End of the Magic Era

‘That idiot found the corpse of a Dragon but didn’t rush to harvest it, wasting time for nothing!

‘Look at these scales! Even though many are broken, more than half of them are intact, and the patterns on these scales contain formidable power. If they were integrated into my heavy armor, it would definitely greatly strengthen my heavy armor. No one under the Heaven Rank would be able to break through my defenses.

‘Moreover, once these sharp claws are merged with my lightning spear, even the shields of Heaven Rank powerhouses would be pierced through.

‘Hahaha, even the King might not be my opponent, I’ll be able to become the King right away! I’ll continue the glory of His Majesty Wagrein, and those stupid Okland mages will tremble under my lightning spear.

‘That foolish Mafa Merlin gave us such an opportunity for free. What rights does he have to own this valuable Dragon’s corpse? I’ll harvest the most valuable things first. Would he still dare to go against me then?

‘When the time comes, these things will belong to us, the Gaugass Battlemages. If he wants them, he’ll have to fight the Gaugass Battlemages over it. As long as I take a few broken scales out, I’ll be able to lead all the Gaugass Battlemages into ganging up on him.

‘If I take out some complete scales, even that mysterious King would be tempted. Would Mafa Merlin still dare to go against me then?

‘Would he dare to fight over the things we already possess? What a joke…

‘I hope this damned Mafa Merlin doesn’t chicken out, that way, we can use that as a pretext to kill him, and the King might even act.’

A distorted smile appeared on Kempes’ face, but he suppressed himself and didn’t make a sound as he cautiously approached the Ancient Poison Dragon’s side. He took out a pair of steel gloves and slowly grabbed a dark, yet intact, scale.

Everything here, which is to say, the scales and the claws, were beneficial to Gaugass Battlemages. He had to properly pick the first scales to take.

And the people on the other side didn’t know about it. The poisonmist soaring from the body of the Ancient Poison Dragon made all mana unable to get close, so no one discovered that there was someone in the hole.

Kempes was wearing tough steel gloves and was holding onto a knife emitting a cold light as he cautiously pulled out a Draconic Scale, using the knife to cut it out intact.

But as Kempes was about to pry the Draconic Scale out, a dark green mist instantly entered his hand. Those powerful gloves seemed to go through ten thousand years of decay in an instant and turned into a pile of rust.

Kempes’ left hand was also dyed dark green, his skin rapidly rotting and his fingernails falling down. His flesh was completely turning into a dark green liquid that dripped onto the ground.

When those drops of liquid hit the ground, they immediately created small holes in the ground.

In less than a second, Kempes’ left hand already turned into bones, but bubbles could be seen on the bones as they were getting corroded at a rapid pace.

“Aaahh!”

Kempes let out an alarmed shout. He could no longer hide and quickly rushed out of the hole with a deathly pale expression, looking at Deloy with alarm. “Prophet Deloy, quick, help me, save me!”

Less than a second had passed since Kempes rushed out, but his left hand and forearm had already decayed, and it was quickly spreading towards his left shoulder. It looked as if his arm was melting now.

Deloy looked at the fearful Kempes rushing from the hole and was alarmed. He unhesitantly swung his lightning spear and cut Kempes’ left arm off at his shoulder.

At that time, Kempes’ elbow was about to be corroded, and the broken arm fell to the ground, letting out a sizzling noise before turning into dark green pus in less than a second. The ground in contact with that pus kept bubbling as terrifying holes appeared.

Deloy let out a faint sigh of relief. Kempes was palely lying on the ground with a rejoicing expression. Although he had lost an arm, he had managed to keep his life.

On the side, Lin Yun was expressionlessly looking at Kempes. He didn’t care about the reason for Kempes’ presence. He was only sneering.

‘A true moron. The entire environment of the Poison Mist Valley was because of the poison emitted by the Ancient Poison Dragon’s corpse, yet he unexpectedly dared to touch the corpse itself. Greed truly made him brainless. Ancient Poison Dragons could freely rampage in the Era of Gods, does he think they are that simple?’

Just as Lin Yun thought about that, the wound on Kempes’ shoulder suddenly changed.

The originally red blood slowly acquired a dark green taint, and Kempes suddenly opened his eyes wide. As if his eyes were bursting, they suddenly filled with visible red veins, which then slowly turned dark green.

“Aaaahhh!”

A blood-curdling screech echoed as Kempes’ facial expression thoroughly contorted. His mouth and nose were crooked because of the pain, and he was rolling around as if having a seizure. Chaotic and violent mana fluctuations were emitted from his body.

Deloy was panicking. He hadn’t expected this kind of situation… Just as he had stabilized Kempes, Kempes’ mana suddenly became violent and chaotic like a bursting balloon. A large amount of pure mana erupted from Kempes’ body and spread outwards.

And as the mana erupted, Kempes’ aura quickly weakened. Not just power, but also his vitality was decreasing at a rapid pace.

This matter was too sudden. In the few seconds that Deloy spent getting Kempes to stop struggling, the latter’s vitality rapidly extinguished and his mana burst out unstoppably like an eruption.

The mana was just like the Ancient Poison Dragon’s poisonmist. It appeared to be faintly green, and anyone seeing it would understand that Kempes was already being corroded by the toxins.

In just a few seconds, Kempes’ mana was completely infected.

Deloy’s expression rapidly changed. He summoned a bolt of lightning to enter Kempes’ body and then clenched his teeth as he took a palm-sized black iron brand and put it on Kempes’ chest.

After three seconds, Kempes’ mana thoroughly erupted, but the iron brand emitted a gentle radiance as it converged in the form of a flame that kept emitting faint ripples. The ripples swept Kempes’ body and stabilized the embers of his life.

Light flashed in Lin Yun’s eyes as he saw this scene.

This was a Magic Tool unique to the Gaugass Battlemages, the Ancestor Soul Card. It used a kind of Lightning Ore that underwent ten thousand years of lightning strikes at the peak of a Thunderbolt Mountain as its main body, and a large amount of various materials unique to the Gaugass Highland was needed in order to forge it.

Moreover, every time it would be forged, a terrible price had to be paid. Not only were the materials extremely valuable, to the point that several hundred years might not be enough to gather them, but the most important part was that each time an Ancestor Soul Card was forged, it would consume the life of the one forging it.

It needed the vitality and power of an ancestor to craft it. Only every Prophet of the Gaugass Battlemage Clan could forge it, and each time, no matter if it was a success or a failure, at least a century of their life force would be consumed. If they weren’t proficient, they might use up even more than that.

The success rate of the forging of the Ancestor Soul Card was horrifyingly low. The remaining Ancestor Soul Cards left in the clan were simply those left by the predecessors.

Apart from the Prophet and the King, no one was qualified to possess such a thing.

Although forging it was very difficult, the Ancestor Soul Card had a very simple, yet incredible, ability.

Saving a life!

As long as they weren’t burnt to ashes, no matter how heavy their injuries were, the Ancestor Soul Card could stabilize their injuries. Even a soul injury could be stabilized, and as long as the Ancestor Soul Card’s power wasn’t exhausted, they wouldn’t die.

Lin Yun hadn’t expected Deloy to carry an Ancestor Soul Card on his person, let alone to use it on Kempes.

The power of the Ancestor Soul Card was quickly shown. After Kempes’ mana finished rotting and dispelling, Kempes didn’t die. On the contrary, because he lost his mana, the poison was carried away in the vaporized mana and his vitality calmly recovered.

But Kempes now looked twenty years older and had no drive. His skin had withered like tree bark, and he was still twitching from time to time, paralyzed on the ground and on the verge of death.

The power of the Ancestor Soul Card kept spreading, allowing Kempes to not lose his life when the poison burst out, but it couldn’t prevent his mana from being completely corroded and vaporized.

Kempes had already become a cripple. Not only had he lost his mana, but with his body in such a state, he might not be better than an ordinary person.

After some rushed treatment and the use of all kinds of potions, Kempes’ life could be considered saved.

Deloy didn’t sigh in relief as Lin Yun sneered on the side.

“Haha…”

‘Idiots, what kind of existence is an Ancient Poison Dragon? In those days, even a God would take several dozen years to cleanse themselves of the poison of a bite. Without detoxification, any method to harvest one would be no different than trying to use your bare hands to collect it…

‘You actually wanted to stealthily harvest it? What an idiot! Did you think that because you can resist poison you could completely ignore the poison of an Ancient Poison Dragon?

‘Let alone the corpse of an Ancient Poison Dragon, even the poison of those formidable poisonous magic beasts can take your lives. All poisons in the Poison Mist Valley came from the poison emitted by the Ancient Poison Dragon. To dare touch the Ancient Poison Dragon itself, isn’t that courting death?’