evening, purifying his inner self.

As the ancient poem goes:

The body is like the Bodhi tree, the mind like a clear mirror stand;

Diligently wipe it clean at all times, lest it gather dust… But this time, the Mind Bottleneck for a major realm was truly unexpected.

This was the major realm Mind Bottleneck from a Wizard Apprentice to a Formal Wizard.

According to conventional wisdom, the difficulty of this major realm Mind Bottleneck should be 10 times that of the previous Advanced Wizard Apprentice’s Mind Bottleneck.

Green didn’t expect it to be so simple.

Although the general subject and direction of the Mind Bottleneck were within Green’s conjectures, he didn’t expect it to appear in this form… Green’s current Mind Bottleneck was a multiple-choice question with two options:

Option 1: Confess to Ellie and express your love.

Even if rejected 100 times, never give up, persevere, be indomitable, display a fearless and shameless spirit, boldly pursue your happiness, and make Ellie see Green’s love and determination and be moved by it.

Only after winning Ellie’s heart, the two fall in love, become deeply affectionate, live happily ever after, and receive their marriage certificate, will this Mind Bottleneck be considered passed…

Option 2: The Seeker’s Curse — Doomed to Solitude!

To seek the Dao is to be a martyr for the Dao; the Great Dao must be walked with utmost solitude!

The Way of the Wizard, to ascend to the eternal peak, one must dedicate one’s entire body and mind to the exploration of the Great Dao.

Those who are half-hearted or have too many romantic entanglements are not suitable to become a rational Wizard.

When you choose to climb the peak of truth, pursue the allure of knowledge, and seek the true meaning of the Great Dao, you are destined to bear the Seeker’s Curse — Doomed to Solitude!

(Seeker’s Curse — Doomed to Solitude! Effect 1: Bearing this curse, focus on seeking the Dao +500%, Dao-seeking bottlenecks weakened 400%, Intelligence +3. Effect 2: Bearing this curse, romantic luck -500%, inner demons and desires -400%, Charm -30%, destined to be alone forever, loneliness is your eternal and only companion. On the Great Dao of the Wizard, the world will forever only see my solitary, desolate back.)

As long as Green silently chooses the second option, he can immediately wear the Seeker’s Curse — Doomed to Solitude!

This Mind Bottleneck will then be considered passed.

Green was extremely troubled, his mouth twitching wildly, and his left eye constantly jumping:

“Which one should I choose?”

“Damn it—”