End of the Magic Era

Laibo paled while holding the white longsword in his hand. The deathly still aura became even more powerful but the life radiance had weakened.

A wisp of black slowly appeared on that white longsword’s hilt and rapidly spread to the entire blade, turning back into a seemingly ordinary sword without a trace of aura.

Laibo’s expression turned a bit strange. He put his longsword on his back and hid the hand holding the sword behind his back as it slightly shook.

‘Damn, that guy truly isn’t a special puppet?! How could a 9th Rank Archmage be so powerful?

‘Could it be that his mana is infinite? He was actually planning on drinking a potion… And that was a potion requiring to be sealed by pure runes. What kind of potion was it?

‘To what degree would his strength increase if he used it under such circumstances?

‘I was almost killed by a 9th Rank Archmage, no apprentice would believe me. I really encountered a monster. Are the people outside that frightening now?’

Hearing Laibo’s words, a trace of regret flashed in Lin Yun’s eyes and he put away the potion. The ancient scales appearing under his feet also slowly dissipated alongside the Purple Dragon and the wheel’s shadows.

The flaming door shadow on his left and the huge wheel on his right also disappeared.

Only the fighting intent in Lin Yun’s eyes remained as it would take some time to dissipate.

During the course of the battle, Lin Yun understood that the other side might not be the guardian of this ruins. Lin Yun recognized the longsword when the darkness covering the blade slowly turned white.

It was the legendary Song of Sacrifice. In the future, it was a legendary weapon of a Sword Saint. Very few could leave a name behind and be recorded in Heiss City’s decaying library.

The Song of Sacrifice was even stored in Heiss City, but unfortunately, no one could use the Song of Sacrifice at the time, no one had the power to use it.

The most obvious feature of the Song of Sacrifice was that deathly still aura, the deathly stillness which made people feel despair. When bursting at full power, the Song of Sacrifice would turn white from its original black color.

But Lin Yun didn’t plan to stay his hand just because the other side said so. He had found a good match for him and had to fight. Moreover, he didn’t know if the other side had really misunderstood or planned to get rid of him.

When he sensed the other side’s lifeforce decreasing, Lin Yun knew that he was going all-out and he himself took out the Bloodsobbing Holysong Potion. With the Bloodsobbing Holysong Potion, he could definitely get rid of the other side.

But he truly hadn’t expected his opponent to call for a ceasefire and even take the opportunity to scatter his power. This couldn’t continue and he had to stay his hand.

Laibo saw Lin Yun stop and sighed in relief.

“Hello, formidable Sir Mage, I’m Laibo Manteni from the Secret Monastery. You can call me Laibo. This was a misunderstanding, a big misunderstanding.

“I thought Sir Mage was the guardian puppet of these ruins, a relatively special puppet. After all, I’ve yet to see an Archmage as powerful as you…”

Laibo bitterly smiled as he said those words. A powerful person was mistaken as a puppet by a Heaven Rank powerhouse… This was really shameful.

He had thought Lin Yun was a mage, but when the battle started, especially after his burst of aura, he felt that Lin Yun was a special puppet.

A 9th Rank Archmage could burst with the power of a 2nd Rank Heaven Mage? He would obviously feel that this was a joke when hearing it.

Especially in this kind of ruins abandoned for millennias. Meeting such a powerful 9th Rank Archmage shouldn’t be possible. It was more likely that it was a puppet looking like a mage.

Hearing Laibo’s self-introduction, a flash of understanding appeared in Lin Yun’s eyes.

‘It’s really someone from the Secret Monastery…’

The Secret Monastery was a secret inheritage of the Odin Kingdom, it was very powerful but also very ancient. It has existed for countless years and no one knew when it was founded, it was a complete mystery.

After a few millennia, Noscent would be in the middle of the Planar Colonization Era. All forces would rapidly develop, whether it was a mage force, or an alchemy force, they would develop really fast.

The endless resources of the endless planes brought many opportunities for the development of Noscent. The number of planes and resources controlled was the most important factor of a force’s growth speed.

During that time, the Secret Monastery was unable to remain hidden, they couldn’t keep up with the other forces with just the resources available in Noscent.

A weak force was bound to be eliminated at that time. Weakness was a sin, and they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves, let alone keep up with other forces.

Thus, at that time, the leader of the Secret Monastery decisively chose to follow in the footsteps of the other forces and join the Planar Colonization Era.

It was also that decision which prevented the Secret Monastery’s destruction and turned it into one of the peak forces of the Odin Kingdom.

As a force mainly relying on swordsmen, it wasn’t easy for them to become one of the peak forces of that era.

This was all due to the ancient heritage of the Secret Monastery, Deathless Aura!

This was similar to Death Aura but it wasn’t the same. Rather, it was pure deathly stillness that could make all power become deathly still.

Through the inheritance method of the Secret Monastery, the vitality of swordsmen would be trained during their childhood and their Swordsmen vitality could compare to other forces’ Great Swordsmen.

Outstanding vitality was the foundation of learning Deathless Aura. That Aura had great restraining effects on mages. Peak mage powerhouses would draw when fighting with a powerhouse of the Secret Monastery, the outcome of a fight had 50% of leaning towards either side.

Some weaker mages might not be the opponents of the powerful Sword Saints of the Secret Monastery.

As for that Song of Sacrifice, it truly became famous over five millenia later. At that time, a powerhouse of the Secret Monastery wielding that sword killed an 8th Rank Heaven Mage as a 7th Rank Heaven Sword Saint!

It was that battle that made the Secret Monastery stand tall during that era and made all mage forces have no other choice but to treat them as equals.

Moreover, the huge vitality of the Deathless Aura made these Sword Saints live far longer than mages. Especially when attacking the Undead Plane, the pressure of the Secret Monastery’s Deathless Aura was comparable to holy light mages. Yet, these guys weren’t pressured in the Undead Plane, unlike the holy light mages. They would sneer as they entered the Undead Plane.

In history, they would be the only first-rate swordsman force for a very long time. How could Lin Yun not know about them?

“Hello, I’m Mafa Merlin from the Andlusa Kingdom’s Merlin Family. I came to participate in the Starry Sky College’s alchemist gathering, and I also thought you were the guardian of these ruins. Please forgive me.”

Lin Yun could only appear regretful and convey that it was a misunderstanding.

Laibo bitterly smiled as he saw the fighting intent in Lin Yun’s eyes having yet to wane. His own right hand was still shaking behind his back. This fight had consumed a lot of his vitality, especially the unsealing of the Song of Sacrifice. Every second consumed a lot of vitality.

“Sir Mafa Merlin, this is a huge misunderstanding. Have you also accidentally been trapped in this place?”

Lin Yun shook his head.

“I unexpectedly obtained the coordinates of these ruins and came here to look for some alchemy things. The puppets within the ruins prove that I wasn’t wrong…”

Lin Yun naturally didn’t tell the whole truth, he only said that he accidentally obtained the coordinates and then came looking for some things. This was completely normal for an alchemist, it was even more logical for an alchemist to explore ruins than it was for a mage. There are many things that mages and ordinary alchemists couldn’t use. Only some formidable alchemists would need some special things.

But Laibo’s expression suddenly brightened before Lin Yun could finish his words.

“Sir Mafa, are you a formidable Artisan? From the potion you have just taken out, I can see that you are extremely proficient in the potioneering field, how proficient are you in the field of array?”

Laibo asked impatiently, but noticing his lack of manners, he immediately added, “Sir Mafa, please don’t misunderstand. I, and a few of my junior brother and junior sister apprentices accidentally entered this place and are trapped in these ruins. We simply can’t find the way out. Aside from me, my few juniors are all trapped in arrays.

“I wanted to forcibly break through the arrays, but it caused some unexpected changes. Err, I hope you won’t mind my words.”

Lin Yun said a few sentences to Laibo. He didn’t want to bother with him, he had his own matter to focus on, and since there was no fight, he didn’t plan on wasting his time here. Rushing to find the Reedpush Plate was more important.

Laibo hesitated, before making a request to Lin Yun.

“Sir Mafa, I can’t cut those arrays down and rescue my juniors safely. Moreover, they seem poisoned and I don’t know how long they’ll be able to last.

“I hope you can help me. As a reward, you can gain the friendship of our Secret Monastery. Moreover, if there is anything you need, you can just ask. Our Secret Monastery has been collecting many valuable things.”

Lin Yun hadn’t expected Laibo to keep chatting. He wasn’t too interested in helping them, but he had seen the layout of the ruins from the map. Unless they intruded the dangerous array formations in the eastern side, they shouldn’t be encountering much danger.

Most of the arrays were set up for protections, not traps. Unless there was something wrong, they wouldn’t die. If he spent some time, Laibo would be able to use the Deathless Aura to save them. Moreover, those guys had monster-like vitality, ordinary poison simply couldn’t poison them to death.

But hearing Laibo’s words, it sounded like there was quite a few of them. This made Lin Yun think of the array formation he had seen on the map, it looked like an Hexagram Star Array.

That meant that the array had seven key parts and the best way to crack it was to simultaneously crack the seven nodes. That would temporarily collapse the array formation’s energy circuit, and that would give him enough time to finish the exploration of the array formation.

If he wanted to find something here, he would need enough time to search for it. It would take him a lot longer if he cracked the arrays one by one, and he might not necessarily have that time.

That array formation was at the Heaven Grade. It would be very troublesome to crack it on his own, and he only had five days before the start of the alchemist gathering.

If he helped the Secret Monastery’s people, five days would definitely be enough.

This Laibo was already at the 2nd Rank of the Heaven realm. Since he took his juniors to get some experience, they should be at the 9th Rank of the Sword Saint realm.

According to the tradition of the Secret Monastery, after reaching the 9th Rank of the Sword Saint realm, they had to be dispatched to some dangerous plane to temper themselves. If they were really talented, high hopes would be placed on them and they would directly be sent to the Undead Plane to gain experience. If they did poorly, they would die there.

Now, Laibo and his juniors might have been in that case. To make their preparations to advance to the Heaven Rank, they came out to gain some experience and increase their knowledge. It’s impossible for them to advance to the Heaven Rank by always hiding in the Secret Monastery after all.

As long as he could gather five more Peak 9th Rank Sword Saints, there would be enough people to help Lin Yun rapidly crack that array formation.

As he thought of this, Lin Yun asked, “How many people came? What about their strength?”

Laibo was overjoyed when he heard these words and promptly replied, “Five junior apprentice brothers and one junior apprentice sister. The weakest is at the 9th Rank of the Sword Saint realm, while the strongest ones are at the peak of the 9th Rank.”

Lin Yun nodded and straightforwardly agreed.

“Alright, lead the way. After rescuing your juniors, you’ll help me break an array formation. I need seven people to crack that array.”

An overjoyed smile appeared on Laibo’s face when he heard Lin Yun’s words. He was the guardian dispatched by the Secret Monastery to guide the most gifted individuals of the Secret Monastery in getting some experience. There would be no need for him to come back if they all died there.

He had been worried to death these past few days and had finally found a way to save his juniors, how could he not be overjoyed?

It wasn’t easy to find disciples suitable for the Secret Monastery’s inheritance. Finding a talented one was a lot harder than finding a mage that could advance to the Heaven Rank. The Secret Monastery wouldn’t be able to bear the loss if the most talented disciples of the younger generation died.

With Lin Yun’s help, especially after knowing that he was an alchemist, Laibo felt a lot more relieved, and agreeing to help cracking an array wasn’t a problem.