320: Chapter 320 The Eye of the Mirror

Seeing this, Nie Ning let out a long sigh of relief.

"Tonight has really been a series of twists and turns."

Nie Ning could only say that these people were truly unlucky.

He had originally thought he was killing the innocent, but it turned out these people were courting death themselves.

Ridiculous!

Looking into the distance, without the barrier's isolation, the situation here would soon be discovered.

Nie Ning didn't delay any longer. After ensuring no clues were left behind, he retracted the Jerky Bear Head and quickly fled toward the villa.

Fearing he might be seen, Nie Ning didn't even dare to use the Heavenly Universe Holy Wings.

After all, very few people in the entire Blood Rainbow City possessed such a thing; if it were traced back to him, it would easily cause major problems.

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Back at the villa, Nie Ning happily began to take stock of his spoils.

Perhaps because setting up the boundary consumed too much, there weren't many materials left in Fowler's spatial bag.

"No wonder that guy had to go back for materials. This is indeed somewhat interesting."

Nie Ning murmured to himself as he looked at the uneven, blue-purple stone in his hand.

Blue Bone Sulfur Iron, a material that can only form from the remains of a rank-five or higher demonic beast combined with specific mineral vein geology.

It possessed high elemental conductivity and decent sturdiness, making it a very rare type of special ore.

However, its uses weren't widespread; it was mostly used for creating boundaries, as its hardness made the resulting formations very stable.

Ordinary wizards almost never used this kind of ore, but it was one of the favorite materials for Transcendent factions.

Besides the Blue Bone Sulfur Iron, there were other rare materials, but most were for formation crafting—clearly leftovers from Jonnamon's formation-making.

"They really spent a fortune just to kill me."

Looking at the materials in his hand, Nie Ning couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Since normal wizards didn't need it, such precious materials hardly circulated on the market; getting them would have required considerable effort.

"A pity, I can't use them or sell them."

Nie Ning shook his head slightly and casually tossed the materials onto the table.

After all, he had just slaughtered the Serrated Society; selling these materials would easily draw unwanted attention. He could only wait until he left this place.

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After organizing the materials, Nie Ning looked at the books on the other side.

They were almost all books regarding runes and formations.

A wizard capable of setting up formations alone undoubtedly had a talent for runes.

Because runes were the foundation of a wizard; a top-tier Transcendent in any field could not be weak in rune knowledge.

And being able to set up formations showed how gifted Jonnamon was.

Nie Ning was self-aware; at the very least, Jonnamon surpassed his own self before he had used the World Tree leaf fragment.

He flipped through the books; they were completely beyond what a low-rank wizard could grasp. Even Nie Ning felt a headache after reading for a while.

At his current level, his rune proficiency was roughly at the second rank.

Having been a wizard for too short a time was Nie Ning's only shortcoming.

No matter how hard he studied, the time he had was simply insufficient to learn so much knowledge.

Because besides studying, increasing his strength took up most of his time.

Yet, given his current Brand Witchcraft, he had no choice but to learn this knowledge.

As his strength grew, if he couldn't continue modifying Rune formation diagrams in the future, his path to becoming stronger might very well come to an end.

Moreover, it wasn't just that.

Certain powerful witchcraft, world-destroying transcendent artifacts, and even the puppets he occasionally crafted all required rune-related knowledge.

"Mirror Pupil?"

Nie Ning looked at the book in his hand with some curiosity.

The book was sky-blue, and its surface seemed to be coated with a layer of epoxy resin.

But as Nie Ning became more absorbed in reading, his expression gradually turned solemn.

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...

Time slipped away, and in the blink of an eye, two hours had passed.

After finishing the book, Nie Ning's face showed a look of astonishment.

"Is this for real?"

This book recorded the refining method for a special item called the 'Mirror Pupil'.

The Mirror Pupil was very peculiar, and its effect was simple and brute-force: it allowed the user to perceive and learn runes more intuitively.

One wouldn't even need to read rune books; they could comprehend the existence of runes directly from the heavens and earth. It was simply beyond ridiculous, absolutely absurd!

Nie Ning closed the book, a look of hesitation and wariness appearing in his eyes.

The Mirror Pupil wasn't a permanent item but a one-time-use alchemical tool.

But if the effect was real, even a one-time-use item wouldn't be unacceptable; at most, it was just a matter of cost.

What made Nie Ning wary was the refining method.

It was refined using the souls of intelligent races!

Because the souls of intelligent beings possessed a trait called 'Spiritual light'.

According to wizards, souls were condensed from a substance called 'Soul essence,' and the strength of the 'Spiritual light' could distinguish the level of a being's intelligence.

The method of refining the Mirror Pupil involved obtaining the souls of living beings, refining them alive into an alchemical tool, and then using these souls to analyze runes.

In essence, it was like turning a soul into a computer and letting that computer analyze the ethereal runes.

Yet it wasn't a permanent item, which was what Nie Ning found most unacceptable.

He wasn't a psychopath; naturally, he wouldn't just go around killing people for fun.

Furthermore, the number of runes comprehended by the Mirror Pupil was measured by the number of people.

One hundred ordinary people corresponded to one rune.

In other words, even to learn just a hundred runes, one would have to kill ten thousand people to analyze them.

But the number of runes was far more than a hundred; new runes were discovered almost periodically.

Even the current Nie Ning, if he focused on comprehending the power of heaven and earth, might be able to find new runes after a few years or decades.

Moreover, the same rune had high and low ranks; the souls required for high-rank runes were countless, estimated to be at least triple the amount.

It was even possible that a thousand people wouldn't be enough to analyze a single rune.

Of course, if replaced with wizards, the number would decrease sharply.

Only ten peak Witch Apprentices or a single First-rank Wizard would be needed.

Because it was a consumable that squeezed the soul in the most direct way, the production process was extremely cruel.

The soul would be in a state of extreme agony, thereby completely stimulating the energy contained within it.

Furthermore, using the Mirror Pupil meant consuming the soul, fundamentally obliterating a soul entirely.

To be honest, Nie Ning was very repulsed by such things.

He didn't care much about killing, but he couldn't tolerate destroying a soul.

This was also strictly forbidden within the Wizard Alliance.

Or rather, it wasn't allowed to occur on a large scale.

After all, things like torturing a soul for revenge happened from time to time, but wantonly slaughtering and torturing a large number of souls was unjustifiable.

When a person views their own kind as mere grass, what difference is there between them and the demons that wizards loathe? They might even be more evil than demons.

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