by Zhuang Bifan
Although Lin Li still did not acknowledge the identity of the Darkness Incarnation, Sendros was rather delighted to hear that Lin Li had agreed to stay in the Darkness Shrine as a guest. He thought, It doesn't matter if the kid doesn't want to admit that he is the Darkness Incarnation now. If the catastrophe really strikes the Darkness Shrine, no one can be alone, and he will then have to admit it.
Lin Li stayed behind as a guest in the Darkness Shrine, and Sendros really did not mention the Darkness Incarnation again. The five high priests were also informed about it, and did not mention the Darkness Incarnation even though they seemed to look at Lin Li with some piety.
You wanna talk about the cooperation, huh? Since you refuse to admit that you are the Darkness Incarnation, we'll have to talk about whatever there is to talk about! Sendros thought to himself. Since he could lead the Darkness Shrine to its current developed state, Sendros was definitely far more capable than just being a good mage. When talking about the cooperation with Lin Li, Sendros exhibited the brilliance of an excellent leader. He wasn't calculative, but was rather serious about all details. He didn't let the Tower of Dusk take advantage of them, and he also fought for what the Darkness Shrine deserved.
Lin Li was feeling extremely helpless as well. He felt that Sendros was being too petty for his age, for Lin Li merely refused to be the Darkness Incarnation. However, that was a good thing too. Although he didn't manage to take more advantage in the cooperation, the cooperation itself was supposed to offer mutual benefits in the first place, and Sendros wasn't stingy with the benefits that the Tower of Dusk would be getting.
The most important point of cooperation between the Tower of Dusk and the Darkness Shrine could be considered an exchange for talent using materials. The development of the Tower of Dusk had been rather rapid and stellar, but at the end of the day, it had only been established for more than two years, and it still seemed to lack some talents.
The definition of talent was not just being good at magic. A force would require a variety of talents to develop, and it would obviously be too slow to cultivate some talents from scratch. Compared to the forces in the Breezy Plains, the problem of the lack of talent wasn't that serious, but Lin Li was not satisfied with letting the Tower of Dusk dominate only the Breezy Plains. His goal was to let the Tower of Dusk become the strongest force in the entire Anril, just like the Brilliance Shrine and the Supreme Council.
In fact, with the development momentum of the Tower of Dusk, it wasn't impossible to achieve that goal, but with the expansion of the Tower of Dusk's businesses, the lack of talent had gradually become the key in restricting the development of the Tower of Dusk.
Although the Darkness Shrine had experienced a destructive disaster, they still had a heritage more than a millennium and a strong foundation, especially in terms of acc.u.mulation of talent. Hence, the Tower of Dusk was far from comparable to them.
The problem the Darkness Shrine had was as simple as poverty. However, that did not mean that they only lacked money. They also lacked various materials, magical equipment, and potions. Of course, it could also be chalked up to them being too poor to afford those things. Although the wealth possessed by the Darkness Shrine was beyond the reach of many forces, it still wasn't enough for them to rise again and return to their heyday.
Hence, the Tower of Dusk and the Darkness Shrine clinched a deal where materials would be exchanged for talents. Of course, it didn't mean that the Darkness Shrine would transfer all of their talents to the Tower of Dusk. Those who would be joining the Tower of Dusk were similar to mercenaries.
After all, the Tower of Dusk was the Breezy Plains' Guild of Magic, and not only did they lack talents, their talents were also individualistic. Although they had conquered a group of small- and medium-sized forces, those people were definitely not talents, and were merely in charge of hard labor. However, it was different for the Darkness Shrine. There were believers of Darkness of various occupations such as Assassins, Warriors, Bandits, and so on, all of whom were far stronger than the small- and medium-sized forces under the Tower of Dusk.
After several days of negotiation and reaching a consensus, the first batch consisting of members of all professions above level-15 immediately set off to the Tower of Dusk with their contracts under the lead of the Legendary Priest Balesi. Lin Li selected those people not simply based on their strength and power, but also because of their talents in other aspects, such as business management, forging, potion making, etc. Once those people reached the Tower of Dusk, they would not only increase the combat power of the Tower of Dusk by a significant amount, they would also play a significant role in other aspects. After all, combat was just a small portion of a faction's strength.
After sending away those believers of Darkness, Lin Li also began to focus on his own matters. Sendros fulfilled his promise, and lent the Darkness scripture to Lin Li. Although the scripture was considered a supreme treasure to the Darkness Shrine, Sendros had long recognized Lin Li to be the Darkness Incarnation, and he wished Lin Li would make a sudden breakthrough in Dark Magic.
Reading the Darkness scripture was necessary, and the five Legendary-level high priests had all become Lin Li's best companions. It was a rare opportunity as the five high priests were all Legendary powerhouses who were between level-22 and level-23. Whenever they talked, Lin Li would learn something new. Lin Li would put theory into practice, and he seemed to learn something new about Dark Force and make progress in mastering it every single day. Although Lin Li did not take out the debris of the stars Gloomy Dark in order to avoid hearing Sendros mention the Darkness Incarnation again, he was still certain that he definitely had better control of it now.
After studying in the Brilliance Shrine, Lin Li gained a better understanding and control over the nomological power of Holy Light, but the power of the Light and Darkness Domain that he created did not improve much, because the other important component of Laws of the Light and Darkness Domain, the Darkness Domain, had become a shortcoming of the Magical Domain. Now that he was reading the Darkness scripture with the personal guidance of Sendros and the company of the five high priests who helped him train, Lin Li gradually made up for this shortcoming, and the power of the Light and Darkness Domain began to increase rapidly.
Of course, during this period of time, Lin Li was not the only one who had really benefited. Sendros was still feeling worried about the disaster that would strike the Darkness Shrine this time, but after confirming that Lin Li was the Darkness Incarnation, he was somewhat relieved. Sendros, who was an avid fan of pharmaceutics, obviously wouldn't miss the opportunity to consult a real pharmaceutics Guru about pharmaceutics now that he had gotten some peace of mind at last.
Although the five high priests were not very interested in pharmaceutics, they still gained something from every sparring session with Lin Li. As for actual combat experience, Lin Li was no worse than the high priests who had lived for hundreds of years, and was in fact even better than them, even though he was only in his early twenties. Although Lin Li didn't have much experience, he had absorbed some of the information obtained from the controlling magical crystal in the Sky Castle, and also gotten some experience acc.u.mulated over 10,000 years in Balak's magical crystal. Hence, he only lacked the fusion of those experiences. It could be said that during each discussion and sparring session, Lin Li would digest and absorb part of those experiences and knowledge, and transform them into his own.
During each of those sessions, the five high priests would act like they had received a treasure whenever Lin Li revealed a little bit of what he had learned. The five of them had initially treated him with added respect only because of his identity as the Darkness Incarnation, but after the interactions they had during this period, they began to look up to him and feel convinced with his abilities in every aspect.
During Lin Li's stint at the Darkness Shrine, he continuously improved his strength and abilities in terms of experience, knowledge, and understanding of power.
On the other hand, the Tower of Dusk was also developing and growing rapidly. The cooperation with the Brilliance Shrine had enabled the Tower of Dusk to truly step out of the Felan Kingdom, and gain unobstructed access to everywhere in the world where there were believers of Holy Light. Their business activities and operations were almost unimpeded; even the Glittergold Trade Union did not enjoy such advantageous treatment.
At the same time, the secret cooperation between the Tower of Dusk and King Sinelli of the Ledin Kingdom also proceeded smoothly. Under the instructions that were secretly given out by King Sinelli, many of the nobles of the Ledin Kingdom who owned mines and ores signed an agreement with the Tower of Dusk, thus providing a solution to the problem of lack of ores that the Tower of Dusk had been facing for a long time.
In fact, the Tower of Dusk had been involved in the forging business for a long time, but the limited production scale had prevented their business from growing. If they were to go for the high-end market, Lin Li would have to do it himself. It would be fine for him to do so occasionally, but it wouldn't be sustainable in the long run, for Lin Li couldn't spend that much time on forging. Lin Li could impart his forging skills to the blacksmiths there, but most of the mineral resources in the Felan Kingdom were in the hands of the Marathon Family, and even if they had better blacksmiths, they still couldn't produce more weapons without ore.
Although the hatred and feud between Lin Li and the Marathon Family were somewhat resolved by the intervention of the Supreme Council, they still weren't eliminated completely. It would be fine if Matthias was just a wastrel and a letdown of the family, but throughout the hundreds of years that the Marathon Family had existed, they had only produced one ingenious mage, and that was Matthias. Wilhelm had put a lot of effort into nurturing and grooming Matthias in hopes of making him a Legendary-mage who would help their family progress further. However, everything went down the drain because of Lin Li. Hence, they definitely still bore a strong grudge against the Tower of Dusk.
Chapter 788 - Shocking Changes
Although the Marathon Family dared not openly oppose the Supreme Council, they still had some control over the things within their industry. For example, suppressing the forging business of the Tower of Dusk and restricting them from obtaining a source of ore could be considered commercial competition, and the Supreme Council would not be able to intervene. In fact, shortly after the establishment of the Tower of Dusk, the Marathon Family tried to monopolize the forging industry of the Breezy Plains through cooperation with the Dwarf Kingdom under the pretext of expanding the family business. Whether or not they had targeted the Tower of Dusk was subjective. After all, to outsiders at that time, the forging business was a very important source of income for the Tower of Dusk.
At that time, the Marathon Family did everything they could to recruit all the blacksmiths in the Breezy Plains in addition to using the dwarf blacksmiths, causing the Tower of Dusk's smithy to have almost no room for development. Although it was said that the fate of a smithy lay in the hands of the top blacksmith, Lin Li, a Smithing Guru, would obviously have to do more than just forge magical weapons and magical equipment all day long. Excellent magical equipment could indeed enhance the reputation of the smithy, but running a business and maintaining the operations of the smithy was still reliant on the commerce of the middle and low-end weapons and equipment. After all, not everyone could afford the best magical equipment, and no fool would buy it unless the prices for the top-grade magical equipment were lowered to that of the low-end ones.
The Tower of Dusk lacked blacksmiths and mining sites. Although they could still keep the forge running, and managed to become famous in the Breezy Plains with their ability to produce a piece of top-grade magical equipment every 10 to 14 days, that did not bring enough money for the Tower of Dusk. Fortunately, the Tower of Dusk began to dabble in the pharmaceutical business later on, and managed to rely on the pharmaceutical business to bring in a massive amount of money that solved their cash flow problems to support the operation of the Tower of Dusk. Although the Marathon Family also owned a pharmaceutical business, they had less control over the pharmaceutical industry compared to the forging industry. Their original plan fell through, but they continued to suppress the forging business of the Tower of Dusk as much as possible. In terms of the control of the smithing talents, the Marathon Family was much more lax. After all, there was not enough ore, and without sufficient ores, there was no use for there to be so many blacksmiths.
However, there had been a large amount of high-quality ore being transported continuously from the Ledin Kingdom to the Tower of Dusk's forge in Doland lately. The biggest problem that hindered the Tower of Dusk's smithy from developing was finally solved. Before the Marathon Family received the news, the smithy of the Tower of Dusk had recruited a large number of blacksmiths according to Lin Li's instructions, adding on to the senior blacksmiths who were originally working for them. Within less than 20 days, the blacksmith shop of the Tower of Dusk expanded more than tenfold.
By the time the Marathon Family realized what was going on, the high-quality ore from the Ledin Kingdom had already been forged into fine weapons and equipment by the blacksmiths, and begun impacting the weaponry market of the Felan Kingdom. That provided stiff competition for the Marathon Family, and the Tower of Dusk even relentlessly snatched away a portion of the market.
Actually, the Marathon Family was not too worried at this juncture. In the forging industry which they had control over, there were still competitors, but in many cases, the competitors might not be able to occupy a significant position in the market if the quality of the equipment they offered wasn't up to standard.
After all, it was not just about commercial activities. Having run a forging business for so many years, the Marathon Family's connections and network of relations definitely couldn't be taken away easily, especially their ties with the military, which could not be easily meddled with by anyone. Even if the Tower of Dusk had a great reputation in the pharmaceutical industry, they couldn't really affect the military.
The military would not prepare advanced potions for every soldier, but they would definitely equip all soldiers with weapons. After hundreds of years of operating a forging business, the Marathon Family had already become the largest armament supplier in the Felan Kingdom, and had monopolized all the weapon supplies of the military. Relying on their cooperation with the military, the Marathon Family controlled more than 70% of the forging industry in the Felan Kingdom. Everything that was related to forging would mostly be marked with the brand of the Marathon Family Forging Workshop.
During the hundreds of years of operation, the Marathon Family had gained more than just business development. With the shockingly massive amount of wealth that they had, the Marathon Family gradually penetrated the forces in every corner of the Felan Kingdom. From chapels to the military, there seemed to be people from the Marathon Family everywhere, and they were all linked to each other by interests, forming a large network of human relations. Those who were outside the network would have a hard time getting in.
However, the Marathon Family had never thought that Lin Li would clinch a deal with Prince Arthur, who represented the royal family of the Felan Kingdom, back when he was in Alanna. Although it was a pharmaceutical business deal, the royal family undoubtedly had a great influence on the military. The attitudes of the Brilliance Shrine and the Ledin Kingdom towards the Tower of Dusk were obvious evidence of their respect for the Tower of Dusk, and anyone could tell that they were keen on forging ties with the Tower of Dusk. In that case, how could the royal family cooperate with others now that they wished to get closer and cooperate more with the Tower of Dusk? Regardless of how many connections the Marathon Family had, they still had to obey the royal family which controlled the Felan Kingdom. There were only a few who would dare to rebel against the royal family, and by the time the Marathon Family reacted, it would all be too late.
Apart from the constant updates from t
he Tower of Dusk, Lin Li would also occasionally receive letters from Angelano when he was in the Darkness Shrine. Angelano, the alchemist, was very attentive when working in the Tower of Dusk for the sake of obtaining Balak's magical crystal that Lin Li had promised to give him. After Lin Li left, the first thing Angelano did was to restore the Alchemy Colossus that the Tower of Dusk had brought back from the Dragon Mountains.
In the letter, Angelano complained to Lin Li more than once about the poor quality of the four Alchemy Colossuses that were peak-level alchemical masterpieces of this era, and were simply a huge insult to alchemy in his opinion. If it had not been necessary for him to stay in the Tower of Dusk, Angelano would have long run to the Rotterdam Kingdom to teach the so-called alchemists a hard lesson.
Lin Li also had plenty of thoughts and emotions about that matter. When he first came into contact with the pharmacists of this world, and saw them being complacent yet making mistakes, he felt pretty much the same as Angelano did at the moment. However, the situation wasn't exactly terrible. After all, if there were pharmaceutics Gurus everywhere, who would be impressed by Lin Li and be convinced with his abilities? If there were Alchemical Gurus everywhere, Angelano, too, would be nothing.
In fact, the functions of the four Alchemy Colossuses were actually quite remarkable for this era. Even in the eyes of many people, it was considered an amazing feat for such a large figure to be able to move and fight. However, as a Goblin, Angelano had the most complete and orthodox inherited alchemical knowledge in his mind. Seeing the alchemy created by his species getting ruined to such an extent, the anger within him was unimaginable.
Each of the four Alchemy Colossuses was close to Legendary-level, and they played a huge role in protecting the Tower of Dusk during the previous attack of the Dark Blade. At the same time, each of them was damaged to varying extent during that battle, and although they were not completely destroyed, they had been incapacitated, and had lost their ability to fight. According to Angelano, there was no need to repair them at all, and he would just put them back into the furnace like they were scrap iron. Repairing the toy-like Alchemy Colossuses was like an insult to him, a Guru-level alchemist.
