End of the Magic Era

She thought for a bit before ultimately making the decision to follow the young mage.

She had waited for too long…

In the past, she’d been unaware of the truth and had always been hoping to reunite with her father one day, so she’d endured the silence and solitude.

But she now knew that it had been a scam that lasted millennia…

Naturally, the most important reason behind her decision was that she didn’t trust the young mage.

What would she do if the young mage successfully reached the Heaven realm in a few centuries but forgot his promise?

Thus, she felt more at ease following and keeping an eye on him. That way, she could always remind the young mage that he had to fulfill his promise.

Lin Yun was frowning as he looked at Reina. Eventually, he took a deep breath and set out towards the ropeway to return to the Ice Field. The group of seven took about ten hours to return to the Planar Path.

While going through the Planar Path, Lin Yun naturally didn’t forget to pick up the Chromatic Dragon Crystal in the middle, and once they reached the Raging Flame Plane, he impatiently took out the ones embedded in the array, causing that azure Planar Path to silently fade away. But there was no regret. He had used the Book of Death to record the Planar Coordinates beforehand.

This trip to the Winter Plane had been quite fruitful, garnering him five Chromatic Dragon Crystals.

After returning to the Raging Flame Plane, Lin Yun split off from Thorne and the others and didn’t return to the Flame Demon Fort. Instead, he continued to the Ghost Valley, where he found a secluded place to calmly meditate.

Since he came to the Raging Flame Plane three months ago, he went through one large battle after the other, and the fight against Frost Dragon Reina had exhausted all his mana, including the mana of the three True Spirit Magic Tools. But he had greatly benefitted from this battle and had gained a lot of insights.

Thus, after returning, he impatiently wanted to process those insights.

This was bound to take a while, and days passed as Lin Yun remained motionless.

However, several hundred meters away, a pair of silvery-white eyes were keeping a close watch on him.

Reina didn’t follow Thorne and the others back to Flame Demon Fort either. She had secretly followed Lin Yun until he started meditating. When he entered his meditative state, she stopped and stayed some distance away, silently waiting for him.

With her insight as an 8th Rank Archmage, she could naturally see that the young mage was at a critical juncture and couldn’t be disturbed. This would be a very long process that might take several days, or even a few months. She just patiently waited, paying attention to the young mage’s situation and kicking out any magic beasts that got too close so that the young mage wouldn’t be disturbed.

As she waited, a shocking mana fluctuation was suddenly emitted from the young mage’s body, raising gusts of winds that sent sand and stones flying. Suddenly, alarmed cries could be heard coming from the nearby magic beasts, but the young mage didn’t seem affected at all as he remained sitting there peacefully.

‘Quite powerful…’

Even Reina was impressed as she looked at Lin Yun. She could clearly feel the mana fluctuations emitted by the young mage rising at an incredible rate before reaching the peak of the 5th Rank High Mage realm.

But this was far from over…

Just as the young mage reached the peak of the 5th Rank, gales whistled in the surroundings and terrifying mana spread in all directions like a tide. Under the impact of that frightening mana wave, the trees and plants in the surroundings quickly withered.

But incredibly, the mana fluctuations emitted by the young mage were still rising and reached a critical juncture in a short few seconds.

Seeing that the young mage was about to advance once again, Reina was even more shocked. She couldn’t understand… How did the young mage accomplish such a feat?

It was common knowledge that each breakthrough in the High Mage realm, whether it was for mages or other creatures, required several years. Even geniuses would need at least a few months before a breakthrough. Yet, this young mage advanced from the 5th Rank to the 6th Rank in a matter of minutes, and it looked like he would soon reach the 7th Rank.

But at this time, the commotion suddenly stopped…

Lin Yun had opened his eyes.

The first thing he did after opening his eyes was to check his condition. When he found out that he had stopped at the peak of the 6th Rank, Lin Yun couldn’t help feeling relieved.

He had been too careless… If he had gone on any longer, he would have brought huge trouble upon himself.

His current situation was too special…

After carefully calculating, he saw that he had become a 5th Rank High Mage in half a year. The efficiency of the three Meditation Law Sets could only be described as terrifying. His accumulation of mana was extremely robust. His mana was far denser than an ordinary person could even imagine.

This had reached a point where, if he wanted to, he could advance to the next ranks anywhere, anytime; 7th Rank, 8th Rank, and even 9th Rank!

But reason wouldn’t let him do so…

Right now, he had to quickly obtain the Book of Ten Thousand Mantras. With it, he would be able to merge his three Meditation Law Sets with his Magic Array, the Book of Ten Thousand Mantras, and the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel. If nothing unexpected happened, he would be able to attack the Archmage realm at that time.

The only thing he had to do was pay attention to his own rank. After all, he was different from other High Mages. He had three Meditation Law Sets, so the difficulty in advancing to the Archmage Realm was greatly increased. Any other High Mage could try fusing their Meditation Law Set and their Magic Conducting Rune at the 9th Rank.

But Lin Yun couldn’t.

Because he clearly understood that to have the optimal future growth, he should merge his Meditation Law Sets and Magic Conducting Rune earlier on, because every increase in rank would bring great resistance and make this fusion exponentially harder. thus he spared no effort to suppress his own rank.

This breakthrough had been unexpected. He had been immersed in a sublime state and was gaining more understanding of magic each moment. His strength was also quickly increasing, but after a long while, he had lost control over his power, and like a dam breaking down, the mana surged out and suddenly increased his rank in a few minutes. Had he been slightly later, he might have already become a 7th Rank High Mage.

Fortunately, he reacted promptly upon regaining his senses…

Although this unexpected accident brought him to the peak of the 6th Rank, the difficulty of fusing his Magic Conducting Rune and his Meditation Law Sets was still within an acceptable range.

“How long did I take?”

Lin Yun had already discovered Reina’s presence a few hundred meters away. He unhurriedly approached her, wondering what she thought about what she’d seen.

In fact, Lin Yun had known that Reina had been secretly following him ever since he split away from the others, but he didn’t mind it. He clearly knew that Reina was entrusting her hopes in him. In all of Noscent, he might be the only one that could help her revive her father.

This was enough for him to accept the fact that he would be stuck with Reina. And if he ran into great danger, Reina, this formidable Frost Dragon, would have no choice but to help him for the sake of her father.

This was why Lin Yun didn’t feel too apprehensive about Reina’s presence. He actually felt as if he had gotten a great bargain. With a casual promise, he made a Frost Dragon willingly become his hired thug…

This was like taking candy from a baby.

“Four and a half days…”

Reina, who had suffered a major blow in the palace, was somewhat haggard, but her complexion was a lot better compared to before. However, she still seemed anxious. Reina was currently looking at him with an extremely strange expression as she answered Lin Yun in an icy voice.

She really couldn’t understand… The young mage suddenly woke up, breaking that splendid state of enlightenment, which prevented him from advancing to the 7th Rank. But there was no disappointment on the young mage’s face, and he even seemed quite pleased after waking up.

This puzzled her…

“Oh… Not bad, it hasn’t been too long,” Lin Yun mumbled to himself as he nodded.

He then led Reina to walk around the Ghost Valley. After the Ghost Valley was affected by the Demon Contract, the mana density had more than tripled, and the magic beasts who went berserk due to the environmental change had gradually calmed down. The Merlin Family and the Black Tower were all busy managing the resources of the Ghost Valley.

On the way, he discovered a handful of rich ore veins, and the Merlin Family dispatched a large number of puppets to mine those veins, transporting those ores out of the Ghost Valley by carts to be sent back to Noscent.

And this was only part of it.