End of the Magic Era

The might of the Flame Burst spell would never leave one feeling disappointed.

Even if it was a Rotten Flower that had reached the 15th level, it would still be maimed by Lin Yun’s bombardment of Flame Bursts. A ten-meter-long petal was hit hard by a blast, causing a stinking, dark red liquid to leak out of the wound.

This was Rotten Flower Blood, which was an ingredient that many alchemists liked to use to compound poisons. Poisons that used Rotten Flower Blood were extremely corrosive and would cause decomposition of tissues upon contact or ingestion.

Even a Great Mage like Lin Yun wouldn’t dare be careless. Relying on his temporary airborne state that he achieved by combining Haste and Levitation, Lin Yun used his mana liberally, casting Flame Bursts one after the other. In a short dozen seconds of Magic Array activation, Lin Yun rained down a dozen or so Flame Bursts.

A violent explosion followed each of the Flame Bursts, echoed by mournful shrieks as dazzling flames splashed about. The Rotten Flower was struggling to come out into the open from underground a few times, but how could Lin Yun give it a chance to do so? He kept pushing it back with continued Flame Bursts.

A Rotten Flower was a dangerous foe that had far more vitality and tenacity than any ordinary monster. If Lin Yun let it emerge into the open, it would take a lot more time and effort to deal with it.

The amount of Magic Spring potion remaining in Lin Yun’s bag wouldn’t be enough if it dragged out too long…

Thus, from start to finish, Lin Yun only used one spell, his Instant Cast Flame Burst.

Flame Burst was a mana-intensive spell, and especially so when using the instant cast. The dozen-second bombardment ended up consuming half of Lin Yun’s mana.

Naturally, this shocking consumption of mana brought about even more shocking results.

The imposing 15th-Level Rotten Flower never even managed to get out of its hole as it struggled one last time before its entire body went stiff.

After the effects of the Levitation spell wore off, Lin Yun dropped down from the sky. The Rotten Flower had already turned into a black lump. Just moments ago, this had been a lively and aggressive monster.

After landing, Lin Yun quickly gathered the Rotten Flower’s mana crystal. Afterwards, the ring on Lin Yun’s right hand flashed as pure mana slowly poured into him.

The Elemental Amber that Lin Yun got from the Bone Plane on his last trip was embedded in the ring.

It would be reasonable to say that the best way to use Elemental Amber was to enchant a High Mage spell onto it. This way, even a Magic Apprentice could use it to cast a spell that would normally only be usable by High Mages. This would be an immense increase in power.

But enchanting it with such a spell would be very costly, and furthermore, an Archmage would have to personally do the enchanting, which would incur another huge fee. This wasn’t something that Lin Yun could do right now, so he gave up on that method.

Instead, he used mithril to create the ring and carved two miniature alchemy formations on it: one used during meditation to absorb mana, and one normally used to replenish mana. If ten alchemists saw this, nine of them would definitely shake their heads. This was too rough and was a waste of material as excellent as Elemental Amber.

But Lin Yun was used to hard times, so he had no problem with it being rough. It was good enough for him as long as a magic tool worked; he wouldn’t needlessly pursue appearances.

For example, these two miniature arrays, absorption and replenishment, were more than enough to take advantage of the properties of the Elemental Amber. Although it was at most an Excellent Magic Tool, when judged in terms of practicality, even most Extraordinary or Inheritance Magic Tools wouldn’t be able to compare to this ring.

As the Elemental Amber’s radiance lit up the surroundings, the pure mana kept pouring into Lin Yun. The mana he had expended on the bombardment was now nearly all recovered.

After finishing up, Lin Yun cast Life Detection again, and once he was convinced that there weren’t any more Rotting Flowers hiding nearby, Lin Yun put the mana crystal into his bag and started looking for the cave.

But he soon understood…

‘Don’t tell me…’ Lin Yun looked up, a lifeless expression on his face.

Lin Yun clearly remembered the notes saying something about entering a cave.

‘But how the hell do I enter!’ Lin Yun looked up and saw the cave on the sheer cliff, and inwardly cursed those alchemists.

Let alone the fact that the cave was located on the cliff…

The worst part was that Lin Yun could see no fewer than four nests. Swarms of Toxic Dragonflies were wandering around the entrance of the cave. Although Toxic Dragonflies were usually low-level monsters, these were swarms of them…

The entrance of the cave alone was filled with at least a hundred Toxic Dragonflies. Just looking at this would make anyone feel numb…

Lin Yun truly wanted to confront the authors of those notes.

‘Entering? What about entering? Don’t mess with me…’

But Lin Yun understood after thinking about it.

The alchemists who wrote those notes were at the very least at the High Mage rank, with most of them being Archmages. Such powerhouses didn’t even need to worry about the dragonflies. The pressure emanating from an Archmage would be enough to make these Toxic Dragonflies flee.

‘No wonder they didn’t care to write about these… But it’s not like I can enter easily like they could.’

Lin Yun didn’t have the tyrannical pressure of an Archmage. The Toxic Dragonflies wouldn’t leave him alone if they spotted him, let alone if he tried to get inside.

‘Looks like I can only fight my way in…’

Thankfully, there was still a lot of mana in the Elemental Amber and the Rotten Flower’s mana crystal, so he could still replenish his mana if needed.

Lin Yun knew that this was an unavoidable fight and that he would have to settle it quickly. The longer it dragged on, the more disadvantageous the situation would be. He still had more Magic Spring potions in his bag, but if he wasted time here and something happened in the cave later on, he would only have himself to blame.

Once he decided on a plan, Lin Yun waved his hands a few times to cast some buffs. With the help of Haste and Lightweight, he moved like a nimble cat and climbed the cliff at a lightning speed. He was already at the entrance of the cave after just twenty seconds.

But he had also alerted all the Toxic Dragonflies in the surroundings.

A green, venomous swarm flew over, and it looked like myriad locusts were sweeping through the air. The entrance was narrow to begin with, and now that it was filled with a swarm of Toxic Dragonflies, even a buffed Lin Yun couldn’t dodge their advance.

But he had no intention to dodge.

Lin Yun activated the instant cast Magic Array just as the first spurt of venom came out of the swarm. It was immediately followed by a gesture and a thick Ice Wall materialized to block it.

It wasn’t too big or too small, perfectly protecting Lin Yun’s body.

Numerous spurts of venom landed on the ice, creating a sizzling sound that would make people shiver. Lin Yun managed to avoid being showered in venom, which was the reason behind his earlier apprehension. Besides the issue of quantity, the main problem was how corrosive the venom was, exceeding even the danger of unprocessed Rotten Flower Blood.

In an instant, over a hundred splashes of venom accumulated on the Ice Wall, many of them overlapping, causing it to start melting at an alarming rate. In a mere five seconds, the thick Ice Wall erected by Lin Yun began to collapse.

And Lin Yun would once again be exposed to the venom of the Toxic Dragonflies.

But the Ice Wall managed to buy five seconds, allowing him to complete an incantation.

Flame Barrier!

It was also a defensive spell, but compared to Ice Wall, a Mage-level spell, Flame Barrier was on a completely different level of existence. Flame Barrier was known as a divine art of Fire Magic, and its frightening temperature could even melt steel. More importantly, as long as Lin Yun was willing to keep pouring mana into it to maintain it, the Flame Barrier would never be extinguished, unless Lin Yun himself took damage.

A dozen Toxic Dragonflies had flown too close and directly fell into the Flame Barrier. These pitiful Toxic Dragonflies didn’t even have time to shriek before turning into pitch-black husks.

And this wasn’t over…

After raising the Flame Barrier, Lin Yun used one hand to control the raging flames while the other hand continued making gestures, matching up with the quick incantations he was still uttering. He was able to cast a second spell, Fire Arrow, and not just one or two of them. He shaped several dozens, close to a hundred. The narrow cave entrance had suddenly become covered in dazzling flames. The Flame Barrier separated Lin Yun from the massacre being wrought by the numerous Fire Arrows piercing through the air.

After merging Fire Arrow into the Magic Array, it was no longer on the level of the simple spell used by fledgeling Mages. Under the support of the Magic Array, the might of the Fire Arrow dramatically increased. The dozens of arrows flying through the narrow cave were like a meat grinder, continuously killing all the scattered Toxic Dragonflies.