Wizard: Start with Biological Transformation to Grind Experience

Chapter 572: Chapter 31: Speculation

"Pop!"

The domain of corruption and assimilation disintegrated at the sound, as dark green moss withered and fell away instantly. Kalsa collapsed in exhaustion on the cold root steps, gasping for air, each breath laced with the stench of ice shards and decay, each exhale turning into a thin mist of gray-green. Her frost shield completely vanished, exposing the gray marks left by the corrosion underneath her tattered robe, her breath weak like a flickering candle in the wind.

Lynch’s figure stood quietly on the upper step, his gray robe almost blending into the shadowy background of the stairs. He withdrew his hand, and the last ripple of rule fluctuation at his fingertips settled into calm.

"Cough... cough..." Kalsa barely suppressed the surging blood within her, the icy blue eyes still lingering in shock, mixed with an overwhelming sense of gratitude.

She lifted her head, gazing at the steadfast figure, her voice hoarse and fragmented: "Sa... Saphiro... my lord... thank you for saving my life!" This gratitude was heartfelt; without Lynch’s miraculous rule intervention, she would have already become part of the decaying steps.

Lynch’s gaze swept over her, and the [Grid Circuit] instantly completed a status scan: severely depleted life force, spiritual core damaged, source of Ice secret skill contaminated by decay, foundation shaken.

He bent down to help Kalsa up: "It was nothing. How do you feel?"

"Still... still alive..." Kalsa managed a bitter smile, struggling to stand, but fell back down due to weakness and sharp pain.

Leaning against the cold roots, panting, her icy blue eyes watched Lynch, filled with lingering fear and gravity: "If not for your timely intervention, I fear... I wouldn’t have survived the next rule backlash. This damned trap... it’s too sinister!"

Kalsa took a deep breath, trying hard to calm the tumult within her, continuing: "You saw it too... this trap... it wasn’t just a ’test’! It was ’preying’! The higher we go, the more devious and dangerous its rules become, they... they can even ’learn’! Adapt to the strength traits of those trying to break through!" Her voice carried a hint of fear and anger.

"Just like that trap earlier," Kalsa pointed to the seemingly calm root steps beneath her, still terrified, "At first, it was just simple life absorption, which I could barely handle."

"But when I used Frost Power to freeze it, it started to mutate! It absorbed my Ice rules, twisted and polluted them, and used my power to nourish its decay! The more I resisted, the stronger it became... like... like prey caught in a spider’s web, struggling only made the threads wrap tighter!"

She looked up, her gaze piercing through endless darkness, towards the unreachable tower top, eyes filled with despair: "Moreover... Lord Saphiro, have you noticed? We... have no way back anymore."

Kalsa spoke with conviction: "Before you arrived, I tried! When I realized I was stuck on this step unable to move, I thought to retreat, even just one step down, to leave the range of this trap, but it was impossible!"

Her voice trembled slightly: "When I tried to go down, the steps underfoot... no, the decay rules of the whole space, came alive! They were more violent, more malicious, than when going up!"

"The feeling... like swimming against a torrent of destruction! Every step felt like battling the entire will of the Decaying Domain! I just tried one small step and felt as if my soul was being torn apart, Power of Decay thrusting back crazily... that was no escape, it was a shortcut to accelerated death!"

She laughed bitterly, icy blue eyes full of bitterness: "Now thinking about it, from the moment we set foot on this staircase, we were already... beyond control. Either ascend to the top; or become the sustenance of these steps, utterly consumed by decay. The Rotten Wood Elder... never intended to give us a choice!"

Lynch remained silent.

In truth, as he climbed this staircase, he had already realized the Rotten Wood Elder’s intent, or rather, the truth of this trial.

By packaging the so-called fragments of Decaying Domain into traps distributed on each step, under the guise of a trial, they were slowly unraveling each trap, yet with every step, the domain power contained within them grew stronger.

Unless they could break every trap and reach the end to grasp the entire Decaying Domain, only one outcome remained—to be corroded by the domain.

Retreat?

Lynch had attempted it, but he found the space rules here had reversed; now this staircase was no longer differentiated by up or down, no matter if they went up or down, they faced the same Decaying Domain.

In other words, the so-called Decaying Domain trial, the Domain Inheritance, from the start was nothing but an outright—

"Bait," Lynch said.

"What?" Kalsa didn’t react immediately.

"The knowledge of the Decaying Domain is the bait," Lynch’s gaze swept over the surrounding writhing roots and flowing dark green energy, "Each time we unravel a trap, each time we ’understand’ a rule fragment within, it seems like gaining power, but in reality, it’s..."

Lynch hesitated for a moment, then continued: "It seems to be providing it with some kind of power."

This was just a suspicion of his, Lynch had observed that while he deciphered the Decaying Domain, the Mystical Power generated was absorbed by this staircase in some way, but where that Mystical Power ultimately went, or its purpose, remained unknown.

In any case,

This trial from the start certainly harbored unspeakable motives.

Kalsa suddenly realized, a trace of shock flashing in her eyes: "I get it! The rules contained within the trap are dead, but when we try to unravel, understand, or even use our own power to combat it, our power, our spiritual power, our ’understanding’ of rules."

"It’s like... like a key! Activating deeper mechanisms of the trap, simultaneously being absorbed and transformed, becoming the power source for the trap itself! So the further we ascend, the more we unravel, the stronger the trap becomes, the more it targets us personally!"

The more she spoke, the more her spine chilled: "This isn’t a trial! It’s... a sacrifice! It’s a trap! He used inheritance as bait, luring Mystical Wizards like us into this gigantic ’furnace’, using our power, our wisdom, our life... to nourish these steps, or rather... nourish whatever he desires!"

"And we," Lynch continued, with cold flames seemingly burning deep within his gray pupils, "are the carefully selected fuel. Ascendants? More likely a joke. Waiting for us at the end, unlikely to be inheritance, more likely the moment when the furnace burns brightest, and the fuel’s value is fully extracted."