End of the Magic Era

A few decades ago, Thorne Merlin had some outstanding achievements during a Planar War and was fortunate enough to travel to the Ancestral Land to undergo the bloodline ceremony. At the time, Ryan met him and mentally noted down his name. He paid attention to Thorne after that, and he wasn’t disappointed, as Thorne made many great contributions during the past few decades.

In his eyes, Thorne was truly remarkable. He would be considered a powerhouse even in the Ancestral Land. He was qualified to lead an elite Planar Legion to conquer planes.

But…

But Ryan now felt that Thorne wasn’t very pleasing to the eye…

“Family Council… Representative…”

Thorne was thoroughly stunned. He obviously knew of the Family Council. It was the true hub of power of the Merlin Family. Moreover, there were very few Representatives, and each of them had been famous figures, but they were now training in seclusion in the Ancestral Land. The Patriarch and the Elder Council of the Outer Family was simply a joke compared to the Family Council.

‘How… How could this be? How could Mafa Merlin become a Representative!?’

He repeated Sir Ryan’s words a few times in his mind and confirmed that he hadn’t misheard. Mafa Merlin had truly become a Representative of the Merlin Family.

Thorne was startled speechless.

‘A Representative…’

A Representative had supreme authority and exceedingly high status!

But, even though Thorne was thinking very hard about it, he couldn’t understand. Mafa Merlin, who had disappeared a few months ago, just went to the Ancestral Land. How could he have become a Representative?

This was illogical…

After all, Ryan and the other members of the Family Council had been living in seclusion in the Ancestral Land for at least a hundred years and had the strength and experience required, so it made sense for them to be in the Family Council.

But this Mafa Merlin…

Whether it was his strength or experience, they were both insufficient. Moreover, just how long had he been in the Merlin Family for? Even if the few months he had disappeared for were counted, it would still be less than half a year!

Mafa Merlin becoming a Representative thoroughly shocked him, but apologizing was impossible! He unhesitantly turned and left.

Ryan silently shook his head as he looked at that receding back, feeling somewhat dissatisfied with Thorne Merlin.

Lin Yun didn’t say anything. He only smiled and secretly scattered the mana gathered in the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel. He chatted a bit with Ryan in the Guardian Tower before leaving the Ancestral Land to go back to the Merlin Family Manor.

He then stayed in the alchemy laboratory for over five hours, preparing some commonly used potions. After all, the Raging Flame Plane was very dangerous. Most lifeforms there had poisonfire, so Lin Yun had no choice but to prepare.

It was already night when he was done with this and returned to his residence. Just as he was about to start meditating, he recalled that group of Great Mages in the Demiplane. He had given them the Swift Star Mark and the Blazing Storm, and he was planning on helping explain things for them if he had time.

As they were a Magic Conducting Rune and a Meditation Law Set that came from the peak of the Magic Era, it wasn’t easy to master them. Ross and Leon were extremely talented youths, so there would rarely be a part that they didn’t understand while learning the Elemental Tide and the Arcane Ring. Lin Yun hadn’t needed to explain anything to them.

But this wouldn’t work for that group of Great Mages.

Their innate conditions were too inferior, and before meeting him, most of them would have had no chance to become Great Mages. They were able to advance with the help of Black Death Rune in the Bone Plane, but for them to understand the Swift Star Mark and Blazing Storm on their own was simply a fairy tale.

Lin Yun would lead the Planar Legion to the Raging Flame Plane the next day, and he might not be able to take the time to disappear for a while. Thus, he planned to use this last night to give pointers to the Great Mages.

After an incantation, an intense spatial fluctuation burst out. The next moment, he reached the naturally-born Demiplane and mist-like mana assaulted his senses, giving him a kind of godly feeling.

“Taji.”

Lin Yun caught sight of a silhouette in the distance meditating on the lawn. In fact, Lin Yun hadn’t been in contact with the fifty mages very often. The names he knew could be counted on his fingers, and this Taji was one of them. In Thousand Sails City, Taji was someone that had left a profound impression on him.

It hadn’t been because Taji was outstanding… Rather, it was due to how slow-witted he was.

In the Bone Plane, when the mages relied on the Black Death Rune to transform Soul Fires into mana to advance to become Great Mages, Taji had been the last one in the group to advance.

“Boss…” Hearing this familiar voice, Taji opened his eyes and rushed to stand up. He was a bit overwhelmed and answered Lin Yun, “Boss, why are you looking for me?”

“Nothing much, I came to check on everyone’s understanding of the Swift Star Mark and the Blazing Storm…” Lin Yun smiled. “Taji, if there is anything you don’t understand regarding these two, you can ask me.”

“Eh…?”

Taji was obviously stunned, but he then said in surprise, “There doesn’t seem to be anything hard about them.”

Lin Yun’s expression suddenly became strange. He was staring at Taji in bewilderment. He didn’t dare to believe that Taji could completely comprehend the Blazing Storm and Swift Star Mark with his aptitude. Although they had only been in contact with the first part, which wasn’t profound, Taji’s words were quite unbelievable to Lin Yun.

But one thing was certain: Taji wouldn’t dare lie to him. This meant that Taji understood the Meditation Law Set and the Magic Conducting Rune. Thinking of this, he secretly extracted a wisp of Taji’s mana fluctuations And poured it into his Magic Array. After some time, his face suddenly paled and the way he looked at Taji changed.

“Boss, you… Are you okay?” Taji said anxiously.

“It’s nothing, you should go meditate first…”

After sending Taji away, Lin Yun frowned and stood there, lost in thought. He had lost himself just now because he had discovered something incredible. While rousing the Magic Array to analyze Taji’s aura, he accidentally found out a wisp of strange aura.

From the few times he came into contact with the Ancient God’s soul fragments, Lin Yun could easily determine that this wisp of strange aura was the aura of the Ancient God. This discovery shocked him. Taji was a human, so how could there be the aura of an Ancient God within his mana? This was too scary.

After all, no Ancient Gods appeared in Noscent after the end of the Ascian Dynasty. He could only link it to the Ancient God’s soul fragment in the Demiplane.

“Merlin, did you notice…”

A gloomy voice suddenly echoed beside Lin Yun’s ear as the elusive Enderfa turned into black smoke and came out from the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel, his three faces displaying different moods as it said to Lin Yun, “They are infected with taboo power, this is going to cause a disaster…”

“Taboo power?”

Enderfa’s appearance interrupted Lin Yun’s train of thought, making him frown faintly. “You mean that those Great Mages would obtain the power of Ancient Gods?”

“How could this be?” Enderfa disdainfully sneered before explaining, “You should know better than anyone how the mana of the Demiplane reached this point. As for those Great Mages, they are absorbing that mana, and after some time, their bodies will start gathering wisps of the Ancient Gods’ aura.

“Every Ancient God is an existence surpassing Heaven Rank. Even just one wisp contains extremely great power, and under the effect of that aura, it will cause qualitative changes in those Great Mages. That change wouldn’t reflect in their power, but rather, in their magic talent.”

“What…”

Lin Yun was almost startled speechless. The biggest weakness of these fifty mages was their poor talent in magic, and he wasn’t able to change it. After all, even he could hardly get hold of fifty Mana Baptism Potions. After hearing Enderfa, he realized that this might be a good thing.

With his insight, he could naturally see that these mages with poor magical talent would at most be able to fuse their nine Magic Conducting Runes together and reach the High Mage realm.

But the High Mage realm wasn’t as simple as accumulating mana. One would need an extremely high comprehension to be able to walk deeper and deeper in that realm.

The fifty mages with poor aptitudes clearly didn’t possess such comprehension. Lin Yun estimated that the group would reach their limits around the level of 5th Rank High Mages.

But a change beyond his expectations had happened. After meditating in the Demiplane, the aura of an Ancient God appeared on those mages’ bodies, and according to Enderfa, it improved their aptitudes, but Lin Yun was unclear as to what extent.

But one thing was certain: the qualitative improvement in these mages’ magical aptitudes would cut down the time they need to reach the High Mage realm to less than three months!

“Merlin, you shouldn’t forget that it is an Ancient God, it is taboo. Everything concerning them is taboo, including their power. That might not be all that changed with these mages. If they keep meditating in the Demiplane and absorbing this mana, the amount of Ancient God aura will accumulate and maybe, after ten to twelve years, it might condense into a drop of Ancient God Blood. Although it wouldn’t be pure, it would still be extremely frightening…” All of Enderfa’s faces had alarm plastered all over.

Lin Yun’s eyes twitched when he heard that. He felt as if it was a dream, as if it was unreal. He originally planned on making those fifty mages become High Mages to increase the Gilded Rose’s strength. However, Enderfa told him that these mages would not only have their magical aptitudes strengthened, but they might even have the bloodline of Ancient Gods in the future.