The two could be considered complements for each other, and shared a linear relationship. When one improved, the other would improve significantly too. It would be reflected in Lin Li’s strength.
Back in Osric’s mausoleum, Lin Li had already vaguely seen the threshold to level-24. After learning on the Holy Mountain for a period of time, Lin Li mastered Holy Light Magic and the power of the debris of the stars Holy Light. The door of level-24 could be considered to have slowly opened up for Lin Li, who was only one step away from becoming a true level-24 Legendary-mage.
Of course, during this time, the higher-ups of the Brilliance Shrine who were keen on pharmaceutics were also ecstatic about their gains, in addition to the improvement of their own strength. Lin Li was to them just like Rosario to Lin Li. In terms of pharmaceutics, there was probably no one in Anril who had achieved as much as Lin Li did in pharmaceutics. A few answers to their questions were enough to make them feel euphoric.
Lin Li lived a disciplined and routine life on the Holy Mountain, which even made him unaware of the passage of time. Every morning, Lin Li would go to the Dawn Cathedral on the top of the Holy Mountain, ask Pope Rosario about theurgy, and then hear Rosario’s stories about the Dark Age. In the afternoon, he would give some tips and answer the pharmaceutics questions from the archbishops and the Chief Judge. When he was in the mood for it, he would also demonstrate the preparation of several potions.
At night, Lin Li would make a summary of everything he had leaned in the day, and then get immersed in the precious classics collected by the Brilliance Shrine. However, Lin Li also read other books about the history of the Brilliance Shrine and various other myths. After exploring the Sky Castle and Osric’s mausoleum, Lin Li knew that the myths and legends might not be all fictitious in Anril. It was good to have more knowledge, for one would never know when they might need it.
However, when he read the information about the Brilliance Shrine, Lin Li discovered that there was actually very little information about the once-famous Paladin Rodhart, who was also now the Retribution Knight in the underground palace of the Dragon Mountains. Even in some history books about that era, the information about him was vague, and there wasn’t a single mention of his name at all. However, after he thought about it carefully, Lin Li could more or less understand the reason for it. After all, he was the Retribution Knight who had killed countless lives. Regardless of how much he had contributed to the Brilliance Shrine, no one was willing to mention him.
Of course, for Lin Li, it was rather sad. The two pieces of the debris of the stars, Polar Snow and Raging Flames, were still in the underground palace of the Dragon Mountain Range. Once he fulfilled the order placed by the Felan Kingdom, he would be able to get the magical crystals of the Ice and Fire Twin Dragons. It would then be time for him to get the two pieces of the debris of the stars and the Ice and Fire Magical Domain.
When he’d gone to the underground palace previously, the Retribution Knight hadn’t given him any trouble. However, Lin Li reckoned that the Retribution Knight would definitely attack him if he had made too much commotion in the underground palace.
Although Connoris said that Prophet Willen had severely injured Retribution Knight Rodhart once, Lin Li wouldn’t really use the unreliable piece of news as his safety net. Retribution Knight Rodhart had been hibernating in the underground palace for numerous years, and God knew if it might change after waking up. During his peak, he had actually reached the Sanctuary-realm.
During the exploration of Osric’s mausoleum, an arbitrator of the Supreme Council managed to subdue the three Undead Lords in Shadowglen with just one simple trick. The power of the Sanctuary-realm was something that could not be resisted by the Legendary powerhouses. Even for the Legendary powerhouses, the gap was still worlds apart.
There was still the perfect body of Osric previously lying in the crystal coffin in Osric’s mausoleum, which gave Lin Li nightmare-like memories. At that time, Lin Li was not alone, and was actually in the company of several other Legendary powerhouses like Andoine, Rosen, Aldwin, and the numerous servants Lin Li had summoned. If it weren’t for the fact that the perfect body had been restricted, Lin Li and the rest wouldn’t have been able to come back alive.
Besides, even if Lin Li’s combined powers were on par with those of the powerhouses of the Sanctuary-realm, he wouldn’t be that foolish as to go toe to toe with the powerhouses of the Sanctuary-realm. Although Polar Snow and Raging Flames were important, he would definitely incur great losses if he were to deplete all of his energy.
However, what made Lin Li feel dismayed was the fact that he did not find any information about Rodhart, and that the information about Willen was mostly irrelevant too. Prophet Willen was said to be a so-called Son of the Holy Light, and there had been plenty of information about him, but most of it was about how he had annihilated the demons that harmed the humans, and how the civilians worshiped him, allowed him to spread the doctrine of the Holy Light, and so on. There was no information at all about Willen’s origins and what magical weapons he had used.
Lin Li even wanted to ask Rosario about it several times before, but he didn’t dare to mention it. After all, Rosario would definitely be upset about such a shameful past event, regardless of how well-tempered he might be. He could ask about Prophet Willen, but he could never mention Rodhart, who was a disgrace to the Brilliance Shrine.
The moonstone-decorated lamp in the room was radiating a gentle glow. Lin Li closed the book in his hand while pinching his forehead gently. Although there were plenty of classic collected by the Brilliance Shrine, Lin Li had already read most of them, and didn’t have much hope to find out more about Rodhart left.
Lin Li was indeed a bit frustrated at first because it would be unlikely for him to find any more information about Rodhart anywhere else, since he couldn’t find any in the Brilliance Shrine. The unreliable living encyclopedia Connoris also had limited knowledge of Rodhart. Otherwise, Lin Li wouldn’t have had to look through the books. It seemed that he had to postpone his plans of acquiring Polar Snow and Raging Flames even if he were to obtain the magical crystals of the Ice and Fire Twin Dragons. He would at least have to have the strength to fight against the powerhouses of the Sanctuary-realm. Otherwise, the risk would be huge.
However, Lin Li felt less dejected after an unexpected discovery. He closed the book and leaned back against the chair with an ordinary-looking stone that could even be considered ugly. The stone didn’t give off any magical waves at all, and no one in Anril could recognize it—except for Lin Li and Connoris.
The ugly stone was the magical crystal that Lin Li had obtained when he killed the Dragon of Destruction before he arrived in Anril. Back in the Abyss of Tharlen, Lin Li had tried to take out that magical crystal that didn’t belong to Anril in order to defeat the Lord of Darkness, which was a projection of the Dragon of Destruction.
Long before Lin Li arrived in Anril, it was said that the Dragon of Destruction was killed by the Immortal King. The skeleton of the Dragon of Destruction was used for the construction of the Sky Castles, and the magical crystal of the Dragon of Destruction was taken away by the Immortal King. Tutankhamun of the Blackstone Mountains was one of them, though it was unknown if he was a child of the Dragon of Destruction or the Immortal King.
According to Connoris’ suggestion, Lin Li had chosen the same method as the Immortal King, and he hoped to use the magical crystal to hatch a formidable figure like Tutankhamun. However, the Dragon of Destruction Azardas was the Dragon Aspect of Anril, and was said to be able to challenge existences like gods. How could it be easy to incubate the magical crystal?
The process of incubation was extremely difficult yet easy at the same time. It required the constant induction of Spiritual Force into the magical crystal to activate the Soul Brand in the Dragon of Destruction. According to Connoris, it required more than 100 years for the Immortal King to hatch the magical crystal of the Dragon of Destruction.
Of course, although the process of incubation was boring and monotonous, it came with some benefits. Not only did the magical crystal of the Dragon of Destruction have powerful and incomparable power, it also contained the two Laws, Evilness and Darkness, as well as the experience and knowledge gained by the Dragon of Destruction. However, they were all hidden in the Soul Brand, and it was impossible to directly absorb them from the magical crystal. One could only try to obtain them when the Spiritual Force merged with the magical crystal.
Lin Li heard from Connoris that the incubation of the Dragon of Destruction’s magical crystal was a mandatory daily affair. However, whenever the Spiritual Force was injected, it seemed to be sucked into a vortex. Although there was indeed some feedback, there wasn’t much of an effect on the Soul Brand.
In fact, that was also very normal. The Immortal King was formidable, and yet it still took 100 years to hatch the Dragon of Destruction’s magical crystal. Although it was mostly for Lin Li to learn the Rules and knowledge as much as possible, the amount of information he could receive was also greatly related to his strength. Although Lin Li had plenty of mental strength when he wasn’t learning magic, he was still far from the Immortal King.
Even with the Evil Eye Tyrant’s magical crystal which provided continuous improvement of mental strength, Lin Li couldn’t be compared to the Immortal King at all. Indeed, he could also obtain the nomological knowledge contained in the magical crystal. However, it was as difficult as squeezing oil from stone.
During his days at the Brilliance Shrine, he didn’t have much to worry about, because the ugly stone did not emit the slightest magical waves; hence, he continued to go about his daily routine. However, when Lin Li was going about his routine, he discovered the Soul Brand in the magical crystal of the Dragon of Destruction, and there seemed to be a slight fluctuation therein.
Lin Li knew that it was definitely not because his mental strength had improved, and he even began to suspect that it was just a misconception. After all, it had been more than two years since he had begun incubating the magical crystal. Even though his mental strength had changed dramatically, he probably still couldn’t be compared to the Immortal King. However, after receiving the feedback from the magical crystal, Lin Li clearly felt that it had indeed increased.
Perhaps it was because of the environment there. After all, they were on the Holy Mountain of the Brilliance Shrine, where the power of Holy Light was everywhere. Would it have some impact on the magical crystal that contained the Laws of Darkness and Destruction? The only thing Lin Li could do was guess. Of course, in order to verify that guess, he would have to experiment with his debris of the stars Holy Light, even though that could cause him to die a horrible death.
Besides, Lin Li did not care about wasting time on meaningless guessing. Although the information he got from the magical crystal this time was not much, it was enough for him to absorb and digest for a while. Fortunately, even with such a change, the magical crystal still did not emit the slightest magical wave. Otherwise, Lin Li would be in trouble if anyone were to find out that he was studying Dark Force in the Brilliance Shrine’s territory.
A powerful existence like the Dragon of Destruction was a guardian of the Laws of Destruction and Darkness. Coupled with the experience and knowledge accumulated over countless years, it would be enough for Lin Li to deplete his energy. Fortunately, during this time, Lin Li received plenty of pointers from Rosario. Although they were all about the power of the Holy Light and Holy Light Magic, most of them were connected. Light and Darkness seemed to be two extreme opposing forces. However, it was the very contradiction that gave them similarities. Hence, Lin Li didn’t find it difficult to learn this time, even though there wasn’t plenty of information in the feedback from the magical crystal.
After the visit to the Brilliance Shrine, Lin Li had not only made great progress in using the Power of Light, he had also learned a lot about the Dark Force. That was something that Lin Li had never expected.
In the past few days, Lin Li basically read through all of the classics collected by the Brilliance Shrine, but he still had no clue about the information regarding Rodhart. After returning the last batch of books, Lin Li couldn’t help but ask the clergyman who was in charge of the books to check if there were any unread books and materials that he could read.
