**Advance the magic "Azure Wind" cost (2 points)**
**(Yes/No)**
A message popped up in front of him, and Zhang Wei didn't think twice before clicking yes.
"Give me some power, deep blue wind!"
The moment he said those words, everything around him started to change.
---
*Whoosh!*
---
The air began to move in ways he had never seen before. Zhang Wei could suddenly see invisible streams of wind flowing everywhere - up toward the clouds, down through cracks in the rocky ground, swirling around trees and stones.
The wind looked alive, like silver ribbons dancing freely through the world.
The young man stood there, looking up at the gray sky, then down at his dirty hands and torn clothes. His body was still small and weak, but something inside him felt different.
On the ground next to him lay a blue book covered in mud and grass. Even though it was filthy, he could still read the golden letters on its cover.
"Azure Wind"
He picked up the book and held it tight against his chest.
---
Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Months turned into years.
The young man practiced every single day. He woke up when the sun rose, ate simple meals, and spent hours learning to control the wind. When his hands got tired from holding the book, he would rest for a few minutes, then continue reading and practicing.
He lived alone in a small wooden house that had holes in the roof and walls. When it rained, water dripped onto his bed. When winter came, cold air leaked through the broken boards. But he never complained.
Snow was falling again today, covering the quiet town in thick white blankets. Everything looked peaceful and beautiful.
Inside his broken house, the young man stood by the window, watching smoke rise from other houses in the distance. People were cooking dinner and staying warm by their fires.
*Whoosh!*
He raised his hand, and a gentle breeze appeared from nowhere. The wind picked up some of the snow that had gathered on his windowsill.
When the snow-filled wind reached him, he spread both arms wide. The wind split into two streams, one flowing around his left side, the other around his right. The snow began spinning in circles, forming into perfect round balls that floated in the air around him.
"Finally... I did it!"
The young man smiled wider than he had in years. All those long days of practice had finally paid off.
Then everything went dark.
---
At first, there was only blackness.
Then, a thin line of bright light appeared in the center of his vision.
Slowly, colors began to fill in around the light. Green grass. Blue sky. Brown mountains far away.
"Haa!"
Zhang Wei opened his eyes and took a deep breath. The air here felt incredibly clean and fresh. It was nothing like his old world, where thick smoke covered the sky and factories polluted everything.
This world was like a dream come true.
Of course, some parts of his past world were good or even better, especially those from wealthy countries. But the fact that this place had such clean air couldn't be denied.
He sat up and looked around. White clouds wrapped around the mountain peaks like soft scarves. The grass under his hands felt real and alive.
Taking another deep breath, he smiled and called up his status panel.
*Ding!*
**[Status Window]**
**Name:** Zhang Wei / Ethan Vale
**Age:** 14
**Realm:** Adept - Minor Realm: Stable Flow
**Techniques/Skills:** Intermediate Swordsmanship (3/10) [+], Language Expert
**Magic Affinities:** Wind (Weak), Earth (Weak)
**Magic:** Azure Wind (Stage: Guiding the Wind) [+]
**Points:** 0 (Points may be used to enhance skills, magic, and knowledge.)
**Missions:**
- Sole Journey [?]
- Road to Extraordinary Strength [?]
Zhang Wei stared at the panel, his eyes growing wide.
"What?! There's something new here!"
Under his age, there was now a section called "Realm" that had never been there before.
"Wait... what?!"
He rubbed his eyes and looked again, making sure he wasn't seeing things.
"I-I actually reached the Adept realm?! And I'm already at Stable Flow stage?! How is this even possible?!"
That's when he felt it.
Magic power - mana - was flowing through his body like a warm river. It felt ten times stronger than before!
He touched his face, then made a "come here" gesture with his hand.
Like well-trained dogs following their master, the wind around him rushed toward him. His hair and clothes began flapping wildly in the sudden breeze.
The wind was so strong that Zhang Wei had to squint his eyes, but he couldn't hide the huge smile on his face.
"Haha... hahahaha!"
His laughter echoed across the empty grassland. He didn't care if anyone heard him. He was too happy to feel embarrassed.
A small rabbit that had been eating grass nearby lifted its ears and looked around, wondering what that joyful sound was.
*Squeak?*
After laughing for a few minutes, Zhang Wei finally calmed down. He had accepted this amazing news pretty easily. "Of course I'm this talented, haha!"
You couldn't blame him for being excited though.
Who wouldn't react like this when they suddenly became much stronger overnight?
He had jumped from being basically powerless to being a real mage, and even advanced to the second stage of the Adept realm.
Before this upgrade, he had been what this world called "Unranked" - basically people who had just awakened their magic but could barely do anything useful with it. Street performers who made little flames for children, workers who used magic to clean things, people who lit cooking fires - they were all in this category.
Most normal people he had met in this area were Unranked. Even Mei Yan's father was only at this level.
Then came the Adept realm, which people also called the Surface realm.
This was where real magic began.
This was what the world officially recognized as true power, and people at this level had actual titles and respect.
The boss of the Wolf Gang were somewhere in this realm.
The Adept realm was divided into three stages:
First: "Unstable Flow"
Second: "Stable Flow"
Third: "Condensation"
The difference between the first two stages was mainly about how much mana you had and how fast it came back after using magic. The last stage was about making your mana higher quality, which let you cast more spells and use less energy.
It wasn't that spells actually cost less mana, but Condensation stage mana was like having dollars while lower stage mana was like having pennies.
One dollar and one penny were both single units, but the dollar could buy much more.
"Not bad at all..."
Zhang Wei nodded happily, then closed his eyes.
Suddenly, all the memories and experience from years of practice flooded into his mind. It felt like watching a movie of someone else's life, but somehow it was his life too.
When he opened his eyes again, Zhang Wei felt like he really was the person who had practiced for all those years.
He gestured to the wind again, and it obeyed perfectly. Controlling it felt as natural as breathing or walking.
"Hmm?"
Zhang Wei wrinkled his nose.
There was a terrible smell in the air. Something that made his stomach feel sick. It smelled like dead animals that had been rotting in the sun for days.
"What is that awful smell?"
He used his wind magic to create a barrier around his nose and mouth, then looked around to find where the smell was coming from.
"Is it from this dead wolf? But I've never heard of magical beasts smelling this bad after they die."
Still covering his nose with a disgusted look, Zhang Wei searched the area around him.
He was still on the same small hill where he had killed the wolf. Dark red blood was still flowing from the cut in its neck, forming a small puddle in the grass.
"What the hell?!"
Zhang Wei jumped back several steps when he saw something moving inside the wolf's belly.
There was a large bump pushing up against the wolf's skin from the inside, like something was trying to get out.
"What is this? Is there a baby being born from a dead body? And why does it smell so horrible?"
He stared with curious but worried eyes as the bump got bigger and bigger.
Then something completely unexpected happened.
*BOOM!*
The bump exploded like a balloon filled with rotten garbage. The wolf's belly tore open with a wet ripping sound. Pieces of red muscle, white fat, and slimy internal organs flew through the air in every direction.
The stench that burst out was beyond anything Zhang Wei could have imagined. It was like a mixture of rotten eggs, sewage, vomit, and death all mixed together. The smell was so powerful that Zhang Wei felt like his stomach was trying to climb up his throat.
"Damn! Block it! Block all of it!"
He cursed and ran backward as fast as he could. He waved his hands frantically, and the wind responded by forming a thick wall of moving air between him and the flying chunks of gore.
"What the hell! This evil wolf is still trying to hurt people even after it's dead! Good thing it died. It was probably planning to cause more trouble!"
Zhang Wei didn't dare move from behind his wind barrier. He was terrified that something disgusting might slip through and land on his face or in his mouth.
After what felt like forever, all the flying pieces finally stopped moving and fell to the ground. But what came out of the wolf's belly wasn't a baby at all.
*Screech!*
*Squeal!*
"A... rat? A rat with two heads?! How did it get inside that wolf?!"
In the middle of all the blood and gore stood a rat. But it wasn't any ordinary rat.
This thing was as big as a medium-sized dog. Its fur was black and oily-looking, like it absorbed all the light that touched it. It had two separate heads that moved independently, and each head had six glowing red eyes arranged in two rows of three. Its teeth looked like broken glass - sharp, yellow, and dripping with something that made hissing sounds when it hit the ground.
The creature was eating the wolf's internal organs with horrible efficiency. It could open both of its mouths incredibly wide, like a snake, swallowing chunks of meat that were twice as big as its own body. The sounds it made while eating were wet and disgusting.
But the most disturbing part wasn't its size or appearance.
As Zhang Wei watched in growing horror, he could see the rat's body changing and growing. New lumps appeared under its skin, moving around like living things trying to escape. Its legs would suddenly stretch longer, then snap back to normal size with cracking sounds. Sometimes extra eyes would blink open along its back before closing and disappearing again.
The thing wasn't just eating - it was transforming, using the wolf's flesh to rebuild itself into something even more terrifying.
As if it could sense him watching, one of the heads turned toward Zhang Wei.
Zhang Wei felt ice-cold fear run down his spine as he looked into those eyes.
He didn't know why, but staring into those lifeless, hungry red orbs made him feel like he was looking directly at pure evil. It was like staring into a deep pit filled with screaming voices and endless darkness.
The longer he looked, the more he felt something wrong happening in his mind. He could hear whispers in a language he didn't understand. Images of terrible things flashed through his thoughts, making his hands shake.
"No, wait! I have real power now, so why should I be afraid of this rat? So what if it has two heads? Just one swing of my sword should be enough to kill it."
He felt ashamed of himself for being scared. As someone who came from a modern world with science and technology, how could he be afraid of just a rat? Even if it looked strange and disturbing, it was still just an animal.
As if the creature could hear his thoughts and was mocking them, both heads opened their mouths at the same time.
*SHRIEEEEK!*
A sound like metal scraping against bone filled the air. Then both rat heads began to grow magically larger, expanding until each mouth was big enough to swallow a human whole.
Looking at the bloody teeth with what appeared to be finger bones and pieces of clothing stuck between them, Zhang Wei felt his confidence melt away like ice in summer.
This creature had definitely eaten people before. Recently.
"Okay... maybe I'll need two sword strikes instead of one?"
Zhang Wei put his hand on his sword handle, trying to force a confident smile even as cold sweat ran down his back and forehead.
The rat-thing tilted both of its massive heads, studying him like a chef examining ingredients for the next meal. Thick, black saliva dripped from its jaws and made sizzling sounds when it hit the grass, leaving behind small burned holes in the earth