"Your progress is very fast. You can already cast Intermediate-order Magic?" Dean Xiao nodded and said, "Judging by your appearance, you must be planning to go all out. But have you truly prepared yourself to face demons?"
"Of course!" Ark nodded.
Dean Xiao was noncommittal, then continued, "I won't stop you. A magician can't achieve much by blindly burying themselves in closed-door cultivation. Truly powerful magicians all grow through slaughtering demons out in the wild. Staying here will only bury your natural talent."
"Since you feel you're ready, come with me. I'll take you to see some blood first, and then I have something else to give you," Dean Xiao said slowly.
He led Ark to an empty arena. Ding Yumian, feeling uneasy, insisted on following along to see.
Usually, this place served as a venue for sparring matches, but today not a single person was here. Dean Xiao had reserved the whole place specifically to test Ark.
"Go in."
Dean Xiao motioned for Ark to enter the dueling arena in the center. The barrier cage was opened, and then he took out a special vessel, releasing a wolf beast.
"One-eyed Magic Wolf!" As the only spectator on the scene, Ding Yumian couldn't help letting out an exclamation.
Unable to go out much, her favorite pastime was reading. Especially over the past three months, relying on her powerful spiritual energy, she had practically rushed through three years of magic high school textbooks in one breath, and even occasionally browsed the university's library collections, instantly recognizing this representative ominous beast of the southern region.
"Just an ordinary One-eyed Magic Wolf. A few days ago, when I was on a business trip to Nanling, I casually caught a few. Now it's a bit hungry," Dean Xiao pointed at the One-eyed Magic Wolf placed inside the barrier cage, a faint smile still lingering at the corner of his mouth.
Ding Yumian couldn't smile. In fact, her emotions were somewhat unstable as she gripped the front railing tightly, silently praying for Ark in her heart.
Ark's gaze sharpened. He didn't feel terrified at seeing a real demon for the first time; his willpower had already been tempered into something indestructible by the Five-Thunder Shock Drum, and the conviction in his heart left him utterly without fear!
"One-eyed Magic Wolf!"
He, too, recognized the origins of this demon at the very first moment. Though called a wolf, it didn't actually take the form of a quadrupedal wolf beast. Instead, it possessed robust lower limbs, resembling a humanoid werewolf standing half-erect, towering a full story high!
And its most obvious feature was its eye.
Since it was called a One-eyed Magic Wolf, naturally it only had a single eye on its head, making it look exceptionally bizarre.
As soon as the One-eyed Magic Wolf was put inside, it locked its gaze onto Ark. Within that oversized single eye flickered the colors of slaughter, greed, and cruelty, as if it wanted to devour someone alive!
"Awooooo~~~~~!!!"
Having been locked up for several days, the One-eyed Magic Wolf was already very hungry. Seeing a living, breathing human standing before it now, its body immediately coiled down, transforming into a blur of wolf shadow as it charged toward Ark.
"Thunder Seal: Wrathful Strike!"
Ark remained unmoved. He had long anticipated this test, so the moment he stepped in, he began preparing his spell, launching straight into the Lightning Element Initial Level 3 magic!
Trails of purple lightning runes filled the space overhead. He raised one hand high like wielding a blade or brandishing a whip, and in an instant, all the lightning runes merged into a long lightning python whip, frantically lashing and whipping against the hide of the incomparably ferocious One-eyed Magic Wolf, tearing its flesh to shreds.
Every time the lightning whip lashed down, a subsequent arc of electricity would immediately burrow deep into the body of the One-eyed Magic Wolf, penetrating straight into its muscles and bones!
"Awooooo!!!!!’"
The One-eyed Magic Wolf howled in agony. As a demon that relied purely on physical strength, what it feared most was Lightning Element magic.
As the crowning glory of Initial-level magic branches, the Lightning Element not only possessed superlative offensive power, but also naturally came with a hint of penetration and paralysis, truly worthy of being the foremost elemental magic branch!
Using just a single spell, Ark drove this ordinary One-eyed Magic Wolf to excruciating pain, its body swaying unsteadily as if it were on the verge of breaking.
Do not forget that Ark also possessed a "natural talent." The Five-Thunder Shock Drum within him had originally granted him a 1.3-fold baseline amplification when only the first thunder drum appeared. Now that he had broken through to the Intermediate order, his physical and mental endurance had vastly increased, causing the second thunder drum to emerge as well, bestowing yet another layer of amplification that naturally granted Ark a 1.5-fold boost when casting Lightning spells!
A Lightning Element Initial Level 3 spell combined with a built-in 1.5-fold power boost—how could any ordinary One-eyed Magic Wolf possibly withstand it? Thus, this single strike nearly cost the One-eyed Magic Wolf its little life.
"Finishing off the wounded is a good habit."
Ark linked his star tracks once again, casting another Level 2 Initial Lightning spell. The Thunder Seal: Python Trace was hurled out by him, directly sending the One-eyed Magic Wolf to the afterlife.
Two spells overwhelmingly dispatched a One-eyed Magic Wolf!
And beyond the extraordinary might of the magic, what truly astonished Dean Xiao was Ark's innate calm and composure!
No matter how high his cultivation or how outstanding his talent had been previously, he was ultimately still a child who had never laid eyes on a demon. In Dean Xiao's eyes, he couldn't truly be considered a magician yet.
Never had he imagined that when facing a demon for the very first time, this child wouldn't be intimidated by the One-eyed Magic Wolf's aura at all. Instead, he remained calm and collected from the very start, preparing his spell to instantly rob the One-eyed Magic Wolf of any ability to resist, followed by a finishing spell to completely execute the kill!
This was also a born demon hunter. Dean Xiao observed another detail: Ark used a Level 2 Initial spell the second time around, gambling that he could slay the One-eyed Magic Wolf with fewer magic energy resources. That, too, was a form of extraordinary insight.
Dean Xiao felt as though he could already see Ark's heroic figure striding through the wilderness to hunt demons in the future.
"You are more exceptional than I imagined. But out in the wild, demons won't come out one by one to duel you in single combat. So next, you will face three One-eyed Magic Wolves at the same time." Dean Xiao took out the vessel once again and released three more One-eyed Magic Wolves from it.
"Why do these look even bigger than the first one?!" Ding Yumian's beautiful eyes widened.
"That's right. These three are considered relatively strong among Servant-class demons. If we had to grade them, the previous one was merely average and ordinary, while these three are upper-tier existences," Dean Xiao said.
Facing three even stronger One-eyed Magic Wolves once again, Ark's eyes flashed with a startling brilliance, as if electric sparks were dancing within them.
For just a moment ago, a wisp of wolf soul had drifted out from the body of the dead One-eyed Magic Wolf, rushing straight toward him before being absorbed by the Ark Core.
With his own eyes, Ark saw that on the long-dormant interface, the gold coin column—which previously could only rely on absorbing free-floating energy every day—had actually popped up yet another gold coin!
"So it really is like grinding mobs to level up! The source of gold coins is demon remnant souls!!"
With eyes sharp as lightning and a blazing gaze fixed upon the three One-eyed Magic Wolves, the killing intent inside Ark swelled continuously!