Translator: Shiraishi Editor: TheAlliance
Lin Yun didn’t have a deep understanding of Vaughn’s laboratory. After all, this laboratory was far less famous compared to the treasury on Crystal Island. Lin Yun only remembered some rough details, such as the Crystal Scales, a small treasure trove filled with magic materials, as well as the six abandoned Alchemic Mana Whirlpools. He wasn’t too sure what else there was.
But when Lin Yun entered the stone tower, he personally saw Fran fusing with the Crystal Scales. It was at that time that he finally recalled that this wasn’t just a treasure trove with the Crystal Scales inside. The most important thing here was a path, a Planar Path.
And it was different from the other Planar Path Lin Yun knew about.
This Planar Path had never truly appeared in Noscent’s history. Even the Ivory Tower, which had left the notes, never went through this Planar Path.
In those years, the Ivory Tower set up an expedition to the Crystal Island, and after defeating numerous powerful enemies, they finally seized the Vaughn Treasury. The large quantity of resources and deep techniques helped the Ivory Tower’s strength take a leap before letting them take a place among the greatest forces of Noscent.
After seizing Vaughn Treasury, the Ivory Tower kept exploring for twenty more years. One of their Heaven Mages made an unexpected discovery while exploring the area.
That Heaven Mage found some notes Vaughn had left in his treasury. It was written among the notes that Vaughn had found an extremely fertile plane. The description of that plane was quite exaggerated and shocked the entire Ivory Tower. If everything in the notes was true, then that plane was at least ten times more fertile than the Bone Plane!
This was no laughing matter…
Half of the reason the Ivory Tower had been able to rise up was the Bone Plane. At this time, a plane that was likely ten times better than the Bone Plane was mentioned… How could the Ivory Tower let it slip by?
After some intense deliberation, the Ivory Tower got to work and began seeking the trail of that mysterious plane. This took fifty years, and during these fifty years, the Ivory Tower overturned all the ruins and vestiges related to Vaughn.
But they only found some scattered clues.
The only thing they had been able to ascertain was that the key to opening that mysterious plane was a set of Spiritual Magic Tools.
At that time, the Ivory Tower was at its peak, so let alone an insignificant Spiritual Magic Tool set, they could even get a set of True Spirit Magic Tools if needed. At that time, the Ivory Tower posted a bounty with a reward that made even Heaven Mages crazily look for them.
The result only came a few hundred years later.
Those three young Mages who had mistakenly entered the Bone Plane had already reached the top of the Ivory Tower and an entire era had already passed. It was then that news of what they were looking for finally reached the Ivory Tower.
The Ivory Tower was still formidable then.
They used the weight of their full power and unsurprisingly, that set of Spiritual Magic Tools landed in their hands. Heaven Mage Bane personally acted and easily suppressed the Crystal Scales’ Incarnation.
In the next decade, Bane spent all his time trying to understand the secrets of the Crystal Scales.
Days passed, and for an entire ten years, Bane did not step out of the Ivory Tower.
When he finally did, something strange came to light.
It turned out that Bane’s power hadn’t improved the slightest bit, and had actually fallen by one whole rank. That was one entire rank of the Heaven realm. When he suppressed the Crystal Scales’ Incarnation, Bane was already a 9th Rank Heaven Mage, but ten years later, Bane walked out of the Ivory Tower as an 8th Rank Heaven Mage.
What frightened others was when they found out that the power of the Crystal Scales seemed to have greatly improved. When it first fell into Bane’s hands, it was only a set of Spiritual Magic Tools, but ten years later, it had become a True Spirit Magic Tool set!
This discovery shocked the entire Ivory Tower overnight.
At that time, Bane helplessly told everyone that during these ten years, his mana was constantly being absorbed by the Crystal Scales and that he simply couldn’t stop that absorption. During the early years, he could still rely on long periods of meditation to keep up with the rate at which his mana was being absorbed, but in the next few years, the Crystal Scales grew stronger and stronger as they absorbed more and more mana and the fragile equilibrium was broken. His power fell down from that of a 9th Rank Heaven Mage to 8th Rank Heaven Mage, which was when he finally gave up on cracking its secrets.
And thus, a difficult problem was put in front of the Ivory Tower.
Either they could keep trying to find that mysterious plane using the Crystal Scales, or they could try their best to save Bane.
The Ivory Tower quickly made their decision, and they spared no efforts to try to save Bane.
The Crystal Scales ended up being broken and the Magic Tool Incarnation was thoroughly destroyed, freeing Bane from this trouble.
But at the same time, the Ivory Tower forever lost the opportunity to enter that mysterious plane.
The story should have ended there.
But there was one more thing. Although the Crystal Scales had been completely destroyed, many of the Ivory Tower’s mages kept looking for clues to enter that mysterious plane, and they managed to find a lot more clues after a dozen years.
Finally, the Ivory Tower had determined the location of the Planar Path. It was in one of Vaughn’s laboratories, and the distinctive feature of that laboratory was very obvious. It was a stone tower dedicated to puppet production!
This was also why Lin Yun wasn’t envious when Fran acquired the Crystal Scales. He only inwardly smirked.
Fran couldn’t imagine how evil the Crystal Scales were. Let alone Fran, even a peak Heaven Mage like Bane, an all-conquering existence holding the Book of Death, had lost a full rank to it, a rank in the Heaven realm.
If Bane ended up like that, then what about an insignificant Fran?
Lin Yun even dared to say that if he really let Fran bring back the Crystal Scales, he wouldn’t last a month before being sucked dry, and at that time, let alone Suyass, even Nolan would be unable to help him.
The Crystal Scales were definitely powerful.
Lin Yun knew of numerous Magic Tools, but only the Crystal Scales were that formidable. After all, Fran was only a 5th Rank High Mage, but he forcibly reached the Archmage realm as well as the Artisan realm in the field of alchemy just by possessing them.
Lin Yun had never seen such frightening power amplification in his life.
If it were another Magic Tool, he would unhesitantly give up on the mysterious plane. Even though that mysterious plane was described as incredibly fertile and full of valuables, Lin Yun was never fond of the things he couldn’t completely grasp.
In contrast, the Crystal Scales, which could increase his power substantially, truly interested Lin Yun.
It was a pity, then, that the Crystal Scales were too evil. Lin Yun wouldn’t be able to control them.
Thus, Lin Yun only hesitated for an instant before quickly making his decision.
He put the two rings on his ring fingers and held the magic staff covered in mysterious runes with both hands. He then felt power surging through his body.
‘Human, do you want to become the new master of the Crystal Scales? I can give you endless power, I can give you endless wealth, I can give you…’ An enticing voice began to echo in the depths of Lin Yun’s mind.
‘Shut up!’ Lin Yun knew that this was the Crystal Scales’ Incarnation. But it chose a different approach than when it deceived Fran. This time, the Crystal Scales chose temptation.
Unfortunately, he was someone who had read about Bane’s misfortune.
Otherwise, he might have been tempted by that evil Magic Tool Incarnation.
After coldly snorting, Lin Yun started pouring mana into the Crystal Scales, and under the surge of mana, the two rings started flickering with fascinating lights. While the staff seemed to remain dark, the joint exploration team could feel the power being gathered within it.
Mysterious and abstruse characters were spat out from Lin Yun’s mouth. These were the results of Bane’s ten years of research. These characters formed a deep and cryptic incantation. As Lin Yun chanted the incantation, his voice started reverberating louder and louder as the lights from the rings grew increasingly more dazzling. At the same time, the power gathering within the magic staff was poured out like a flood.
‘Open for me!’ Lin Yun ended his incantation with the mysterious character from the Book of Death. The light from the two rings instantly darkened while the originally dark magic staff suddenly blossomed with an incomparably dazzling radiance, illuminating the entire treasure trove.
Then, everyone watched as Lin Yun gently raised the staff, before softly slashing down through nothingness.
And a Planar Path was opened.
This Planar Path was completely different from any of the Planar Paths Lin Yun had opened before. The space all around was distorted to the extreme, and even the Planar Path itself seemed to be fluctuating, as if it could disappear anytime.
The extremely powerful mana fluctuations coming from the entrance of the Planar Path were even more frightening.
‘The Ivory Tower didn’t spend those hundred years in vain…’ Lin Yun stood at the entrance of the Planar Path, feeling a bit apprehensive as he felt the huge amount of mana coming from within.
At this time, Lin Yun was already certain that this plane was definitely at least ten times more fertile than the Bone Plane.
After all, those mana fluctuations were very intense despite coming from the other side of the Planar Path. From its name, a Planar Path sounded like it should connect two planes very closely, but in reality, it was a long passage linking two different spaces. The distance between the two places could be described as endless. How powerful did these mana fluctuations have to be to spread from such a distant place?
‘Hold on…’ While Lin Yun was feeling apprehensive, a golden light attracted his attention from the ripples of the Planar Path.
If one didn’t pay attention, they wouldn’t notice that golden light within that distorted space.
Lin Yun had managed to see it, and he instantly recognized it.
‘No way…’ This discovery stunned Lin Yun, and he stood there speechless.
“What is it, Merlin?” Solomon, who was next to him, noticed his strange reaction.
He had a great understanding of that young Great Mage, and it could be said that Solomon had never seen anyone or anything that could make this young Great Mage show such an expression.
But now, that young Great Mage was standing there gaping, shock written all over his face.
“Nothing…” Lin Yun shook his head before regaining his calm.
Only Lin Yun knew of the storm raging in his heart.
Because Lin Yun had found out that this Planar Path might be leading to the Heaven Enlightening Plane.
What was the Heaven Enlightening Plane?
In the void, amidst the countless planes, it was the extreme, the end and the beginning. The Heaven Enlightening Plane was the origin of everything, and it was also the final destination of everything. In Noscent’s many years of history, countless races rose and countless races fell. But regardless of the race, they all mentioned the existence of the Heaven Enlightening Plane in their legends. This was a plane that had became divine and was often known to people as the Divine Plane or as the Mythical Plane.
Moreover, the legends of every race described this as a golden plane. Every race stubbornly believed that the Heaven Enlightening Plane was a mythical world and that anyone who entered it would obtain endless power and eternal life. Some race even regarded the Heaven Enlightening Plane as the plane of Deities.
But that was proved to be ridiculous years later.
At the peak of the magic era, over two dozen Gods died, including the Haiba Dragon God, who had been revered by the royal family of the 3rd Dynasty. In that era, killing Gods wasn’t impossible, yet they still found that the Heaven Enlightening Plane was far, far out of reach.
That was the origin and the end of everything, it was the world’s ultimate land.
But unfortunately, whether it was a God Plane or a Mythical Plane, that mysterious plane that appeared in countless legends never truly appeared. They could only catch a shadow of that plane through those grotesque legends.
Lin Yun knew that in Noscent’s long history, the ones closest to the Heaven Enlightening Plane were the group of bright stars that shone in the peak of the magic era, those Heaven Rank powerhouses that appeared in large numbers. The Deities that used to be omnipotent, the nightmarish Demon Lords from the Abyss, they all fell one after the other when facing powerhouses like Sandro the Sovereign of Death, Charles the Conqueror, and Martin the Sky Knight.
At that time, there had been a Heaven Rank powerhouse who was said to have caught a trace of the Heaven Enlightening Plane as he travelled through the void between planes.
That discovery shocked the entirety of Noscent and stirred countless powerhouses into action. They all rushed towards the void hoping to see it, hoping to set foot into the land of the beginning and the end.
Unfortunately, no one succeeded.
A large number of powerhouses fell in the void, but the legendary Heaven Enlightening Plane still remained a legend.
