by Zhuang Bifan
He wondered how the Malfa Family and Dark Blade were doing outside the cave. Given the power and abilities of the two families which had four Legendary masters, the magical beasts probably wouldn't cause too much trouble for them. Lin Li did not feel embarrassed about secretly leaving the battlefield.
Be it the projected avatar of the Elemental Wyrm or the Titan Spirit at the Sanctuary-realm, Lin Li would still have had to solve everything himself at the end of the day. It was not that he was looking down on the four Legendary masters, but rather that those creatures could not be dealt with by normal people.
Although the projected avatar of the Elemental Wyrm had yet to reach the Sanctuary-realm, the infinite mana could not be balanced even by the combined power of Cheyenne and Borg. Not to mention, the other was a Sanctuary-level Titan Spirit which was enough to destroy the entire adventurer team.
The reason why Lin Li made gains in the end was that he had grasped and targeted the weaknesses of his opponents. At the same time, the price he'd paid was also unbearable by normal people's standards. Heart-piercing Potions were Master-level potions which were extremely scarce in Anril. Even with materials available, it was unlikely that anyone would be able to formulate them. The Guru-level Alchemy Array was also rare in Anril where Alchemy was insufficiently developed.
No pain, no gain. Since it was all achieved through Lin Li's efforts, there would be no point in letting the other two parties join in. At the thought of gains, Lin Li could not help but look at the young Xiao Hua flying around happily in front of him. It was a super treasure which should be considered the greatest gain of this trip. Although it was not that strong yet, and was in fact rather lazy, it was of great use to Lin Li, especially with arranging the Requiem Array. Ever since then, Lin Li had more thoughts about it.
The Requiem Array was a Guru-level Alchemy Array which could not be supported by a Legendary-realm magical crystal. Even a magical crystal at the peak of the Legendary level would probably be directly s.u.c.k.e.d dry. However, now that he had the Elemental Wyrm which had the ability to instantly convert magic elements of the world into mana to make the Alchemy Array run in its best state, it was akin to having an infinite source of mana. The Guru-level Alchemy Arrays, mageweaths, and crafts that required the support of a super mana source that Lin Li had dreamed of employing previously all seemed to become usable now.
Xiao Hua flew towards Lin Li and continuously flapped its colorful wings while holding onto the level-19 magical crystal, which it occasionally took a bite out of. It then cheered and wagged its tail heartlessly, clearly clueless about the fact that it had already been deemed a magical crystal mine that could fly in Lin Li's eyes. It was still cheering and rejoicing that it had obtained the magical crystal.
Upon arriving at the exit of the crack, Lin Li looked far into the Haiga Mountain Range and caught sight of the Dragon Mountains. There was still a Natural Magical Domain there that was waiting for him to collect, as well as the Retribution Knight that he was once afraid of.
Staring at the mountains that had already been destroyed, Lin Li knew that it was time for him to head back. Although the success of adventures was subject to the abilities of each individual, and Lin Li did not feel that he was wrong in leaving beforehand, he was still in cooperation with the two other parties. The adventure had yet to end, and they still had to continue working with each other. However, there was of course no need to let them know about what he had gained.
The Titan Skeleton and Titan Dragon Spear were already put away in the Ring of Endless Storm which was impenetrable to others' eyes. However, Xiao Hua was giving Lin Li a headache. Although there were barely any people in this world who could recognize Elemental Wyrms, he would definitely arouse the suspicion and draw the attention of the four Legendary figures if he were to bring it back with him.
Lin Li could not come up with a good idea at the moment; hence, he decided to grab Xiao Hua and stuff it into his loose and spacious magical robe, regardless of its objections. Fortunately, it was a newborn, and Lin Li could still manage to fit it inside his robe while concealing its Menace of the Dragon. Otherwise, it would be tough handling it.
Perhaps because Xiao Hua was too loud when it woke up, the powerful magical beasts all vanished, and Lin Li did not encounter any obstructions along the way. After leaving the valley, Lin Li zipped through the dense trees, and soon returned to where he left off. The environment gradually began to look more rundown. Clearly, the adventurer team had gone through a massive battle during the time when he was absent.
Lin Li landed on the tree and shoved Xiao Hua back inside his robe. He then looked into the distance and realized that there were traces of magical attacks everywhere—the corpses of magical beasts and humans, the pleas of the injured, some kind souls looking after the wounded, and some others who were cleaning up unhurriedly. Clearly, the adventurer team had suffered a major loss and damage even though there were four Legendary powerhouses with them.
Lin Li whipped out a magical crystal and stuffed it inside his magical robe. Upon hearing the chirping and cheering of Xiao Hua, he quickly landed on the ground and walked towards the campground. Soon, a dark shadow swooped towards them—it turned out to be Norfeller, who had remained in the battlefield.
Upon sight of Lin Li, Norfeller kept a straight face and handed him a bag of magical crystals without hesitation. It seemed he had still loyally followed Lin Li's orders during the intense battle. He had made plenty of gains, but there were no signs of injuries on him at all. It seemed he had just gone through an effortless process of hunting.
He also noticed that everyone else around him had turned pale. The others were all thinking to themselves that Lin Li and Norfeller were both extremely thick-skinned to have taken away all of the magical crystals without contributing anything while leaving others to fight the magical beasts painstakingly.
Lin Li was not at all bothered by the peculiar gazes that were cast on him. It was as if he did not have any feelings at all. He walked towards the campground while asking Norfeller about the battle that took place earlier on.
Although the Malfa Family and Dark Blade obtained the final victory in the fierce battle, it did not come easy for them. Both parties lost some of their strong members, most of whom were level-17 and level-18, and could definitely be regarded as the elites of the two forces. That should be good news for Lin Li. After all, although the three parties were cooperating, the Tower of Dusk belonging to Lin Li seemed to be the weakest. Hence, the power disparity had to be balanced by the magical beasts.
Entering the campground, Lin Li shoved another magical crystal into his magic robe to quiet down the little one in his arms. He then looked up to see that Cheyenne and Borg were both giving out orders to their underlings. The two Legendary-mages seemed to be a little disheveled at this moment. Although they were not injured, they were clearly fatigued. They obviously had had a hard time winning the tough battle.
Instead of stepping forward to talk to them, Lin Li simply greeted them, and returned to his own tent without feeling any guilt at all. Besides, he still had an Elemental Wyrm in his arms. The most important thing to do now was to put the little one in place, lest he had to constantly feed it with magical crystals to placate it.
Watching Lin Li walk into the tent, the old rivals Cheyenne and Borg looked at each other while smiling wryly and shaking their heads in unison. At this moment, the two of them had the same idea. They both thought that Lin Li, the young Legendary-mage, had the thickest skin ever. Despite being one of the allies, not only did he not put in any effort during the battle, he even took advantage of them and grabbed a ton of magical crystals, causing them to suffer heavy losses. Yet, they could not voice their unhappiness.
What else could they say? There were only two people from the Tower of Dusk, and they would not have been of any significant help during the fierce and chaotic battle just now anyway. Although Cheyenne and Borg were Legendary masters, each of them was faced with strong opponents. It wa
s impossible to pay attention to where the people of the Tower of Dusk were and what they were doing during the battle.
Although Lin Li did not seem to have provided much help, he actually contributed by killing the magical beasts, and thus gained an impressive number of level-17 and level-18 magical crystals. Even if he did take advantage, no one would dare to berate him. Most importantly, he had the crucial leads to the treasure of the Immortal King. Even if the other forces had the evidence, they wouldn't dare to turn against him.
The two leaders of the strongest forces in the Breezy Plains had no choice but to silently lament having such a lousy ally. They had no idea if they should cry or laugh.
Lin Li was not bothered by whatever others thought about him. Instead, he ordered Norfeller to wait outside the tent while he entered and released the Elemental Wyrm. He was now considering how to settle it down. Even if the cooperation was over, he couldn't possibly leave Xiao Hua outside.
Yes, there were definitely only a few people in Anril who could recognize Elemental Wyrms, but Lin Li could not guarantee that no one would be able to recognize Xiao Hua. Anril was large, and although there were only a few strong figures of the Sanctuary-realm, no one knew if there were any seniors who might recognize an Elemental Wyrm.
Even Cheyenne and Borg could sense Xiao Hua's value despite being unable to recognize an Elemental Wyrm if they saw him. Lin Li knew that he should never flaunt his wealth; with his current power, he still could not afford to be dauntless just yet.
Finding a place to put Xiao Hua in was an issue for Lin Li. Although he had the Ring of Endless Storm which almost had infinite space, even the ancient Connoris could not stand it, let alone a young Elemental Wyrm with a lively and resilient character. Who was he supposed to hold liable if Xiao Hua ended up developing a mental illness?
Lin Li pondered for a moment, and suddenly raised an eyebrow as an idea popped up in his mind. He used his mental strength to search the Ring of Endless Storm, and a ring soon appeared on his palm. The ring was made of ethereal gold, and it was inlaid with a huge black gemstone. The gemstone did not have much of a magical wave, but its gloomy glow was tempting enough.
For Lin Li, the ring did have a long history that dated all the way back to when he had yet to arrive in Anril. When Lin Li was running his own mineral veins in the Thousand Pinnacles Forest of the Endless World, he spent a bomb to obtain the ring. In the Endless World, the ring had a special and pleasant name: Dream Garden. It could be said to be one of the most precious rings in Endless World that Lin Li had spent half his assets on.
However, if it was just to enhance his strength, Dream Garden would not be powerful enough. It'd not even be as good as Lin Li's Robe of Wrath. After all, the Robe of Wrath contained plenty of low-level magic in addition to the plentiful scroll slots.
Chapter 607 - Micro-painting
Dream Garden would be completely useless during a battle, for its only use was to create a unique space that was no different from the outside world. In the space, the seven elements of earth, water, fire, wind, light, darkness, and chaos were all readily available. There were also mountains, water, trees, and flowers. Except for the fact that life couldn't be truly nurtured there, everything in that space was no different from the outside word. Moreover, the world in Dream Garden was definitely not comparable to the infinite and deadly dimensional space of the Ring of Endless Storm. When Lin Li had got the Dream Garden, he once entered it to take a look. It was just like a paradise on earth, and he could not bear to leave it at all.
At that time, Lin Li had initially wanted to use the ring to transport his mineral ores. Unfortunately, both the Flash Plains and Thousand Pinnacles were located on the edge of the Endless World, and were extremely dilapidated and barren. Even if Lin Li had had countless private veins, it would've been impossible to turn them into profit immediately. Fortunately, Lin Li had not only found a Teleportation Portal that allowed him to travel to Bright Moon City, he also found some rare dimensional equipment in the auction house.
However, the only flaw of Dream Garden was that the space was too unstable. It was as beautiful as a paradise on earth, just like its name suggested. It was like a fantasy that was exceptionally beautiful, but a slight fluctuation in energy would cause the entire world to collapse.
Because of this, treasures like Dream Garden were used by Lin Li for transporting ores. After he got the Ring of Endless Storm, he completely stopped using it. Lin Li only remembered it when he was in the Haiga Mountain Range.
As far as the environment was concerned, the Dream Garden was undoubtedly the most suitable for Xiao Hua to thrive in. Although Xiao Hua was the descendant of the Dragon of Dream, it probably had never enjoyed such a beautiful abode before. Lin Li suddenly recalled that his little Dragon Hawk could live in there too. Little Dragon Hawk was gradually growing up and absorbing the mana of the Legendary magical crystals every single day. The speed of his growth was truly shocking and amazing. When Lin Li left the Tower of Dusk, the Little Dragon Hawk had already reached level-18, which was far greater than the a.d.u.l.t Dragon Hawk that Lin Li had almost destroyed just now. It was probably only a matter of time before it reached the Legendary-realm.
Lin Li pinched the Dream Garden with two fingers, and carefully looked at the ring that had been with him for a while under the magic light. Before he placed the Elemental Wyrm in it, he had to solve another problem: the stability of the world in the Dream Garden.
The world in Dream Garden was unstable, and Little Dragon Hawk and Xiao Hua were both powerful existences. Once they entered Dream Garden, the world would probably collapse soon.
However, that was not too much trouble for Lin Li now. If it were the Lin Li who had yet to break through to the Legendary-realm, he might still be helpless, but now, he was already a powerful level-211 mage who had a fairly in-depth knowledge of the field of magic. Although he had yet to create his own space and world, it was not that difficult to stabilize a world that already existed.
Lin Li held the Dream Garden in his hand and pondered over it for a moment. Soon, he got an idea and took out a crystal pen from the Ring of Endless Storm, followed by a bottle of star sand and ocean blue sand, as well as a Dark Crimson Lion King blood together with six level-15 magical crystals.
Lin Li first mixed the ocean blue sand and the star sand at a one-to-two ratio
A bottle of ethereal ink was soon ready, and Lin Li carefully dipped a crystal pen in the ink before drawing a mageweath on the Dream Garden. Lin Li's actions were slow and gentle. One would only be able to tell that his crystal pen was moving if they were to look closely.
Fortunately, Lin Li was the only one in the tent. A person learned in mageweaths would probably be shocked out of their wits if they were to enter and see what he was doing. Lin Li was now performing an inscription which was glorified and known to be the most advanced micro-painting skill of the division. A Master of Inscription would be able to paint complicated mageweaths within a short period of time. He could possibly even arrange Mageweath arrays.
This micro-painting technique could almost be called a heavenly skill. Once an Inscription Master had mastered such a technique, it meant that he had reached the highest level of Inscription, and was only one step away from becoming a Divine Smith.
Even Lin Li himself had only mastered this technique not long ago despite having already become a Guru of Inscription using the Scroll of Wishes. That was a change that was almost an epiphany. As the magical accomplishments of Lin Li became increasingly greater, he gained a deeper insight into the nature of the world. When his acc.u.mulation of experience reached a certain level, there might be an opportunity for him to make a breakthrough in skill. If he were to let the opportunity slip, he might just plateau for the rest of his life1. Lin Li managed to seize the opportunity, and finally learned the technique of micro-painting, thus advancing greatly in Inscription.
In fact, this was somewhat similar to arranging a very large Alchemy Array. Expansion and reduct
ion in size was not as simple as adjusting it according to the pictures in a textbook. If substantial changes were not made, a human who got enlarged to the size of a Titan would never really gain the power of one. On the contrary, his body might collapse in an instant.
When dealing with the Titan Spirit, Lin Li would not have been able to make an impact if he had simply used an amplified Requiem Array. In fact, the array would not even have been activated, or it might've collapsed at a certain juncture during activation. For example, a paper cup might be able to hold water, but a paper bucket might not.
It was the same for compressing and reducing size. During a 100-time reduction of a component, the preceding component might have to be reduced 200 times or 190 times. It was an exaggeration, and many things might not be clear even with accurate calculations. It still depended on the perception of the nomological power.
Lin Li used his micro-painting techniques to draw mageweaths with lines thinner than hair on the Dream Garden. If not observed closely, the lines would not seem to mean anything.
Creating a Master-level ethereal mageweath took up almost an entire night, and Lin Li only heaved a sigh of relief when daybreak arrived. He then placed the Dream Garden on the wooden table.
However, the process was not completed yet. After putting the Dream Garden away, Lin Li grabbed a gold rod that was made of Abyss Mithril. The gold rod formed in the air a halo that resembled colorful ripples that were cast over the six magical crystals on the wooden table.
As the light on the top of the gold rod moved, the six magical crystals were broken down into the purest form of magical essence, which flew around the gold rod like fireflies.
Next, a ray of light flew past. Lin Li pointed his gold rod at the magical crystals, after which they disintegrated into magical essence, incorporated into the ethereal mageweaths.
