End of the Magic Era

They were going to the location of the crystal artifact, and it was heavily fortified.

They could also see seven more spatial shuttles, which meant that the Starry Sky College had seven independent sealed spaces containing storehouses with valuable items or researches.

The group entered the inside of the spatial shuttle and Zeith immediately activated the transfer. The surrounding space started distorting and it looked like someone was forcibly cutting the space inside the device to form a big box enclosing everyone.

And then, the surrounding light instantly distorted and they couldn’t see anything anymore. After a second, the distorted lights started recovering, but the environment had completely changed.

It also looked like a huge underground space with the ceiling being a kilometer above them. It also appeared to be made of the same silver-colored metal and was like one seamless piece. But it also prevented everyone from knowing where they were.

This underground space was huge, at least thirty to forty-kilometer wide. Such a huge space was apparently still underground. To support this huge space through the pressure of the earth was a huge engineering project. If this wasn’t underground, then this was the Demiplane of some fallen Heaven Mage.

And that Demiplane should be extremely secretive. But from looking at the place, this didn’t seem like an ordinary Demiplane.

There were a few hundred buildings, but it was too little when compared to the huge area. There was also a huge silver white building in the center.

Zeith flew and led everyone to the center. On the way, a pleasantly surprised expression appeared on Raphael’s face.

“Sir Mafa, I heard about the place where that mystical crystal is located. But I don’t really know much. My senior apprentice brother has been here before, and he didn’t mention anything about this place after coming out. But he should be able to divulge some information when we get there.”

Raphael said those words and then dragged Gurud, who had a fanatical expression, to their side. Gurud looked at Raphael with a poor expression since they were about to see the thing anyway.

But facing Lin Yun, his expression returned to normal. After all, Raphael was a new Artisan and he wasn’t looking up to him. But Lin Yun’s abilities in the field of alchemy was something he admired.

Seeing Lin Yun looking at him with a curious gaze, Gurud swallowed back the words he was about to say, glared at Raphael, before pulling Lin Yun aside and ignoring Raphael.

“Sir Mafa, the crystal of the Starry Sky College is very mystical. Today is the first day, so we should be taking a look at it first.

“It is said that the countless runes floating on top of the crystal contain the power of truth, each one contains the truth of alchemy, and the truth of alchemy is the truth of the world. It would bring countless benefits to Sir Mafa if you can properly comprehend those runes, your alchemy mastery would make a great leap forward…”

Gurud kept talking about the power of the runes atop the crystal, emphasizing the alchemy truth’s point of view. They could see that this entire silver white space was absolutely empty, there were only crystal tables. In the centermost area, a huge transparent barrier could be seen.

The barrier was completely sealed and looked similar to an 8-meter-tall sphere wrapped around a crystal. And inside that barrier, there was also a very complicated alchemy device wrapped around the crystal. Multiple devices were linking that device to the surface of the barrier before connecting to the peak of a several-dozen-meter tall construct. It seemed very complicated

After arriving here, Gurud glanced at the complicated device and seemed to recall something. He discreetly looked at his surroundings before sending a mana sound transmission to Lin Yun.

“Sir Mafa, that crystal has a very powerful ability. Do you see the installed alchemy devices? During a full moon, this device can channel out a very strange energy from that crystal.

“As for those alchemy devices there, they are guiding the peculiar energy out and imbuing it into ordinary Magic Tools.

“Magic Tools imbued by that kind of strange crystal energy would instantly become Spiritual Magic Tools. No matter how whimsical, no matter the kind of Magic Tool, they would instantly turn into Spiritual Magic Tools!”

Gurud had a fanatical expression and this also took Lin Yun aback.

The fact that it was only Spiritual Magic Tools wasn’t important. Spiritual Magic Tools might have close to no impact on Heaven Rank powerhouses, but that kind of thing sometimes had abilities with very special effects, and those had nothing to do with a Magic Tool’s grade.

Especially at the Spiritual Grade, that was a huge step.

Spiritual Magic Tools already possessed a Magic Tool Spirit, and only at the True Spirit Grade would that Spirit evolve into an Incarnation. Although Magic Tool Spirits weren’t as powerful as Magic Tool Incarnations, it could already make Magic Tools have very special abilities.

As for Magic Tools below the Spiritual Grade, grades truly meant everything. Crafting ordinary Magic Tools with special abilities, or with a specific idea in mind, truly wasn’t very difficult.

Even Magic Tools targeting mind and soul, or even some Magic Tools with terrifying effects. Making one such ordinary Magic Tool wasn’t very difficult, at least to an Artisan.

But the crafted Magic Tool would have a very limited effect. The ordinary Magic Tool targeting souls might only be able to kill an ordinary person. It might not even be able to pierce through an ordinary Mage’s shield. That kind of crafted Magic Tool would have no effect.

Some special ones could strengthen the wearer’s speed of thought, but an ordinary Magic Tool wouldn’t be as good as a Sharp Mind.

Alchemists crafted numerous such peculiar Magic Tools, that was a method to test their idea. All the ordinary Magic Tools were thrown on a garbage heap.

But now, there was a method to turn low grade ordinary Magic Tools, and it could birth Magic Tool Spirits. That ability was too powerful.

Some special Magic Tools couldn’t be crafted into Spiritual Magic Tools, but their power would surpass many Spiritual Magic Tools once they reached that grade.

The Flickering Crest was a good example. It was an ordinary Magic Tool that could make the wear flicker within a meter.

This was the best it could do. Ordinary Flickering Crests could only make the wearer instantly flicker fifty centimeters away.

Swordsmen at low rank were especially fond of these. At lower ranks, fifty centimeters could be the difference between life and death.

And in some special circumstances, half a meter could save someone’s life.

But as they got stronger and reached the Expert Swordsman realm, that flicker would be nothing great. Half a meter didn’t make a difference to both mages and swordsmen of that realm.

That half a meter flicker might even interrupt their own tempo and could be deadly.

At the later ranks, the range of effect of a casual spell might reach a dozen meters with the power being most focused within seven meters. Even Magic Arrows and Aura Slashes would need to be dodged by a few meters.

As for the Heaven Rank, half a meter could be completely disregarded. Especially for some mages who liked to fight with violent spells. A few dozen meters could be negligible.

And thus, The Flickering Crests were bound to remain inferior Magic Tools that could only be used at lower ranks. But if they turned into Spiritual Magic Tools, the flickering distance might end up between a few dozen meters and a hundred meters.

That distance would be about the same as a spatial mage’s Blink. After all, that spell could only be used after comprehending the Law of Space. Not only did they need to comprehend that branch of the Law, they could only learn it after condensing law runes.

The spatial mage of the Merlin Family’s Ancestral Land had just comprehended that branch of the Spatial Law and the greatest distance he could cross with a blink was a hundred meters.

And that hundred meters was enough to make Labard undefeated within the same realm. And if others wanted to restrain him, they would need some special Magic Tools or they would never be able to.

But this could be accomplished with a Spiritual Flickering Crest. If a mage under the Heaven rank obtained that Flickering Crest, they might be able to defeat enemies stronger than themselves in an instant.

If an assassin got a hold of one, they would be able to defeat an enemy several times stronger than themselves.

If this matter spread to the outside, most people wouldn’t find an issue, feeling that it would only be a Spiritual Magic Tool.

But as an alchemist, Lin Yun clearly understood the power of that ability. His most intuitive reaction was that there would suddenly be many Spiritual Magic Tools that could display special abilities. As an alchemist, he could imagine more than most.

It might just be a Spiritual Magic Tool, but alchemists might produce more copies of that Spiritual Magic Tool and could unearth the secret and path of advancements of Magic Tools through this research. And as the research continued, they might even be able to mass-produce True Spirit Magic Tools in the future!

This was the scariest part.

Lin Yun looked horrified as he thought of a lot of possibilities in an instant. Gurud had an understanding expression on his face as he attentively watched the content of the barrier like a bandit that had been starved for years.

Gurud hesitated, seemingly thinking of something.

“But, Sir Mafa, this crystal is very strange… No, it’s not that the crystal is very strange, rather, the Spiritual Magic Tools strengthened by the energy of the crystal are very strange.

“I heard that those Magic Tool Spirits don’t listen to orders and are instead continuously enticing the users to steal that crystal.

“Many of the users of those Spiritual Magic Tools ended up tempted and went crazy trying to steal the crystal.

“Five hundred years ago, there had been a Heaven Mage tempted by the crystal. He tried to steal it and was caught here. He had almost stolen the crystal and walked away.

“Later, the Starry Sky College no longer let their alchemists use those Magic Tools. They only used the manufactured Magic Tools as research materials, even taking the initiative to destroy the Magic Tools’ Spirits and restricting the crystal energy they could absorb. They would even use those that had been deprived from the mana crystal’s peculiar energy for a long time…

Gurud quietly moved closer to Lin Yun and used mana to directly transmit these words in Lin Yun’s mind. He then quietly checked up on Zeith, afraid that Zeith might have heard his words.

After all, these were scandals of the Starry Sky College. A stain on the Starry Sky College’s reputation. More importantly, for something like this to appear in the Holy Land of alchemists was even more of a humiliation.

Lin Yun speechlessly looked at Gurud, ‘That guy really has no consideration, this is simply terrifying. He is really a man putting his all in alchemy. Unless they were blind, anyone could see that he was badmouthing the Starry Sky College…’

Gurud talked for a bit, but didn’t dare to continue with the details. After all, Zeith was a 5th Rank Heaven powerhouse. Even if he wouldn’t say anything if he heard, he would still be unhappy.

After everyone arrived, Zeith stood outside that barrier-like glass cover and introduced that crystal to everyone.

As Zeith opened his mouth, the device wrapped around the crystal within the glass cover slowly separated and exposed a one-meter-big crystal. The crystal had eighteen faces and was floating in the air, slowly revolving. Moreover, the rotation seemed to be following a certain pattern; This kind of pattern was also continuously changing.

Every face of the crystal had a rune, and these runes were revolving alongside the crystal, continuously fluctuating. The direction and angle of the crystal’s rotation, as well as the runes on top of it were always changing.

Moreveror, the runes that everyone could see were completely different. As the crystal rotated, the runes that everyone could see wouldn’t repeat. It looked like endless runes appeared on the crystal.

When they saw that crystal, no one heard the introduction. Everyone’s attention was on the crystal.

And Lin Yun, like everyone else, foolishly looked at that crystal as if it was an Artisan’s masterpiece.

But no one knew that data was rapidly being compiled in Lin Yun’s mind, and the memories hidden in the depths of his mind were resurfacing as he was completely stunned.

‘Whisper Crystal!

‘It’s really that thing! That’s why it gave off a familiar feeling! I hadn’t expected it to be the Whisper Crystal. I originally thought it was something from the void falling into the Starry Sky College and displaying some kind of mystical effect…’

When Raphael mentioned the crystal for the first time, Lin Yun had gotten a sense of familiarity from it, he just couldn’t remember what it was, but he knew there had been some notes talking about it.

But hearing Gurud’s words, and personally seeing the translucent eighteen faced Whispering Crystal. It appeared very normal, but the continuously revolving runes reminded Lin Yun about that crystal.

That crystal was the Whisper Crystal, but it wasn’t its current name, it should be named in the future by others.

In the legends, the Whisper Crystal had been wrapped in a meteorite and fell upon the Starry Sky College, causing a lot of destruction. The Starry Sky College would mine the meteor and discover that eighteen-faced crystal.

After the discovery, runes appeared on the eighteen faces. These runes looked just like low tier runes, but everyone would see something different. Those runes had strange appearances and had nothing to do with Noscent’s basic runes.

Rather, they were a kind of ordinary runes which contained information. But the information contained far exceeded law runes. When the alchemists of the Starry Sky College found the Whisper Crystal, they cracked a few of the runes and immediately discovered how powerful these runes were.

The runes of the Whisper Crystal all contained alchemy knowledge and were praised as the truth of alchemy by alchemists, those runes were called truth runes.

After comprehending the truth runes, the Starry Sky College’s alchemists would see their alchemy abilities rapidly strengthening, but this was also a huge weak point. Comprehending truth runes was very slow, and the more they comprehended, the slower it would be. Many powerful alchemists had been comprehending them for over a millennium without seeming to see the end of it.

There was also one restriction. Unless they comprehended the previous one, they couldn’t move on to the next truth rune. Even if everyone’s truth rune was different, even if they were told by others what kind of information was contained in the truth runes, it wouldn’t have any effect.

Because everyone saw a different rune and only alchemists who had seen through the truth rune and comprehended it could understand. Even if they told others, it would only be the information contained within the truth rune.

This kind of mysterious restriction made the Whisper Crystal even more mysterious. Moreover, after the Whisper Crystal’s energy was guided, it could make ordinary Magic Tools turn into Spiritual Magic tools, this was only the common use of the Whisper Crystal.