End of the Magic Era

The sparse air was filled with the smell of rust, only Heaven Rank powerhouses or puppets could survive in this place. After coming out of the Planar Path, the small wolf turned fist-sized and stood on Lin Yun’s shoulder, completely ignoring the corrosive environment. It was thanks to a small device crafted by Lin Yun, it allowed the small wolf to not have to worry about this place. After all, a Three-Eyed Wolf around level 30 could definitely not survive here, even if he didn’t encounter a puppet.

They walked out of the puppet cemetery and destroyed all the puppets they encountered along the way. Sadly, there was no powerhouse as powerful as Gandaph accompanying them. Gandaph had been able to make them completely undetectable, Heaven Puppets wouldn’t have been able to notice them even if it stood before them..

Unfortunately, Gandaph wasn’t here so the only way to be safe was to completely dismantle every puppet they encountered, just in case some of them were scouts of some Heaven Puppets.

All Heaven Puppets had various kinds of methods to monitor their own territories. It would be troublesome if they were discovered and were attacked by a powerful puppet. Being chased by a powerful puppet was no different from poking a wasp’s net.

Their speed wasn’t fast, after a few hours, Lin Yun took out a dozen-meter-long flying ship. This was also made recently and not only was it very fast, it was tailor-made for the Puppet Plane, its concealment characteristics were raised as high as possible. When flying, all the mana fluctuations would be absorbed by the flying ship itself.

After flying for a while, Lin Yun made a conjecture regarding the location of a steel city based on his previous trip with Gandaph. Moreover, it shouldn’t be a very big steel city.

After all, a steel city was ruled by a Heaven Puppet, and there was a higher probability of the ruler having an ability rune.

Most of the puppets of the Puppet Plane were born in a steel city, very few puppets were accidentally born outside, and they had no future. Some puppets might independently nurture themselves in some areas rich in materials, but they were very small and weak. Their growth potential was also very small.

They found the steel city a day later, but that steel city was nothing like the Steel City Lin Yun had named in the Raging Flame Plane. The steel city before their eyes wasn’t big, only about eight kilometers, but it was completely black. Based on what they saw, the city was completely made out of steel.

Whether it was those several-hundred-meter-tall spires, the city walls, or the buildings, they were all made out of ice-cold steel. The black steel made the place look like an undead city, as there was no life aura.

Lin Yun floated in the air, observing for a long time before ascertaining that this steel city’s master was at most a 2nd Rank Heaven Puppet. He made that judgement based on the city’s size, and the anti-meteorite defensive spire being only four-hundred-meter-tall. It could only protect twenty to thirty kilometers, and it wouldn’t be able to defend against meteorites that were too large.

After all, the Puppet Plane barely had an atmosphere, the entire world was exposed to the void, any random meteorite would directly fall to the ground. The amount of metal on the ground was extremely high, the entire world was a huge open metal mine which had a very powerful magnetic power towards meteorites with high metal content.

Meteorites falling here was a common occurrence. On the way, Lin Yun had seen various kinds of meteorites falling onto the Puppet Plane. The Puppet Plane’s earth was as hard as iron, if it was any other plane, the earth would have already been shattered.

But to the Puppet Plane, a meteorite crashing was actually a good thing, after all, who knows what kind of precious metal it contained. That’s why there would be fights over the ores.

Because of the frequent meteorite showers, it was very difficult to settle down. Without strength or enough resources, Heaven Puppets would just roam the wilderness or attach themselves to another powerful steel city. In order to construct a steel city, they had to build that defensive tower.

After estimating that the steel city before him wasn’t too much of a threat, Lin Yun sent the small wolf to take another look.

The Three-Eyed Wolf’s ability was quite formidable, it was known as the best lifeform to avoid danger. His 3rd eye could see through the river of time and find the information it wanted to find. After all, any lifeform, anything, would leave their own information on the river of time at all time.

Back then, Lin Yun spent so much effort that even a Three-Eyed Wolf with foresight ability ended up captured as a cub. Back then, Lin Yun was much more powerful than the cub and could have killed him eight times in a second if they ever fought directly.

But a Three-Eyed Wolf would have a strong reaction when encountering danger. He now checked that steel city’s past.

After a dozen seconds, the small wolf nodded at Lin Yun and a claw touched Lin Yun’s head, transmitting some information.

It more or less meant: Wild beasts, no backer, not strong, can kill…

With the small wolf’s confirmation, Lin Yun was reassured and opened the path to his Demiplane to release the puppet army.

All the puppets were Level 30 or above. There were three thousand Level 31 puppets, three hundred Level 35, and thirty Level 39. They followed Pabiete’s orders and set out for the steel city.

As soon as the puppet army led by Pabiete appeared a few kilometers away from the steel city, a tide of puppets immediately rushed out of the steel city.

Most of these puppets were beast-shaped or in the shape of large insects, and there were still some who were rather strange-looking. Human-shaped puppets were the least numerous.

There were at least several dozen thousand puppets rushing just like a tide, but their levels were horrible. Most of them were around level 10, there was a small number of level 20 puppets, and there was only a few hundred puppets at level 30 or above. There were even puppets below level 10…

This kind of cannon fodder, which Lin Yun didn’t even consider as a puppet army, naturally couldn’t match Lin Yun’s puppet army. He only dispatched a legion of a thousand Level 31 sword puppets to charge at the cannon fodder and they got rid of a few thousand in the first clash.

After several consecutive charges, close to twenty thousand of these forty to fifty thousand puppets had been torn apart.

But a steady flow of cannon fodder puppets kept pouring out of that steel city…

After fifteen minutes, the thousand sword puppets were already five hundred meters away from the city. At that time, some casting puppets on the city walls started casting spells, but their numbers were pitiful, there was only a dozen of them at or above level 30.

Lin Yun couldn’t bear to look at it and suddenly wondered if he had been too cautious.

The Puppet Plane was a xenophobic plane with numerous powerful puppets, there were even Puppet Kinds surpassing the Heaven Rank, but would he be unlucky enough to encounter one straight away?

He didn’t think it was very likely. Even if a Puppet King learnt about them, it definitely wouldn’t feel like dealing with them personally. If he truly wanted to get rid of them, with its power, a Puppet King could directly crush them from over a thousand kilometers.

What he truly needed to pay attention to were Heaven Puppets.

As Lin Yun thought about these problems, a centaur-looking puppet came out of the steel city. This was a Heaven Puppet, and one with an ability rune.

As that ability rune shone, the centaur puppet raised a three-meter-long spear and crossed three hundred meters in less than three seconds, that golden spear transforming into a rapidly flickering shadow.

The centaur puppet instantly crossed the puppet army and went straight for Pabiete. Behind it, forty sword puppets exploded.

Lin Yun looked from the sky, his eyes shining, ‘No wonder this guy looks like a centaur, its ability rune increase its movement speed. It has the body type of an agility-type puppet, and with that ability rune, its speed would naturally increase.’

Formidable speed would create terrifying power, those Level 31 sword puppets naturally weren’t its match.

Lin Yun wasn’t really upset about losing a few dozen sword puppets. In fact, he had so many that the production could even be halted. Most of the produced puppets ended up slumbering in storage because they simply couldn’t be used.

The puppet base was now researching the production of relatively stronger puppets. Puppets of that level were only cannon fodder for Lin Yun.

Lin Yun might have not cared, but Pabiete suddenly grew angry. The first army he led after reawakening his wisdom suffered forty casualties from a level 41 puppet, this was a disgrace.

The Lightning Speed ability rune on Pabiete’s body shone as he turned into a silver flowing light before reappearing in front of the centaur.

The centaur puppet raised its spear and ruthlessly attacked Pabiete’s head. That was the source of a Heaven Puppet’s wisdom, even if the puppet didn’t die after it was pierced, they would also fall from the Heaven Rank, especially if the puppet was a Low Rank Heaven Puppet.

Pabiete’s right hand suddenly changed shape and a two-meter-long red laser sword appeared. In an instant, the red laser sword turned into a red curtain of light!

Pabiete’s Lightning Speed ability rune wasn’t something the centaur’s movement ability rune could compare to. It was a comprehensive speed increase, whether it was for dodging, movement, weapon wielding, casting, recovery, it increased the speed of everything. It was also the best for unidirectional movement.

With a flicker, a crimson light could be seen moving as Pabiete’s figure could be seen ten meters behind the centaur.

The centaur puppet’s body stiffened, the light flickering in its crystal eyes dissipated in an instant. Then, the spear in its hands exploded, shattering in countless fragments. Its head also exploded and the components it contained were neatly cut into small cubes.

After a few more steps, the centaur puppet’s body fell and Pabiete scattered his laser sword before waving at the puppet arm. All the puppets instantly moved and started a one-sided slaughter. Less than five minutes later, only components remained outside of the steel city and Pabiete led the puppet army inside the steel city.

In the air, Xiuban, who had been eager to join the battle, had an horrified expression.

“Damn, that iron can is quite powerful, I couldn’t even see his movements. But he is only so-so when compared to the great Xiuban. If the great Xiuban fought, one hammer blow would have been enough to shatter that four-legged puppet into a pile of scraps. Really, just cutting off its head? Is that even skillful?”

Xiuban loudly complained, wanting to fight. He was saying that he was the number 3. Aside from Lin Yun and Reina, no one was his match.

Unfortunately, Lin Yun just ignored him…

Pabiete personally attacked the city, and its defenses were soon destroyed. Not to mention its terrible defenses, it didn’t even have a large mana reactor. The defensive spire’s core consisted of a dozen small mana reactors.

Lin Yun personally disassembled that spire. When it came to the Puppet Plane’s steel cities, this kind of defensive spires were the most common defense. This was a widespread technology in the Puppet Plane and didn’t require a lot of technique. Any Heaven Puppet could easily get a hold of it.

But this defensive spire technology was quite formidable in Noscent. If used for defense, the spire releasing lightning spheres could even get rid of Heaven Rank powerhouses.

Unfortunately, this kind of defense was only used to defend against meteorites falling from the sky, they couldn’t defend against ground targets. Only targets big enough and fast enough could rouse the spire’s defense mechanism.

After dismantling the defensive spire, Lin Yun rapidly discovered the technology he wanted from it. After altering it, he would be able to easily craft defensive spires even stronger than Noscent’s defensive magic towers at a lower cost. Most importantly, the control system within that kind of defensive spire was completely different from Noscent’s magic towers, it was a lot more advanced.

After all, the cheapest material used to build these several-hundred-meter-tall defensive spires was Dark Magic Iron.

The reserves of Dark Magic Iron on the Puppet Plane were enough to form a thick layer on Noscent’s surface, while leaving some leftovers.

Even in Noscent, Dark Magic Iron was the cheapest magic material. There was so much of it that it was even used to build train tracks. A few of the major cities within the Odin Kingdom had train tracks built out of the best Dark Magic Iron.

After taking apart the spire’s core, Lin Yun threw the other parts where they were. After getting a hold of the Dark Magic Iron smelting techniques, Lin Yun didn’t feel like picking up something that took so much space and that could be easily built

After smoothly attacking a steel city and gaining an ability rune, Lin Yun sighed in relief.

After all, he had seen the records of the Puppet Planes in Heiss City’s decaying library, the forces it contained could rival Noscent at its peak. Not to mention, the Cybertan race had many puppets surpassing the Heaven Rank.

Lin Yun wouldn’t dare to provoke that kind of existence at the moment, even Gandaph had been very cautious when he was here, in fear of being discovered by those Puppet Kings. Lin Yun had even more knowledge, making him even more cautious. That’s why he specially took the small wolf along with him this time. With the small wolf, he would be a lot safer.

If not because he needed a large number of ability runes to craft the Reedpush Plate, and more black substance to strengthen Pabiete’s absorption system, Lin Yun definitely wouldn’t have come to the Puppet Plane so soon.

Even if he provoked a powerhouse transcending the Heaven Rank in Noscent, they wouldn’t lower themselves to personally deal with him. But puppets had no reputation to uphold.

It’s not as if a Puppet King never killed a powerhouse that just advanced to the Heaven Rank after discovering them.

After taking over that steel city, Lin Yun confirmed that this place was on the edge of the Puppet Plane. This kind of pitiful steel city definitely couldn’t appear in a stronger area.

They continued forward.

Pabiete led the army on the ground, while Lin Yun, Xiuban, Reina, and the small wolf rode the rapid ship concealed in the sky.

After more than a day of travel, they discovered another steel city. That steel city was clearly bigger, spanning over ten kilometers. The defensive spire was 800-meter-tall and covered about forty to fifty kilometers. Moreover, there were four 100-meter-tall towers at the four corners of the city used to defend against the enemies.

Pabiete led the puppet army, and just like before, the master of that steel city treated them as roamers coming to plunder the steel city. After all, there weren’t that many Heaven Puppets who could build a city of steel, it was very common for a steel city to be stolen after it was established.

And just like before, a large number of cannon fodders came out. Pabiete waved his hand and had his puppet army tear them apart while he calmly waited in the rear. After half an hour, three Heaven Puppets walked out of the steel city.