End of the Magic Era

Lin Yun’s eyes opened wide when he noticed the black flower, his breathing even accelerated.

‘Worthy of a Bone Devil’s lair…’ Lin Yun jumped into the hole, not paying attention to the thick, rotten smell, and he crouched in front of the black flower. He used the priceless Spiritual Magic Staff to gently dig around the black flower.

Lin Yun’s movements were very careful, taking a lot more time than necessary, digging the soil bit by bit. One minute passed, then two, then three… Ten minutes later he started sweating as the digging didn’t seem to be making any headway. A bit of worry could be seen on Lin Yun’s face, but he still focused and slowly dug at the soil.

Lin Yun knew that this was an Obsidian Flower, rumored to be the root of all evil. Lin Yun would suffer from unbearable loss if the Obsidian Flower suffered the slightest bit of harm.

Very few mages had seen a living Obsidian Flower during the peak magic era. It was the crystallization of the resentment of thousands upon thousands of the undead. It represented this world’s most malicious and most sinister existence. Each petal contained incurable poison. A High Mage powerhouse would instantly die with a mere touch.

Moreover, it was said that even the soul of a man poisoned by the Obsidian Flower would have to suffer pain and torture for all eternity.

However, the fruit of a blooming Obsidian Flower was an extremely precious magic material. The Obsidian Flower could bear three kinds of fruits, and each kind was enough to create miracles when used for alchemy.

Lin Yun remembered that approximately five hundred years later, an unlucky Master Alchemist named Lawrence lost the entirety of his family property in a storm. With only a hundred golds to his name, Lawrence used that money to buy a withering fruit. Everyone felt that Lawrence was finished at the time.

But no one thought that a year later, Lawrence would rely on the withered fruit to make the first True Spirit Magic Tool, joining the ranks of the Artisans.

At that time, people only knew that the fruit Lawrence bought with his hundred golds was called the Heart of Light. That was one of the three fruits that came from the blooming of the Obsidian Flower.

It was a miracle of alchemy created by the Obsidian Flower.

It let a Master who had been at an impasse become an Artisan.

It took Lin Yun thirty minutes to dig up the Obsidian Flower, and still, he didn’t dare to use his hands to touch it. Instead, he put on a pair of gloves made out of Gold Essence. With those, he pulled out the entire Obsidian Flower. A sinister cold wind blew over, and countless ghosts flew up from the hole in the soil. Mournful cries echoed as the entire world became sinister and eerie at that moment.

Lin Yun knew that this was the crystallization of the resentment of the Obsidian Flower.

He didn’t panic and instead just cast Spirit Defense, followed by Banish Evil.

In a flash, the cold wind stopped and the ghosts faded away as peace returned to his surroundings.

After everything was over, Lin Yun held the Obsidian Flower in one hand and the Spiritual Magic Staff in the other as he crawled out of the hole.

‘Time to go back…’

After climbing out of the hole, Lin Yun took a last glance at the black wasteland.

In doing so, he saw a strange phenomenon.

‘There are so many Skeleton Warriors here?’

This was strange… The hegemon died, yet not only did the amount of Skeleton Warriors not lessen, but it had also shockingly increased.

Lin Yun’s eyes shone as he looked at those thriving Skeleton Warriors.

He had originally planned to bring the alchemy puppet back to Noscent to repair it. But after seeing so many Skeleton Warriors, Lin Yun couldn’t restrain himself. These Skeleton Warriors looked so lively, it would be a shame if he didn’t harvest them.

Lin Yun thought for a bit before giving two orders to the alchemy puppet.

The first was to hunt nearby, and the second was to gather Undead Essences.

For the Skeleton Warriors of the black wasteland, these two orders were simply a nightmare.

Naturally, this had nothing to do with Lin Yun anymore. After arranging the situation of the alchemy puppet for the next month, Lin Yun patted the dust off his robe and once again used the incantation to open the Planar Path.

He would begin mining the Nether Iron Vein during his next trip, and also look for that shortcut to the Book of Death.

After a short spatial distortion, Lin Yun once again returned to Noscent. He didn’t check his rewards in the hidden chamber this time. Instead, he immediately rushed to the garden and planted the Obsidian Flower that he had brought with him.

And then, the entire garden…

The Obsidian Flower wasn’t called the root of all evil for nothing. Its toxicity was enough to instantly kill High Mages, so how could a small garden escape from the ravages of its power? Just by planting it, the entire garden underwent huge changes. Trees withered, flowers shriveled, and in a short time, all the plants in the entire garden died.

For a moment, Lin Yun was a bit unsure of how to proceed.

But he ultimately thought of something and drafted two alchemy arrays at the garden’s entrance to prevent the toxicity from leaking out. At the same time, he told the servants that no one was allowed near the garden. Lin Yun could only relax a bit once he was done with this. But he knew that this was only treating the symptoms but not the root. There might not be any problems for now, but once the Obsidian Flower bloomed completely and started bearing fruits, those two alchemy arrays would be unable to keep the toxicity at bay. At that point, the only option would be to have everyone move out.

But before he could come up with a better solution, these two arrays would do the job for now.

Naturally, if he was fortunate enough to find a Parasitic Tree later on, then everything would be much easier to will with.

A Parasitic Tree planted with the Obsidian Flower would not only absorb the Obsidian Flower’s toxicity, but it would also make the Obsidian Flower bear two fruits instead of one!

‘Looks like I have to find an opportunity to search the Savage Highlands…’ Lin Yun scratched his cheek and returned to his study to check on his harvest.