End of the Magic Era

Wagner was very high-strung. He gnashed his teeth and started rousing his mana, intending to escape.

On the side, Xiuban had already silently appeared beside Wagner, casually crushing the latter’s Mana Shield before grabbing him by the neck and tossing him towards the spider puppet.

“Damned fool! Sir Merlin told you to do something, yet you actually dared to ignore him. If not for Sir Merlin being benevolent, I would have already snapped your neck…”

Xiuban leaned Carnage against his back as he fiercely chastised Wagner.

Wagner fell to the ground in despair and started running back without thinking.

Just as he ran out of the spider puppet’s defensive perimeter, Xiuban kicked him back inside.

After the third time, Lin Yun said one word: “Idiot.”

Wagner was terrified, and tears started appearing on his face.

“Sir Merlin, what do you want? Just speak and I’ll do as instructed. I can give you all that was plundered before, and I have many pieces of information on the Odin Kingdom, I’ll tell you everything!”

Lin Yun was speechless. Wagner, who was already so scared that he had soiled his pants, kept scrambling out before being kicked back by Xiuban.

After six times, something suddenly occurred to Wagner. He turned around to take a look, finding out that the spider puppet hadn’t moved at all.

Wagner was stunned. He couldn’t understand.

Lin Yun didn’t seem surprised as he thought, ‘Sure enough, that spider’s first order was to not attack anyone with Bill George’s bloodline.’

He walked a bit closer to the statue-like spider puppet and it instantly opened its eyes, surging with mana fluctuations as a bright ray of light was shining within its mouth.

Lin Yun rapidly arrived beside Wagner and a few runes flickered within his hands as he moved Wagner in front of him.

The spider puppet instantly stopped in its footsteps, cancelling all its attacks.

“Sir Merlin, please speak if you have something to say, what are you doing? Let go of me, quickly!”

Wagner looked terrified and his body was shaking.

Lin Yun frowned and shouted, “Don’t speak. Rest assured, I won’t let you die, but if you don’t want to anger me, don’t mess around.”

Wagner looked alarmed, but when he saw that the spider puppet hadn’t attacked, he could only confusedly listen to Lin Yun’s words.

Lin Yun held Wagner and kept walking towards the spider puppet. After walking a few meters, the spells summoned by the spider puppet had completely dissipated, and the runes on its body started flickering irregularly.

As Lin Yun led Wagner closer and closer, the frequency at which the spider puppet’s runes flickered kept increasing.

By the time Lin Yun and Wagner were within ten meters of it, the runes looked ready to explode.

Suddenly, the spider puppet shook and its runes darkened.

That terrifying surge of mana had also dissipated.

Lin Yun sighed in relief and let go of Wagner. Wager fell and sat on the ground, feeling scared. He was staring foolishly at the motionless puppet while mumbling, “Sir Merlin, what’s going on…”

Lin Yun ignored him, feeling relieved.

Because of contradicting orders, that spider puppet had fallen into an infinite loop.

It couldn’t attack Bill George’s bloodline, but it was supposed to kill anyone that got too close to it. Its first and second commands were thoroughly conflicting with each other, and the spider puppet didn’t know which one it was supposed to follow.

Without an outside force solving this, the puppet would just sink into an endless loop.

Lin Yun waved to the others and they all joined him. This time, the puppet didn’t react.

Xiuban was looking at the puppet with amazement when Lin Yun sneered, “If you don’t want to die, you’d better not touch it.”

Xiuban instantly jumped several meters backward, shaking his head in alarm.

That spider puppet wasn’t actually damaged; it was just stuck in a loop. If anyone attacked it, it would break out of the loop, and at that time, everyone would become a target, including Wagner.

Lin Yun glanced at Wagner and derisively said, “You can touch that huge thing, but after coming to life again, the first one it’ll get rid of will be you. If you don’t believe me, you can go ahead and try it out.”

Wagner turned pale. He had just thought about examining it.

Since the spider puppet apparently wouldn’t attack him, he wanted to try and check if he could use it in some way.

A Heaven Rank Puppet was even more powerful than an army.

But after hearing Lin Yun’s words, Wagner promptly shook his head and completely gave up on that idea.

They all went past the spider puppet and arrived at what could be described as the core area of the underground base.

That place wasn’t as big as the assembly line room that spread over several kilometers. Instead, it was like an ordinary underground base and had a narrow tunnel filled with complex passages leading to various rooms.

Surprisingly, not a single puppet could be seen after reaching this area.

After walking for a short while, several hundred sharp spikes came out of the walls on both sides, surrounding Lin Yun’s group. The ones on the edges were the first to appear, while the ones next to them came slightly later.

Lin Yun’s eyes widened because he hadn’t noticed any traps or mechanisms just now.

But he didn’t have time to think. He instantly chanted some sounds, and a few brown runes revolved around everyone, transforming into a mudstone cage that enveloped them.

Sharp metallic sounds echoed as hundreds of sharp spikes struck the mudstone cage. Magic Penetration Runes were flickering on the spikes, allowing them to even pierce halfway through that solid mudstone cage. It looked as if the spikes would soon reach everyone.

A huge wheel shadow appeared behind Lin Yun and burst with runes, which poured into the mudstone cage, reinforcing it. Even more runes passed through the cage before attaching themselves to the metal spikes.

As those runes merged with the metallic spikes, the Magic Penetration Runes seemed to dissolve as if they were being washed away.

Having lost the Magic Penetration, the sharp spikes could no longer pierce through the mudstone cage.

Everyone sighed in relief as they felt that the issue had been solved.

Wagner was deathly pale, overwhelmed by regret. If he had known earlier what it’d be like down here, he wouldn’t have followed even if he had been beaten to death. No, if he had known, he would have never come to the Radiant Fort at all…

“Hell, what the f*ck is happening?” Enderfa looked at Lin Yun in shock.

Mafa Merlin falling into a trap seemed almost unthinkable…

Enderfa could understand if it was someone else, but just who was Mafa Merlin? All along, regardless of what ruins they had been in, or when they explored the Intrepid, he had never fallen directly into a trap and almost died from it.

Lin Yu frowned, and a large number of runes flew out of the wheel shadow behind him. Outside the mudstone cage, the persevering spikes touched the flaming runes and rapidly turned burning red before slowly melting.

After confirming that the spikes had completely melted, Lin Yun scattered the mudstone cage.

A solidified layer of molten iron froze up around the mudstone cage, and the walls turned silvery-white because of all the melted metal spikes.

Lin Yun looked at the wall and his Magic Array kept revolving, continuously analyzing the current situation.

Ultimately, there was only one conclusion: They didn’t fall into a trap, as there was no probing spell or mechanism for a trap.

These spikes had suddenly stabbed out, but there was no way to actually trigger a trap. It was possible that a trap had suddenly gone out of control.

But Lin Yun wasn’t too convinced about that possibility… He felt that there was definitely something or other that had caused the trap to activate.

And he’d also sent Rock Puppets to lead the way!

Lin Yun’s expression turned serious after discovering that he couldn’t find the trap’s activation method.

These were the ruins Bill George left behind. As a Heaven Mage and someone with unprecedented accomplishments in the puppeteering field, not discovering some of his tricks was very normal.

Lin Yun thought of all the methods he knew, but he couldn’t find one that met the current situation.

Bill George was formidable, but he couldn’t exceed Noscent at its peak!

Lin Yun was even more prudent as they kept going forward and opened a Hell Gate to summon an Imp as a pathfinder.

As for the rooms on the side, he didn’t find anything valuable after opening a few. There were only some alchemy facilities and workshops to manufacture some core puppet components.

All of these facilities were different, and each specialized in manufacturing specific components.

After going through a passage, they entered a room specifically used to manufacture power system components. Those huge machines that had been sealed for a long time and were covered in dust suddenly started operating.

A huge, two-meter-tall grinding wheel used for polishing components was controlled by a large mechanical arm, and it swept towards Lin Yun’s group.

A mournful sound came out of that grinding wheel as it ruthlessly sliced towards Lin Yun’s group.