End of the Magic Era

Bill George was eccentric, he only trusted puppets and was apparently very wary of humans. Especially in the ruins, during the future excavations of ruins of various sizes, they hadn’t discovered traces of humans or other races’ lifeforms, only traces of puppets had been found.

Since he came here, Lin Yun had found a lot of human traces. Thus, even if he knew that this ruins was similar to the puppet base of the Raging Flame Plane to some degree, he hadn’t linked it to Bill George’s ruins.

It was because Bill George’s personality was too distinct, he never trusted humans. He was always accompanied by a large number of puppets. He always relied on puppets to deal with everything. If he had some conflict, he would lead a puppet army.

This was also the reason why Bill George was equivalent to an entire force by himself. No one knew exactly how many puppets Bill George possessed and how powerful they were, but every time there was a war, endless puppets would flood the other side, submerging them in a skill-less puppet waves tactic.

But it had to be said that this kind of tactic was sometimes very effective. The puppets were fearless of death like Undeads. They would also unhesitantly slash at their opponents’ heads when they were pierced. Aside from undead armies, no other army could keep their morale at an all-time high.

This was the main reason why undeads were so frightening, they had endless numbers, were fearless and unafraid of death, and only knew how to keep going forward to slaughter. This would scare any living lifeform.

Now that he found two more damaged notes, Lin Yun could be certain that even if this ruins wasn’t personally managed by Bill George, it was directly related to Bill George.

Because some of the scattered clues clearly stated that these people were all Bill George’s descendants, and they were all descendants proficient in alchemy.

They were here to help complete a task that puppets couldn’t complete and which was related to Heaven Puppets’ ability runes.

Lin Yun instantly understood when he read that part.

After advancing to the Heaven Rank, the puppets that gained wisdom could awaken a special ability.

And that special ability was the ability rune. It could greatly increase a puppet’s fighting strength or strengthen an ability.

But the mages had yet to find the method to transplant the ability rune by the time Noscent was destroyed. Either the effect of the transplant would be greatly reduced, or they were lucky and subdued a Heaven Puppet that was about to transplant its ability rune.

The ability rune could be transplanted in the Puppet Plane, but it only happened between puppets, there was some kind of law power involved helping them with the transplant.

But this was only limited to transplanting other puppets’ ability runes on their bodies. Puppets that could help other puppets transplant an ability rune were rare. Only three had been recorded, and these three were terrifying powerhouses of the Puppet Plane, the pillars of the Cybertan race, very old existences that could be traced back to the Era of Gods.

Clearly, human powerhouses didn’t conquer the Puppet Plane so there was no way to have these puppets act and help with the transplant of ability runes.

And the Heaven Puppets of this place clearly didn’t gain their ability runes from defeating other puppets or had them transplanted via law power. The transplant had been done through alchemy.

This meant that Bill George mastered the way to transplant ability runes, and puppets clearly didn’t participate in the research and tests. This could only be done with human help. He might have had no other choice and reluctantly picked some of his descendants to participate in the research.

But he divided that ruins into various-sized chunks, each of which was meticulously isolated. This kind of distrustful behavior was in line with Bill George’s personality.

Lin Yun rapidly inferred the purpose of these ruins, but that made him even more puzzled. The name Bill represented a legend, even during the peak of the Magic Era. The period he lived at had remained a mystery, only indistinct information had remained.

There was no such thing as a start or an end. That guy was a complete mystery, but his mastery of puppeteering was terrifying and some of his techniques were ahead of his era.

Like the puppets here. Other techniques might not be worth mentioning, but the battle systems and mechanical systems were far beyond the current era.

Furthermore, the technique to transplant puppets’ ability rune wouldn’t appear even within a few dozen millennia.

Lin Yun frowned. He found some clues, but nothing of value. Bill George had been too careful, the people working here didn’t leave behind any valuable technique, only some meaningless diaries.

The reason why the ruins was abandoned wasn’t even recorded.

They moved on, moving toward the east this time. In that direction were arrays that exceeded the True Spirit Grade, but they weren’t too powerful, they were just troublesome.

Lin Yun had always been researching the Intrepid’s Heaven Grade array. Although that kind of three-dimensional ship-styled array was at the Heaven Grade, it was absolutely a first-rate Heaven Grade array. So far, Lin Yun had only deciphered a very small portion.

But that very small portion was enough for Lin Yun to advance by leaps and bounds in the field of array. Now, he could decipher a True Spirit Grade array with a single glance, and if he spent a bit of time, he had the confidence of deciphering Low Heaven Grade arrays.

By following the map’s directions, they bypassed a large number of arrays and soon arrived at the easternmost part of the ruins. When they arrived before the array, it looked like they were at the end of the ruins, in front of a cliff. The dense fog spreading before them was like an endless void and it made people fearful with a single glance.

Lin Yun looked at this fog, and based on what he could see on the map, his Magic Array started revolving. But his Magic Array appeared powerless and couldn’t completely infer the situation.

As he frowned, Lin Yun summoned the Spell Wheel and started using the power of the Spell Wheel to infer the situation.

The Ten Thousand Spell Wheel was most proficient when used for inferring, while the Magic Array was most proficient in endless calculations and data analysis. But the Magic Array was only a Magic Conducting Rune, it couldn’t compare to the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel which was crafted based on the Magic Array.

He would usually use the Magic Array to deal with any problem he encountered as it was just more convenient. And the strength of the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel laid outside of battle. It’s just that Lin Yun almost never used the Spell Wheel for its inferring ability.

But now, it looked like Lin Yun had looked down on this array.

The Ten Thousand Spell Wheel rapidly revolved and countless pieces of data and runes burst out, revolving around the Spell Wheel, while data flooded his eyes. After a dozen minutes, Lin Yun rubbed his eyes and the data that had been flowing in his eyes suddenly dissipated.

“Sir Mafa, how is it? Is it very troublesome?”

Laibo couldn’t help himself and asked when he saw that Lin Yun had paused his inferring. Lin Yun had helped them so much before, but they only had to help him break an array. This made Laibo feel very apologetic. Seeing that it was very challenging and that he might not have a chance to help out worried him.

Lin Yun shook his head.

“It’s fine, it’s only slightly troublesome. This array was completely sealed when the previous owner left this place. We can’t go in unless we forcibly open the array.

“Wait a bit, I need to go and probe.”

After saying that, Lin Yun stepped over the cliff, but it looked like he was walking on solid ground as he slowly disappeared into the fog.

Mariana was amazed and rushed to the side of the cliff. She took one step in the air, only to discover that she was standing on something solid, it wasn’t air. She looked down and saw an endless abyss, and it felt as if there was something terrifying below waiting for people to fall. She couldn’t help starting to be afraid as she kept looking.

“There is actually an illusion we can’t sense. The feeling I get from my deathless aura is that there is no illusion before us…”

The group stood next to the cliff while Lin Yun entered the array. After entering the endless fog, Lin Yun suddenly blinked and a flow of countless runes was reflected in his eyes. As he looked at his surroundings, the layer of dense fog was lifted as if someone just pulled a curtain.

More than half of the dense fog dimmed and law runes roamed in the air. The paths of these law runes seemed predetermined, they were orbiting just like the stars of the starry sky.

Seeing these law runes, Lin Yun’s pupils instantly shrunk. The construction method of these law runes was completely the same as his.

It wasn’t the same as the widespread ten runes to form one law rune’s method!

The method Lin Yun used to construct law runes was to fuse three runes in one, then fuse two of the resulting ones together, before fusing another pair to form a pyramid. This was the minimum amount needed.

And the most stable method was to use sixteen runes to construct a law rune. At least a few millennia later, this would be the norm for Heaven Mages.

It’s just that this construction method was very troublesome, and unless Lin Yun advanced to the Heaven Rank, he could only build a law rune from twelve runes. But this was incomplete. However, the power contained within Lin Yun’s law rune was stronger than most 1st Rank and 2nd Rank Heaven Mages’ law runes.

The most powerful law runes were made out of sixteen runes.

And what he saw were law runes made from twelve runes!

That would undoubtedly stabilize the array and make it harder to crack. If it was another Heaven Mage, their law runic foundation wouldn’t be able to compare and cracking would simply be impossible. Aside from using force to tear the array apart, there would be no other way.

And forcibly tearing this array apart would inevitably destroy the ruins.

Grade was important in the world of law runes. Only those with high grades could extend downward, while the low grade ones absolutely couldn’t extend upward.

If it was another alchemist, even a first-rate Artisan knowing the cracking method, they shouldn’t even think of cracking it, because their law runes didn’t meet the requirements and couldn’t use the cracking method.

Lin Yun’s expression became strange. He felt that something was wrong. Bill George spent so much effort sealing this place, what was he sealing?

‘What kind of thing would make him feel like destroying it would be a pity, yet letting it fall in the hands of others wasn’t a desired outcome?

‘Only one thing fits, the Reedpush Plate!’

Apart from that thing, Lin Yun couldn’t imagine anything else. Only that thing could be treated as a peerless artwork that no one would dare to dismantle for research purposes during the peak of Noscent. It could only be treated as a component of the Shelter Tower and was worth Bill George’s conflicting views on how to handle it.

Any alchemist seeing the Reedpush Plate would feel like they had encountered an unique treasure and would hate to dismantle it.

After making that deduction, Lin Yun immediately accelerated his probing and quickly walked around the entire array. He wrote down all the locations and layout of the seven nodes and even left behind a large number of law runes to surround the core nodes.

This array had already reached the Heaven Grade, but it was a kind of blooming array, it would be useless without cracking the seven nodes simultaneously.

Cracking one would immediately trigger the array’s response, and the closer in, the more dangerous. It seemed that this array was set up to be cracked at a later date. This was the strangest part about it.

Lin Yun wouldn’t be able to easily walk around other Heaven Grade arrays, even the weakest ones. Being able to see the weak points of the array so easily made Lin Yun feel as if there was a deeper meaning to it. After leaving the array, Lin Yun hesitated before taking out pieces of Eternal Dark Gold. The Demons of the Abyss had been continuously sending that stuff through sacrifices. Although there seemed to be a lot, it was the kind of thing one could never have enough of. The bigger the Natural Demiplane, the more Eternal Dark Gold it needed for strengthening.

But the benefit was that during the development stage of the Natural Demiplane, there would be enough Eternal Dark Gold merging with the Natural Demiplane to protect it.

But the construction of the Shelter Tower needed a huge amount of Eternal Dark Gold, and Lin Yun felt it was a waste to use a bit to crack this array.

But apart from this, no other material could achieve simultaneous resonance within that array.

Lin Yun took out his crystal pen and Star Ink before carving core runes and patterns on the surface of seven Eternal Dark Gold chunks. He also kept spitting out law runes that merged with these Eternal Dark Gold chunks.

After half an hour, seven tiles used for cracking the array were manufactured. It matched the core nodes’ law runes. Cracking them was really easy, this was the advantage of having more people.

If Lin Yun was alone, he simply couldn’t have cracked the seven core nodes inside the Heaven Grade array and would have been forced to crack them one after another.

After cracking one, the remaining core nodes would have formed a new array and he would have to explore the array again. The process would have to be repeated every time he cracked the array. This would have used too much time and five days wouldn’t have been enough.

He gave the metal tiles to Laibo and the others. Since they had seven people to take care of the seven nodes, Lin Yun didn’t have to participate in the cracking and could oversee the general situation. This was the most perfect cracking method, and this array might be cracked within an hour.

“I’ll lead you to the location of your node. I’ve already made preparations there, and when the time comes, the metal tiles in your hands will resonate. Wait until the runes and patterns on the metal tile shine completely before inputting it into the core node.

“But I must remind you to not try to do anything else. As long as nothing goes wrong, this array will be cracked. If you don’t grasp the right timing, or induce some other change, my previous arrangement would lose its effect and you would be facing the full power of a Heaven Grade array.”

Lin Yun didn’t emphasize his words, but everyone felt a chill and a few of them tacitly looked at Constantine.

Constantine’s face turned dark.

“Why are you looking at me, I know what I can do and what I can’t do.”

Lin Yun only reminded them once and didn’t say anything else. If Constantine acted on his own, he would be the very first to die. If he did, only Laibo would be able to survive that wave of power. The other six would die within three seconds and no one would be able to save them.

Lin Yun led Laibo into the array, and after calculating the changes of the array, he found a safe path. These safe paths kept changing and were different every second. Only through the simultaneous calculations of the Spell Wheel and the Magic Array could be keep up with the speed of the array changing.