by Zhuang Bifan
Such a noble pharmaceutics Master had fallen in a meaningless bet shamelessly initiated by a human and an elf in cahoots. This was not just a great loss for Wilkinson himself, but also the entire pharmaceutics industry, and even the entire Anril.
Be it Castellan Arathor of Roland City, William who'd invited them to the auction, or that wretched elf who was the descendant of the Helios, all of them had to pay for this! Wilkinson swore in his heart that he would definitely punish these scoundrels with his own power even if the Pharmacist Guild wouldn't avenge Mage Felic because of selfish interests.
Just as everyone thought that everything was over, a spark of fire erupted from the sea of black vines hanging over the Harvest Square as if a tiny spark in a tub of oil. However, it grew into a massive fire and engulfed all the vines in the sky. Those black vines disappeared in a matter of seconds, and dark ash fell to the ground like snow.
Everyone turned to the sky and got a shock at what they saw. They couldn't help but exclaim that it was no wonder this young mage dared to bet with that elf. His life was guaranteed at the very least just relying on this creature.
Those obstructing vines were cleared from the sky. Where Mage Felic had been, a full-grown Crimson Dragon now stood, flapping its wings. Damn it! This trip was really worth it. They got to witness a fight between Legendary powerhouse, the legendary Nature Magical Domain, and now even a full-grown Crimson Dragon!
This fully grown Crimson Dragon wasn't the one Lin Li had killed in the underground palace, but rather was created with that Crimson Dragon as foundation. It grew new flesh over the bones of a Humerus Wyrm. It seemed quite redundant to do this. After all, why not directly turn the corpse of the Crimson Dragon into an undead dragon since he had obtained the complete corpse?
Lin Li had gotten this Humerus Wyrm at the Scar of Death in the Blackstone Mountains. If the Crimson Dragon's corpse was in the same state as back then, it would indeed be better to turn it into a Humerus Wyrm. However, Lin Li had encountered High Priest Sendros after getting out of the Scar of Death, and Sendros had given him the extremely rare Heart of the Fallen.
Heart of the Fallen was a treasure that could make any Necromancer go crazy. Even the Darkness Shrine's High Priest Sendros had only seen six in his lifetime. Three of them belonged to the three Undead Lords of the Shadowglen, while the other three were stored in the Darkness Shrine. The one that Sendros had given Lin Li was one of the three stored in the Darkness Shrine.
For Undead creatures, integrating a piece of Heart of the Fallen was equivalent to swallowing thousands of soul fires. The only way for Undead creatures to raise their levels was to swallow the soul fire of other Undead creatures continuously. Hence, a Heart of the Fallen was even enough for a Death Knight to rise to a Retribution Knight.
However, the preciousness of the Heart of the Fallen wasn't simply that it allowed Undead creatures to improve their power. It wouldn't be so rare if it could do just that. The real reason why the Heart of the Fallen was so precious was because it could bring life to Undead creatures!
Although the Humerus Wyrm that Lin Li had gotten from the Scar of Death only possessed a level-20 Dragon Crystal, its soul fire was so pure that even Sendros praised it. According to Sendros, the purity of this Humerus Wyrm's Dragon Crystal matched that of the three Undead Lords's soul fire in the Shadowglen.
Following Sendros' recommendation, Lin Li integrated the Heart of the Fallen with the soul fire of that Humerus Wyrm, giving the Wyrm some level of intelligence. Hence, Connoris had advised him to use the Crimson Dragon's corpse on this intelligent Humerus Wyrm when Lin Li had killed the dragon in the underground palace instead of splitting it up to use for magical equipment.
Of course, Lin Li hadn't gotten this precious Heart of the Fallen for nothing. Sendros had received a chance to concoct the Tribute of Darkness in return. It seemed like Sendros was on the losing side since he had used such a precious treasure in exchange for a mere chance. However, if the Tribute of Darkness was successfully concocted, it'd be far more useful to a Necromancer compared to the Heart of the Fallen.
The Tribute of Darkness! Lin Li felt rather guilty upon recalling his promise. That was a super potion that even pharmaceutics Gurus couldn't guarantee to concoct successfully. If one could guarantee success, he would probably be stepping into the Divine Smith realm already! Unfortunately, although Lin Li knew the formula, he had only a 30% success rate given his current ability.
After integrating the Heart of the Fallen into the Humerus Wyrm, it possessed intelligence and life. After Lin Li used the Crimson Dragon corpse yet again and gave the Humerus Wyrm a body, this Humerus Wyrm was no different from a real Crimson Dragon. Perhaps the only difference was that a real Crimson Dragon was so incredibly proud that it wouldn't let itself become a human's pet.
A Crimson Dragon which had integrated the Heart of the Fallen radiated such pure dragon aura that even Vidas who was the closest to Lin Li couldn't tell that it was an Undead creature, let alone those spectators in the audience. Of course, this Crimson Dragon shouldn't be considered an Undead creature, but rather a true Crimson Dragon.
With a dragon's roar, every animal in Roland City collapsed onto the ground, and every villager started to tremble for no apparent reason.
Sienna tapped his t.h.i.g.h. Pointing towards the sky, he excitedly yelled to the surrounding people, "Look! Look! I have said this before! How could that elven mage match Mage Felic? Haha! Look at it! It's a Crimson Dragon, a Crimson Dragon that Mage Felic summoned!"
Seeing how proud Sienna was, some people gnashed their teeth with resentment, some looked towards the sky in contemplation, and some weren't convinced at all and refuted Sienna. That elven Legendary-mage possessed his own Magical Domain, while Felic was a mage who had only just stepped into the Legendary-realm. Even if Felic had a Crimson Dragon, it would only take the elven mage more effort to defeat him.
"Hmph!" Sienna scorned that opinion, and contemptuously said, "No more nonsense! Let's continue the bet and see who gets the last laugh." Sienna didn't care what level the elven mage was. He firmly believed that Mage Felic could easily handle this elf given that he was able to defeat a terrifying Lich.
William tapped his c.h.e.s.t. Today was such an eventful day! His heart was still beating with perseverance even though it suffered a lot today. Looking at that Crimson Dragon in the sky, he could tell as an appraiser that its power was only of level-21.
Chapter 560 - Domain Collision
After reaching the Legendary-realm and above, the difference between every level in terms of power wasn't something that could be made up for with numerical advantage. That was because the competition was no longer about the strength of magical power or mental strength, but rather the understanding of nomological power. This was like a group of primary-school kids compared with a university student in terms of general knowledge. 1,000 primary-school kids wouldn't be a match for a university student. Vidas was a level-22 Legendary-mage who possessed a powerful nature Magical Domain. Even if Lin Li was a level-20 Legendary powerhouse, and had the help of a level-21 Crimson Dragon, the difference in abilities still couldn't be made up for.
This was also why the Dark Blade that possessed three Legendary powerhouses couldn't do anything to the Malfa Family, who had only one Legendary powerhouse. The difference in power between Legendary powerhouses couldn't be made up for using numbers, even if it was just a difference of one level or even a tiny difference in understanding of nomological power.
William was very clear on this. Hence, he wasn't too optimistic about the situation even after the appearance of the Crimson Dragon. Its appearance could at most increase Mage Felic's chance of survival, but it was still impossible for Mage Felic to win this battle.
Since even William could see this, Vidas, who was on the other side of the bet, was even more aware of it. Vidas was indeed quite shocked at the appearance of the Crimson Dragon. He had thought Lin Li would use potion to increase his abilities, and hadn't expected him
to summon a Crimson Dragon out of nowhere. However, to be very honest, the effect of summoning a Crimson Dragon was even worse than increasing his own abilities.
"Just a Crimson Dragon! Do you really think you can burn my entire Nature Domain?"
A level-21 Crimson Dragon was nothing to Vidas. One should not think that fire was definitely the Domain's natural enemy upon seeing the lush forest. The so-called restraint of elements was never absolute. More importantly, it depended on what kind of abilities their users possessed.
…Especially so for Nature Magic, which was actually the amalgamation of various elemental rules, and fire element was one of the mandatory items among those. The essence of Nature Magic could be said to be a display of World Laws. It was every mage's life goal to create a domain that was similar to the world. Even though the Nature Magical Domain was just based on the combination of derived rules, the magnitude of its nomological power shouldn't be underestimated.
Of course, nothing in this world was perfect—there were always two sides to everything. Although the integration of Laws of many elements could form a powerful Small World Laws, it was much harder for the creator of this nature Magical Domain to analyze the essence of every elemental Law deeply compared to realizing the fundamental elemental Laws directly. Hence, it was 100 times harder for the creator of a Nature Magical Domain to understand the essence of World Laws via the Small World Law compared to an ordinary Legendary-mage.
In order for a Legendary-mage who created a Nature Magical Domain to understand the essence of World Laws via the Small World Laws, he had to analyze the derived Law of every single element, and use this analysis to trace back to its origin—the fundamental elemental Laws. However, immense effort was required in order to gain a thorough understanding of just one Laws, not mentioning the various derived rules from the Small World Laws.
There was yet another way. That was to constantly strengthen one's own Nature Magical Domain. Once the Nature Magical Domain was powerful enough, the Small World Law would naturally become the true World Laws, and its owner wouldn't even have to analyze the essence of elemental Laws at all.
These two ways required talent and hard work, respectively. However, both also needed a similar condition—good luck. Vidas chose the second way as his bloodline of the Helios Family enabled him to gain more from his hard work. The effect of the bloodline was still very limited. Even though he could gain many times more than others from his hard work, he still plateaued at level-22.
In order to improve his Nature Magical Domain as a whole, he needed a treasure which contained powerful and pure nature energy. Vidas had put all his hopes on the branch now. This wasn't just a wild guess; rather, he had a strong sense that this branch would be the key to his improvement.
Not to mention that Lin Li was weaker than him, Vidas would have given his all to seize this rare opportunity even if his opponent had been stronger than him.
The appearance of the Crimson Dragon didn't affect Vidas. Fire magic couldn't pose any threat to the Nature Magical Domain created by a level-22 Legendary-mage. A series of gigantic tree men leaped into the air as if there were springs in their feet. If one were to look at it from afar, he would think that there was a locust plague in the Harvest Square. However, the spectators sitting in the square watched everything with shock and fear. They feared that the shield of the square would be broken, but they also didn't want to miss this exciting battle.
In the air, a scorching dragon's breath swept past the attacking tree men, and engulfed them with flames. However, the tree men didn't just turn into ash this time. They continued to attack with their burning bodies like torches, appearing to be even more frightening.
The Crimson Dragon roared in wrath, and swept out with its muscular tail. The torch-like tree men all fell into pieces with a thud. Explosive sounds came from the sky like fireworks, and splashes of fire immediately followed. The Humerus Wyrm that had integrated the Heart of the Fallen had completely recovered the combat instincts of a Wyrm, and didn't require Lin Li instructions at all.
Lin Li stood on the Crimson Dragon's back steadily. The dark clouds above his head loomed even lower. Due to the shielding field of the Harvest Square, the view in front of the spectators' eyes was rather bizarre. Lush forest covered the ground, while dark clouds only covered the portion of the sky outside the shield1.
Everything withered in the cold winter. Crystal-clear snow fell from the sky, and the lush green was instantly covered by white snow. Everything seemed really beautiful, but this was the collision between Magical Domains. It was a competition between the understanding of the nomological power of mages, and a real battle between Legendary powerhouses.
However, seeing that Lin Li had displayed his Magical Domain, other than those people purely watching for fun, everyone with some understanding of Magical Domains was rather confused.
The Frost Magical Domain wasn't unfamiliar to many, as it was the first domain that the majority of Legendary-mages would create. In other words, the Frost Magical Domain was an extremely ordinary, fundamental, and primitive Magical Domain.
This was because what mages, especially human mages, learned the most before reaching the Legendary-realm were ice magic spells. Hence, it was easier for mages to understand the Laws of the ice element.
Many people present knew about this, but this didn't mean that they looked down on Legendary-mages who used Frost Domains. After all, many of them hadn't even reached Legendary-realm themselves. The real reason why they were confused by Lin Li's action was because the opponent he faced was a Legendary-mage who'd created a Nature Magical Domain.
Although Nature Magical Domain wasn't exclusive to the elves, almost nobody could match the talent of the elves in terms of learning Nature Magic. Nature Magical Domain was also called a Small World Domain as it included the derived Laws of all fundamental elemental laws—earth, fire, water, wind, light, and darkness. This formed a Magical Domain that possessed the fetus of a world.
Comparing Frost Magical Domain to the Nature Magical Domain, the difference in strength was evident. Hence, the spectators all felt that Lin Li should have sacrificed the Crimson Dragon to attack Vidas by surprise in order to get a chance to escape. After all, a 20-year-old Legendary-mage still had a long way to go. Though nobody wanted to acknowledge it, there was a high chance that Lin Li might reach the Sanctuary-realm eventually. With such a bright future ahead, why should Lin Li ruin his future just for some reputation?
Vidas originally had the same thought as the spectators. The laws of ice, which was also a derived rule from the fundamental elemental Laws. had no advantage compared to Natural Magical Domain. However, Vidas' heart trembled when these two Magical Domains really collided.
This Frost Domain definitely was somehow wrong! Vidas didn't know what the problem was, but the obvious truth was that there was some lagging when he used the nomological power as the controller of his Nature Magical Domain. It felt as if he had gone back to the time when he'd first created the Nature Magical Domain. However, it hadn't happened for a very long time.
It was utterly unbelievable that a simple Frost Domain could develop resistance to his Nature Magical Domain. Vidas didn't dare to underestimate this young human mage anymore. No matter what hid behind this Frost Domain, the undeniable truth was that Vidas felt it more and more difficult to use the Domain's power, and was unable to bring out his true potential.
Obviously, Lin Li hadn't just used a simple Frost Domain. The appearance of this Frost Domain was just to make way for the Light and Darkness Domain like before. The two pieces of the debris of the stars Lin Li had gotten—Holy Light and Gloomy Dark—had helped him to create this Light and Darkness Domain with the nomological power they contained. It might be "outside" from the audience's perspective, so in fact inside the shield.
Chapter 561 - Surpassing Level-21
Light and darkness were two of the seven fundamental elemental Laws. Vidas' Nature Magical Domain also involved the nomological power o
f light and darkness. However, he only made use of the derived Laws of these two elements. Fundamental elemental Laws were closer to the essence of nomological power, so they naturally suppressed the power of Vidas' Magical Domain to a certain extent.
With the difference in levels in the Legendary-realm, it was almost impossible to establish one's own Magical Domain in another party's Magical Domain forcefully. However, Lin Li had done it. Although he struggled to control the usually tame magical elements that started resisting his control now, his Light and Darkness Magical Domain still expanded in the Nature Magical Domain slowly but steadily.
Damn it! Level-22, that's two levels of difference! It's not a joke… Lin Li cursed internally, but he didn't dare to relax even a bit. He gritted his teeth, and blood vessels popped up near his temples. Even with his powerful mental strength, he still had to use all of it under such circ.u.mstances. With this continuous exhaustion of mental strength, Lin Li started to feel a little dizzy even though it was just the start of the battle.
Lin Li could feel that the pressure he encountered in his Light and Darkness Magical Domain increased as the domain expanded more. The speed of expansion also slowed down in the process until the threshold of his resistance was reached. However, just then, the pressure from outside the Light and Darkness Magical Domain suddenly increased immensely. The level-22 Legendary-mage had retaliated. Lin Li's face darkened instantly. Fresh blood flew from his eyes, nose, and ears due to the forceful exhaustion of mental strength. The Light and Darkness Magical Domain was withdrawn suddenly under the pressure.
If it had been another person, he probably would have fainted by now. However, Lin Li's consciousness suddenly became very clear with the external pressure despite the exhaustion of mental strength. The ring made from the Evil Eye Tyrant's magical crystal had not only increased Lin Li's mental strength every minute, but also made his mental strength purer and more concentrated.
