End of the Magic Era - Chapter 1204

Chapter 1204: Hidden Gate

His vitality had been fiercely consumed, and even if it was replenished by a Life Potion, it had already become a hidden injury that required a special potion to be compounded before he could cure it.

In addition, the curses he had dispersed also left some hidden wounds. If he didn’t heal himself as fast as possible, it would pose great trouble later on.

This was something that had been tested through the shedding of blood from countless mages. After being cursed, whether they sensed the hidden wound or not, they had to treat the injury thoroughly.

But this battle wasn’t without benefit. The fierce battle, which caused his mana, vitality, mind, and soul to take damage, had slightly shaken the gate that wouldn’t move even if the world ended.

This meant that it should be possible to advance to the Heaven Rank soon. He only needed to quickly find the opportunity to advance. And the best method was to seek a breakthrough in battle.

After having found a way to advance to the Heaven Rank and break through his perfect foundation, Lin Yun felt that the battle had been extremely valuable. The only thing was that this matter wasn’t over… He had almost been cursed to death, and Lin Yun clearly wasn’t someone with a good temper.

Using a bunch of materials from the Raging Flame Plane, Noscent, the Endless Sea, and two plants that only grew in the Abyss, he was able to compound a potion that looked like lava.

That potion bottle was the Rebirth Potion that could only be compounded by Peak Artisans. Drinking it would regenerate anything aside from the heart and brain.

And if he used another method to compound the solution, it would have a different effect: It would warm one’s body and soul. Any damage to his vitality would be perfectly cured, and the warmth would let his body draw even closer to perfection.

During the process, the warmth would raise his spirit and make his soul feel as if it had returned to his mother’s womb, becoming even purer and more powerful.

Lin Yun could have already compounded this potion when he returned from the Abyss, since he had already found the last missing ingredients.

But back then, his vitality had been at its peak, and he had perfectly reached the peak of the Archmage realm. It was useless at the time.

An intact item didn’t need to be mended. Without damage, there was nothing to repair.

He prepared a large crystal bucket and poured the purest Mana Water from the Demiplane into it before adding the potion. In an instant, the Mana Water started boiling, and the crystal bucket looked as if it contained some dense, sticky blood.

After entering the bucket, Lin Yun’s body was completely wrapped in the water. Wisps of black aura slowly shot out of Lin Yun’s body before being purified by the scarlet liquid.

The tremendous lukewarm vitality slowly combed Lin Yun’s body, lifting his soul.

After three hours, the liquid inside the crystal bucket turned light gray, and Lin Yun came out. His half-white hair had already recovered, and he was bursting with the vitality of a newborn baby.

Sensing the gate emitting terrifying pressure in the depths of his soul, Lin Yun felt that he could slightly push the gate, even if it was only enough to barely make it tremble.

But this was still a lot better than before. His foundation was too powerful, and his magic path was too perfect… Perfect to the point of making him unable to break through the gate. This was good, but it was also bad because he didn’t know how long he would need to stay at the peak of the 9th Rank. Feeling some hope, Lin Yun’s mood greatly improved.

Leaving the alchemy laboratory, Lin Yun instantly moved to the Mana Lake just in time to see the Holysong Blood slowly blooming. After the flower bloomed, it rapidly withered, and three blood-colored seeds devoured the last bits of the flower’s power. The bloody color slowly dissipated as they turned into three dark seeds that didn’t look special in any way.

As for the Holysong Blood’s branches and leaves, the blood color from the underside spread to the topside and dyed the leaves crimson. Those eighteen leaves turned completely blood-red, and every tiny colored rune on top of them was different.

After collecting the three seeds, immediately planting them next to the Mana Lake, and then putting away the eighteen leaves, Lin Yun let out a faint sigh.

If the Holysong Blood had been refined into a Bloodsobbing Holysong Potion, he might have been able to get rid of Layford earlier.

But the Starry Sky College wouldn’t have allowed him to get rid of Layford within their territory. Moreover, if that had happened, he wouldn’t have figured out the way to advance to the Heaven Rank from the battle.

Finding the way to advance to the Heaven Rank was the most important gain. As for Layford, there would be plenty of opportunities to deal with him in the future. As long as he advanced to the Heaven Rank and mastered Extraordinary Power, those curses would be unable to break his defense.

He would compound the Holysong Blood potion. The three seeds had just been planted, but their vitality was rapidly increasing, and they would germinate sooner or later.

The mana next to the Mana Lake was definitely enough for the Holysong Blood to mature. It was impossible that they wouldn’t germinate.

What happened this time woke Lin Yun up. Not only did he have to compound a Bloodsobbing Holysong Potion as a backup, but he also had to sort everything he had gained lately. Once everything was processed, he might be able to use something as a life-saving tool.

Once his injury was taken care of, Lin Yun departed. The Starry Sky College’s alchemist gathering was a week later. Back in the Merlin Family, he had deduced the coordinates of the Reedpush Plate from that strange letter, and it wasn’t far from Neverwinter City.

It was best to go to the coordinates to find the Reedpush Plate as soon as possible.

After leaving the Starry Sky College, Lin Yun’s mana fluctuations and life aura instantly dissipated. If someone didn’t see him, they absolutely wouldn’t notice Lin Yun’s presence.

But Lin Yun’s movement speed had become even faster. He would cross several dozen meters with a single step, and the surrounding air seemed to be getting out of his way. He was extremely fast but didn’t raise any gales… He was like a phantom.

As Lin Yun disappeared, some people chased after his tracks, but they lost him in less than an hour.

After getting rid of all the people tailing him, Lin Yun finally arrived at the coordinates.

There didn’t seem to be anything special there. It was an ordinary mountain range, neither tall nor short. There were many trees within the mountain range, but there weren’t any particularly precious plants or minerals. Even the magic beasts there were very sparse and at low levels.

Lin Yun frowned as he looked at this mountain range. After flying a few dozen kilometers, he didn’t sense anything different.

After checking a few times, he finally locked onto a five-kilometer-wide area. This was the place marked by the coordinates.

There were only two peaks not far apart within the area, and there weren’t many plants on the mountains. They were made of pure granite.

Lin Yun spent three to four hours searching around the two peaks but didn’t find anything that stood out. He then started expanding the range of his search using the midpoint between the two peaks as the center, but he still didn’t find anything special.

Everything in this area was normal. There were no natural resources, and a Level 18 Fanged Tiger was the strongest magic beast within ten kilometers.

There was not a single human town within a few dozen kilometers, and according to the records of the Odin Kingdom’s map, this place wasn’t valuable to mages. There was plenty of prey for ordinary people here, but ordinary people didn’t have the power to exploit this place.

In Noscent, most places actually didn’t have special resources, or it would be better to say that they held no resources valuable to mages.

This kind of place was a desolate area, and as time passed, such areas with dense vegetation would have many plants that absorbed the mana within the air, slowly producing magic materials.

But looking at this place, Lin Yun frowned. The vegetation was very dense, but there were very few plants containing mana, and they were rather inferior.

Moreover, the mana here was average. Although it was inferior to places with dense mana, it couldn’t be said to be completely barren.

Lin Yun released his mana to sense his surroundings and kept spitting out runes in the air and on the ground. He even started meticulously searching the air and expanding the range progressively.

As long as there was something here, he would definitely find it. But after five hours, he still hadn’t found any clues. He simply didn’t find anything valuable. There was no trace of an entrance to a small plane, no trace of a ruin, no hidden things.

The sky started becoming bright as the first glimmers of dawn peeked from the east, tearing through the darkness with irresistible power as the angle of the rays of sunshine slowly changed.

The sun slowly rose out of the horizon, gradually covering more land. As the sun rose, its light washed over the first peak’s right side and the second peak’s left side.

The rays of sunshine illuminating the two peaks simultaneously became smaller and smaller as the sun slowly rose over the horizon. Ultimately, only a several-meter-wide ray of light could pierce through.

The angle slowly tilted and beamed down on a forest, which had appeared strange to Lin Yun even though he hadn’t found anything. At that instant, an illusory phantom gate appeared in the forest.

Lin Yun had arranged a lot of runes and immediately noticed the change.

In the dense forest, a phantom gate over three meters tall was erected on the ground. And this illusory gate didn’t seem to have any effect on the surrounding light. Light passed straight through the gate, as did the shadows of nearby tree branches. Only faint mana fluctuations appeared.

The runes Lin Yun had set up to monitor the forest had immediately discovered that small difference.

After flying to the forest and discovering that ancient entrance, Lin Yun frowned. The entrance seemed broken. It was covered in cracks, and many patterns had already been peeled off. Vines and moss were also growing on the gate. If it weren’t illusory, Lin Yun wouldn’t have felt like there was something wrong with it.

As he looked back at the changing angle of the sun’s rays, Lin Yun suddenly understood. This was a very ancient gate, the entrance to some ruins.

It wasn’t that he couldn’t find it before; there simply wasn’t an entrance until the light of the sun fell down.

This technique was very popular among powerhouses of the late Nesser Dynasty and the 3rd Dynasty. Some relatively secret ruins used this method.

It was either moonlight or sunshine… The entrance would only be revealed when it was hit at a certain angle or at a certain time. Unless that condition was fulfilled, the ruins would remain sealed, and no entrance could be seen.

For the entrance to appear, the external conditions had to match the particular requirements.

After finding the entrance, Lin Yun calmly waited. Half an hour later, the rays of sunlight that passed between the two peaks slowly adjusted until they finally fell right on top of the phantom gate.

The rock atop the illusory gate turned into crystal and absorbed the power of the sunlight. The sunlight then spread through the entire gate like a wave.

In a few seconds, the entire gate materialized into a solid gate, and a faint wisp of mana fluctuations appeared on its surface.

Lin Yun rapidly chanted an incantation and law runes slowly went through the gate. After a few seconds, a halo appeared in the gate’s empty center, and a membrane of light enveloped the gate. A different aura could be felt from the other side of the light membrane.

He cautiously raised a shield and then summoned a Rock Puppet to scout ahead before following it in.

This method of cracking the entrance to the ruins was too easy for Lin Yun. He didn’t need to know the secret code set up by the original owner and only needed the operation principle of this gate to open it easily.

After stepping through the membrane, an ancient and silent aura assaulted his senses. It seemed that this space had been deserted for countless years, and the air felt as still as death itself.

Upon entering, a wide main path spread before him. It was over a hundred meters wide and looked like it had been made out of glass. It was reflecting the crystal-like radiance, and there were many motionless runes within. These runes and patterns hadn’t been activated for a very long time.

Both sides of the road ended in towering cliffs that joined up to completely seal the place.

Walking on the main path, only the footsteps of Lin Yun’s Rock Puppet could be heard. He walked for no less than thirty meters when breaches opened on both walls and dusty puppets walked out of them. The puppets’ scarlet crystal eyes suddenly shone.

It took less than a second for them to recover from their inert state and for mana fluctuations to appear on their bodies.

The ten puppets emitted mana fluctuations at the peak of Level 39.

In an instant, two of the puppets had their arms transform into four long blades, and they suddenly appeared in front of the Rock Puppet. Only afterimages could be seen as 8 of those blades slashed at the Rock Puppet and turned it into a pile of broken rocks.

At this time, the dust that had congealed on the lusterless blades fell off, revealing a pitch-black halo covering the blades and a thick sharp aura.

The other eight puppets were all 2.5 meters tall. Six of them were melee puppets while four were casting puppets whose bodies were covered in enchanted magic patterns. The puppets all walked out of their holes one after another, and their scarlet crystal eyes attentively watched Lin Yun while flickering with a dangerous light.

Shock flashed in Lin Yun’s eyes.

‘They are all Peak Level 39 puppets. Moreover, from their mana fluctuations, I can tell that they have plenty of mana and seem to be in their peak state.’

Lin Yun usually wouldn’t care about ten peak level 39 puppets. It wouldn’t take more than five seconds to take care of one in a duel.

But he was in some unknown ruins, and this was merely the entrance. Strictly speaking, he hadn’t even really entered the ruins yet. Only the weakest existences guarded this kind of place.

This was usually the case for everything unless it was an important Planar Path, which would be guarded more thoroughly.

They were just like the guards of the Merlin Family Manor’s entrance. Lin Yun couldn’t remember their names, but the strongest was a Great Swordsman.

Often, the students of the Merlin Family’s school would be sent to guard the gates of the Merlin Family Manor after making a mistake. These people were Great Mages at best.

Judging from the type and construction style of the portal, as well as the way it was opened, these ruins had been built during the late Nesser Dynasty or during the peak of the 3rd Dynasty.

And ruins of that period mostly used arrays and puppets to guard the entrance. Some even used magic beasts.

But the puppets guarding the entrance were clearly the weakest existences within those ruins, as the entrance wasn’t particularly important.

The guards of this entrance were a bunch of peak Level 39 puppets with abundant mana. They were comparable to the Great Swordsmen and Great Mages standing guard for the Merlin Family.

There was no need to think how strong the defenses within the ruins would be. There were definitely many puppets inside that had awakened wisdom, or other dangers.

He wanted to open the Natural Demiplane to let Xiuban fight these puppets, but just as the crack of the Planar Path appeared, some formidable interference appeared, and the Planar Path couldn’t be opened.

But he could feel that he could still instantly return to the Demiplane if he wished.

Lin Yun frowned, but he could no longer feel the interference and didn’t have much time to think. Those six tall and sturdy puppets were already rushing over while the magic patterns of the four casting puppets were already shining.

He took out his Draconic Staff and released a Four Element Shield before immediately spitting out law runes. A wheel shadow appeared behind him, and a dense elemental aura spread like a tide.

Lin Yun’s body also drastically grew in size as he used the Ice-Fire Elemental Incarnation. The surface of the hundred-meter-wide path was filled with flames while a layer of frost appeared above.

The six fierce sword puppets surrounded Lin Yun and kept slashing at his body with precise coordination. Every second, Lin Yun would have to resist attacks of the blades enchanted with Sharpness and Magic Penetration as they came from four different directions. This was the strongest way to attack a mage’s shield.

Lin Yun kept flickering within the sea of flames, continuously charging towards the four casting puppets. They were all casting ray spells, and the concentrated Flame Rays and Frost Rays were tightly following him.

The six sword puppets were also pursuing him closely. Lin Yun’s gaze became cold as he kept releasing flames before continuously flashing through the sea of flames.

The coordination of these puppets was too good. Their battle systems seemed to be made of an entire set. The sword puppets were always maintaining their maximum battle effectiveness while the ray spells from the casting puppets would always make up for the gaps in the sword puppets’ movements. And whenever the sword puppets gained a small advantage, these ray spells would immediately follow to coordinate.

After the Four Element Shield resisted a few ray spells, Lin Yun gave up his plan to release his full fighting power. If he did, these ten puppets would be turned into scrap metal within twenty seconds, but who knew what would await him further in.

Moreover, these puppets had abundant mana. Lin Yun couldn’t understand how they could still have so much mana after such a long period of time.

Destroying these puppets was a bit unfortunate, but understanding this matter was more important. It might be troublesome if he met a Heaven Puppet that still had abundant mana later on.

Those spells of the casting puppets were all comparable to single-target 8th Tier Spells, and this was due to their large amount of mana being compressed to increase the power of the spells.

Lin Yun kept flickering for three minutes. His surroundings had already turned into a sea of flames, and the temperature had already risen to the limits. The flames distorted the air and made everything look faint. And in the sky, ice clouds were still lowering the temperature. It was as if a sea of frost was floating above their heads.

With the extreme heat and extreme cold so close to each other, the temperature went berserk where they collided. Mana fluctuations became even more chaotic, and Lin Yun’s Ice-Fire Elemental Incarnation turned into a Fire Elemental Incarnation before he hid his body among the flames.

The puppets had no choice but to pause after losing Lin Yun’s trail and not being able to sense his mana fluctuations. They unconsciously patrolled within the sea of flames, but the temperature of the flames kept rising and slowly heated the puppets until they were flaming red.

The six sword puppets were all flaming red, but the edge didn’t deform. The edge was flickering with a silver radiance and didn’t seem afraid of melting.

After burning for three minutes, Lin Yun suddenly chanted a hurried incantation, and the surrounding sea of flames seemed to have met some terrifying attractive force. It was completely swallowed by the Book of Mantras within a few seconds, and the sea of frost above poured down in torrents.

The ice power submerged the ten puppets simultaneously. The puppets that had been burned by the flames until their bodies were flaming red suddenly received this chilling attack. This made many of their parts malfunction and caused their bodies to stiffen.

And as they simultaneously suffered from this state, they all burst with mana in order to try to recover. Many parts of their bodies were different. Some were no good and couldn’t handle the sudden change in temperature.

Being heated up so intensely before being instantly cooled down was the same as completing a tempering cycle. It instantly created problems with the puppets’ components. Even as mana washed over the influence of the extreme cold, they couldn’t completely recover from their stiffness within a short period of time.

But at this time, the wheel shadow behind Lin Yun let out a flood of runes. The vivid runes turned into lifelike slender Mana Hands that suddenly rushed out.

Dozens of Mana Hands simultaneously fell on those ten puppets and moved like blurs, rapidly revolving around the puppets for a few seconds.

The frost slowly dissipated, and the ten stiff puppets exploded into piles of components that fell on the ground.