Lin Li had just obtained from Osric the debris of the stars Nothingness, which contained Space Laws as well. However, Lin Li’s current strength did not allow him to exert the power of Nothingness or comprehend and master the Space Laws of Nothingness. With the Immortal King’s robe that had been sealed, Lin Li would be able to increase his mastery of Nothingness by studying the Space Laws in the robe and exert the power of Nothingness, which was the strangest of all pieces of the debris of the stars, to a greater extent. It was definitely a huge temptation for Lin Li, even more so than reading the Light Bible and the Darkness scripture.
Seeing that Lin Li was tempted, Nefa smiled smugly, and said, “You can rest assured that I won’t harm you, at least until you get that thing back. Hurting you wouldn’t do me any good.” He knew that a conscientious person like Lin Li wouldn’t believe him if he were to continuously express his friendliness with no signs of hostility. Hence, he decided to make the interests a priority.
However, while the robe of the Immortal King which contained the sealed Space Laws might be attractive, it was not enough to make Lin Li forget his need to be cautious. Although Nefa made it sound effortless as if an ordinary person would be able to get the item safely too, Lin Li believed that there was no free lunch in the world. If things were as simple as Nefa made them out to be, why didn’t Nefa let the Minotaurs do it? Since they were all Legendary-level, he could easily make 10 of them go if one or two weren’t enough. Although Nefa couldn’t move away from his spot, Lin Li felt that there should be no problem for him to control those Minotaurs.
Hence, although Lin Li was a little bit tempted, he did not agree immediately without hesitation. His expression soon became calm again, and he still looked at Nefa with his guard up. He said in a hostile manner, “It’s not bad, but it’s not up to you to decide if it is dangerous or not. You’d better not hide any details about what you want me to take and what dangers I might encounter. I’ll contemplate if your robe is worth risking my life for.”
“You are very cautious. Although it seems unnecessary to me, that also makes me more confident in you,” Nefa said in a tone of approval. He then continued, “Before I tell you what the item that I need you to get is, I’ll first have to talk about this space. Do you know where this space is from?”
Legend had it that when Anril was born from chaos, it emerged together with countless spaces of various sizes. Due to the fact that the Laws of those spaces were not as well-balanced as the ones in Anril, some of the spaces had already been destroyed a long time ago, while some had survived in Anril after thousands of years of evolution. Examples included the World of the Undead which contained countless Undead creatures and the Shadow Realm which was known as the reverse of the world. Besides, it was also said that the Endless Abyss created by the ancient deities was created by gathering some relatively stable spaces.
The spaces that were floating in the chaotic flow of spacetime outside Anril were like stars in the sky, and even powerful existences like the Immortal King and Geresco dared not claim to know the spaces in the chaos of time and space, let alone an insignificant mage like Lin Li who had just arrived in Anril a few years ago. Hence, Lin Li didn’t interject when Nefa was speaking, and simply stared at him coldly, waiting for him to continue.
Nefa wasn’t bothered by Lin Li’s attitude, and he unhurriedly said, “This space is one of the spaces between the four Elemental Worlds of earth, fire, water, and wind, and it also relies on the balance and stability of the World Laws of Anril. In fact, ever since the birth of Anril, the relatively unstable spaces have all collapsed and gotten destroyed. The ones remaining were all related to Anril, and an amazingly perfect balance had long been created. If nothing were to go wrong, the balance would change with the years, and perhaps after tens of thousands of years the worlds may even merge with Anril. However, the collapse of the Tree of Eternity resulted in a huge impact on the Laws of Anril, causing the worlds to fall out of balance.”
Regarding the influence of the Tree of Eternity on Anril, Lin Li had already heard about it from Tutankhamun back in the Blackstone Mountains. Actually, Geresco had expected that situation since a long time ago, but the most important thing to do was to prevent the resurgence of the High Elves. If the Tree of Eternity hadn’t fallen, the High Elves wouldn’t have been destroyed. Even if the High Elves had all been killed at that time, they would still be born and grow again as long as the Tree of Eternity existed. It would then be a far-fetched idea for humans to end the Dark Age.
Geresco had also made the agreement with Tutankhamun for the sake of finding and grooming someone who could solve the issue. Previously, Tutankhamun mentioned that once Lin Li reached the Sanctuary-realm, he would be able to use the magic spells in the Book of Eternity to seal the cracks in spacetime in place of Geresco. However, it seemed that the matter wasn’t that simple. For Anril that had lost the Tree of Eternity, the seal probably wouldn’t get rid of the root problem.
“Under this influence, the relative position of the fire Elemental World has shifted a bit, creating a partial overlap with the present space. The overlapping position is right at the bottom of the volcano. As you have seen earlier on, the power that generates the Elemental Storm has come from the fire elemental world. If I did not suppress it with my own power, the entire space would collapse completely in an instant. Even Anril cannot escape the fate of destruction.” At this point, Nefa finally looked a little worried and helpless.
After hearing this explanation, Lin Li finally realized why the volcano would erupt so violently with such daunting power when Nefa took a step away. As their names implied, the four elemental words were each composed entirely of single elemental rules, just like how the Shadow Realm was composed only of the Laws of Darkness. They were the same as the Laws of Anril which were the real World Laws that even the gods and deities couldn’t fully control. What Nefa said was not just a false warning, and if the energy were to really surge into the world of Anril, it would definitely affect the balance of Laws in Anril, and Anril might even collapse because of it.
However, regardless of how he saw it, Lin Li still did not think that Nefa was the type to be willing to sacrifice himself. If he were Tutankhamun, it might be more possible. Hence, he was not touched or impressed by Nefa’s spirit of self-sacrificing. Instead, he derisively sneered, “I really couldn’t tell that the descendant of the Dragon of Destruction is actually willing to sacrifice himself to save the world. You’re really noble.”
Lin Li’s words seemed to have finally made Nefa lose his patience, and the look of indifference on his face vanished. The veins on his forehead had also begun bulging, and he hollered in exasperation, “Do you think I wanted this!? If it weren’t for that shameless and despicable human mage who lied to me by telling me that this place contains the blood of my father, I wouldn’t have ended up like this! If it weren’t for the power of the fire elemental world that surged out, I wouldn’t be the first unlucky one. I don’t care if the world will be destroyed, and I don’t care about Anril! I have been fighting this damned fire Elemental Power for over 1000 years, and if I continue going on, my power will be consumed by this damned fire element sooner or later.”
The fact that Nefa had lost his temper all of a sudden made Lin Li feel rather stunned for a while. He could not help but be a little curious, and asked, “Is that human mage Geresco?”
Rogge had entered this realm after Nefa did; hence, other than Rogge, it seemed that the only human mage who had the power to bring Nefa there was Geresco, the God of Mages. After all, Nefa wouldn’t have been convinced unless Geresco had enough power.
However, what made Li Li feel even more puzzled was why Geresco only managed to trick Nefa there given his formidable strength. At the end of the Dark Age, Geresco could already be considered the strongest mage in Anril. Killing the High Elven queen and ruining the Tree of Eternity was something that an ordinary powerhouse of the Sanctuary-realm could not do. Although Nefa was a descendant of the Dragon of Destruction, he was still just a descendant, after all, and did not inherit the blood of the real Dragon of Destruction. If Geresco had really wanted to get rid of Nefa, it would probably not have been too difficult to kill him. Hence, there was no need to trick him into going there at all. Could it really be to suppress this power?
“Indeed, it is that horrendous bastard. Who else could it be!?” Nefa hollered angrily, seemingly filled with resentment that he had accumulated for thousands of years. At this moment, Nefa had cursed at Geresco countless times before, but this time, he was particularly thrilled, perhaps because someone was listening.
“Have you had enough? If you have, let’s go on to talk about business,” Lin Li said impatiently, keeping his guard up even higher against Nefa at the same time. Lin Li often read Geresco’s Book of Eternity, and had heard many legends about him. Although he dared not claim to know him too well, he felt that Geresco wouldn’t be a horrendous villain; hence, Nefa was definitely not as innocent as he made himself out to be.
