End of the Magic Era

The one hour passed quickly.

Despite seeing that forty minutes had already gone by, Lin Yun didn’t think of turning around and kept searching in the depths of the forest.

“Merlin, what are you looking for?”

“Something very important…”

Solomon watched him poking around and couldn’t help asking with a cautious expression, “Need help?”

“Sure.” Lin Yun thought for a bit before deciding not to turn him down. “You check if there is anything running around nearby. Oh, right, that thing should look like a tree and shouldn’t be too tall, at most a meter tall.”

“A running tree?” Solomon’s eyes were wide open as he felt that his knowledge of magical plants was indeed outdated.

“That thing is called a Parasitic Tree. It grows in very harsh environments, only in places that are densely populated with magic materials. You will gain great benefits if you find it.”

“I can still have some great benefits with you here?” Solomon snorted.

“Well, High Mage Solomon, you have remained a 9th Rank High Mage for quite a long time, don’t you want to become an Archmage? Don’t you want people to address you as ‘Sir’ when they see you?”

“Nonsense…” Solomon bitterly chuckled. Who wouldn’t want to?

But just wanting it was useless…

When his Mana Whirlpool was damaged, his foundation was destabilized, ruining any chance he had to reach the Archmage realm during his lifetime. And let alone reaching the Archmage realm, he didn’t even know if he would be able to live a few more years. Wouldn’t someone like Mafa Merlin know about what had happened? Why would he talk about it, isn’t that just touching a sore spot?

‘Eh, well… Merlin isn’t that kind of person…’

After considering this, Solomon’s heart raced.

‘Right, Merlin isn’t ignorant, so why would he mention this? Could it be…’

“Mer… Merlin, do you have some way to…?” Solomon asked with a shaking voice. Those who hadn’t experienced such a state couldn’t understand how he felt right now.

Solomon had experienced many ups and downs in his life.

He was brimming with talent when he was young and was taken in as a disciple under Star Sage Jouyi. At that time, Solomon was truly flushed with success, becoming a Great Mage in his twenties and having achievements not much inferior to the current Mafa Merlin. After getting pointers from Jouyi, he made leaps and bounds in the field of magic. He had already stepped into the High Mage realm at thirty and snatched the limelight of all geniuses of his time.

The other prodigies who later became famous, like Solan, Hoen, and Suyass, were all quite a bit inferior to the past Solomon. At the age of forty, Solomon stood at the peak of 9th Rank High Mages, one rank away from becoming an Archmage.

But it was at that time…

Solomon went to an active volcano and suffered the biggest setback in his life. At that time, Solomon had fought with someone over a Spiritual Magic Tool in the active volcano. Had he won, he would have been able to become an Archmage early. But as he was wrestling for control over the Spiritual Magic Tool, a High Mage from the Flame Tower appeared and attacked Solomon. A Flame Spear shot through Solomon’s Mana Whirlpool, making him lose the chance to reach the Archmage realm.

At that time, Solomon felt as if his future had collapsed in front of him.

He remained convalescing in the Cloud Tower for a full three years before being able to walk away from the shadow of failure.

He was still disheartened after that, and against Star Sage Jouyi’s advice, he returned to his hometown, Thousand Sails City, to take over the Sage Tower. From that point on, he didn’t have any further progress in his magical ability.

Now, twenty years later, his injuries had worsened further. And in the past year or two, even the medicine crafted by Thorpe wasn’t able to completely suppress his fits of coughing.

Solomon was sure that he only had a few years left to live.

In fact, for the past two years, Solomon had been preparing for what would happen after he died. He nurtured Solon and befriended Lin Yun, all in order to give the Sage Tower a chance for a brighter future. Even resorting to thievery in the Ash Tower was because Solomon wanted to gather more powerful treasures for the Sage Tower while he was still alive. He didn’t want the Sage Tower to fall to the Ash Tower after he died…

Solomon never even dreamed that this young Great Mage would ask whether he wanted to become an Archmage.

‘Of course I fucking want to! …But is it even possible?’

Solomon stood there in a daze, looking fixedly at Lin Yun with hope and fear in his eyes… Hoping that he would be able to learn life-changing information, but afraid to face despair one more time.

“If we find the Parasitic Tree, you’ll have an 80 to 90% chance.”

“Really?” Solomon grabbed Lin Yun’s arms, his eyes moistening.

“Really…”

“Good, I’ll go look for it!” Since he had a solution, Solomon was filled with vitality and didn’t wait for Lin Yun as he immediately cast seven or eight Mage Eyes and sent them to search all the corners of the forest.

“I wish you luck.” Lin Yun nodded before rousing his arrays and also creating many Mage Eyes.

The Parasitic Tree was just as important to Lin Yun…

To Solomon, the Parasitic Tree was like a chance for rebirth, but to Lin Yun, the Parasitic Tree would get him two Obsidian Flower Fruits, as well as a chance to strengthen a magic array.

Lin Yun wasn’t very interested in having more than one Obsidian Flower Fruit. He would at most trade it or use it to strengthen a True Spirit Magic Tool. Even if he didn’t have the Book of Death, he still had the half-finished True Spirit Magic Tool, Soul Walker. As soon as Mogg finished sending those sixty spirit mana crystals, upgrading the Doom Staff might not be out of question. If the Upper Rank Flame Spirit Syudos burst out, he wouldn’t be inferior to a True Spirit Magic Tool by much.

The most annoying thing was that the Soul Walker, the Doom Staff, the Book of Death, and Syudos all required a large investment of resources to bring them to their full potential. But Lin Yun was already feeling overwhelmed even though he was only supplying the Soul Walker at the moment. It was a huge amount, and he didn’t know when it might bankrupt him.

Right now, Lin Yun wasn’t in a hurry to finish developing the True Spirit Magic Tools.

But he definitely wouldn’t let go of the opportunity to strengthen his Magic Arrays.

The Parasitic Tree was also known as the Wood Monster. In most cases, it would exist in the shape of a tree. It had a height of one meter at most, looking like a small sapling, but when it reached its aging period, the state of its soul would change. At that time, it could parasitize any plant, and every time it did so, the infected trees would quickly wither.

And the Parasitic Tree would mature by doing this.

Every time the tree grew, it would absorb the characteristics of the plants it had infected. For example, when the Parasitic Tree infected an Obsidian Flower, after it withered, the Parasitic Tree would not only become highly poisonous, but would also be able to create True Spirit level Fruits, and two of them at that!

What Lin Yun needed was that kind of devouring ability.

If the Magic Array gained such an ability, the speed at which he could break the characters in the Book of Death would be raised at least tenfold. At that time, Lin Yun would be able to enter the High Mage realm and simulate the characters of the Book of Death.

Lin Yun originally planned to go to Okland and take the opportunity to tour the Savage Highlands.

Because he remembered reading about a Parasitic Tree Seed being there. But trying to get that one would be very challenging, because the headquarters of the Gaugass Battlemages wasn’t a place that could be casually entered.

But he hadn’t expected that in this trip to Vaughn’s laboratory, he would catch the trace of a Parasitic Tree. How could Lin Yun let go of that opportunity?

“Merlin!” Solomon called from nearby as Lin Yun was still continuing to cast more Mage Eyes.

“What’s the situation?” Lin Yun’s heart moved as he rushed over.

“Ahead, slightly to the right… Three hundred meters, I saw a red shadow flashing…”

“A red shadow? That could be it! Hurry!” Lin Yun immediately cast Haste and left.

Solomon also increased his speed to the limit, and it only took a short time before they arrived at the location Solomon had seen the red shadow.

“It’s here indeed!” Lin Yun took a deep breath as he felt the aura of the Parasitic Tree. Moreover, the aura had yet to disperse, meaning the tree wasn’t too far from them…

“Wait.” Lin Yun raised his hand and stopped Solomon, who had wanted to search the surroundings. Lin Yun was looking at all the trees nearby when a bush caught his eye. A smile suddenly appeared on his face.

“You were hiding pretty well!” Lin Yun fiercely advanced while pouring mana into the Lava Dominator.

That bush suddenly looked as if it had been hit by a gust of wind as a sharp, arrow-like weed pierced over from it. It flew extremely quickly, and even Lin Yun was a bit surprised, despite still having Haste active.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t faster than the flow of mana.

Lin Yun had already activated the Lava Shield when the weed struck. In a flash, the wall of fire was already surrounding that patch of weeds.

The weeds were helplessly trying to break through the flames, but they would never be able to do so. Moreover, Lin Yun had already started chanting. Flame Shackles appeared out of nowhere and coiled around the bundle of weeds.

“Still thinking of running?”