End of the Magic Era

Constantine was still kneeling on the ground after having puked these larvae. He kept puking and spitting, still retching even when there was nothing left to puke.

The few young Sword Saints paled as they thought of those nauseating poisonous insects and they couldn’t help retching. But the four Sword Saints were also rejoicing, they had been fortunate enough to not be poisoned too deeply.

Laibo sighed in relief. He could sense that although Constantine was about to vomit his gallbladder out, his vitality was stabilizing and his deathless aura wasn’t being consumed anymore. This showed that the poison had been completely cleansed out of his system.

“Sir Mafa, this is truly thanks to you. If not for your quick reaction, Constantine would have already died.

“I can’t imagine what I would have felt watching my junior apprentice brother die in front of me, and I don’t know how I would have faced the Abbot upon my return…”

Laibo looked like he was weeping. He had just been terrified when Constantine’s poison burst out. That kind of helpless despair wasn’t something he wanted to go through again.

Lin Yun shook his head.

“Sir Laibo, you are too polite. I would obviously do my best since I promised you.”

Laibo sighed and then pulled the still-retching Constatine up with a solemn expression.

“Constantine, your life has been saved by Sir Mafa this time. Sir Mafa not only rescued you from that damned area, he even cleanse everyone’s poison. Especially you Constantine, if not for Sir Mafa’s quick reaction, you would have already died. You should hurry and thank Sir Mafa!”

The other four Sword Saints sincerely followed ancient etiquette and thanked Lin Yun for saving their lives. As for Constantine, he had a twisted and pale expression as he was carried by Laibo to show proper courtesy.

Constantine’s expression kept distorting, his complexion sullen and weak.

‘This guy absolutely did it on purpose. Right, he definitely did it on purpose to humiliate me. Why else would the basic treatment work on the others but not on me? Those nauseating insects were definitely raised by that guy and are definitely under his control, that’s why they didn’t fully absorb the poison within my body.

‘He then waited for the poison within my body to burst out to make me swallow a bottle of nauseating insects… Heavens, I can’t…’

Constantine’s face distorted as he concluded that Lin Yun did it on purpose to humiliate him, that he used this method to retaliate against him.

But as he thought of those poisonous insects, the scene of those insects entering his mouth and sliding down his throat flashed in Constantine’s mind.

Thinking of this scene, Constantine couldn’t help retching…

How could Lin Yun know what Constantine was thinking of? He was focused on those Ancient Poison Dragon’s parasites. They were even more frightening than his demonic subordinates had made them out to be. Even with such a complicated poison bursting out, they could cleanly absorb all of the poison within a few seconds.

And they were only larvae, how powerful would they be when they matured?

After all, that poison almost poisoned the inheritors of the Secret Monastery to death. These guys were all 9th Rank Sword Saints, and most of them are at the peak of the 9th Rank, their vitality is even more vigorous than most Heaven Rank Sword Saints.

Even they almost died from the poison. The average 9th Rank Sword Saint would have already turned into a pool of waste.

But this poison was only tasty food to a Poison Dragon’s parasite. Having these meant that any poison they encountered in the future could be absorbed.

‘It looks like if I want to nurture them, I have to go to the Raging Flame Plane and return to the valley the Ancient Poison Dragon’s corpse is at. The poisonmist has yet to dissipate, maybe these guys would mature if they could absorb the poisonmist.

‘At that time, any mage under the Heaven Rank would be poisoned to death if bitten, and if a large group appeared together, it wouldn’t be impossible for them to poison a Heaven Mage to death.’

The five young Sword Saints’ injuries were quite heavy. They needed to wait for them to recover a bit before going forward. Lin Yun didn’t feel like wasting time so he gave them five Health Potions. These potions were far more effective on these guys learning Deathless Aura than on mages.

It took less than an hour for the group of Sword Saint to recover, and although their fighting strength had slightly decreased, it wouldn’t take more than a day before they fully recovered.

Laibo’s confidence increased after successfully rescuing his five junior apprentice brothers and he immediately led the group in another direction.

Lin Yun frowned when they reached the area.

“Sir Mafa, my junior apprentice sister carelessly walked over there when an array suddenly activated.

“I’m worried that more changes would occur if I attacked the array again. It would be very troublesome if poison reappeared. Is this array easy to crack?”

Lin Yun took out the crystal ball and looked at it carefully but his face didn’t look good.

“This isn’t an ordinary array, this is a unidirectional alchemy portal. The area behind the portal is the ruins’ trial ground.

“If you want to come out, you can only use another unidirectional alchemy portal. Cracking this array isn’t possible, because I don’t know what’s inside.

“If I forcibly crack it, it would release everything contained within, regardless of what is inside.”

Laibo couldn’t help holding his breath when he heard Lin Yun’s words. He looked at the ten-kilometer-wide area and a scene appeared in his mind.

Over twenty Heaven Puppets leading over a thousand level 39 puppets like a tide of metal. Facing this terrifying power, they all looked like floating trees in a flood, their only outcome was to be torn into pieces.

‘The previous cracked array had two Heaven Puppets, but this place is the trial ground, just how many puppets are inside?

‘No one knows…’

“Sir Mafa, is my junior apprentice sister…”

Lin Yun shook his head and pointed at the alchemy portal.

“No, this alchemy portal is still operating, which shows that the trial hasn’t ended yet. This portal would have already disappeared if the challenge was over.

“If we want to save your junior apprentice sister, we have to go in and complete the trial before coming out from the other portal…”

Laibo urged, “What are we waiting for then? This has already been several days, my junior apprentice sister has yet to come out, she must be trapped inside…”

Lin Yun shook his head and reminded everyone, “I’ll say this ahead of time. You all have to listen to me after entering the portal. Sir Laibo and I have to go in, but leaving you outside is too dangerous. You’ll definitely die as long as a Heaven Puppet leads a group over.

“But the difficulty of the trial will increase after we enter. I’ll be continuously deciphering and altering the array to weaken the trial’s difficulty. Without my permission, you can’t do anything or we will be in danger and might die.”

Lin Yun’s tone was dull, but everyone felt a bone-chilling breeze in the back of their neck.

After saying those words, Lin Yun immediately led them to that alchemy portal, with Laibo guiding his five junior apprentice brothers into the alchemy portal.

Rays of light flickered as they appeared on a several-kilometer-wide square. The earth on the square had been enhanced an unknown amount of times with a large number of defensive runes.

There was also a light barrier enveloping the entire square. They were on a ten-meter-big platform on the edge of the square.

And as they appeared, a platform with two Heaven Puppets and five level 39 puppets appeared ahead of them. But the puppets were all in an inactive state.

After appearing, Lin Yun sighed in relief as this trial took into account their fighting strength and gave them opponents of similar strength. And since it didn’t start immediately, it gave them enough time to decipher the array.

Lin Yun took out his crystal pens and Star Ink and started rapidly writing a large number of cryptic runes on the surroundings of the platform. Soon, these runes completely surrounded the platform, and when the last rune was written down, the runes merged with the platform’s runes.

Three seconds later, the two Heaven Puppets completely disappeared and only a level 39 melee puppet remained.

Lin Yun stepped out of the platform and that inactive level 39 puppet suddenly opened its eyes. Its scarlet crystal eyes suddenly shone brightly.

“Let’s go, we can enter the next level.”

Lin Yun put away the crystal pens and the Star Ink and didn’t take that level 39 puppet seriously.

But when the five young Sword Saints saw that puppet rushing over, they couldn’t help raising their weapons.

Constantine instinctively raised his weapon, but noticed that Laibo had no plan to attack and instead berated the other four Sword Saints, “Did you already forget what Sir Mafa has said? Without Sir Mafa’s command, no one can casually make a move!”

Constantine’s face turned solemn, but he watched that puppet charging towards Lin Yun with eagerness.

‘That arrogant guy… These puppets aren’t ordinary puppets, every single one is terrifyingly powerful, and apart from the inheritors of the deathless aura of our Secret Monastery, ordinary Peak 9th Rank Sword Saints simply can’t rival this kind of puppet.

‘After all, those puppets’ weapons are tailored to deal with mages. Tearing open a mage’s shield was very easy.

‘That arrogant guy said we can’t do as we please and we have to listen to his commands… Then don’t blame us when you suffer.

‘Unfortunately, senior brother Laibo wouldn’t let this repulsive guy suffer too much.’

Constantine looked as if he was watching a good play, but Lin Yun didn’t really pay attention, he didn’t even raise a shield.

The puppet was extremely fast, and as it rushed over, all the spells enchanted on its weapons and on its body activated. Aside from the fact that it lacked Aura, its speed and power were still better than the average 9th Rank Sword Saint.

With the special nature of these puppets, the coordination between the formidable mechanical system and battle system, and that puppet’s special weapons, the destructive power it had towards mages would be slightly higher than 9th Rank Sword Saints.

Excitement could be seen in Constantine’s eyes as he looked at the puppet 30 meters from Lin Yun. He almost cheered and secretly glanced at Laibo, before discovering that Laibo wasn’t planning on reacting at this distance. This made Constantine overjoyed.

‘Take this, arrogant mage. You’ll suffer. 30 meters and you still haven’t raised a shield. These puppets are extremely fast and they can release their abilities within thirty meters, you’ll suffer a lot.

‘Senior apprentice brother Laibo definitely wants to make that arrogant mage pay the price and then save him so that the favor is no longer owed, as well as letting him see the power of our Secret Monastery.

‘Come, come!’

Constantine clenched his fist before finally seeing the puppet’s speed suddenly increase. From 30 meters, it instantly stepped across and its two blades slashed towards Lin Yun.

And Lin Yun had yet to raise a shield. One slash and he would have been cut in two.

But suddenly, Constantine saw Lin Yun keep moving forward as if he hadn’t paid attention to the puppet. He casually took one step, yet the puppet strangely missed its two slashes.

Then, Lin Yun’s hands caressed the back of the puppet. It was followed by… Nothing.

The puppet stiffened and instantly burst open, transforming into a pile of components.

Those components had yet to fall to the ground before they were picked up by Lin Yun and put into his Spatial Ring.

The smile on Constantine’s face completely froze.

Not just him, the other four Sword Saints also looked as if they had seen a ghost as they lifelessly looked at Lin Yun skillfully grabbing the falling components.

It was like the puppet had never existed, as if a pile of components rushed over on their own to be picked by Lin Yun.

Constantine looked horrified, he didn’t understand what just happened.

‘Damn, what just happened? This is too strange. Was that puppet already broken? Why didn’t it attack that guy? Why did it casually explode into a pile of components upon touch?

‘Sh*t, is that guy a Heaven Sword Saint? Can anyone tell me what just happened?!’

Constantine wasn’t the only one shocked and puzzled, the other four Sword Saints were also horrified and shocked.

And on the side, the calm Laibo suddenly felt a lot more comfortable.

‘Sure enough, Sir Mafa used that special ability to dismantle puppets with one hand. I knew that this level 39 puppet came to deliver components to Sir Mafa.

‘It looks like it wasn’t that I lacked knowledge, even Constantine and the others are terrified. They have read many books in the Secret Monastery’s library and some of them even read more books than me. Some may have more knowledge of the outside world than me.

‘Yet they are all looking at Sir Mafa as if he is a ghost. This is definitely not my knowledge being lacking, it’s Sir Mafa being too frightening.

‘Sure enough, I have to report on the development of the outside world to Sir Abbot. One of these five is known for being a bookworm that has read half of the books within the library.

‘He is definitely startled, but can he explain the problem? The books of the monastery are out of date and simply can’t keep up with the progress of the outside world. I have to make the Abbot accelerate the pace at which we come in contact with the outside world.

‘The Secret Monastery was almost left in the dust of history…’

Laibo made up his mind when he saw the five young Sword Saints’ expressions. He had to explain how terrifying the outside world currently was to the Abbot.

After passing the first checkpoint, they stepped on the second level. It was a platform just like the first level, but the puppets were a melee Heaven Puppet, a casting Heaven Puppet, three level 39 melee puppets and two level 39 casting puppets.

Lin Yun once again modified the trial as much as he could and tricked the detection equipment, making it detect only one 9th Rank Sword Saint, and thus, only one peak level 39 casting puppet remained.

That casting puppet also approached Lin Yun step by step until that slender hand was put up. At that instant, that level 39 puppet burst into a pile of components.

Laibo was already numb to it about it, he didn’t think it was abnormal.

Heaven Puppets could be dismantled with one hand, so a level 39 puppet wasn’t better. There was no point making a fuss about it.

Seeing the lifeless five still looking shocked, Laibo couldn’t help feeling that his junior apprentice brothers really needed a good experience in the outside world.

‘This is only a level 39 puppet, this is nothing. Yet you are looking at him as if he was a ghost. What expression are you going to make when you see him dismantle a Heaven Puppet?

‘Truly kids that have never seen the world. No matter how many books your read, it’s pointless, they are weak-minded.’