End of the Magic Era

‘Looks like luck isn’t on my side…’ Lin Yun sighed in disappointment after searching for a while.

But thinking about it…

There was no guarantee to find a magic material like Latour Gold Essence in the hands of an Artisan to begin with.

In the past, the Dark Sage acquired a piece and used it in the forging process of the three Heaven Rank puppets.

But if there was no Latour Gold Essence, his plans to refine the Magic Array one more time would have to be postponed.

Lin Yun originally thought that after fusing with the Silver Dragon Blood, his Magic Array would reach near perfection and might overturn Noscent’s magic system to become the most powerful Magic Array in history.

But when Lin Yun opened his eyes, he found out that he was only half right…

Indeed, his Magic Array was the most powerful in Noscent history, but it was still far from being perfect.

Lin Yun was the only one who knew about the strange state he found himself in.

Whether it was Suyass, Fran, Lys or Solomon, they all unanimously believed that Lin Yun had already fused his nine Magic Arrays while travelling on the Planar Path and stepped into the High Mage realm.

But Lin Yun knew…

They only guessed half of it.

Lin Yun had indeed entered the High Mage realm, but the nine Magic Arrays had yet to fuse!

No…

It wasn’t as simple as not having merged yet.

In fact, even Lin Yun couldn’t figure out how this happened, but he ended up with ten Magic Arrays!

This was too strange.

In Noscent’s long history, there had never been a mage who formed ten Magic Conducting Runes. It had always been either remaining at nine Magic Conducting Runes or fusing the nine Magic Conducting Runes into one, there was no other way.

But Lin Yun formed a 10th Magic Array.

Naturally, this didn’t mean that the 10th Magic Array was superfluous.

It was the opposite, the appearance of the 10th Magic Array pushed Lin Yun to the High Mage realm. And although Lin Yun had yet to fuse his Magic Arrays into one, the qualitative change brought up by the 10th Magic Array was enough to push him to the next realm.

Moreover, the power brought by the 10th Magic Array was shockingly frightening.

It could be seen from the previous scuffle with the Draconic Beastman.

The power Xiuban had just displayed was almost on par with Sasu. Even though previously Lin Yun would also be able to defeat Xiuban, it would have taken much more effort, he most certainly wouldn’t have the spare mana to casually form a huge hand to instantly suppress Xiuban.

This was the power brought by the 10th Magic Array.

But…

Its appearance also caused some problems.

All his plans had been destroyed by the appearance of an extra Magic Array.

Lin Yun had originally planned out his magic path, but with the appearance of the 10th Magic Array, Lin Yun had no other choice but to alter it.

The first step of the alteration would be obtaining a very specific Magic Tool.

A Magic Tool Lin Yun had never seen.

In the peak of the magic era, there had been one True Spirit Magic Weapon that shocked the entire Noscent, named the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel. Myriads of spells and runes revolved within that Ten Thousand Spell Wheel. At that time, the master of the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel was Great Astrologian Agalon. That unconventional powerhouse from the Starry Sky College was using that Magic Tool to control the power of a Demiplane.

He was almost unequalled at the time. He kept challenging powerhouses stronger than him and stepping on them with ease. The Ten Thousand Spell Wheel’s name quickly spread through Noscent alongside the name of the Great Astrologian.

The greatest feature of the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel was its boundlessly inclusive nature.

This aspect was very similar to the Magic Array.

If Lin Yun wanted to correct his plan, he had to get the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel. It would be able to maximize the power of the Magic Arrays and only then would the Magic Array be considered perfect.

Naturally, there was no need to think about the True Spirit Rank Ten Thousand Spell Wheel for the time being.

Even if Lin Yun found Latour Gold Essence, he would only be able to use it to make a copy of the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel, and the copy would only be Spiritual Rank. Who knew how much time and effort would be needed to raise it to True Spirit Rank.

But Lin Yun wasn’t in a hurry…

Displaying the power of the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel would have to wait until he completely controlled the Demiplane. Only after gaining control over the Demiplane could he use the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel to control the plane’s power. At that time, with the Magic Arrays as the core and the Ten Thousand Spell Wheel as the control hub, he would be able to surpass Great Astrologian Agalon.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find Latour Gold Essence.

This was a big blow to Lin Yun.

Not being able to find it within Vaughn’s collection proved how hard it would be to find some.

It looked like he would have to wait until he reached Okland, the kingdom’s most prosperous area, to search for some traces of Latour Gold Essence.

As he thought about it, Lin Yun picked up a few of the more precious magic materials.

“Merlin, there is a puppet here!” Lin Yun was still looking through the magic materials when he got interrupted by Solomon.

“Ah?”

“Come and check it?” Solomon had searched that discarded warehouse with Lin Yun before, so he knew that this newly advanced young High Mage had some knowledge of puppeteering. This was the reason he instantly called Lin Yun when he found that puppet.

“Okay…” Lin Yun slightly hesitated before stopping what he was doing, patting the dust off his robe and walking towards Solomon.

“Look…” Once Lin Yun reached him, Solomon pointed to a puppet on the ground, “This is something Sauss discovered when they were organizing the magic materials.”

“This…” Lin Yun bent down and carefully checked the puppet before bitterly smiling.

What Solomon made a fuss about was merely a guarding puppet.

From the control hub’s array, it should have been a Lurker model. That model had been mass produced during the 3rd Dynasty and was specialized in assassination and traps. Because of their fast movement speed, they would often ambush from the darkness and were then dubbed as Shadow Assassins.

But as the array skills kept developing, that kind of specialized puppet was gradually replaced by puppets with complex functions, such as the Mage Breaker model which was a very outstanding alternative.

To be honest, the rank of that Shadow Assassin wasn’t low.

Lin Yun estimated that it was equivalent to a 5th Rank Expert Swordsman.

But to Lin Yun who had just returned from the Heaven Enlightening Plane and had seen Chromatic Dragons’ and Ancient Gods’ corpses, this about 5th Rank Expert Swordsman Shadow Assassin was truly nothing worth paying attention to.

“High Mage Solomon, this puppet is known by the name Shadow Assassin. If you like it, I can help you restore it. Its fighting strength should be around that of a 5th Rank Expert Swordsman.”

“Good, good, then you should immediately restore it.” Solomon didn’t reject the offer. A 5th Rank Expert Swordsman was pretty decent, it could be put in the Sage Tower to add to its prestige.

“…” Lin Yun had said those words purely out of politeness, but he hadn’t expected Solomon to take him up on the offer and felt trapped for a second.

There was nothing he could do, so he started the restoration…

Fortunately, this Shadow Assassin wasn’t too harmed, only the mechanical system suffered some damage. After inspecting it a bit, Lin Yun found out the problem and fished out a quill and Moonlight Ink while proficiently dismantling the Shadow Assassin, preparing to rebuild the mechanical system.

But, halfway through his dismantling, Lin Yun suddenly froze.

“Eh?” After opening the outer shell of the Shadow Assassin, Lin Yun saw a blue light.

‘Latour Gold Essence!’

Lin Yun hadn’t expected that the Latour Gold Essence he couldn’t find in Vaughn’s collection would actually appear on the body of a Shadow Assassin puppet with only the strength of a 5th Rank Expert Swordsman!

What kind of circumstances was that…

Lin Yun froze on the spot, unable to say anything for the moment.

This was impossible…

Latour Gold Essence was one of the most important materials needed to create Heaven Rank puppets, how could it be used for a mere Shadow Assassin?

Even an Apprentice Alchemist knew that the value of a hundred Shadow Assassins couldn’t compare to a piece of Latour Gold Essence!

‘How could Vaughn have made such a critical mistake?’

“Stupid!” As Lin Yun was puzzled, a voice suddenly echoed inside his mind.

“Who is it!” Lin Yun was suddenly startled.

The brain was a true restricted area to a mage, no mage was willing to let others’ invade their consciousness, it was more terrifying than death to every mage.

But Lin Yun just found out a strange and unfamiliar voice in his mind.

This discovery made him sweat bullets.

“Fuck, you destroyed my body, yet you still dare to ask who I am?”