by Zhuang Bifan
Mason really wanted to bang the wall with his head. He wanted to grab the freak by his neck and shake him with all his might. Are you really human!?
"I… I'm not dreaming, am I?" Kayla rubbed his eyes in despair; he just couldn't believe what he saw. To make sure he wasn't dreaming, he stretched out his hand and pinched his own t.h.i.g.h. The throb of pain that came from his t.h.i.g.h announced to him that it was all true…
Kayla's eyes were glazed; as he looked at the cave entrance, he suddenly felt a little dizzy.
All of this was too fake—it was unbelievably fake.
The mage from Jarrosus still stood casually at the cave entrance, and even the smile on his face remained unchanged. The only difference was that his right hand was raised, and a ring inlaid with a black diamond shone dimly in the early morning sunshine…
"This…" Kayla swallowed his saliva with difficulty.
At present, not to mention Kayla, even Sarsen, who had always been so arrogant, was almost scared out of his wits. His expression showed he was utterly confused, and his eyes were bigger than those of cattle. His open mouth was almost wide enough to stuff an egg in.
It was just that Sarsen's thoughts were much more complicated than Kayla's.
He was a real level-13 Magic Shooter. Besides Gryffindor, his magic level was the highest among the mages who participated in this trial. In fact, his goal from the beginning was Gryffindor. In his eyes, among the many trial mages, only the number-one magic genius of Felan was qualified to be his rival.
However, the previous scene had thoroughly crushed all his perception…
Lin Li was unhurt under the Death Sentence, and could even make level-16 Dark Magic disappear—what kind of force was this?
Faced with a force beyond the limits of a mortal, Sarsen felt an array of complex emotions—shock, joy, disappointment, and jealousy—as several kinds of emotions surged up suddenly. He was dumbstruck for a moment as he looked at the figure at the cave's entrance.
And at this moment, Lin Li did not hesitate to input a trace of mana into the Torrent of Elements. Directing the Death Sentence into the elemental channel was just the beginning; the complete release of its power was the real reason why Lin Li had waited so long.
"No… That's impossible!" Just as Lin Li was feeding a trace of mana into the Torrent of Elements, the hoarse voice of the Lich rang from the sky. "Human… How could you possibly have the Butcher's ring?"
"Butcher?" Lin Li was a little stunned at first.
But very soon, he almost encountered the bite of mana due to this word…
Bhaskar lived in an age when the High Elves ruled over the world of Anril. The whole Felan Kingdom g.r.o.a.n.e.d under the butcher knives of the three Highlords. There was only one person whom Bhaskar was referring to as a Butcher—that was Osric, who had hanged 30,000 rebels overnight!
Highlord Osric's ring…
At the thought of this, even the calm Lin Li couldn't help but be startled. The trace of mana he had fed into the Torrent of Elements nearly resulted in a bite.
It was fortunate that his mental strength was powerful enough. Besides, the trace of mana was too weak; the sign of a bite had just surfaced when it was suppressed by Lin Li with his powerful mental strength. Otherwise, he'd be affected by the bite of mana before he even managed to bombard the Death Sentence… If news of this were to spread, he'd become a ridiculous joke before everyone else.
This slight mistake also reminded Lin Li that there'd be time to study the secrets of the ring, but there was only one chance to wipe out the Lich—and it was now.
Lin Li calmed his mind again as he abruptly magnified the mana in the Torrent of Elements.
"Boom!" Once again, a deafening roar sounded from the Death Sentence; but, this time, it was aimed at the Lich in the sky.
Bhaskar had put up an Elemental Shield the moment it recognized the origin of the ring. At the same time, it waved the Skeleton Staff in its hand, and a layer of Skeletal Shield was firmly erected around it. It knew very well the power of the ring. If possible, it really wanted to flee back to its nest at once.
However… this was impossible.
The Death Sentence had been released; even with Bhaskar's strength of an Archmage, it could only rely on a variety of shields to hold out against the former. Unless it reached the Legendary-level and had the ability to teleport, it would never escape the mental lock of the Death Sentence.
"No!" As the black Solar Sphere grew bigger and bigger in sight, Bhaskar let out a scream of despair…
"F*ck…" Kayla almost bit his tongue off when the scream of the Lich came. The look he cast on Lin Li afterwards was as if one of looking at a prehistoric dinosaur. He really wanted to ask: "Is this fellow still a human?" Not to mention he could remain unhurt when confronted with the Death Sentence, now he had actually blasted the Death Sentence back. F*ck… could this b*tch be a spy that the undead creatures sent to the Guild of Magic?
Sarsen's face was as white as a sheet. After taking a glance at Lin Li, he finally sighed resignedly…
He now knew how lucky he was. He had been so foolish back in the cave, getting into conflict with such a person.
Thank God, thank Bhaskar…
If it hadn't been for the sudden appearance of Bhaskar, he would have been half-cooked by the Flaming Hands.
Massive Death Energy erupted with a deafening roar, swallowing Bhaskar almost instantly. The sudden release of the death aura was like a gale blowing up all over the sky. Splashing bone fragments hit the stone wall, making crisp, cracking sound as they landed.
At this moment, the whole sky was shrouded in black mist. The death aura, like substance, was so overwhelming that everyone couldn't breathe.
At this time, even Orrin and Mason thought that the battle was over.
Being hit directly with a level-16 magic spell… there was almost no doubt that one would die even with the strength of a Lich.
However…
They overlooked one point—the Lich was an undead creature. It was more resistant to Dark Magic than any other creatures. Moreover, it had the Elemental Shield and the Skeletal Shield. These two newly erected shields could help it neutralize most of the damage…
The direct hit of the Death Sentence severely wounded Bhaskar indeed.
But, a severe wound was only a wound; they were still a little short of killing it…
After the storm had dispersed, Bhaskar fell from the sky with a plop like a broken kite. At this point in time, it no longer looked like the prestigious Lich it was. The loose black robe had long turned into ashes under the Death Sentence. Even the deathly white Skeleton Staff had disappeared without a trace.
When the crowd looked over, hardly anyone could imagine that the wrecked bones before them were formerly powerful Lich, Bhaskar.
Among the people present, perhaps only Lin Li could imagine it. In fact, he had made preparations for it. After the release of the Death Sentence, he did not hesitate at all to open the Ring of Endless Storm. He took out an item from inside that was enough to send Bhaskar into eternal despair.
"No!" Bhaskar screamed again—it was a scream more desperate and more forlorn than before.
It was because it suddenly saw that the mage with the Highlord's ring had taken out a weapon that was filled with the Holy Scent.
Lin Li held in his hand a crossbow made of refined iron, and the pure Holy Scent was emitted from the silver bolt…
At this moment, Bhaskar was regretting its guts out—if it had guts…
If possible, it would really prefer to never appear and stay in its nest forever than encounter such a terrifying fellow. Look at what the unbelievable mage had done. The Highlord Osric's ring… was that something a human should have? In Bhaskar's time, that ring had taken the lives of countless mages. For a long time, the rebels could not help but tremble with fear every time they mentioned the ring. To think that he'd met with this thing again after 1,200 years…
As for the refined iron crossbow, i
t had completely plunged Bhaskar into the depths of despair.
The pure Holy Scent was the real nemesis of the undead creatures.
Having lost his strength, Bhaskar could only watch the other party draw the crossbow, load it with the bolt that was filled with the Holy Scent, and then slowly raise it, aiming at his c.h.e.s.t…
After all this, Lin Li repeated what he had said before. "Let's see who's the judge!"
Chapter 152 - Sun's Spike
Almost at the same time, a sliver of light had cut through the skies. The bolt possessing the Divine Power plunged accurately between the two will-o-the-wisps with its shadow in tow…
"No!" The scream of the Lich was filled with despair. Strong Divine Power erupted, and in an instant, only a silver blaze arose.
The body of the Lich was melting as fast as snow in the sunshine in the middle of this silver blaze. As the silver blaze grew stronger and stronger, the screams of the Lich became fainter and fainter. Finally, it was completely turned into a pile of ashes.
The lingering black mist cleared away at once, and the sky was blue again. With the death of Bhaskar, everything returned to its original tranquility.
"Phew…" Standing in the place where Bhaskar died, Lin Li took in a breath heavily before bending down and gently pulling the bolt from the ashes.
It was called the Sun's Spike, and was among Lin Li's most unsuccessful investments so far.
Why "among"?
In addition to the Sun's Spike, there was another one—Hollow Spike. The two crossbows—one of light and one of dark—had cost Lin Li a total of 200,000 gold coins.
Back in the Endless World, Lin Li had spent a lot of thought in order to get these two crossbows. Who knew that shortly after acquiring them, the Hunter had received the Stars of Fury. In addition to its amazing power, this mythical weapon also came with seven bolts made of Meteorite Debris, each of which contained unparalleled power.
With the seven Meteorite Debris bolts in hand, the Sun and Hollow Spikes were naturally no longer useful. The sharp weapons that were bought with 200,000 gold coins could only be set aside in the Ring of Endless Storm, such that for a long time afterwards, Lin Li was unable to raise his head because of this matter. He referred to them as his two most unsuccessful investments.
He'd never thought that these two most unsuccessful investments would have suddenly erupted in another world, killing Bhaskar, who could not even be destroyed by the Death Sentence, in one fell swoop.
Lin Li kept the Sun's Spike back into the Ring of Endless Storm, then looked at the ashes on the ground, and spoke without any rhyme or reason, "You died justly…"
Lin Li was about to leave after uttering these words that he himself did not even understand when he suddenly discovered thick, black mist surging up from the pile of ashes.
"Damn!"
With the previous experience, Lin Li took out the strange crystal from his pocket without any hesitation this time; then, he saw that thick, black mist pouring into the crystal as if attracted by some kind of force…
With the continuous influx of the black mist, the crystal in his hand began to warm up—just like when he had entered the Shadowglen!
"I get it, I get it…" This time, he really understood.
Lin Li was even certain that among the many mageweaths engraved on the crystal, one had to be used to absorb the power of death. After the power of death was absorbed, some of it had to be converted into mana to maintain the normal functioning of that huge mageweath array, while the rest was stored. When this power reached its limit, the creature that was sealed in it could be activated.
It was like the other night, when the Shapeshifter suddenly appeared as they were dealing with the high-level Vampire.
Of course…
All these were merely Lin Li's speculations. The secrets of the crystal could only be unravelled after he had studied the mageweath array thoroughly.
Even with Lin Li's strength as an Inscription Guru, it was not an easy thing to study that mageweath array thoroughly. It was an extremely huge and complicated process; Lin Li would need a lot of time to understand and analyze it, and the Shadowglen was obviously not a suitable place to do that.
Lin Li shook his head helplessly. He threw the maroon crystal into his pocket, then slowly walked back to the cave.
When he returned to the cave, almost everyone was looking at him as if they were looking at a dinosaur.
The others were not to be blamed for making a fuss; why did he have to behave in such a perverse manner in the first place? Think back to what he'd done—he had absorbed the Death Sentence with the Torrent of Elements, and then released it instantaneously, severely wounding the powerful Lich.
And he wasn't done after all this—he had pulled out a crossbow that was emitting massive Divine Power…
Having done such a wicked thing, he couldn't blame others for looking at him as if he was a dinosaur…
When the Lich was turned into ashes, almost all of them wanted to strangle him by his neck and ask, "Do you dare to be a little more perverse?"
Alright, he wouldn't dare anymore…
The rest of the day was calm. Not to mention powerful undead creatures like the Lich, even creatures such as the Skeletal Warriors had no chance to appear in the public eye, and Lin Li naturally had no occasion to display his perverseness.
That night, Kayla and others were not driven out of the cave. Lin Li's explanation was that they did well during the day, so this was a reward for them.
In the past, Fedrick would have been furious, but after the day's battle, he was almost turning crazy. How could he have the courage to be furious? After nightfall, Fedrick found a corner and spread his blanket meekly. In order to be on the safe side, he even asked Sarsen to help lay a Ward of Secrecy around him before going to bed for fear of snoring in the middle of the night and bringing disaster to himself…
At dusk the next day, the seven-days trial finally came to an end.
When the melodious bell sounded over Shadowglen, Kayla and the others could hardly wait to pull out their Teleportation Scrolls. No one wanted to stay in a ghostly place like the Shadowglen, let alone live in a cave and be subjected to the changing moods of a freak…
***
Lin Li was just recovering from the giddiness brought about by the teleportation when he saw Macklin's drab, old face.
"You boys, get out and take a shower. Are you all trying to stink me to death…" the old man chided, but the joy in his tone could not be concealed.
In any case, he was the trial mentor; his disciples had lived in the Shadowglen for seven days, and had completed the trial mission with an almost perfect result. It was absolutely a lie to say that he was unhappy. In fact, although the old fellow was outwardly scolding them, he was actually blooming with joy in his heart. These few kids had not let him down indeed; Macklin knew better how dangerous the Shadowglen was. Even he himself didn't expect the boys could really last for seven days…
"Damn, let's see if that idiot, Darian, has anything else to say…" Macklin scolded fiercely as he watched the three figures recede.
He was utterly browned off by Darian in the past few days.
Darian was also some genius. While Lin Li and others were fulfilling their trial missions in the Shadowglen, he had come to Macklin every single day to persuade the latter to deal with the Jarrosus mage who had hurt his nephew.
Macklin really didn't understand why he had such great energy.
In the past seven days, Darian had been reporting in his tent after lunch every day. He'd begin with criticizing Gerian, who was far away in Jarrosus. He'd talk about how impolite, how arrogant, how overbearing, and how cruel he was. In short, all the adjectives that could slander one were used on the fat man…
Then it was Felic's turn…
Everytime he mentioned this matter, Darian would put on a tragic face, desperately trying to accuse the country mage from Jarrosus of how nasty he was, as well as how perverse a method he had use
d to mutilate his nephew. He also said that although his nephew had not contributed much to the Guild of Magic in recent years, he had been diligent after all. It was a pity that no one had spoken up for him even though he was badly injured, et cetera…
"F*ck…" Macklin was boiling with anger at the thought of this; he wanted to throttle Darian and ask, Are you f*cking done with this?
Unfortunately, Darian was an Archmage, after all. He was also an important member of the Alanna Guild of Magic. Even if Macklin was upset, he still had to show him some due respect on the surface.
Macklin really had had enough of it these days. The bombardment of words every day had almost brought him a mental breakdown. He swore that when the trial was over, he would find a way to transfer that idiot, Darian, to a remote mountainous area. If possible, he'd send him to the Ogre's nest so that he couldn't appear in Alanna for the rest of his life.
However, it was all right now; these three boys had completed the trial mission of the Supreme Council. From today onwards, they'd be the young mages that the Supreme Council would pay special attention to.
Damn you, Darian, go and find trouble with the Supreme Council if you have the ability. What's the use of pestering me every day… the old fellow thought shamelessly. I'd like to see if the people from the Supreme Council are cultured like me…
…
"Good evening, Mr Macklin." Lin Li and others took a comfortable hot bath and each changed into a clean mage robe—all three of them looked refreshed at present.
"How is it, you didn't encounter too big of a trouble in the Shadowglen, right?" Macklin was in a good mood, having solved a big problem which was Darian. He was showing concern for his disciples—something that was rare of him.
"…" Mason swallowed his saliva. As a matter of fact, he wanted to ask Macklin, Is a Vampire above level-18 and a Lich of at least level-16 considered "too big of a trouble"?
"We didn't encounter that big a trouble"—Lin Li nodded his head and smiled with ease—"but we saw two groups of undead fighting each other. I wonder what was that about."
