End of the Magic Era

After coming out of the reception room, Lin Yun had someone deliver some food before he went back to the alchemy laboratory. As for Leon, Lin Yun had quickly put him to the back of his mind.

One Leon Merlin wasn’t enough to make him worry at all. What future Patriarch of the Merlin Family, what 33-year-old High Mage, he was nothing in Lin Yun’s eyes. Lin Yun was a 5th Great Mage with three Magic Tools that were at the Spiritual rank or higher. It could be said that any High Mage below 5th Rank would be crushed by him at this point.

Leon was already considered lucky. If it weren’t for Lin Yun having noticed the flaming staff crest when he entered, he would have directly snapped Leon’s neck and wouldn’t have bothered spending the effort to use Mana Shackles.

It was this crest that made Lin Yun remember a certain place, a place that could let him advance to become a High Mage.

Advancing would inevitably be difficult for him. Who told Lin Yun to choose the most complicated Magic Conducting Rune, the Magic Array, among the countless Magic Conducting Runes?

If Lin Yun had chosen a different one, he wouldn’t have such a headache figuring out the best way to advance right now. Even with the most complicated Extreme Forge, Lin Yun would still have three ways to directly reach the High Mage Realm.

But the Magic Array was completely different.

The Magic Array had the most complicated and detailed structure among Magic Conducting Runes. Even someone like Lin Yun, who transcended this era, wasn’t sure of fusing the nine Magic Arrays into one to enter the High Mage realm.

It wasn’t because Lin Yun wasn’t capable enough, but rather because the Magic Array was too powerful.

In fact, Lin Yun had taken time to work out numerous calculations ever since he came back from the prince tomb, but regardless of how he looked at it, the result was still the same. Unless he was willing to remain a 9th Rank Great Mage for a few years and use extreme patience and willpower to slowly fuse the nine Magic Arrays into one, Lin Yun would have only a five percent chance of becoming an Archmage.

Moreover, every failed attempt at reaching the High Mage Realm would harm his own Magic Conducting Runes. The first one or two might not be that important, but he might lose the chance to step onto the High Mage realm after the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th failures.

Lin Yun didn’t want to remain a Great Mage forever.

But earlier, he saw the flaming staff crest on the carriage.

Lin Yun had always felt that the Merlin Family sounded a bit familiar. It was only when he saw the crest that he remembered that a millennium later, there would be an Archmage who rose like a comet, and he would be known as the Flame Ruler, Doug Merlin, one who was invincible below Heaven Rank.

And this Flame Ruler wasn’t a startling genius at first. He became a High Mage when he was sixty. This was far from equal to Leon Merlin.

But thirty years later, that man had become someone known as being one undefeatable under the Heaven Rank, sweeping aside all the Archmages of the era.

Indeed, the Magic Conducting Rune of that Flame Ruler was the Magic Array.

Lin Yun clearly remembered that at the time, the Merlin Family had already vanished. The millennium-old Family would be exterminated after a few hundred years. Although the Flame Ruler was a Merlin, his rise had nothing to do with the Merlin Family. He rose up from the ground, step by step, and the only relationship to the Merlin Family were those fifty-odd years spent in the Merlin Family Ancestral Land.

But when Doug Merlin came out of that land, it only took him three months to become a High Mage and then another ten years to become the strongest Archmage of Noscent.

Thus Lin Yun couldn’t help making a conjecture.

What kind of secret was behind the Merlin Family’s Ancestral Land? Doug Merlin managed to fuse nine Magic Arrays in one after coming into contact with that secret and reaching the High Mage realm in one go.

Thus, once Lin Yun had nine Magic Arrays, he had to go check the Merlin Family’s Ancestral Land; otherwise, he would have two choices left. One was to take his time and spend a few years to slowly fuse the Magic Arrays, and the other was to bet on the 5% chance by forcibly charging into the High Mage realm.

The secret of the Merlin Family’s Ancestral Land seemed much simpler in comparison.

But it wasn’t suitable to be truly at odds with the Merlin Family.

Naturally, this didn’t mean that Lin Yun could sit and watch the Merlin Family lust after his own Nether Iron Vein.

Thus, after some hesitation, Lin Yun had chosen to use Mana Shackles. This was a common method for higher ranked mages to crush lower ranked mages, sealing away their magic. There was only one way to undo the Mana Shackles, that was to find the key to the Mana Shackles.

That key was actually a word incanted when the Mana Shackles were applied.

And Lin Yun had actually used one of the seven characters that he had learnt from the Book of Death. Besides him, there should be no one in all of Noscent that was able to undo it.

Lin Yun wanted to use this to make the Merlin Family know that if they wanted the Nether Iron Vein, they had to be prepared to pay the price.

He knew that a force like the Merlin Family was greedy and cunning. If they could effortlessly obtain the Nether Iron Vein, they definitely wouldn’t have one iota of leniency towards him just because he was a child of the Merlin Family.

But once they found out that this child was not to be trifled with, they would consider his potential worth.

They would be even more restrained if that child had some power that they couldn’t understand, and they would even use some appeasing methods, and perhaps make a business deal or try some other way to entice him. In short, only benefits were important to a force like the Merlin Family. As for what method they would undertake, it would depend on how they intended to maximize their benefits.

Lin Yun believed that the Mana Shackles on Leon’s body would stop the Merlin Family for a while.

What he needed to do now was to quickly form nine Magic Arrays.

Only then would he leave for Okland to pay a visit to the Merlin Family’s Ancestral Land.

But if he wanted to form the remaining Magic Arrays, Lin Yun had to go to Vaughn Laboratory. It was because Vaughn had a set of Crystal Scales, and although each part was only Spiritual level, together they were not inferior to a True Magic Tool. Furthermore, besides the shocking strength of the Crystal Scales, they also had an extremely special Magic Tool Spirit. It was said that this Magic Tool Spirit was created by Vaughn himself by using a soul. It could push the computational ability of the user to a frightening realm.

Lin Yun had promised Lys that he would join the exploration with the major forces of Thousand Sails City mainly because of this set of Crystal Scales.

If Lin Yun could get a hold of these Crystal Scales and use them while analyzing the 8th character of the Book of Death, the speed at which he carved the Magic Array would be raised ten times!

After Lin Yun returned to the alchemy laboratory, he once again opened that piece of paper and continued working on the calculations that he had yet to complete.

At this time, Leon still had yet to leave the Gilded Rose’s reception room.

The future Patriarch of the Merlin Family looked at William with a dull gaze.

“Didn’t you say he is a 5th Rank Great Mage?”

“Indeed, he is a 5th Rank Great Mage…” William couldn’t help shaking his head when he saw the dazed expression of this proud scion.

‘Why did you bother saying all that? I did remind you several times that our cousin’s temper is not very good. You insisted on showing off the imposing might of a future Patriarch, putting on the halo of a High Mage, and you thought you could easily convince our cousin? Did you think he had never seen a High Mage? And now, the High Mage has turned into an ordinary person, how can you explain when you go back…’

“5th Rank Great Mage… How could this be…” Leon couldn’t believe it no matter what. How could a 5th Rank Great Mage use restrain him with Mana Shackles?

“Okay, don’t talk about what’s possible and what’s impossible…” Seeing his appearance, William was disinclined to talk about it again, so he only kindly reminded, “I advise you to quickly return and think of a way to remove the Mana Shackles. Otherwise, you might be in great trouble when Aube comes back from the Mercury Tower.”

After saying that, William left the reception room, leaving Leon Merlin by himself. He was standing there, a bitter smile on his face.

‘Return quickly? It’s not that easy…’ he thought. ‘How I can return like this? I sneaked to Thousand Sails City this time because I heard that besides the Nether Iron Vein, that Mafa Merlin also had gained a vast amount of wealth from the Gilded Rose. That’s why I wanted to recruit him.

‘I had thought that by using my strength as a High Mage and the status as the future Patriarch of the Merlin Family, that Mafa would definitely throw himself under my wings once I promised to help him return to the Merlin Family. At that time, not only would I get hold of the Nether Iron Vein, but I would also gain the wealth produced by the Gilded Rose. At that time, I would be almost certain to win the competition for the Patriarch’s seat. There shouldn’t have been an issue…’ He lamented.

‘So why did it end up like this?’