End of the Magic Era

“High Mage Mafa, I agree to your offer…” Thorne expressionlessly glanced at Lin Yun. In reality, he was purely curious and wanted to know what was going on and whether it would harm the interests of the Merlin Family. After all, this passage existed in the depths of the Ghost Valley, so he wouldn’t be at ease if he couldn’t figure it out.

Moreover, the young mage’s horrifying strength forced him to compromise.

“Sir Thorne, you…” Lahn looked at Thorne with a dumbstruck expression, unable to believe what he’d just heard. Thorne, who had always been very headstrong, didn’t even argue, just straightforwardly accepting the young mage’s requirements.

This felt very strange…

In Lahn’s eyes, this was truly irrational. He had followed Thorne in the fight over the Raging Flame Plane for a very long time, so he had some understanding of the character of this Commander. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he had a fiery temper.

But now, this fiery Commander was being so meek in front of that young mage.

In fact, back at the fort, Lahn Merlin had already learnt that the Ancestral Land’s Family Council had dispatched a Commander to lead the Planar Legion alongside Thorne.

When he received the news, he’d thought that a powerful ancestor of the Ancestral Land or some member of the Family Council had risen to take the seat of Commander. But the final outcome shocked him. The person sent by the Ancestral Land was only a 5th Rank High Mage in his twenties.

This made him doubt whether the Ancestral Land’s people had become senile…

Why else would they do something so absurd?

Even if a 5th Rank High Mage was outstanding in some field, he definitely didn’t have the qualifications to serve as a Commander.

And after finally seeing this outrageous young Commander, Lahn didn’t have a favorable impression of him.

“Alright, I know what you want to say…” Thorne impatiently glanced at Lahn. With this one glance, he made him remain well-behaved. He then gave Lin Yun a questioning look. “When are you planning on going in?”

“Now…”

With that, Lin Yun entered the passage. He immediately felt that it was very hot inside… It felt like an oven. His exposed skin had a kind of burning feeling. It wasn’t very intense, but it still made him frown. However, he didn’t let this stop him, and he kept moving forward.

Thorne’s group soon followed.

The group of people went down the spiral staircase, cautiously moving forward. As they got deeper, they found that the passage was getting wider.

The passage was very tidy, with no debris at all. Even if everyone in the group had the power of an Archmage, they were all drenched in sweat after ten minutes, their mage robes sticking uncomfortably to their bodies.

Soon, the group of mages arrived at the end of the passage…

This was a very spacious area, spreading for a few hundred meters. The stone walls in all directions were covered in decorative designs, and every two meters, there was a candleholder. But the candles were already burnt out. The floor was paved with moonstone and was emitting a faint fluorescent light in the dusky environment as well as faint mana fluctuations. The entire layout of the place was somewhat luxurious.

“Where is this…”

Thorne was curiously taking stock of his surroundings, amazement plastered all over his face. After passing by a candlestick, his gaze stopped on a wall next to it, and he was lost in his thoughts. ‘This should be the style of the 3rd Dynasty. Only that luxurious era would spend so much on a stone wall. I truly can’t understand, how could there be such a place underneath the Ghost Valley? This must have existed millennia ago…’

A total of six people had come this time, and just like Thorne, after they found out that there was no danger, they just started cautiously walking in this spacious area.

They might not have noticed that Lin Yun’s gaze was only focused ahead.

There was only darkness in front of them…

But he knew that something that could make his heart race was there.

Lin Yun casually cast a Light spell and a soft ball of light appeared, floating in front of him. With that guiding his way, he walked forward on his own.

After a handful of minutes, he reached the end of that passage. In front of him was a tightly shut stone door with faint mana fluctuations coming from behind it.

‘This is…’

With the light from his spell, Lin Yun could faintly make out the tangled and complicated patterns spreading on the stone door’s surface. With his insight, he was able to assess that this was an array that had been exhausted of all its mana. He stopped in front of the door and examined it for a few minutes before fishing out a low-level mana crystal from his pocket. He slowly crouched down before feeling the stone door with his slender fingers. He soon found a notch and put the mana crystal inside.

Then…

The instant the mana crystal was inserted, the shut door fiercely shook as the countless patterns activated, blossoming with a dazzling radiance. After a few seconds, the light gradually dimmed as the stone door slowly opened.

‘Great.’ Seeing this, Lin Yun let out a relieved sigh, but his expression soon froze as he blankly looked in front of him, his heart almost stopping.

Two diamond-like bright crystal stones were embedded in the wall, emitting a dizzying light. Fierce mana fluctuations spread to every corner as two terrifying auras slowly rose up.

“Chromatic Dragon Crystals…”

Lin Yun recognized them with one glance. These two Chromatic Dragon Crystals had belonged to Pure-blooded Chromatic Dragons. Each of them contained world-shaking amount of mana and were treasures that countless mages yearned for. But in Noscent’s history, there had been pitifully few mages that managed to obtain Chromatic Dragon Crystals.

The Nesser Dynasty had been the era of the Chromatic Dragons and Pure-blooded Elves. They had jointly created a splendid era, with the entirety of Noscent under their control. And even though mankind’s Heaven Mages had the power to kill an adult Chromatic Dragon, they didn’t dare to make a move easily.

Only at the end of the Nesser Dynasty did Charles the Emperor, the Dark Sage, and other powerhouses appear and start the Draconic War.

But once the Throne of Life was shattered, the Chromatic Dragons and the Pure-blooded Elves fled to unknown planes and had yet to reappear in Noscent.

During the peak of the Magic Era, those mages who were powerful enough to be comparable to Gods sent a punitive expedition into the Endless Planes, but no traces of Chromatic Dragons had been found. In the end, they all came to the conclusion that the Chromatic Dragon race had already become extinct in the early stage of the 3rd Dynasty.

‘Hold on…’

Lin Yun focused his attention on that smooth wall and soon discovered that in addition to the two crystals embedded, there were also many runes carved into it, forming a complicated array. And the two Chromatic Dragon Crystals were the core of this array.

To be more precise, this was an array opening a Planar Passage…

That was easy to guess…

The Raising Dragon Array needed to be built at the junction between two planes. It needed to use two kinds of power from two different worlds to achieve its unfathomable effect.

After spending some time, Lin Yun completed the cracking of the array and the two Chromatic Dragon Crystals immediately blossomed with dazzling light. In a flash, the light spread like a sun, illuminating everything within several hundred meters. Lin Yun, who was standing in front of the stone wall, could clearly sense space distorting and fierce mana fluctuations rising up. That frantic power was tangible and even burst out loudly in the air.

At the same time, the light emitted by the two Chromatic Dragon Crystals became even more dazzling, and the array on the stone wall also revolved crazily as the spatial distortion reached its limit. Over ten seconds passed before it slowly settled and a pitch-black rift appeared in front of him, slowly expanding. This was a Planar Path.

Everything became tranquil.

Appearing in front of Lin Yun was an azure-colored Planar Path, wide enough for ten people to tread upon shoulder to shoulder. He could clearly feel an ice-cold, bone-chilling aura. He was somewhat amazed, as Planar Paths usually joined two disconnected planes together, but this Planar Path was somewhat special.

‘Worthy of the Raising Dragon Array…’ Even Lin Yun couldn’t help but exclaim in admiration. The Raising Dragon Array was using the power of an array to forcibly connect two different planes, and the Planar Path was very stable. This was something only a Peak True Spirit Array could accomplish. He could also set up some True Spirit Arrays, and with great difficulty, a Mid-Rank True Spirit Array could be set up, but comparing these arrays to the Raising Dragon Array was like comparing heaven to earth.

“This looks troublesome…” Lin Yun looked at that Planar Path and a bitter smile appeared on his face. He more or less guessed that at the end of the Planar Path was a plane on the same scale as the Raging Flame Plane and that a part of the Raising Dragon Array should also exist on that plane.

In other words, the arrays on the two planes made up the complete Raising Dragon Array.

In the spacious decaying library, he had already learnt the structure and theory behind the Raising Dragon Array. The core of the Raising Dragon array was made of the five different types of Chromatic Dragon Crystals, and two had appeared before him. There should be another one in the center of the Planar Path to stabilize it.