End of the Magic Era

Lin Yun entered the Shelter Tower and discovered that the spiralling staircase was spotless. He followed the stairs up and walked for over half an hour before reaching the top floor of the Shelter Tower. He never truly entered the Shelter Tower during the end of the magic era. During that era, the mages struggling at death’s door believed that entering the Shelter Tower was blasphemy and wasn’t allowed.

After reaching the top floor, Lin Yun discovered that this place wasn’t empty, but rather had a tightly shut room. He walked over and softly pushed the door. The door wasn’t locked and slowly opened, letting Lin Yun see what was on the other side.

This was a very spacious room, and after entering, Lin Yun shockingly discovered small arrays inscribed in a spotlessly white wall. It looked just like the control room of a magic ship. In Yun hadn’t come into contact with many magic ships, as those had been abandoned when Noscent’s mana became exhausted. Without the support of mana, magic ships were nothing more than piles of junk. Lin Yun only studied them for a bit.

Thus, he had been able to associate this room with the control room of a magic ship. He walked to the wall and studied the countless runes making up the arrays. The techniques used in this array far surpassed his understanding, it surpassed the understanding of all of Noscent’s magic civilization.

But, most of the arrays were dimmed, meaning that they weren’t supplied with mana. There was only one array operating. Lin Yun approached and checked it out. Although he couldn’t see through these profound arrays, he could still see that this part of the array played a role in the Shelter Tower affecting Noscent.

He was deeply shocked. All the mages of the end of the magic era, including him, had thought that the Shelter Tower was used to protect Noscent.

But it now seemed like this wasn’t the case…

If it was just used to protect Noscent, then what about the arrays that weren’t working? About 90% of the arrays weren’t active… This showed that just protecting Noscent wasn’t the Shelter Tower’s only function. It was far more mysterious than he had thought.

The purpose behind the construction of the Shelter Tower was worth thinking over. After all, the most precious magic materials had been exhausted to build such a huge structure.

Its purpose wasn’t as simple as just protecting Noscent. It was extremely possible that it was something like a magic ship that transcended the entire magic civilization.

Naturally, these were only conjectures, and the truth had yet to be discovered…

After leaving the Shelter Tower, Lin Yun went to the spacious decaying library. At the end of the magic era, he spent most of his time in the decaying library. The books here recorded all of Noscent’s history, as well as the magic knowledge of the peak of the Magic Era. Those powerful godlike mages left behind the crystallization of their experiences and knowledge.

These books also accompanied Lin Yun for over twenty years.

He reached out to pick up a book with a black cover and gently patted the dust off it. This was a book left behind by a Heaven Rank Mage, recording his knowledge and experience. Lin Yun had been an amateur in the path of magic back then, and that book had been leisure reading material. After opening it again, Lin Yun finally found out how valuable the magic knowledge and experience of a Heaven Mage was…

Only rustling sounds could be heard echoing from time to time in the peaceful library, caused by Lin Yun turning the pages of the book. He didn’t know how long he was there before he closed the book and put it back in its place. He then picked up a thick stack of books and went to a wooden table and devoted himself to reading.

Lin Yun completely neglected the passage of time, seemingly never growing tired of going through books and even taking out a quill and a piece of paper to make some calculations from time to time.

He had long been accustomed to this lifestyle, just like in the two decades he spent at the end of the Magic Era. Had it been someone else, they would have gone crazy if they tried to read all this.

During this time, he sorted out the information here and greatly benefitted.

The pieces of paper on the wooden table had long since turned into a pile due to him calculating a large quantity of formulas.

Lin Yun carefully closed a book and put it back in its original place before returning to the wooden table, frowning in deep contemplation. Many of the difficult problems that had been perplexing him had been solved, and his understanding of magic had taken a few steps forward.

At this time, the Whispering Crystal in his pocket suddenly shone, and after a quick look, he saw that he had received some news from Leon. He poured mana into the crystal and Leon’s voice came out. “How is it over there? There is no danger for me at the moment, but after continuously fighting in the Pale Plane, I already fused my nine Arcane Rings and became a genuine 7th Rank High Mage, and even an 8th Rank High Mage might not necessarily be my opponent…”

After receiving this news from Leon, Lin Yun’s frown accentuated. Ever since he knew that this was an illusion, he had been wondering… For what purpose were these illusions set up?

Was it to trap them? Or kill them?

No, there was no need to do that much for that… Lin Yun already had a strange feeling when the puppets appeared. There weren’t many of them, only ten, and although they were powerful, they definitely weren’t dangerous enough.

Then there were ten paths… The person arranging this clearly wanted to split them up and send them into the flawless illusions. There was no danger they couldn’t have expected in the illusions, and instead, Leon and Lin Yun had both gained some benefits while exploring them.

Had Lin Yun not come to this illusion, he wouldn’t have been able to return to the decaying library, and he wouldn’t have been able to revisit the things he hadn’t been able to clearly understand before. The magic knowledge he had learnt this time was extremely advanced. Had he not come, he would have had to spend a few decades without necessarily ever gaining understanding of this.

Leon Merlin also obtained a lot of benefits. After all, the Arcane Ring was a magic inheritance from the Gaugass King and was a top-class Magic Conducting Rune. Fusing nine Magic Conducting Runes wasn’t something that could be done in a short period of time. Yet, Leon had been in the Pale Plane for such a short time and unexpectedly fused them. This was undoubtedly a shortcut which had saved him at least one or two years.

Thinking about it, an absurd thought popped into Lin Yun’s head. ‘This illusion… shouldn’t be to help us raise our strength, right?’

He shook his head. He couldn’t be certain with only that amount of information. He touched the Whispering Crystal and poured some mana within, calling out to William, Ross, and Xiuban. After doing that, he cautiously put the Whispering Crystal on the table and waited.

It could be said that Whispering Crystals were the most advanced communication tool in Noscent. They could receive information from thousands of kilometers away, but the stability was very bad. After waiting for a while, the Whispering Crystal flashed with a purple light. Lin Yun picked it up and saw that it was Ross contacting him. “Cousin Mafa, this is too inconceivable, you know what strange thing is happening to me? After I set foot on that path, I inexplicably landed in the Raging Flame Plane…

“I didn’t have much time to think about it before Stan Watson shockingly appeared before me, startling me. Didn’t you already get rid of Stan Watson? I then fought him, but nothing could be done about it… He has a few ranks on me, he is a lot more powerful. It didn’t take long before he defeated me. But, the freakish thing is that after being defeated, I actually went back re-experienced the scene of encountering Stan Watson again.

“Every time I’m defeated, I appear there once again, collapsing time and time again… Fortunately, I always gain some new understanding between every fight, greatly increasing my power. I’m already a 7th Rank High Mage. Oh, I don’t have time to talk any more, that bastard Stan Watson is there again…”

Ross’ transmission abruptly stopped. Lin Yun was a bit amazed. Although he already knew that Ross was also in an illusion, he definitely hadn’t expected this kind of outcome. Every time he failed, he would start over again. This was freakish…

Lin Yun clearly remembered that Ross was a 5th Rank High Mage before entering the illusion. It hadn’t been long, yet he was now already a 7th Rank High Mage…

This kind of progress could only be described as advancing by leaps and bounds.

Lin Yun scratched his cheek. It seemed that his conjecture was right. There was no danger in this illusion. It was actually helping people increase their power. The only thing was… How could they leave the illusion?

After waiting for a while, he didn’t receive any news from William and Xiuban. He thought that the Whispering Crystal had failed the send the message, since it wasn’t stable after all. Just as he wanted to put the crystal away, a purple light flashed from it. It was news from Xiuban. After pouring mana in, the Draconic Beastman’s lazy voice echoed.

“Sir Merlin, why are you looking for me?”

It was only a short sentence, but it made Lin Yun’s expression darken. How could Lin Yun not guess from Xiuban’s tone that the latter had just woken up?

‘Fuck, he was actually sleeping… How come that bastard still thinks of sleeping at a time like this…’

“Where are you now?”

Lin Yun poured mana into the crystal and transmitted a short message to the Draconic Beastman. Soon, the purple light flashed once again, and after pouring more mana in, the voice of the Draconic Beastman echoed once more. But this time, it no longer had the lazy tone, it was rather cautious this time.

“Sir Merlin, how could I know where this is… I, I’m only a Highland Beastman. Sir, this place is too strange, I became very sleepy after coming here and for some inexplicable reason, I fell asleep and just woke up. However, I seem to have become stronger, I should be… I should be a 9th Rank Swordsman now.”