End of the Magic Era

Now, he was almost certain that this piece of metal was superfluous in the mechanical system and wouldn’t display any effect.

‘Could it be that the Dark Sage was careless while crafting the mechanical system and accidentally forgot a piece of metal within it?’

But this possibility was almost negligible. According to what Lin Yun knew, the Dark Sage was extremely rigorous, especially in the field of alchemy. As the Gravedigger of the Silver Era, how could he have made such a rudimentary mistake?

Then…

The only possibility was that this piece of metal hid some sort of a secret.

After thinking about this, Lin Yun suddenly frowned and started imbuing some mana into the piece of metal.

One minute, two minutes, three minutes…

At first, Lin Yun had some expectations, but as time passed, there was still no reaction from the piece of metal and the decorative design remained as it was. It looked just like an ordinary metal that hadn’t been processed. In the end, Lin Yun had could only give up on that avenue.

He didn’t have any idea at this moment…

But he clearly knew that the piece of metal wouldn’t be that simple.

What kind of method should he use?

After some time, Lin Yun frowned and gradually entered a meditative state. But at this time, a cowering voice echoed outside his living quarters. “Sir Merlin, I… Can I come in?”

“Come in…”

“Yes, Sir Merlin…” It was Xiuban, carrying Carnage with him as he cautiously entered. “Sir Merlin, I took care of what you asked.”

“Oh…” Lin Yun gloomily looked at the Draconic Beastman before moving his gaze back to the decorative design on that piece of metal.

That glance had been enough to scare Xiuban. He froze on the spot like a statue and didn’t dare to move. After following Lin Yun for such a long time, he could naturally see that Lin Yun wasn’t in a good mood right now. To avoid suffering misfortune, he could only tread cautiously, but he didn’t leave, as Lin Yun hadn’t dismissed him.

After fretting for half an hour, the Draconic Beastman discovered that there was indeed something wrong with Lin Yun. His eyes were locked onto that thing in his hands.

‘What kind of thing can make Sir Merlin focus on it so fixedly?’

Xiuban could no longer restrain his curiosity and moved very carefully. He stretched his head, wanting to get a better view of the thing in Merlin’s hand.

He couldn’t hide his disappointment when he saw that it was just a piece of metal.

“What are you doing?” Lin Yun suddenly turned and sharply glanced at the Draconic Beastman while emitting a cold aura.

“Aaah!”

Their faces were less than half a meter apart when Lin Yun suddenly turned around. Xiuban couldn’t help retreating a few steps as cold sweat started flowing down his back. “Sir… Sir Merlin, I was wrong. I was just curious.”

“Haha, curious…”

Hearing Lin Yun’s mocking sneer, no matter how foolish he was, he could realize that Lin Yun was angry. He knew that the consequences would be very serious.

‘What can I do… What can I do?’

The Draconic Beastman suddenly panicked. He naturally knew what the results of angering Lin Yun were, and suddenly, he noticed a flame appearing.

It was Syudos!

“Ah… Sir Merlin, your painting is really good…” The moment he saw Syudos appearing, the Draconic Beastman was scared to death. He pointed at the decorative pattern on the piece of metal and tried to use his fool’s brain to appease Lin Yun.

“It looks like you really want Syudos to teach how a Beastman should act…” Hearing Xiuban’s absurd flattery, Lin Yun’s expression became even colder and darker. He truly didn’t know what Xiuban was thinking… How could that pattern be a painting?

‘Wait a moment…’

Lin Yun froze just as he was about to have Syudos teach a lesson to Xiuban.

‘Right, why couldn’t that decorative pattern have been painted?’

Lin Yun had been analyzing the decorative design with his knowledge of magic and alchemy, but he hadn’t considered thinking about it from the point of view of painting.

It looked like he had subconsciously complicated this problem.

“Sir Merlin, I was wrong, I was really wrong…” Xiuban lowered his head, acknowledging his mistake while trembling with fear, but he then noticed that Syudos had disappeared.

Just as Xiuban was getting restless, Lin Yun spoke once again, seeming less upset than before. “Xiuban, are you going to just stay here?”

“No, no…” The Draconic Beastman waved his hands in alarm. Although he didn’t know what happened to Lin Yun for him to not punish him, it was definitely a stroke of luck.

The Draconic Beastman immediately left the living quarters, dragging Carnage along.

‘This is definitely luck…’ Lin Yun bitterly smiled before emitting intense mana fluctuations to cast an enlarging spell that expanded the pattern onto a large screen. And sure enough, it was a painting. Lin Yun was stunned when he saw this, but the screen was still somewhat fuzzy.

After adjusting it a bit, it became a lot clearer. In fact, there were a total of four paintings. In the first painting, there was an imposing silhouette tearing open the endless void. There was nothing special about it, but Lin Yun frowned, because he discovered from the proportions of that painting that the silhouette should be at least a hundred meters tall.

What did that mean?

From Noscent’s birth, aside from the Dragons, the only other intelligent species with such a huge body type was the Ancient God Race. The silhouette in the first scene clearly wasn’t a Dragon, because Lin Yun could clearly see the shape of its four limbs and head.

It should be an Ancient God…

At this time, Lin Yun realized that the secret of this piece of metal might be more complicated than he had thought. After all, the silhouette on the picture was what came to be known as a taboo, an Ancient God.

After looking for several minutes, Lin Yun shifted his attention and looked at the second painting. This was the painting of an Ancient God covered in bloody scars, apparently having received a very heavy injury.

“No way…” Lin Yun was dumbstruck once again. That was an Ancient God, a powerhouse that transcended the Heaven Rank. He couldn’t understand… What kind of existence could injure an Ancient God so severely in that era?

In shock, Lin Yun turned towards the 3rd painting, where the Ancient God fell from the void to a flaming area, and on the 4th painting, the Ancient God was submerged in boundless flames.

‘An Ancient God really died like that?’

Lin Yun looked at the four paintings a few times, and after confirming that he didn’t miss anything, he started making some conjectures. That Ancient God probably tore through space and reached an area where he fought an extremely formidable enemy. In the end, the Ancient God was seriously injured and fell to a flaming area, never to leave…

Although the Ancient God’s enemy never appeared in the paintings, Lin Yun was certain that it was a terrifying existence.

But, where was the place depicted on the other side of the rift?

Flames… Flames everywhere…

This was undoubtedly the most important information…

Lin Yun frowned as he looked at the 3rd and 4th paintings, before recalling the Heaven Puppet’s words in the Merlin Family Manor: “The end of the Wailing River…”

‘The battlefield of that Ancient God and that terrifying existence… Could it be the Raging Flame Plane?’

Lin Yun was terrified as he thought about this possibility.

But…

After carefully thinking about it, the Wailing River itself was a river of flames that was a few kilometers long, just like the scenes in the 3rd and 4th paintings.

This couldn’t help making Lin Yun guess.

Shortly after, Lin Yun picked up his quill and copied the four paintings. After finishing this, he picked up the piece of metal once again and looked at the other side. It was smooth with no patterns. But after considering it for a bit, he still cast an enlarging spell. Lin Yun was able to see a row of characters.

‘The language of Ancient Gods…’

After carefully looking at it, Lin Yun took a deep breath. He was able to recognize that sentence.

“The origin… of all wisdom…”

The language of Ancient Gods had a kind of magical energy in itself. Translating just those few characters almost took all of Lin Yun’s strength. After translating, he put the piece of metal back onto the refining table and gasped for air while thinking.

Only the Ancient God civilization could be called the origin of all wisdom. They were the first of the five intelligent races born in Noscent, and they created the Ascian characters. Mages regarded them as the source of all knowledge.

The phrase “The origin of all wisdom” appearing on the back of that piece of metal puzzled Lin Yun. He was certain that it was definitely an important clue, but Lin Yun really couldn’t figure out what it stood for. Could it be the identity of the Ancient God?

If that conjecture was true, then maybe the Ancient God that fell in the Raging Flame Plane was the Constance that all mages kept mentioning in the peak of the Magic Era.

To be more accurate, Constance was only second to the Ancient God King among the Ancient Gods, he was the sage of the 72 Ancient Gods and the creator of the Ascian Runes.

At the peak of the Magic Era, mages couldn’t help but sigh at Constance’s wisdom. His name was even treated as the symbol of wisdom.